Excuse my ignorance on the subject -- I'm not a huge battler, so I can't claim to fully understand how this all works -- but if you normally have a few days before an item is released where you have all the information you need, and it takes you a few days to think up the best/most interesting combination... then time-wise, I guess I'm not following why it takes an extra week post-release to still have stats added? Just trying to understand as a user asking the expert BA. :)

That's actually a very good question.

Why not wait until you have the challenger art, the item art and then, take your time to think of stat and THEN release.

Because when I get a new weapon, I wanna play with my new toy. It's like getting empty boxes for Christmas, and be told I'll actually get the toys on New Year's Day! but at least, I have the box, I know what I'm getting

And that's fine! PLACEHOLDER STATS LMAO I'M ON A BOAT! is a perfect fine description and at least, I can use my weapon when I get it!

It's your fault again.

GO TO THE PILLORY

:( :( :(

I GOT A FORUM POINT FOR THAT PILLORY

it means the site agrees with me

(i got like three forum points today, and like, two in row earlier when i was replying to my suggestion threads, i'm on a ROOOOOOOOOOOOLLL)

I actually honestly don't mind waiting most of the time (hey, sometimes I see something awesome and I want to know how it is ASAP). My issues with this are actually with the responses and how inconsistent and aggressive they seem. Purge went from "I see these the day they are released too ! I could just be boring with them !" to "well, I see it a couple of days before..." From "I like to think it over for a week ! I'll try to get to this if I have time today." to "It's been a week today and IT HAS STATS ! THERE !"

Like dude, calm a bit. I don't know your stress level or what's going on, but you need to take a breath when you start getting some form of criticism. Had you seemed more level headed and just gone with "yeah, I like to think things over for a bit, and sometimes it seems like a while, just to give it something extra. I'll try to work on this" I would personally have no issues here. But the aggression shown (and on other topics, some not even pertaining to you) is very off putting. Or maybe you're like me and seem more aggressive than you mean to, something I am personally working on.

I understand the situation a little better and I appreciate that you're taking the feedback to heart.

However, I still don't fully understand why there was no warning in this case. The artist had to have been working on the challenger and weapon art for more than a day, correct? Why was there no time pre-release to start working out stats? If the item art is so important, can't you start working with an early design sketch? The challenger itself was released with stats and attacks and all that, so obviously some work was done ahead of time.

In the case where you really do not have enough time to stat the weapon beforehand, I'd personally rather the entire release be postponed a few days. That would give you enough extra time to stat the weapon, and we could get the complete package on release.

It's a lot harder to be upset about weapons without stats when we don't know they exist in the first place. So take your time and wait until it's actually ready for release.

Subeta has this problem for a lot of features outside of the BC, too. All of these "soft releases" and incomplete features are really frustrating. We're always promised that "more changes are coming this week!" and I don't fully understand why these releases can't just be postponed a few days.

not a bad idea, I can get behind that.

I feel that most people buy challengers to have them unlocked, to battle something new, and to get exp. at least that's what I do. does anyone unlock castle because they want a ballista? doubtful.

I do see your point, and it is valid probably more for the less seasoned battlers. and these are the people who we need to focus on getting to battle, because more battlers = more emphasis on battling. more battlers would also draw up the prices of boosters without killing all sources of them currently ;c

I think part of the reason we get so antsy about stats coming late on the new weapons is because as far as battling goes, for an average month, we get one new guaranteed challenger and that's about it. We spend weeks anticipating having something to do and then when it's here, and we have to wait a little longer for the weapon drop to be statted, it's a bit.. anti-climatic, almost? Like, you've been looking forward to your birthday alllll month and then it's finally here and the person in charge of bringing the cake only brings you half a cake and you're glad you've got that, at least, but a whole cake would've been even better. [sub].. idk it's also completely possible that I'm talking out of my ass. ¯(ツ)/¯ [/sub]

I think you're right. Wait all month for a new challenger, beat it right away and then you want to play with your new toy but it doesn't do anything yet.

Ah, see now, that was a great response that could have saved some (yeah, me) thinking you're being diskish. Explaining what's up and how you work things could have saved some headaches :p I understand the reasoning behind putting off statting them. And hey, shit happens where either art or coding has to be postponed. But perhaps something that may help would be asking to see the sketch ? It may add a few extra days to work the stats out. Sure, something may need to be altered once it's finished but you'd have a more fleshed out idea.

Oh, and people usually don't buy the challengers for their weapon drops. It's for new challengers ;) You could also leave them without stats and change it once you've got it worked out.

I don't like weapons getting placeholder stats. It's worst than giving just one icon, because one icon clearly states "These aren't the final stats", whereas someone that doesn't really pay attention to battle news or doesn't take the time to test it, will see the placeholder stats, think the weapon is garbage, and sell it for cheap. Then, when it gets actual stats and becomes actually good, people will get (rightfully) mad and feel cheated/tricked.

What I'd like, would be something like this :

D-30: Someone thinks of that challenger/weapon. This is a routine monthly exercise. D-25: That idea is approved D-20: Someone starts drawing both. D-15: Drawing is complete. D-10: BAs design the opponent and give the weapon stats D-5: The weapon & challenger are fully tested. Day D : News announcement, Cash Shop release. There's a new opponent and a new weapon, it has stats. Everyone is happy.

And don't you jump on me with a sentence that starts with "These things are planned months in advance" if you're going to end it with "but we only tell the BAs about the details at the very last minute"

^ It's even worse than that. The BAs shouldn't have to wait until the challenger art is complete to start testing the opponent. Honestly, they can start testing it before an artist even starts on the artwork as long as there's proper communication between departments.

That's industry standard, and if you're not doing it that way then you have two weeks where half your staff is sitting around with nothing to do. That's a waste of everyone's time.

IMHO I would say that you can design an opponent and a weapon without seeing the art but apparently relies a lot on what the weapon looks like to design it. I'm guessing he works a similar way with the opponent. Someone could tell him about the concept before-hand though.

It's not like we're talking actual 3D battling where you'd need animations and whatnot. This is just some coding. TBH I kinda imagined that all the monthly themes would be picked in December of the previous year, and that staff designed both the opponents and statted the weapons months prior. But we have to work with what we have and that is a website mostly run by part-time employees with 5 other jobs. Even in such a connected world, any company working only with remote employees will have critical organisational issues at some point.