Aeon, you're getting no id messages because those things ni longer exist in the test server, they've migrated and are laying dormant on tranquility. Sll those dev fit suits? Yeah in game items starting the 22nd.

They didn't censor you, they just moved forward with st uff.

Yay!

So not too long ago I posted up a thread with some screenshots from all the new goodies that may be coming in the future.

I log on today on the test server and see that, apart from a brand new character selection screen for Eve Online (which is pretty bitchin' I might add) all of the information pulled in that data dump has been completely erased and replaced with [no messageID: 290472] labels.

To which, I'm honestly curious - was it really THAT bad that I data dumped a bunch of new information to an already ailing community that is ripe with the misconception that the game is dying? A community that is plagued with a lack of information, lack of communication and further more a propensity for discontent as content is pushed back?

I'm a patient gentleman. I can wait a few months because I know the developers are doing everything they can to get the gear out to us in a way that we're not all clamoring for reform on day one. But, honestly, I don't see how it's so bad to have found this information - or as FoxFour calls it: 'secrets' - could have had such a major impact as to have been completely removed from the Test Server. What that tells me is that there was a concerted effort to ensure we -DON'T- see that information, and I noticed this occur a while back in beta in which there was consecutively less and less information on the test server after data dumps.

My question is mostly this: Why, if the developers will not share the information personally, are we making such an effort to censor that good news when the community needs it the most? It's rather obvious there is a lot of discontent among the players at the moment, especially with the vehicle rebalance and new weapons being pushed back and we could really use some good news right now.

Sure, it gets people's hopes up and if something changes it's going to suck - but we've come to expect that by now. Hell, it's the stereotype that anything CCP Shanghai says is inevitably going to get delayed. Is it really so bad as to have -something- instead of nothing? There's no knowledge of what's going to happen with 1.6 and while I understand that the developers release content on an 'as completed' basis, it couldn't hurt to at least let us know something good once in a while.

TL;DR - I feel like we're taking a step backwards here with the test server being censored after data dumps.

CCP seem to have forgotten the thing that got everyone excited about dust in the first place was them telling us whats coming.

Now apparently, hiding everything and telling us the next two months are going to be nothing but exciting bug fixes, is the way to get people stoked about a game.

Because theres nothing people like better than having numbers tweeked.

I can bearly hold my friends back when they ask me about this "Dust 514 thing" I rave about, they're like:

"So Icey whens all that stuff you used to talk about about two years ago, the mecha, 4 factions of unique weapons and vehicles"

I reply,

"Pfft, content is for nubs and losers, us hardcore players only care about numbers, software design methodology, potentially ground breaking ways to manage large amounts of players on a server, and humourious plays on words for community minded content devs who put the community team to shame. I mean who ever came to a game for content, no game with content was ever successful"

Then I do a Blue sky gesture like jazz hands and stare off into space. Just saying Dust over and over again.

Then they beat me up.

I don't think they get Dust.

Uh, maybe I am wrong but (being a software developer) I don't think that was a purposeful "jerk" move by CCP. Dev server databases are often changed, refilled, or altered in many ways that could cause data to go bad or be altered. That's just a part of the beast.

So maybe they changed a table ID somewhere that linked the items to their descriptions. Maybe the items were apart of a data dump they tested earlier this week and when they truncated and refilled the database that data wasn't included because it's a separate file (EVE data vs DUST data). Or maybe they hate you and went out of their way to remove the data from their test DB to spite you?

I don't know, but my money is on the first two and not the third. But maybe that's just me.

One can hope, but I doubt it. Rail Rifles, Combat Rifles, new vehicle modules etc etc are all completely nyxxed from the lists - even the sub-tabs.