Where Are the Updates?

[Athene]

Simple as the title. Perfect opportunity to toss a response here, @devs. No speculations on what you're doing or rumors of what's going on; just a simple question.

 

Why have we not received any new updates?

[Akemi]

Last one was March 8, guess that makes it 3 months now. Gonna be another thread full of complains sooner or later ~

 

We know they are working on the new Unity Stuffles but would be cool if a dev could say how the progress with that job is going, the 'crowd' is obviously getting bored and impatient.

 

In the mean time, there's lots of modding going on from the userbase side to compensate with the lack of new content.

 

So you can literally say that when the devs don't have time for new stuff the users generate their own stuff. Kinda cool actually.

 

Just look out for the user mods and let them entertain you a bit while you wait for the big update.

[LEKS]

Well, this is good question...

[AHT]

One assumes they are working on other ventures - They appear to have created some kind of virtual stripper application recently. Or maybe they decided to start from scratch! Who knows!? Some kind of news would be nice though!

[Malvasiah]

How do we know they work at all? This begins to look more and more like a big hoax. I start to believe in the april fools theory.

[Lysbeth]

Hi !!!

 

Is there still anybody running the show?? 

 

Just give us a sign, a date, a hope only, at least....

 

Nothing since the 1st april wich was only a preview... :(

[HotTS]

I recall they announced it on 1st April. A large change to come but they never mentioned when it would be.

If you see, it is the first update we see on the list everytime we log-in.

 

Last time (patch 337?) it took them a couple of months to do an important upgrade (the one I loved so much!!!).

Now, it looks like they are changing the all platform so I suppose it is why it is taking so long.

I also imagine it is the reason why they don't release any single patch (a sex position or an outfit) in between.

 

So, like you, am anxious looking forward for the new release... 

 

Ashbash, Lisa, we would appreciate some indication.

Can I suggest you release a beta and get the community to test it?

[Briana]

Simple as the title. Perfect opportunity to toss a response here, @devs. No speculations on what you're doing or rumors of what's going on; just a simple question.

 

Why have we not received any new updates?

Cause   is    I heard somewhere...

[Yagi]

I'd sign up for the beta program too. Please let me know if you're in need of beta testers. I was a beta tester for Windows 10 and Elder Scrolls Online.

[Athene]

Ashbash, Lisa, we would appreciate some indication.

Can I suggest you release a beta and get the community to test it?

Just to be clear, Ash is not a dev. He has no part in anything and probably knows just as much as us.

 

Cause midlink-302x148.jpg  is  1.jpg  I heard somewhere...

I don't want to read/hear rumors or speculations. I want to know the truth from the devs. I'd like to see an actual response, even if it's just a "don't worry, we're still here" or "hold tight". It does not need to be a lengthy explanation (even though this would be best). It just needs to be an attempt at communicating with the community, because so far this silent treatment is getting ridiculous and has been an ongoing thing with the devs since the get-go. It's about time there is some change (in so many ways).

[claudi]

Cause midlink-302x148.jpg  is  1.jpg  I heard somewhere...

i heard the rumours too...

 

maybe the new owner will be faster...

[Briana]

Hey all! I think he got the answer, just ask him ---->

[Guest Twiggy]

I don't think the place is for sale, well not actively looking for a buyer as I guess anything is for sale at the right price.

I am sure the devs are working on the new 3DXChat, how hard they are and how much time and effort they are applying to it I don't know, but not working on it would mean the next update would have very little in it for the time they have used.

That would loose them a lot of players and they would have to know and care about that.

 

I have been thinking about what they may be working on that could be taking some time to do.

If they have decided to really upgrade how our avatars will look then there can be a lot of work in certain parts of that.

For instance, if they have improved the looks of our skin and texture, then the hair they have at the moment could look very out of place.

They may have to replace many or even all hair for the new version.

I know from having put just a couple of different hair styles in Unity 5 that different hair styles can need different shaders, and it can take a lot of trial and error to get just one style appearing how it should.

They often have multiple layers, and each layer needing different shaders, it just takes a while to get it looking the way you want.

All I can say there is if they are doing that we are going to have much sexier looking avatars, how important that is to you is up to you, for me it is important as that is the main visual that attracts me to this game.

 

I think the devs would have to have some things they could show us, like where they are with avatars.

Even if they were to just say, we are presently working on improving the look of avatars in 3DXChat 2, we apologise for the time it is taking, we have found hair styles in particular are very time consuming. 

Anything like that, just something to let us know a little on what is going on.

[Matrix]

A long time ago I worked for a development company. I was good friends the with person that was in charge of development. Everytime I walked into his office i would see a stack of paper about a foot high with change requests and improvements.  It was about 2 man years worth of work at the very least.

 

Based on what I've read, 3DX is there lively hood. Its there baby or child. They care and nurture it as best they can as you would if it was your company. 

 

My guess is... As with many developers, they don't update their users well because they hate not delivering what was promised due to technical issues or whatever.  They also don't like getting burned with missed timelines which is very common in the development world.  They fear looking stupid or incompetent. The technical challenges are huge I'm sure. That said, I agree they should make a better effort in updating us.

 

This next upgrade is a major undertaking with a significant element of risk. It takes time. When the next update comes, and it will come, some of us will look stupid for making false statements and spreading rumors without naming names.

 

The glass is always half filled. Enjoy the game.

[Athene]

It's not a matter of the update coming or not... It's about keeping us in the loop of why promised dates for new content are passing us by without receiving said updates. It's about talking to the community and reassuring the masses that nothing is up in flames and they still plan to do their best despite going back on their word (over and over and over again).

 

As SamanthaSweetheart said and many others, their latest communication on April Fool's Day about 2.0 is now looking like it truly was just a big joke. It's not like the content comes at a decent pace to begin with. All that did was add salt to a wound that was so gaping to begin with.

[Maydena]

Honestly, after three months of no updates from the developers and not even a peep on the client about anything it just makes you feel like this is abandonware. Frankly after getting a year subscription I don't really see myself renewing it simply because their accessibility to their own customers is next to zero. Given what people pay on a monthly basis for this game it isn't exactly cheap to keep a subscription going month after month when you have games with far more social opportunities than this one affords. 
 

Sadly I do not think that most developers understand that even if you don't have something -ready- you should be telling your clients and customers that you are in fact working on something. Not go underground for 3 months with no word. Makes for very very bad customer experience hence why I log on maybe once in a blue moon to this place now.

[JazzAhDee]

Maybe this is all part of some social experiment where we are being tested on waiting/anticipation/frustration combined with a sexual virtual world.  Somebody working on their PH.D.  I certainly feel like a test animal being poked and prodded.  The daily XGold is the cheese. 

[Camden]

A long time ago I worked for a development company. I was good friends the with person that was in charge of development. Everytime I walked into his office i would see a stack of paper about a foot high with change requests and improvements.  It was about 2 man years worth of work at the very least.

 

Based on what I've read, 3DX is there lively hood. Its there baby or child. They care and nurture it as best they can as you would if it was your company. 

 

My guess is... As with many developers, they don't update their users well because they hate not delivery what was promised due to technical issues or whatever.  They also don't like getting burned with missed timelines which is very common in the development world.  They fear looking stupid or incompetent. The technical challenges are huge I'm sure. That said, I agree they should make a better effort in updating us.

 

This next upgrade is a major undertaking with a significant element of risk. It takes time. When the next update comes, and it will come, some of us will look stupid for making false statements and spreading rumors without naming names.

 

The glass is always half filled. Enjoy the game.

In a lot of those cases they have project managers who works with them on estimations, what gets released and when in order of priority. They manage scope and change control. They then communicate to the user. I have never seen such lack of communication. I am sure a project that is active would not be delayed for two man years. In my experience change request are approved or denied. Improvements go right along with change requests as enhancements unless they are bugs. I have worked with large and small companies. The only difference has been the amount of resources. In some cases lack of processes but even in those cases there is some communication because otherwise clients would go elsewhere and all of that money spent developing gets wasted or the project gets put on hold. I call that development hell.

[Guest SayaX]

A long time ago I worked for a development company. I was good friends the with person that was in charge of development. Everytime I walked into his office i would see a stack of paper about a foot high with change requests and improvements.  It was about 2 man years worth of work at the very least.

 

Based on what I've read, 3DX is there lively hood. Its there baby or child. They care and nurture it as best they can as you would if it was your company. 

 

My guess is... As with many developers, they don't update their users well because they hate not delivery what was promised due to technical issues or whatever.  They also don't like getting burned with missed timelines which is very common in the development world.  They fear looking stupid or incompetent. The technical challenges are huge I'm sure. That said, I agree they should make a better effort in updating us.

 

This next upgrade is a major undertaking with a significant element of risk. It takes time. When the next update comes, and it will come, some of us will look stupid for making false statements and spreading rumors without naming names.

 

The glass is always half filled. Enjoy the game.

 

 

It must have been a long time ago if they were using paper! Today we use tools like JIRA and Trello

 

There will always be a bunch of stuff sitting in the backlog in development which will never get looked at. You have requirements that come in (probably set by themselves) which we treat as priority. And major bugs, priority P1-P3 raised by testers or customers are fixed. Issues P4 or P5 are typically parked in the backlog until there is enough capacity in the team to do it.

 

We have no idea what their current workstack is like. I have noticed more and more server outages recently which will obviously take priority over anything else.

 

All we do ask for is some communication, because the community is starting to lose faith that there is even an update coming. And will 3DX 2.0 actually provide a more stable base to work off that makes updates in the future less brittle and easier and makes user submitted content easier to submit? Who knows. I am cynical. I think this will just make the graphics a little better and then they take a big vacation for a few months as they enjoy the extra revenue from people coming from other online worlds.

[Nionlight]

At last devs could say another "soon" so we know they are still alive and we can wait for other 3 months...

 

You know every "soon" is a 3 months wait...

 

But if you ask them about some paying problems, they HAVE the time to reply and they REPLY on forum... you can find this in the prepaid card thread and you see how many times the devs posted something during this update time with "no communication".

 

Since the "monster" party at fresco, I was thinking devs were looking for business partners, because it seems they need more money. And this was a bad sign in my opinion.

 

Thus I believe they read the forum, and the fact they don't reply anything is still bad message to me about the future of this game.

 

My thought is that they are working on the update but they are stuck in some business/commercial problem as well. This is making the update slow to be launched or even stopped. I am not a programmer but a lot of users in here has good experience on that and they told us already that passing from unity 4 to 5 is not such a big big difficult action.

So everybody started to think (and to hope) that this update will be surely full of new things too, that's why it is still not out.

 

I don't think so.

 

I think there must be some commercial/business or whatever problem that concerns the money. Money move everything faster in these kind of things.

 

And this could explain why devs are not communicating anything about it. They cannot communicate about commercial things.

 

Kiss

 

Nion

[vladok]

The silence of the developers and the lack of updates has amused everyone.
Well, we all stop the subscription and go to  @chat / SL?
3 months of no updates. What are we doing here? )))

[Cordelia]

We're using up our annual sub Vladok, that's what we are doing.

[TopHatCat]

I've used 3DXChat for a month just to try it out several months ago and while I enjoy meeting people online, it always felt like everyone was closed off in their own world not being very social. I met some cool people though.

 

For me, it's not all about the sex. Graphically the game is amazing and my favorite part is being social. Meeting others and trying to just hang out and have fun (dancing, glitching out of the map, listening music, talking). Sex is just a bonus for those that want to take a relationship to the next level. Be it role-playing (dating) or whatever.

 

I've been apart of online social communities before and I love them. Graphically this is my favorite and is why I played it - not really for the sex. Just haven't seen anything new as for updates so never came back.

[HotTS]

Athene, I know Ashbash is not a Dev but Lisa is.

Ashbash has always been very proactive in the forum and he used to facilitate dialogue with Lisa (who, I think, is not fluent in English). I haven't seen any reply from Ashbash in the last month so I suspect he left.

 

I appreciated you speak about a Sales rumor. But firms that are target of merge&acquisition use to work a lot to make their value higher. 3DX has simply stopped working.

 

Has anyone contacted Support and got an answer? That could confirm 3DX is still on.

[Deelicous]

If you check his profile you will see that ash did in fact leave us

 

http://3dxforum.com/index.php?/user/2172-ashbash/

 

bai ash, will miss your smiley self