Doomsaying from Nova Knife? Whhaaaaaaat? No way....

Planetside 2 is also testing orbital strikes and other similar dust514 style tech.

Until we've used this new information to prepare a solid game plan around the resolution of these issues and brought it forward, there's not much we can share. Like said in the above post : We intend to keep players in the loop as much as possible, but we still need to operate within the NDA.

Even if we can't share the specifics of these processes (Most of which we'll be trying to change to better involve the community as a whole anyways, which we'll push to have the revised ones put out) I can assure you that what Cmdr Wang has given us ensures that we're much, much better equipped to drive positive change, because knowing is half the battle!

Seriously. One of the best, most productive conversations we've had from CCP to date.

lolCPM
lolCCP
lolDUST

we'll see if **** changes, bit late for this "hail mary" post tho nova
DUST isnt on a fast road to recovery even IF they change as well, would still take a year or more to even get to some of the pipedreams we were lured into fro the beginning.

+1 for effort but not holding my breath

This is pretty much an accurate summation of the current situation with the game. But what the CPM and CCP are having to deal with is that poor decisions made two years ago are still having a ripple effect within the game and have slowed the pace of development within it.

Uprising 1.2 should've been the beta build first released to us for evaluation, so by my reckoning this game is roughly 1 year behind where it should be. There has been a catalogue of errors in design judgement made by CCP and left in the game too long before fixing and compounding other problems in later builds.

Without exception, every one of these mistakes could've been prevented with faster communication and feedback to the players in the forums, an actionable plan drawn up with a publicly accessible and regularly updated roadmap for the game on the forums, much like the one for Planetside 2.

I find it encouraging however that in recent weeks there seems to be a increase in community interaction from some members of the Dev team (no need to name them, we all know who they are) and this seems to be spreading to other members of the team as they begin to see the benefits of player feedback earlier in the design phase.

The move that CCP have made that gives me real hope and a raises my opitislm is that CCP Flying Scotman is now in Shanghai and part of the Dust team. With one of CCP's most senior designers now in place we should see a real change in the pace of development of Dust. But the positve effects of him being over there is unlikely to bear real fruit until 1.5/.6, so I would ask the players to give him a little time to get settled and see what changes he has to make before giving him any static.

That said however CCP should still be free to come up with ideas and plans without feeling that they should check with the CPM and community for EVERY design choice. It gets dangourously close to design by committee which is never a good thing and I believe goes slightly beyond the remit of the CPM should that end up being the case. CCP should bring in comment from the CPM and by extension the community after preparatory work is done on a feature but BEFORE resources are committed to actioning them. That way a healthy balance is struck and CCP can save time and money if the CPM can tell them that it needs more more work or if there is a problem with it.

Now, there are a number of players still out there who think that statements like this are not what CPM0 should be doing and all they should only be concerned with coming up with a way to elect CPM1.

They're entitled to that opinion but I feel that they have missed the point of CPM0 entirely. There is little point in coming up with an election plan if by the time that elected body starts their term, they're being stonewalled by a undifined process of communication and protocol for dealling with CCP. CPM1 should be able to start work on day one of their term doing what they're going to be elected to do without having to discuss who and how they should be talking to to get something done.

As someone who has decided to stand to for CPM1 when the time comes (and yes, that time will come naysayers) I'm incredibly grateful for the work that CPM0 have done so far and glad CCP didn't pick me for the gig. I would've had to say no anyway. Getting DUST University up, running and stable was something that I felt would be a better contribution for me to make to the game in the long run. Particularly as the game has zero NPE at this point, something I will be pushing very hard for should I get elected.

As to the calls from some, for CCP to start again, well thats just impracticable at this point. 18 months ago it would've have been viable once details of the next gen consoles were known (one of those ripple effect decisions I spoke of earlier) but now it would be the death of Dust.

So broadly speaking I support this statement from the CPM and the recent posts since from members of the CPM since its posting regarding conversations that they've had with CCP is encouraging and seems to have lit a fire under Shanghai.

Oh man, you have no idea how much we wish this were true.

The mere existence of a test server would almost certainly have prevented so, so many issues.

Edit: Expanding on that - All of our 'foreknowledge' of upcoming builds comes from idle chat on skype or rough outlines of patchnotes, and the semi-regular meeting we have for them to say "So, these are the highlights of our plan for 1.X, questions?"

I fail to see why a properly elected CPM couldn't be working with CCP to improve things just as effectively as the unelected CPM0. All we need is elections. That's all CPM0 should be doing - providing the framework to deliver CPM1. By this measure, they're as delinquent as CCP in delivering milestones.

Still a good effort, I just think it's on the wrong goals.

I fail to see why a properly elected CPM couldn't be working with CCP to improve things just as effectively as the unelected CPM0. All we need is elections. That's all CPM0 should be doing - providing the framework to deliver CPM1. By this measure, they're as delinquent as CCP in delivering milestones.

Still a good effort, I just think it's on the wrong goals.

Oh man, you have no idea how much we wish this were true.

The mere existence of a test server would almost certainly have prevented so, so many issues.

Edit: Expanding on that - All of our 'foreknowledge' of upcoming builds comes from idle chat on skype or rough outlines of patchnotes, and the semi-regular meeting we have for them to say "So, these are the highlights of our plan for 1.X, questions?"

It's very rare for us to actually 'see' firsthand any of these changes. The only time this has been the case is when we got to see Uprising a little early at Fanfest (But then, so did everyone else who went to Fanfest.) We get some screenshots here and there for art stuff, but nothing nearly concrete enough or nearly as helpful as a test server would be. (There are /tons/ of roadblocks into getting a test server set up, and it's been a really tough sell trying to convince CCP of the merits of such a server, especially since we want such a server to be -public-)

There is a pretty apparent culture difference.

However, I don't think this is the real source of the problem, and the absolute worst thing CCP could do is turn this into a witchhunt. It's not just one person or group of people causing this, the communication gap is a roadblock that exists in the process itself, that needs to be removed at all costs. This is not about placing blame or trying to find fault in any person or team. That doesn't matter. The last thing we want CCP to take from something like this is that there is anyone in the company causing this, who would just become a scapegoat, get fired, and have CCP think they 'solved' the problem.

Now more than ever, CCP needs all of their employees to be at their best. They need to work together with each other and with the community, and any assumption that anyone needs to be blamed or is at fault for this will just take away from any cohesion they might otherwise form as a result of this effort.

TL:DR - This is not a people problem. This is a "Operating Procedure" problem.

It seems kind of easy to me to just mirror the TQ servery in its entirely so that the Dust environment is captured and brought over to the test server. As a solution to the multiple client issues and connecting to the correct server, perhaps its time to rework the launcher to have a CONNECT TO TEST SERVER//CONNECT TO TQ option for people wanting to check out the latest updates to the game that will be released. Considering the launcher already downloads updates automatically, we could play on TQ, get annoyed, switch to the TEST server within minutes/an hour and expect to see what is being considered to fix our frustration. CCP has already proven that they can have us connecting to the test server all through the Closed Beta phase, now it is time to apply that considerable knowledge and make-it-work!

It seems kind of easy to me to just mirror the TQ servery in its entirely so that the Dust environment is captured and brought over to the test server. As a solution to the multiple client issues and connecting to the correct server, perhaps its time to rework the launcher to have a CONNECT TO TEST SERVER//CONNECT TO TQ option for people wanting to check out the latest updates to the game that will be released. Considering the launcher already downloads updates automatically, we could play on TQ, get annoyed, switch to the TEST server within minutes/an hour and expect to see what is being considered to fix our frustration. CCP has already proven that they can have us connecting to the test server all through the Closed Beta phase, now it is time to apply that considerable knowledge and make-it-work!

The biggest thing here is that in order to do a test server, the only real way to do it is to stick a second client on the PSN store.

There's naturally a ton of hoops involved in setting this up in the first place, and with the QA/Approval processes, it'd be super tricky to get something on the test server in time to make it pay off from player feedback before a live release of that content. Especially now since they're trying to stick with a monthly schedule. (These are all outside observations, ofc)

I mean, the ability to have a dual-client using the launcher like you suggest is intrigueing. I have no idea if that's even on the table, but I'd imagine it'd pretty much be the same thing as maintaining a second client on PSN, in terms of hoops with sony, since they still need to do internal and sony QA processes for anything getting pushed to the client.