Feedback to the devs: HAVE A PROPER AVENUE FOR PATCH NOTES

[giecomo]

Right now, when beta went live to play store, the tens of thousands of players who are updating from 1.2.49 like myself (and they are in the majority because only a minority actually frequent the forum), all they see is:

Added Comprehensive Leaderboards for players to share progress and strategies used to defeat a particular challenge.
Overhauled Trials of Valor to make them more tactical and rewarding.
Rebalanced hero classes to bring them on the same power level, a requirement for healthy competition.
Added support for localization.
Added experience and currency boosters.
Various bug-fixing.

when in reality, TONS more changed than just these. I can't even list everything because they span over multiple updates. For example, all they see is "Rebalanced hero classes to bring them on the same power level"

1. They don't know about the new Innate Passives which might affect item and crafting choices(which can cost millions of gold and around 30 Brilliants),
2. They don't know what changes have been made to abilities. They can only read through the tool-tips of all 20 of their abilities and compare it to whatever they remember about the old abilities to see what's changed, which is...not terribly fun.
3. They don't know the bosses got reworked and they will get destroyed the first 10 times fighting them before starting to learn how to play against them. They would be extremely puzzled as to why they can't disable bosses most of the time and when they do, the bosses can magically end the disable duration prematurely.
4. They don't know why their Mage is attacking so quickly now with much improved dps. They don't know why their Bounty Hunter is suddenly running like a Bugatti.

These are just a few examples I can think of off the top of my head. To the forum folks: imagine joining the beta last month but WITHOUT reading the patch notes and knowing what you knew. That would be how they are feeling.

And after that, they decide to come on here... and the new updates are all over the place in multiple posts. You have to remember that the people on the forums are actually the minority. What you could do is to post a single comprehensive gameplay changelog every time an update goes live because trust me... MANY people need it badly. And on the Play Store itself, give a link to the post of the changelog. I think that would help a ton of people adjust quickly to updates. Of course, there will always be the few who simply refuse to read patch notes. But for the rest of the people eager to play the game, it would be an extremely huge improvement.

[ezcry4t3d]

I purposely did not read the patch notes when I came back for this beta and from my experience I say your comments are 100% accurate.

[Eyebrowless_Mage]

I actually did start last month and immediately joined the beta because my mind went, "Hell yea, I'd love to be a part of the beta test". I wish I could properly give feedback other than I have already.

[Kelton]

I thought the same exact thing Giecomo. The update for those of us on iOS going from .49 directly to .65 was just those 6 short sentences. I knew better since I come on the forums each week or so to read up and knew there were exhaustive changes, so I was really surprised to see such an abbreviated changelog. Based on the amount of the activity on the forums, an extremely tiny minority of players even come here to read the updates. One thread that has only the changelog notes on it for each new version should be added to the forums and only developers able to add to that thread. You can always start longer conversations for feedback like we currently have, but a standard changelog would be nice.

With that said, REALLY enjoying the changes so far and look forward to logging in now with the latest changes. Great work!

[narf]

Right now, when beta went live to play store, the tens of thousands of players who are updating from 1.2.49 like myself (and they are in the majority because only a minority actually frequent the forum), all they see is:

Added Comprehensive Leaderboards for players to share progress and strategies used to defeat a particular challenge.
Overhauled Trials of Valor to make them more tactical and rewarding.
Rebalanced hero classes to bring them on the same power level, a requirement for healthy competition.
Added support for localization.
Added experience and currency boosters.
Various bug-fixing.

when in reality, TONS more changed than just these. I can't even list everything because they span over multiple updates. For example, all they see is "Rebalanced hero classes to bring them on the same power level"

1. They don't know about the new Innate Passives which might affect item and crafting choices(which can cost millions of gold and around 30 Brilliants),
2. They don't know what changes have been made to abilities. They can only read through the tool-tips of all 20 of their abilities and compare it to whatever they remember about the old abilities to see what's changed, which is...not terribly fun.
3. They don't know the bosses got reworked and they will get destroyed the first 10 times fighting them before starting to learn how to play against them. They would be extremely puzzled as to why they can't disable bosses most of the time and when they do, the bosses can magically end the disable duration prematurely.
4. They don't know why their Mage is attacking so quickly now with much improved dps. They don't know why their Bounty Hunter is suddenly running like a Bugatti.

These are just a few examples I can think of off the top of my head. To the forum folks: imagine joining the beta last month but WITHOUT reading the patch notes and knowing what you knew. That would be how they are feeling.

Most(if not all) of the examples you bring classify as trial overhaul and class rebalancing. Have you actually read the 2-3 patch notes from the beta? By adding the detailed patch notes to the play store would mean, wouldn't be comprehensible at all.

And after that, they decide to come on here... and the new updates are all over the place in multiple posts. You have to remember that the people on the forums are actually the minority. What you could do is to post a single comprehensive gameplay changelog every time an update goes live because trust me... MANY people need it badly. And on the Play Store itself, give a link to the post of the changelog. I think that would help a ton of people adjust quickly to updates. Of course, there will always be the few who simply refuse to read patch notes. But for the rest of the people eager to play the game, it would be an extremely huge improvement.

I'd agree on this part. Patch notes from .49 to .65 would be great as some things have even been changed multiple times during beta.

Also: What is up with airline fo... I mean people posting feedback in general discussion instead of the feedback section?

[giecomo]

Most(if not all) of the examples you bring classify as trial overhaul and class rebalancing. Have you actually read the 2-3 patch notes from the beta? By adding the detailed patch notes to the play store would mean, wouldn't be comprehensible at all.

I'm afraid I don't really understand. I didn't suggest adding the detailed patch notes to the play store, I meant put a link in the play store to a post with the detailed patch notes.

And it doesn't matter what classification they fall under, my point was that most people would not be aware of the new changes.

[giecomo]

Sorry to bump this thread. A few months ago I made this suggestion to improve dissemination of information on new updates to the player base. However, narf (and possibly others) did not seem to understand what I was trying to say and maybe this picture better shows what I was talking about - posting a comprehensive update on the forums and posting the link of said update on the Play Store.