I understand that as no fixes for at least 2 weeks - I will MAYBE be back in 2 weeks
Printable View
I understand that as no fixes for at least 2 weeks - I will MAYBE be back in 2 weeks
what did i miss? no fixes for at least 2 weeks?
oh well... thicker scroll bars, awesome thx bb
The next update is currently planned for August. As soon as the dev team fixes the issues and we are ready to release the update we will provide more details on the forum/website. We want to do it as soon as possible, as there is no reason for us to hold the update.
So by Aug 31 we'll be back on client?
Because they won't fix all these problems in a month, how long was it in test for and still got released in this state?
I'll bet there isn't a 'dev' at BB that has a clue how to fix any of these problems.
The Community (you know, the Players, CUSTOMERS and potential customers) deserve an explanation how this whole shambles was allowed to happen.
Your usual platitudes, Traffer, don't cut it this time - people are angry and want to know exactly what sort of an organisation BB / Ubisoft is, because from where I'm sitting, they're a bunch of incompetent fools.
Whoever's running the parent company should get rid and get a decent team in, because this shower are bringing their software company into disrepute.
Thanks Kafka - well said .Quote:
Originally Posted by Kafka-
I feel that by acting very surprised of this big flop - and asking us to fill in more bug reports with details of our computer, they try to just brush it all of and turn the blame back on us.
I don't expect a solution by tomorrow, but I had expected an explanation and a proper excuse by yesterday. Reason I keep looking and replying here on forum is that I am still searching for the explanation of why BB went ahead with a Unity we all knew in advance would fail.
I do know that it is not BB_Trafffer that is to blame, can imagine that he can only tell us what he has been told, but this attitude adds to the insult of even implementing this.
I'm more in the camp that by the end of August they will have announced an end date for TSO. Although I hope I am wrong.
My thinking is:
- BB knew they had a lot to fix but didn't have the people with the historic knowledge or skills to unravel the complex code that has been 'crafted' over the last decade.
- They have an inexperienced test team that are bullied by the developers into not highlighting defects or in playing down their significance.
- BB Corporate Bods decided the date to switch to Unity based upon licensing costs that they didnt want to see move. Hence why the strong messages that there is no regression path back to the previous client.
- There was no internal reason to not make the switch - see comment re inexperienced testers.
- Now that the switch has been made, the only option being discussed is a fix forward approach.
- The remaining developer(s) will be given an opportunity to fix the problems with a release in mid August - on the basis of being told, you have a month to sort this out.
- Once it becomes apparent that the skills to fix this are no longer there, the BB bosses will cut their losses and decide to close service down.
Ooooh de ja vu, there must be a reset in the matrix, look out agents are on their way. " we'll provide more details on the forum/website " HOW MANY TIMES HAVE WE HEARD THAT? The German forums will get it and we may get it after a player translates it and posts it over here. Not that anything the devs will produce, will be worth believing as note worthy anyway. So unless its a roll back to client ( which of course you say you can not do .... well that's not surprising as there seems very little you can do ) please feel free not to bother....as before!Quote:
Originally Posted by BB_Trafffer
If you wanted to do it as soon as possible why was it not done before release? You have done NOTHING from test version, yet again all those tester players wasted their time, you did nothing but say that you did. Even when it became apparent to some of us that the test version was not being fixed you told us that `it was not the same as the `live' server and the bugs were fixed....well this release tells it as it is. Plain and simple you lied to your players.
The only way this game will survive is if someone comes in and buys out the settlers licence and hands it to a games company that can actually program a game to make The Settlers Online Two. ( If I see Bluebyte anywhere near it I'll pass )
I am not sure that developers and Bluebyte are to blame - I think last line is what has been going on for last few years - cutting budget for game :(Quote:
Originally Posted by Kafka-
So Ubisoft is the company to blame and avoid in future.
I think last line sums it up
Well if that is the case the budget cut makes players stop paying for the game,- that is really a bad way of doing business.Quote:
Originally Posted by halv12
I rather believe BB is to be blamed. Ubisoft has others like BB under them. They help those who help themselves and are competent. I am with Larili, run when BB is near. You can give bad developers as much money as you like, they will be and are bad developers. Fixing this may be beyond them.
Its a tad more complicated that that.Quote:
Originally Posted by morelene
There is certain levels of failure where you can hardly imagine someone can be that incompetent, because it would require not following literally all good practices and patterns that were develop over the years to make things easier for yourself. In the IT world we currently live in this would mean either intentionally sabotaging project you're working on or being some kind of political motivated hire that has no business being anywhere near code repository. In this day and age a good university student with no prior work experience has on average more knowledge than the minimum required to avoid such blunders.
Taken this into consideration I maintain the position that the 'quality' of the issues we're having is for the most part consequence on them going head first into the wall on purpose, because I find it unlikely the project was profitable for years now, and for some weird reason they cant figure out how to get out of this situation in an elegant way.
The fact they did nothing to transition to a different technology for more than a year since (literally!) players started asking about the future of the game says alot.
Assuming it is financial, why did they not choose to inform players maybe six months or so before this blunder. They could just be honest and say, we will be closing, so people at least do not invest real money to buy gems--if you buy it is all on you--, an investment made for the future, which may just come to a screeching halt. Flash going away has been there, if I am not exaggerating, almost 10 years. I really can not understand, I would say, I hope they now know that the engine used, may not be helpful as well. I will be beautifully surprised if in August, they can resolve this, unless they start from scratch with maybe a new engine. If they can not even give us the client because of finances, I wonder. People just feel wronged, since what we are being told does not add up really. I unfortunately I do not believe it is easy to come by good developers. If it is financial, then they may not have money to hire good developers who can get the job done. The issue is not many developers, a few good ones get the work done. With that said, it is not easy to find good developers.
I've been trying to analyse why I am so worked up about this, because it's unusual for me to feel so aggrieved about something like a stupid internet game! :)
It's not the actual game as such - I can take it or leave it honestly, there's plenty of other things to do.
I think it's because I work(ed) in Quality Control and the complete lack of any on this product really annoys me :)
In my line there are 3 levels of QC, the first and the most successful is the 'self-inspection' of the people actually creating the product. They verify their own work for compliance to customer requirements and industry standards before passing on to second stage (independent inspection) because, let's face it, no-one wants to put out crap work do they?
The engineers take great pride in their work and, as I remember from my time as an engineer, they defy the independent inspection stage to find anything wrong, which it rarely does.
It's quite apparent that at BlueByte, there is no QC / Inspection process at all. A quick half hour try out of the game would have set alarm bells ringing.
There should also be in place safeguards to prevent Management (who are driven by timelines and budgets and usually have little regard for Quality) bullying the producers to put out a sub-standard product (if that is the case here.)
I don't know, it's just that whole shoddiness and lack of accountability that pisses me off!
well said kafka...
e1 else seems to have wild imaginations and going off on all sorts of tangents when bb has given no hint at all as to what the issue(s) may actually be!
I'm slowly losing hope. There is too much weirdness in BB behavior. And on top of that, it massively reminds me my own situation at work. Trying to talk some sense to my managers seems impossible, unless I take them to Tribunal. I clearly don't need more of such folly in what should be a pass time fun activity. BB atm. does not qualify for any positive comment, everything they do and say is just disaster and deception. Very disappointing.
On another note (although connected) - have all the Moderators ran away from this fiasco? Cause I only see BB_Trafffer on forums doing even simple tasks like closing thread ............ Everybody leaving the sinking boat?
And just an idea: Maybe all the hard work coders have been doing until now was reading textbooks trying to understand how the hell this bloody Unity is supposed to work and how to fix it. :) :) :) That would reconcile the claims of hard work with no actual visible results. :) Problem solved. They are not actually lying ............ lol. Also, that would explain why they fixed a few straightforward non-critical issues while still leaving the game in shambles, cause the former is easy while the latter requires extensive knowledge and experience which they do not possess among themselves. Cause I am sure they know the Unity release is disaster and they knew it ahead of time, they are not so dumb.
Is anyone here ever going to engage in a BB game ever again? I for sure will not!
From Blue Byte's website: "With more than 30 years of experience, Ubisoft Blue Byte is a pioneer of the European games industry. Today, we are the biggest game developer in Germany with three distinct studios in Berlin, Düsseldorf and Mainz. Our diverse teams from over 40 countries create and co-develop a wide range of AAA Ubisoft games for an international audience. We are proud contributors of cutting-edge technologies and services to the Ubisoft group. If you want to work on AAA games, big brands and future technologies, there is no better place to be." I'm laughing so hard my tummy hurts!!!!
Me. :) I'm gonna stay with the game until it either get's playable again or is closed down, hoping for the former to come true. BB messed up but the game is good.Quote:
Originally Posted by Nastynono
i think it is perfect time to implement "end of the world" event again ! Theme should be - if more then 10 people per server still plays game in 2 weeks game continuesQuote:
Originally Posted by Nastynono
agreedQuote:
Originally Posted by Norton_C
I will try to get in once every morning and continue hoping for a miracle. I miss playing and my friends. So sad it has come to this but I agree that the game is good. I haven't lost hope that, eventually, something will be fixed and I will be able to get beyond the hammer man and when I do get back in there will still be people playing. :DQuote:
Originally Posted by Norton_C
I'd like to believe this too sparkz, however I found that more and more of the highly educated/qualified folk that I had the (dis)pleasure of working with refused to engage their "thinking outside the box" or creative mode at all, as they set out to deliver SPECIFICALLY what was detailed in the spec or brief they were given. If the spec or brief stated they needed to code the replacement Unity pop-up windows/dialogue boxes one-for-one from the Flash framework, such things as:Quote:
Originally Posted by sparkz
- Dismissing any other active dialogue box(es) first
- Disallowing any dialogue box to be "clicked through" so that the underlying island content responded to those mouse clicks
- Maximum digits in data entry fields matched the actual gameplay rather than assumed to be 3 digits
- Data entry fields loaded with logical default values (rather than always "1") and preselected in preparation of them being overtyped
- etc....
would never have been missed in what was coded/implemented because they were taken as "given" by the specifier but not explicitly stated and therefore not considered by the coder.
I sort of wonder if the coding effort has even been outsourced to somewhere "off shore" (e.g. India / China) in an effort to reduce costs as much as possible, and on top of everything else, there's a language barrier as well.