KalOfTheRathi
Black Phoenix Mercenaries
579
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Posted - 2013.08.23 01:03:00 -
[1] - Quote
I would take it from your post that you are not a software developer.
The truth that is missing from their explanations is mirrored in your attitudes and expectations.
They were going to go with longer times between updates. Several months. However, Uprising 1.0 was ... junk. It broke the game and reduced expectations for many. Some patches made slight improvements. They hunkered down and tried to solve the problems then released 1.1. Which was worse. How that happened is a mystery to myself, maybe even to them.
Fast forward to now. They have the CPM in place because they had ignored their fans for months. Now they are more responsive and CPM adds to the communication as well. However. There are hundreds (if not thousands) of problems. They have a small team. Very small when compared to many game studios.
Game breaking bug fixes have highest priority.
Art assets work continues and are included when finished (hopefully tested).
Additional game elements are added (the hated Flaylock pistol for example).
Some tweaks require little to no software changes (just database values).
Many features requested by the DUSTERS are read and some are added to the list to consider in the future.
Bugs are tracked and high level bugs; Which might not be game breaking, only disrupting the gamers (like chat problems).
Meanwhile 1.4 is already done and was in testing. The term used by the industry is Polish. That is pure game industry BS as that is known in actual software development as bug fixing.
Back in 1.3 they prioritized the remaining efforts for the next several releases. The vehicle mods were extensive. Probably too extensive to include in 1.4 as it already had effort that MUST be delivered. So all the vehicle efforts were pushed to 1.5 with the exception of the stupid removal of the Free LAV to fix the wrong problem with Murder Taxis*.
Now 1.4 is being released soon and it will incorporate corporate taxes with some much needed UI updates. Many of these fixes are Gamer Facing Changes. That needs to happen such that the gamers see change, good or bad. As the vehicle balancing and whatever else needed too much work to get into 1.4 it became the focus for 1.5. Which is nearing completion as I type this.
So that is a from the hip of a retired software developer on why the sooner than later fixes simply cannot happen. All the vehicle balance needed to done at the same time. Putting those fixes out piecemeal will only cause more problems earlier and are disruptive to DUST and the developers.
Hope this helps or was, at the very least, amusing.
* Hey, I never said they were good at this. See my posts regarding Small Missile Turrets.  |
KalOfTheRathi
Black Phoenix Mercenaries
584
|
Posted - 2013.08.23 04:22:00 -
[2] - Quote
Taurion Bruni wrote:-- snip my own post --
I did not mean to say that they need to fix everything asap, if it came out wrong I meant that the vehicle team needs to note some issues that could help vehicle drivers/pilots in general, before they completely balance everything.and while I do know how long it takes for a small team to program something so big, these problems have been known since early game, and have been the major pain for so long, i just want to know that something like this is in the works, because for the most part, we have been ignored
I love the game, and I am happy with the changes coming in 1.4 as well, and hope for many more updates to come I realize what you meant, I think. The problem is they were/are buried in problems. Regardless of your or my opinion as Tankers. Which sucks and why I run a Logi or a Heavy instead of a Tank most matches.
Solving the vehicles one piece at a time was never going to work. They have mostly ignored us, except for making shield tanks not worth any Skill Points at all for 1.0 while breaking Rail Gun Turrets as well. That is the reason I quit the game for nearly a month. Wasn't worth playing and they refused to perform my SP respec for three weeks. But that was a different problem.
Some fixes that can be applied without touching anything else. However, the reality of C++ code is that many things are interconnected (which is why I am still a C and assembler programmer). Then there is the matter of their network/client/server architecture that is ... inadequate for the job.
Realize that I Do Agree With You. However, 25 years programming taught me some lessons that my gamer self would rather ignore. Too many bugs, too many high level bugs, too many bugs that effect more players than the total number of Tankers in the game (pity the few Drop Ship pilots) and the sudden awareness that they were deeply in the crapper after 1.1. That is when they finally decided to step up their game and show the players they were serious about fixing the game.
We Tankers are important but if even if I was running the project, I would probably have put all vehicle fixes in 1.5 as well. That allows QA to focus on the vehicle testing after the code is released to them. Which is better than having to test vehicles several times for each release step (an assumption on how QA might work in their environment).
Of course vanity states I never would have let it ship in the condition it did. Reality is very a different beast however.  |