5 replies to this topic

[Grotoiler]

Hi all,

Just want to make a poll to find out what your feelings are on the patching in general so far, after the 20th of november's seemingly dismal patch.

I admit though, I have not tried the latest patch. but I see many, MANY people here this morning wailing at PGI for it...

On my side, I agree - this game has more bugs that a seedy roadside motel in the middle of nowhere. BUT I also realize that the devs can only do so much.

I see people saying that PGI should focus on fixing bugs instead of adding more content, which I agree with, if only in principle. PGI CANNOT simply shift their entire staff over to the coding side, much as we'd all want... It would be like taking a fisherman and telling him to pilot a space shuttle - he wouldn't know WHAT to do. simply because coding is NOT what the artists are trained to do.

In my opinion, what I would LIKE is for the dev team to hold up on the consistent patching (for the moment), because every time a patch drops, there are new bugs that get thrown in. Granted, it is a fact of life - when a patch happens, there WILL be bugs. The problem with this is that every time, WITHOUT FAIL, people go up in arms because "The **** *** Devs didn't ****** fix the **** bugs **** this im uninstalling **** all of you **** blah blah fishpaste ad nauseum..." (note: ***'s added for emphasis)

If they postpone the patching, there will admittedly be a back-log of content that will build up to be added in, BUT it will give the coders some time, without all the screaming meemies lighting the torches and sharpening the pitchforks, to at least squash some of the glaring bugs in the game that we all cringe at (whether we come here and {female dog} about them or not) - netcode, hitboxes, frame drops etc.

I would be happy to wait longer for more fluff, if the dev team can get more time to work on a bug-fixing patch.

I'm trying to sit on the fence and look at this from both points of view. While I too am one of the screaming masses begging for a game that plays as well as it can, I can see where the devs are being shoved into a tin-can in terms of expectations vs. delivery of goods.

What are your thoughts on this?
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TL;DR - Should PGI hold back on the patches adding more stuff into the game (and therefore giving people more to complain about), in order to get the bugs fixed?

[Taizan]

1 Yes I am happy with any progression with the game

4 Small content updates and focused, prioritized bugfixes (game breakers first, fluff problems last etc. )

3 Communication always wins!

Even though Blizz really has rolled out tons of patches for their games, they still make mistakes when bringing in new content/changed mechanics and have to deliver hotfixes. There is no reason to expect PGI to do get everything perfect or hold them to higher standards.

[Grotoiler]

Agreed there. My point is, there are so many big bugs here, that adding content which WILL have bugs just compounds the situation... If they slow down a spot, they can give us a patch that will fix hitboxes, for example... so we didn't get betty or bobbleheads, but we DID get somethign that fixed the game even a tiny bit...

[Jared Synge]

The bugs aren't going to get fixed any faster if someone from the art department or level design team goes in to help, they more than likely don't know thing one about coding. I want to see some more map content myself. Every map in the game is now typically ran the same way, not one player I've seen has showed any concern with how mundane the tactics are. Caustic Valley: sprint down line three into a slugfest or a steam roller if the opposing team isn't following that idea. Forest: hit the archway and again slugfest in that chokepoint. Frozen City: either take the tunnel or fight it out near the downed ship. Every single match it's the same strategy and tactic because the maps are so small. They should be considerably larger, and have more than two paths for combat.

On the bugs issue, a lot of what I'm getting are graphic issues, yellowed screen with no hud, fps dropped to 1 framerate, or black screens. I'm sure there are those that would love dhs to be, well double the effective ability of a single, not 1.5 hs. I'm not an expert at ny of the things needed to be done, but I have had my fare share of modding, working in various game engines, and even tried my hand at making my own original game before. It's a lot of work, and expecting things to be done in a few patches is unrealistic to say the least. I also try to keep in mind that this is considered open beta, so there are a lot of things that will pop up and need to be taken care of as they come. Fixing item a may break item b and item c kinda thing. So it needs to balanced and fixed right. Rushing to fix one thing can screw up a dozen others and then you have a bunch of QQ on the forums.

[Grotoiler]

Jared Synge, on 20 November 2012 - 11:16 PM, said:

The bugs aren't going to get fixed any faster if someone from the art department or level design team goes in to help, they more than likely don't know thing one about coding....

That's the whole point here... The art and level design departments are kicking out quality stuff... but it seems the bugs are taking so long to fix, that we're getting fluff, but no SUBSTANCE... rather delay the patch until you have something that FIXES the game in some BIG way...

From my point of view, what happened here was that we got some shiny new toys, but STILL no fixes for the netcode, matchmaking, hitboxes (to name but a few)....

And THAT is what people are complaining about - the fact that it LOOKS like PGI are ignoring the bugs and just working on fluff (which is not the case)...

I'd like to see PGI hold off on releasing anything new, so that when the next patch does come, it fixes something, and people will shut up for a bit and see some light at the end of this tunnel.

[Terran123rd]

I'm pretty happy with the patch. A new mech, some more balancing, and a complete reconstruction of the map files that has allowed my FPS to double (I actually can get double digits now!) on some maps, making the game more playable.

It's unrealistic to expect PGI treat this game as a pure beta any more. While it's about as close to a true beta as you can get with a free-to-play game in open beta, it's still essentially 'live' (since anyone can join in and the game is already using its final payment model), and PGI has to start the shifting of gears to run it as such. Right now that means they also have to juggle actually finishing it. So far they've done a good job with that in my opinion, and the current content + bug fixes patches system is enough.

I voted that they should wait to patch until they've got 'complete' and ready to implement, but it goes without saying that they should also give us the occasional progress report.