Priority Programing?

[MistaMagic]

I have mentioned this before and now I am astonished that it has not been done yet.
Falconry was supposed to be (according to Sev) be available for favor reward with U40 (October 3rd (2018).). Since then we have had U41 and 2 Patches without it being implemented. This is now over 3 Months late and then yesterday you advise that we are getting a new feat called Knight's Training.
My question is WHY has not the resources been put into the favor rewards before making new feats or are we now to treat Sevs statements with a Pinch of Salt?

[Steelstar]

I have mentioned this before and now I am astonished that it has not been done yet.
Falconry was supposed to be (according to Sev) be available for favor reward with U40 (October 3rd (2018).). Since then we have had U41 and 2 Patches without it being implemented. This is now over 3 Months late and then yesterday you advise that we are getting a new feat called Knight's Training.
My question is WHY has not the resources been put into the favor rewards before making new feats or are we now to treat Sevs statements with a Pinch of Salt?

The majority of work on Falconry-as-favor was done last year, with a few outstanding issues (requiring work from very specific people) getting in the way of it being ready for release. Once those were resolved, it needed to be re-tested by QA before it could be released; as it stands, it's nearly ready for release, and should be out very soon.

Meanwhile, developers entirely unrelated to that effort worked on something else, as is always the case. We're always working on more than one thing at once, and the progress of one feature does not necessarily mean that appropriate time isn't being devoted to another.

[MistaMagic]

The majority of work on Falconry-as-favor was done last year, with a few outstanding issues (requiring work from very specific people) getting in the way of it being ready for release. Once those were resolved, it needed to be re-tested by QA before it could be released; as it stands, it's nearly ready for release, and should be out very soon.

Meanwhile, developers entirely unrelated to that effort worked on something else, as is always the case. We're always working on more than one thing at once, and the progress of one feature does not necessarily mean that appropriate time isn't being devoted to another.

Many thanks for an Honest reply. Appreciated

[Thar]

The majority of work on Falconry-as-favor was done last year, with a few outstanding issues (requiring work from very specific people) getting in the way of it being ready for release. Once those were resolved, it needed to be re-tested by QA before it could be released; as it stands, it's nearly ready for release, and should be out very soon.

Meanwhile, developers entirely unrelated to that effort worked on something else, as is always the case. We're always working on more than one thing at once, and the progress of one feature does not necessarily mean that appropriate time isn't being devoted to another.

I understand the development lifecycle as I'm in a similar industry. Makes total sense that multiple projects are in motion. I do support the new feat, although would push for some new option for light weapons as they quickly fall behind in dps and therefore users are sub optimal dps.

I do see the poster's concerns though as we have had cool feature promises in the past (IE Racial Pre's for each class like elf has arcane archer) that disappeared into the void.

[Evean]

What does “very soon” mean? Wasn’t it also “very soon” several months ago?

I’d gladly pay money for it, if you didn’t force me to buy some useless, overpriced cosmetics of -1 inventory.

[Cocomajobo]

What does “very soon” mean? Wasn’t it also “very soon” several months ago?

Very soon means we don't have a date ready to announce to players but we expect it to be released in the near future. It could mean tomorrow or in a patch a few months from now. It is intentionally vague because we genuinely don't have a date to commit to yet. When we do, there will be a downtime announcement and then release notes.

[Evean]

It could mean tomorrow or in a patch a few months from now.

1 day–a few months =/= very soon. At least not by my understanding of those words. How many developer hours a day are spent reading the forums?

[GramercyRiff]

haha very soon cannot ever mean a few months from now.

I guess it can on a universal scale, but humans deal in human time. In human time, very soon is not a few months.

[Cocomajobo]

How many developer hours a day are spent reading the forums?

Less than the community generally tells us they want. =P Too much to do. Too few hours in a year.

[qwert-y]

SSG has some of the most hostile and demanding customers. In my field, which of course is IT, we fire those customers since the amount of money they spend generally does not equate to the monetary value we assign to their tantrums.

Feel bad for SSG, count your blessings that they bother to answer you when you demand what they prioritize without seeing what all the priorities are to begin with.

[ahpook]

haha very soon cannot ever mean a few months from now.

I guess it can on a universal scale, but humans deal in human time. In human time, very soon is not a few months.

It can mean a few months from the perspective of how you set your expectations. If when they say it they expect someone will start working on it and it is an easy job very soon is appropriate. However if something pressing comes up and it gets put aside then it could end up being a few months. I would recommend if you don't like shifting goals and time lines based on real problems the devs encounter that you don't read forums.

[Hafeal]

What does “very soon” mean? Wasn’t it also “very soon” several months ago?

I’d gladly pay money for it, if you didn’t force me to buy some useless, overpriced cosmetics of -1 inventory.

Ah, I see you have forgotten, or perhaps did not know, the evolution of time in DDO? I am here to assist! Per my old thread (https://www.ddo.com/forums/showthread.php/433084-DDO-archives-Sapience-s-defintion-of-quot-Soon-quot-and-a-History-of-Time?highlight=), these ancient terms bind us all!






NOW!
Never gonna happen!


At some point in the future (also; At some point)
We’re in pure Nostradamus territory here. We have a magic 8 ball and even it said, “Ask again later”.


In the future
This isn’t going to happen during any variety of soon you care to use. In fact, it’s pretty far out there. Not as far as ‘at some point’, we’re certainly not suggesting you book vacation time just yet, but, we’re probably talking about something that is possible within the current time line. Assuming, of course, the Mayans got it wrong and we’re still here after all that crazy ‘end of the world’ stuff.


In the near future
This is absolutely, positively, without question, a possibility. In fact, it might even be a real possibility. But as to when, we’ll have to get back to you on that one.


Soon™
No lie. It’s going to happen. It’s going to happen really freakin’, like, eventually. But it will happen!


“Soon”
It’s official! We have given consideration to a possible date and we now have several possibilities!


Soon
We’ve narrowed the date down to something within the calendar year!


soon
No really, we have a date now! It’s even penciled in on a calendar somewhere!


MoreSoonerish
We have a date, and we’re probably going to tell you what that date is…soon!


Incredisoon
OK! We’re done messin’ around. We have a date, we’ve found the calendar we wrote it on, and we are going to tell you. Like right freakin’ shortly! Seriously!

Tomorrowish-esque™
This is going to happen within the next 24 hours. Give or take some random number of hours which may or may not exceed an amount equal to the number of miles between the reader and the International Date Line divided by 163.97241. Unless the person is actually standing on the International Date Line at the time of reading, in which case the world will end in a cataclysmic divide by zero error and none of this will matter anyway. This is all barring any conflicts with ‘The Schedule’, of course.


As soon as possible
Time being the slippery thing it is, this has quite probably already happened. If not, it is very likely to happen while someone is typing up the message telling you when it will happen. Assuming, that it is in fact possible.


Modifiers, adjustments, and other fun stuff.

Capitalization
As a general rule, capitalization will tip you off as to a measurement’s place in time. Capital letters denote a longer period of time than lower case letters. This applies to all uses of capitalization when dealing with time. Thus Soon is longer than soon. Like wise, MoreSoonerish, Moresoonerish, and moresoonerish are all incremetally shorter periods from longest to shortest.


TM and its uses
The notorious ™ has very specific meanings. It denotes a longer period of time than the word or phrase would otherwise represent without the addition of the ™.


Quotes
The use of quotes, like the use of TM and Capitalization has specific meaning. It is another measure of extending the noted period of time. Though it denotes a shorter extension than either ™ or Capitalization.


Combined notation
When you see a combination of modifiers (™, quotes, and capitalization) you must consider the impact of all modifiers on the base measurement. The more modifiers, the larger the expansion of time from the base measurement.


Addendum A: Spooky Stuff

It’s on schedule
This relates exclusively to a highly theoretical method of calculating time commonly referred to as, ‘The Schedule’. The Schedule is part of an emerging understanding of time called Quantum Sapience Time. Schedule Time has the amazing ability to exist, not exist, and potentially exist or not exist all at the same instant. It is only the act of observing The Schedule that forces it into a fixed state in which the normal rules of Sapience Time apply. This is commonly called “entanglement”. Entangling one’s self with The Schedule is a very risky proposition as it can lead to temporal disorientation. Especially as it does not require one to be in any physical proximity to The Schedule. Albert Einstein himself referred to this as “Spooky action at a distance.”


Addendum B: Backward Causality

We told you so
Any attempt to look back upon or view the flow of Sapience Time from a future point will amplify and enhance the predictive and pre-deterministic nature of soon. The effect of this observance is to reveal the perfect accuracy of all predictions within the fabric of the Sapience Time Continuum. In short, the act of releasing content will cause the time line to become self evident and clearly predictive of the exact moment in the future at which the release will happen when viewed from that future.

And now, as we see, amended:


"Very soon" means we don't have a date ready to announce to players but we expect it to be released in the near future. It could mean tomorrow or in a patch a few months from now.

[GramercyRiff]

It can mean a few months from the perspective of how you set your expectations. If when they say it they expect someone will start working on it and it is an easy job very soon is appropriate. However if something pressing comes up and it gets put aside then it could end up being a few months. I would recommend if you don't like shifting goals and time lines based on real problems the devs encounter that you don't read forums.

If things change then it's not very soon anymore. That's ok. We are all aware that in life that things happen and these things change things.

[capsela]

SSG has some of the most hostile and demanding customers. In my field, which of course is IT, we fire those customers since the amount of money they spend generally does not equate to the monetary value we assign to their tantrums.

Feel bad for SSG, count your blessings that they bother to answer you when you demand what they prioritize without seeing what all the priorities are to begin with.

Agreed.

[Cocomajobo]

If things change then it's not very soon anymore. That's ok. We are all aware that in life that things happen and these things change things.

The whole point is that unless the dev in question states a date that any variation of "soon", "in the future", "eventually" all essentially mean the same thing: This thing is currently planned to happen but we aren't ready to announce a release date. There isn't some internal list of specific word choice time brackets to be used so that players can attempt to decipher our internal scheduling before we have announced said schedules. That's not a thing. It's just devs being asked when some feature, bug fix, etc is going to be released to live and needing to respond in a vague way because of all of the following factors:


The tentative dates of upcoming patches/updates have not been officially announced yet
That particular dev doesn't offhand know the dates of every internally planned deployment without looking it up because those aren't always attached to their personal deadlines
We're not sure which of those deployments this specific change is going to end up in
Even if this specific change is planned for one of those specific deployments, it's usually not 100% finished with all portions of the "Implement, test, fix, retest, integrate" pipeline and may end up getting pushed to another deployment or causing the deployment it is meant for to be delayed.


Essentially, what I'm trying to say is: Unless a date is attached to a statement by a dev there isn't generally much to be read into a common vague timeline answer.

[Brandwynn]

1 day–a few months =/= very soon. At least not by my understanding of those words. How many developer hours a day are spent reading the forums?


Enough to make time to answer your question...

[vryxnr]

Devs: *tries to be transparent by communicating on the forums while trying to not make statements that shoehorn them into a corner/might not be able to be maintained*
Forums: Why are you spending time on the forums instead of developing new content for the game or fixing bugs? *rage*
Devs: *does not post on the forums or communicate anymore and just focuses on their given tasks*
Forums: Why aren't you communicating with us anymore?! You're so out of touch! Let us know what's going on! *rage*

...and the cycle continues.

[ahpook]

If things change then it's not very soon anymore. That's ok. We are all aware that in life that things happen and these things change things.
Sure its not soon anymore but we don't get those real time updates changing it from soon to "later than soon". The point was: because many people complain when things are not delivered when they expect it, devs have to say soon is anywhere from next week to 6 months from now. Not because they know it is 6 months away but because despite their best plans it could end up months away after they call it soon.

[GramercyRiff]

The whole point is that unless the dev in question states a date that any variation of "soon", "in the future", "eventually" all essentially mean the same thing: This thing is currently planned to happen but we aren't ready to announce a release date. There isn't some internal list of specific word choice time brackets to be used so that players can attempt to decipher our internal scheduling before we have announced said schedules. That's not a thing. It's just devs being asked when some feature, bug fix, etc is going to be released to live and needing to respond in a vague way because of all of the following factors:


The tentative dates of upcoming patches/updates have not been officially announced yet
That particular dev doesn't offhand know the dates of every internally planned deployment without looking it up because those aren't always attached to their personal deadlines
We're not sure which of those deployments this specific change is going to end up in
Even if this specific change is planned for one of those specific deployments, it's usually not 100% finished with all portions of the "Implement, test, fix, retest, integrate" pipeline and may end up getting pushed to another deployment or causing the deployment it is meant for to be delayed.


Essentially, what I'm trying to say is: Unless a date is attached to a statement by a dev there isn't generally much to be read into a common vague timeline answer.

I personally think you do a great job with communication. I just got a laugh out of very soon meaning tomorrow to a few months. That's all. At any rate, thanks for the detailed clarification.

[Sam-u-r-eye]

The whole point is that unless the dev in question states a date that any variation of "soon", "in the future", "eventually" all essentially mean the same thing: This thing is currently planned to happen but we aren't ready to announce a release date. There isn't some internal list of specific word choice time brackets to be used so that players can attempt to decipher our internal scheduling before we have announced said schedules. That's not a thing. It's just devs being asked when some feature, bug fix, etc is going to be released to live and needing to respond in a vague way because of all of the following factors:


The tentative dates of upcoming patches/updates have not been officially announced yet
That particular dev doesn't offhand know the dates of every internally planned deployment without looking it up because those aren't always attached to their personal deadlines
We're not sure which of those deployments this specific change is going to end up in
Even if this specific change is planned for one of those specific deployments, it's usually not 100% finished with all portions of the "Implement, test, fix, retest, integrate" pipeline and may end up getting pushed to another deployment or causing the deployment it is meant for to be delayed.


Essentially, what I'm trying to say is: Unless a date is attached to a statement by a dev there isn't generally much to be read into a common vague timeline answer.

You should sticky this comment.

[guzzlr]

You should sticky this comment.

Feels like it would end up being similar to: "I just logged in and my ship buffs are gone! DDO is dying! You screwed me out of everything we worked for years to get! Help or Else!"

Response: "It's the weekly restart. It will take 30 minutes to an hour...."

[LT218]

SSG has some of the most hostile and demanding customers. In my field, which of course is IT, we fire those customers since the amount of money they spend generally does not equate to the monetary value we assign to their tantrums.

Feel bad for SSG, count your blessings that they bother to answer you when you demand what they prioritize without seeing what all the priorities are to begin with.
SSG has some of the worst customer service to go along with those hostile customers.

Consider threads like this: https://www.ddo.com/forums/showthread.php/502283-Lost-everything-after-TR-ing-devs-please-help?p=6170435&viewfull=1#post6170435

Dude has been playing DDO for years, does a TR and *poof* all his gear, tomes, etc. are gone. Follows the recommend processes for getting help from SSG and repeatedly gets told "sorry, we can't help you." 3+ weeks later, he's still screwed. In my field, customers fire companies who treat them like that and take their money elsewhere.

It's not as if this is a one-off incident either. There have been many threads about this problem with reports of similar responses by SSG's support over multiple years.

For example:
https://www.ddo.com/forums/showthread.php/498429-Sentient-XP-lost-when-feeding-gem-to-gem-that-had-a-spark
https://www.ddo.com/forums/showthread.php/489248-Do-not-etr-tr-itr-rtr-lr
https://www.ddo.com/forums/showthread.php/489317-Verified-Reincarnation-Bug
https://www.ddo.com/forums/showthread.php/489158-Lost-items-via-TR-thread
https://www.ddo.com/forums/showthread.php/488776-Where-is-t-he-additional-monitoring-to-look-into-TR-cache-I-lost-all-my-gear!

Notice a trend? Major bug hits player, player submits support tickets, SSG repeatedly closes tickets with "sorry, can't help you" messages, cycle continues until player comes to the forums (which ironically are not an official support channel) and posts their story hoping it gets enough attention that someone at SSG can no longer ignore it, some random number of weeks later, player might get some help, might not.

So yeah, the customers may be salty, but a decent portion of that is self-inflicted by SSG's due to the way they treat the players. At this point, I think SSG is lucky those salty players continue to play the game and contribute to money to it in spite of the way they're treated.

[Xanthrawl]

Even if this specific change is planned for one of those specific deployments, it's usually not 100% finished with all portions of the "Implement, test, fix, retest, integrate" pipeline and may end up getting pushed to another




Just do what you usually do: skip the test, fix and retest steps and let us play with it on live! ZING!

[Nonesuch2008]

Very soon means we don't have a date ready to announce to players but we expect it to be released in the near future. It could mean tomorrow or in a patch a few months from now. It is intentionally vague because we genuinely don't have a date to commit to yet. When we do, there will be a downtime announcement and then release notes.


Reluctant ambiguity, you say? We can fix that. I see a few forumites queuing up now... :p


https://i.imgur.com/dCJjhhu.gif

[Evean]

I’d just like to point out that “very soon” also means “not in the next patch.”

[Steelstar]

I’d just like to point out that “very soon” also means “not in the next patch.”

Not necessarily. It just means that at the time of writing, we cannot promise it will be in the next patch. It certainly could be; when we have more precise information, we'll let you know.

[Xanthrawl]

I’d just like to point out that “very soon” also means “not in the next patch.”

"Very soon" is generic dev lingo that directly translates to, "at some point, but we really don't know when. it could be later today, or never at all. We'll say very soon to get people excited about it."

[Alcides]

"Very soon" is generic dev lingo that directly translates to, "at some point, but we really don't know when. it could be later today, or never at all. We'll say very soon to get people excited about it."

"Life moves pretty fast. If you stop and look around sometimes you could miss it." - Ferris Bueller

As far as the developer lingo of very soon. That means when it becomes prioritized for work and resolution. Developers aren't super human any more than the next person. They're smart yes, but there's only X hours in a day and it's not fair to make them slave away any more than you want to slave away at your job. Most developers want to do as good a job as possible, but that takes time. Software code has varying degrees of complexity and interconnects that have to be looked at and analyzed when a change is made. That's why a whole field of science called computer science is dedicated to studying and solving these problems so that you can have nice things like video games, devices that talk to you, applications that help manage your life etc etc. Those people who create these things deserve free time as much as the next person to enjoy their life, family, friends and pursuits that interest them. Life is life not a job or career.

Rush a developer and you get junky software. Give them the time necessary to implement something as close to right as possible and you'll end up with something good in the end if the developer is capable and up to the task.

[Xanthrawl]

"Life moves pretty fast. If you stop and look around sometimes you could miss it." - Ferris Bueller

As far as the developer lingo of very soon. That means when it becomes prioritized for work and resolution. Developers aren't super human any more than the next person. They're smart yes, but there's only X hours in a day and it's not fair to make them slave away any more than you want to slave away at your job. Most developers want to do as good a job as possible, but that takes time. Software code has varying degrees of complexity and interconnects that have to be looked at and analyzed when a change is made. That's why a whole field of science called computer science is dedicated to studying and solving these problems so that you can have nice things like video games, devices that talk to you, applications that help manage your life etc etc. Those people who create these things deserve free time as much as the next person to enjoy their life, family, friends and pursuits that interest them. Life is life not a job or career.

Rush a developer and you get junky software. Give them the time necessary to implement something as close to right as possible and you'll end up with something good in the end if the developer is capable and up to the task.

I agree with everything you said.

It's just funny that "very soon" can take months. Personally, if I didn't have an ETA on when a thing would be released, I would not claim it is coming "very soon."

We still end up with rushed buggy code.

[Evean]

"Life moves pretty fast. If you stop and look around sometimes you could miss it." - Ferris Bueller

As far as the developer lingo of very soon. That means when it becomes prioritized for work and resolution. Developers aren't super human any more than the next person. They're smart yes, but there's only X hours in a day and it's not fair to make them slave away any more than you want to slave away at your job. Most developers want to do as good a job as possible, but that takes time. Software code has varying degrees of complexity and interconnects that have to be looked at and analyzed when a change is made. That's why a whole field of science called computer science is dedicated to studying and solving these problems so that you can have nice things like video games, devices that talk to you, applications that help manage your life etc etc. Those people who create these things deserve free time as much as the next person to enjoy their life, family, friends and pursuits that interest them. Life is life not a job or career.

Rush a developer and you get junky software. Give them the time necessary to implement something as close to right as possible and you'll end up with something good in the end if the developer is capable and up to the task.

You are completely missing the point. The problem isn’t the length of time anything takes, it’s false promises and vague language like “very soon.” Also, you misquoted Ferris.

[aGarde]

I'm a software dev, and I don't pay any attention to release dates. MGMT moves those on a daily basis, moves content around on a daily basis.. Trying to keep up to date with what mgmt plans are would be a waste of my time, and futile.

so when I see ssg guy saying "soon" I just assume they know about it, they know how to implement it, but no dates have been committed to yet by mgmt. In the overall scheme of things, this is a very minor thing. Remember, the game costs money to maintain and keep running. SSG's primary concern is with how to make enough money to keep the game running, and even though some people would spend $$ on an item, it may be that more $$ can be made from doing something else. I don't believe those are all easy decisions to make.

[Evean]

I'm a software dev, and I don't pay any attention to release dates. MGMT moves those on a daily basis, moves content around on a daily basis.. Trying to keep up to date with what mgmt plans are would be a waste of my time, and futile.

so when I see ssg guy saying "soon" I just assume they know about it, they know how to implement it, but no dates have been committed to yet by mgmt. In the overall scheme of things, this is a very minor thing. Remember, the game costs money to maintain and keep running. SSG's primary concern is with how to make enough money to keep the game running, and even though some people would spend $$ on an item, it may be that more $$ can be made from doing something else. I don't believe those are all easy decisions to make.

Also perfectly acceptable. If that’s the reality, then simply don’t say things like “very soon.”

[aGarde]

Also perfectly acceptable. If that’s the reality, then simply don’t say things like “very soon.”

You see, the problem is that no matter what they respond with, people are going to pick at it and complain. It's a "damned no matter how they respond" thing. They also can't give you specifics, as that potentially incurs legal liabilities. I'm pretty sure I've played with you on the G server, and even have you in my friends list. You seem a decent sort, so I'd just say "cut them some slack and try to understand their position".

[Evean]

You see, the problem is that no matter what they respond with, people are going to pick at it and complain. It's a "damned no matter how they respond" thing. They also can't give you specifics, as that potentially incurs legal liabilities. I'm pretty sure I've played with you on the G server, and even have you in my friends list. You seem a decent sort, so I'd just say "cut them some slack and try to understand their position".

There’s nothing wrong with saying “I don’t know.”

EDIT: The fear of being chastised for saying those words is what led to this confusion.