Update 9.01 - Patch Notes

[Dooguk]

I would appreciate if we could get any update on the progress from the CM. At least before they leave for the day. I am sure the day was very intensiv an full of discussion with the dev team.
Personally I am interessted in the current process, where are you. Any best guess on timeing. Or do you still investigate the issues. Is there any priority you could already share with the community?

They said on the YouTube livestream earlier that they are working on fixes but can't give a time when a patch will be released.

 

[LeoBartlet]

Of course you can. As the great Shakin' Stevens once said (or was it Raul?)

It's a time for giving, a time for getting.

Are you taking orders because my xmas hat is a bit crap.

 

[Deleted member 182079]

One of the main reasons I still have the Amiga up and running in the office. Games from a simpler time that require nothing more than up, down, left, right, and a single button to play, and are fully focused on the games actually being fun rather than looking pretty. (Shadow of the Beast notwithstanding.) Every time I try to play FIFA on my PS4, I give up and just fire up Kick Off 2. Any time a buddy insists on playing Madden, I need a session of Speedball 2 to cleanse the soul. Every time I try playing a game that requires the finger dexterity of a world class pianist to manipulate the hundreds of button combinations, I boot up a bit of James Pond, Gods, Fire and Ice, or one of the billion fun but ludicrously simple platformers of the time.

And yep, even still have my save from Frontier Elite 2...

Microprose Soccer >>>> Kick Off 2. Just sayin

 

[Maurice G]

I have my RasPi3 with a projector just to play Shadowrun from the genesis every 2 or 3 months and from the SNES in between.

And just to stay in topic; FDEV, please, fix ou anounce a fix date for the bio scan bug

 

[Deleted member 182079]

Please read my original post again (hint: SC)
In other words, this ship will never have to jump.
By the way, if I didn't have access to the CMK4, the Viper Mk4 would be my next best choice for mining with small ships.
I forgot if it is available for everyone though....

Are you still doing FC-based deep space mining? I lost my FC during my CMDR wipe so jump range has become an important metric again for me. Though my Cobra 3 is in fact currently my core miner, not perfect but it works. Prefer it over the Viper because of the slightly better views from the cockpit.

 

[Deleted member 182079]

Ho ho ho!

View attachment 280833

I might just nick that. Thanks!

 

[Vi7ER]

First time poster on the forums, after two years of playing (and loving ED). Currently I am playing on my 2nd account doing basic "trucking missions" in the Bubble as my primary exploration account is useless out in the Black. So while I am not totally dead in the water, plenty of other Commanders are.
I'm not here to blast the Community Managers or developers as I completely understand the situation in which they find themselves. Instead I question the process.
Coming from an IT world there is absolutely no way we could release a "patch/update/version" that broke so many relevant aspects of an environment. This would be a massive RPE (resume producing event) in any other environment. Can you imagine your ISP pushing out a "patch/update" that suddenly stopped all even-numbered IPs from working and couldn't link to URLs with certain letters in them (oh, say, like "am")? Or your online banking not allowing for withdrawals (feel free to keep depositing though)? And no resolution day/time was given?
I totally understand that bugs happen- hidden impacts are revealed that were overlooked. I don't have sympathy for having to work over weekend/holidays to fix things given there is a way to prevent that situation from the start (and I have lost many in weekend/holiday in 35 years of IT due to both my own negligence and others).
It was mentioned in this thread and others that proper testing before release would have prevented this. Frontier has a massive, loyal following that would gladly accept the responsibility of testing a proposed release a week before the rollout. Create a duplicate environment on a test server and pick 100/200/300 Commanders to test the new features/fixes (don't include the story lines, CGs, etc). No one knows the game like the people who actually play it. Nearly every Commander here would gladly do it for free, knowing any progress gained would be wiped when the test server is reset. It isn't a matter of that option not being technically feasible, it is a matter of building/implementing the process.
The question to Frontier becomes, is making a QA process worth the effort to make the best product available to the thousands of loyal Commanders?
Again, thank you to the Community Managers for being the "face" of Frontier and working towards a resolution.

Totally this. I FDev would get a lot of volunteers and the rest of us would get better updates.

Is this kind of suggestion not something you can pass up @Arthur Tolmie? Also, it's clear you CMs are between a rock and a hard place so thanks for listening to us all and staying calm. Merry Christmas to you all.

 

[ubermick]

FWIW, Zac just said on the livestream that they expect another hotfix to be deployed prior to the Christmas break. (No guarantees, but its expected.)

 

[ubermick]

Can you imagine your ISP pushing out a "patch/update" that suddenly stopped all even-numbered IPs from working and couldn't link to URLs with certain letters in them (oh, say, like "am")? Or your online banking not allowing for withdrawals (feel free to keep depositing though)? And no resolution day/time was given?

I would imagine most banks have a larger department working such things so its less likely to happen (still does, on occasion), and not sure comparing a computer game with actual matters of day to day survival isn't over-egging the custard a wee bit.

(Underlying point that more testing needs doing is still right, tho.)

 

[Deleted member 182079]

Yes, that is indeed my last resort when nothing else works. My "circular dependency" game loop never gets old.

I'm short around 5bn credits still (reset happened about half a year ago, still playing regularly but no outright grinding), so that option won't be available to me. I do miss the personal storage the FC provides the most I have to say. Vanilla mining/trading isn't as fun after experiencing that. Will see if I ever get to that level again, since FDev seem to plug credit exploits a LOT quicker than other bugs it'll probably take me quite a while still. Maybe a well paying CG or three will come along soon.

 

[tybby]

I still go to bed today.
No need to play E.

 

[CMDR KCalo]

I agree, that sounds like the most obvious and sensible thing to do. If only they hadn't done that in the past with various beta versions, only to either ignore or misunderstand or simply not be able to sort out or implement the incoming feedback in a halfway useful way. In any case, the results were extremely modest, to say the least. At some point they must have thought, let's just do the open-heart surgery, what can go wrong? And certainly no worse than their earlier "beta" attempts.

The thing is I feel like this is doable on Steam. I'm on console, so not familiar with it all, but I know that when updates come out on NMS they first go to the internal branch for HG to work on, then they go to the experimental branch which, I believe, opens the update to players who want to try it out. After some time in experimental, it goes live. This doesn't solve all the problems with the game, there are still bugs and hotfixes, but the updates that I've seen since playing NMS there has been nothing really game-breaking and the updates come quickly since they're not as serious.

 

[Deleted member 182079]

Since an FC costs 5 billion credits (plus some service modules), you must be pretty broke. I wouldn't worry too much about it though. Creating a deep space mining and exploration vessel is certainly also a rewarding and challenging project. But of course something completely different from what I'm doing here, which already starts with the fact that I don't have to worry about jump range for my mining ship.

Yes. 5bn + say 1bn for extras - my assets are at around 1bn which covers 400m in cash and 5 ships. Used to have 13bn in assets before I wiped. Making those billions back without some serious grinding will take a while. Though seeing how broken some aspects of FCs still are, maybe this break of mine from them is for the best.

 

[Deleted member 182079]

The thing is I feel like this is doable on Steam. I'm on console, so not familiar with it all, but I know that when updates come out on NMS they first go to the internal branch for HG to work on, then they go to the experimental branch which, I believe, opens the update to players who want to try it out. After some time in experimental, it goes live. This doesn't solve all the problems with the game, there are still bugs and hotfixes, but the updates that I've seen since playing NMS there has been nothing really game-breaking and the updates come quickly since they're not as serious.

Steam isn't really relevant (unless I'm misunderstanding your post). That HG churn out patches like no tomorrow after each release is their decision, nothing to do with Steam. FDev could provide a Beta environment like they have in the past, via their launcher - the Alpha for EDO was also a separate install, this isn't anything revolutionary really.

 

[RogerO18]

All the current space sim games aggravate me so I just play the next one in a round robin order. I need EDO to get fixed so it can continue to aggravate me to move to the next one. A new space game (SF) should be coming out next year so it can be part of my aggravation order.

 

[CMDR KCalo]

Steam isn't really relevant (unless I'm misunderstanding your post). That HG churn out patches like no tomorrow after each release is their decision, nothing to do with Steam. FDev could provide a Beta environment like they have in the past, via their launcher - the Alpha for EDO was also a separate install, this isn't anything revolutionary really.

Just saying that there's an experimental branch on Steam that they use for what I assume to be player beta testing of updates. Isn't ED also on Steam? Either way, it's proven it can be done, whether it will be done is up to the developer of course.

 

[CMDR KCalo]

I'm not sure that a comparison between Elite and NMS is meaningful. Technically, they seem to be far ahead of Frontier. I have no idea what that might be due to, though. Whether they use a more modern engine perhaps, or better organised internal structures? That would be pure speculation, I really have no idea.

I really only used NMS as it's another game I play and I've seen that this is how they do their updates. Plenty of other games to choose from as examples of player update beta testing.

 

[Red Anders]

We paid for Odyssey through financially supporting it's development all the same as actually purchasing it.

By 'financially supporting it's development' I think you mean 'buying consumer products, which you received in full' right?

Still, I await the outraged posts about this issue from Planet Zoo fans since they undoubtedly contributed more to FDev's coffers than any of us did during Odyssey's development cycle.

 

[ubermick]

By 'financially supporting it's development' I think you mean 'buying consumer products, which you received in full' right?

Still, I await the outraged posts about this issue from Planet Zoo fans since they undoubtedly contributed more to FDev's coffers than any of us did during Odyssey's development cycle.

Your beer tastes horrible!
Wait, you said you don't drink alcohol?
Well I do drink water, and there's water in your beer so my opinion is as valid as anyone else's!

 

[Red Anders]

Your beer tastes horrible!
Wait, you said you don't drink alcohol?
Well I do drink water, and there's water in your beer so my opinion is as valid as anyone else's!

I had a barley sugar once, there's barley in your beer! I demand satisfaction!