Official servers as a reference

[insettoinfetto]

I often see that when we talk about SCUM features, many players start with this thing of create your onw private servers or change your SP settings.

I think should be clear that when I talk about game aspects I don't want to force anyone to play as I do, nor I'm interested on joining a private server with tweaked settings.
I'm just talking about game aspects and how they should be changed.
For sure I have my own vision, but this does not mean to force other player to play this vision.

Discussing features, game balance and changes can only be done on common reference and this can only be the standard version of SCUM, so official servers.
Those servers should represent the vision of the developer and a reference for anyone that want to discuss about the game.

So anyone interested on talking about the game should play a bit on official servers (or a private server with the same settings of the official ones). And when talking about SCUM a player should have that experience in mind.

If we have different experience how can we talk on the same thing?
It's like only having eat pizza and capuccino while dicussing about chinese cuisine.

So I take as unconstructive a reply like "Create your own server and tweak game as you like". It sounds useless to me.

So please, leave private servers where they are and keep Official SCUM as a reference for discussing feature or suggestions.
Thank you.

[Cezar]

+

In general, it’s wild when people go straight to private servers, where everything is 95% easier. Some didn't even see robots. That's funny. There, the game often does not look like the original at all, almost always worse in all aspects.

[Sneiki88]

It's not a reference.
if the dev allowed private servers they should respond and help all official and private.
private servers in general are much better as they try their best to try to correct and replace what is lost due to disastrous updates.

[insettoinfetto]

Originally posted by Sneiki88:

It's not a reference.
if the dev allowed private servers they should respond and help all official and private.
private servers in general are much better as they try their best to try to correct and replace what is lost due to disastrous updates.

Ok so how we can discuss about Pidan (skin egg, 100 year eggs) if I only eat pizza and you only eat capuccino?

[insettoinfetto]

Originally posted by Cezar:

In general, it’s wild when people go straight to private servers, where everything is 95% easier. Some didn't even see robots. That's funny. There, the game often does not look like the original at all, almost always worse in all aspects.

True.
I understand that mechs were nasty but now are so easy to skip...

Btw I'm not talking about which is better, but the fact that we need a common ground to talk about features.

[Deathwhisper]

I've been following the said discussions. It's all about the game SCUM. This includes all game modes. (single player, multiplayer private and official).

So please don't sort out players because they use one of the functions offered to change parameters, even if it's just to make the night a bit darker or lighter. In the end, that doesn't change the fact that we talk about the game SCUM.

In a discussion, different opinions will always clash, sometimes differences day and night. This inevitably leads to the feeling that a controversy, compulsion or other content that appears to be problematic is listed that is not meant in that way or is meant in a different way. Within a forum it is very difficult to show emotional reactions. Even if you use emotes.

State your point of view. There's nothing wrong with that because it represents your feedback on the cause. But please keep your distance from said sorting out of player groups because we all come together to accompany SCUM in its development and to support it with our own feedback about the many aspects the game has to offer.

[Siamese]

Originally posted by Deathwhisper:

I've been following the said discussions. It's all about the game SCUM. This includes all game modes. (single player, multiplayer private and official).

So please don't sort out players because they use one of the functions offered to change parameters, even if it's just to make the night a bit darker or lighter. In the end, that doesn't change the fact that we talk about the game SCUM.

In a discussion, different opinions will always clash, sometimes differences day and night. This inevitably leads to the feeling that a controversy, compulsion or other content that appears to be problematic is listed that is not meant in that way or is meant in a different way. Within a forum it is very difficult to show emotional reactions. Even if you use emotes.

State your point of view. There's nothing wrong with that because it represents your feedback on the cause. But please keep your distance from said sorting out of player groups because we all come together to accompany SCUM in its development and to support it with our own feedback about the many aspects the game has to offer.

I think the issue the OP is laying out is that by allowing private servers during EA there has been a broad spectrum of expectations placed on the base game. These expectations in many cases aren't based on anything other than what was comfortable previously rather than what the stated goals of the game have been.

As he is suggesting, the game should have a core that we can all agree is the game being developed that allows for rational discussions about mechanics to be included in that core without having the constant drum beat of "well on my private server we do X" as though private server owners are some kind of game design pioneers to be followed by the dev team. The same could be said about streamers who seem to carry some undeserved weight behind their opinions.

[Ron]

The fact is, regardless of private server configuration (which is a nice bonus),
the Devs still need to develop the vanilla version of scum and need constructive feedback on vanilla scum; not some modified version of scum.

Unfortunately, new players sometimes never even play on an official or private with vanilla settings in multiplayer.

They do however open a thread here, without mentioning that it's a modified, private server about issues they're having whether it be balance, difficulty, loot, traders, etcetera etcetera...

[marktkm]

Originally posted by insettoinfetto:

....

+1 but with a caveat...

There's a tendency for some people who feel very strongly about an issue to make multiple almost duplicate posts on the same issue, essentially saying the same things, well after the changes have been done and most have stated their piece and moved on. (I'm not singling anyone out here. I've seen this happen many times since the start of this EA.) At that point I think it's valid to state that they may have a minority opinion (or even just one that differs from what the devs have settled on) and may need to find a private server to find what they're looking for.

[Deathwhisper]

I am well aware of what exactly is meant. That doesn't change the fact that we are a community. Where some remain true to the "vanilla" style, others like to experiment and uncover very strange things.

So it doesn't matter because we all contribute to the pot together! Whether it's a function test, customization options, difficulty level in vanilla, suggestions, criticism, etc.

Every feedback matters.

[Maze ♡]

Most people do not play officials. It might be the "baseline" or whatever you wanna call it of scum, but its not very attractive to most to play said "baseline" and that is a fact. There is a reason the dev´s give us the freedom to tweek the game and there is a reason why developers gather game data and monitor player statistics.

So if I follow your logic @ insettoinfetto that every change should be made only based on the baseline of the game, you would ignore the majority of the players that do not play this baseline. So you pratically ignoring 70 or 80% of peoples feedback. That is not how the developement of games work.

You are looking at the feedback. You are looking at the data. You find out what majority of people like and don´t like and you make changes based off of it. Then you look how those changes play out and tweak again. This way you please the majority of players and for the rest you provide enough opportunities to change the settings so the also get what they are looking for.

PS: This game is in development so things are about to change and then change again. People tend to forget that. And once again @ insettoinfetto. You are just proofing my point of the other threads you opend up. Its not about your opinion alone. You are still trying to convince people that your opinion is the right one while downgrading every other opinion.

[CrankyOldMan]

I am not in this writing talking about anyone who posted in this thread please do not think I am talking about you.
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For the same reason that Deathwhisper just spoke is why my wish won't happen!
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Again they are not in this thread but I know of at least two people who have not played the game in ***over a year*** that just come to these forums to create drama.
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One person never even bought the game but yet he promoted his business in the forums!
He was banned for a year I see cause he just came back to the forums!

The other has not played in 6., .7, .75 and now in .8 but yet they come into the forums and post negatively about the game-never a nice word.
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Yet they allow it!

[CrankyOldMan]

From another post today that I made
30 minutes ago

ALL of you are missing the bigger picture here. Your mind is solely on the in game! What you want, not what is good for the company!
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Official servers do not have a high server count, they are few among the hundreds
The vast majority of players don't want to be on one, so for Gamepires to make them only that way they would loose 10 of thousands of sales!!!!!!!!!!!
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Hard core low loot no traders servers attract some players
10x whally bot servers attract hundreds if not thousands of players
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Gamepires is WISELY giving us options to play the game we want and that GENERATES SALES!
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I personally like 1x loot no traders but that is me!
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You do You I do Me
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How long do you think a pie making company would stay in business if it made only 1 flavor of pies?

[marktkm]

Originally posted by Maze:

So if follow your logic @ insettoinfetto that every change should be made only based on the baseline of the game

This isn't what he's saying, though. He's saying that for the purpose of most forum discussions on mechanics they should be centered around the vanilla version, since there's no purpose in discussing how things should be set for private servers that can already change things to suit their own needs. Why have a discussion for example on how much damage mechs should do regarding anything other than vanilla since privates can already set that as they like?

This is different from a discussion specifically about privates, like requesting a setting or the like. In that case, as long as people know it's a discussion regarding private servers, there's no issue.

[Siamese]

Originally posted by Maze:

Most people do not play officials. It might be the "baseline" or whatever you wanna call it of scum, but its not very attractive to most to play said "baseline" and that is a fact. There is a reason the dev´s give us the freedom to tweek the game and there is a reason why developers gather game data and monitor player statistics.

So if I follow your logic @ insettoinfetto that every change should be made only based on the baseline of the game, you would ignore the majority of the players that do not play this baseline. So you pratically ignoring 70 or 80% of peoples feedback. That is not how the developement of games work.

You are looking at the feedback. You are looking at the data. You find out what majority of people like and don´t like and you make changes based off of it. Then you look how those changes play out and tweak again. This way you please the majority of players and for the rest you provide enough opportunities to change the settings so the also get what they are looking for.

PS: This game is in development so things are about to change and then change again. People tend to forgett that.

Ok there is one very clear problem with this point view. The current people playing (and posting) represent a tiny tiny fraction of the copies of the game purchased. So just because the majority of that tiny fraction play on private servers its in no way indicative that official servers are bad. Because there are many people who left the game for a wide variety of reasons that cover the full range of different server options including many of the private settings such as bots. So you can't really conclude anything about the core game values by looking at private server populations.

I'm not saying your completely off base here but i do believe this is a commonly held statistical fallacy that is misused in many posts on these forums.

[CrankyOldMan]

Originally posted by marktkm:

Originally posted by Maze:

So if follow your logic @ insettoinfetto that every change should be made only based on the baseline of the game

This isn't what he's saying, though. He's saying that for the purpose of most forum discussions on mechanics they should be centered around the vanilla version, since there's no purpose in discussing how things should be set for private servers that can already change things to suit their own needs. Why have a discussion for example on how much damage mechs should do regarding anything other than vanilla since privates can already set that as they like?

This is different from a discussion specifically about privates, like requesting a setting or the like. In that case, as long as people know it's a discussion regarding private servers, there's no issue.

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Agree!