Ramm, I'm glad you posted your thoughts and I'm glad to hear about the commitment to future polish (not that I expected the game would be abandoned) but I still find it puzzling you keep ignoring key issues. You paint a picture of the forums being a hodge podge of a million opinions, when in reality, there's a pretty unanimous agreement on where the game has gone wrong. It's understandable if you personally disagree with these views but what I can't understand is why the changes won't be made in realism mode while relaxed realism can stay the same. Maybe I missed your comment on these issues but I don't think I have. Saying new content/polish is coming is needed and very nice to hear but it doesn't alleviate current popular gameplay concerns. Taken from my previous thread with some edits, the issues are:
+ increased weapon sway (I said before I prefer the sharp accuracy of RO2 which is more like the mod but at the same time gunfights result in who saw who first which makes the game too fast paced and the battles less interesting. Just a slight increase here would be nice because this might be largely fixed with the next two points on the list...)
+ increased time it takes to accurately aim (slightly)
+ harder to line up target after going into iron sight (slightly)
+ less autos
+ MKB/AVT40 only available to heroes (yeah this can be done manually now but it should be default in realism mode)
+ new larger maps with longer rages (this might have to wait until when/if we get half tracks, trucks, and other transport vehicles)
+ longer time until bleed out starts
+ longer window to bandage to prevent bleed out
+ a more cohesive squad system
+ option to choose leveling upgrades
In addition to that, I think its worth mentioning the huge drop in launch week player counts. IIRC there were 8-10,000 players around launch. This sharply dropped to 3,000 before dropping to the current 500-1000 at peak NA time. It looks like the current peak 1,500 value is coming from euro peak time which is disappointing for NA players. For a game not marketed so well you would hope the game would be climbing the charts based on word of mouth not steeply dropping 80% of players since launch and still dropping. And then as hockey said, the complaints we're hearing from most of the community isn't so much "BF3 is out now, peace!" but more of a dissatisfaction with RO2 itself.
With that said, I love the game and I've defended it more than most I think. But it's 1.5 months in and despite the reassurances I'm not sure the major gameplay decisions being made are on the right track at this point. If you really believe BF3's launch was the cause of losing half the remaining playerbase then you really need to start paying attention to who's left. You got the mainstream's money and lots of initial players but look at the facts: they ditched you in a few weeks. Now you need to listen to the guys who either stuck around or are waiting patiently for changes. That's where the long-term support is going to come from. The changes I listed are not huge overhauls and, like I said before, they are the opinion of the majority, not some random complaints. Address those issues and use the boatload of cash to strengthen what really matters, the core community.
EDIT: And obviously, the SDK is hugely important for long term success. I remember full mods were expected to be release within a few months of launch and at this point the SDK isn't even fully functioning and that's being positive (it's largely been very broken). Huge emphasis needs to be placed on getting this out very soon. Fan's eagerness to use the SDK is greatly impacted by how popular the game is which is another strong motivator to fix the key gameplay problems and bring in a larger solid playerbase.
