Quote Originally Posted by Scenario View Post
QA resources available to backport in a way that doesn't just introduce a whole slew of new bugs.
So should we just help with bug reporting? I can do it!
In truth, I can also pay extra for Gondor Pre-Battle "Dev Time Package" to make that happen...



Quote Originally Posted by Scenario View Post
Backporting will really depend on how quickly we build out everything else that is on our plate for this year. And because of that, I am making no promises as to whether or not it will happen. One of the hardest things for us as designers to do is curtail our passion in the face of the reality of time and schedule - and it is better for us to focus on the new things we have to build first and foremost.
Or you could have made this actually a part of your plate for this year and withhold something else. (We wouldn't even know, like a part of Anfalas or one of the valleys). Business is business but that's also part of this Middle-earth and, well, your business. I think the enthusiasm of this thread and general "growing the world" vibes are recognized by SSG but worth to note something like "filling the gaps" isn't "filling the gaps from one space on another and that's just that." It's not just that. It's a sense of being in an actual living growing world and that feeling may quickly start to fall apart once we have too many jarring differences between things. Plus, you've built expectations and good world-keeper standards with Azanulbizar, Mordor Besieged etc where all things match perfectly since same world. Sure, many people might not be here whining about such things, and many people are hardly here with us on the messages boards :P But I think it's mega weird and was shocked you haven't even seriously considered this as a serious goal post worth some sacrifices... or that you did not start such redecorating on pre-battle to make it more feasible/easier...

I've been in Gondor today and I like these rocks, took a neat screenshot and they look nice above that little river right next to MT - but yes, that's right next to MT, which narratively transitions players to After right from Before version and... suddenly all these rocks splintered over the place and visible from the city walls, in which there is still a lot of after battle questing to do... and suddenly you see rocks everywhere that weren't there just a few quests before...

Or take Belfalas for example. Just like with Cardolan, which I was very excited about because it took all these walls down including in housing, I think the idea of Gondor revisited naturally evokes in many if not all of us such feelings (based on your previous track record no less) that we might see the old space grow. Housing included. Whatever you do, I always imagined that there might be a greater, richer view from Belfalas Housing into that Northern direction, whether accessible or not. But not being able to backport changes would mean we're just stuck with a premium house we paid for (no less!) to stare at outdated, not given such care, version of the space. Speaking of housing, another thing - if you are actually redoing entire Belfalas... hopefully you don't redo the housing as some kind of different version where I don't own a house because that would be... another weirdness. Clearly I purchased a house in Gondor, so I live in Gondor and have the right to feel like I live in Gondor in Middle-earth right? Whether that's after the battle of Pelargil or under the King's reign? Because time passes, in narrative, but I can always go back to my house and feel like it belongs to the same time regardless. Housing areas are kind of supposed to be like that. Would be weird if there are different things going on there now, or worse, some mob camps all of a sudden, and my house is not there anymore

So pleaaase please, pretty please, reconsider, conceptually and world-design-wise, all these things you're doing that may end up cheapening and distorting the integrity of the world... and maybe just be a tiny bit less ambitious in "covering ground" if there is that danger of utterly destroying the integrity. Because I disagree that building new things in new maps/versions is all that matters "first and foremost." This isn't just some sequel, with new approach to things every sequel. You're actually expanding the world Or so you did, until recently with merely a few such inconsistencies between spaces and most of them tolerable/not really in your face.