This whole problem started and ended with KS in 2013. He underestimated the cost to build this game and didn't collect enough money (roughly $100k after the KS payment). a game like this should cost somewhere between $300-400k to develop. it's like anything else. you run out of money you can only fund the project based upon extra money from your paying job. good employees won't work part time so he's been on his own for a while.

my opinion is that Jon is committed to a fault on this game. he quit his job in 2013 and used the KS funding to start conifer games. he got another job a few years later then quit that one to continue with the game. I assume he's doing something now since he's not making money on sales from this game.

Last year he said he was committed to the game until the end of this year; then he amended that to getting diplomacy and bugs fixed before quitting.

at this point he's a part time, 1 man shop. the part timers he assembled in 2013 don't appear to be doing much anymore. Don't expect updates more than every 3-6 months; don't expect them to work real well. he doesn't have the time or the different computer builds to play test and optimize things; he certainly doesn't have the budget to do anything meaningful with the software.

I agree with the OP. Since about 2015 ATG has been more of a punchline than a development project.

The game is still not really feature complete. The 'release' was an arbitrary date after which Jon declared the still-unfinished beta to be 'out'... and then immediately followed it up with a post-release roadmap that proved it wasn't really ready to release. Post-release updates have been just as slow and buggy as they were during EA. The main difference is that now all the people who were pissed at the years of non-communication and generally pitiful development speed have stopped bothering to even complain, and even the few remaining true believers have started to admit that it's a swing and a miss. Shunting out a new patch every 6 months to the 8 people who still even remember the game's existence is futile.

A sensible developer would've pulled the plug four years ago and moved on to doing something useful instead. The kindest thing to do now is to take ATG out behind the stables and shoot it.

You guys are complaining about a game continuing to be supported and updated? Really?

Originally posted by Tanaka:

You guys are complaining about a game continuing to be supported and updated? Really?

I agree. I'm grateful for the updates and continued work being put into the game.

Originally posted by goodnight punpun:

Originally posted by Tanaka:

You guys are complaining about a game continuing to be supported and updated? Really?

I agree. I'm grateful for the updates and continued work being put into the game.

Same here. I'm actually hoping that some of the most annoying issues will eventually get fixed (like the inability to remove pillaged structures) and that the diplomacy system will somehow work in a satisfactory manner eventually.

I'm looking forward to play the game again in the future when that's done.

Edit: Rings of the Medusa was indeed some weird stuff. Looked awesome for its time and pretty intriguing (dungeons, overland battles, fantasy creatures and all somehow mixed with an apocalyptic future and a [possibly] hot evil female endboss) but ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥... I don't think it even worked... Tried to figure it out later a couple of times but it just makes no sense at all. Maybe I'm just too dumb...
At the gates is nowhere near as bad though. That's a pretty rude comparison.

Haha, thanks for the replies, guys, I wasn't trying to be rude or anything. I just wanted to say that I am very happy about some aspects of this game, and very sad about others. But I am especially sad that Jon doesn't seem to put his great talent to better use somewhere else.

There is so much right with ATG, I still love the game, the tooltip system is really well done (and is going to be the standard in a few years, just look at "Old World" and "Crusader Kings 3" which use a similar system.) There is so much elegance and innovation to find ...

But ...
ATG will never be a truly great game. It simply lacks the manpower. Nobody can do everything, no matter how exceptional they are in some fields.

---
Off topic: For you fans of obscure games out there. Check out "Great Invasions: The Darkages", another GREAT game that never happened. It eventually evolved into Europa Universalis I (with EU actually being the inferior game). I wished ATG would have a similar fate. Abandon the thing, take the ideas, and create something awesome on its foundation. That would be much better than beating (or reviving) this dead horse IMO.

Originally posted by goodnight punpun:

Originally posted by Tanaka:

You guys are complaining about a game continuing to be supported and updated? Really?

I agree. I'm grateful for the updates and continued work being put into the game.

I am not complaining about this game being updated. I am complaining about a better game not being created because of it. This thing is a black hole, if it was meant to shine it would have more than sparkled by now.

I have always hoped that this game would be eventually finished. There is so much that is great about it, and it's come this far, why can't it be completed? This is a sad thread and makes me feel sorry for the dev, but if you read this keep it up because there is something special about this game and it deserves to be finished.

tbh some of my favorite games haven't even left early-access for years (looking at you, Caves of Qud) sooooo *shrug*

Originally posted by Brethan:

I have always hoped that this game would be eventually finished. There is so much that is great about it, and it's come this far, why can't it be completed? This is a sad thread and makes me feel sorry for the dev, but if you read this keep it up because there is something special about this game and it deserves to be finished.

feel sorry for those who spent $40 and will never get a finished product, this game should never had been sold.

we're about due for the bi- annual update of this game

Rings of Medusa... holy crap i didn't expected any other living soul to even remember that one.

Not the worst comparison.

I've been enjoying it. Would like the TODO 's to be done. A crash here and there is fine and Rome declaring war isn't the worst since repairs aren't the most costly thing. Seriously I/you can make any game crash on any hardware. If you can't then you're not pushing your system hard enough. Glad for the updates. It reminds me of Civ II & III so that is why I have been enjoying it. The victory conditions is on the top right and at the start of the game there is a pop up on the bottom left to get you started

I purchased ATG last night and played a little bit to see what it is like. Maybe it's the challenge, but I really like it and am surprised it is still being worked on too (considering I remember the KS being held but never jumping in on it).

Only thing I truly wish is a proper Wiki in game that I can search and properly read through (outside of the Diplo system to be worked out).

Originally posted by thefolkstr:

I purchased ATG last night and played a little bit to see what it is like. Maybe it's the challenge, but I really like it and am surprised it is still being worked on too (considering I remember the KS being held but never jumping in on it).

Only thing I truly wish is a proper Wiki in game that I can search and properly read through (outside of the Diplo system to be worked out).

A wiki system would be awesome.

diplo? not sure what you guys/girls want from that. Tiny tribes give tribute and hope to go a full year without being razed.. PS I found an uninhabited island that can't be pillaged!! My new home :)


plus the TODO's annnd punishment for clans which is endless as far as I can tell. Oh and banishment for purple unhappy clans that can only do zero happy jobs. Watchtower, explorer, galley etc.