*The voice of the PS4 community*

[Reptillian_Ghoul]

Hello I'm a very active and involved member of the PS4 community and along with the PS4 Armello group's founder "mcksalg" we both get all of the members of our community to try and communicate with one another fluidly and clearly and we're part of an amazing community who all love your game, you guys there at LoG and playing Armello with one another.

That's the problem unfortunately. Here in the PS4 community, since the game has been released, we have been struggling to get help for a game that is unfortunately practially unplayable on our platform. We the PS4 players have all throughly discussed this on on our PS4 Armello board and large group chats and we feel like we need to address the state of the PS4 community and our issues. Especially since the recent 1.08 patch seemed to literally do nothing to improve the current state even though it was a 1+ GB sized file. (Which was not even listed on update history for the game)

To address how we all feel more clearly, I have listed the primary issues we are having right now with the current state of Armello:
 
~

• The constant crashes and matchmaking errors
  -You are actually quite lucky if you can find a group of players for the game as it normally takes around 10 minutes to get to the ready screen and if you finally do find those players most of them aren't there to ready up cause they have stepped away due to the long queue time. When you finally get into a game and everyone has stayed and has readied up the chance of a game crash to main screen is around 90%. We feel like we've invested so much time, faith and endurance in a game that is practially unplayable right now. With no relief in sight of a fix to a runnable state.

~

• The lack of full game content
  -The multiplayer ranking system with both visible portraits and visable ranked level are both currently unavailable to us yet the are displayed as options on the game. When you do get into a game everyone has a random stock portrait and no visable level. This makes the entire commendation and ranking systems practially a missing feature that we are not getting like PC does. Next and this is a big one for the community and a common question we get asked..Where are the dice skins? We have a listed option to change our dice skins but out of all the possible ones that the PC players have to collect and choose from we are missing that giant collection and customization aspect of the game yet it is sitting there taunting us in the face. Will we finally get dice skins, or perhaps a custom PS4 dice skin for our loyalty during the issues we've dealt with with the game? People feel like they've played full price for a product with half the features and support.

~

• The DLC issue
  -Due to us feeling like we've been left in the dark and missing out on a lot of core features  we are ecstatic to receive new game content such as Usurpers DLC or even the season map skin DLC we've purchased. We are deeply hoping that we can get more information and communication about when we will finally receive the Bandit DLC or other key missing features and if they will be paid DLC or free.
  

~~
We all very much love your game over here as there is nothing like it in the PlayStation market that compares to the creative,  immersive world and unique experience you've built. Sadly many people here are on the edge of giving up on the game due to the key missing features listed above such as: A playable online experince, faster queue system, working matchmaking/portraits system, the collection/customization aspect that comes with  dice skins, the long wait for additional character DLC, and finally the communication from you to us and us to you.

Again we PlayStation 4 members love Armello and the PlayStation group founder (mcksalg) and I wanted to put forth one last big effort with all of the voices of the PlayStation members to..

#SaveArmello

[preludedot@gmail.com]

It really is a problem on ps4, guys. Games crash 9/10 times. Plz fix 

[Mcksalg]

Word guys  you had one ps4 event in the begining and then issues stared poping up and it feels like you abandoning the ps4 version. I remember at one point you were trying to get cross play with steam what happened? I'll keep posting vids on your FB to help in anyway I can but ppl are slowly giving up on Armello.

[Morreski Bear]

I bought this game nearly a year ago, and for MONTHS had walk on eggshells around issues that would ruin my Armello experience:

- DON'T play a singleplayer game while waiting for a multiplayer game. You likely will lose sound effects.
- DON'T open player shelf during King's declaration. You likely will stall the game during guards / banes turn.

With every new patch players rejoiced. Would THIS be the fix we were waiting for? Some issues have been fixed (above) but bring new problems that are even harder to avoid. For awhile we believed simply having Amber in the game would jinx it, then it was Sargon's draw phase, then it was Elyssia's foritfy animation. What do we know? Why should we even have to worry about things like this?

Imagine if Super Mario Bros usually crashed on World 8-2? I mean, it's great this game is getting attention and updates, but transferring over the latest Steam build to PS4 isn't doing the trick. I don't know what the deal is (not current on programming) but as a programmer the mystery of the bug is a game in itself. It's not working. Why? Aren't you curious? The "sometimes" problems are the most elusive, and can be the most satisfying to squash.

By now, Armello should be nearly rock-solid and any updates or DLC just gravy.

(Edited to remove yet another bug report)

[zaneomega2]

This is getting ridiculous :/

[krysh]

This is really interesting. More and more people keep reporting how the game is still unplayable. Even my close friend I play the most with keeps crashing constantly. But from all the games I played since 1.5 patch, I didn't experience a single crash during the game.

Clearly there must be a problem since so many people complain again but I have no idea why my game is absolutely fine.

Regarding the content Reptillian_Ghoul mentioned, I agree that it would be great if we finally got the content PC players get otherwise it's unfair to charge the same price.

And to add.. I did purchase the seasons skins (autumn and spring boards) and they are absolutely amazing.

[That_One_Guy_You_Know]

I'm among the many players who have been desperate to like the game but have been beaten down by the constant crashes at the lack of content that should be there. I don't believe it's because of a "Release now, fix later." attitude, or at least not one done in malice. But it was through this game that I met so many people I game with and I don't want to lose this beautiful, engaging experience to Death by A Thousand Cuts, or being slowly immolated as people drop it out of frustration.

Please give the console ports the care and attention they need to survive and crawl out of the dessicated state they've been found in. I want to support you guys, I want to love and play your game and recommend it to more and more people. It's been a great link between me and some of the best people I know. You have the chance to be the heroes we need.

From Wolf to Bear, The Clans Declare.
The time has come to take the Throne.
The Crash rises, it twists our game
Heroes Rise, #SaveArmello

[Kletian999]

The issues with no dice is because PS4 doesn't have the Steam community market.  They'd have to create from scratch their own dice inventory system, including running their own servers to make the console ports have dice.

As for the crashes and disconnects, that's super strange.  Unlike PCs, PS4s should all be the same hardware/drivers.  They get tested both in house AND by Sony.  Something is letting the game pass QA yet break when the game reaches players hands (and not all players; otherwise there'd be an even bigger outcry).  I feel really bad that the PS4 users are having problems, but from my own experiences in coding, I'm also really sorry for LoG since I have no idea how they'd end up resolving these problems.   Maybe it has something to do with connection quality?  If the game gets a connection blip at the wrong time it causes the crashes?

[krysh]

I don't have experience with coding but I do have some with networks and it does seem that connection may possibly be the cause.

And I have just realized something. Maybe the reason my game doesn't crash could be because I'm almost always the one creating the lobby and inviting friends, which could mean they are connecting to my session and because I'm the host, I have the most stable connection while all my friends are all around the globe (most are Dutch and US, I'm in UK). So maybe there is an issue with timeouts or something similar where if a single packet takes either longer than usual to go through (hundreds of ms) or is lost completely, it immediately results in a disconnect?

One good example would be that before, when the game kept crashing on me, one of the crashes were when I saved a screenshot, went to messages and sent the screenshot to my friend. Because there was extra load on the connection, the game  couldn't handle it and resulted in disconnect.

My Dutch friend even tried to change their ISP and their router and cables but it didn't resolve the problem so maybe it is in fact something in the code itself.

[Reptillian_Ghoul]

The issues with no dice is because PS4 doesn't have the Steam community market.  They'd have to create from scratch their own dice inventory system, including running their own servers to make the console ports have dice.

Should it be listed as an option to change dice if it's never intended to be added? If we can't get a chest/key system then we'd at least like to then just directly purchase them as DLC. The dice system is a key feature of the game that brings in the collection/customization aspect of the game. When the option is staring you in the face every time you load up the game and yet you can't change it then I'm sure you must understand how you'd constantly feel like you payed full price for a not full content product.

I have an iPad and when I first heard about the Armello's possible upcoming port to it, I was delighted and eager. Now I unfortunately doubt I'll purchase it at the current state of things because of fear of a repeat of these same issues I'm having on PS4 and fear of paying pull price on iPad but getting an absense of a majority of content (including game support as the current PS4 build is unplayable) like that I'm experiencing here on the PS4.

[Kletian999]

Well, if they took out the "tradability" of dice,  they could make a system where dice are enabled on your save file (being awarded like how the special dice drop outside of chests) and you perform transmutes to help get the highest tiers.

[pentrep]

I also play on PS4 and agree with everything the OP has said...It's gotten to the point where I won't even play Armello anymore on PS4 because of the problems I have with it. Upgrading to PS4 pro only multiplied my problems. Please fix them LoG? Please do...something?

[Darcy Smith]

Hey Mcksalg, thanks for hitting us up and thank you for writing this up. To begin, I just want to outline the major differences for developing Armello (and games in general) for console compared to through Steam. So on Steam, the owness is on us to provide and maintain the builds. Patching or updating this can happen as regularly as we like and we have total control.

For console however, they have an extensive list of regulations that we must adhere to in order to exist on their platform. As such, they have a through submission process. Jeff Kaplan from the Overwatch team explains this in a really great way in one of their latest developer updates.

• The constant crashes and matchmaking errors

When it comes to bug fixing, Steam users are able to send through in-game bugs that include log files with more information about what technically occurred, but this is not the case for PS4. We receive reports of softlocks and crashes on PS4 every now and then, but have nothing other than what's said by the reporter to track down the bug in question. This stretches out the investigation time but we're doing our best to squash every last error. This is why detailed reports help a bunch.

Also, we have extensive Quality Assurance in house, along with Sony's submission process as mentioned above. We definitely aren't experiencing that a significant portion of games are crashing, which further complicates the issue.

• The lack of full game content

As we're a small team working on a lot of content, we utilize infrastructure provided by the relevant platforms. For example the PS4 friends system and the Steam Inventory system.  We merely tap into their processes to bring these epic features to life. The dice system is one that we have a solution for, and it's about prioritizing our time accordingly to bring it to life. I can't spill the beans about how this will manifest on console as it's totally subject to change at this point.

• The DLC issue

I feel like DLC is something we've definitely done right for consoles! We've managed some fairly smooth simultaneous releases of the hero pack and the board skins pack! Future DLC will be coming to console but prices haven't been announced for any platform at this stage. Hold tight for news about that.


I also jumped on and took a look at the discussions happening in the PS4 communities but unfortunately there wasn't much information that was actionable on our end. In terms of submitting a bug, the best move is to let us know what happened leading up to the break. Say, if someone disconnected while you were trying to play a card or something like that.

We really do care about you folks. In fact, we're hiring a console guru to assist us in more builds out in less time. Hopefully we have news about this in the coming weeks!


Thanks for your patience.


<3 Darcy

[Kizlord]

Hi Darcy,

While not all matches crash for every player, most matches will involve at least one player being kicked. I'm not sure if I've played a game in the last six months where this didn't happen. Perhaps there is some issue with this quality insurance / reporting system? Or perhaps players are so used to being kicked they don't report it anymore. Whatever the case, the best way for you to see our issues isn't on the community pages but in the group chat. Is there a psn tag for LOG that we could add to this chat?
Additionally, the dice and the ranking system do kind of rub salt in the wound. We can see that we are not experiencing the game that pc users do, and after forking out for the game and dlc I don't want to have to buy it again on a different platform to be able to play it.
I think that if you could read back over the group chat log you would get a better idea of the scale of these issues, the loyalty and commitment of the armello psn community, and the pain this community is experiencing as it is slowly bled dry as a result of these bugs.
I really, really love your game, and as one of your Australian players it makes me proud that such a small and innovative studio is representing us on the international stage. I really hope that this console guru can save the game before the already small (but proud) community dies. Please let us know if there is a way to add you to the psn chat. If not I will consider screening the entire thing and forwarding it you.

Ps. I am sorry for sounding so negative in this post, but things have been dire on the psn for a long time, and this week especially.

[Reptillian_Ghoul]

We really do care about you folks.
<3 Darcy

Thanks Darcy! We appreciate the detailed and genuine post!
Real quick I wanted to clear up that "Mcksalg" and I (Ghoul) are two different people, well, unless I all the sudden went from a 26 yr old psychology student in Florida to a suave New Yorker with a wife and kids, haha!

I'm really excited to see some updated news in the next upcoming weeks or possible hints/details on that console dice system or console guru. I'm especially glad to see you say, "We really do care about you folks". Some people in the group needed to hear that.

Oh, a lot of people are wondering still why the latest patch did nothing and was not even listed under "update history" anyway you could provide some insight?

As for you statement about ports I actually used to help beta test some board/card games on the iOS Apple Store and I can tell you now they are very slow/intense when it comes to the "patch reviews" as you were contrasting with PS4 and Steam. I wish you guys great luck with that port, it surely will be a fun one if it can go smoothly. You guys have so many things going on and so little of a team of staff, poor guys!

I *do* strongly advise you to have someone join the community group on PS4 and then we will invite you to the group chat. We keep the face community board itself light as to not involve people who want their peace, LFG and privacy, the group chat is where we all converse and discuss things as well as post reoccurring bug issues with screen shots. My PlayStation name is the same as the one here, feel free to add me with a message as to who it is!
~Reptillian_Ghoul

Anyway the quest to #SaveArmello is looking good!