[NO REFUND] Dyadian Dawn returns!

Sad to hear it came to this. I don't think it was unreasonable to ask for a partial refund, and I think you are being very realistic in your expectations.

@inDef Shut the hell up. Don't kick a man while he's down.

"

YEARS of silence about hacking and cheating.

Listen man, I'm not trying to argue with you, but have you been reading the announcements this week?

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Xedralya wrote:

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YEARS of silence about hacking and cheating.

Listen man, I'm not trying to argue with you, but have you been reading the announcements this week?

Was referring to the timeframe before the past week when GGG was forced to do damage control. The maphack that they are banning for has been around since early CLOSED BETA, over 3 years ago. We'e been making a fuss about it since then...and only now are they responding.

The psychology behind this thread is brilliant... Wp.... WP.

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inDef wrote:

"

Seriously, the amount of pessimism, criticism and complaining, especially from the fancy tag / long time supporters - THAT is getting real tiresome and bothersome to me. I'm not one of them sure, so my opinion may mean much less to some, but I have had my complaints and disappointment in GGG for things here and there, such as that filler called 1.3 and my build getting nerfed to near extinction, but at least I still have a wait and see approach for what they're going to do in 1.4 before giving up and declaring they're dead, they've peaked, yada yada all that negative, juvenile overreaction and jumping to conclusion BS.

Have some patience and belief, maybe play a bit less and take a break during this 'quiet' period to do some real things in life, instead of moaning and bitching 24/7 on forum and be a drag on the developers when they have to see and respond to your shit every week.

By the way, maybe it's just me and I don't know all the details but this whole community uniq designing thing seems like a bad idea and waste of resources, adding unnecessary strain to GGG crew's workload... their team isn't all that big, so having to cater to each and every supporter going back and forth, as if they don't have enough on their plate as it is for their own items and creations... I mean, I play the game based on them devoting all their energy and thought into their own creative innovation, not some random gamer's contribution to some silly item that won't have much of an impact, why mess in any way with this formula?

This is a topic I was quite passionate about back when GGG started releasing the high dollar supporter packs. It is extremely disappointing to me to see what is taking place in this thread. Chris' responses in this thread are only a confirmation of what really matters to GGG and that is money.

Money buys developer ears in this game. Charan can cry about literally anything that he wants and a developer ALWAYS responds to him. In this case he cries and Chris, the lead developer and project manager of the game, responds.

Awhile back I made a thread about the deteriorating performance of PoE with regards to client performance and desync. This thread had just surpassed 40 pages of discussion before it was closed and moved to the "suggestions" forum where it died an invisible death. No developer response, no feedback, no explanation of why it was closed. But what should I expect, I've only spent $150 total on this game since 2012. Peanuts compared to Charan's $20,000+.

Everyday there is a great discussion on these boards about what needs to change in PoE to make it a better game. There has not been a meaningful developer post in MONTHS, short of the recent PR damage control on reddit about the hacking/cheating. Months of silence about game performance and desync. YEARS of silence about the horrible economy/trading system of PoE. YEARS of silence about hacking and cheating.

Then one fucking diamond supporter complains about his unique item design not being what he hoped...charan backs him up... and the lead fucking developer of the game responds immediately.

I'm done with this shit.

Sorry you feel this way, I understand you have every right to since you dropped the bucks in hopes of something that hasn't been delivered... anyway like I said and I know it's in hindsight and sunk costs are involved, but this idea of unique creation from community was and is set up to disappoint / in over GGG's head / not so great use of resources... more than enough reasons for it to be a worthy idea, jmho.

In terms of general PoE problems, don't mean to single anyone out but seems like there's been a tide of the same frustration and negativity on forums, understandably so but at some point maybe people should take a step back, stop the redundancy, go away a bit and wait and see what happens in 1.4 (still 3+ months away!) if you still care and enjoy the game... even with all the issues, I still enjoy the game for what it is and am in wait and see mode for 1.4 before any more MTX. If one can't wait, and these issues are too much, simply just quit the game then. Repeating the same stuff over and over again with nothing change, doesn't do anyone (GGG or you) any good and is next to insanity.

I still don't even have my Unique from the Diamond Supporter pack, after about 6 or so emails I just gave up trying to get the item made. Was really disappointed with my avatar also, they refused to give me a full size version like the other supporters were given. I was told that they dont give out a full size version of the image.

Maybe one day...

Whoa! This thread has covered a lot more than I anticipated!

Chris, thanks for your reply and assurances. Grateful for your help in resolving this. Looks like this might be resolved without a refund afterall. And since I_No isn't hugging you, I'll hug you too.

I_No and Charan, -tri hug- (and no. it's not awkward... to me at least!)

and all those who have been very kind in your words to me... -more hugs-

Xed, Koreapsu, looks like we're in the same boat. Here's hoping things get better.

The_Speculator, you're probably right about me being a spoilt brat. Sorry... I suppose my process on the first item kinda spoilt me and I was expecting something similar.

InDef, while I wouldn't go as far as to say my item was overall really really really bad, I do agree with you that it could have been so much more. I part blame GGG for nerfing the burning damage affix but I mostly blame myself for not having known the game better. It was, afterall, released at launch so I didn't have the knowledge then that I do now. On the part of GGG pandering to the big supporters and not to other players, I can see where you're coming from. I, ironically, felt something similar but thought that they only showered attention to streamers and the super hardcore gamers. Guess they only have that much resources around.

solwitch, ssshhh....... don't let the others know!

jujuman, sorry to hear. if it's of any comfort, I don't think anyone gets full res anymore!


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Overall,

1. While GGG's ability to process uniques is relevant to this thread, I was hoping this thread would be less about GGG "you done goofed" and only wanted to explain why a unique I had previously disclosed might not be happening anymore

2. I don't think GGG is dying. We faced similar quiet times before with similar frustrations shared before (such as pre-release). They still have enough cache for Act 4 to be a huge success!

3. That being said, if the issues raised on other threads till date are not addressed, the decay that Charan indicates will definitely get worse and may one day become irreversible. Will GGG address these issues? They have indeed had a track record of addressing them (much better than say, Blizzard), but clearly never any guarantees so let's hope.

4. I really didn't want this to be a "big supporter whining for attention and gets it" thread, but fact is, it's turned into that. Sorry.

5. Chris, here are some suggestions that you might wish to consider to make unique making happier for all involved.

A - Set realistic targets and goals upfront to the supporter upfront. (Ie: if we agree on xxx by this date, you'll need to wait yyy weeks to get it out. If you want to change the item, it'll add zzz dates to the timeline.) A lot of frustration in unique-making comes from not knowing when one will get a reply or when one will get an update. It's the not-knowing part that gives someone that gnawing feeling of "Is this actually going to be done or not?" And that feeling sucks.

B - Regularly provide updates. Especially when there have been delays, it's good to receive a note saying "Hey sorry, tied up on 1.3.0. We'll get back to you 2 weeks later. Timetable moved accordingly." This helps supporters know that nothing's been forgotten. Most supporters will understand a reasoned delay. Again, it's the uncertainty of whether something's going on or not that annoys people. On my first unique, I used to get regular responses to my chasers saying "Hey sorry, will get back to you later" which was helpful. The second unique had several unresponded chasers and made me feel like I was emailing a wall.

C - Find some way to incorporate the programming or overall game design guys in the initial idea review. Another key frustration was having initially accepted ideas subsequently rejected on a repeated basis. Cock block = sad panda

Again, nothing but admiration for the team and the community. I'm hoping this thread becomes an overall positive for everyone involved.

Seeing as your paying what was it again? a shit load of money for an item that could and should be made for free (pay2create!) they should have been done with your item half a year ago

I've yet to hear anything different from a Unique designers. At this point, I have met several other unique designers IRL and heard their experiences, as well as those who have expressed their concerns through threads like these or discussions in game. That being said, I can empathize with both sides, because really, it is a difficult situation.

For those who don't know, I helped design The Blood Dance (Sharkskin Boots). The developers I worked with did an excellent job taking my initial idea and turning the end result into something that I was (am) really pleased with. While one of the more interesting mechanics had to be left out due to technical difficulties, they were able to create an item that met the majority of my design goals--no small task, as I feel I was rather demanding throughout the process.

I'll toss some of the design process in a spoiler below for those interested.



On topic though, the series of emails between myself and the developers working to design the item ended up being a pretty huge chain, and it felt like about 80%/20% communication. My initial email mentioned I knew how busy GGG was and how I was in no rush to get the process started since I knew there were plenty of people who'd bought their packs before me. However, about a month later when I got a response talking about the item and kicking off the design, I took that as a cue that it was "my turn." I initially assumed we were all in line essentially, and I was surprised (and extremely excited) to hear back so soon.

It became very clear to me months later that there was no line or picking order. It seemed to be a huge load of emails all going to the same 2-3 developers working on the unique process. Because they'd already gotten back to me, I was very excited (and probably very pushy) about getting mine done.

I don't want to be "Captain Hindsight" here, but I don't quite understand why we didn't just go in order of who purchased their pack first. Granted, this would probably take a lot longer to get through the process, but I do think these scenarios where people feel they were not getting the full attention they deserved would not have occurred.

I'm all too familiar with those "chaser" emails you mentioned, and I felt bad every time I sent one. But I was excited and determined to finish what I had started. It still took many months (not nearly as long as some of the other people I have talked to), but they did get done. Towards the end when they were getting ready to be implemented in the game, the line of communication picked up very noticeably, and I really enjoyed the final moments of the design process. The communication felt very one-sided for a majority of the time before that though.

Another thing that was slightly concerning to me was the idea of each supporter having to work around each other. I had been wanting to call the boots "Bloodseeker" initially, but the Bloodseeker unique claw came out shortly after I suggested the name. I retracted my suggestion and said I'll look into other options, and I was told that I could still keep the name if I wanted. I declined, because I did not want to step on the other designer's toes. The second occurrence of this was with the item mechanics - the movement speed with frenzy charges was something I'd suggested before Darkray Vectors came out. The boots were going to have a higher potential max movement speed, but they had to be toned down so they didn't overshadow one of Darkray Vectors' key features.

Do I regret purchasing the pack? No. I am happy with the end result, and I was happy to have the opportunity to support GGG (though if I'm being honest, I'm not so sure how much profit they're -really- making off these packs due to the amount of time that has to be dedicated to each one). Do I wish it had been a smoother process? Absolutely.