Discussion Thread: direct commits of balance changes without player input

[Theunsolved-puzzle]

So, I was provoked to start this thread by a large number of significant changes made by developers without Pull Requests* and without asking for player input, with this one directly impacting me:
https://github.com/goonstation/goonstati...9e3de9eb01
This direct commit** makes it so that instead of having 100u or more ethanol in you(normally enough to overdose) meaning that you can shrug off 40% of attacks in normal melee combat(any melee hit with a force less than or equal to 15), it is now limited to defending against 40% of punches.
I only learned of this now because of the wiki page, where it was updated what appears to be one day after the change; it was communicated in, as far as I know, no other player-visible place.
https://wiki.ss13.co/index.php?title=Che...01#Ethanol

While defending against punches would be effective in a boxing match with no chairs around, it doesn't even help against a shattered bottle, let alone a fire extinguisher or air tank.
I haven't played recently and so don't have direct experience with current ethanol use, but I used to be one of the few people that used the Career Alcoholic trait and got stuffed with ethanol.
Back then, ethanol did nothing against a projectile of any sort, which means that someone could wreck you just by throwing floor tiles at you or shooting you, although this did not happen often; I believe that providing feedback to the one that attempted to hurt the drunk spaceman would be a good cue to resort to ranged options.
From what I've heard, the only thing I could think of that would provide a reason to nerf ethanol this hard would be drunken rampages being too effective against melee weapons allowing someone to punch their enemies just too well.
if I was given opportunity to give input on this change, I could have included stuff like ethanol being made to be an actual painkiller, or providing defense against item hits instead of completely deflecting them, or only deflecting blunt damage, but that was not the case.

TL;DR: Some devs make changes without informing players and without allowing players to give input, which can be very bad.

What are some direct changes that impacted you, and how could the developer(s) involved have handled it better?






*A Pull Request is a request to add code to the game; for developers it would be a way to let the community know what the change is and why it is necessary, and allow the community to comment on it.

** A Direct Commit is when someone with code access directly changes the game code without going through a Pull Request.

lets begin. nitroglysirin, aerosol, port-a-sci, curare, probably many others ive forgot about. just WHY? these werent additions, of which i have no problem with, these were tweaks and changes to long exisiting systems.

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https://mikemcquaid.com/2018/03/19/open-...u-nothing/

wow. just wow.

this response shows nothing except disrespect for the community, dude. you're just flat out telling everyone that you don't care about the people who play your damn game. nobody's telling you that you owe them anything. we just want you guys to not make balance changes without even telling the damn people who play the game first.

your players owe you nothing either. they don't have to play the game, especially when you're being an ass to them over them being unsatisfied with the direction you're taking it.

Yeah, that's how it works. Devs make the game the way they want to make it, and they don't *have* to listen to feedback or make balance changes without telling players. You're absolutely right, if the users are unsatisfied with the product produced then they won't play it, that's the incentive to make a Good Game. I don't see a particularly large dip in playercount though, in fact I've seen the opposite over the last few years; this leads me to the conclusion that the devs are doing a Good Job at making this game, and that most complaints about the game being Ruined or the Direction of the Game being wrong are outliars.

If you see this Fact of Development as disrespectful or don't like the direction of the game, I dunno what to tell you. That's how its always been and how it will always continue, and our playerbase hasn't all left over it before. They don't owe it to us to stay if they don't like it, but I'm pretty sure they do actually like our game overall, statistically.

okay, here's the thing

player count =/= player satisfaction. people won't instantly leave if changes they disagree with are made; usually, they'll criticize these changes and, depending on how things are going, the overall direction of the game's development and developer attitude towards their playerbase and their concerns with the game. what i've seen from most developers is a lack of regard for the players. most complaints are met with either "go to the forums" or Nothing, and most complaints on the forum are met with either "actually the devs do whatever they want anyways" or Nothing. in my opinion the general vibe is that most developers just... don't care what the actual players have to say, not to mention very rarely even being seen playing the game themselves.

i know people who have stopped playing the game because they're dissatisfied with the direction of the game and the devs' attitude towards the community. i've seen a lot of double-standards exercised by admins and devs alike and, from my point of view, been banned from the discord for expressing discontent towards the state of the game's development and how the developers treat the players. i do admit a lot of it could have been worded better to be expressed as what i've personally noticed rather than raw fact, but the point still stands.

it certainly does have a corolation that much you cant deny

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a problem i feel is that a lot of changes i see being pushed through are treating symptoms rather than the problem itself

What is the problem itself which hasn't been treated in some recent changes?

shitters not being taken care of, or the culture of goon to kneejerk respond to something when people have done a gimic for over two weeks