SUGGESTION: crowd source more variety for some things

[Nhat]

I've argued the same many times because I'm the one who has to field all of the reports/complaints. Dream Primer's response is usually something along the lines of "it may seem quick and easy to fix little stuff, but it distracts us from the development process. If we have to stop to fix little stuff, we lose focus and have to take time to get back into development mode."

Sorry to be jumping in and sorry for your position of having to field the complaints, however, I completely agree with this - while in the process of working on something, any distractions means:
1. "unload" whatever you're currently working on,
2. switching over to whatever the new issue is,
3. deal with the new topic (even if it takes only a few minutes),
4. "finalise" new topic - tests/documents/logging...
5. "reload" back what you were working on and hope that your train of thought for it is still "accessible"

The last point can end up taking anywhere between a few minutes to days (it has happened) - which adds a lot of stress, this is all from personal experience...

[Travis | Support Mgr.]

Resource optimization and goal prioritization is a must for any business. On the other hand, the little contests would take nearly zero time. Almost all of that effort would come from the forum contributors and then the results could be saved and worked on in the future, or even in the present but within a small slice of someones time. Maybe assign an hour a week to update/improve lore, fix typos like the one you mentioned, and similar "easy to fix" bugs. I am guessing you might even get a super-mod on the forum to coordinate it for free, just for the fun of it. The devs would of course always retain the right/authority/power of whether or not and how to use the results.

Writing new code, creating new graphics (etc etc) are time intensive. Fixing a typo or changing in-game text -- essentially no coding or graphics changes -- takes virtually no time. In fact, letting the list of those known bugs build up, and then going back later to fix them -- the admin time of that tracking system -- is arguably more than just fixing it right now and sort of not keeping track of it. {Behind the scenes, all changes need to be logged, I am aware of that.}

YOUR FANS ARE ANOTHER RESOURCE.

I've argued the same many times because I'm the one who has to field all of the reports/complaints. Dream Primer's response is usually something along the lines of "it may seem quick and easy to fix little stuff, but it distracts us from the development process. If we have to stop to fix little stuff, we lose focus and have to take time to get back into development mode."

That said, Silviu stated on Friday that it was "time for some bug squishing", so hopefully some of the little QoL stuff will get fixed.

[Travis | Support Mgr.]

How many people are currently working on the game?

All together, or just on the game itself? The Dream Primer team (6 people, including QA and the Artist) works on the client side of things. The MF team (Myself, John (CEO), and Pablo (server side engineer)) work on other stuff having to do with the game.

[Humus]

(for example, on the little readout over the synergy level display, it shows that it boosts your Attack Speed %, despite the move to Haste)

Attack speed still exists in the game, that's why people use Robin and two endars (they give attack speed, not haste).

[Coda]

Resource optimization and goal prioritization is a must for any business. On the other hand, the little contests would take nearly zero time. Almost all of that effort would come from the forum contributors and then the results could be saved and worked on in the future, or even in the present but within a small slice of someones time. Maybe assign an hour a week to update/improve lore, fix typos like the one you mentioned, and similar "easy to fix" bugs. I am guessing you might even get a super-mod on the forum to coordinate it for free, just for the fun of it. The devs would of course always retain the right/authority/power of whether or not and how to use the results.

Writing new code, creating new graphics (etc etc) are time intensive. Fixing a typo or changing in-game text -- essentially no coding or graphics changes -- takes virtually no time. In fact, letting the list of those known bugs build up, and then going back later to fix them -- the admin time of that tracking system -- is arguably more than just fixing it right now and sort of not keeping track of it. {Behind the scenes, all changes need to be logged, I am aware of that.}

YOUR FANS ARE ANOTHER RESOURCE.

[Aesthetician]

I think things like the trials lore (obviously it's hard to write lore for 100+ trials) are not nearly as important as extending game components and providing us with new gear, campaigns, and other challenges. The trials system is pretty excellent right now. I've developed a game with a small team before so I know that man hours are a resource you have to use judiciously if you ever want anything to get done. I'm sure when things are more polished, they'll eventually get around to fixing all the little lore and UI things (for example, on the little readout over the synergy level display, it shows that it boosts your Attack Speed %, despite the move to Haste)

[Frisco]

Some chunks of the game are from community contributions (named items, Misty Island lore, etc.). The guys have just been busy with rebalancing, localizing, LBs, Act 4, and the home town lately, so polish has been back-burnered for a bit. Giving the players what they want is fun for the guys, so they'll get to it when they can -- it's just nose-to-the-grindstone time right now.

How many people are currently working on the game?

[Travis | Support Mgr.]

There was a thread a while back where people gave ideas, iirc the devs ignored it.

Some chunks of the game are from community contributions (named items, Misty Island lore, etc.). The guys have just been busy with rebalancing, localizing, LBs, Act 4, and the home town lately, so polish has been back-burnered for a bit. Giving the players what they want is fun for the guys, so they'll get to it when they can -- it's just nose-to-the-grindstone time right now.

[Humus]

There was a thread a while back where people gave ideas, iirc the devs ignored it.

[Coda]

One thing I really like about this game is there are some hidden things that make you chuckle. For one small example, sometimes a skeleton will flee from you with his arms in the air. I could just picture it screaming like a little girl while it's running away.

So here's my idea. The trial descriptions past level 10-ish are all the same = boring. Why not ask people on this Forum or Discord for ideas for each trial description. You can have an interesting short paragraph that could even somehow relate to the name of the trial. Once you have the content it would not take very long to code it.

Along this same train of thought, how about a few more things for the hero to say. You have already cracked open Pandora's Box by quoting lyrics from Queen. I could envision quotes from The Terminator ("I need a vacation"), Dirty Harry (skip "Make my day", instead maybe "Do ya feel lucky?"), Etc. Or, just random stuff people make up that would be interesting to listen to. Monster put downs. Trash talking the bosses. Yelling at under powered stupid minions.

You could even run small contests for stuff like this. And no it doesn't have to be that you give away IAP. You can give away a piece decent gear (even something unique just for contest winners = bragging rights), one of named capes weapons tomes, a piece of perfect jewelery, etc.

You could even crowdsource the ideas for what little mini contests to run. I think folks here would enjoy coming up with ideas and participating in the contests. It would fill in some of the boredom that happens during updates when you're just grinding for XP or gear.

Keep keep it small, keep the rewards in check, nothing to exploit, nothing game breaking, just fun.