Fourth AMA Session: Answers

Greetings, Feudals,

Welcome to the fourth AMA session. We are here once again to address your questions about Life is Feudal:MMO development, maintenance, and our future plans.

You might notice that we have fewer answers today than usual. The reason behind this is the excellent and specific questions we've received from you about particular game mechanics. We're currently working on changes and improvements to these mechanics, and we want to provide you with the most accurate and up-to-date information. Therefore, we'll be addressing these questions in our upcoming AMA sessions, once we have more finalized information on these mechanics.

We appreciate your understanding and look forward to continuing these productive discussions in future sessions. So, without further ado, let's dive into answers!

Will the game still being expensive?

The $20 subscription fee allows us to consistently provide high-quality updates, fresh content, and maintain superior servers to ensure you have the best gaming experience possible.

Your subscription goes directly towards supporting our dedicated team of developers, designers, and support staff who work tirelessly to keep the world of Life is Feudal engaging and immersive. Thanks to committed players like you, we are able to keep the game operational and prosperous!

Constantly, we aim to ensure your gaming experience justifies every cent spent. As we navigate through this virtual feudal world together, we appreciate your understanding and ongoing support. Remember, the realm of Life is Feudal is expansive, and there's always a new adventure on the horizon!

Can you please do something about guilds exploiting the greenzone to hide all their stuff?

As we've mentioned before, we're actively looking for suitable solutions to balance Green Zones without removing them. We understand that some exploits involve the use of the Traveler's Totems, which we reinstated in recent patches. 

We are in active discussion with experienced players and guilds to find a solution and are working through ideas with our game designers. Most solutions we've considered so far can either be bypassed using alternate accounts (limiting guild interactions), or they completely cut off a portion of the territory from the game map, which we'd prefer to avoid.

If you have any suggestions, we encourage you to post them in the appropriate pinned thread in the 

Suggestions section of our Discord

Your input is valued!

When do we get roadmap for updates/steps to make game better so active and inactive players can see whats your goal and what to expect?

We're currently adhering to a flow of regular updates. Every Tuesday, we conduct server maintenance, and every two weeks, we release what we've managed to create or fix during the previous fortnight.

We aim to publish a more detailed roadmap outlining our plans soon, possibly on a platform that allows for live updates rather than simply an image.

Notably, we're currently working on and planning to add the following features:

1. In-game 3D positional voice chat.

2. Rewards for subscription duration and game logins.

3. Optimization related to in-game object collisions that increase load.

These are in addition to the regular bug fixes, both minor and significant, that we regularly release and plan to continue releasing. 

We hope this gives you a clearer picture of our goals and what you can expect in the future. 

When will you remove "bubble" around character and objects (f.e. horse) causing lags and desync?

We are planning to address this issue in the upcoming weeks, provided there are no more critical bugs that arise. We understand the impact this has on the gaming experience, and appreciate your patience as we work on enhancing the game's performance.

When do you fix guild rankings and JHs?

We plan to address the issues with guild rankings and JHs after we release the fix for the trading post issue (disappearing items), which is scheduled for one of the upcoming updates. 

When do you fix "fixed" parry glitch?

We rely on your feedback to help us identify and fix issues. If you believe that the "fixed" parry glitch is still not functioning correctly, please provide detailed feedback or report it. We will thoroughly review the functionality and make necessary adjustments if it's not working as intended. 

Are you going to enable Travel Totems in greenzone again?

As you may already be aware, the Travel Totems have been reintroduced into the game. However, this does not mean that they are immune to change. We constantly monitor the game's environment and are committed to adjusting its mechanics to ensure that gameplay remains both engaging and fair. 

Do you guys plan on having different subscription costs, or making any changes with the costs?

We currently do not have any plans to reduce the base price of the subscription in the near future. We appreciate your understanding and assure you that we continually strive to provide value and a high-quality gaming experience for our subscribers.

When will you make a video in which we see development team talk about the game? We want to meet you!

We truly appreciate your interest in getting to know our development team. As our team is located around the world, we are currently considering the appropriate format to make this happen. Rest assured, we're planning to create dev-talks or dev diaries where you can get to know at least some of our team members better. Stay tuned!

Are you aware there are parts of the map that your character can fall through under the map and cannot get out?

We are aware of this issue where characters can fall through the map, and we deeply regret the inconvenience it has caused. In the upcoming patch, we plan to add logging that will help us pinpoint this problem. We've received several support tickets and seen community screenshots about this issue, but our team has not yet been able to reproduce it. We hope that once we add the logs, we'll be able to locate and fix this problem with high priority.

In the meantime, please continue to reach out to our support team if your character experiences this issue, and we will assist in retrieving your character. Thank you for your understanding and patience.

Can you tell us more about the F2P server variant you mentioned in a previous AMA?

At this time, we aren't able to share detailed information about the Free-to-Play version. Rest assured, we will provide more information about the F2P version closer to its release. We appreciate your understanding and look forward to sharing more details in the future.

Are any quality of life changes in the immediate future, outside of bug fixes, planned? If so, what are they?

One notable quality of life improvement planned for the near future is the implementation of a 3D positional voice chat. We're currently testing this feature and adapting it for the live server while simultaneously fixing minor bugs. We will show you screenshots before the feature's release... but perhaps voice chat screenshots might not be very representative. Maybe it's better to record a TikTok video?

How does the feedback pipeline work? What is the path a suggestion takes when its initially posted in the forum?

The path a suggestion takes when initially posted in the forum varies based on the type of suggestion. However, the primary recommendations that come through our community or support teams are transferred to a general backlog. Here, they are evaluated by the producer, project team, and developers. We pay particular attention to suggestions that receive the most votes or reactions in our Discord section.

Our team also actively monitors social media (both our official and third-party channels) and makes suggestions based on community feedback. 

Afterwards, we evaluate these suggestions using the RICE scoring model and prioritize them accordingly. We assure you that each suggestion is considered and helps shape the future of our game.

How are bugs prioritized? Currently, the JH timers and destruction of blueprints during JH are being exploited but then there's bugs (like the horse bug on server crossing) that have been around forever- how would those bugs be prioritized against each other (as an example)?

Bug prioritization is a complex process that often hinges on various factors. As mentioned earlier, we primarily use the RICE scoring model for prioritization. 

The type of bug also plays a significant role in its prioritization. Life is Feudal: MMO has a diverse infrastructure that utilizes various components, including the game engine, web elements, and even a secretive LiF component that makes its own decisions or a combination of these. 

In simpler terms, we prioritize fixing issues that affect the most players and cause the greatest irritation. We give the highest priority to those we can fix as quickly as possible. We acknowledge the frustration bugs can cause and are committed to improving your gaming experience.

To which extent can we expect changes to the game? Are you guys able to change stuff regarding networking, engine features etc?

We have full access to both the game engine and networking aspects of Life is Feudal. However, the engine for LiF is a modified version of Torque3D, and we are still in the process of identifying its limits before attempting to make changes. In the meantime, we are optimizing elements that we believe require optimization. This means that we are indeed capable of making changes to engine features, network functions, and other core aspects of the game.

We now had a soft launch and the map will never be wiped again. Many veterans are now building up their bases, maxing out their skills and filling up the warehouses. When marketing begins for the official release, how will new players be handled?

As we move towards the official release, we understand the importance of making the game accessible and enjoyable for new players. To that end, we plan to introduce a feature that allows for easy access to game guides and a guild search function, directly within the game. This will make it easier for new players to understand the game mechanics and find a guild to join. We believe that this approach will help new players integrate into the game community more effectively.

Leveling system: Can we get a by action xp when we do an action repeatedly. Apply an X amount of Xp to mining when I mine on top of the overtime. Allow some flexibility to the actual system.

We appreciate your suggestion about adjusting the leveling system. Please submit your suggestion through the appropriate channel so that we can gauge other players' reactions to this idea. We value all player input, and this idea will be forwarded to our team for further consideration. Your feedback plays a vital role in improving our game, so please continue to share your thoughts and ideas with us.

What happens to a character and claim when someone has a subscription break? How long can a subscription break last before something is lost?

During a subscription break, your character remains unaffected. At present, we have disabled decay for personal monuments and are considering how best to reintroduce this feature. 

Right now, you don't have anything to worry about. However, even during a break, it's a good idea to keep an eye on updates so that you're aware of any changes. As always, we aim to balance maintaining the integrity of the game world with respecting the needs of our players.

Have you considered a system like in Old School Runescape where future updates are brought up to the community and the actual people PLAYING and PAYING votes for which update to happen?

Yes, we have considered adopting a community-driven system for deciding future updates, where active players have a say in the voting process. We are exploring ways to implement this feature to easily count the votes of active players. 

We have several significant ideas that require serious development, and knowing the opinions of our active players regarding these updates is crucial to us. Stay tuned for further information about this initiative.