This is very important, I think. It should be a “priority”

I was going through the suggestion, and I was sad that I never saw any member of the team react to them. Then I realized there is a suggestion list. And this suggestion, among others, is on that list.

I really felt like the team didn't care as they never react on the forum. But I can see at least one person reads and acknowledges what we say here. More communication would mean that we don't have the Nth “upgrades should be pebbles” thread because the previous ones were forgotten and people think it was never asked for. I fear given more time, if communication keeps like, people will leave LW because they think the team doesn't care as they never engage with us. A more “hands on” the suggestion forum should be a first step.

Then there is what for me is “the discord problem”. There are many people in there, and it is very active, and I feel the team is more present on it. But discord is not for every one. For example, I don't feel well on very populated discord, I prefer forums as they are slower paced. It's another fear that I have that there will be a separation between people on discord and people here. And as time goes on, a rift is created and an information drought is created in here. I've seen it happen many times before in other games. For me, the team should be present on every platform equally, despite the size difference of their population.

Edit: now I looked more in depth into the suggestion index, I'm not even sure what is in there. Is it things that will be done (there are a number of suggestions with no support for them), or a list of everything that has been suggested over time (which is a bit useless in my opinion)? That shows even more why communication is crucial.

@DerpFox

it's just a list of suggestions that had been made. i think a moderator is compiling it for the dev team so it's easier to look through

I do hope site-relevant communications are relayed to the site more clearly; a lot of people (including myself) were a bit upset and confused on dragon cave during the easter event a little bit back when the announcement post silently changed the listed end time of the event without any official announcements at all. The lack of notice for the update was cited as being because it was apparently “announced” on the Discord server, and it was blamed on users for their own lack of involvement there rather than on divided communication that inherently excludes the many users who aren't using the server.

An off-site chat server is a good hangout and I'm glad one exists even if I don't partake in it, but I do think that administration needs to be careful to keep information present on the site itself even if they feel that “most” users are on the server. I'm not saying that any such lack of communication has happened here yet, only expressing that I hope it doesn't, as it definitely soured my attitude towards Dragon Cave. I know it can be a lot of information, and it wouldn't necessarily be super helpful to be making constant announcements.

If the dev team is reading this, one site I'm on has an official thread that exists for posting ‘minor’ updates to the website that don't warrant their own announcement but keep users up-to-date on changes over time. Things like new site theme colors, minor bugfixes, and other little modifications get posted there. That might be a good way to let users know what's being worked on or updated here and there between bigger, more eventful overhauls and events?

Regarding the suggestion index, it does look like a compilation of what has been suggested to discourage duplicate threads in order to keep things about one topic into one thread (otherwise people who are very passionate about one idea could all make individual threads to flood the first page of the board). It could very well be maintained by a moderator to make their life easier.

But I know for a fact that the developers ARE reading the suggestions, because one that I suggested in a thread with no replies at all got implemented (the ability to x out the grey announcement bar) shortly after I made my thread (it was like…the next day, I think?). There's also the fact that the Korvo account is posting on suggestions to lock duplicates, and I doubt they'd let the mod team control an important story NPC.

Discord is not the way to go for updates, unless it's something like emergency maintenance or the website going down due to server hosting issues because naturally in those “curtains down” cases you can't post to the website. At that point, it becomes like other social media platforms. If the dev team was more specific such as “learn about smaller tweaks and changes we make before they're compiled into a larger patch notes post at the end of the week,” I'd give them a pass for being upfront about what perks you get by being in the server. Since, fine, I don't need to be announced to immediately that Cooking auto selects the maximum number when throwing raw ingredients into the pot especially since I found out about it when it happened. But if a lot of important things are ONLY posted there…I hope someone in the server makes a pinglist to post screenshots of important developer messages to the forums for those who aren't in there.

Also, I hope the developers aren't taking the “we can't post on suggestion threads because it would imply something is guaranteed to get in” direction for interacting with this board. That leaves the players to squabble about what is theoretically possible, especially on the backend, which is not good since then you get a ton of people saying no support on an innocent suggestion because it's “too hard to code” which isn't constructive at all.

I would definitely like the site and the Discord on the same page as I am in the Discord myself, I don't frequently check it and have my notifs/mentions/@everyones completely off for anxiety reasons.

Forums is how I like to communicate and I'd feel most comfortable communicating with staff on the official site versus an off site server. It's very convenient to have both for a lot of people, but I'd like to just have any site news posted to the site front page and not something I have to dig for.

As for things like suggestions, I'd definitely like to see something like say a monthly patch notes for minor changes and tweaks that have been added. It would be nice as well to get some developer feedback on some suggestions in the forums on what would be possible on the backend.

There doesn't need to be much more than a response of “we are taking this into consideration” for some suggestions that are being genuinely considered, just to let users know they're being heard more directly, though I personally wouldn't mind hearing some technical process behind some changes/decisions for transparency on some issues/mechanics on site if developers ever wish to communicate that information to the playerbase which I feel would ease some frustrations players have currently and lead to better suggestions and features for the site ultimately.

Having the playerbase involved in some small capacity such as this with active site development and discussion would build a lot of strong user trust in the development team and keep the door open at all for civil discussion between the playerbase and devs about the current state of things, especially with the currently proposed polling system.

Agreeing with most others here that more communication, especially onsite communication is needed, especially since the game just launched.

I agree with the others that hiring a community manager, even as a volunteer position, would be extremely beneficial for the health of the userbase and the site's image. There needs to be a clear division of labor and more positions opened, so that the few employees don't get overwhelmed trying to do many site upkeep functions, including community management, at once.

Chiming in again to agree with what's been said on this page, a community manager would work wonders, and I am certain if it must be voluntary- someone would step up, I would apply for sure, plenty of people love what we have here, keeping the community involved and happy is vital! Just being in the loop on what's being worked on, what's being considered- a vague idea on the road ahead apart from new systems like the achievements would be enough for me personally.

I specifically would love to know if certain suggestions like expansions being Moonstones, are being thought of at all- even just a mod response to the thread saying it's being considered. Just feeling heard will be reassuring!

And changes being made live with no announcements at all shouldn't be a thing unless they're spelling mistakes or quick bug fixes- 2 letter names are allowed now, the minor detail of the banner being hide-able- they're silent changes I assume will be announced later, but if they're currently live- why not have somewhere to show it? I think the 2 letter name thing was actually exciting enough for a small announcement! This is a small change but one that gives the community more freedom, it's going to be appreciated!

Also, I hope the developers aren't taking the “we can't post on suggestion threads because it would imply something is guaranteed to get in” direction for interacting with this board. That leaves the players to squabble about what is theoretically possible, especially on the backend, which is not good since then you get a ton of people saying no support on an innocent suggestion because it's “too hard to code” which isn't constructive at all.

I specifically would love to know if certain suggestions like expansions being Moonstones, are being thought of at all- even just a mod response to the thread saying it's being considered. Just feeling heard will be reassuring!

@Ninetales @Lai thank you for saying this. I wondered if I should make a suggestion thread saying that mods should allow themselves to comment on suggestions, just so players have some certainty about whether an idea was being considered. I saw the “Change Expansion Moonstone Prices” thread put in the Suggestion Index, so I took that to mean that the mods had seen it and were potentially considering all the comments in that thread about how it wasn't great that profession expansions were locked behind premium currency. But I would like something more concrete than just my own personal guess, because it would make me really feel as though suggestions were being heard. And if an idea is not going to be implemented, I think players deserve to know that too.

I disagree that the Community Manager position should be voluntary. It should be a paid position, especially if the developers keep their current interaction with their game as it is now. Being a Community Manager isn't just reading posts and passing things along, it is a lot more than that. At a minimum, you'd have responsibilities such as responding to and handling support tickets (keeping an eye on trends that come in especially), managing the moderation team because they deal specifically with the community, craft announcement posts and outreach, and potentially also manage the social media accounts. There could be more than that as well depending on what the team needs. Your best bet at this is probably applying to be a volunteer moderator since chances are you'll have direct communication with the developers by being on the team.

I suppose that isn't in the spirit of the suggestion at hand, but since the devs are likely reading this thread, it's good to get out there.

@Ninetales

Just to clarify, I totally agree it shouldn't be a voluntary position- that was moreso speaking from a desperate standpoint of it not being financially feasible etc, since we really do need one and it feels odd that one hasn't been onboarded yet. The actual paid staff team needs to be bigger in a few areas, things would likely be a lot smoother all around that way.