Version 1.6.19 Game Update Now Available (Updated from 1.6.17) - Page 8

TheAdamBn · 08-20-2014, 11:14 AM

The entire thing worries me..

8 months on from the announcement and still no new match engine. I cannot stand how current matches play out so FHM just doesn't get played.
Weeks without updates and requests for a screenshot of what the new engine looks like are just denied. Any reply is just 'When its ready, you'll see it'. Who cares if its ready.. Hype it up a little. Stick a 'Work In Progress' banner all over it and get people interested
The Steam forums are full of comments about how its a huge let down or buggy (but then again, thats Steam for you). I could tell them to come here instead for a better experience, but well... its pretty dead here.

Its 49 days till the start of the season, and I cannot see them getting FHM15 ready by then. Hell, I currently doubt they will have FHM14 ready by then. I've had people ask me about FHM, and I just couldn't recommend it to them. I got the Bundlestars deal and someone wanted my spare FHM.. I just couldn't let them have it due to the quality

Penfold75 · 08-25-2014, 05:01 AM

Quick vote which of these things will happen first.
1) 2014/2015 Season will begin
2) We get an update from the devs on the forum
3) We get a patch
4) FHM2015 will be released
5) 2015/2016 Season will begin

Communication from the OOTP team is once more a joke. Not good enough guys.

TheAdamBn · 08-25-2014, 05:41 AM

Definately 5

Some sort of closure would be good instead of if, buts and maybes.

There's a saying - S**t or get off the pot, which means a person should follow up their stated intentions with action.

Its been a quarter of a year (in 5 days) since the last patch. Over 3 months since we've had the tease of a final patch to make the game enjoyable.

If you've got it ready.. release it and let the players finally play their game. If you haven't, then just scrap it, let people know its not coming and fully focus on your next game.

All you're doing right now is hurting your brand. You've become the equivalent of that girl in school that claims she'l let you touch her boob if you do her homework, and then keep finding excuses not to. What a tease!

sprague · 08-25-2014, 05:45 AM

Has anyone thought the reason there are no posts and updates on the game is that they have nothing to update? Ie, little has improved.

If a student forgets to do his homework he doesn't tell the teacher, he stays quiet at the back and hopes she doesn't ask about it.

If things were going well wouldn't they happily post screenshots, and discuss how great the new engine is?

TheAdamBn · 08-25-2014, 05:47 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by sprague

Has anyone thought the reason there are no posts and updates on the game is that they have nothing to update? Ie, little has improved.

If a student forgets to do his homework he doesn't tell the teacher, he stays quiet at the back and hopes she doesn't ask about it.

If things were going well wouldn't they happily post screenshots, and discuss how great the new engine is?

Exactly.. If that is the case, they should put their hands up, admit it and the people waiting can finally move on.

glb2687 · 08-25-2014, 10:19 AM

Has anyone thought that the reason that they are slower at coming out with anything is what happened the first time? Give them credit for at least learning a little something. They rushed out the original product and got slammed royally for an inferior product, which they owned up to and admitted their mistakes.

Now they are taking their time and being careful not to repeat the same thing with the new match engine and they are still get slammed. Granted not hearing anything is a little disconcerting but it might be well worth the wait. How would you fee if they pushed it out quickly and it was still buggy as all hell.

They learned from mistakes and should be respected for that at least. Nobody said you would get nothing it is just taking a little longer than I think they expected.

Be patient if you want to go away then do so, but ease up this is not helping anything. It is just fanning the fires of criticism. Just my opinion like you have had yours.

Penfold75 · 08-25-2014, 11:33 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by glb2687

Has anyone thought that the reason that they are slower at coming out with anything is what happened the first time? Give them credit for at least learning a little something. They rushed out the original product and got slammed royally for an inferior product, which they owned up to and admitted their mistakes.

Now they are taking their time and being careful not to repeat the same thing with the new match engine and they are still get slammed. Granted not hearing anything is a little disconcerting but it might be well worth the wait. How would you fee if they pushed it out quickly and it was still buggy as all hell.

They learned from mistakes and should be respected for that at least. Nobody said you would get nothing it is just taking a little longer than I think they expected.

Be patient if you want to go away then do so, but ease up this is not helping anything. It is just fanning the fires of criticism. Just my opinion like you have had yours.

I understand your point but this isn't the first version of the game we are waiting for them to 'rush out'. This is another patch for a game that has been available for release for nearly a year and was available on beta for almost six months before that.

The game has had the same issues with trading, free agents etc.. since the beta versions and these have not really improved.

We are getting to the time that we should be expecting FHM 2015 to be released. The devs have been promising the match engine patch for months and we are still waiting. Again people who bought this game during beta or at release have been very patient and are still receiving very little in the way of updates or information about either the patch or FHM 2015 or what the way ahead is.

I thought the appointment of two forum users as moderators may have given them another avenue to update the forum more regularly but this has had no improved impact whatsoever.

Customers are frustrated. Nobody is planning to 'go away' but we just want information about a product we have invested in and may well continue to invest in depending on the future of the game.

glb2687 · 08-25-2014, 11:52 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Penfold75

I understand your point but this isn't the first version of the game we are waiting for them to 'rush out'. This is another patch for a game that has been available for release for nearly a year and was available on beta for almost six months before that.

The game has had the same issues with trading, free agents etc.. since the beta versions and these have not really improved.

We are getting to the time that we should be expecting FHM 2015 to be released. The devs have been promising the match engine patch for months and we are still waiting. Again people who bought this game during beta or at release have been very patient and are still receiving very little in the way of updates or information about either the patch or FHM 2015 or what the way ahead is.

I thought the appointment of two forum users as moderators may have given them another avenue to update the forum more regularly but this has had no improved impact whatsoever.

Customers are frustrated. Nobody is planning to 'go away' but we just want information about a product we have invested in and may well continue to invest in depending on the future of the game.

Point taken...I understand what you are saying. Customers deserve to be informed but I think the delay is so they get it right. It is a long time to wait and I was one of the people who bought the Beta version and it was awful with the bugs and crashes. It has improved by a wide margin but switching to a new match engine is a major task and would rather have it right than to rush it.

I see what you are saying but being a former programmer I recognize the pitfalls of rushing out a product and suffering the consequences.

Penfold75 · 08-25-2014, 12:04 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by glb2687

I see what you are saying but being a former programmer I recognize the pitfalls of rushing out a product and suffering the consequences.

I am a Software Development Project Manager for a large Utilities compnay so I understand the 'pitfalls' just fine. If I was promising fixes that took this long and not communicating with my user group I'm afraid people would be looking at my small team of two developers and I and scrutinising our performance as well.

Mafarfloune · 08-25-2014, 02:00 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Penfold75

Quick vote which of these things will happen first.
1) 2014/2015 Season will begin
2) We get an update from the devs on the forum
3) We get a patch
4) FHM2015 will be released
5) 2015/2016 Season will begin

Communication from the OOTP team is once more a joke. Not good enough guys.

I'll try my luck guessing the order of things...

1 - We get an update from the devs.
2 - 2014/15 season begins.
3 - We get the patch
4 - FHM 2015 is renamed as FHM 2016
5 - 2015/16 season starts and FHM 2016 are released somewhat simultaneously.

It's pretty much the only avenue I can see making any sense.

AlpineSK · 08-25-2014, 02:05 PM

Only thing that worries me about all of this is what happened with iOOTP last time around. There was a promise of updates for the community that never happened. Then, there was a promise of a patch followed by a long period of silence.. And then no patch with the franchise moving on to the next year. Yes, it's a different product but its the same lead developer.

I agree some screen shots or something would be nice. Wet our pallets a bit. I've picked up the game once or twice just to try and keep the current mechanics in mind so that I would have something to compare it to but I really see no point in trying to dive in and enjoy the game when anything I create will become obsolete once a patch is released.

Bugsquasher · 08-25-2014, 05:23 PM

Im out of patience... unfortunately. We've been very patient up to this point. I'm gonna play some NHL 15 Demo and get right to NHL 15 once it comes out. This game...I think it's flopped. This might sound harsh but I don't think they have the skill to create a decent game...Ugh I'm frustrated. Maybe the patch will come out and I'll be surprised. But from the looks of it I should just stick to OOTP Baseball. The people who do OOTP Baseball know what they're doing...Been loyal up to this point but I've had it. They could at least write a one or two sentence update on what's going on. Seriously, it doesn't take away any "development" time to do that. I've been checking the forums everyday...That takes 3 minutes. A post takes like 10-15 minutes...well one of mine....And, uh, a 2 sentence update on the patch takes 5 minutes at most....Just very unhappy at the lack of communication that's all. Here I'll do one for 'em... The update is gonna take XXX days/Months or Years don't worry it's coming....There you go...That took 30 Seconds...

dave1927p · 08-25-2014, 06:38 PM

It's quite simple, the more time they go without an official update, it only means that they can't make one yet and are working away on the game. Everyone wants to hear good news in an update, people claim they don't but they do. An update saying no update really is not beneficial and in the end won't help anything - that just leads to more people being upset. When they have an official update to share, they will do it but until then let them do their thing.

This game has come a long way in the last year, and it tells me that they aren't just sitting around doing nothing.

Bugsquasher, i said this before and will again...these guys learn from their mistakes. They've admitted that they have made some in the past, and there is no way they will announce that without being 100 percent sure they can hit it. That certainty is not finalized yet so until then they can't say that. If they did, people will just throw it back in their faces. We've seen it already. It's our own doing. But Don't worry, it's coming.

JeffR · 08-25-2014, 07:06 PM

(Sorry, guys, I think I've done some unintentional damage even by commenting to the limited extent that I did. I'm going to remove this post and the references to it so it doesn't get too out of hand. Just to clarify, though, the game is nowhere close to being cancelled. The final patch and new version are still coming.)

Bugsquasher · 08-25-2014, 08:28 PM

Well the game has come along way. I've stuck with it for a long time. I guess I can wait longer it's just that for me...I was hoping a patch would've come out 1 or 2 months ago to help with the wait 'till NHL 15 comes out...Now I'm just bored... How much of an upgrade will FHM 15 be over the Original? I think this original FHM has seemingly reached it's potential... But I'm looking forward to maybe some better historical play from FHM 15. I'm thinking I would especially like to see some of the player development engine go into the historical play. I think it would be better and funner that way. Knowing what will happen to the players in the current historical play takes a lot of the fun away... Anyhow...just gotta hope for the best.

Penfold75 · 08-26-2014, 04:13 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by JeffR

(My original post was quoted here, but I had to remove it, sorry - Jeff. Explanation back in my original post.)

If find this post totally inadequate.

In my work the way I communicate with my user community is this -

ANY news is better than NO news even BAD news. Working with a community of adults and I also imagine that most of the forum users are adults and can be treated like adults, people can accept bad news and understand the reasons for it. FHM 2014 customers have put up with bugs, functionality issues and a rushed out totally garbage first release and have been very patient. We want OOTP to produce the best Hockey GM game that they can and we would understand delays and the reasons for them.

TheAdamBn · 08-26-2014, 05:06 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by JeffR

(My original post was quoted here, but I had to remove it, sorry - Jeff. Explanation back in my original post.)

JeffR. Do not think this is in any way directed at you.. You are stuck in the middle of a really terrible situation and I don't envy you.

Going back to what I said in an earlier post about being a tease. You guys are already there when you came out with this post:

Quote:

The new match engine is something that originally was planned for the second version of the game. But after considering the amount of work that would be lost if we continued to develop the old system this year and then completely replaced it season, it made more sense to move up the implementation, which will free up some time for other new things in version 2 that wouldn't have happened otherwise.

The new engine is based around a zonal system. The ice is divided in 24 sectors - 6 in the neutral zone, 9 each in the offensive/defensive zones. As Sebastian mentioned after I first showed it to him, the way the ice is divided is similar to a hockey board game he had once played. I hadn't seen it, though, and my actual inspirations for using the zone system were somewhat older: a simple game published in a hockey magazine in the early 80's (the title of which I've long since forgotten, unfortunately), an older tradition (dating back to the 30's-40's) of zone-based games, and some non-hockey boardgames that use the concept (notably, Statis-Pro Football.) The popularity of a zone system for such games isn't surprising: it's visually appealing and communicates information well because it's a fairly direct interpretation of what's happening on the ice. Of course, being boardgames, all of those were limited to very simple depictions of puck movement and player actions. We're not constrained by that, so we can back the system up with a much more detailed (and statistically accurate) engine while still retaining the comfortable look and feel of a simpler system.

The puck's current zone is always identified, as well as the player in possession of the puck (if there is one at the moment. A key defending player (or lack of one) is also identified, and is chosen based on a variety of factors: the play location, the player carrying the puck, tactical settings of the defending team, player ratings, size of the ice surface, etc. - so the exact player defending the play will vary for a variety of reasons: tactical choices like checking assignments might assign a specific defender to shadow a particular puck carrier, play in the zones in the middle of the ice might be more likely to result in the centre being the chosen defender (assuming the centre is assigned there in the team's tactical setup), a shorthanded situation or tactical choices might leave the player undefended, and so on.

Play occurs one second at a time, and the exact event happening in that second is determined by a random check that will include possibilities based on the game summary data we already use, as well as some additional data from other sources and some original research we've done from surveying game videos for the frequency of certain events. The exact chances of those event occurring will be adjusted based on the position on the ice (e.g. the vast majority of offside calls will occur in the zones touching the defending team's blueline), player ratings (e.g. an aggressive defender might be more likely to take a penalty, a good shot blocker will increase the chance of a blocked shot occurring if he's in a position to do so, etc.), tactical choices (e.g. teams set to shoot rather than pass will be more likely to get a shot result), and other situationally relevant factors.

That's the developmental equivalent of whispering sweet nothings into someone's ear. Making them want you(r software) badly.

But you're not quite ready for that commitment yet but you want the other person to wait for you right? What do you do? You certainly don't give them the cold shoulder. Surely that's just going to send them into the arms of another. What you do is keep the romance going. Let them know that you care and spoil them (with information). It will remind the other person of what they have to look forward to until you are finally ready and you can be together (in gaming nirvana).

Getting off the analogy now as I think I've hammered that home enough. Im also going to bold this next sentence as I think its the most relevant. HYPE YOUR BLOODY GAME!. I'm fairly certain that Sebastian is proud of the match engine that he has created (even if it still has issues). Put it in a dress and show it off. Plaster a big WORK IN PROGRESS - NOT INDICATIVE OF FINAL VERSION all over it if you are worried. Its not hard. Its 'Print Screen' followed by opening something like Photoshop and adding one line of text. Save and done! People waiting will be able to see what's happening and hopefully get excited again. You might be able to rekindle some of the romance and spark some life on a forum that feels like its on life support right now. (Only ever a few replies on any thread that isn't update related)

Going back to my analogy for the finale. Having held off from showing any affection for so long, most people will be now have assumed that you no longer care about them any more and will be looking to move on. If you don't realise that and open up soon, you're in danger of becoming that crazy old lady that lives on her own and have dozens of cats for company.

You can do it...

Orioles1966 · 08-26-2014, 06:06 AM

I'll take a fully editable game over a better game engine any day of the week.

spitfire · 08-26-2014, 06:21 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TheAdamBn

HYPE YOUR BLOODY GAME!. I'm fairly certain that Sebastian is proud of the match engine that he has created (even if it still has issues). Put it in a dress and show it off. Plaster a big WORK IN PROGRESS - NOT INDICATIVE OF FINAL VERSION all over it if you are worried. Its not hard. Its 'Print Screen' followed by opening something like Photoshop and adding one line of text. Save and done! People waiting will be able to see what's happening and hopefully get excited again.

Hate to sound like I'm taking the developers' side in what has really been a terribly mismanaged mess of a release. But I don't see much point in posting screenshots of something that may be totally different by the time it's released.Even with the disclaimer you suggest, that would still verge on the kind of false advertising they were accused of after posting a feature list in their blurbs containing stuff that wasn't in the game.

Ideally I still think it would be nice if someone could appear once every week or two and tell us how testing is going ..... good week, bad week, making progress, Feature X is now working pretty well, Feature Y needs a rethink, still a ways off release but getting closer, etc. But if that hasn't happened after all this time, I guess it isn't going to happen.

Dave1927p, I'm sure you know that an "official update" doesn't have to consist purely of a release date. Just coming on and telling folks how it's going at the moment would keep a lot of people happier. Maybe the folks upstairs don't think that sort of post would be valuable enough to bother with, but given the number of people asking for some kind of communication, I'd say it would be worth the fairly minimal effort involved.

grindline · 08-26-2014, 07:39 AM

Speaking as someone who probably should have shown more patience than I did after having been following FHM for so long, I believe a little more communication could be vastly beneficial to calm the waters.

All it takes is a couple of sentences once a week just to keep us feeling involved. I appreciate the team are trying to focus on the coding and to avoid saying too much to artificially raise expectations (which in itself shows the team are listening to us I guess) but a quick hello shouldn't compromise these intentions.

If Sebastian, Jeff or whoever simply posted "made some progress this week but our coding for the match engine was slow going. Hoping to resolve the major issues in the near future" and I know that would be enough for me to feel reassured.

I realize that sometimes there is little good news but I think people generally understand and accept that if they feel that they have previously heard about progress.

08-20-2014, 11:14 AM	#141
TheAdamBn Minors (Triple A) Join Date: Jun 2013 Posts: 292	The entire thing worries me.. 8 months on from the announcement and still no new match engine. I cannot stand how current matches play out so FHM just doesn't get played. Weeks without updates and requests for a screenshot of what the new engine looks like are just denied. Any reply is just 'When its ready, you'll see it'. Who cares if its ready.. Hype it up a little. Stick a 'Work In Progress' banner all over it and get people interested The Steam forums are full of comments about how its a huge let down or buggy (but then again, thats Steam for you). I could tell them to come here instead for a better experience, but well... its pretty dead here. Its 49 days till the start of the season, and I cannot see them getting FHM15 ready by then. Hell, I currently doubt they will have FHM14 ready by then. I've had people ask me about FHM, and I just couldn't recommend it to them. I got the Bundlestars deal and someone wanted my spare FHM.. I just couldn't let them have it due to the quality

08-25-2014, 02:05 PM	#151
AlpineSK All Star Starter Join Date: Mar 2003 Location: Bear, DE Posts: 1,618	Only thing that worries me about all of this is what happened with iOOTP last time around. There was a promise of updates for the community that never happened. Then, there was a promise of a patch followed by a long period of silence.. And then no patch with the franchise moving on to the next year. Yes, it's a different product but its the same lead developer. I agree some screen shots or something would be nice. Wet our pallets a bit. I've picked up the game once or twice just to try and keep the current mechanics in mind so that I would have something to compare it to but I really see no point in trying to dive in and enjoy the game when anything I create will become obsolete once a patch is released. __________________ Check out my Sims!! 2013 Boston Red Sox Or my blogs: http://www.medicsbk.com The Sports Medic

08-25-2014, 06:38 PM	#153
dave1927p FHM Moderator Join Date: Jul 2008 Location: Brantford, ON Posts: 2,888	It's quite simple, the more time they go without an official update, it only means that they can't make one yet and are working away on the game. Everyone wants to hear good news in an update, people claim they don't but they do. An update saying no update really is not beneficial and in the end won't help anything - that just leads to more people being upset. When they have an official update to share, they will do it but until then let them do their thing. This game has come a long way in the last year, and it tells me that they aren't just sitting around doing nothing. Bugsquasher, i said this before and will again...these guys learn from their mistakes. They've admitted that they have made some in the past, and there is no way they will announce that without being 100 percent sure they can hit it. That certainty is not finalized yet so until then they can't say that. If they did, people will just throw it back in their faces. We've seen it already. It's our own doing. But Don't worry, it's coming. __________________ IN 1964 THE LEAFS WON THE STANLEY CUP :: IT'S ALSO THE YEAR THE CANADIAN FLAG WAS DESIGNED...coincidence? Last edited by dave1927p; 08-25-2014 at 06:45 PM.

08-25-2014, 07:06 PM	#154
JeffR FHM Producer Join Date: Apr 2002 Location: Kelowna, BC Posts: 16,625	(Sorry, guys, I think I've done some unintentional damage even by commenting to the limited extent that I did. I'm going to remove this post and the references to it so it doesn't get too out of hand. Just to clarify, though, the game is nowhere close to being cancelled. The final patch and new version are still coming.) Last edited by JeffR; 08-27-2014 at 04:42 PM.

08-25-2014, 05:01 AM	#142
Penfold75 Major Leagues Join Date: Sep 2013 Location: Glasgow in Scotland. Originally Winnipeg. Posts: 426	Quick vote which of these things will happen first. 1) 2014/2015 Season will begin 2) We get an update from the devs on the forum 3) We get a patch 4) FHM2015 will be released 5) 2015/2016 Season will begin Communication from the OOTP team is once more a joke. Not good enough guys.

08-25-2014, 05:41 AM	#143
TheAdamBn Minors (Triple A) Join Date: Jun 2013 Posts: 292	Definately 5 Some sort of closure would be good instead of if, buts and maybes. There's a saying - S**t or get off the pot, which means a person should follow up their stated intentions with action. Its been a quarter of a year (in 5 days) since the last patch. Over 3 months since we've had the tease of a final patch to make the game enjoyable. If you've got it ready.. release it and let the players finally play their game. If you haven't, then just scrap it, let people know its not coming and fully focus on your next game. All you're doing right now is hurting your brand. You've become the equivalent of that girl in school that claims she'l let you touch her boob if you do her homework, and then keep finding excuses not to. What a tease!

08-25-2014, 05:45 AM	#144
sprague All Star Starter Join Date: Aug 2011 Posts: 1,921	Has anyone thought the reason there are no posts and updates on the game is that they have nothing to update? Ie, little has improved. If a student forgets to do his homework he doesn't tell the teacher, he stays quiet at the back and hopes she doesn't ask about it. If things were going well wouldn't they happily post screenshots, and discuss how great the new engine is?

08-25-2014, 10:19 AM	#146
glb2687 Minors (Single A) Join Date: Apr 2013 Posts: 54	Has anyone thought that the reason that they are slower at coming out with anything is what happened the first time? Give them credit for at least learning a little something. They rushed out the original product and got slammed royally for an inferior product, which they owned up to and admitted their mistakes. Now they are taking their time and being careful not to repeat the same thing with the new match engine and they are still get slammed. Granted not hearing anything is a little disconcerting but it might be well worth the wait. How would you fee if they pushed it out quickly and it was still buggy as all hell. They learned from mistakes and should be respected for that at least. Nobody said you would get nothing it is just taking a little longer than I think they expected. Be patient if you want to go away then do so, but ease up this is not helping anything. It is just fanning the fires of criticism. Just my opinion like you have had yours.

08-25-2014, 05:23 PM	#152
Bugsquasher Minors (Single A) Join Date: Mar 2013 Posts: 57	Im out of patience... unfortunately. We've been very patient up to this point. I'm gonna play some NHL 15 Demo and get right to NHL 15 once it comes out. This game...I think it's flopped. This might sound harsh but I don't think they have the skill to create a decent game...Ugh I'm frustrated. Maybe the patch will come out and I'll be surprised. But from the looks of it I should just stick to OOTP Baseball. The people who do OOTP Baseball know what they're doing...Been loyal up to this point but I've had it. They could at least write a one or two sentence update on what's going on. Seriously, it doesn't take away any "development" time to do that. I've been checking the forums everyday...That takes 3 minutes. A post takes like 10-15 minutes...well one of mine....And, uh, a 2 sentence update on the patch takes 5 minutes at most....Just very unhappy at the lack of communication that's all. Here I'll do one for 'em... The update is gonna take XXX days/Months or Years don't worry it's coming....There you go...That took 30 Seconds...

08-25-2014, 08:28 PM	#155
Bugsquasher Minors (Single A) Join Date: Mar 2013 Posts: 57	Well the game has come along way. I've stuck with it for a long time. I guess I can wait longer it's just that for me...I was hoping a patch would've come out 1 or 2 months ago to help with the wait 'till NHL 15 comes out...Now I'm just bored... How much of an upgrade will FHM 15 be over the Original? I think this original FHM has seemingly reached it's potential... But I'm looking forward to maybe some better historical play from FHM 15. I'm thinking I would especially like to see some of the player development engine go into the historical play. I think it would be better and funner that way. Knowing what will happen to the players in the current historical play takes a lot of the fun away... Anyhow...just gotta hope for the best.

08-26-2014, 06:06 AM	#158
Orioles1966 Hall Of Famer Join Date: Jun 2012 Posts: 2,869	I'll take a fully editable game over a better game engine any day of the week.

08-26-2014, 07:39 AM	#160
grindline Minors (Single A) Join Date: Jun 2012 Posts: 87	Speaking as someone who probably should have shown more patience than I did after having been following FHM for so long, I believe a little more communication could be vastly beneficial to calm the waters. All it takes is a couple of sentences once a week just to keep us feeling involved. I appreciate the team are trying to focus on the coding and to avoid saying too much to artificially raise expectations (which in itself shows the team are listening to us I guess) but a quick hello shouldn't compromise these intentions. If Sebastian, Jeff or whoever simply posted "made some progress this week but our coding for the match engine was slow going. Hoping to resolve the major issues in the near future" and I know that would be enough for me to feel reassured. I realize that sometimes there is little good news but I think people generally understand and accept that if they feel that they have previously heard about progress.