20 replies to this topic

[Varjen]

Hello.

I would like to make a small request.

Please stop making new content and focus on performance and bugfixes...

The current way the game is heading is not looking good at all. I see MANY players having issues with crashes, FPS and all manner of chaos.

Adding new content will not keep us playing the game.

Making it smooth, safe and stable will.

I might talk out of turn but i think most will agree when i say that We dont want shiny effects or HDR special effects. We want stable FPS, decent performance and a stable game that wont crash if you look at it the wrong way.

So pretty please.
Pull over, read the map, ask for directions and stop driving 200 mph into the darkness.

[DeadlyNerd]

But you're bound to reach the light doing that, or just smash into a wall at 200mph. Either of these has a chance of 50% while you don't see a thing. With those statistics in mind you can see why PGI is going with more content. Schrodinger's theory is a ***** when it comes to online games.

[Spirit of the Wolf]

...
You do know that new content is the primary way to attract customers, right?
Key example:
Microsoft. Tons of people hate them, but they still go back to buy their stuff over and over again. Why? New content.

And PGI is doing the best they can. It would be wonderful if they had 500 devs and 500 QA people working on this, but they don't have anywhere near that number. And the people that they do have are, in general, working their collective @$$es off.

Also:
Beta is Beta is Beta.
Be glad it's not still in Alpha.

[Varjen]

Oh i know, i agree with all of the above.
And i think they HAVE done a very nice job with the game sofar.

But it's a dangerous path i think they are on now. I have some insight into the gamedev arena (thats why i stay WELL clear of it) and all the trouble it entails. And once you lose track of certain things, like what version of the build you are patching and stuff like that, it can unravel pretty fast. And i REALLY want this game to make it to production!

Im not saying they should stop new content forever, i mean artists would probably noooot help the coders too much if they tried, right? But at least put some stuff on hold until the client is a little more stable?

If i search the forums for posts regarding FPS issues, i find a lot of people with similar problems to mine.
Im gonna try and post a decent track of my troubles and all my techspecs in the appropriate forum and see if they can use any of it. That way i dont just ***** but try and be a part of the solution, right?

[Darwins Dog]

The people fixing things like netcode and stability issues are NOT the same people working on new content.

Game designers have different specialties, so it does no good for graphics people to stop working and wait for network people. They can't help out because they're graphics specialists.

Just be patient. They are working on the problems, and fixes will come.

[Dustmuffins]

Tomorrow at PGI:

"Hey you! Yes you with the art degree! Drop what you're doing and work on netcode! No, I don't care that you know nothing about programming! We need to do what this random ***** on the forum told us to do."

[Studlyt]

Very well stated Darwins, At first I was annoyed too about it until i realized that one the new content is from a different group and two net code is a ***** to program and manage. Optimization of net code is not easy and it was well stated in the patch notes that its going to take time. Also, realize that this is still beta and things are coming online as they are finished and tested. I'm curious how much of the crashes and errors their problem or the engine problem. Most crashes and degrading of performance I've been having has been common issues with games on the cry engine which adds a lot more complexity fixing errors within your game.

[Syllogy]

Varjen, on 03 December 2012 - 01:56 AM, said:

Hello.

I would like to make a small request.

Please stop making new content and focus on performance and bugfixes...

The current way the game is heading is not looking good at all. I see MANY players having issues with crashes, FPS and all manner of chaos.

Adding new content will not keep us playing the game.

Making it smooth, safe and stable will.

I might talk out of turn but i think most will agree when i say that We dont want shiny effects or HDR special effects. We want stable FPS, decent performance and a stable game that wont crash if you look at it the wrong way.

So pretty please.
Pull over, read the map, ask for directions and stop driving 200 mph into the darkness.

Modellers, Artists, and Animators that are working on new content have nothing to do with netcode, bugs, programming and balancing issues.

You wouldn't send a bus boy behind the bar to make drinks unless he knew how to make drinks... but then, he wouldn't be a bus boy. =)

So pretty please, think before you speak.

Have a coke and a smile, and be silent.

[Varjen]

Also, please READ what i wrote a bit further down and please tone down the cynisism.
Really, totally uncalled for.

[Roughneck45]

No. Content first, then polish.

They could spend months fixing bugs, and then add a tiny bit of new content, and break the game again. Id rather have the game be playable 95% of the time, and continue to get content.

[Deadoon]

Varjen, on 03 December 2012 - 06:14 AM, said:

Also, please READ what i wrote a bit further down and please tone down the cynisism.
Really, totally uncalled for.

Every time they add more content, they need to polish more things, every time they add a feature, they need to fix things that that new feature broke. If they sit around and fix all the apparent bugs that are around now, they would have a stable game, but the problem is when you add new content you discover bugs with older code that you had already 'fixed', this happens every time you add something more than just an add-on feature like new mech that doesn't change any base code.

If they add all thier content quickly and fix the bugs later, they have a better perspective of how you would want the game to end up. Right now, the game is in the rough stages, not in the "diamond in the rough" sense but rather we are still peat moss level of refinement. This game is fairly stable but constantly changing, every change wil affect that stability

What the devs are trying to do is make the game decently stable to allow for a testing environment that can be observed constantly, and as they add more things they can observe the changes to the environment that occur, if a change is toxic to the environment, they can't remove it because it has now been integrated, but they can alter it so that it isn't as destructive.


You do not understand that beta is a TESTING environment, not a polish stage until late beta/prepared for release.

Edited by Deadoon, 03 December 2012 - 07:09 AM.

[Shiney]

Different teams do different things bud.

[focuspark]

Features sell a product. Almost nobody pays for lack of bugs. Best ROI always has been and always will be: add features and fix enough bugs to ship it. Simple economics says the OP's approach is infeasable. The only bugs PGI has to really worry about are the show stoppers ones (client crashes frequently, server loses data, connectivity is too poor, etc) and the ones that keep customers way (doesn't work on X brand GPU, incompatible with the new version of Windows, etc). Other than that it's features, features, features. I've in been in the software business for a very long time and this truth has never changed.

[MaddMaxx]

And if it was smoothed out tomorrow. What would your first new complaint be?

[Varjen]

Heh, its always funny to post on forums like these, I find it interesting that people take time to whine and moan instead of being helpful, but what could i excpect.

Anyway, i am a man standing corrected.
I read through http://mwomercs.com/...sys-spec-files/ this thread and spent the evening tweaking the mods he put up and wouldnt you know. I have decent FPS again.

And that kinda got my hopes up. It tells me that its only a config thing and it IS possible to fix the FPS problem, its just that the interface would need some more finetuning options. But i guess that would lead to people ruining their game too...
Cant please anyone, now can you?

I could write something witty or snarky here to peck at hecklers, but that would just be trying to beat them at their own game so ill just skip that.

[Helmer]

Syllogy, on 03 December 2012 - 06:10 AM, said:

Modellers, Artists, and Animators that are working on new content have nothing to do with netcode, bugs, programming and balancing issues.

You wouldn't send a bus boy behind the bar to make drinks unless he knew how to make drinks... but then, he wouldn't be a bus boy. =)

Pretty much this.


Asking the other departments to stop working on skins, models, animations, sound, etc etc while the engineers work on bug fixes really does not help get the fixes you're looking for done any quicker. PGI is well aware of the issues and is working as fast as they can.
In a perfect world they would have the budget of a Sony Online and the manpower of Blizzard.

Please remember, this is a minimal viable product. When the team at PGI shopped around the idea for a new Mechwarrior game in 2009 no one.... this bares repeating , NO ONE, was interested in resurrecting the IP. The Mechwarrior franchise has been laying fallow for the past decade because none of the bigger publishers had interest in it.
Fortunately we have a small dedicated publishing company and a small developer willing to invest what time and money they can into it.



Your feedback is appreciated tho! As the developers have stated before , although it says there are 409K+ members registered in the forums, that's only the individual who have actually visited the forums at least once. The actual number of pilot names registered is much higher.
So, obviously, there are probably many individuals out there who share the same concerns and just have not taken the time to voice them as you have.

Thanks for the taking the time!



Cheers.

Edited by Helmer, 03 December 2012 - 01:09 PM.

[Varjen]

See!

Now THATS constructive critisism. Outstanding example even. Thanks for a really well written reply. (and for taking the time to write it)

I would like to point out that i merely wanted new content halted in the current releases, not to stop all _work_ on it... Even if it might have sounded like that...

But as someone stated above, it might be a good idea to cram everything in right away and then sort out the mess. Since a later addon could unbalance some unforseen thing. Oh well. I got to say my thing and started some thoughts in people for better or worse.

=T=

[Adrienne Vorton]

a 3d modeller or a mapdesigner can´t help with the netcode and other performance related things... let them do their jobs, this game needs more content as much as better performance...

[Minos Murdoc]

When will people learn (ok some of you have) that there are different departments within a game studio. At the moment 90% of the bugs we are getting are code related and so its the programmers that are there to fix them. This leaves the environment artist, Character (or Mech) artists, animators and VFX peeps to do their magic, which is were 75% of our new content is going to be coming from.

To the OP have you ever worked in a games studio? I have and i can bet you money they are doing all they can to get the problems fixed, but they need time and resources. So at the same time they have to add new content to attract more players

[SaltiestRaccoon]

Spirit of the Wolf, on 03 December 2012 - 03:13 AM, said:

...
You do know that new content is the primary way to attract customers, right?
Key example:
Microsoft. Tons of people hate them, but they still go back to buy their stuff over and over again. Why? New content.

And PGI is doing the best they can. It would be wonderful if they had 500 devs and 500 QA people working on this, but they don't have anywhere near that number. And the people that they do have are, in general, working their collective @$$es off.

Also:
Beta is Beta is Beta.
Be glad it's not still in Alpha.

Right, Beta is Beta. Releasing new mechs and making money should be the least of their concerns right now. Their goals should be stability and balance. Then after release they can start putting out new content and worrying about people paying for it. The OP is completely right.