Eko Sol
3dge of D4rkness
SoulWing Alliance
79
   |
Posted - 2014.01.29 21:37:00 -
[1] - Quote
I do dev work on the side specifically with Databases. I am pretty decent at it and charge a good sum of money for it. I have worked with devs for everything. After a while you learn that they all are pretty much the same.
Goto the conclusion if you don't want to read this nonsense:
All of that being said, I have to make it clear that Dust has some issues they haven't addresses properly since the beginning of the game. From my more PM perspective, issues are 1) version control 2) is SDLC/PLC standards to guide products in the right direction 3) is compiled code.
The first two are obvious and apparent. They do things as a kid straight out of college would do it. They make it up as they go along, limited testing, make changes without changing versions, lack power point presentations and marketing material like other big MMO's do when they make serious changes, etc. The third one I mentioned is my assumption based on the fact certain things have gone unchanged for so long when they should be VERY easy to change.
Compiled code is code that cannot be changed and has to stay as is. A lot of times, it's either old code that no one has the source for or code that was outsourced that there is no source for. The worst case scenario is compiled code by a former employee who didn't keep the source in the first place or destroyed it to put a company in a bad position. Source code is code that can be changed and adjusted to meet needs as you need them. If you don't have the source and only have the compiled then the only way to change that piece of code is to recreate it from scratch.
An example would be something simple such as health bars. Let's say that the code says that the enemy health should reflect based on percentage of HP left for shields and armor but never display the number as a whole (i.e. maybe you want it to say 300/400). If you have the source code you can change it to display the exact amount of health easily. If you have compiled code then you would have to start everything from scratch to replicate what is happening. This includes how large the image of the health bar looks, the color, font, the object that is called to display, the way the DB is accessed and the way the data is "viewed", and a whole bunch of small things you might not think of such as how long does the gun have to be pointed at the berry before it shows up, should it be toggled in the options, etc.
I have a feeling a lot of the code they use is compiled and is too resource intensive to redo from scratch. This also is an issue for things regarding "numbers" because it isn't parameterized. This can be as simple as wanting to change how fast people spawn. If the compiled code isn't parameterized then it may be fixed and unable to change. If it is parameterized then you can assign a variable a different value or formuala and when that variable is called by the compiled code in memory it will execute the variables value but still the compiled code can't be changed.
In conclusion, there are a lot of things that will NEVER EVER happen for this game. EVER. It just can't happen unless an overhaul is performed or they redo the compiled segments of code.
If I was in charge the first thing I would do is redo all compiled code and STOP BALANCING THE ******* GAME. Then you can balance everything afterward.
Imagine other cool stuff like 1 in 25 ambushes everyone has a bunny head that is 5x the size of everything else so head shots are easier and tanks are hotdog cars. Imagine a new mode where you have to destroy all of the uplinks to end a match in a 1600x1600 meter map and everyone has unlimited clones. Technically, these kinds of things should just take a week to create. It's all numbers and geometry. But you can't change it if you are limited by compiled code and poor management for things such as version control.
Conclusion:
They can't change certain things because of amateur mistakes. It might not have been the devs themselves and in most cases is a sign of management issues.
|