The really sad thing is that the game looks beautiful and actually runs pretty damn well. If they hadn't colossally fucked up the server-side part of the launch plan I think the game would have thousands of people playing it right now instead of a handful.
Why is this modded flamebait? I think a fanboy just saw something that they didn't like and had some mod points to spend.
Mod the parent out of -1 Hell, please. I have mod points but I have obviously posted in this article so I can't use 'em.
And just so people can see it, here is his comment:
This doesn't come as a surprise to me... sometime around the version 1.6/1.7 release, a bunch of the DEVs were let go/fired/left (I don't remember specifics) and the game hasn't been the same since. I participated in the beta testing process at one point, and there were a bunch of great guys doing the testing and lots of reports of issues were being relayed to the developers. But it seemed that there were always issues slipping through the cracks because the Army was more interested in phasing in the overall "experience" or storyline of the game, rather than gameplay. I haven't been following the development of the game since a few years ago when the gameplay went south, and I imagine they've been losing lots of veteran players since then. Being the army, it should be easy to assume the DEV team was pressured with unrealistic goals and an unrealistic deadline for launch. Since the game is (obviously) targeted at young adults and they failed big-time on first impressions for many new players coming on board with this release, it's easy to see why someone's head was required on a platter even though the blame really lies with the Army officials. Typical bureaucracy at its finest. I hope the fired DEVs find good paying jobs with companies who don't require treading manure on a daily basis.
That said, I do hope that moving development into the military sector instead of the private sector ends up saving taxpayer money in the long run, IMHO the game as a whole isn't really an effective recruiting tool anyway. The only thing that's really useful is the virtual-reality training for our soldiers, and that should be the main focus of the development.
I had the authentication problem yesterday for just a couple of hours, the real problem is that everything else is bugged, I've completed one of the training mission with full score, yet at the end it says that I failed it completely,
That's a problem with the auth server. After you complete training, the game needs to successfully communicate with the auth server to update your stats. If it can't, it automatically defaults to "YOU ARE A NO GO!". This in an of itself was a mistake on the devs part IMO; they should have had a message encoded in which said "Unable to communicate with Authentication Server" or something so people didn't think that they failed training.
Moreover, every time you restart training, you have to sit and listen to the same diatribe by the D.I. This is not necessarily so bad for some things (where the speech is like a minute and a half long), but I feel really bad for the people who didn't get CLS (Combat Life-Saving) done the first time. You actually have to sit through a video and like a ten-minute lecture on how to properly administer first aid. Thankfully, the pass went through on my first try.
I've tried to play online but after joining a server and choosing side, I couldn't choose any class, so I changed server and it was even worse nobody could choose any side, so I changed again and with all other servers after the loading screen it sent me back to the menu. I tried again the next day, I choose a server with a ping of 32ms yet it was lagging like hell and I even spawned without a weapon, I had to find a dead body to steal his
You got further than me.
Even though I've completed Basic (qualifying on most stuff with Expert, otherwise Proficient), I can't actually join any games. Last night I was in a game where there was literally *one* guy playing and 23 people sitting in spec because they flat-out couldn't get in.
Again, it seems to be some kind of problem on the AA server's end, because more than a few people have set up LAN servers and you can play on there just fine.
200 employees does not necessarily mean 200 programming dudes. Remember that there's legal, marketing, and P.R. to consider.
Keep in mind that Valve doesn't just make games - they also work with Steam.
There's probably at least half a dozen guys dedicated solely towards bringing new games onto Steam. Not getting the licensing, but setting them up so they work with Steam and its interface (like the in-game stuff.)
There's also likely a dedicated team for updating content for certain games, like TF2. I'm sure that they have a few guys who job it is to do just that.
The Source Engine is a beast unto itself, and one of the reasons the Episodes come out so many years in-between is because Valve elects to improve the engine every time. If they did not go with the engine upgrades (HDR, particle physics, L4D engine's improvements, and who knows what is coming with EP3), they probably could have cranked out games a lot faster. The thing is, they make them so damn good that they have enough staying power where they don't have to worry about cranking out a shit-ton of games every year.
I still occasionally play through the entire Half Life 2 series up to this point because the gameplay and story is so damn good. I think that I'm getting to the point, though, where I want to drop in SMOD and have some real fun.:3
What about Valve? They have roughly 200 employees and they seem to be very much "talent based". Their methodology for making games has worked pretty damn well for them IMO.
For the mathematically uninclined such as myself, would someone care to explain what proofs are?
I'm led to believe that it's the equivalent of "show your work". A lot of kids - damn, most kids - hate "showing their work". I think this largely has to do with the fact that math seems to be taught as the means to an end, when its really an exercise in logic.
Also, do proofs have to be heavy in the details, or can they be light? For instance, if you had 10 x 20 as a problem, many of us remember the trick we were taught when multiplying numbers with zeroes at the end: set aside the zeroes, multiply the remaining integers, and then append all of the zeroes to the end. (So 10 x 20 would be 1 x 2 = 2, and then append the two zeroes at the end for 200.) So, in the case of proofs, would simply using such a trick be acceptable, or would you have to write out the whole process (carrying numbers if need be, etc.)?
Largely I'm interested in knowing what they are so I can understand what the hell Rodney McKay was making such a big deal about. d:
If they sold their product for 1/10th of the price (even as a test), I'd bet that they would see a huge increase in volume - enough to make up for the difference.
As an Air Force veteran with two draftable daughters
Draftable daughters?
Right, because women have to sign up for the Selective Service System.
I love how women plead for equality on so many of the things that benefit them but none of the undesirable responsibilities, like alimony (more women than men receive it), the draft, child support, etc.
Slashdot Mirror
The really sad thing is that the game looks beautiful and actually runs pretty damn well. If they hadn't colossally fucked up the server-side part of the launch plan I think the game would have thousands of people playing it right now instead of a handful.
Why is this modded flamebait? I think a fanboy just saw something that they didn't like and had some mod points to spend.
Mod the parent out of -1 Hell, please. I have mod points but I have obviously posted in this article so I can't use 'em.
And just so people can see it, here is his comment:
This doesn't come as a surprise to me... sometime around the version 1.6/1.7 release, a bunch of the DEVs were let go/fired/left (I don't remember specifics) and the game hasn't been the same since. I participated in the beta testing process at one point, and there were a bunch of great guys doing the testing and lots of reports of issues were being relayed to the developers. But it seemed that there were always issues slipping through the cracks because the Army was more interested in phasing in the overall "experience" or storyline of the game, rather than gameplay. I haven't been following the development of the game since a few years ago when the gameplay went south, and I imagine they've been losing lots of veteran players since then. Being the army, it should be easy to assume the DEV team was pressured with unrealistic goals and an unrealistic deadline for launch. Since the game is (obviously) targeted at young adults and they failed big-time on first impressions for many new players coming on board with this release, it's easy to see why someone's head was required on a platter even though the blame really lies with the Army officials. Typical bureaucracy at its finest. I hope the fired DEVs find good paying jobs with companies who don't require treading manure on a daily basis.
That said, I do hope that moving development into the military sector instead of the private sector ends up saving taxpayer money in the long run, IMHO the game as a whole isn't really an effective recruiting tool anyway. The only thing that's really useful is the virtual-reality training for our soldiers, and that should be the main focus of the development.
That still leaves the problem that they don't tell you how to do this anywhere. Thanks for the tip, though!
I had the authentication problem yesterday for just a couple of hours, the real problem is that everything else is bugged, I've completed one of the training mission with full score, yet at the end it says that I failed it completely,
That's a problem with the auth server. After you complete training, the game needs to successfully communicate with the auth server to update your stats. If it can't, it automatically defaults to "YOU ARE A NO GO!". This in an of itself was a mistake on the devs part IMO; they should have had a message encoded in which said "Unable to communicate with Authentication Server" or something so people didn't think that they failed training.
Moreover, every time you restart training, you have to sit and listen to the same diatribe by the D.I. This is not necessarily so bad for some things (where the speech is like a minute and a half long), but I feel really bad for the people who didn't get CLS (Combat Life-Saving) done the first time. You actually have to sit through a video and like a ten-minute lecture on how to properly administer first aid. Thankfully, the pass went through on my first try.
I've tried to play online but after joining a server and choosing side, I couldn't choose any class, so I changed server and it was even worse nobody could choose any side, so I changed again and with all other servers after the loading screen it sent me back to the menu. I tried again the next day, I choose a server with a ping of 32ms yet it was lagging like hell and I even spawned without a weapon, I had to find a dead body to steal his
You got further than me.
Even though I've completed Basic (qualifying on most stuff with Expert, otherwise Proficient), I can't actually join any games. Last night I was in a game where there was literally *one* guy playing and 23 people sitting in spec because they flat-out couldn't get in.
Again, it seems to be some kind of problem on the AA server's end, because more than a few people have set up LAN servers and you can play on there just fine.
200 employees does not necessarily mean 200 programming dudes. Remember that there's legal, marketing, and P.R. to consider.
Keep in mind that Valve doesn't just make games - they also work with Steam.
There's probably at least half a dozen guys dedicated solely towards bringing new games onto Steam. Not getting the licensing, but setting them up so they work with Steam and its interface (like the in-game stuff.)
There's also likely a dedicated team for updating content for certain games, like TF2. I'm sure that they have a few guys who job it is to do just that.
The Source Engine is a beast unto itself, and one of the reasons the Episodes come out so many years in-between is because Valve elects to improve the engine every time. If they did not go with the engine upgrades (HDR, particle physics, L4D engine's improvements, and who knows what is coming with EP3), they probably could have cranked out games a lot faster. The thing is, they make them so damn good that they have enough staying power where they don't have to worry about cranking out a shit-ton of games every year.
I still occasionally play through the entire Half Life 2 series up to this point because the gameplay and story is so damn good. I think that I'm getting to the point, though, where I want to drop in SMOD and have some real fun. :3
What about Valve? They have roughly 200 employees and they seem to be very much "talent based". Their methodology for making games has worked pretty damn well for them IMO.
Tell that to the half dozen or so of my teachers over the years who said that wasn't good enough.
So it's a lot like a legal brief, but in the end it actually makes sense. Thanks!
Does the ACLU campaign against Second Amendment rights?
The NRA handles second amendment cases just fine. The ACLU seems to focus largely on the first and fourth amendments. Why overlap?
For the mathematically uninclined such as myself, would someone care to explain what proofs are?
I'm led to believe that it's the equivalent of "show your work". A lot of kids - damn, most kids - hate "showing their work". I think this largely has to do with the fact that math seems to be taught as the means to an end, when its really an exercise in logic.
Also, do proofs have to be heavy in the details, or can they be light? For instance, if you had 10 x 20 as a problem, many of us remember the trick we were taught when multiplying numbers with zeroes at the end: set aside the zeroes, multiply the remaining integers, and then append all of the zeroes to the end. (So 10 x 20 would be 1 x 2 = 2, and then append the two zeroes at the end for 200.) So, in the case of proofs, would simply using such a trick be acceptable, or would you have to write out the whole process (carrying numbers if need be, etc.)?
Largely I'm interested in knowing what they are so I can understand what the hell Rodney McKay was making such a big deal about. d:
I dunno man, you sound pretty incensed to me.
Maybe he drives a Ford Pinto.
Photoshop might have a Left4Dead situation there.
If they sold their product for 1/10th of the price (even as a test), I'd bet that they would see a huge increase in volume - enough to make up for the difference.
Nah, I'm pretty sure that's China.
The lawyers.
Posting to undo incorrect moderation. Stupid dropdowns.
As an Air Force veteran with two draftable daughters
Draftable daughters?
Right, because women have to sign up for the Selective Service System.
I love how women plead for equality on so many of the things that benefit them but none of the undesirable responsibilities, like alimony (more women than men receive it), the draft, child support, etc.
So sports are kinda like LARPing?
I didn't know those Madden fans were so hardcore.
What about this guy?
In America, saying someone is hung has a different meaning than suicide. d:
Right, because the cost of textbooks has to do with the printing and nothing at all to do with the companies massively price-gouging.
Are you sure about it? I was under the impression that many (simpler) phones are unlocked by punching in a code on the keypad.
+1 "Oh Snap!"
Ah, I see you've played Ocarina of Time as well.
Because the people that are elected in office are the same people voted in by those machines.
Perhaps those people should be voted out of office with jet fighters, naval warcraft, guns, rockets, and bombs.