I think its approaching truth time Asylum, April 20th 2018 - No release but only a 'Quite Minor' and 'short lived' delay. - Fair enough, more bugs can be found when fixing/diagnosing initial bugs etc. But with the amount of fixes that was needed before TS module was released, there is no way this could have ever been viewed as a 'short lived' process... A flipping tracker was made to keep track of the list! Not to mention breaking this to the eagerly awaiting community just 4 days shy of the release. You must have know over a month before that this was not going to make that deadline. June 6th 2018 - No release, but we are 'approaching release of the town square' - Most people have realised the initial bugs diagnosed on April 20th were bigger than the devs initially thought, but hey! It's almost here! Thats great! July 10th 2018 - No release, but gameplay is 'nearing release'! - Really? Havn't we heard that one before? August 30th 2018 - No release, but 'We're moving forward quite quickly right now'. - Of course... The main point I am coming to here is that we have been bullshitted for long enough. It's time to shit or get off the pot. Asylum, please be realistic with your community, everyone is completely fed up of hearing 'its almost here!' to the point that these words are entirely meaningless! Every time that phrase or similar is dropped, it is becoming less and less believable. If its going to take another 3 months, just tell us! Be honest! It won't be as bad as you think! If you are confident it is nearing release... think of your date, add 2 weeks to it, 3 to be safer, then announce it! If it arrives early, great!

We all get it, some people are getting fed up because it's been months after the first official release date. We're all upset about it, and so are the developers. I admit a single module shouldn't be taking that long, but I'm still being very patient. I've also stopped caring about when they say "soon" or any similar key words. I just tell myself it'll come when it'll come. I'll compile a bunch of comments from the team below (I wish there was a spoiler but whatever), but I know some people might TLDR:

Car insurance is a thing. If you get a flat tire you can fix that with a spare. If you damage your car badly, for example, the engine becomes damaged you will need to be towed to a mechanic shop.

Fan boy doesent want to hear anything bad about the game/devs? Its plenty good and there is something they are not good at, its faqs... sorry

This is a public work, and as it is especially being backed by the public, is game for criticization. I am sure the developers are fine with being criticized if they are serious about their work. They should know that the critics are A. Wrong, and will be proven wrong in due time. or B. Have a point and they should take some of the criticism on board and do better. Also, the people who are criticizing Identity and the development(or lack of, depending on who you ask) of the game aren't doing so without reason. To pass it all off as bullying is nieve and misguided.

The issues which are taking time are not directly UI related. The task which lead to these issues was one with the UI, but each task can lead to problems which need to be solved and dealt with. I did mention this (in parts) with the last developer blog I sent out. The main issues with the task have been solved. There are a couple medium level tasks remaining and they're just being finished up this week. We're moving forward quite quickly right now.

It's been a long time since the module was supposed to release, but now we're waiting on the UI to be finished. I'd like to know why it's not finished, what is wrong with it, and how much longer we will be waiting for it to get finished. I am genuinely looking at getting a refund at this point.

You might want to try just PMing them.

Why not just make a thread that's flat out called "Reasons for the delay" and state everything in simple form, black and white, no sugar coating it. Even a jot list. It might stop some of these threads from being created, and if they are someone can link them to that thread.

^ Yup, id like to point out that in everyone of these constructive criticism type posts, the first people to start getting aggressive, are the type of individual you have pointed out here

I agree.

I agree with you here and you have made a genuine criticism, but a lot of the people here are brainwashed and won't see this as a genuine criticism.

When November rolls around and you have had 2-3 more "we're almost there" messages you may start to see the bigger picture. You say they tell us what they are working on yet no one seems able to give an ETA... In my book that's odd... It's either so far away they are scared to announce it for fear of uproar or they literally don't have a clue, I'm unsure which is worse... please let me know if there is another reason?

I seriously don't understand what it is you want with this "honest update", they have told us what the tasks were an what the bugs in those tasks were. what else do you want them to share? what bug they fixed and how many bugs that fix caused? also a "minor delay" isn't bullshit, they underestimated what they still had to do. bottom line they didn't "bullshit us" and are transparent enough as it is. they cant interact with their community 24/7 and they cant just say anything you want them to say, you know where they stand and you know what they are working on, in my book that's enough for the community to know. you guys seem to expect way to much from their updates.

You should really find something else to do with your spare time.

You don't think I have a point? You have been getting excited to get into this game in October last year mate judging from your posts? Are you telling me you wouldn't like to have an honest update?

I think the team is doing a great job. just wish people would have some patience.

They won't stop, there will always be someone who's not satisfied and will not hesitate to show it, whether it's on the forum or on the Discord. I will not blame anyone for being upset about a single module that haven't released after over three years of development. I do encourage to ask questions, to get informed. It's okay to also give opinions, based on facts. But some people do get angry or overly dramatic, and will make pessimist remarks. I just find those useless as they bring nothing good to the development.

You pledged money into a game which is in development. The game won't be rushed for anyone. The Task Tracker may get/ show it is updated but there won't be a visual change all the time. The time you see the visual change is when a task is done. The tracker may be idle but they are making progress and the tracker getting updated is showing that it is up to date but the progress is not enough for that visual change.

Lmao your defending is just getting more ridiculous. I'm pretty sure they will make chess work properly by the time (if ever) the town square opens. But seriously stop with this ludicrous defending.. making an excuse for EVERY SINGLE THING... I mean what you just said takes it to a whole new level lmao. It's like saying "this gun isn't working in the PVP area because they don't want the gun to abide by the rules... in real life guns jam and so they intended all guns to permanently be jammed" OR you could be realistic and say "hey the guns in the game are bugged and won't fire" You see how being realistic is better? Good ... lesson learned. It's like you're fishing to become a forum mod. In fact yeah that must be it.

We use a combination of project management software called Wrike and a time tracker called Hubstaff for all of our remote people. They get paid only for time "clocked in", and it tracks it right down to the second. While they're in work mode we're able to see their screen, and we have a screenshot history from every few minutes of their working going back for months. We're quite on top of things, but we've found the vast majority of our remote guys to be quite reliable and honest. A lot of the remote people do work dedicated to Identity, but some work on a per-task basis.

Salutations Plumis, While I'm not the Project Lead, I can certainly help answer some of your questions. I'll work from the bottom up, and begin by answering your question regarding the office's location. We're currently stationed in Kanata North, an area filled with a number of businesses that focus on both software and hardware development. You'll see companies such as QNX Software Systems, BMT Fleet Technology, and more stationed around the same area. There's an image of the building Asylum is located at in Dev Blog #009 if you'd like to take a look: https://www.identityrpg.com/community/topic/9127-dev-blog-009-moving-on-up/ I encourage you to search up the Kanata North location on your map service of choice, as it's a fairly condensed area filled with tech companies. The link you posted appears to be where the company was initially registered, but we've since been working in the office on Legget Drive. The final UI task that's in the testing phase denotes the integration between our UI and the player Housing System. The underlying code behind the Housing System is rather complex, and the current task is to make sure that the UI we've hooked up to it functions as intended. Making sure furniture can be correctly selected and placed, wall trims altered, wallpapers set, etc. for each available apartment has been a time consuming process. Any bugs we encounter in this area generally requires us to run through a vast majority of the system again once a fix has been implemented, as changes will sometimes spawn other oddities that need to be addressed. It's also important to arrive at solutions that won't come back to hamper development in the future, as Town Square involves a lot of foundation laying for many of the core game's mechanics. In the most recent Dev Blog, it was also discussed that the team also encountered some significant hurdles while tackling this final task. The "show-stoppers" referred to in https://www.identityrpg.com/community/topic/13488-dev-blog-20-ramping-up/ dealt with deeper level code that went beyond the UI + Housing System. The constant placing and storing of player items during the testing phase actually lead us to discover, as Motown put it, "a crash related to the database". This kind of bug needed to be addressed immediately, and is an example of one of the heavier issues we've encountered during our recent testing. The good news is that the significant problems we've found have since been addressed, and as John mentioned in the Dev Blog, "We're now knocking out the remaining minor issues being found by our testers". To address your point about Town Square's release date, one of the reasons we've transitioned to the Task Tracker is due to situations similar to the one just listed above. It's been difficult for us to narrow down a date in the past due to the fact that there's always a chance of encountering unexpected hurdles during development. The tracker allows us to better show the progress of where the team is at for Town Square's development, and our programmers are currently finishing up the final task integral to Town Square's launch. We're a small team actively in the pursuit of acquiring more developers, which will certainly help us provide more content much faster in the future. To answer your claim about the developer updates, we don't currently have the time to provide updates from each of the different members within Asylum. The future video Dev Blogs will help alleviate this ("Look forward to meeting the team face-to-face in short but frequent videos", being one of the statements made in Dev Blog #018). Right now, you might occasionally catch a developer speaking in the twitch chat, posting on the forums (John has done this a lot recently, check out his post history for some additional info on the recent Insider), and on discord. The programmers are dedicated to finishing up the remaining task however, and can typically only find the time to chat while compiling code. The Dev Blogs are still the main source of information about current progress, and are shared on all our social media platforms. I hope this help addresses some of your concerns Plumis. As an aside, please note that Rule 15 specifically prohibits posting threads with topics such as @usernamehere, as the entire context of your post seems better suited for a personal message. The thread will be locked, but I'll keep it visible so that others can view the response.

1. Freelancers don't only work on 1 project.... 2. They are more or less around the world.... 3. Time zones are different, if you noticed, Jade is working on the stream at 9pm- 10pm in UK when he does the official stream. 4. That is why Asylum are working on hiring more local devs so that they can work faster and be directly in contact with each other. 5. If the people don't do the work when at home, then they don't get paid. They get paid when they do the job asked of them. "Freelancer" way of pay.

yeah I regret buying identity

No. Something tells me that is not alright..........if they're passing it off as their own conceptual art when it's only some minor Photoshop and filters.

Ramping up It's been busy as usual here at the Asylum office! For the past few weeks, we've had our testers running through all of the systems in the Town Square and a whole lot of progress has been made toward release. They've done an awesome job in finding the remaining bugs, and our team's been doing an equally awesome job in squashing them. As you likely noticed when following the Dev Tracker on our website, we're down to the testing stages on one remaining task. We've been working on this one for a while as there were a couple significant bugs encountered. These bugs were deep in the engine and were show-stoppers. Fortunately, we've recently defeated them and put them behind us. We're now knocking out the remaining minor issues being found by our testers and things are looking great. With the new website online (more on this below) we're soon going to be handing out Steam keys for those with access to the Town Square. This doesn't mean you can play just yet, but we're getting close enough that we're going to be bringing you on board in preperation. If you're wondering how it's going to work, it's really pretty simple. Once we launch this feature shortly, you're going to be able to log into your game account on our website. You'll then see the option to link your existing Steam account. Once you've linked your account, you'll be given a key which, when entered into the Steam client, will add Identity's Town Square to your game library. You won't need to log in to play, as we know who you are based on your Steam account. I'd recommend following us on social media (Twitter and Facebook especially) to watch for this coming announcement. Gangs and Warfare We're changing the Identity Insider format! Instead of larger insiders once in a long while, we're going to be sending out more frequent updates. We're talking a few each month! These Insider updates will paint a detailed picture of Identity's full gameplay experiences. To kick this off, we posted the following update on our new website just yesterday: Identity Drug Cartel Concepts (click image for more) You've made stacks of cash pushing drugs and the odd robbery, but when push comes to shove, you'll find strength in numbers. A gang is a group of ruffians with the goal of obtaining power and infamy through the domination of those around them. Gangs are often at war with one another as they compete for limited resources, whether it's turf, drugs or blood. There's no shortage of criminal activity in the world outside of gangs, but true power belongs to the syndicates and cartels with the strength and fortitude to rule over their rivals. Comradery Identity is all about working together with your friends, and gangs are the social structure geared towards crime. You can belong to only one gang at any time, so choose where your loyalty lies. Your gang has a full rank structure and the leaders can control access levels for each member based on that rank. As your gang grows, it can also unlock additional perks for all members. The gang leadership can designate any home owned in the world as the HQ, giving access to all members of the gang. Hang out with your gangmates and stockpile weapons, drugs and anything else you can get your hands on. Your HQ, like your personal homes, can also be used for respawning on death. This makes it an important rally point when *#!% hits the fan! Cartels Cartels are conflict areas which are controlled by one gang at any time, providing the owners with control over trade and traffiking of their related substance throughout all the land. To the victor goes the spoils. The cartel zone is a functional HQ for the current owners. Turf Identity Turf Neighborhood Concept Take control of city neighborhoods with gang turf zones. While cartels control substances across the world of Identity, the gangs who dominate a neighborhood have direct influence over criminal organizations in that area, such as drug dealers. Lookouts in the area will spot rival gangs in the streets of your turf and text message members of your gang in the area. Controlling gangs get access to a safe house in the area, tightening their hold. Warfare Dominate gangs who cross your path and prove your strength. Declare war on your rivals and hunt them down. Gang members who are at war are completely vulnerable to one another through the stress system, and so you need to be on the lookout at all times. Prey on your enemies until they submit to your demands. When declaring war on another gang, the other gang must accept the spoils set by the agressor. The spoils can include cash, turf, real-estate and more. When one side has had enough and ends the war, they forfeit those spoils to the stronger gang. In Identity, most items people carry can be taken if they're killed. What's theirs, is yours. War is hell. New website is finally here! The Identity website has had an overhaul to prepare for the Town Square release and Steam integrations. The new website brings all kinds of cool new features, mostly for the game account systems and the Identity shop! We're also going to be filling up the About page with all sorts of new information from the Insider releases. Now that the website has a true and proper shop, you can now get your hands on cool new items without having to buy entire packages. The shop now has all kinds of exclusive items, including apartment pets! You'll be able to get your hands on friendly critters for your home in-game as well, although those featured on the shop are only available there. Some of these items are only available for a limited time. Some of the new items include: Custom T-Shirt Graphic - Upload an image which can be placed on T-Shirts you create in-game! Each image can be used on 10 shirts. Vanity License Plate - Show your style with a custom license plate, visible on your in-game vehicle. Vanity Phone Number - Want a number that's easy to remember? Get a vanity phone number for yourself or your business. More Apartment Floorplans - Floor plans which haven't been available since Kickstarter, including the enormous Penthouse. Huge Clothing Packages - Clothing packages including clothes with dozens of original brands. Pets! Cats, dogs and more - Pets currently available include sphynx and tabby cats as well as pugs, maltese and the shiba inu (doge?). Another important note: when the new payment options (aside from PayPal) go live, we'll shortly after be removing all of the old packages. We will at this time never again be selling cash, so there's not much time remaining to get starter cash before Identity goes live. This is not something we plan to sell again in the future, but all who have it in their account will be able to claim that cash once on each server. Visit the New Identity Site Now! The Twitch Clips If you've been following Identity's development closely, you probably already know that developers stream their work live on the Identity Twitch channel every Tuesday and Thursday. We also use that time to answer almost every question that gets asked about Identity's development and gameplay. Now that we've been doing this a while, we've answered a lot of questions. Our awesome community manager, BeachBall, has taken the time to compile a massive list of questions linked to clips where they're answered by a developer. Get comfy and head over to the Twitch Clips Directory forum thread. If you haven't found this already, be prepared to spend a good bit of time listening to all sorts of awesome information. This is the best place to get to know the fine details Identity! -- John VanderZwet

This is correct. A game really only gets one first impression, so we have to make sure that it's (for the most part) a positive experience. Even if a game is marked as beta or early access, if the first impression fails people will almost never return. Thus, we're making sure everything is running smoothly. There were a couple pretty significant bugs with this last task which were the result of problems with the engine, quite deep down. We've worked around them now and things are looking good. Your friendly moderators are testing up a storm for us. There are bugs, but nothing major, and they're being squashed.

But I want 3500 different couches, lamps, and dresses plus shoes.

Better than most television scripts.