|
|
| Author |
Thread Statistics | Show CCP posts - 0 post(s) |
Glyd Path
Nec Tributis
38
   |
Posted - 2014.05.16 03:11:00 -
[1] - Quote
As stated CCP is cheap, losing ~$20M on world of darkness over eight years not withstanding. 
Looking over the history of EVE is enlightening. At least half of their releases were trash. EVE Online is still not a decent game nor does it have adequate server support, google TiDi aka Time Dilation.
Now add to that our experience with dust and the Cannot Comprehend Programming side team in Shanghai. Releases of prototype information that were unintentional. Bugs that get re-introduced (indicative of bad source control or software management process, typical of mediocre game developers) and that odd fact that every single release has introduced more bugs while the last round of bugs produced by the previous release are still in abundance.
These show clearly that new things are important while bugs are not. I have no idea if the Chinese/Icelandic mentalities add or subtract to the problem but it is a common software development problem. Nobody likes working on the old crap but without it getting fixed the product will never actually get better.
The hard facts are obvious. The number of bugs that are game breaking is high. The number of bugs that derail enjoyment of the game are higher. Low level debugging of whether guns fire, hit targets and do damage correctly is beyond their capabilities. Object oriented programming seems to be beyond their abilities and one worries that moving EVE:VR to Unreal Engine 4 from Unity was a good idea. Granted that project lead is happier but one wonders if the game will suffer from the move as it does require more actual programming expertise than CCP has ever shown in their history.
Now we have Legion. A port (a very loose interpretation of the word) of dust to PC. They wanted to introduce a new group of customers to New Eden. Well, they did. They also taught them that CCP cannot be taken at their word.
And please take off the Sony tin foil hats. SOE has PS2 and a slew of F2P games (H1Z1 soon!). They already work on PC and are of a significant higher quality than dust ever achieved or Legion has any chance of achieving. This is the same development team after all. If Legion on the PC is successful CCP will never spend the funds to move it to PS4. The imbalance will be unsolvable much like the controller versus KB/M problems are in dust currently. Only it will be worse.
I agree that CCP believes that throwing brute PC horsepower will fix their code base. It will not. The target, firing, hit detection and weapons of all sorts not working are endemic to their code base. They have not fixed it and I suspect that without changing their network architecture that they ever can. Thus moving to a more PvE (even co-op) will produce a better product as you reduce the number of clients that have to register hits.
TL:DR
Cannot Comprehend Programming is extremely cheap company and not very good at their only job. Game development.
Legions await their ham fisted solutions with trepidation.
Nobody at CCP cares because we ain't Legionnaires.
|
Glyd Path
Nec Tributis
45
|
Posted - 2014.05.17 02:37:00 -
[2] - Quote
Mary Lilac wrote:
You can also see evidence of what decent code monkies can churn out, look at warframe. They can write a patch, submit it to sony and have it out within a week because the code will pass QA.
TLDR: CCP cannot write code that will pass Sony QA without getting kicked back a few times, something the majority of other developers can do.
First off, this is nonsense. Sony doesn't really care. Dust doesn't have problems with newer PS3s. Older ones, ones in hot rooms, older hard drives and thermal paste issues - definitely are a problem. None of which Sony gives a rat crap about. Old machines = old problems. Buy a new machine. A new PS3 is $200. A new PS4 is $400. Pick your solution.
Sony has certain features they care about. They don't want the game attempting to get past the OS and do harm. Nor do they want their brand sullied. Yet they allowed the release of EA disasters as they are not Sony's problem. CCP and their game are no different from anybody else.
Sony has more concerns about file sizes, installation procedures working and technical features that have absolutely nothing to do with how good, bad or indifferent the game is. As long as their bill gets paid Sony is fine. And in this case, Sony is collecting the money in the store before CCP sees anything. All the cash is in their hands first before it goes to Iceland.
Stop bringing Sony into the conversation. They have virtually nothing to do with CCP. Less to do with Dust and nothing at all to do with Legion nor the decision as to its platform. They have their own F2P games that are a dramatic improvement over anything CCP has done to date. Legion being on PC has no downside for Sony.
Many dev studios have problem getting through Sony QA. Although most have a QA of their own that will prevent the most embarrassing ones. Not all mind you, see EA. 
Nobody at CCP cares because we ain't Legionnaires.
|
Glyd Path
Nec Tributis
45
|
Posted - 2014.05.17 02:53:00 -
[3] - Quote
And one last post to beat the dead horse to total death, destruction and finally into the dust.
None of this matters. CCP owns the product, they developed it, it failed (by many measures) and instead of fixing it they decided to move to a new game on the PC.
The PC is their home platform, where their largest consumer base is and they are comfortable with how all that interacts.
It appears that they underestimated or missed the estimate on several things. The abilities of their Shanghai team, the number of dust players that decide to play EVE, the return on investment and god knows what else (cause they are not sharing).
Now they are moving on. Goodbye CCP. Goodbye dust.
So I am moving on as well. I have some ISK/AUR to burn down and if my friends keep playing dust so will I.
In my humble opinion, the only reason to play dust is to hang out with your friends, chat in squad, blow some stuff up and kill reds. With nobody to play with I have dozens of games that are fun and aren't tied to New Eden.
For now dust has my PSN friends. When it doesn't. It won't have me either.
I know that CCP doesn't care. Not even a little bit.
Nobody at CCP cares because we ain't Legionnaires.
|
Glyd Path
Nec Tributis
48
|
Posted - 2014.05.18 04:42:00 -
[4] - Quote
Freccia di Lybra wrote:This Article is why CCP is losing a great opportunity: they're developing something new, that people would definitely try out. Sony would reach its best in terms of PS4 sold in Christmas time, when the price would drop a little bit. If the proportion is still the same (7/3) there would be 21 millions PS3 and 9 millions Xone, Even if I think that the proportion would change a bit (whoever studied/studies statistical analysis knows that). An analysis of any of the many Economists at CCP would be gladly appreciated.
Although a bit long in the tooth here is a gamasutra article
http://gamasutra.com/php-bin/news_index.php?story=19844
The obligitory wikipedia searched via google.
https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0CCsQFjAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fen.wikipedia.org%2Fwiki%2FGameplay_of_Eve_Online&ei=Vzl4U83hE43xoASq_IHYAw&usg=AFQjCNGXhhzGIi2uzpvcVtXn1a2xM4W51Q&sig2=FnhNbU_w29pmyLx-XbCjuQ&bvm=bv.66917471,d.cGU
Quote:
On 27 June 2007 CCP announced that an economist had been employed[16] to assist in the development of the economic side of the game. Dr. Eyj+Ślfur Gu+Śmundsson is responsible for compiling quarterly economic reports for the community and providing ongoing analysis of the economic facets of Eve, along with coordinating research with other interested parties.[17][18] Information from Dr. Gu+Śmundsson's reports has been used to make some development decisions regarding the economy. For example, in his second dev blog post[19] he observed that availability of shuttles for a fixed price from NPC merchants, which could then be recycled into tritanium (a saleable mineral), placed an artificial cap on the price of tritanium, indirectly impacting the price of every good manufactured using tritanium (which is almost all of them). This eventually led to a decision to remove NPC sell orders for shuttles.[20]
And how I personally found out about the man himself via Rock Paper Shotgun rockpapershotgun.com
http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2013/05/03/eve-fanfest-2013-the-invisible-hand-of-eve-online/
The last is an interview and quite interesting.
None of which will save dust of course.
Nobody at CCP cares because we ain't Legionnaires.
|
Glyd Path
Nec Tributis
48
|
Posted - 2014.05.18 05:16:00 -
[5] - Quote
Freccia di Lybra wrote:This Article is why CCP is losing a great opportunity: they're developing something new, that people would definitely try out. Sony would reach its best in terms of PS4 sold in Christmas time, when the price would drop a little bit.
Now to answer the implied question: why is CCP ignoring the 30M new console owners expected by 2015?
The number of players on PCs is vast. See Steam's activity chart for active online players and the problem starts to become clear. There are millions of players for any MMO on a PC. Regardless of our fondness for consoles my gaming PC is a significantly better device than even the new toys and have a much larger number games to play.
CCPs major customer base is on the PC. Ignoring consoles reduces their development costs. It keeps the required technology base to one environment and they will not have to chase the growing costs of the next-gen consoles development cycle (which, BTW is higher than a PC). Many AAA games are quoting a significanly higher cost on the consoles and considering that CCP doesn't actually have any AAA titles one can consider that keeping development to one platform will save the small company money. Remember CCP only has one product right now, the FPS and VR projects are trying to expand their options.
The fact is CCP didn't succeed with Dust514. They failed in so many ways it is nearly comical. They had an extensive closed beta followed by an open beta. Both of those set certain expectations and then they released a completely different game at the so called Release, aka Uprising 1.0. They have a base system that is broken, they have no intention of focusing adequate resources to fix the legion of bugs as they have already had the majority of their team on the new, as yet not greenlite, project Legion.
At best their reasoning is suspect as CCP messed up dust. So trying to ascertain their reasons is a fools errand.
Chasing bad decisions by another always is.
Nobody at CCP cares because we ain't Legionnaires.
|
Glyd Path
Nec Tributis
61
|
Posted - 2014.05.20 12:10:00 -
[6] - Quote
Spike Slania wrote:You know, the one thing I don't get is from a marketing point of view. Here they are on the ps3, being the number 1 f2p on the ps3, and they're jumping ship to PC. Where on PC they will be over looked as a FPS since it's not on Steam and everyone else will be playing RTS, MMORPGs, and random AOS/Tower Defense knock offs. Oh, and facebook games. Sure, they have their fanbase from Eve that can fill up some of the gaps, but I don't see how they will expand their base and increase revenue with this move. Pretty much just sounds like an Expansion Pack for Eve.
Planetside 2 is not on Steam. World of Tanks isn't either. Hawken is and my quick check for F2P games on Steam right now gave me a list of 100 games. CCP could well find themselves lost in the storm as it were. People that know of CCP might care but many have no idea what they are about. Yeah, space point and click but their only PR is about losing gazillions in game currency and who likes that? Not to mention that playing EVE takes months to get up to speed (and barely moving at that) which they did a pretty good job of copying the same level of frustration/grinding/boredom with dust.
The method that works well for many is word of mouth for actual customer gains. PR will drag some in of course but a playing customer that gets his friends to download the game as well is the best marketing a F2P can have. For those games that focus on solo play the PR is more important. However clans and guilds can multiply customer counts based on friends and pre-existing out of game groups. Like from other/previous F2P games or games in the same genre F2P or not.
Many EVE players thought that CCP jumped ship to consoles first and they welcome the return. The fact of a small company developing games on multiple platforms just adds work without necessarily adding profits. The PS3 is a small underpowered console and the video card of many modern PCs contain more memory than the entire PS3. The PS4 is turning out to be more expensive to develop for (as is the X1) and that would be a huge negative for the decision. At least it would to me.
With luck project legion will be overlooked on PC. With the base mechanisms of a FPS being completely broken and their obvious inability to balance the gaming experience CCP and a FPS would appear to be a bad combination. It certainly has so far. Maybe project legion will fare better when the primary gaming experience will be PVE. It is my understanding that many EVE players operate that way as well. Which is just what a few EVE players told me (aka no hard data).
Basically, give it up. Legion isn't going to leave PC anytime soon if at all.
Nobody at CCP cares because we ain't Legionnaires.
|
|
|
| |
|