696 replies to this topic

[Pezzer]

WOOT! Information! Nice one guys, high five!

Now my only big complaint is the economy, but I guess I'll live for now

gj, cant wait to play next week!

[Chronojam]

Belorion, on 09 October 2013 - 06:09 PM, said:

It must be difficult for them. Things are starting to come together so all of their predictions of doom and gloom are falling short. They can't just admit they were wrong, and that PGI might actually pull it all off.

Yeah, things really turned around when PGI removed ghost heat, fixed the scale and hitbox issues the geometry had, revised the movement mechanics, made all the autocannons distinct to give the LB10X a real role, added private lobbies on top of fixing the older "Elo matchmaker," plus the new mechbuilding tutorials are top-notch and really give a lot of feedback.

Honestly it helps that you can import/export XML loadouts of your favorite chassis, but better still is being able to test out any mech offline (glad they finally fixed the perk/hit detection/damage stats in the training grounds!) before committing to buying it, so much better than the ****-poor tabletop-variant trial mech system they used to give us. Haha, remember the Dragon that would shut itself down permanently on Caustic? With the recent DHS rebalancing, you're not obligated to use those on every mech, and the new engine upgrade/downgrade system means it's easier for new players to tweak their mech speed without investing in costly multi-million-cbill engine swaps anytime they want to try a new build.

All in all, I think MWO earned its 9.5 rating and we should give PGI a big round of applause. I heard that this month's Solaris tournament is going to have a secondary, exclusive founders event as a way to thank them.

Anyhow I gotta go finish picking our drop compositions for next week, we're making a strong push against a rival merc unit's periphery turf but after some losses this week I'm not sure if we can do much more than hold the clans back without making many territorial gains, it's up to our other Liao brothers to hold the line.



Back to reality, maybe we'll get 2011's dropship mode by the end of next year, and maybe the UI 2.0 designwork will be here in time for the 10% off Valentine's Day red paint sale.

Oh, and MWO holds steady at < 60% in ratings with every reviewer without exception expressing doubts about the staying power of the title, especially given noted failures to make good on critical feature delivery.

[Killashnikov]

Nice comms here - Good information for war-weary mechwarriors! Now this is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning. Sir Winston Churchill, Speech in November 1942

[MechFrog1]

Chronojam, on 09 October 2013 - 06:55 PM, said:

Wicked Ice Burn

[Anders]

Chronojam, on 09 October 2013 - 06:55 PM, said:

:words:

Mr. Chronojam:

Just so you are aware, I love this post with all of my robotic heart.

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[FireTornado]

It'll probably get buried (and I haven't read others comments), but a nice infographic for the features may be a tile-esque view. i.e. Each feature is a tile, if a feature is dependent on other features then those features show up inside of the tile. The opaqueness of the tile helps indicate how close you are to complete.

So, CW Phase 1 would be transparent but would have UI 2.0 inside of it which is almost fully opaque, and Pilot Lobby is within UI 2.0 and is semi-opaque b/c it's less close to being done.

Then as a feature is finished and released it gets removed from the infographic. The tile sizes are roughly proportional to the complexity. Maybe you could color-code them as to complexity/timeliness/other factors. i.e. It's green if you're hitting your marks, red if you're slipping from missing your estimates, and orange because feedback from other features have caused you to go back and redo work which is slowing you down.

Finally, each tile could additionally be a link to a command chair post that further explains the feature.

[Killashnikov]

The Faceless, on 09 October 2013 - 11:18 AM, said:

Great update Bryon! Its nice to see where you are going and how your teams are progressing. Thanks!

@Kotya


It appears to be be doing better at equivalent age but I'm sorry, there is no comparison here where the money is concerned. SC has been publicly funded to the tune of over $21million and climbing. I will not argue that the game LOOKS great but it wont be released till next xmas at the earliest so we wont know till then if they have hit it out of the park or not.

I have to point out though, that in the next two months we can expect the dogfighting module. At that point we can drop into matches against other players. While as yet still unbalanced this is almost exactly the stage we are at NOW with MW:O... Able to drop into combat - with no persistent universe to fight for... This is the point being made - in one year SC has progressed from announcement and crowdfunding to a game with almost the same functionality as MWO, just slightly less content....

Edited by Killashnikov, 09 October 2013 - 07:36 PM.

[HugoStiglitz]

Killashnikov, on 09 October 2013 - 07:35 PM, said:

I have to point out though, that in the next two months we can expect the dogfighting module. At that point we can drop into matches against other players. While as yet still unbalanced this is almost exactly the stage we are at NOW with MW:O... Able to drop into combat - with no persistent universe to fight for... This is the point being made - in one year SC has progressed from announcement and crowdfunding to a game with almost the same functionality as MWO, just slightly less content....

If you really want to get down to it, the dogfighting module will probably be similar to MWO's closed beta at the start with the advantage that they are working with a more stable version of CryEngine than MWO had when it made the jump up from CryEngine 2 to CryEngine 3 (I'm actually giving the benefit of the doubt here, CryEngine 3 was horrific at the start and I can't imagine CryEngine 4thGen being worse). You won't have much balance to speak of probably, you won't have many of the toys that you'll want to play with as well. It will probably be a bare bones system to give the people, who are apparently shelling out money, something to see other than just a fancy hanger.

Speculation is easy. Until you have the dogfighting module though, you can't really say it's progressing better. Even if it is though, who cares? They have 5 times the funding, if their numbers are good, and a larger studio.

[Thomas Covenant]

Good. I am still confused when non premade players will get to have 1PV exclusive matches again. I throw money at Pheonix in confidence you will see this is something many players NEED to play MW.
Thank you.

[Benlor]

*thumbs up*

Thanks for the informations.

[Vertego]

Macbrea, on 08 October 2013 - 01:12 PM, said:

In case anyone who doesn't understand programming is wondering this is what is called Agile Development. The normal process for working on an item would look as follows:

Let's take the following item: Inner Sphere Campaign Map

Given the above information it ends up looking like the following:

Design 1: We need a Campaign Map
Design 1: We will need loyalty section of screen
Design 1: We will need Planetary information
Design 1: We will need current Faction locations
Design 1: We will need ...... (about 50 other items)

Design 2:Create Short story in item like JIRA that says Create Mock-up of Screen (this gets assigned to UI specialist) Level of Effort: 8-16 hours
Design 2:After review of the Mock-up by the users, UI Specialist will need to go back in and tweak until business users are satisfied. (This is where having a UI specialist is very important on time to get right.) Level of Effort: 8 to 24 hours

Design 3: Break all 50+ items into parts that read as follows:

• As a Developer, I would like to create a map that allows the user to see current status of the Inner Sphere. (LoE: 8hrs)
  
• As a Developer, I would like to create a set of bars that shows the users current Loyalty levels with the Factions of the Inner Sphere. (LoE: 6hours)

Note: the Level of Effort is normally determined by the group of programmers as a whole, It is a rough estimate that the programmers will try to complete. Most programmers allocate 6 hours a day on programming. The closer you are to phase 1 the more time you get stuck in meetings. Meetings slow up programming for programmers.


Ready for Development: Well, this is were all stories are put into JIRA and prioritized. The programmers at this point as a group either work the queue for 2 weeks or their is a block allocated that they attempt to work for 2 weeks. The prioritizing happens normally by the Senior programmers and Managers.

In Development: Hey, the programmer has picked up the story and is working it. They will log work as they can and do the programming on that story. They have 2 weeks to get as many stories as possible done.

Ready for internal test: The programmer has finished the item and has put it on the test server. QA testers or other programmers will play with the item to see if it actually does what they want it to do. The programmer working on the project will fix any bugs or unexpected features.

Ready for internal test: Toss to test server see if the players break it. Fix any bugs.

So, what your seeing is the following:
1 week of planning
2 weeks of programming
1 week of internal testing
Tossed to Public Test Realm until is ready

You also forgot to mention that those of us in IT frequently do not work. Many hours spent watching youtube, netflix. We go to college for this field specifically so we don't have to "real" work.

Otherwise spot on. Thumbs up

What it comes down to is, the end user is never satisfied. Its not like there are a ton of good games out right now to occupy your time until this all gets implemented. I am very happy to see an update like this though. When giving you guys my money, its not just to pay for something I enjoy, its an investment in a really good game.

[Vassago Rain]

HugoStiglitz, on 09 October 2013 - 08:34 PM, said:

If you really want to get down to it, the dogfighting module will probably be similar to MWO's closed beta at the start with the advantage that they are working with a more stable version of CryEngine than MWO had when it made the jump up from CryEngine 2 to CryEngine 3 (I'm actually giving the benefit of the doubt here, CryEngine 3 was horrific at the start and I can't imagine CryEngine 4thGen being worse). You won't have much balance to speak of probably, you won't have many of the toys that you'll want to play with as well. It will probably be a bare bones system to give the people, who are apparently shelling out money, something to see other than just a fancy hanger.

Speculation is easy. Until you have the dogfighting module though, you can't really say it's progressing better. Even if it is though, who cares? They have 5 times the funding, if their numbers are good, and a larger studio.

Cryengine 2 was crysis 1... PGI upgraded to 3.4.

[Belorion]

Chronojam, on 09 October 2013 - 06:55 PM, said:

Back to reality, maybe we'll get 2011's dropship mode by the end of next year, and maybe the UI 2.0 designwork will be here in time for the 10% off Valentine's Day red paint sale.

Chrono, even a cynic such as yourself has to admit that the time between when they first started improving their communication (wasn't that your main complaint about a month and a half ago?) and now isn't enough time to implement all of the things of which you speak?

There is only so much forward momentum they can have in such a time period. Obviously early on they overestimated their ability to leap these hurdles. At this point you have to admit it will take a little time. Things are looking up for ui2.0 and dx11. From hear on out expect steady and constant improvements. You can't expect the world on a platter in one day.

[Heffay]

Belorion, on 10 October 2013 - 04:56 AM, said:

You can't expect the world on a platter in one day.

Some people do expect that. It's not reasonable, of course, but hey, here we are.

[Bishop Steiner]

Killashnikov, on 09 October 2013 - 07:35 PM, said:

I have to point out though, that in the next two months we can expect the dogfighting module. At that point we can drop into matches against other players. While as yet still unbalanced this is almost exactly the stage we are at NOW with MW:O... Able to drop into combat - with no persistent universe to fight for... This is the point being made - in one year SC has progressed from announcement and crowdfunding to a game with almost the same functionality as MWO, just slightly less content....

MechWarrior Founders Pack brought in 5 million (of which it is still rumored that IGP used a goodly portion of on MWT.)
Star Citizen has already brought in 21 million.

PGI is a new and tiny studio.
Chris ROberts has a larger more experienced staff.

things like that make pretty large real world differences in product delivery. Also, I am going to assume that Roberts is not having to re-write the 4th Gen CryEngine code from the ground up to make it work. (If so he is as big a fool as PGI was after all). PGI HAS had to baseline the code and almost rewrite the whole bloody thing.

[Belorion]

Vassago Rain, on 10 October 2013 - 04:50 AM, said:

Cryengine 2 was crysis 1... PGI upgraded to 3.4.

Quite true. MWO has always been some version of Cryengine 3. They have just been upgrading the minor version numbers. The minor version numbers keep having lots of bugs. They have modified it so much that it is a major effort to upgrade the engine I am sure. So much so that I hazard no doubt this is one of the things that is really slowing them down. I hope they choose not to upgrade again. If anything, a new cryengine release has a bug fix, they could cherrypick the fix and put it into the version they will be working with.

If not they will never get anywhere because they will always be dealing with upgrading the engine.

Its an easy trap to fall into, because there are all sorts of useful features that come out in the new releases. At some point however you just have to roll with it.

[Noaceik]

If they could do these monthly things every 2 weeks it would help keep us updated and make the game feel less like a grind, these are far more informative then say ATD's ever was.

[Heffay]

Noaceik, on 10 October 2013 - 05:37 AM, said:

If they could do these monthly things every 2 weeks it would help keep us updated and make the game feel less like a grind, these are far more informative then say ATD's ever was.

They release info all the time. You should read the Dev tracker thread.

[Silent]

Belorion, on 10 October 2013 - 04:56 AM, said:

You can't expect the world on a platter in one day.

I ordered my meal two years ago.

But hey, here we are.

Edited by Silent, 10 October 2013 - 06:25 AM.

[stjobe]

Silent, on 10 October 2013 - 06:24 AM, said:

I ordered my meal two years ago.

But hey, here we are.

Didn't they tell you? You'll be getting your meal one bite at a time, irregularly, over five years or so. That was the deal.