And people need to remember that this is still an <b>Engine Test</b>, it's not even an Alpha yet. Zek said that people are not playing it yet. Play. That's exactly what they don't want people to do yet. They first need to improve the engine performance and bugs, and then they will release a playable version aka Alpha.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd--> Why must it be unplayable? That's stupid as hell.
Make it as playable as possible so people test it harder.
it is not unplayable. I can start the test and then press several buttons. If I press the right buttons I get some loading time and then its an fps! You can even walk, look around, jump, fall and shoot! It is just an engine test however, so tbh thats more then I expected (gun and jumping :O).
What you dont seem to understand is that the engine test is not meant for us to play on, but actually for us to get a view of how the alpha might look, aswell as UWE to get bugreports about what hardware they need to get compability for and such.
I really like how they already made modding for it working tho, as that gave us a (glitchy) dm multiplayer mod made by the community.
puzlThe Old FirmJoin Date: 2003-02-26Member: 14029Retired Developer, NS1 Playtester, Forum Moderators, Constellation
The two aren't mutually exclusive anyway.
I do think it would be great to have basic features like a server browser to facilitate easier testing.
However, at this point I'm sure they are bogged down with basic engine level enhancements like the mentioned alt-tab behaviour, engine performance tuning and unifying the rendering between the editor and the game etc.
Having more people telling them that alt-tab isn't working won't change the fact that they have to fix it.
It's looking awesome, but I've seen a little Detail, that didn't fit: When hee rotated on one place, the Feet were only shifting on the Ground, having no corresponding movement to them (Time-Index 0:23-0:27 in the posted Video)
However, the Rest looks pretty awesome to me, if I wouldn't know, that you guys wrote the Engine yourself, I would've thought it was the Unreal-Engine.
About Performance: It's seeming to work just perfectly in the Videos, so my hopes are up, that it's running as smoothly as UT3(or even better).
<!--quoteo(post=1768577:date=Apr 24 2010, 04:33 PM:name=qwiggalo)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (qwiggalo @ Apr 24 2010, 04:33 PM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1768577"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->Why must it be unplayable? That's stupid as hell.
Make it as playable as possible so people test it harder.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
It isn't <i>designed</i> to be buggy, it's buggy because it's the engine test.
From the feedback you can fix bugs, and then release a non-buggy version.
There are only a limited number of bugs you can fix with half a dozen guys on half a dozen hardware configurations, you need to get it tested on many machines, and while big companies can afford to spend idiotic sums of money with testing companies, UWE is on a tighter budget than that.
<!--quoteo(post=1768582:date=Apr 24 2010, 11:46 AM:name=Feha)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Feha @ Apr 24 2010, 11:46 AM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1768582"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->it is not unplayable. I can start the test and then press several buttons. If I press the right buttons I get some loading time and then its an fps! You can even walk, look around, jump, fall and shoot! It is just an engine test however, so tbh thats more then I expected (gun and jumping :O).
What you dont seem to understand is that the engine test is not meant for us to play on, but actually for us to get a view of how the alpha might look, aswell as UWE to get bugreports about what hardware they need to get compability for and such.
I really like how they already made modding for it working tho, as that gave us a (glitchy) dm multiplayer mod made by the community.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd--> The engine test was cool for what it was, don't get me wrong, and I'm glad they released anything at all, but none of us are getting paid for this - you can't expect people to do real hard testing in their own time on something that isn't any fun to play. The engine test will get vastly more exposure if there's actually a game to be played with it. I think the modders can handle that part but that's why it's important to add in the basic multiplayer infrastructure to increase accessibility/awareness of the mods. Not to mention that the netcode and performance with many players is obviously a very important part of the engine to test as well. The better we can test that part the more playable the alpha will be, and people won't be as forgiving of an unplayable alpha as they are to the engine test.
<!--quoteo(post=1768576:date=Apr 24 2010, 10:30 AM:name=Zek)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Zek @ Apr 24 2010, 10:30 AM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1768576"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->I thought we already knew they weren't rotating the viewmodel? It's cool looking but it inhibits gameplay IMO.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Man Zek I couldn't agree with you more. I wouldn't even consider buying AvP because the alien view was constantly rotating- the first time in 20 years of gaming that a game gave me a headache. Makes me nauseous just thinking about it.. its one of those features that sounds pretty cool on paper but in practice is just awful.
I agree people cant be expected to do nothing but bugfind the engine test. But it is a very high chance that a player who cant even start the test would file a bug report, and same about someone that finds a bug by accident.
And why would we not be forgiving about a glitchy alpha? Think about it, an alpha is quite far from the finished game. Normally the alpha is the step where the testers try to, and does, find glitches. An alpha usually have alot of stuff that could not only be optimized, but also fixed. They are also rarely released to the community due to people thinking the alpha should be close to the game (the experiance is in the details, so an alpha is boring).
The beta is when the product should be<i> nearing</i> the "playable" state (as in, released, and a casual gamer <i>could</i> be lucky and play it without encountering a single glitch (not every game is like that (gmod))).
To quote wikipedia (I know, its lame, but its also simple :P): <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_release_life_cycle#Alpha" target="_blank">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_rele...ife_cycle#Alpha</a> <!--quoteo--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE </div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec--><b>Alpha</b>
The alpha phase of the release life cycle is the first phase to begin Software testing. In this phase, developers generally test the software using white box techniques. Additional validation is then performed using black box or gray box techniques, by another testing team. Moving to black box testing inside the organization is known as alpha release.
Alpha software can be unstable and could cause crashes or data loss.
The alpha phase usually ends with a feature freeze, indicating that no more features will be added to the software. At this time, the software is said to be feature complete.
<b>Beta</b>
"Beta" is the software development phase following alpha, named after the Greek letter beta. It generally begins when the software is feature complete. The focus of beta testing is reducing impacts to users, often incorporating usability testing. The process of delivering a beta version to the users is called beta release.
The users of a beta version are called beta testers. They are usually customers or prospective customers of the organization that develops the software, willing to test the software for free or for a reduced price.
Beta version software is likely to be useful for internal demonstrations and previews to select customers. Some developers refer to this stage as a preview, a prototype, a technical preview (TP) or as an early access.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
As you know UWE does not do this like every other company, as we got our hands on "pre-alpha" stuff. Probably mostly due to smaller budget then the bigger companys.
Because in reality the public doesn't care about definitions, if they first experience the real game in a state that isn't fun to play because of performance issues it will sour their perception in the long run. Even SE preorderers aren't immune to that. I don't quite get why you're opposed to some very small additions that would help people who can start the game test it better.
I am not opposed to additions, I am opposed to the state of mind about this being an "unplayable game", where as I think of it as an "playable tool for helping bug-testing the engine, checking out maps, trying to mod and such".
I would love to see additions to it, but I think they would be best as bugfixes and stuff (like documentation) helping the community to mod so "ppl actually play".
I'm in the small number of people who have crashing problems that seem to somehow be related to texture pre-caching... e.g. <a href="http://getsatisfaction.com/unknownworlds/topics/createtexture_failed_out_of_video_memory" target="_blank">http://getsatisfaction.com/unknownworlds/t...of_video_memory</a> :(
<!--quoteo(post=1768597:date=Apr 24 2010, 03:09 PM:name=Feha)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Feha @ Apr 24 2010, 03:09 PM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1768597"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->To quote wikipedia (I know, its lame, but its also simple :P): <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_release_life_cycle#Alpha" target="_blank">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_rele...ife_cycle#Alpha</a>
As you know UWE does not do this like every other company, as we got our hands on "pre-alpha" stuff. Probably mostly due to smaller budget then the bigger companys.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->Good for you and your ability to look ###### up on Wikipedia.
Now labels aside, they can just work on the basics of a server browser and more people will test it because it'll be more easily entertaining.
That's all we're saying, is to work on the beginnings of what we need to be able to make it more easily entertaining for the unpaid testers who's only motivation is entertainment.
Nobody is saying it's unplayable in it's current state, it just isn't easy to get a game started that will last you more then a few seconds of enjoyment.
Stop reading 'engine test' and boxing in your mind with labels. The greatest artists are ones who know how to break the rules.
And this mumbo jumbo about how more people will just mean more of the same bug reports or less bug reports? So what if there will be more of the same reports? It will for sure add more good, new bug reports if more people are spending more time testing.
<!--quoteo(post=1768625:date=Apr 24 2010, 09:34 PM:name=qwiggalo)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (qwiggalo @ Apr 24 2010, 09:34 PM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1768625"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->And this mumbo jumbo about how more people will just mean more of the same bug reports or less bug reports? So what if there will be more of the same reports? It will for sure add more good, new bug reports if more people are spending more time testing.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
<!--quoteo--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE </div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->Most of the crash reports from the built-in reporter were related to situations where the graphics device was lost.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
UWE releases a fix for one bug (alt tab being "broken") then they get to tackle the next highest priority bug. Like you said, more people playing = more bug reports. Period. How can you not want them to get as many bug reports as possible (unless it's just spam of course)? The more of the SAME reports means there's a significant problem that really needs fixed, and the more people testing it, the higher the chance that an obscure error will come up that will need fixing and it will get squashed sooner rather than later.
In order to get the higher volume of playing/testing/whatever you want to call it, the game has to be more accessible to people (working server browser, auto lua download, etc.). I believe this accessibility will be rolled out in the next few weeks.
<!--quoteo(post=1768625:date=Apr 25 2010, 03:34 AM:name=qwiggalo)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (qwiggalo @ Apr 25 2010, 03:34 AM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1768625"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->Good for you and your ability to look ###### up on Wikipedia.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd--> I could take that sentance as insulting you know. I said I know it is lame to quote wiki, but it is also more simple then opening a dictionary or something.
<!--quoteo(post=1768625:date=Apr 25 2010, 03:34 AM:name=qwiggalo)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (qwiggalo @ Apr 25 2010, 03:34 AM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1768625"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->Nobody is saying it's unplayable in it's current state, it just isn't easy to get a game started that will last you more then a few seconds of enjoyment.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
I can respond to that by a single quote.
<!--quoteo(post=1768577:date=Apr 24 2010, 04:33 PM:name=qwiggalo)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (qwiggalo @ Apr 24 2010, 04:33 PM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1768577"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->Why must it be unplayable? That's stupid as hell.
Make it as playable as possible so people test it harder.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
To your other arguments, as I said I have nothing against us getting an engine test with more content, it is that people think of this as "unplayable" (see quote --^) as if it were something that would be close to a game. I use the "labels" for my arguments because they are the official "labels", and that should mean they are a better description then "unplayable".
It seems the only bug fixes mentioned are when people alt+tab out or go idle and let the screensaver start (what?). I can't touch the pre-alpha as it usually crashes within 30s but there's no mention of this crash being adressed :(
<!--quoteo(post=1768654:date=Apr 25 2010, 03:12 PM:name=sherpa)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (sherpa @ Apr 25 2010, 03:12 PM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1768654"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->It seems the only bug fixes mentioned are when people alt+tab out or go idle and let the screensaver start (what?). I can't touch the pre-alpha as it usually crashes within 30s but there's no mention of this crash being adressed :(<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd--> Sounds like fullscreen crash, try windowed mode.
Yes, as far bugs go I'd say this one is the most egregious.
I really enjoyed the engine test, so I'm really glad to see you guys are working hard on making it better. Sounds like you've got a handle on the major issues and you've got a plan. I can't wait to see what happens when you've put it all together into alpha. Keep up the hard work folks! <b>Big Game Company:</b> <u>are you listening!!</u> This is how you get people to support your products instead of pirate it; you give them a bit more for the buck, you give them a special reason to pay for it. I'm proud to have paid for this, especially since we get to be involved the whole time. Make a game we're proud to own and be a part of. Just like UWE :D
Also everyone who is whining about the engine test not being fun or playable for more than a few minutes...who cares. UWE didn't release the game, they released a basic test to see what kind of performance issues they run into. That was the point, and they got the data they needed. With that data they can then make the game more playable and more fun, for "harder testing," so that they can gather more data and further optimize. People who are whining about this are either apocalyptically stupid or trolling too hard.
One more edit. In the video I noticed there is no turn animation? As in, standing still and pivoting around a point. Is this something that'll be added? It just looks funny, like the marine is being blown around by the wind on a big chunk of ice.
The Pre-Alpha was released for Level Designers to check things out for size & performance as well as get feedback on hardware issues but LUA Modders get to play with the code too, this release is basicly contains nothing of the game except for a couple of things. I would imagine that they have already done it as they have loads more done than they have actually released, There are loads of things missing in the Pre-Alpha. - No gun movement while walking - No Jump animation - No shell ejection and so on.
None of these things are worth discussing or raising concern about just yet until the actual Alpha Comes out. The only bug reports going on is related to the Game Engine and the verity of hardware out there that causes issues with the engine just simply launching and running smoothly. We were not even supposed to get the Engine Test originaly. They want to know whos hardware is not running the engine properly thats why there is hardly any game releated content in there as they aint ready for debugging the actualy game play. You dont need a working full game to tell if the fps is bad. crashes or the game wont launch, Otherwise there would be too many bug reports for different things as apposed to getting things done in simple stages.
The Engine comes first. Engine is the renderer alone with no game mechanics so we are even lucky we got a shooting range mod and a gun.
you really gotta look at it this way, Some developers make you wait for beta releases and after reading this i know why.
Be grateful they released this if not just for engine test comunity feedback but so you can roam about those maps people are building and helping them refine them, I already found 4 places to get stuck in UWE's map released from the engine test. (one bad area where pipes meet floor near wall)
I for one am greatful to see some projects completed and revealed than left in the dark wondering how far along we are towards the "gameplay" status.
Be patient, i think they are moving along okay for a small team and yes they made that clear in the begining they where a small "team". After all NS1 provided countless hours of epic gamplay and it was FREE!
"It seems the only bug fixes mentioned are when people alt+tab out or go idle and let the screensaver start (what?). I can't touch the pre-alpha as it usually crashes within 30s but there's no mention of this crash being adressed :( "
I can't fire my gun AT ALL if I move my character anywhere, or if I stand still firing, and reload the gun, it won't fire after reloading. So basically I can do nothing in the test engine outside of.. running.
I must say I loved how the Marine model looks and moves. Great work on that. And the map looks real good too. I'm going to hold on a little longer before I DL the engine test. But am really enjoying the video that are put out.
i know my posts here are few and far between, but i just wanted to add how happy i am to see the progress being made here every time i visit the site. You guys really are doing what you love, and it shows in the work you produce. well done to the team :D
<!--quoteo(post=1769144:date=Apr 29 2010, 11:47 AM:name=Alley)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Alley @ Apr 29 2010, 11:47 AM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1769144"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->if the engine test doesn't work the alpha isn't going to work better. got the idea ?<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
says who? They aren't sitting on their arses and not improve the engine test for the next month, and release the alpha with the same problems. They will improve it to make the Alpha a lot better than the engine test.
I have noticed one thing in all of the videos so far that slightly seems odd to me. When a marine model rotates it does rotate at the torso. Instead is just rotates on the floor without moving its feet... and when a marine or gorge runs the speed of the thing running does not match up to the speed and length of foot steps.. is that issue going to be fixed in the final release of the game?
Comments
And people need to remember that this is still an <b>Engine Test</b>, it's not even an Alpha yet.
Zek said that people are not playing it yet. Play. That's exactly what they don't want people to do yet. They first need to improve the engine performance and bugs, and then they will release a playable version aka Alpha.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Why must it be unplayable? That's stupid as hell.
Make it as playable as possible so people test it harder.
It is just an engine test however, so tbh thats more then I expected (gun and jumping :O).
What you dont seem to understand is that the engine test is not meant for us to play on, but actually for us to get a view of how the alpha might look, aswell as UWE to get bugreports about what hardware they need to get compability for and such.
I really like how they already made modding for it working tho, as that gave us a (glitchy) dm multiplayer mod made by the community.
I do think it would be great to have basic features like a server browser to facilitate easier testing.
However, at this point I'm sure they are bogged down with basic engine level enhancements like the mentioned alt-tab behaviour, engine performance tuning and unifying the rendering between the editor and the game etc.
Having more people telling them that alt-tab isn't working won't change the fact that they have to fix it.
When hee rotated on one place, the Feet were only shifting on the Ground, having no corresponding movement to them
(Time-Index 0:23-0:27 in the posted Video)
However, the Rest looks pretty awesome to me, if I wouldn't know, that you guys wrote the Engine yourself, I would've thought it was the Unreal-Engine.
About Performance: It's seeming to work just perfectly in the Videos, so my hopes are up, that it's running as smoothly as UT3(or even better).
(I'm also hoping for a Steam-Distributed Demo)
Make it as playable as possible so people test it harder.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
It isn't <i>designed</i> to be buggy, it's buggy because it's the engine test.
From the feedback you can fix bugs, and then release a non-buggy version.
There are only a limited number of bugs you can fix with half a dozen guys on half a dozen hardware configurations, you need to get it tested on many machines, and while big companies can afford to spend idiotic sums of money with testing companies, UWE is on a tighter budget than that.
It is just an engine test however, so tbh thats more then I expected (gun and jumping :O).
What you dont seem to understand is that the engine test is not meant for us to play on, but actually for us to get a view of how the alpha might look, aswell as UWE to get bugreports about what hardware they need to get compability for and such.
I really like how they already made modding for it working tho, as that gave us a (glitchy) dm multiplayer mod made by the community.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
The engine test was cool for what it was, don't get me wrong, and I'm glad they released anything at all, but none of us are getting paid for this - you can't expect people to do real hard testing in their own time on something that isn't any fun to play. The engine test will get vastly more exposure if there's actually a game to be played with it. I think the modders can handle that part but that's why it's important to add in the basic multiplayer infrastructure to increase accessibility/awareness of the mods. Not to mention that the netcode and performance with many players is obviously a very important part of the engine to test as well. The better we can test that part the more playable the alpha will be, and people won't be as forgiving of an unplayable alpha as they are to the engine test.
Man Zek I couldn't agree with you more. I wouldn't even consider buying AvP because the alien view was constantly rotating- the first time in 20 years of gaming that a game gave me a headache. Makes me nauseous just thinking about it.. its one of those features that sounds pretty cool on paper but in practice is just awful.
And why would we not be forgiving about a glitchy alpha? Think about it, an alpha is quite far from the finished game. Normally the alpha is the step where the testers try to, and does, find glitches. An alpha usually have alot of stuff that could not only be optimized, but also fixed. They are also rarely released to the community due to people thinking the alpha should be close to the game (the experiance is in the details, so an alpha is boring).
The beta is when the product should be<i> nearing</i> the "playable" state (as in, released, and a casual gamer <i>could</i> be lucky and play it without encountering a single glitch (not every game is like that (gmod))).
To quote wikipedia (I know, its lame, but its also simple :P):
<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_release_life_cycle#Alpha" target="_blank">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_rele...ife_cycle#Alpha</a>
<!--quoteo--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE </div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec--><b>Alpha</b>
The alpha phase of the release life cycle is the first phase to begin Software testing. In this phase, developers generally test the software using white box techniques. Additional validation is then performed using black box or gray box techniques, by another testing team. Moving to black box testing inside the organization is known as alpha release.
Alpha software can be unstable and could cause crashes or data loss.
The alpha phase usually ends with a feature freeze, indicating that no more features will be added to the software. At this time, the software is said to be feature complete.
<b>Beta</b>
"Beta" is the software development phase following alpha, named after the Greek letter beta. It generally begins when the software is feature complete. The focus of beta testing is reducing impacts to users, often incorporating usability testing. The process of delivering a beta version to the users is called beta release.
The users of a beta version are called beta testers. They are usually customers or prospective customers of the organization that develops the software, willing to test the software for free or for a reduced price.
Beta version software is likely to be useful for internal demonstrations and previews to select customers. Some developers refer to this stage as a preview, a prototype, a technical preview (TP) or as an early access.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
As you know UWE does not do this like every other company, as we got our hands on "pre-alpha" stuff. Probably mostly due to smaller budget then the bigger companys.
I would love to see additions to it, but I think they would be best as bugfixes and stuff (like documentation) helping the community to mod so "ppl actually play".
I'm in the small number of people who have crashing problems that seem to somehow be related to texture pre-caching... e.g. <a href="http://getsatisfaction.com/unknownworlds/topics/createtexture_failed_out_of_video_memory" target="_blank">http://getsatisfaction.com/unknownworlds/t...of_video_memory</a> :(
<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_release_life_cycle#Alpha" target="_blank">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_rele...ife_cycle#Alpha</a>
As you know UWE does not do this like every other company, as we got our hands on "pre-alpha" stuff. Probably mostly due to smaller budget then the bigger companys.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->Good for you and your ability to look ###### up on Wikipedia.
Now labels aside, they can just work on the basics of a server browser and more people will test it because it'll be more easily entertaining.
That's all we're saying, is to work on the beginnings of what we need to be able to make it more easily entertaining for the unpaid testers who's only motivation is entertainment.
Nobody is saying it's unplayable in it's current state, it just isn't easy to get a game started that will last you more then a few seconds of enjoyment.
Stop reading 'engine test' and boxing in your mind with labels. The greatest artists are ones who know how to break the rules.
And this mumbo jumbo about how more people will just mean more of the same bug reports or less bug reports? So what if there will be more of the same reports? It will for sure add more good, new bug reports if more people are spending more time testing.
<!--quoteo--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE </div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->Most of the crash reports from the built-in reporter were related to situations where the graphics device was lost.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
UWE releases a fix for one bug (alt tab being "broken") then they get to tackle the next highest priority bug. Like you said, more people playing = more bug reports. Period. How can you not want them to get as many bug reports as possible (unless it's just spam of course)? The more of the SAME reports means there's a significant problem that really needs fixed, and the more people testing it, the higher the chance that an obscure error will come up that will need fixing and it will get squashed sooner rather than later.
In order to get the higher volume of playing/testing/whatever you want to call it, the game has to be more accessible to people (working server browser, auto lua download, etc.). I believe this accessibility will be rolled out in the next few weeks.
I could take that sentance as insulting you know. I said I know it is lame to quote wiki, but it is also more simple then opening a dictionary or something.
<!--quoteo(post=1768625:date=Apr 25 2010, 03:34 AM:name=qwiggalo)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (qwiggalo @ Apr 25 2010, 03:34 AM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1768625"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->Nobody is saying it's unplayable in it's current state, it just isn't easy to get a game started that will last you more then a few seconds of enjoyment.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
I can respond to that by a single quote.
<!--quoteo(post=1768577:date=Apr 24 2010, 04:33 PM:name=qwiggalo)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (qwiggalo @ Apr 24 2010, 04:33 PM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1768577"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->Why must it be unplayable? That's stupid as hell.
Make it as playable as possible so people test it harder.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
To your other arguments, as I said I have nothing against us getting an engine test with more content, it is that people think of this as "unplayable" (see quote --^) as if it were something that would be close to a game.
I use the "labels" for my arguments because they are the official "labels", and that should mean they are a better description then "unplayable".
Sounds like fullscreen crash, try windowed mode.
Yes, as far bugs go I'd say this one is the most egregious.
<b>Big Game Company:</b> <u>are you listening!!</u> This is how you get people to support your products instead of pirate it; you give them a bit more for the buck, you give them a special reason to pay for it. I'm proud to have paid for this, especially since we get to be involved the whole time. Make a game we're proud to own and be a part of. Just like UWE :D
Also everyone who is whining about the engine test not being fun or playable for more than a few minutes...who cares. UWE didn't release the game, they released a basic test to see what kind of performance issues they run into. That was the point, and they got the data they needed. With that data they can then make the game more playable and more fun, for "harder testing," so that they can gather more data and further optimize.
People who are whining about this are either apocalyptically stupid or trolling too hard.
One more edit. In the video I noticed there is no turn animation? As in, standing still and pivoting around a point. Is this something that'll be added? It just looks funny, like the marine is being blown around by the wind on a big chunk of ice.
I would imagine that they have already done it as they have loads more done than they have actually released, There are loads of things missing in the Pre-Alpha.
- No gun movement while walking
- No Jump animation
- No shell ejection and so on.
None of these things are worth discussing or raising concern about just yet until the actual Alpha Comes out.
The only bug reports going on is related to the Game Engine and the verity of hardware out there that causes issues with the engine just simply launching and running smoothly. We were not even supposed to get the Engine Test originaly.
They want to know whos hardware is not running the engine properly thats why there is hardly any game releated content in there as they aint ready for debugging the actualy game play. You dont need a working full game to tell if the fps is bad. crashes or the game wont launch, Otherwise there would be too many bug reports for different things as apposed to getting things done in simple stages.
The Engine comes first. Engine is the renderer alone with no game mechanics so we are even lucky we got a shooting range mod and a gun.
Be grateful they released this if not just for engine test comunity feedback but so you can roam about those maps people are building and helping them refine them, I already found 4 places to get stuck in UWE's map released from the engine test. (one bad area where pipes meet floor near wall)
I for one am greatful to see some projects completed and revealed than left in the dark wondering how far along we are towards the "gameplay" status.
Be patient, i think they are moving along okay for a small team and yes they made that clear in the begining they where a small "team". After all NS1 provided countless hours of epic gamplay and it was FREE!
I can't fire my gun AT ALL if I move my character anywhere, or if I stand still firing, and reload the gun, it won't fire after reloading. So basically I can do nothing in the test engine outside of.. running.
YAY!
Engine Test
&
Alpha Test
got the idea ?
got the idea ?<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
says who?
They aren't sitting on their arses and not improve the engine test for the next month, and release the alpha with the same problems.
They will improve it to make the Alpha a lot better than the engine test.