An Open Letter To The Community

[Kirq]

Great post Ramm-Jaeger. I've never doubt that RO2 will deliver the most realistic and tactical experience among all online shooters, but it's great that You found some extra time to cool down some of the most hot-headed fans. The truth is, that we all love You TWI! The love-hate realionship is where the passion is See You all Guys on the battlefield!

PS. I have RO1 (actually I have two copies ) but I don't want to have any advantage because of that, I would like to unlock bayonet as everyone else, is it possible?

 

[teemu92]

amazing, cant wait for all the media ! keep it up Tripwire.
I recently got Killing Floor and i aint dissapointed! (i also got a few friends to buy it too!)

 

[Turnbacca]

Well spoken and written, and I look forward to the coming weeks!:IS2:

 

[[DH]Chris89]

Very good post Ramm.

Sadly no matter where you go you will get whiners and moaners as i get a lot about Railworks etc (create freeware stuff for it) especially for their latest release.

But have to say one of the best games companies i've come across especially for all the free updates to RO1 & KF which i do play the latter more now adays but shall start replaying RO1 in readyness for the new one.

Chris

 

[ZeRoY]

Good post Ramm, needed to be said and coming from you was the best way it could have!

 

[Arete]

o/ TWI \o

But can we block the bayo from Pile? He's stabbed me enough over the years....

 

[[TW]Wilsonam]

PS. I have RO1 (actually I have two copies ) but I don't want to have any advantage because of that, I would like to unlock bayonet as everyone else, is it possible?

Not easily - set up a separate Steam account that doesn't have RO1? Just refuse to use the bayonet and imagine yourself unlocking it?

But can we block the bayo from Pile? He's stabbed me enough over the years....

For much the same reason, I am trying to talk the coders into applying the following "features":

1. Any tester attempting to shoot me out of a tank, with a rifle, when I have my head out the cupola, will immediately self-destruct.
2. Anyone called "Guppy" will find that his pistol will blow up in his hand any time he so much as pulls it out, if I am on the same server as him.
3. Anyone called "Putz" will be highlighted with a bright green arrow any time he takes a shot at me.
4. In fact, in all the above cases, the devhax auto-aim feature will immediately activate for me...

 

[fiftyone]

Ahh, having trouble with the native's are we!

 

[gyps]

Can i have one of those too please

 

[VyMajoris]

If you guy are adding Bayonets as unlocks, would be nicer to have lots of bayonets types to unlock.

But please, stay with the German-Soviet bayonets. I don't want to see a German soldier using a Japanese bayonet.

 

[REZ]

Just refuse to use the bayonet and imagine yourself unlocking it?

I chortle'd

 

[A complainer]

Q: can we use Surface Air Missiles to avoid farming/grinding and whatever to unlock things or achievements as we are forced to do on Killing Floor?Cause you know,this an FPS,no ModernWarfail nor Battlecrap or some crappy MMORPG like WOW,so I can withstand with the grumpy krauth dressed like an old school GSG-9 gramps,with that wannabe G-36 with holosight and bayo-saber but I hate to farm or follow strict rules or whitelisted maps to unlock or get things

A: Sure,why not ;D

tnx

 

[Arete]

For much the same reason, I am trying to talk the coders into applying the following "features":

1. Any tester attempting to shoot me out of a tank, with a rifle, when I have my head out the cupola, will immediately self-destruct.
2. Anyone called "Guppy" will find that his pistol will blow up in his hand any time he so much as pulls it out, if I am on the same server as him.
3. Anyone called "Putz" will be highlighted with a bright green arrow any time he takes a shot at me.
4. In fact, in all the above cases, the devhax auto-aim feature will immediately activate for me...

Hmmmm.... make a list of ppl that "deserve it", implement targeted iddqd function :-D

 

[blkmgc]

Thanks Ramm. Finally someone says what needs to be said about this place. Looking forward to the new RO.

 

[VariousNames]

Just refuse to use the bayonet and imagine yourself unlocking it?

Have you considered doing that with the entire unlock system?

 

[GfrSeifter]

i am against the unlock system.
good that devs made a statement. ok, but don't forget: the ppl who criticise the sequel and the progress or style of it, bought and played the first part for dont know 1500 hours ...
so their opinion has a certain importance.
i am looking forward to playing the new RO but I hope and hope and hope that you guys put the focus on the hardcore boys as I always said.

I am thrilled.

 

[Colt .45 killer]

So I traced down said blog posts by Heycarnut out of pure curiosity. I realize he may have been angered while writing them but I do feel there were some valid points made.

A: The Brand

I recently took some marketing courses that were really eye openers as to how valuable a brand is to a company. These forums are part of the Tripwire brand, and a legitimate point was made that these forums can and have turned people away from that brand. It's time for TWI to get serious about brand protection on these forums. Asking people nicely with a good letter to the community is one step, but little in the overall flow. This would be a good time to select some of the community members to fill these roles.( Note: this stretches across all forums and includes off topic / gaming )

B: Moderation
This is a subset of point A. There is a lot of stuff that happens that is never stopped and then snowballs into larger problems.


Either way thanks for the post and clearing some things up.

 

[Ossius]

i am against the unlock system.
good that devs made a statement. ok, but don't forget: the ppl who criticise the sequel and the progress or style of it, bought and played the first part for dont know 1500 hours ...
so their opinion has a certain importance.
i am looking forward to playing the new RO but I hope and hope and hope that you guys put the focus on the hardcore boys as I always said.

I am thrilled.

*I use the word "YOU" as a completely second person phrase, it isn't directed at the quoted person, but to the loyal player base at large.

90% of the problems people are noticing is because as TWI said, they aren't marketing for you, so you're not going to like the marketing.

They already counted on most of the dedicated players of RO1, loving, and even buying RO2, as you all cheer and said you wanted RO2's babies when they released even little screen shots. So TWI is like "Hey, we don't need to market to them, they already want its babies! Lets market to those other guys and try and get them interested. Our loyal players will stay loyal."

Not that they aren't catering to RO1 fans, its just they aren't showing you they are because they already count on your support. Sadly they've said this more or less time and time again but everyone is abandoning the TWI loyalty ship. Thinking they are ruining the game.
RO2 it said by many to feel like RO1, but better and different, trust these words, it is all your going to get for the next week or two.

Press surge is coming in august, and it will be marvelous.

 

[PsychoPigeon]

Jaeger for prez!!! Down with the know-it-alls who ruin this community!!!

 

[RiccardoTheBeAst]

Now i have a little bit more time to answer you

So, first of all, thank you for the long explaining-post.

Ah summer. The sun is shining, the release date is nearing, and the temperature in the RO2 forums has gone nuclear. So I've decided to pull myself away from working on finishing up the game to give a quick message to the community. My hope here is to get everyone to calm down a bit, take a few deep breaths, and stop freaking out.

To be honest with you, this is the worst I've ever seen the RO forums in 8 years of working on RO. And to be even more frank, I'm a bit ashamed of you guys. The RO community has always prided itself on it's maturity. We've quietly (or not so quietly) chuckled to our selves at "CS-Noobs" and "COD-Kiddies" secure in the knowledge that the RO community wasn't like those other guys. Now I get 10 PMs a day through Steam or Skype from new guys to the RO forums telling me they don't want to go here because of the flaming and vitriol coming out of these forums. Guys, you are better than this!!! I know it, because I've seen it in the past. So lets start proving to the world that the RO fans ARE more mature, and ARE the best fans in the world.

Excuse us.

Now I'm going to post a few things in a little mini Q&A where I try and answer some of the questions or discuss issues the community has been discussing.

Ok, let's go!

Q: All of your marketing seems to be aimed at attracting new players from outside the community instead of marketing the game to the RO faithful.

A: Let me just head something off at the pass right now. We're getting ready to release the box art for the game. And there is bound to be a 20 page thread of "OMG MkB42 Swat German" that rants and raves. Now instead of doing that, why don't you guys just hold off. Yes we're trying to expand the playerbase of the game, and yes a lot of our marketing art will be aimed at attracting a new audience. Why is that? Because we don't need to convince the RO faithful to check out RO. You guys already like RO1, and have at least some interest in RO2. Joe gamer does not, and we want to get "joe gamer" to have a look at the game. It is all about peaking their interest, and if we try and market the game like RO1, we'll attract only the same people. And we DO want to attract the same people, but we also want to bring in a lot more gamers.

LOL! It could sounds strange but....i never thought about this (LOL again!)....it's something really banal but i missed this point a lot, and i'm pretty sure that a lot of the RO1 community missed this!

Anyway, talking seriously (i was serious also before!), it's reasonable.

*even if a little bit unrealistic coff coff*

Q: Why are you turning RO2 into COD

A: The short answer is we're not. As a matter of fact, if anything, the game is probably still a little too hardcore. If you've read any of the press previews they go on and on about how hardcore the game is. Now I believe part of this is just due to the fact that they were thrown into a playtest with a bunch of devs and testers that have been playing the game for years, and are super elite at it. But at its core, the game still plays like RO. It just now doesn't have a learning "cliff", it has a learning curve. And things flow a lot smoother, we've removed a lot of the barriers for entry. Of the RO1 fans that have entered the beta, 99.9 % LOVE RO2. The reason for this is that RO2 does just what we've said it does, it makes Red Orchestra more accessible while keeping the core gameplay elements (the heart and soul) of what the fans loved about RO1.

Nothing new, but it's nice to hear this again. It's a sort of...reassurance

Q: But you've got weapon X that I just totally think is unrealistic which means you guys have gone off into fantasy land!

A: Get over yourselves. We use the same yardstick for inclusion of weapons in RO2 that we did in RO1. If it could possibly have been there, it is fair game to put in the game. We had the PPD40 in RO1, that rare weapon didn't ruin the game. Where was the outrage over the inclusion of the G41 in RO1? The fact is we're doing the same thing we've always done. It is just that some people have made it there personal mission to shout from the rooftops proclaiming their intelligence, and TWI's lack thereof. It is time for those people to sit down, zip it, and let the rest of us get on with enjoying RO2. And if all else fails, there will be options to remove any weapon, and any weapon upgrade for server admins. O P T I O N S are your friend You'll be able to customize the game heavily out of the box. And for those things you can't do as an option, there will surely be mutators soon after release, because the mod SDK will be available.

In fact IMHO it's nothing dramatic. I agree with you.

Q: But I'm afraid I won't be able to get enough people to play on a server with the super hardcore options that I like.

A: Let me get this straight - your afraid you won't be able to get 32 players out of the entire playerbase to fill up a server with the options that you like. Yet you want us to make the ENTIRE game that way? Doesn't sound like smart business to me. The good thing about growing the playerbase (which is what we're trying to do) is that it will attract all kinds. The bigger the playerbase, the better chance you have of filling up your server with all of the options just the way you like them.

This worries me too. Anyway, i hope (and i'm pretty sure of) that we (hardcore fans) will find other players to play with.

Q: My opinion of realism is more correct than Tripwires

A: Great, go start your own game studio and make a game exactly the way you want it. That is what I did But seriously opinions on realism are like opinions on beauty, religion, politics, etc. Everybody's opinion differs and we can't make everyone happy (just look at the debate on FOV zoom on ironsights - it was always split 50/50 even between realism nuts). So we pick what we think is the best course of action, and listen to community feedback when it is reasonable, and well presented.

Ahahahah

Q: But but but, what about bayonets!@#$@#$

A: Ok we'll give you this one. We've decided that everyone that owns RO1 will have a day 1 unlock of the bayonets for the Kar98 and the Mosin Nagant 91/30. So go stab happy right out of the gate! The other weapons you'll still have to earn them, but this is our compromise.

This doesn't satisfy me, personally. Anyway i respect your decision, i will sleep anyway, but simply IMHO the bayonets should be standard for riflemans

Q: Ok, so what about drum mags for the PPSH?

A: Sorry, the game has been balanced for the smaller mag capacity of the PPSH at the start. Since the rcecoil of SMGs in RO2 is more realistic (and much easier to control than RO1), we found that the PPSH was owning the universe. We had a few choices. We could have made it handle unrealistically and just nerfed the guns accuracy or boosted its recoil unrealistically. We could have heavily limited it's availability. Or we could start users out with a stick mag. We chose starting users out with a stick mag. Yes it's a little gamey, but it was the best compromise. Someone will certainly come out with a "PPSH drum mag instant unlock" mutator within a week of release if it bothers you that much

Your decision is without any slightest doubt the better. What i don't understand is "why the guns need necessarily to be balanced?"

PPSh41 will own the MP40 (even if it's partially balanced by the MP40-II) as the MG34 (and the future MG42) will totally own the DP28. The game will balance itself alone, i really don't understand this necessity of "mirrored" weapons

And this worries me because now i fear some nerfing/overpowering of certain weapons and/or vehicles due to balance them.

Q: You guys suck at PR, when are we going to see some HD gameplay videos? #$!@#

A: This is a side affect of being a smaller company (bigger than we used to be, but still smaller than others). All of the guys that would work on trailers are busy finishing up the art for the game. In August your going to see a LOT of media, including HD gameplay trailers. As a matter of fact, you're going to see the biggest media/marketing blast you've ever seen out of Tripwire in August. You won't be able to turn over a rock without seeing news, info, or ads for RO2. Anyone that doesn't know about RO2 at the end of August will have been living under a rock. We also want to ensure the first HD gameplay footage we release is really professional and gets people excited. This is why we haven't spammed out generic guys running around shooting people in maps videos.

Agree 100%. People that constantly ask for new Full HD videos really annoy me too.