Coming Back from Months of Abscence

[Trinity of Hope]

It's been months since I've played Defiance and it seems like quite a bit has possibly happened, but the question is, what? When it comes to Defiance I can say in many ways I feel as if I've been let down as a customer who was told I would have quite a bit of DLC by December. That I don't have, which is why I left, and hearing of more DLC I decided to sit down, grab my XBox 360 controller, update the game, and see what has changed. Unfortunately for me I found I've not seen much in the means of change. For a consumer who has paid over several hundred in regards to this game (two season passes, two copies of the game, and of course one of the copies being the 79.99 edition for Xbox 360). I had in many ways hoped that perhaps I would see some new changes, a bit more explanation or tutorials even behind the synergy system, and I haven't.

First let me start off with what has shocked me. I know the game itself has been rocky since the start, but there are things that are putting me off I'd love to see improved in future updates. I'd also enjoy seeing a response from the development team or someone to outline what's going on with this.

Doing an Arkfall I noticed several things that bugged me, but also in towns.

-Characters all look like the basic male skin..... Why are they not loading in still like PC does?

-Very few players in the North American server I connect to, why not globally merge the servers?

-PC to Console Cross-Play is still not happening, which is a same, and truly heart breaking.

-Shields still suck... Literally.

-No new.... Quests? That's a let down. We need more, new, fresh, and perhaps something to tie into the Thorn Liro or something; this was a big reason as to why I left.

-Drop rates are still a bit of a let down. I still have yet to see a legendary item drop, but my friends see them quite a bit.

What is going on with these? Are they going to be optimized or is the console version dead in the water?

[Holy Bahamut3]

It's been months since I've played Defiance and it seems like quite a bit has possibly happened, but the question is, what? When it comes to Defiance I can say in many ways I feel as if I've been let down as a customer who was told I would have quite a bit of DLC by December. That I don't have, which is why I left, and hearing of more DLC I decided to sit down, grab my XBox 360 controller, update the game, and see what has changed. Unfortunately for me I found I've not seen much in the means of change. For a consumer who has paid over several hundred in regards to this game (two season passes, two copies of the game, and of course one of the copies being the 79.99 edition for Xbox 360). I had in many ways hoped that perhaps I would see some new changes, a bit more explanation or tutorials even behind the synergy system, and I haven't.

First let me start off with what has shocked me. I know the game itself has been rocky since the start, but there are things that are putting me off I'd love to see improved in future updates. I'd also enjoy seeing a response from the development team or someone to outline what's going on with this.

Doing an Arkfall I noticed several things that bugged me, but also in towns.

-Characters all look like the basic male skin..... Why are they not loading in still like PC does?

-Very few players in the North American server I connect to, why not globally merge the servers?

-PC to Console Cross-Play is still not happening, which is a same, and truly heart breaking.

-Shields still suck... Literally.

-No new.... Quests? That's a let down. We need more, new, fresh, and perhaps something to tie into the Thorn Liro or something; this was a big reason as to why I left.

-Drop rates are still a bit of a let down. I still have yet to see a legendary item drop, but my friends see them quite a bit.

What is going on with these? Are they going to be optimized or is the console version dead in the water?

We've been barking up that tree for months dude. Here is the response we get back. "Soon...."

[Gleedaniel13]

"It's been months since I've played Defiance and it seems like quite a bit has possibly happened, but the question is, what? When it comes to Defiance I can say in many ways I feel as if I've been let down as a customer who was told I would have quite a bit of DLC by December. That I don't have, which is why I left, and hearing of more DLC I decided to sit down, grab my XBox 360 controller, update the game, and see what has changed. Unfortunately for me I found I've not seen much in the means of change. For a consumer who has paid over several hundred in regards to this game (two season passes, two copies of the game, and of course one of the copies being the 79.99 edition for Xbox 360). I had in many ways hoped that perhaps I would see some new changes, a bit more explanation or tutorials even behind the synergy system, and I haven't. "

Maybe there is a little changes but not significant as you want. That is why you did not recognized the changes.

[Remag Div]

I just started playing a little again. I stopped before the Castithan Charge Pack came out.

It amazes me an add-on so small took so long to come out. 5 Arena's that were basically the same and super easy to Gold and a vendor. Oh and playable Castithan's and charge blades, but the charge blades don't have any skill progression associated with them even know they are a new weapon class, so why bother? All of this should have been at launch, anyway.

Here's hoping future DLC is much better then this.

[BJWyler]

-Characters all look like the basic male skin..... Why are they not loading in still like PC does?

-Very few players in the North American server I connect to, why not globally merge the servers?

-PC to Console Cross-Play is still not happening, which is a same, and truly heart breaking.

-Shields still suck... Literally.

-No new.... Quests? That's a let down. We need more, new, fresh, and perhaps something to tie into the Thorn Liro or something; this was a big reason as to why I left.

-Drop rates are still a bit of a let down. I still have yet to see a legendary item drop, but my friends see them quite a bit.

What is going on with these? Are they going to be optimized or is the console version dead in the water?

Welcome back, and I’ll see what I can do. First of all, with not knowing the exact times you left and came back, there (of course) has been the addition of the Castithan DLC which has brought in the Battle Arenas, and some minor virtual goodies. There has also been the addition of the Volge Sieges and the Dark Matter minor and major Arkfalls. Just this past week they have also brought back re-tooled Plague emergencies. Their permanence in the game is unknown (at least to me at this point).

On to your questions:
#1 – apparently it is due to performance issues, primarily on consoles. The “General Steve” issue is standard on PC as well. Trick has mentioned that they are aware of the issues, but it is one of those things that are a tradeoff of the game engine and being on multiple platforms. I do believe he has also said that they are working on back end improvements that help eliminate that, but it’s one of those things that is always on-going, takes time, and generally results are small and incremental.

#2 – Performance issues (again). Where would you locate the datacenter? For anyone not in the area/country the datacenter was located, the lag would make the game unplayable.

#3 – The reasons are many for this, not the least of which involves contractual things with Microsoft and Sony. And of course there is always the PC Master Race thing – no matter how you spin it, playing on a PC is a distinct advantage over console, especially in a shooter.

#4 – Can’t really comment on that. The shields I use seem to work fine for me. I guess, depending on your PoV you can say that about any item in game (except infectors and detonators!)

#5 – Indeed, though the Data Recorders and Cinematics from the DLC seemed to have qualified as “Story Content” by Trion, it is disappointing not to have had the same type of missions as in the basic storyline. However, Trick indicated that the Storyline will pick up once again in DLC 3 – we do not yet know what form that will take.

#6 – Welcome to the less than wonderful world of loot RNG. Personally speaking, the drops here are no worse nor no better than any other game I have played. Legendary drop rates have improved slightly, but there is a reason they are called Legendary. My only beefs are with the cost of T4 boxes, despite the improvement to the loot contained within, and the fact that any potential Legendary you get may be no better than whatever White, Green, Blue, or Purple item you already have in inventory.

Finally, let’s just remember that this is an MMO. By nature they are always changing and evolving – something that a pure console player really may not be familiar with. We are still in the 8 month old Vanilla Defiance. It often takes years for MMOs to really mature and come into their own – the biggest and most well known was no different. In the end, if you enjoy the game, you will still play the game and wait to see what Trion can bring to the table. If not, then the beauty of the Buy to Play business model is that you can stop playing at any time and still come back in the future to see if the game is more to your liking then.

[squidgod2000]

Oh and playable Castithan's

Which are just human models with different textures (though to be fair, that's perfectly aligned with the show).

It really does make you wonder what Trion's Defiance team (if it even still exists) actually does all day. Are their tools and back-end so poorly designed that even the simplest of content additions takes weeks or months of work?

[wartitan]

Funny enough, my guess would not be the level of skills the devs have, but indeed the toolsets that they are working with. Just based on the rendering within the game (certainly not very spectacular...), it seems they are using an outdated coding engine. That in and of itself can certainly make rapid or agile type development difficult, if it's anything like development in the corporate enterprise application development world...

[Remag Div]

Hopefully that December DLC expands the game world. This game needs way more areas. What we have wasn't nearly big enough at launch, nevermind almost a year after release.

[Trinity of Hope]

Welcome back, and I’ll see what I can do. First of all, with not knowing the exact times you left and came back, there (of course) has been the addition of the Castithan DLC which has brought in the Battle Arenas, and some minor virtual goodies. There has also been the addition of the Volge Sieges and the Dark Matter minor and major Arkfalls. Just this past week they have also brought back re-tooled Plague emergencies. Their permanence in the game is unknown (at least to me at this point).

On to your questions:
#1 – apparently it is due to performance issues, primarily on consoles. The “General Steve” issue is standard on PC as well. Trick has mentioned that they are aware of the issues, but it is one of those things that are a tradeoff of the game engine and being on multiple platforms. I do believe he has also said that they are working on back end improvements that help eliminate that, but it’s one of those things that is always on-going, takes time, and generally results are small and incremental.

#2 – Performance issues (again). Where would you locate the datacenter? For anyone not in the area/country the datacenter was located, the lag would make the game unplayable.

#3 – The reasons are many for this, not the least of which involves contractual things with Microsoft and Sony. And of course there is always the PC Master Race thing – no matter how you spin it, playing on a PC is a distinct advantage over console, especially in a shooter.

#4 – Can’t really comment on that. The shields I use seem to work fine for me. I guess, depending on your PoV you can say that about any item in game (except infectors and detonators!)

#5 – Indeed, though the Data Recorders and Cinematics from the DLC seemed to have qualified as “Story Content” by Trion, it is disappointing not to have had the same type of missions as in the basic storyline. However, Trick indicated that the Storyline will pick up once again in DLC 3 – we do not yet know what form that will take.

#6 – Welcome to the less than wonderful world of loot RNG. Personally speaking, the drops here are no worse nor no better than any other game I have played. Legendary drop rates have improved slightly, but there is a reason they are called Legendary. My only beefs are with the cost of T4 boxes, despite the improvement to the loot contained within, and the fact that any potential Legendary you get may be no better than whatever White, Green, Blue, or Purple item you already have in inventory.

Finally, let’s just remember that this is an MMO. By nature they are always changing and evolving – something that a pure console player really may not be familiar with. We are still in the 8 month old Vanilla Defiance. It often takes years for MMOs to really mature and come into their own – the biggest and most well known was no different. In the end, if you enjoy the game, you will still play the game and wait to see what Trion can bring to the table. If not, then the beauty of the Buy to Play business model is that you can stop playing at any time and still come back in the future to see if the game is more to your liking then.

I understand it is an MMO, I've been playing them since Ultimate Online, I'm sure I'm experienced in the content lacking portion, but for this long is somewhat disheartening. It makes you wonder what they do all day besides monitor the algorithms and shoot trouble tickets out of the water. I've been playing a Castithan since EtS released a few months back, but it seems as if nothing... Significant has happened to this title. It has felt as if they have literally not messed with it, but instead just tweaked the servers, and that is not saying much. I also noticed the RNG is horrid, but not much better than Blizzards or GW2's... That's not saying a lot. I was just wondering what they have done this entire time.

[Trinity of Hope]

Hopefully that December DLC expands the game world. This game needs way more areas. What we have wasn't nearly big enough at launch, nevermind almost a year after release.

I also hope so, Remag. I'm going to give up on this game if it doesn't. I'm tired of being restricted to the same ol' same ol' Bay Area. It's what made me leave the first time besides the Thorn Liro having no story, just challenges.