Why DEVs don't care about our "low hanging" fruit...

As someone who has been in other people's SGs and VGs ... and who has moved out to create my own ... it seems to me that there is one basic reason DEVs don't seem to care about base building ...

Put simply, it affects too few people.

So do these posts, who ARE the few (and the proud)....

That may be why I never see Dev's even post a response to all your low hanging fruit, wish list ideas, etc. I may be wrong, but except for the MAC threads, Base Construction has the fewest number of pages and posts on them. We are too few.

You would THINK everyone would care, since the vast majority of players are IN a SG or VG. But basically, they're their for the teleporters and med bays, etc. Most don't even get to share in the treasures of storage.

So while I really don't mean to sound like a troll here, I often fear that these posts are all just "spitting against the wind."

I hope I'm wrong. And would be happy for someone to link me to a Base Building thread where the dev's were really involved in the conversation. I would very much LIKE to be wrong.

It seems to me such a reasonable request for the low hanging fruit goodies that others are asking for. But the most active thread on the subject here has drawn no response fron the dev's. Nada. Zero. Zilch.

Classic case, I think, of the needs of the many outweigh the needs or the few, or the one.

Mmm...

Actually because there are so few threads and their sizes, the likelyhood a Dev may actually read the content of this section may be much better than you think.

frankly when I get to a thread with over 50,000 postings, I just disrgard and go to the next, since of the 50,000 about 49,995 are folks flaming each other with only like 5 posts that are actually worth reading; trying to find those 5 within the 50,000 is simply not worth it.

Stormy

I've heard the small community argument a number of times and I think it does have some validity in explaining the historical lack of new development (or even commuications) we have experienced. But it doesn't have to be that way.

My hope has always been that the devs will one day look at bases, not how they "are" (not useless by any stretch but certainly limited on who they benefit and how), but rather how they "could be". If you allow yourself to dream that way you begin to easily see opportunites where bases become more fun and functional for everyone who plays the game. Now that is leverage.

It's probably not appropriate to call out specific examples in this thread (for each attribute invites off topic debate in and of itself). However, I do find it encouraging that there seems to be a recent renewed interest in the player community for "group" type base utilty. These types of threads are easy to spot and they are a very good thing IMHO.

Will the devs pick up on and run with this renewed interest? Who knows (I've been through more "highs" and "lows" when it comes to the devs doing stuff for bases than I care to count)? Unfortunately, the types of things I'm talking about above don't qualify as "low hanging fruit" in most cases. It's going to require a level of development commitment equal to any other new exciting feature added to the game; with the focus being SGs and bases. That really hasn't happened since bases came into existence (though there were rumors of failed attempts for things like bringing back base raids).

I've always advocated that such a level of commitment would pay off big time, not just in terms of the resultant size of the base community, but for overall good of the game itself. So far, the devs have not shared my enthusiasm on what "could be" for bases. Can't say they ever will but it's an effort worth bringing to their attention often.

Conversely, its amazing how often you hear "wouldn't it be cool if X" in regards to bases. Specifically when touring or chatting with RP groups.

However, you're right. The people that would really enjoy seeing more utility in bases aren't the same people that are doing all the current base editing. Its the builders that are making the lists of low hanging fruit. However, in a given SG you've got a lot more players that are far more interested in getting merits, killing mobs, making IOs, and other things that have a measurable affect in gameplay numbers than you do the handful of people who have base edit permissions and care about those "low hanging fruit" visual and base building improvements. Mostly because if you're not the one editing the base, its a non-issue for you. Thus, most of your SG sees the base and enjoys it without knowing or possibly even caring about the intricacies of how it was put together.

However when talking base improvements, that same low hanging fruit is the first logical step in getting people to care. Its the easiest thing to start implementing for one as War Witch and Noble Savage have both stated, the stuff that takes less resources is more likely to get done first.

Would I like to see more actual stuff? Of course. I started a whole thread about pie in the sky ideas for base gameplay. Do I realistically expect that sort of thing to happen before some nice packages of ported base items? No way in hell.

I think we are pretty much on the same wavelength. I was the guy that suggested that we flag a subset of the "big list" as low hanging fruit in the first place (but I was too lazy to actually do it and Impish Kat came through like she usually does ). Not surprisingly, much of the low-hanging fruit turned out to be decorative in nature. That's because it's pretty much the easiest thing to do (the definition of low hanging fruit). I do not begrudge that our first baby steps with base related development will most probably begin here.

However, I still think if bases are going to be "relevant" to the game as it evolves, the devs are going to have to make some greater commitment to some of the more higher level base needs that appeal to more players. Either that, or accept "we are who we are" and maintain low expectations on getting anything with more universal appeal accomplished.

BTW, I'm a big fan of the "other" thread you started and the need to keep the "pie in sky" in mind. If there's one thing I've learned in my five and a half years of play it's that the devs can do some pretty amazing things. Now if we can just get them to stop the "pained eye roll" every time bases are mentioned because of how much of a "mess" the existing base code is and that, if they aren't careful, the whole thing could collapse in one big heap...

As long as most people are only "in" an SG/VG, rather than build one, the demand for low hanging fruit will be ignored (in my opinion).

I think one solution would be to allow players to belong to one SG - AND be able to create their own one-person bases. (Not either/or).

What got me started with building bases was that I was tried of being locked out of treasure bins, which to me is the second biggest plus to an SG (after the teleporters). So I created my own which gave me the ability to save all the salvage I needed to create IO sets for my alts.

But this locked me out of many SG activities like TFs, etc.

Having both memberships would not only be more fun, but more "realistic" too. Just because Iron Man is in the Avengers, doesn't stop him from making his stuff in his own lab, right? And the more people created these add-on SGs, without losing their bigger SG privileges, the more voices base builders would have to be heard.

When I mentioned PvP to people at the M&G Base builders where brought up as another population that needed attention. So they have noticed for what it's worth.

Mmm...

Correct me if I 'm wrong, but...

Normally the game is developed by a "developer team".
As a consequence from having a development team, there will be functional or specialized members within it, such as costumes, effects, power customization, mapping, etc.
Among those specialized developers, one of them is going to be responsible for base design and development.
That individual's responsibilities may be more than just base building, it could be just 25% of his total duty/job description, but I bet no matter how you cut it, it is a significant portion of his job description.
Now if I was to be that person, I would imagine, that I would have a very healthy desire to retain my job during these very tough employment times.
Since I want to keep my job, I really need to impress my management that all things base is far from done, and that the effort is an evolving one as the game is. If I was to fail, frankly, I am toast! And my job went birdie bye bye...
Now given, that I want to keep my job significant, I would always would be thinking! What new thing I could do?
Frankly, these forums, are a great source to do just that. If we keep our posts clean, free from flames/chaff, the forum posting then becomes a very valuable resource for the developer.
And thus our requests can hardly be thought as ignored, and the devs don't care.

If anything, because these forum's posts are polite, specific, and clean is a strong point despite that it may not be a super poster in volume...

Hugs

Stormy