No news from the devs?

[RetroRebel]

It's been back on store for a couple of days now and I was hoping that the devs would eventually post a sticky or something clarifying things a little bit.
Are they back? Are they working on finishing and hopefully improving the game?
It feels we're on a ship without rudder.

[RetroRebel]

I don't really care about flamewars, just want a dev to show up and say what's what.

[RetroRebel]

Yes.. Still doesn't answer my questions.

[EvilPolygons]

The fact that the game is available again means some kind of progress has been made, I'd think. You could try checking the official non-Steam German forum to see if there's any new info.

[RetroRebel]

I could, or they could also take less than 1 minute to let us Steam users know of how are things going on.
It just feels like we Steam users are always left aside.

[Philippe_at_bay]

Commenting on an ongoing legal action when it's sitting in front of the judge who's going to make a decision is just about the dumbest thing you could possibly do. Waiting a few more months won't kill any Steam users, but commenting on the lawsuit just might kill the developer's case. There's almost no upside, and virtually unlimited downside.

[RetroRebel]

Originally posted by Philippe_at_bay:

Commenting on an ongoing legal action when it's sitting in front of the judge who's going to make a decision is just about the dumbest thing you could possibly do. Waiting a few more months won't kill any Steam users, but commenting on the lawsuit just might kill the developer's case. There's almost no upside, and virtually unlimited downside.

Then at least they could say "Hey, the game is back on stores, but we're still on the legal case.". There, 30 seconds, doubts cleared, and costumers satisfied.
Is really that hard?

[Philippe_at_bay]

The issue isn't time. The issue is unlimited downside and no upside.

[RetroRebel]

.. What? There's no downside in letting your costumers know what is happening. They don't HAVE to divulge anything related to their case. That the game has been back on stores for almost a week and no dev has even showed up it's weird, to say the least.

[EvilPolygons]

Having been through a lawsuit, I can tell you that lawyers will often tell their clients to avoid making public remarks during a case, and/or to have any such communications issued from the law firm itself.

None of us really know what their situation is, so it isn't wise to assume what they can or cannot do. Neither is it wise to assume *anything* having to do with lawsuits is easy or simple. It's actually pretty nightmarish.

[RetroRebel]

I've been through it and I know how hard it can be. Still, just keeping your customers updated isn't a problem, nobody is asking about details of their lawsuit, only what that comeback to the stores means.
You can't defend something like that, no matter how much you like this game and how much you like their socks. It roughly takes less than 30 seconds to make a mention about what's going on.

[RetroRebel]

As long as you don't imply anything related to the case there's nothing to worry about. And that's all there's to it.

[RetroRebel]

Yup.. It seems so. I'm wondering why Valve isn't refunding our money at this point.

[EvilPolygons]

Originally posted by स्वप्न RetroRebel {>}:

Yup.. It seems so. I'm wondering why Valve isn't refunding our money at this point.

The game is completely playable from beginning to end, and all of the game-stopping issues at launch have been fixed. Why do you think Valve should offer refunds?

[RetroRebel]

I wasn't able to finish the game, it crashes for me. I'd have to check again where exactly it crashed though. But it wasn't finished from my point of view.
Also the devs not giving even an update it's not making it any better. Not to mention the amount of improvement it desperately needs.

[EvilPolygons]

I enjoyed the game quite a bit, and beat it after about 130 hours. RoA definitely isn't everyone's cup of tea, but whether or not something is enjoyable to you comes down to personal opinion. Valve doesn't generally hand out refunds unless a game is literally BROKEN. Broken, meaning that NO ONE can play it or finish it. Period.

The main quest and all side quests can be completed. There are very few issues left, except for a couple of minor UI & visual glitches. By design, the gameplay is incredibly difficult and unforgiving, just like the original RoA. All the content from the original RoA is in this remake, and it all works.

As far as "desperately needed improvements" go, exactly what kind of improvements do you expect it to get? This is a low-budget, nostalgic, indie remake of a 20 year old pc game. It's never going to look/play like Skyrim. It'll never have AAA production quality, stellar voice acting, outstanding UI design, or anything else.

Sure, I can think of a dozen little improvements that might make RoA marginally better. Did the lack of those improvements prevent me from beating the game? No.