If Fdev got any more comfortable I'm pretty sure they'd slip into a <redacted> coma! I love how everyone is, 'yay fixing bugs!' when the only thing that has actually changed is Fleet Carriers have been delayed for 6 (ish) months and they're bringing back beta testing. They've been bug fixing for the last two years, how is another six months going to make a difference?
So, do you think carriers would have been delayed regardless, or is it down to the open letter?
- Thread starter CMDR Fnool
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The cynic in me wonders if FDEV adapted Agile for a little while, and used milestones as an excuse to push out detached (CQC, Powerplay) and buggy content that could generate more milestones to conquer. Then they (like almost everyone else should) woke up and realised that slowing down and focussing on quality and customer satisfaction is a lot better than making it look like they are efficiently reaching short-term goals.
Either way, there's a big pile of cans being kicked down the road to 2020. I can't wait to see what the big expansion is!
S
Either way, there's a big pile of cans being kicked down the road to 2020. I can't wait to see what the big expansion is!
SDeleted member 38366
D
IMHO :
It was down to a few factors
They tried to gamble (ultra agile and reduced/compressed testing on min. QA and no Beta Phase) - and lost big this time with their experimental Alpha Release.
And they sure didn't risk all that and lost because it was all "running so fantastic". Big new project (biggest yet), so totally understandable things can become more difficult than expected.
It was down to a few factors
- contrary to their statement, the progress for their 2020DLC was more difficult than expected and they ran into problems since months already (remember they said "making fantastic progress and on schedule for release" - but yet they have virtually nothing to show for it? Doesn't compute.)
- hence the skeleton crew taking care of the running Game had to be reduced even further in order to ensure the DLC progress meets its targets, resulting in the crippled Sep Release
- with the massive Quality Problems of that Sep Release and huge amount of long-standing bugs dating as far back as almost 5 years, they decided to simply cancel Carriers (for the 2nd time btw. , meaning it was never high on their priority list and they knew they require the maximized resources for the 2020DLC anyway)
- the remaining small skeleton crew will now focus almost exclusively on fixing bugs in upto 5 years old spaghetti code written by dozens of different people - so don't expect wonders in the next Patchnotes.... just sayin' (I don't envy these Devs)
They tried to gamble (ultra agile and reduced/compressed testing on min. QA and no Beta Phase) - and lost big this time with their experimental Alpha Release.
And they sure didn't risk all that and lost because it was all "running so fantastic". Big new project (biggest yet), so totally understandable things can become more difficult than expected.
I agree, I had this deja vu last March and I'm having it again now. The only difference is that now they can literally prove that it was a community request.
God I hope FD's decision (the correct one IMO) had nothing to do with that letter. Because if it did some of the signatories heads will collectively explode from over swelling. If they suddenly think they can sway FD to a certain direction just be penning an Open Letter and claiming to speak on behalf of the entire community then what the letters pour in and the salt to flow when they don't get their own way.
Yeah I had a project manager that quite literally said to my face: "I don't care if it's broken, roll it out, once it's live it's a support issue, not ours."
Same thing for me. And he added, this allows to stay in touch with the customer and sell him other things in addition.
Yes a welcome opportunity, which allows to be winner on the 2 topics, FC and Bugs and by leverage on the "New Era" which will not come perhaps end of 2020 as announced.
The most thankless job for an Dev.
I think a number of DEVs have lost their smile when they learn the decision.
But the community encourages and supports the Devs.
Actually! that's not entirely true - we also know that we don't have Limpet racks/universal limpet controllers yet either.
But, yes, you are right.
Have they?
I've not seen any evidence of FD trying to fix anything beyond the bare minimum. In fact that list of bugs just keeps growing. The rather incomplete patch notes released with each update barely scratches the surface.
I do however share your sentiment about what difference another 6-8 months will make, the B team skeleton crew fixing all of the legacy bugs & network code from the past 5 years? Good luck!
The year of 'beyond' didn't even seem to make much progress on bug fixing, and that was a full year with the full dev team.
I don't think it's fair to assume that others' problems are non-exsistant or mean less because YOU never experienced it. Whining gets things done, fixed, or improved and bugs are probably the #1 thing that dwindles a community because of the sheer lack of playability. Can't Play, Won't Play, Play Another Game Instead. You know what I mean?
That's the explanation that makes most sense I think.
Hang on a moment, the September update broke engineering and the module panel, and it was fixed within a day or two right? That was actually pretty smooth going for an ED update. Or did I miss something?
31 august 2018
"This means that some elements of content such as Ice Planets (which many of you will have seen some fantastic progress updates from LaveCon earlier this year) and Fleet Carriers for squadrons will not be coming as part of the Beyond – Chapter Four update. Some of the technology from the ice planets specifically will be used within our wider and global visual upgrade, so there will still be general improvements, but not everything we originally envisaged. However, we wanted you to be aware that these two elements specifically would be reprioritised out of the upcoming Beyond - Chapter Four update."
So, they are delayed more than year. It was clearly planned.
This happens when your priorities are the development of other games.
"This means that some elements of content such as Ice Planets (which many of you will have seen some fantastic progress updates from LaveCon earlier this year) and Fleet Carriers for squadrons will not be coming as part of the Beyond – Chapter Four update. Some of the technology from the ice planets specifically will be used within our wider and global visual upgrade, so there will still be general improvements, but not everything we originally envisaged. However, we wanted you to be aware that these two elements specifically would be reprioritised out of the upcoming Beyond - Chapter Four update."
So, they are delayed more than year. It was clearly planned.
This happens when your priorities are the development of other games.
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[Speculation ON]
They have Team A working on New Era and Team B working on ARX, New players experience, ARX, bug fixes, ARX, and so on...
It seems that Team B is much undersized and/or inexperienced considering the tasks given.
[Speculation OFF]
The result is bugged patch updates, poor contents and delays.
I point my finger to the management rather than to the developers.
My question to FD would be if the New Era uses the bug fixed branch of the game (i.e. the current build), or if its a 'new' branch built to cope with Legs, atmospheres etc. If its the latter, what can be shared if New Era is still in flux? Conspiracy theorists might then suggest FCs are underbaked and bugs offer a reprieve in the 'Old Era' branch, with the Letter being a good excuse. My concern is that if New Era is an independent branch its that which needs testing to the max, and not the current build which would in theory have a year of operation left to run.
And I for one am sure you would have absolutely loved the bug-ridden mess in December. And it would have been a bug-ridden mess because apparently Frontier think it will take them 8 months to get it to an acceptable state.