Introducing the Hylotls? + Hylotl Speculation Station

From 28th June Progress:

That was just over two months ago. I don't mean to be demanding or anything, considering they're developing a game and all; I just thought the developers could use a reminder.

In the mean time, what kind of story do you guys think the Hylotls (or is it just Hylotl...?) will have? I'm willing to bet that their story involves their race sending you on a journey to cleanse the world of evil. That's the kind of vibe I get from them. Also, some of their observation text from one of Tiy's streams seemed to me to suggest that they might be athiest?

 

We created a group of questions for the developers hoping they could answer them in their spare time.. among them this one.
They have yet to respond, sorry Trickster. Though, hopefully by now, they have seen it. So maybe they will sometime shortly?

 

Sixteen questions, to be exact. A moderator sent them along to Tiy, and a few of the other devs were tweeted a link to the questions.

 

The culture seems to be too much Japanese, and any Chinese (or other parts of Asia I can't identify) influences on the clothing (in the character creator) doesn't seem present anywhere else. Also the race-specific item descriptions seem too much of a "holier than thou philosopher" type. Slightly disappointing for me, but I'm still using one as my main character anyway.

 

maybe there bushido fishmen seeking enlightenment?.

 

Doh. I probably should have actually bothered to read those questions, I didn't think that would have been included.
Whatever. SPECULATION STATION AWAY. Or lock the thread. I don't care.

 

Here's those questions, if you want to read them.

 

Personally, I'd like to keep something undiscovered till release... to find it out by myself.
But it's just my humble unworthy opinion, so who really cares?

 

One way or the other, it doesn't really matter. Just the fact that we were told we would be getting the information and then haven't was kind of disappointing.

 

It's kind of silly we have lore info on every race except Hylotl...Even Novakids, and they aren't even coming out till after beta!

I know Novakids are a fan race but still..
Still...

 

I'm starting to feel the same way, we've already had five or six dungeon types spoiled for us, why make it worse?

Also... When did the community come up with that list of questions? These look like the exact same questions that the devs are spammed with every day, if I were a dev I'd be annoyed or insulted by half of these, and a lot of them to me sound as if they're insinuating laziness or incompetence.

 

The list was devised at the end of an 89 page thread that was locked after a moderator, Blue, agreed to send the questions to Tiy. We tried to word them in the most polite way possible, and if nothing else, it's in a format that makes them easy to add to a FAQ.

 

WOW the arrogant of epic proportions. i feel like the time my X-friend say dyslexic people were just to lazy.(sorry mist a bit in my rage adding) to learn how to spell.

 

Yeah, how dare we ask sixteen questions we want an answer to. We should tape our mouths shut so we don't dissent like that again.

((They're just questions, guys. Our only real want was to get them acknowledged, to be honest. If they actually answer, that'd be a plus. But knowing that one of the devs read them would be satisfactory.))

 

The problem isn't that we have questions, it's their phrasing and purpose. If you put all these questions into a pot they'd all boil down to "when is beta?"

Let's take the first question as an example. I assume this question is the most important. There is absolutely no possible dev response that would not set the forums on fire. If they said "Ideally we'd like the party system and first five tiers of difficulty fully implemented before we release beta" you'd immediately have twenty threads saying "We don't need the party system implemented, yogscast played fine" and "all we need is tier 1, release beta already!"

See the problem? Every answer they give to these questions will only fuel the flames. If we instead asked "What features can we expect to be worked on after beta release?" we might be more likely to get a helpful answer and not further irritate the devs. Basically this list is a compilation of all the questions that are asked repeatedly every single day.

 

I honestly don't know how to respond to that without bringing up the fact that anything the devs could do would end up causing a fire in the forums that would keep burning until beta is released.

I'm one of the people who could play comfortably in Tier 1 only, and I'd still sit calmly if I knew the answer to #1 up there.

We would have a list of what needs to be done before beta, but the Roadmap hardly ever updates.

If it were changed into a more definitive list with checks instead of percentage points, we could probably reliably come up with a general idea of where our collective $1,750,000 is going.

 

So we got 2 replies of actual speculation on topic.

 

I wrote up my own suggestion for the Hylotl story and sent it off to Tiy, but he said he had one already. Wonder what it is.

But while you wait, why not read my idea!!! HERE

As for the list of questions. As I said before, there was no harm in sending the questions to Tiy. And I also stated that people shouldn't expect to get the answers directly.

Tiy and I chated about the list of questions. In the end, most of them have been answered in one way or another somewhere on the forum already, it's just that people assume the answer has changed when it hasn't. Others are things they just don't want to discuss. And while this is a community driven game, its not a 100% community created and controlled game. So we have to defer at least 50% or more to the Devs and be ok with that.

 

And a lack of response is stirring people up too.

There's no easy right answer to that quandary, but resounding silence is most certainly not a cure-all. Yes, some people want it NOWNOWNOW anyway. They don't represent everybody, and (beyond wanting it sooner rather than later in general terms) probably not even a majority.

Here we have a specific case of something the devs have said the would do/share, and haven't. That's a problem. If they'd at least acknowledge this and say something like "sorry, on further consideration we want to keep at least one of the races quiet for players to discover later", that would probably satisfy many; the question wouldn't be hanging in limbo.

It's the same with other things that have been offered/promised (and I use "promised" loosely) and aren't forthcoming. Yes, some people would be disappointed if the offer was retracted. But the ongoing silence on those fronts is disappointing some people anyway, and certainly isn't helping to prevent impressions of dishonesty and/or communications breakdown.

Even a response that's a non-answer would be an acknowledgement that the devs are aware of the concerns, and that would be better than nothing. Will it please everybody? No, of course not - that's simply not possible. It would, however, be a courteous and friendly thing to do for the community. Keeping entirely silent on some quite legitimate concerns is neither of those things, and won't please everybody either; it's far from a magic bullet.

 

How are they being silent? they tell us about like. 80% of the stuff the are working on. Just because they don't share their development and business practices outright doesn't mean they are keeping things from people. There is no practical reason that people NEED to know half of the things asked. Curiosity, anticipation, eagerness, sure. But if you feel betrayed because you don't get to know all the dirty little secrets of behind the scenes workings, that just seems unfair to hold against them.

And if you are talking about the Hylotl backstory in particular. Perhaps they are pacing themselves? You can't just give everything away at once, then you would be left with nothing to give away later on.