How long do you want major patches to be?

How long would you like major content patches to be? For example. The latest patch just released and we have a new raid, new dungeons, new content etc. How long would you like for it to stay?

Personally I like a 4-6 months between major patches so that my progress feels relevant during alonger time.

What do you think, how long between major patches (Not expansions etc, just new major pve/pvp content.

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Comments

Ravudha

I just want the world to always have interesting stuff to do. So content updates not happening only when people feel they've done everything and waiting for more to do - waiting for the 'next expansion'.

Plateau

As short as possible? Content patches don't last a long time because players need more time to get through all of the content. Rather it just takes a long time to make new content that isn't garbage. I can't imagine a world in which players ask for content patches to slow down.

Btw, artificial grinds for various rewards, cosmetic or otherwise, do not count as content. From my experience there is only a week's worth (10-20 hours) of normal-difficulty content in most content patches. Hard raids that take time to prog through last another few weeks. And then people just spend 2+ months grinding old content for gear or cosmetics, or doing everything again on alts, until the next patch hits. So even for people who are looking to experience everything on multiple classes, I think a content patch would only last for 1-2 months if you took out all of the needless grinding.

And I don't think any MMO developers (Intrepid included) are capable of putting out a decently-sized content patch every month. So I think you'll be hard-pressed to find anyone who wants slower content releases in AoC, even if Intrepid rushes out content as fast as possible.

People might want higher-quality content, which takes longer to make, but they'll never ask for less content.

unknown

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Corpier

It depends. Some MMOs have major patches coincide with game changing alterations to mechanics like buffing/nerfing cycles, meta shifts, or increases in level cap. If all major patches in Ashes are going to bring is new content, then I would love for major patches to be as frequent as possible while keeping up quality. However, if every major patch is going to be a mad scramble to regain the relative power players had in a previous patch, then I would prefer not to be grinding to the new level cap, changing class, or regearing every couple of months.

unknownsystemerror

DLC expansions (post-launch releases) are planned on a quarterly basis.[1]

DLC will not cost anything more than the normal subscription.[2][3]
Because of the modularity of a lot of the systems that we're working on, it's not too hard to iterate and implement new things... We're planning on going on a quarterly/ monthly cycle to continue to push out new content.[4] – Jeffrey Bard

The quarterly cycle for the big content is good for us and then, as you said, those modular components to our mechanisms in the game allow for us to introduce smaller content patches that can be seen in real time in the world.[4] – Steven Sharif

We don't intend to a wordsmith around future charge for DLC content. As a subscription model, that's part of the agreement between us as a Studio and you guys: That there will be regularly scheduled updates and chapters; and that subscription is what allows you to access that content.[5] – Steven Sharif

Noaani

For me, the idea situation with is to have the quarterly content additions that they are planning, but have the bulk of the content for each patch on a rotating system.

If one patch focuses on group content, with a small amount of crafting, raid, PvP and naval combat, then the next patch should focus on PvP, with a small amount of the rest, then raid with a small amount of the rest, then crafting with a small amount of the rest etc.

Damokles

Do you know the Living World mechanic in GW2? That.

Ishka

The longest possible in my case, but if I need to specify, it would be like 8 or 10 months, if the content is plentiful, to be sure to make everything (that is possible to do of course). I like to experience everything I can before going to the next part of it.

unknownsystemerror

@Ishka You realize that content will be different server to server? That depending on the choices made, some servers may never see certain content appear, and even on your particular server you may never gain access to certain events, dungeons, and raids due to pure distance from your "home base", node politics, and people just blocking others from content by killing anyone who approaches their node? People with the completionist or themepark linear mentality are going to have a rough go of it is my prediction.

Ishka

@unknownsystemerror Yeah I know, thanks for the reminder, I already had that kind of thoughts long ago lol, it's not like I am able to"clear a game" even with nowadays MMOs anyway xD, it's just that I like going in this way and in this particular case : what the server has to offer me.

In any cases, I think I will like AOC, and obviously it won't be like other mmos, I will just adapt my way of playing according to how I want to interact with the server's content & progression. If I was stuck in the "themepark" mentality (the way I understand themepark at least). I would not be here °°

George_Black

Every 10 months pay 20-40 dollars or so to get the next upgrade in order for your account to be accessible.

1 "new town+ castle"
New hunting zones
New bossess
One new World Boss
Some classes should get new abilities
Changes to abilities when necessary
Higher lv cap
Higher gear sets
1 new feature
New char creation options + 2 appearance change coupons.

Wandering Mist

I personally don't like set release schedules for big updates because it puts unnecessary pressure on the devs to get the content out by that date. The reality is that no matter how quickly the devs work, the players will always finish content faster than it can be made.

mcstackerson

I'm hoping most content comes from the variety of systems in the game and they are able to push updates to these systems as they are ready. I feel like this will at least be needed in the beginning as they probably wont be able to get as much in as they want at launch.

It sounds like there will be some kind of "story quest" to help players get acquainted with the world and get people invested but not sure all that will be tied to this. Assuming they will use this to introduce players to big new features/content, I'd like it if they gave us updates about every ~2-3 years with the exception of the first one. I'd hope these updates wont be that big and more of a fancy way to advertise an new feature. I don't think we should start on our first major update until they have taken the time to fix everything and fill out all the systems we have at launch.

Noaani

Wandering Mist wrote: »

I personally don't like set release schedules for big updates because it puts unnecessary pressure on the devs to get the content out by that date. The reality is that no matter how quickly the devs work, the players will always finish content faster than it can be made.

This is where I think GGG do a fantastic job with PoE.

They aim for a 3 month release schedule for major updates (but also have expansions in the mix) but don't put a hard date on it until they are certain they can hit it.

This way the developers have a fairly general window of when the release should be, and while there is always preasure in any job to get a peoduct out, they keep a good amount of flexibility for qhen issues arise.

akabear

Not so much concerned with the duration, but more the commitment to schedule.
Set a schedule and stick to it. If say 6 monthly, then not 6, then 8 then 5 months. Keep it 6.

Noaani

akabear wrote: »

Not so much concerned with the duration, but more the commitment to schedule.
Set a schedule and stick to it. If say 6 monthly, then not 6, then 8 then 5 months. Keep it 6.

I completely and totally disagree qith this in literally every sense.

Release content when - and ONLY when - it's ready.

If it's ready in 6 months, release it. If it needs 2 more months, then wait. If it's ready a month early, release it early.

I completely fail to see why players would ever put sticking to a schedule above releasing content when it's ready. It makes absolutely no sense at all.

T Elf

Are you talking patch notes or expansions?

Patch notes - major or minor ones as often as needed and as extensive as possible. I remember the notes from Mythic for DAoC were frequent and very detailed and I loved it.

If you are speaking of new content as often as Intrepid feels comfortable and not rushed.

Caeryl

If they can produce high quality content on a quarterly schedule, I’ll be all for it. I wouldn’t have any issue with new pieces of content coming out every week if it were possible to maintain that quality. For big things like raids, dungeons, and new explorable areas, I’d expect quarterly to be reasonable.

As far as balance passes go. I think there should be consistent minor tweaks with maintenances that are totally unconnected to content updates. No one wants to wait three months for a blatantly overpowered gear setups to be toned down, nor does anyone want blatantly underpowered classes to stay that way for months. Well, out of spite maybe, but not out of concern for healthy gameplay.

Caeryl

akabear wrote: »

Not so much concerned with the duration, but more the commitment to schedule.
Set a schedule and stick to it. If say 6 monthly, then not 6, then 8 then 5 months. Keep it 6.

“Sticking to the schedule” is how content comes out shallow, buggy, and incomplete

Big no

Makinoji

I love how ESO does their content releases quarterly (every 4 months) and 1 quarter is a major expansion.

I also feel since AOC will have a dynamic world they could probably get away with longer time periods of releasing stuff but with how impatient gamers are we'll need smaller updates probably every 3 months or so.
Things like natural disasters cutting off parts of the world or a long winter or drought would be fun to deal with for a short period.

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