Fixing problems vs implementing new features
In the short time I spent in Xsyon I already noticed quite a few important bugs (and I don't talk here about small cosmetic bugs like graphic glitches), programming architecture flaws (like the fact that the movement is done on the client, not on server, which offers a big back door for exploits) and server crashes (which every time also involved a rollback) - like three in only the last week (18, 21 and 24 January - on the last one not even having an ETA when it will be solved).
I do understand that it's an indie game developed by a very small team (and, if you want, I'm even amazed of what you managed to achieve with such a small team). But the truth is I don't really care about it. You charge us (aproximatively) the same price as any A class MMO with a big development team (like WoW, SWTOR, LotRO, GW, etc) so it's normal to expect the same quality of services.
I saw a lot of new features on the pipeline; we even had in game councils where we were asked about them - hunger / thirst / comfort / trade totems / crafting revamp / etc.
But don't you think it would be smarter that instead of adding new (broken) features, to take a break from it and just fix all the bugs there are currently in the game? Hire a sysadmin who would be able to assure that the server won't keep breaking down (even with only a bunch of people on - I dare to bet there are almost never more than a few hundred people online at the same time). Rewrite the part of the code that is responsible with moving and stuff so everything actually takes place on the server, though not being exploitable, fix all the bugs that were reported - from the important ones which for example allow a free player to hold a tribe (I won't detail it now, but you know what I talk about) to the small cosmetic ones.
When you launched prelude you had a healthy concept in mind - launch it with a limited number of features, but which would work fine, and launch the rest of them when you'll launch Apocalypse. Still, somewhere on the road, you deviated from this conception - you start adding new and new things, but leaving a lot of broken things behind.
I don't know about the others, but I would rather play a game with only the current features, but which would work flawlessly, instead of a game where I'll have cooking, trade totems and bows but where I'll still face the same bugs. And no offense, but, probably because you focused on adding new and new features instead of fixing the bugs, the game still looks, at two years after its launch as a game in beta, not as a full launched game.
I understand that this will probably mean loosing a part of the old players that already "finished" the current content. But I really think that's better instead of loosing all those new players that may come, especially if you'll enter on Steam, because the game is full of problems.
At the end of the day, it's more like a matter of principles - do you care about the retention ratio on the few veterans (dunno, a few thousand players at most - the forum has 28,000 members, so that's the absolutely maximum number of accounts the game ever had - let's say from these 50% actually bought the game and from them more likely less than 25% of them are still active and from them you may loose dunno maybe over 25% - so I doubt more than like 1,000 players all together may quit the game because it lacks new features) or you care more about the retention ratio on the swarm on new players that may come. If I would be in your shoes I would focus on the new ones. But I'm not, so... what will YOU do?
