State of the Game - Launch weekend. TL;DR - CM, talk to us!

[mojoe_x 68]

Codemasters - we need you to communicate with us. It's the weekend - sure. Why you released the game in this state on a weekend is questionable in the first place - but ok, I get it.

Why do we need you to communicate? Let's recap what's happened over the last week.

• Ultimate Edition owners unlocked and started playing the game late Monday evening BST
• Steam sales are recording anything between 0-20k owners.
• Peak Steam users has been just over 1k - and is continuing in a downwards trend since.
  
• Codemasters 'community' race session on PS4 had 4 attendees. That's right, 4. 5 including ChrisGroves, the CM rep. It lasted less than an hour.
  • Fun fact; This race session had to use a rolling start to hide the glaring multiplayer sync bugs.
• In contrast - GRID 2 had 7.3k players on launch day, with a slow downwards trend over a few weeks.
• It currently sits between 500 and 1k peak players every day. It was released in 2013.
• GRID 2019 is sitting at 'Mixed' review rating, with a very clear trend for disappointment in certain areas for the game.
  • My review is currently the highest rated - you can read up if you're not savvy on a lot of the problems this game's facing.
    https://steamcommunity.com/id/mojoex/recommended/703860?snr=1_5_9__402

 

So on the face of it, this game isn't doing too well. Which is a real crying shame. But there are things that you can, and should be doing, to rectify this ASAP.

Communicate with us. I recently posted in the feedback thread a few times towards Chris. He stated that he's collecting 'an official document' of feedback and suggestions.

I requested that he share that with us, maybe a list of Known Issues with what they're working on, or when we can expect a fix.

His response was a firm "No", with some marketing stuff surrounding it. This is unacceptable.

The same responses are met on the official Discord - with an added bonus of having no-one from CM active there except PJ who is a DIRT rep. So any questions regarding GRID cannot be answered.

Here I'd like to break down some stuff. There's a difference between 'feature requests' and 'content', to actual core implementations and issues that need to be addressed, or at least acknowledged.

This can be broken down for example (And I want to stress that this is not a comprehensive list of the games problems. Just a selection of them);

Feature requests;

• More cars, tracks
• More icons and banners
• More events for career
• Graphical improvements

Core implementations and issues;

• Missing features from previous grid games..
  • Driver profile stats
  • Functioning multiplayer lobbies
  • No AI in multiplayer
• Desync bugs in multiplayer
• Lap bugs in multiplayer
• DX12 issues

Now; I completely understand that the feature requests take some time. They're assessed, planned and then implemented. That's not what the community is looking for.

You only have to spend 10 minutes looking at forums, reviews, Discord and the likes to see that there are so many other issues with the game that simply need to be addressed if this game were to stand a chance.

There's a huge risk of this game being dead in the water right now. It's almost there already. Multiplayer quickmatch is all but unplayable for many. It can take a long time to find a lobby, and that lobby may be a ghost town. Then you have to experience the bugs and lack of features that existed in previous games.

I'm not going into detail about the issues that need to be fixed because you can find them in the links below - but please, CM, we need you to update us.

Talk with us about any issues that we find. Assure us that they're being looked into. Let us know that there's a fix identified and will be implemented with the next patch.

Content, cars, tracks, all of that, I'm sure will come in time. That's not the problem we have with the game. Most of us enjoy the core experience of driving a car on the tracks that are available to us. It's everything else surrounding it.

If we keep telling you about these things without assurance that our concerns are not falling on deaf ears, we won't be around for long.

NOTE: Please don't use this thread as an excuse to meme and throw around abuse at the developers and publishers. They're likely honest, hard working people for a relatively small studio. They're people just like us. Don't start throwing abuse and insults at them - it won't get us anywhere.

If anyone feels like I should add to the above or below, please post.

 

Collated list of example threads, issues and requests;
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[SanGanchaoo 23]

I really hope they will read you, otherwise as you said. We wont be around GRID too much more...which is pretty sad, because all of us want to stay, but must be a minimum level of things adressed ASAP

[GavinMac 235]

There is also a figure of 8 track that you cannot race at in multiplayer, if you do then you get stuck in viewing the field and have to alt-f4

[Cyclone99 6]

I haven't been on this forum for many years prior to posting the multiplayer issues on Friday. I think it was the release of the first F1 game where I followed the forums and we had a lot of feedback from CM on here and issues got resolved with patches as quickly as they could. It now feels like a ghost town on here in regards to CM actually responding. It's a shame but it feels like CM are going downhill, and rapidly with the quality of games over the last few years. If this is the standard we are going to have to accept then I can't see things lasting much longer. It's launch issues that drive people away but they don't seem to understand that.

The game as it is is such a big disappointment I would rather go back to Grid Autosport, just that no one plays it online anymore so rules that out. I think my friends that bought this game have already given up on it, I only play multiplayer so that's probably it for me too. Was so excited to see a Grid reboot but even without the bugs, the game feels empty. May dig out my 360 and go back to Grid on that, at least there are still people playing online on there, and still the best version of Grid to date. 

[Buckwilder 499]

Good post. CM has historically been very tight-lipped about their plans as far as issue fixes. Not to say they don’t acknowledge or do anything with the feedback - but they are not very vocal at the outset. I agree wholeheartedly with the fact they should (and need to be), more transparent with their feedback. With the game only have been released on the 11th, that may explain some of the lack of responsiveness, and I’m sure they will provide an update in the coming days. The issues are present and real enough that without question - the longevity of this title will largely depend on their plan of fix in the short term.

Lets hope they respond in kind and work this out ASAP. Would be a shame to throw away the chance to revive the series, and a game that has a good base on which to build. 

 

[OilSlicker 9]

Codemasters is still a relatively small family oriented company. Probably won't get many responses on a sunday.

[mojoe_x 68]

3 minutes ago, OilSlicker said:

Codemasters is still a relatively small family oriented company. Probably won't get many responses on a sunday.

Not asking for responses on a Sunday. Asking for any response at all that isn't vague and deflecting.

 

12 minutes ago, Buckwilder said:

With the game only have been released on the 11th, that may explain some of the lack of responsiveness, and I’m sure they will provide an update in the coming days.

I truly hope so. For me, the game was released on the 8th. So that's a whole week without any communication. It being released on a Friday gives no room for them to respond over the 'official' release weekend - arguably their most important period. And the tight lipped-ness has existed forever. Completely agree with the rest of your comment though.

[lastbreath 466]

I remember times of GRID2 developing. When moderator Loore even asked people did they find any secrets on the track. Developers had what to show and what to be proud of. Now developers are silent and it seems to me because of impossible deadlines. All media work was with streamers. The only interview I remember also was with streamer. It's clear they tried to avoid uncomfortable questions about damage, graphics and multiplayer from professionals. I guess deadline was broken because "effective" management made developers put the game on DX12 rails.

[Azzawon 30]

Thanks for this thread, it's very well put. I really hope Codies can improve this game to the standard we've all come to expect with their titles. At the moment, it looks like this game has been sent out to die.

[Leocp 107]

Yeah, don't think they will answer at all during a Sunday. But next week they better show up and gives us some answers. Heck, they must to.

 

These very same boards are an indication of the state in which the game has been released. Right now it is an incomplete, untested, unoptimized game. Which is very unusual of Codemasters if you ask me. Seems like they have limited budget and /or time and things got mad rushed. 

Right now they must fix the numerous glitches the game has (it even glitches when scrolling through cars, it show the wrong ones), multiplayer is plain broken and almost unplayable, and the base console versions are basically PS3 quality. Autosport ran way better on the base hardware it was developed for.

 

And then it comes the content, but they have time to fix that. First they need to address the issues of the game as it is now, to secure that the game is at least worth getting for those who read all this and the mixed reviews around internet...

[MartyLow 1]

I love my driving games on the PS4 1080p edition. Played nothing but gt sport since its release and love every second.

I saw the adverts and videos for grid and it looked amazing so I bought it. All can can say is I will NEVER buy a codemasters game again. Grid is a disgrace. Fuzzy graphics, terrible fps. Just a mess. Far too many bugs to mention. What the hell is going on with the rear view and the controls, steering on the logitec is terrible. How anyone can say they are impressed with this game is beyond me. It could have been great if the company bothered to finnish it before release and tested it. 70 quid for the ultimate edition!!!! What a con. Its half finnished at best. Dirt is like driving on soap and a whole other thread. 

Hang your head in shame codemasters. You had classics like the toca series. Get a grip and get it fixed. Learn from GT Sport and Forza. They are classic driving games and the benchmark. Somebody needs a talking to at Codemasters. 

[LaPremierrre 20]

Thanks for this good generalization. For me its really interesting: what about they thought while producing all these? Did they really believe that somebody will like this? Or they dont want at all, that people would enjoy their product and has some other aims? May be, they recieve instructions from World Goverment, or from Great Council of Reptiloids? Its really designing.

[ChrisGrovesMCM 875]

22 hours ago, mojoe_x said:

NOTE: Please don't use this thread as an excuse to meme and throw around abuse at the developers and publishers. They're likely honest, hard working people for a relatively small studio. They're people just like us. Don't start throwing abuse and insults at them - it won't get us anywhere.

 

Hey 🙂 Thanks for taking the time to wrap all this together. 

Couple of things to clear up: 

- Expecting community feedback to be looked at, taken seriously and acted upon is fair and, as I've said many times before, it is literally counter-productive for us not to do that. Never understand why people assume this isn't taking place, even if you don't explicitly see it, as avoiding community feedback makes no sense at all. Everything we can possibly look into is being done so, and we're intent on addressing as much as we can regarding player-related feedback. 🙂 

- My personal priority-list in terms of looking at feedback on these Forums is: 1) The Technical Assistance page, because that's where we've instructed players to give us constructive feedback for us to act on; 2) Anything I'm @'d/tagged in; and 3) the General Discussion threads. If you're not reporting something in the TA section, @ me into your comment and I'll do all I can do get back to you. 

- The Discord channel (which is really fun!) states from the start that it is not a channel for reporting issues or going through the community feedback process. We have other channels, like this one, for that purpose. 

- On not being able to disclose a full list of known issues or suggestions, being "not acceptable", the "some marketing stuff" is details that explain how I'd be fired if we did that. Disclosing a list like this would also lead many to assume we're going to address everything on that list, when in reality, the situation will be much more complex and long-winded than that. 

- With six different channels to oversee, social content to produce, other content plans to create and oversee, behind-the-scenes tasks, partners to liaise with, meetings to attend, other company responsibilities and finding time to switch off, expecting a game's Community Manager to be constantly active and all-seeing on one channel is probably unrealistic. 

- Please also don't forget the human element to all of this. We've just finished launch week which, as you'll know, is an incredibly busy, stressful, all-consuming time. On top of that, anyone who caught our launch day stream on YouTube will know that I've been... rather ill 😅 But now the dust is settling a bit and I've had a weekend to somewhat recover, activity should naturally pick up on channels like this.

 

The next meeting with the team to look at community feedback is today and I'm in the middle of collating more feedback for it. Whenever I get news that I can pass back to players, that's what I'll be doing.

Thanks 🙂

 

 

 

[mojoe_x 68]

11 minutes ago, ChrisGrovesMCM said:

Hey 🙂 Thanks for taking the time to wrap all this together. 

Couple of things to clear up: 

- Expecting community feedback to be looked at, taken seriously and acted upon is fair and, as I've said many times before, it is literally counter-productive for us not to do that. Never understand why people assume this isn't taking place, even if you don't explicitly see it, as avoiding community feedback makes no sense at all. Everything we can possibly look into is being done so, and we're intent on addressing as much as we can regarding player-related feedback. 🙂 

- My personal priority-list in terms of looking at feedback on these Forums is: 1) The Technical Assistance page, because that's where we've instructed players to give us constructive feedback for us to act on; 2) Anything I'm @'d/tagged in; and 3) the General Discussion threads. If you're not reporting something in the TA section, @ me into your comment and I'll do all I can do get back to you. 

- The Discord channel (which is really fun!) states from the start that it is not a channel for reporting issues or going through the community feedback process. We have other channels, like this one, for that purpose. 

- On not being able to disclose a full list of known issues or suggestions, being "not acceptable", the "some marketing stuff" is details that explain how I'd be fired if we did that. Disclosing a list like this would also lead many to assume we're going to address everything on that list, when in reality, the situation will be much more complex and long-winded than that. 

- With six different channels to oversee, social content to produce, other content plans to create and oversee, behind-the-scenes tasks, partners to liaise with, meetings to attend, other company responsibilities and finding time to switch off, expecting a game's Community Manager to be constantly active and all-seeing on one channel is probably unrealistic. 

- Please also don't forget the human element to all of this. We've just finished launch week which, as you'll know, is an incredibly busy, stressful, all-consuming time. On top of that, anyone who caught our launch day stream on YouTube will know that I've been... rather ill 😅 But now the dust is settling a bit and I've had a weekend to somewhat recover, activity should naturally pick up on channels like this.

 

The next meeting with the team to look at community feedback is today and I'm in the middle of collating more feedback for it. Whenever I get news that I can pass back to players, that's what I'll be doing.

Thanks 🙂

 

 

 

Thank you for the response. And hope you're feeling better!

Look forward to hear of any news that comes from the teams inside 🙂

On a side note - tell whoever made the Viper GT-1 engine sounds that they're getting a raise 😉

[LaPremierrre 20]

On 10/13/2019 at 2:50 PM, mojoe_x said:

NOTE: Please don't use this thread as an excuse to meme and throw around abuse at the developers and publishers. They're likely honest, hard working people for a relatively small studio. They're people just like us. Don't start throwing abuse and insults at them - it won't get us anywhere.

I cannot agree with this. Dont know about developers, but publishers operate in disreputable and dirty way. Upper I asked "what about they thought"... the answer is practically clear: "these pigs will eat anyway". That we are pigs - in such way they treat with customers. Previous parts of the series, especially Grid 1-2, were high quality and rich-content products. Under the same title they release this, which absolutly dont correspond to the expectations, based on previous experiense.  But the price is even of higher level. As a fact, they deceive people, old fans and others. I think, such behaviour dont worth of indulgence, we have to give proper names to the things.

[Ak1504 264]

Imo it was not a good idea to do a "reboot"... It would have been way better to do a successor to Grid Autosport... A game that builds up on all the details and features that Grid AS had that were improved/upgraded since OG Grid...

 

Grid 2019 is such an huge downgrade in every regard compared to Grid Autosport...

[Jay84 78]

PLEASE tell us there will be BIG CONTENT patches to bring back the missing stuff like Sprint tracks, game-modes, Bug fixes? 

[Ak1504 264]

2 hours ago, Jay84 said:

PLEASE tell us there will be BIG CONTENT patches to bring back the missing stuff like Sprint tracks, game-modes, Bug fixes? 

Don´t hold your breath...

 

Tbh i have little hope...

 

And to be very honest i think if Paul Coleman would still be chief game designer i bet the latest GRID game would be fkn awesome 

I loved all the games that were made under his direction 

Thinking about how good GRID Autosport was and how much of a downgrade GRID 2019 is makes me sad