Jeff will be on 1290 CJBK London, Ontario to talk FHM in a few minutes

[BradC]

Jeff will be on this station in a few minutes to talk about the game. You can also listen online:

News/Talk 1290 CJBK London :: Home

[Orioles1966]

Was there any word when the next patch would be available?

[TheAdamBn]

I doubt it.. Its the one thing im waiting on.. Games been sitting unplayed for months because I found the match engine lacking

[BradC]

We're still working on it. Release date is still TBA. Thanks.

[Mordrehl]

Originally Posted by BradC

We're still working on it. Release date is still TBA. Thanks.

Can't even ballpark it?

This is the most frustrating part of this company, the utter lack of communication.

That's great that JeffR is on the radio .... yet, no forums post anywhere from him in over a week. Nothing from Sebastien in over a week. We have a thread from Sebastien that was started with the promise of "3-4 updates a week". We keep going through these phases of total silence that are frustrating.

The game is on the cusp of being good, maybe even great .. but there's a lot of things that need attention (contracts, match engine etc etc) before it bursts the bubble of mediocre

[BradC]

Unfortunately, I don't know what else to say right now. I understand your frustration, but if we ballpark it and miss the date, then we have people who are angry about that. It's a difficult situation to be in, especially since we're such a small developer.

[thepete]

I've asked and asked about the finances bug and the possibility of a hotfix for it. In the end I got more information from the guy running your Facebook than the guys who are supposedly communicating with us on this forum. Maybe you should let that guy do the talking, he at least gets answers out of Jeff.

[Mordrehl]

Originally Posted by BradC

Unfortunately, I don't know what else to say right now. I understand your frustration, but if we ballpark it and miss the date, then we have people who are angry about that. It's a difficult situation to be in, especially since we're such a small developer.

You failed to address the complete lack of communication. April 29th and April 30th were the last posts by JeffR and Sebastien. That's 8 days ago, from a team that posted they would provide "3-4 updates a week".

This is something they DID commit to and have already failed to live up to. Completely ignoring the community is a sure way for a project to die. With the state FHM is in, after a YEAR of development, do you seriously think the general public will ever be interested in this game? Or is the plan to let the complainers who expected a better product slowly drift away and then release a buggy FHM15 on a new group of unsuspecting sacrificial lambs?

It's the height of hubrus how Sebastien talks to this community regardless, essentially having told people almost word for word "if you don't like it, go away". To ask us to greenlight FHM for steam release in my opinion was a monumental mistake. How can I confidently recommend a game that languishes from attention as much this one does?

The "we're a small developer" excuse doesn't absolve OOTPD of any of this. You gladly took our money like any other developer, time to live up to the promises of what FHM was marketed as.

[BradC]

I am the guy running the Facebook page.

Originally Posted by thepete

I've asked and asked about the finances bug and the possibility of a hotfix for it. In the end I got more information from the guy running your Facebook than the guys who are supposedly communicating with us on this forum. Maybe you should let that guy do the talking, he at least gets answers out of Jeff.

[Mordrehl]

Originally Posted by BradC

I am the guy running the Facebook page.

lol ok that made me laugh for real

[JeffR]

Like Brad said, we'll announce news when we have something substantial to announce. Sebastian and Malte have been going through some longstanding bug reports in the last few days, and in the process found some serious inefficiencies in the code that needed to be addressed. The technical details of things like the way contract data is stored are important, but they don't make for a particularly interesting news update to anyone who isn't familiar with the internal workings of the game. I've been overhauling the data that runs the way nonplayable transactions system works in several countries (which will improve the long-term playability of several leagues), but the same description applies to that: dull, tedious work that would require an elaborate explanation to fully explain. It'll wind up being a line or two in the patch notes, but it eats a lot of hours.

There's also something else going on, which we need to do some prep work for and will affect the patch release times, but we're not able to discuss it just yet. That's making "this is what we're doing" announcements a little awkward at the moment.

[TheAdamBn]

Originally Posted by BradC

Unfortunately, I don't know what else to say right now. I understand your frustration, but if we ballpark it and miss the date, then we have people who are angry about that. It's a difficult situation to be in, especially since we're such a small developer.

That's a really shame.. The match engine (to me at least) is where the game falls flat. Viewing games feel lifeless and a ton of information just doesn't appear (Fights, Penalties PP Goals etc). I don't like just simming games so FHM has been left gathering (digital) dust The new version of the engine was talked about in January and its now May and we are no nearer to seeing it.

At this point I'm beginning to wonder if the engine will appear in this version or whether in a few months time FHM15 will be announced that will include the new engine (FHM was noted to be yearly a fair few times in posts). At this point, I doubt I would buy it...

[TBiz]

Nice.... Went to college in London, Ont!

[Empach]

To be honest Jeff, I'd perfectly happy if you guys posted once or twice a week with "I'm working on X". It doesn't need to always be big detailed posts, I think people (well me at least) would be happy to just see that progress is being done.

And as a fellow coder I completely understand how one line in the patch notes equals hours. I just spent my entire day at work doing so.

[G-Nuke]

Originally Posted by JeffR

Like Brad said, we'll announce news when we have something substantial to announce. Sebastian and Malte have been going through some longstanding bug reports in the last few days, and in the process found some serious inefficiencies in the code that needed to be addressed. The technical details of things like the way contract data is stored are important, but they don't make for a particularly interesting news update to anyone who isn't familiar with the internal workings of the game. I've been overhauling the data that runs the way nonplayable transactions system works in several countries (which will improve the long-term playability of several leagues), but the same description applies to that: dull, tedious work that would require an elaborate explanation to fully explain. It'll wind up being a line or two in the patch notes, but it eats a lot of hours.

There's also something else going on, which we need to do some prep work for and will affect the patch release times, but we're not able to discuss it just yet. That's making "this is what we're doing" announcements a little awkward at the moment.

This would be a perfectly acceptable update. I think the thing you have to realize... we're expecting you guys to leave us with an incomplete product. When you go silent for a week or more, the assumption is that we're about to get... well I'll stop there, you get the point.

[Sebmono]

Originally Posted by G-Nuke

This would be a perfectly acceptable update.

I agree with this part, I don't know what is with the obsession over having an update needing to be "substantial" in order for it to be worth mentioning. Literally any communication is better than none, even if it were so small as "10 Bugs quashed today!", or even "Match engine making progress, slow but steady!". Just let us know you're alive, still working on this product, and haven't abandoned us already for the next version.

[TheAdamBn]

They could take a leaf out of Squads development log for Kerbal. Each week they make a post saying what they have been working on and use it to help expectations.

I doubt this would take too much setting up to have something similar here. Once a week they email one person (probably Brad) with a brief description of what they have done the previous week and then he can post it.

5 minutes work

[Deriken]

Originally Posted by TheAdamBn

They could take a leaf out of Squads development log for Kerbal. Each week they make a post saying what they have been working on and use it to help expectations.

I doubt this would take too much setting up to have something similar here. Once a week they email one person (probably Brad) with a brief description of what they have done the previous week and then he can post it.

5 minutes work

It's been asked for many, many times. They keep promising to do so and for a little bit they do, then it just stops again.

Personally I've given up and just check every few days to see if there is anything new.

[TheAdamBn]

Appears that the love communicating.. when it comes to radio shows and Twitch channels, but when it comes to the fans, its sweet FA.

Its a real shame, but I think they are beginning to do real harm to their fan base. When I heard in January that there would be a new engine, I thought 'Great! Gonna love playing this soon', but almost 5 months later, we are still in the dark about things and all we hear is 'It will be out when its out. Its been almost a year since FHM came out and it just sits there on my hard drive gathering virtual dust and resentment.

Im about ready to just uninstall the game and be done with it.. Chalk it up as a bad purchase and walk away from the series and the company..

[AlpineSK]

Originally Posted by TheAdamBn

Appears that the love communicating.. when it comes to radio shows and Twitch channels, but when it comes to the fans, its sweet FA.

Its a real shame, but I think they are beginning to do real harm to their fan base. When I heard in January that there would be a new engine, I thought 'Great! Gonna love playing this soon', but almost 5 months later, we are still in the dark about things and all we hear is 'It will be out when its out. Its been almost a year since FHM came out and it just sits there on my hard drive gathering virtual dust and resentment.

Im about ready to just uninstall the game and be done with it.. Chalk it up as a bad purchase and walk away from the series and the company..

I dont know how you feel about baseball, or if you even play the OOTPB games, but before you walk away from the company, if you are a baseball fan, I HIGHLY encourage you to try it out. I've been playing OOTPB for about 11 years now and I gotta say it is INCREDIBLE. Each version gets better, and just when i thought 14 was great, 15 was released..

Just sayin.