Management is Getting Worse

Proyox

I've been playing NA for almost 4 years and in that time, TERA management has just gotten worse and worse. If you go to the old forums, you'll see that there was almost always a forum post on Tuesdays to let people know there was maintenance and what it was about. Even if there were no major changes we still got a forum post about it. Today (14/07/2016), I noticed we're having an unscheduled maintenance and we have no idea what it's about because there's no official post in the forums about it.

Recently we had a random power hour event that was only announced in game. We used to get news articles about these sorts of events (as recent as early this year in fact). Because whilst many people check the website from time to time, not everyone comes to the forums. During the Ninjathon stream event we were promised URF (Ultra Rapid Fire) mode and many expected it to be like previous versions where it would be enabled in dungeons.

After getting 2500 live viewers on stream, we only received URF mode in the open world and DSU and not in every other dungeon like many were expecting, very disappointed. In the Aces Wild class balances, EME was told to leave out an important change for Priest/Mystics (increased i-frame duration for backstep and teleport jaunt). I'm surprised EME listened and actually didn't include it (although Treeshark confirmed it in the thread).

These are just a few issues, but the list goes on. Like the recent Kyra event that still gives you 1 token even when you clear SSHM and other top dungeons. I feel like the more difficult the dungeon the more tokens we should get like they have done for previous events. Nonetheless I'm grateful for the event, just wish it was done better.

TERA is the only game I enjoy playing and I really hope management improves.

Xandervb

I think it's because Ninja patch had more issues that they expected, so they rushed to fix them leaving everything less urgent behind. That's why we got delayed and poorly planned events, slow and sometimes clunky response to players' feedback, slow tickets etc. Now many things are fixed but I suppose they still need to catch up with all that abandoned stuff. Give them time, there's no other major update coming so I think EME will more or less shine again soon.

Proyox

Xandervb wrote: »

I think it's because Ninja patch had more issues that they expected, so they rushed to fix them leaving everything less urgent behind. That's why we got delayed and poorly planned events, slow and sometimes clunky response to players' feedback, slow tickets etc. Now many things are fixed but I suppose they still need to catch up with all that abandoned stuff. Give them time, there's no other major update coming so I think EME will more or less shine again soon.

I hope so.

counterpoint

FWIW, typically speaking on the old forums, they did not announce standard Tuesday maintenance events, as they were "regularly-scheduled." There was a sticky thread that addressed this regular maintenance. However, they did usually announce special maintenance events, and they usually do here too; Spacecats already mentioned that he missed that today given that it was an emergency maintenance. It's probably also worth mentioning that the Community Team shrunk from 3 to 1, so time and responsibilities are clearly stretched thin.

Regarding the "URF Mode" issue, the most likely case is that this is something BHS changed in the game regarding how this event worked, so EME couldn't change it. For these sorts of features, EME only has tools to activate/deactivate whatever BHS has programmed, not to fundamentally change how it works. (I don't know why BHS would have changed it that way, of course...)

Regarding Kyra's, I think it's fairly clear that this incarnation is a pretty massive pendulum swing compared to last event, likely due to how many catalysts were still in the game after last time's over-generous blue boxes. I think it will be interesting to see what happens for the next one now that they're clearing out all outstanding catalysts.

All this said, there is definitely lots of room for improvement, particularly in communication and planning/testing. It looks like EME is hiring again after going through some fairly major layoffs a little while ago, so hopefully they can rebuild the team.

Spacecats

Hey, sorry you feel this way Proyox. While there have been a few slip-ups in communication (I commented in this player-created thread about today's emergency maintenance) in recent weeks, I hope you understand that we're trying the best we can and we're still determined to keep TERA players as up-to-date on things as possible.

I can speak directly to the Ninjathon URF-mode thing (and I do remember posting this in other threads when the event happened). Simply put, the tools we use to manage servers are provided by Bluehole. The TERA Production Team was confident that when the event was turned on, it would function the same as it had done in the past. It was apparently changed in the backend, probably during the Dawnfall update. There was already a concern that the event would completely screw up dungeon scores across the board, and when dungeons remained unaffected by the event A) We knew there was absolutely no way we could change how it functioned, We we're a little glad dungeon scores would remain in-tact, C) Our news post hadn't mentioned which areas would be affected, so a large-scale announcement/clarification didn't feed necessary when the in-game effects were obvious.

ChetAwesomeLaser

Spacecats wrote: »

Hey, sorry you feel this way Proyox. While there have been a few slip-ups in communication (I commented in this player-created thread about today's emergency maintenance) in recent weeks, I hope you understand that we're trying the best we can and we're still determined to keep TERA players as up-to-date on things as possible.

I can speak directly to the Ninjathon URF-mode thing (and I do remember posting this in other threads when the event happened). Simply put, the tools we use to manage servers are provided by Bluehole. The TERA Production Team was confident that when the event was turned on, it would function the same as it had done in the past. It was apparently changed in the backend, probably during the Dawnfall update. There was already a concern that the event would completely screw up dungeon scores across the board, and when dungeons remained unaffected by the event A) We knew there was absolutely no way we could change how it functioned, We we're a little glad dungeon scores would remain in-tact, C) Our news post hadn't mentioned which areas would be affected, so a large-scale announcement/clarification didn't feed necessary when the in-game effects were obvious.

Spacecats,

That is the kind of communication I believe we need. Not just as players but ostensibly as customers. If something is broken we would like to know why in a timely fashion. If stuff is going down when. If something is changed what. If a mechanic changed how. Sticky it, consolidate it, and for good measure, use a dev-tracker to collate the important posts.

The most important topics on the forums don't really have to deal with "what flying thing do you want" or "which class is OP". They might get a great number of posts, but they certainly are not the most important or deserving of your limited time. I believe sometimes we don't get information soon enough or know why decisions are made. We know you and treeshark don't have a ton of time to mess about on the forums, but when you do, the most important thing we need is answers.

Proyox

Spacecats wrote: »

Hey, sorry you feel this way Proyox. While there have been a few slip-ups in communication (I commented in this player-created thread about today's emergency maintenance) in recent weeks, I hope you understand that we're trying the best we can and we're still determined to keep TERA players as up-to-date on things as possible.

I can speak directly to the Ninjathon URF-mode thing (and I do remember posting this in other threads when the event happened). Simply put, the tools we use to manage servers are provided by Bluehole. The TERA Production Team was confident that when the event was turned on, it would function the same as it had done in the past. It was apparently changed in the backend, probably during the Dawnfall update. There was already a concern that the event would completely screw up dungeon scores across the board, and when dungeons remained unaffected by the event A) We knew there was absolutely no way we could change how it functioned, We we're a little glad dungeon scores would remain in-tact, C) Our news post hadn't mentioned which areas would be affected, so a large-scale announcement/clarification didn't feed necessary when the in-game effects were obvious.

Thanks for the response @Spacecats I understand.

TheGreyWolf

I think the current EME staff is doing a decent enough job, considering that they're understaffed and overwhelmed with all the issues they have to deal with on a daily basis.

I'm just sad that none of them have taken the time to say hi to me and ask me how my day is going and how I'm enjoying TERA so far...
I mean there's only like several thousand players, surely they could take a few minutes out of their busy days to greet each and every player, right? Or is that too much to ask?

JasonLucas

They're busy using the in game announcer to talk about Spacecats twitch stream and kill you in dungeons.

Spacecats

JasonLucas wrote: »

They're busy using the in game announcer to talk about Spacecats twitch stream and kill you in dungeons.

We also give announcements for maintenance and server updates.

@JasonLucas What kind of in-game announcements would you like to see?

JasonLucas

Spacecats wrote: »

JasonLucas wrote: »

They're busy using the in game announcer to talk about Spacecats twitch stream and kill you in dungeons.

We also give announcements for maintenance and server updates.

@JasonLucas What kind of in-game announcements would you like to see?

@Spacecats I would be happy if you guys use the in game announcer to only talk about necessary things, since it pops in the middle of screen. Things like live stream and etc, is better to keep in the global chat or send a parcel post to everyone online.