Eh, I'm done. Cool Santa hat! I should get a pic so I can have one too....but I don't have any eggs to give.Oh we're doing this again.
Eh, I'm done. Cool Santa hat! I should get a pic so I can have one too....but I don't have any eggs to give.Oh we're doing this again.
Imagine a world when QA was done in-house, and mostly performed prior to kicking the product out the door. The normalisation of offloading this to your customers who are doing it for free (and often after the horse has bolted in the form of a broken product) doesn't sit well with me tbh.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.
I guess the point is that Frontier isn’t providing a particularly good service to any of its ED customers.That, and maybe remember your frustration now when the console community flare-up inevitably happens again. Maybe we'll get a little more understanding, a shoulder to cry on perhaps.
Consider this your one and only warning regarding your attitude. My team are working flat out, as they have been since launch, listening and communicating issues that are raised by the community to the the development team.
Resolutions to these issues are not always as easy as you seem to think. When we have the answers to these questions or issues, we communicate them. Whilst I can understand your frustration, I do not and will not accept this type of attitude towards my team.
-Arf
(so yeah, us old cynics have gotten used to the lack of info and random breaksIt is what it is )
Well, have fun waitingYou maybe have got used to it. I've been here from the start and will be here till the end and I will never get used to lack of clarity. I'm all for hotbuild development but with clarity - "Dear CMDR, due to you doing our QA testing here is 1000 ARX for logging in, please continue our bug testing".
I'm not sure why monetary compensation is included, I just want them to deliver the product.You maybe have got used to it. I've been here from the start and will be here till the end and I will never get used to lack of clarity. I'm all for hotbuild development but with clarity - "Dear CMDR, due to you doing our QA testing here is 1000 ARX for logging in, please continue our bug testing".
so many cmdrs feels pain and disappointed
I still want to give them the benefit of the doubt, I don't really think they push out a broken update on purpose. The bigger problem seems to be that they don't even seem be aware that they're doing so.Imagine a world when QA was done in-house, and mostly performed prior to kicking the product out the door. The normalisation of offloading this to your customers who are doing it for free (and often after the horse has bolted in the form of a broken product) doesn't sit well with me tbh.
You got plans over the winter? Bed and breakfast included, depending on compliancy.Strikes me as a little weird but i've never been a victim of Stockholm syndrome so what do I know.
I do note that if you log out to menu and back in, it allows you to set them, but obviously all previous settings are still blown away.Same here. No difference from before the latest update. Basically I have one ship from my fleet which I can use so the game is unplayable for me until this is fixed.
I hate to ask, but do FDev not actually test these things before the release the updates? They used to release betas beforehand, then they stopped, then after updates started breaking more things than they fixed they starting doing betas again - now they have stopped. For why?
Stockholm? Told from you? Which is triple account and tried to be ,,neutral,,and despite all that pain and disappointment you still want to give Frontier 40 quid.
Strikes me as a little weird but i've never been a victim of Stockholm syndrome so what do I know.
That's not what I was trying to suggest, but I do wonder 1) how large/small/existent their QA department is and 2) how much clout it has when it comes to stopping broken patches to get rolled out (presuming they catch issues and raise them internally).I still want to give them the benefit of the doubt, I don't really think they push out a broken update on purpose. The bigger problem seems to be that they don't even seem be aware that they're doing so.
Stockholm? Told from you? Which is triple account and tried to be ,,neutral,,
I'm starting to think the "but it works on my computer!" argument might be real in their case and there's something seriously going wrong when they push that proverbial "compile release version" button.That's not what I was trying to suggest, but I do wonder 1) how large/small/existent their QA department is and 2) how much clout it has when it comes to stopping broken patches to get rolled out (presuming they catch issues and raise them internally).
And then there's the stuff like the design of the new limpet controllers. 'Out of touch' doesn't quite describe it, I'm a bit gobsmacked by the responses suggesting Frontier is genuinely surprised that people find them useless (particularly with regards to their weight). Doesn't fill me with confidence and suggests that the developer no longer understands their own game and relies on their customers (with too many preferences/opinions to please everyone) for help.
respect for your clarification an recognition that your tone was a little harsh.
i agree to your points and i think there are some valid questions where the cm´s should comment
- elite ist after patch 9.0x in a worse state than with version 8, because even important horizon functionality which has worked for years seems broken
- why are bugs newly indroduced in nearly every patch in areas where the functionality/code was not affected according to the patch notes
- why does frontier not test their patches before releasing, the bugs are so obvious and not deeply hidden in gameplay
- does frontier has a revision control system ???
i´am only questioning because i´am realy interested in a good future for this game and good playing time for myself. but compared to my playing experience with EDH, playing with EDO gets more and more frustrating. if these kind of questions or comments are not welcomed tell me.
I’m relatively new here but I’m starting to think that no one at frontier really plays this game. I mean sure, they have test consoles and what not, but none of them actually play the game with a standard customer account. When they buy modules with their Developer accounts, they are able to pick grade five effects automatically, and they can type in coordinates to load in to any place in the game. The reason given for this was something like “I have a job here, I don’t have time to grind or travel”.That's not what I was trying to suggest, but I do wonder 1) how large/small/existent their QA department is and 2) how much clout it has when it comes to stopping broken patches to get rolled out (presuming they catch issues and raise them internally).
And then there's the stuff like the design of the new limpet controllers. 'Out of touch' doesn't quite describe it, I'm a bit gobsmacked by the responses suggesting Frontier is genuinely surprised that people find them useless (particularly with regards to their weight). Doesn't fill me with confidence and suggests that the developer no longer understands their own game and relies on their customers (with too many preferences/opinions to please everyone) for help.
I didn't say you were bashing FDev, but so often I see the something isn't working must be QAs fault.
I don't know how things work in relation to deployment for FD, but I don't personally think that some of the bigger things would be missed by their QA team.