*Should*
QA is amazingly hard to get it right and more complex software gets, more "interesting" (read as incredibly hard) is to get it 100% correct.
You wonder why big publishers loath big experimental games, or why Mass Effect 4 original concept got axed by EA? Because they saw where it was going - unmanageable mess due of code path scenarios almost impossible to walk trough. And that's for single player game.
Or why they love this standardized open world approaches they use in their series? Because they are tried and true methods. And even then they break in hilarious ways.
We are so used to escalation of software complexity, while people who do CI, who do unit testing, your devops and you QAs are despairing with promises done by devs and marketing people. It is surprise it runs so well at all.
But I will repeat - if I would had a chance, I would definitely apply for FD CI (I think they were looking for someone in that position) team. They need it badly, especially for their gameplay design changes. Sandro and team won't be iterate trough all logical and even illogical scenarios cooked up by cunny and resourceful players. It is CI, server side and syssec people job. That's why they get paid.
You're half right....
The problem is one of randomness; or rather, too much of it. The Mission system has never been right, both from an implementation stand point and a randomness stand point. The Mission System bugs out in open all the time. That is not CI or any other of your terminology, it is down to poor testing and quality control. The second part, randomness, while also due to poor testing and quality is much harder to analyse unless you build specific test platforms to test it, and then have someone analyse the results.
It would appear, like 2.0, upto 2.4, Beyond 3.0 was rushed out the door. There are bugs in every facet of the release. And while I agree, "there will always be some bugs", the bugs we're seeing are mainly down to testing and quality. I'm near 30 years in development, including games. I know shoddy implementation and testing when I see it. But, I don't think it's fair to lay all the blame in one department. My opinion, is the problems tun much deeper. Lack of MMO experience, lack of balance experience, lack of thought for the player-base. And they're the ones that I fear most.
I'd much prefer to see someone come on and say 'We ****ed up, sorry, we're working on it" than nothing, but "soon" or "under investigation" - I've worked in many. many companies, including the one I'm in now with over $3.5 Trillion in investments, and in none of them, have I seen such poor testing.
It's been a bad week for Fdev, I hope they learn from this, and overcome it.
