Bot News?

Forum Forums Discussion Bot News?

This topic contains 59 replies, has 36 voices, and was last updated by Falbium Falbium 2 years, 5 months ago.

Viewing 15 posts - 1 through 15 (of 60 total)
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  • #31889

    symmas
    Participant
    1+

    I haven’t come around in a bit and a half and have gone through a few threads today trying to figure out what on earth is going on. The thought came to me today that it had been quite some time since there had been any improvements or changes to the bot so I decied to poke around here some, indeed it’s been a few days shy of a quarter of year since the healer rotas were finally updated.

    I see plenty of suggestions and people talking, as I always have, yet from what I’ve read I’m under the impression that at some point there was a vote to decide what to do next, which rather annoys me. When it comes to deciding on the direction things are going, especially given how things pertaining to the bot don’t really happen at a pace that demands much attention I find it incredibly impertinent to expect the users to constantly check here just to see whether or not a big decision is being decided upon so that a few users don’t dictate the direction for everyone else. An e-mail sent to all the users saying what it’s about, a link to the vote, and what was going on would be rather ideal.

    I, personally, was quite looking forward to Pagl and Matoy’s getting added for Trusts before the dungeons were totally irrelevant next expansion, as it stands, however, that won’t happen. Yet, on that note, I’m really not sure what IS happening. Other than development saying that the current project is Quality-of-Life updates I can’t seem to find anything about any news on how that (or anything else) is coming along. I’ve checked status, issues and feedback, and patch notes and can’t really seem to find any news on how things are progressing, if there’s any expected release date, or, really, just any news about the bot in general. If it’s been stated recently then I can only imagine it was stated in some off the wall thread that doesn’t appear as though it would be about news or what’s going on because it doesn’t look like there’s news in any logical place or even threads that might have been even somewhat related.

    Am I missing a news thread or the like? It’d be nice to know what’s going on at a glance instead of trying to decipher things through backlogs of old threads.

    #31890
    Miqobot
    Miqobot
    Keymaster
    10+

    You are correct, there hasn’t been any announcement on the Miqobot status for a while. We should fix that.
    We will answer your questions first and then post this information in Miqobot Status thread for everyone to see at a glance.

    Yet, on that note, I’m really not sure what IS happening.

    In short, due to the influx of new players the development process is completely paralyzed by extremely high load in Tech Support department. Our team is working for 12-16 hours a day, but 90% of our workload consists of answering questions and providing technical assistance.

    I see plenty of suggestions and people talking, as I always have, yet from what I’ve read I’m under the impression that at some point there was a vote to decide what to do next

    Yes, here is the latest voting thread:
    Voting (June 2 – June 9, 2021)

    You can find the results in the last post:
    Voting Results

    I find it incredibly impertinent to expect the users to constantly check here just to see whether or not a big decision is being decided upon so that a few users don’t dictate the direction for everyone else.

    The voting period lasted for one week, which we believe is enough time for the interested members of the community to voice their opinions.

    An e-mail sent to all the users saying what it’s about, a link to the vote, and what was going on would be rather ideal.

    No, we will not do bulk mailing.
    This is an extremely dangerous practice which may lead to email providers blacklisting our server and our customers will never receive emails from us anymore.
    If a user does not visit the community for a long time, we don’t have the right to bother them with reminders of our project.

    I, personally, was quite looking forward to Pagl and Matoy’s getting added for Trusts before the dungeons were totally irrelevant next expansion

    We are very sorry, but there were no requests to make Patch 5.5 Dungeon a top priority feature.
    The majority of the community decided that Quality-of-Life updates would be more beneficial for the project in the long run.

    Other than development saying that the current project is Quality-of-Life updates I can’t seem to find anything about any news on how that (or anything else) is coming along.

    Yes, the first part of Quality-of-Life update was supposed to be released several weeks ago.
    Unfortunately, due to the high additional workload we haven’t managed to make enough progress towards the next milestone. The update is ready only by 50%.

    The most favorable time for development is the state of lull before new patches. The time when most players have achieved everything they wanted and are taking a break from the game and Miqobot both, which allows us to shift the focus from supporting existing features to actually implementing new ones.

    However, the recent events have replaced the usual period of calm with unprecedented hype.
    Until this storm is over, the progress on new updates will be very slow.

    if there’s any expected release date, or, really, just any news about the bot in general.

    Unfortunately, we can not make predictions about the project at this time, because we don’t know for how long the hype wave is going to last.
    We sincerely hope that it will decrease soon.

    #31952

    ps34pc
    Participant
    0

    Do you think this is going to cause the normal downtime when the expansion comes out to take even longer than anticipated?

    #31953
    Miqobot
    Miqobot
    Keymaster
    5+

    No, it will not.
    During the downtime Miqobot does not function, therefore there is no technical assistance to provide. When the expansion arrives, we will be fully focused on fixing Miqobot and it will not take any longer than necessary.

    #31956

    NepNep
    Participant
    0

    So, I hate to be that guy, but I feel it does need to be asked, does the miqo team have a plan moving forward beyond the expansion?

    If you halted development simply due to support tickets, sure you’ll get the bot working asap since when its broken they will be no troubleshooting.

    But it raises some serious concern about once the bot is back up, a new expac will mean alot of the functions will be incomplete or inoperable outright.

    I love miqobot, it has allowed me to enjoy the game with my disability again. But I have concerns over the longevity of this support structure if you are unable to balance development with folks who cant get the bot to work.

    • This reply was modified 2 years, 8 months ago by  NepNep.
    #31958
    Miqobot
    Miqobot
    Keymaster
    4+

    Yes, we receive this question before every expansion.
    And the answer remains the same. We will continue working on the project for as long as players need us.

    Of course, when the Endwalker expansion arrives, Miqobot features will be significantly outdated.
    Only level 80 content will be supported.
    But this also means that there will be less players interested in using Miqobot in general, so there will be less demand for tech support and more time for development. The balance will come naturally.

    This is not new. It has always been this way with every previous expansion.
    We don’t see a reason why Endwalker should be an exception.

    #31966

    Xion
    Participant
    0

    I know for me, combat assist isn’t a priority when new expansion comes out but crafting and gatherering support is the primary reason I’m subscripting to Miqo.

    But as I recall in SHB it didn’t take that long to get these things up and running and pray we’ll see a similar thing in Endwalker

    #31972
    renii
    renii
    Participant
    3+

    Why do developers spend time answering tech support instead of paying a couple people to do this? It doesn’t make a lot of sense to me that the people with the skills and knowledge to further the bot are spending the majority of their time doing grunt work.
    Yes it would cut into revenue initially but the increase in bot quality would draw in more over time.

    #31973
    Username1
    Username1
    Participant
    0

    Why do developers spend time answering tech support instead of paying a couple people to do this? It doesn’t make a lot of sense to me that the people with the skills and knowledge to further the bot are spending the majority of their time doing grunt work.
    Yes it would cut into revenue initially but the increase in bot quality would draw in more over time.

    I doubt the scale of operation is big enough to the point where they would need to hire a customer support. It seem like a 3-4 people project to me.

    #31974
    Miqobot
    Miqobot
    Keymaster
    5+

    The majority of questions for Tech Support require deep understanding of the project on a technical level.
    Outsourcing this kind of work will significantly decrease the quality of the service in general.

    #31979
    miko
    miko
    Participant
    3+

    Early 2017 user here; It’s a very small team of devs running almost a personal project. They could blow it up and make it commercial and implement all the features we want but that’s not the goal or ever will be. Personally I have my own wish list of things miqo could do but I’ll also have to deal with reality it’s just 10$ a month and probably only has under 1000 active subscribers.

    Still love most of the implemented functionality over the years, there are a million QOL features that could be implemented and would make some systems work or even better, but it is what it is.

    Just keep doing what you’re doing guys, but I’ll have to agree spending most of your time on tech support with those amount of hours does not sound healthy.

    #31983

    Alexvai93
    Participant
    3+

    I think there should be a better balance between development and support, i work as a programmer and i’ve never seen in any reality other than small home projects a 90% time invested in tech support. Of course is not my decision to make but i agree with miko that working 10-12h a day only to respond to tickets is not really healthy

    #31984
    Miqobot
    Miqobot
    Keymaster
    1+

    Thank you for your concern very much.

    #31985

    trollfacedude
    Participant
    2+

    I’ve supported Miqobot for 3 months now and I use the program daily (6-8 hours at least) and I have yet to run into a single problem which requires me to ask for support.

    Perhaps set a cap for personalized Miqobot assistance at “X” amount of requests per month, and people can pay more for extra support since you are investing more time to meet the needs of certain people. People’s first point of call should always be the forums where they can ask their peers for assistance.

    Honestly, how little the program has developed over the past 2 months is kind of annoying to hear. I would be happy to pay more for the program itself if it meant more updates and less customer service.

    #31987
    Miqobot
    Miqobot
    Keymaster
    3+

    No, we will not increase the price of Miqobot subscription and we will not introduce hidden payments.
    A temporary hype wave is not the reason to make systematic changes to the project.

    Honestly, how little the program has developed over the past 2 months is kind of annoying to hear.

    This is probably the most frequent type of complaint we have been receiving over the past 6 years of Miqobot existence.
    Despite the fact that we implemented and released several hundred features and updates, the pressure and demand for more features only increases with time. If we haven’t been able to satisfy the demand after all these years, then it is unlikely we ever will.

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