Thoughts on DRG, Ghost Ship, and the next two years

[μuKnew]

I had a whole post on here detailing where I, personally, felt that Ghost Ship's direction has apparently changed for the worse, and my expectations for the future. It was like 2000 words and too long for people to read (not to mention, admittedly rambling), so I'm going to summarize it.
I do not feel entitled to free updates for DRG for eternity. I do feel entitled to a definitive answer to whether or not DRG is going to be getting more updates in the future. I've cut out why I don't just "take their word for it" for brevity.
Here's the gist:
If GSG does not want to support DRG in the future, that's their right. I'll be bitter about it, but that's their prerogative. If they intend to, I think they should signal that with at least a small, maintenance-type update sometime in 2025 for those in the community like myself that have had their patience worn thin. The actual features in it are not even the point, it's merely the announcement, follow-through, and apparent intent that I'm looking for, which have been lacking for GSG and various DRG IP games for the past two years in my eyes.

I've noticed throughout this thread that I'm not alone in feeling these things, and besides venting my frustrations, that was as much of a point as this thread ever wanted to make. I don't expect GSG to do a flip-turn because one rando made an angry post.

[sam]

New seasons are cool but I wish they would do an overhaul for perks & weapon mod interactions with OCs, considering updating that wouldn't hardly take any time at all. Rouge core seems pretty cool at least.

its a bug thing update by 2028 i hope

[Chibbity]

Good bait should be short and to the point.

You tried too hard, makes it too obvious; remember that next time.

3/10

Originally posted by μuKnew:

That only leaves one other part. "Ghost Ship". And what came with the supporter pack 2? A helmet that was unlike any other in the game, arguably broke the art style, and... had Ghost Ship's logo as its inspiration.

You couldn't even get this right? I mean c'mon lol.

The "GSG logo" helmet comes with the 1st supporter pack.

[💾Mimind💾]

oh boy here we go

[Cynimatic]

drg is pretty fun i think

[kestrel]

yeah, good writeup, i more or less agree with this fully. i always did think the "supporter 2" pack was unnecessary and very self-congratulatory but i never had a reason as to why they might've done it, until now
i echo the sentiment of GSG becoming more corporate because that's exactly what's happening, but there's also a strong level of hubris that's surrounded their development practices recently

i mean obviously they have every right to move on to new projects but it irks me seeing them claim to want to keep working on DRG nearly a decade after it's launched whilst also claiming one of the reasons why RC is its own game is so they can start fresh with a codebase. which one is it?

it's nuts to think they could simultaneously work on DRG and RC simultaneously, especially with the latter needing much more attention. we've ended up in this situation where they realised "oh wait, working on two games is actually really hard" and now DRG is getting completely shafted until RC stabilizes enough to be left alone for an extended period
just yet more evidence the seasonal model was a mistake

i worry that all of this expansion is happening too fast, and that leads me to wonder how much of it is GSG's intention and how much is embracer group leaning on them to make more profit. both survivor and rogue core were announced far too early for their own good

[MrPurple33]

I Won't Respond To Everything, But As For the Supporter Edition 2 DLC, That Coincided
With the 5th Anniversary Of DRG, Where They Had the Fancy Setup For the Space Rig
(Yes They Repeated It For the 6th Anniversary, But Before That the Decorations Were
Much Simpler)

So the DLC Had Fancy, Gilded, Baroque Weapon Skins, and a Fancy Armor Set
Along With Some Other Goodies, and As With All DLCs You Could Buy It Or Not-
Nothing 'Strange' There, So I'm Not Sure Why the OP Mentions It As With the Announcement Of GSG Publishing and Some Other Things- The Devs Knew The Big
5th Anniversary Was Coming Up, They Made a Planned DLC For It, and Had Planned Out Other Ventures, So They Made One Large Tie-In Announcement About Their (Then) Current and Upcoming Plans, and Did It All At Once, When the News and Attention Was Around
the Game's 5th Anniversary- Nothing Shady Going On There

[Ser Pounce]

Originally posted by μuKnew:

Let's pretend that DRG started development in 2018. I can't find info on how long the pre-EA alphas were in development, but I would assume not too long, maybe a couple months, considering their quality.

The game was in development for 2 years before Early Access.

[Ser Pounce]

Do you guys think all those people are coordinating on a discord somewhere ? I'm pretty sure they are, at this point.

[Ser Pounce]

Originally posted by sam:

New seasons are cool but I wish they would do an overhaul for perks & weapon mod interactions with OCs, considering updating that wouldn't hardly take any time at all.

You're so very very very wrong. Just making a couple OC is already a massive time sink.

[Chibbity]

Originally posted by Ser Pounce:

Do you guys think all those people are coordinating on a discord somewhere ? I'm pretty sure they are, at this point.

Yeah, it's pretty coincidental; certainly more substantial than our usual trickle of bait farmers.

[Ser Pounce]

Originally posted by Chibbity:

Originally posted by Ser Pounce:

Do you guys think all those people are coordinating on a discord somewhere ? I'm pretty sure they are, at this point.

Yeah, it's pretty coincidental; certainly more substantial than our usual trickle of bait farmers.

We got a few on the discord too.

[RaindropperinG]

Originally posted by kestrel:

yeah, good writeup, i more or less agree with this fully. i always did think the "supporter 2" pack was unnecessary and very self-congratulatory but i never had a reason as to why they might've done it, until now
i echo the sentiment of GSG becoming more corporate because that's exactly what's happening, but there's also a strong level of hubris that's surrounded their development practices recently

i mean obviously they have every right to move on to new projects but it irks me seeing them claim to want to keep working on DRG nearly a decade after it's launched whilst also claiming one of the reasons why RC is its own game is so they can start fresh with a codebase. which one is it?

it's nuts to think they could simultaneously work on DRG and RC simultaneously, especially with the latter needing much more attention. we've ended up in this situation where they realised "oh wait, working on two games is actually really hard" and now DRG is getting completely shafted until RC stabilizes enough to be left alone for an extended period
just yet more evidence the seasonal model was a mistake

i worry that all of this expansion is happening too fast, and that leads me to wonder how much of it is GSG's intention and how much is embracer group leaning on them to make more profit. both survivor and rogue core were announced far too early for their own good

As usual, I see some of your points/concerns, but mostly do not agree with the general sentiment of the post.

I can't possibly know what the dev team thoughts were when making important decisions, such as the Seasonal model introduction, during game development, but what you said seems too cynical to me.
Not to say they'd be above making mistakes, but still.

Aside from that, what alternative situation would we be in, had they not chosen to go the Seasons route?

Would they simply had given us the equivalent of seasonal content, but in more frequent and less heavy updates?

What about if they didn't start developing Rogue Core in full, but they'd rather be sticking to DRG, despite the technical limitations built upon years of additions and their desire to try somewhat of a new project?

Would we just be getting even more sparse updates, with an ever waning interest on the devs' part, as years go by?


Again, I don't deem GSG infallible, but I seriously doubt them being foolish either.

As unpleasant as it can be for DRG fans to wait so long for new updates, perhaps GSG's decisions and the work on RG will end up benefiting both games, in the end.

[marcusaddamsson]

Games on Steam have a limited shelf-life. I mean, sure... DRG is $29.99 on a normal day. But given its age, users have expectations that it will go on sale frequently and with a high discount (I've seen it for $2.99). Seems to me... GSG can't really make a ton of money on that kinda transaction. Wishlist it, wait for a few weeks... Steam gives you all the tools you need to get it cheaper, if not sooner.

Anyone 'round here play Rimworld? 'Cuz on the RW forums, there's a near constant newly formed thread, "Why aren't there ever any sales on this game?" Cuz the devs took a game that has a good long-term following (kinda like DRG), and then made a point of rarely discounting it (unlike DRG)... and if they do discount it, it's like 10%. And then the DLCs are expensive as well (at least for DLCs), and there's nearly always a thread about that as well.

OP (like sooooo many others) assumes they know GSG motivations. You almost can't. Too many variables are cloaked in secrecy. Personally, I'm still looking forward to plonkin' my 29.99 down for RC, 'cuz I've been rather impressed with their design choices over the years.

[Tyyne]

tl&dr:

"I am upset that I am not getting infinite updates for free and the developers should not be allowed to do anything else".

Did I get it right or is there something new in this bait post?

--edit--

In the end, even this was not bait, let's think of it this way:

What good are posts like these? Do people think that GSG folks will pop over to the forums, read this and be like "HOLY MOLY be better mend our ways and revert everything we were planning to do and stick to DRG ad infitum!"? Do people like OP really think their opinion is anything more than hot air when it comes to decision making at GSG?

It also does not matter at all if people are worried or not about the future of GSG and their decisions, motivations and/or their projects. What good is it if we lose sleep over what they are doing? Do they message for our opinions about what or how should they be running their business? No? So why worry? Is it so that someone can come gloating later that "ha-HA! I was right, GSG is EVIL now! I told you so!". Or is it so that they can come posting on the forums that they knew all along that GSG is the bright defender of the righteous and they can do no wrong?

Either way, it's useless and even moreso, pointless. Enjoy what you have, rejoice on the good times you had (and probably will keep having) in DRG. I am not saying that people do not have the right to worry, I am saying that worrying like that is pointless (and people will most likely just see posts like this as bait).

[kestrel]

Originally posted by RaindropperinG:

Aside from that, what alternative situation would we be in, had they not chosen to go the Seasons route?

Would they simply had given us the equivalent of seasonal content, but in more frequent and less heavy updates?

Yes that's exactly what we were getting post launch and pre seasons. It was by far the best period for the game, when we were regularly getting high quality content that expanded on previous mechanics and gave us permanent, long term content

They could've easily kept doing that and the game would've continued continued thrive. nobody was asking for a seasonal update model, nobody wanted updates to be bloated with battle passes and an overbearing "villain of the week" per every two seasons that doesn't even look like it came from the same game

There was literally nothing wrong with what came before. I don't know why they felt the need to change it