Current state of the Warhammer 40,000 App?

[BLACK BLΠFLY]

The army builder is highly improved now.

[Helias_Tancred]

On 9/1/2022 at 11:26 AM, Black Blow Fly said:

The army builder is highly improved now.

You mean the Warhammer 40k app one?

 

[BLACK BLΠFLY]

Yes, I built a 2000 point battalion for Templars in under five minutes.

[Lord_Ikka]

2 hours ago, Black Blow Fly said:

Yes, I built a 2000 point battalion for Templars in under five minutes.

For an army that has been out for months- I'm not able to give my Imperial Knights army a Warlord Trait, Relic, or upgrade to any of the Exalted Court options. The app is getting better, but still more style than substance. 

[BLACK BLΠFLY]

Have you contacted them about these issues ?

[Lord_Ikka]

Haven't got a response yet, sent an email a week ago. I'll send another one.

[BLACK BLΠFLY]

My army has only one WLT and relic so not very complicated, I’d imagine it still needs more work to fully support more complicated builds like you mention.

[Verevolf]

I still see no way of adding a Wolf guard to my Grey Hunters or Blood Claws even though I emailed them in Jan 21...

[bristlybadger]

They still haven't fixed the Krieg engineers. 1 mole launcher is one too many, and you can make a squad of 11 members, still. That's 2 years since I gave up on reporting that, I think. 

[Captain Idaho]

Is there app still supported? If they're not picking up on these reported errors, it implies there's no on working on it?

[Brother Casman]

From what I can see, the app was last updated on the Google Play store 3 days ago. So, someone's working on it.

[Captain Idaho]

To be fair, there's a lot of information on it and likely not many people in the team.

[Dosjetka]

Then GW needs to get more people into that team. Leaving issues unresolved for more than a few weeks is, in my view, unacceptable for a paid product published and maintained by such a financially successful company.

[Captain Idaho]

Yeah, I think a lot of us agree with that. It's a major product for a complicated game system and just isn't up to what people can get for free.

[BLACK BLΠFLY]

Complaining about being able to make a squad of 11 isn’t an issue imo… you should read the codex and not just rely on the app.

[Lord_Ikka]

8 hours ago, Black Blow Fly said:

Complaining about being able to make a squad of 11 isn’t an issue imo… you should read the codex and not just rely on the app.

It indicative of a lack of oversight and professionalism- when a fan-supported, third-party app has better, more accurate updates than the one that the company puts out officially, that's a problem. The Battleforge listbuilder has gotten better, but it is still very clunky and overly "pretty" (i.e.-focused on the UI looking nice rather than functionality) compared to Battlescribe. That is the main problem with it, and I think company-supported apps in general- X-wing's official app also was heavy on looks, including pictures of the cards, rather than third-party apps that simply had text-based interfaces that were updated as soon as the game was and worked properly. X-wing finally figured out that the fans made a more popular, usable product than they did and stopped support for their official app. GW either needs to just co-opt the Battlescribe style for their app (text-based, simple interface), or give up the ghost and let fans do their thing without the threat of lawsuits. 

[BLACK BLΠFLY]

Like I said I built a 2000 point list in under five minutes with absolutely no issues. That is pretty darn fantastic as far as I’m concerned .

[Lord_Ikka]

21 minutes ago, Black Blow Fly said:

Like I said I built a 2000 point list in under five minutes with absolutely no issues. That is pretty darn fantastic as far as I’m concerned .

You built a list for a codex that has been out for months, and is part of the premier faction of the game (SM), which seems to help things along. There have been constant issues with the app for every new codex or balance change coming out, which isn't how it should be. For an official app, all of the data should be ready at least a week beforehand to update the app, ready to go at the exact same time that the new codex/rules come out- that isn't what happens at all.  It shouldn't require months to get every bug fixed on each codex, most of that should already have gone through performance checks and QC. 

If you have an official app, these things should happen:

1- Give your app programmers the hard data (stats, PL/points, units, etc..) in plenty of time for said data to be ready to update day 1 of the new codex. This allows programmers to either update the current entries, or make new data that conforms to the current structure without delays. 

2- Have your game designers work directly with the programmers so that any special rules needing to be implemented (Chapter Command, Exalted Court, etc...) are easily understood by the programmers so that the implementation of those rules work and do not interfere other features.

3- If you are going to do a FAQ fix/balance update, give the programmers that information before the update goes live, so they can implement it at the same time the pdf gets updated

It is really not that hard- if you understand how this sort of thing should work. GW, however, doesn't seem to understand digital development or is just so paranoid that leaks will occur that they don't trust their programmers with unreleased data. This leads to the official app lagging behind something like Battlescribe, which has multiple data editors who update information as soon as it is officially out. GW should already have that information ready to go, since they are the ones publishing it in the first place! It is issues like these that show GW clearly doesn't have enough programming staff, or enough trust in their programmers, to get their app up to par. The slow drip of information was fine twenty years ago when the internet was not used by everybody all the time and you could do FAQ fixes in months or years- now you really need to have up-to-date rules and your app has to be on point day 1 so that those players that are relying on it for tournament play can use it. Right now, I don't know a single comp player who uses the official app and even most casual players I know don't use it. I'd really like it to work- it would give my WH+ sub some more value, but without GW actually putting some thought, money, and direction into it there is no chance that it will compare to the current king of list building (Battlescribe), or even some of the other non-Battlescribe alternatives that are in the works.

[BLACK BLΠFLY]

I have to say I think you are overreacting just a bit now. Let’s give credit where it is due.

[Lord_Ikka]

3 minutes ago, Black Blow Fly said:

I have to say I think you are overreacting just a bit now. Let’s give credit where it is due.

I've already said that it is better than it was. However, I'm not going to give a multi-million dollar company credit for implementing an app that is less useful and more prone to issues than one that was made by a single person (who remained out of contact for two years), that is supported and updated by a group of unpaid fans. I'm not over-reacting to expect that something I pay for work properly when I try to use it, and that if there are issues they get corrected in a timely manner rather than ignored for months, like @bristlybadger's issue or any of the other continuing issues have been. GW isn't some little mom and pop shop that doesn't have the financial ability to hire good talent or even collaborate with good companies- they made millions last year just by licensing their IP to established gaming companies. Use some of that money to hire programmers and someone who understands apps/digital media to make sure your product is good. 

I don't expect the app to be flawless and work all the time perfectly. I do expect it to be given an appropriate level of care and for it to actually be worth using. 

[bristlybadger]

On 9/10/2022 at 6:08 PM, Black Blow Fly said:

Complaining about being able to make a squad of 11 isn’t an issue imo… you should read the codex and not just rely on the app.

So the app throwing an error if you add a mole launcher to the squad is OK to you? The app shouldn't even do basic error checking? I literally cannot build an army with this app without errors if I want a mole launcher team.

 

As for going to 11 models.. You think the app should just not have limits for number of models in a squad? No errors if you add a 27 model tactical squad? 

 

That's a pretty low bar you've set for the app, I have to say. 

[BLACK BLΠFLY]

I sent an email to the department for the app and am also asking on a couple reputable forums. I have experienced problems with an app allowing too many units including BattleScribe. They shouldn’t be use as a substitute for the codex.

Edited September 16, 2022 by Black Blow Fly

[Sugarlessllama]

I have been using the app and I have been liking it. It could be better. But I'm hoping it will be improved in the future. 

[BLACK BLΠFLY]

Looks like it’s a bug with the app like you said bristlybadger.

Edited September 16, 2022 by Black Blow Fly

[BLACK BLΠFLY]

Sent an email last week and got a reply back this morning asking what device land operating system am I using, so they are looking into now.