2 hours ago, Syphon583 said:TFPs job is to build a base game that can be enjoyed by those who align with their vision, while also being incredibly mod-friendly for those who like to customize to their liking. THAT is Roland's point and not a single point you brought up invalidates what he is saying.
A few things I'd point out -
TFPs' vision for 7 Days has been murky and subject to constant change. It's difficult to align to something inconsistent.
And it's not just me relying on mods as a remedy to bugs or poorly refined features that were forced as part of that murky vision. My frame of reference is a long list of stuff that was pushed ever since I started playing back on A11, which was poorly received by multiple large groups of people I've played the game with over the years.
I'm not saying TFPs ignore all feedback, but a considerable amount of thoughts offered in good faith and shared by many gets ignored or smacked down ala blanket comments like what I originally called out; that because the community at large doesn't clearly articulate what it wants, there's no point in heeding feedback deemed inconsistent regardless how many people agree with it. My beef is with that reasoning specifically, because TFPs don't seem keen on seeking player feedback in the first place.
I hope I'm wrong about that, but it doesn't seem like much gets considered beyond bug reporting, backer requests, and what gets posted by a subset of people on here who are subscribed to whatever form the devs' vision takes.
Plus, objectively, I can't say I've ever seen another group of devs put up the kinds of resistance TFPs do to things they don't like or don't get. A perfect example of this would be changes to base building that discourage or outright punish players who enjoy base management by downscaling building XP, removing depth in construction and component crafting, and generally reducing what can be done outside the scope of exploring POIs, looting, and slaying hordes. The rationale given on the dev streams was that they "couldn't imagine someone wanting to play their game that way" - yet many people do.
What I'm honestly curious about is how the devs assess and compile feedback apart from forum posts and the bug reports section, because I can't say I've ever seen surveys put out or other forms of player feedback actively solicited. Like are Steam reviews with lots of awards and upvotes considered? Are streamers surveyed? There are pools of data out there which can be tapped and analyzed to better inform decisions, but if anything like that goes on it isn't mentioned in the dev streams.