It might be great if devs could put short surveys in-game
- Short, to-the-point, quick surveys. Like 1-3 simple questions max, on occasion, taking only 30-90 seconds. Some examples for when to use survey:
- Some big change or addition they’re considering and aren’t sure if players will like (heroes, Three Kingdoms civs in Ranked, use of Chronicles)
- To gauge reaction to changes they’ve recently implemented (auto-scout, tower range indicators, civs became more or less powerful)
- A hot topic at the moment (i.e., should 3K DLC launch date be delayed?)
It could help get candid feedback from a wide audience of players, including those who would prefer not to talk in the forum or other online sites for various reasons.
They could even try to target certain players at times:
- If they can see your stats, achievements, or whatever that you play campaigns a lot, target them for certain campaign questions
- Ranked players, target them for ranked stuff
- Skirmish players, target them for skirmish things. And so on
And/or wait until the player clicks into the certain area of the game before showing the survey to help reach their target audience when necessary. Similar to map bans for ranked only showing in the Ranked area.
I’m spoiled by Subnautica. Look how quick and easy this is to give feedback by simply pressing F8 at any time!
If AoE in-game surveys could be similarly quick and easy, that’d be wonderful. The typical AoE survey is not in the game and is often huge. It can take anywhere from 20-30 mins to 1-2 hrs to complete.
Subnautica feedback reporting - How It Works [click to expand section]
You press F8 at any time while playing Subnautica, including on the main menu, and a feedback pop-up dispalys that is super easy and quick to fill out. It feels like the devs are genuinely curious about bugs and feedback (both positive and negative).
- I bet it also captures a screenshot when you hit F8, knows what you are/were just doing (generally speaking) for context, and knows your world XYZ coordinates.
- Text box is limited by 190 chars, and that’s the only issue I have with it. It should be a little more, like at least 300 chars – considering the number of times I had to creatively abbreviate words to cram my words in.
- But yeah, it is fantastic, and hopefully not a waste of time for players. (In other words, I hope the devs read them and analyze the aggregate data, etc.)
An AoE version could auto-capture and -send things like the client (Steam), the OS, and the game’s build #, too, when submitting.
AoE Bug Reporting and giving suggestions is inconvenient and time-consuming [click to expand section]
- You have to capture screenshots or a short video for use later, and then remember or try to find time/energy to post in the forum in the ensuing days or weeks
- I’m sitting on at least two bugs or issues to report in the AoE4 forum. I’ve sat on screenshots for months/years before posting bugs or enhancement ideas for AoE2:DE
It’s just not efficient at all, and I’m a pretty dedicated person, imo. I can just imagine how many players there are out there experiencing bugs, issues, or who have helpful ideas who aren’t a part of the forum or don’t want to take the time to do all that. To be able to quickly capture bugs and have some aggregate numbers tabulated could be helpful, imo. Likely better than just relying on players to report via the forums or emails?
I know devs could get overwhelmed from the sheer volume of feedbacks that come in. Maybe if it’s done right and were willing to have a person or small team keeping track and reporting on the surveys and reports, though, it could help.
If it’s too late to do this in AoE2:DE and AoE4, I hope they do it in AoE5.
@Quasibrodo also had this great suggestion, imo:
In-game survey idea has come up before, so just thought I’d finally make it a thread: