Official Questioning!
Quaunaut
The longest seven days in history... Join Date: 2003-03-21 Member: 14759Members, Constellation, Reinforced - Shadow
The longest seven days in history... Join Date: 2003-03-21 Member: 14759Members, Constellation, Reinforced - Shadow
<div class="IPBDescription">What will Zunni say?</div> Though we all suspect that b6 is the Balancing patch, I must ask: Is this true? I myself have never seen it actually said, and would like to hear from the official source while still allowing others to see and talk about it. So some questions:
Any information about it were allowed to have yet?
What is the main official focus?
Will there be any more team changes along the way?
Any information about it were allowed to have yet?
What is the main official focus?
Will there be any more team changes along the way?
Comments
Personally I am concerned about their belief that Beta 6 could be the Final release, for a couple reasons:
1.) Using a large patch as the final release is never a good idea. Regardless of how perfect it seems in closed testing, it needs public testing time to really be tested thoroughly for bugs and balance. The very last patch should be a small one that just fixes things and doesn't take any risks, and final shouldn't be declared until at least a month of large-scale testing. Have they forgotten why the public beta was started?
2.) The devs falling back into their Beta 5 syndrome again; that is, they have decided to make the scale of the patch <b>much</b> larger than it needs to be and thus delay the release for a significant amount of time. Beta 5 was supposed to be a bugfix patch, but it was drastically increased in scope for no readily apparent reason and thus delayed for months. Small patches are better for everbody; mistakes are kept to a small scale and thus made easy to fix, people don't get impatient with the releases, and the community feels more involved in the testing process.
Any information about it were allowed to have yet?
What is the main official focus?
Will there be any more team changes along the way? <!--QuoteEnd--> </td></tr></table><div class='postcolor'> <!--QuoteEEnd-->
I doubt whether any of the NS devs will actually look at this, let alone answer your questions.
<!--QuoteBegin--></div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> </td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'><!--QuoteEBegin-->Any information about it were allowed to have yet?<!--QuoteEnd--></td></tr></table><div class='postcolor'><!--QuoteEEnd-->
information about what?
<!--QuoteBegin--></div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> </td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'><!--QuoteEBegin-->What is the main official focus?<!--QuoteEnd--></td></tr></table><div class='postcolor'><!--QuoteEEnd-->
what's main focus do we inquire about? the main focus of the dev team, the main focus of the next patch the main focuse of UWE?
<!--QuoteBegin--></div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> </td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'><!--QuoteEBegin-->Will there be any more team changes along the way?<!--QuoteEnd--></td></tr></table><div class='postcolor'><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Please define team so that we know what your talking about. the moderation team? the development team? the UWE staff? the ns guides team? ...we've got alot of teams
From the bugtracker, dealing with Fades:
<!--QuoteBegin-joev+--></div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> (joev)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'><!--QuoteEBegin-->SVN Revision: 194.
The code that Max and/or XP-Cagey wrote to deal with skulk hitboxes and hitboxes in general was commented out! The standard HL engine funcs for traceline were being used! This is why Fade was screwed!
I changed the code to use our version and It appears in my testing to work perfectly.
I think it was not used originally because some event was coming up (NS-LAN in NYC perhaps?) at which Charlie was going to be testing a build and the guys deemed it too much of a risk to allow that untested code in, so it was commented out and was subsequently forgotten about!
Now *all* hitboxes perform as expected and the crouched fade can be shot pretty much anywhere on the model (allowing for about a 5% visual disparity)
You can even shoot thru the Onos's legs and not hit him <!--emo&;)--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html//emoticons/wink-fix.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='wink-fix.gif' /><!--endemo--> <!--QuoteEnd--></td></tr></table><div class='postcolor'><!--QuoteEEnd-->
While that may not be the kind of news you were looking for in the first post, I find it a cause for celebration!
no more complaining that res is coming in too slowly.
Any information about it were allowed to have yet?
What is the main official focus?
Will there be any more team changes along the way? <!--QuoteEnd--></td></tr></table><div class='postcolor'><!--QuoteEEnd-->
I doubt whether any of the NS devs will actually look at this, let alone answer your questions. <!--QuoteEnd--> </td></tr></table><div class='postcolor'> <!--QuoteEEnd-->
I beg to differ. Zunni will probably arrive shortly...
Any information about it were allowed to have yet?
What is the main official focus?
Will there be any more team changes along the way?<!--QuoteEnd--></td></tr></table><div class='postcolor'><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Development isn't as easy as you can set up some goals and archive them especially within a mod development team. Development plans are always subject to change. Surly there can be a main focus for the next build like bug fixes, new features or balancing. Some features are implemented spontaneously like the hand grenades were. And some other features or bug fixes will get dropped for the next build because they are not as easy to implement as thought.
And imho Zunni already told us their main focus:
<!--QuoteBegin--></div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> </td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'><!--QuoteEBegin-->After a development meeting that laid out the foundation of what we need to include (bug fixes/balance) and what new elements we feel make sense at this time, we are beginning to feel like there is a possibility that B6 will bring us to our objectives and allow us to make B6 a 3.0 Final release. <b>We're planning a number of balance changes, specifically to improve the gameplay experience of alien players in very small and large games, a number of cosmetic improvements, and - of course - more bugfixes. </b><!--QuoteEnd--></td></tr></table><div class='postcolor'><!--QuoteEEnd-->
So it looks like a bug fix/balance release.
I would like to thank Zunni for his information policy. I feel very good informed about Natural Selection development as ever before.
Also thanks to the rest of the development team for their good work.
Except for 2.01c when you could only gestate around the hive <!--emo&:angry:--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html//emoticons/mad-fix.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='mad-fix.gif' /><!--endemo-->
Just playin <!--emo&:)--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html//emoticons/smile-fix.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='smile-fix.gif' /><!--endemo--> I'm confident in the dev team. They've done so much with this old as hell engine... give them SOME credit!!!!
Any information about it were allowed to have yet?
What is the main official focus?
Will there be any more team changes along the way?<!--QuoteEnd--></td></tr></table><div class='postcolor'><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Development isn't as easy as you can set up some goals and archive them especially within a mod development team. Development plans are always subject to change. Surly there can be a main focus for the next build like bug fixes, new features or balancing. Some features are implemented spontaneously like the hand grenades were. And some other features or bug fixes will get dropped for the next build because they are not as easy to implement as thought.
And imho Zunni already told us their main focus:
<!--QuoteBegin--></div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> </td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'><!--QuoteEBegin-->After a development meeting that laid out the foundation of what we need to include (bug fixes/balance) and what new elements we feel make sense at this time, we are beginning to feel like there is a possibility that B6 will bring us to our objectives and allow us to make B6 a 3.0 Final release. <b>We're planning a number of balance changes, specifically to improve the gameplay experience of alien players in very small and large games, a number of cosmetic improvements, and - of course - more bugfixes. </b><!--QuoteEnd--></td></tr></table><div class='postcolor'><!--QuoteEEnd-->
So it looks like a bug fix/balance release.
I would like to thank Zunni for his information policy. I feel very good informed about Natural Selection development as ever before.
Also thanks to the rest of the development team for their good work. <!--QuoteEnd--> </td></tr></table><div class='postcolor'> <!--QuoteEEnd-->
There always is a main focus- otherwise, its just a "All around thing", and nothing gets priority, and in the process, you end up getting a botched experience.
Sorry about the vagueness in my own post, I was meaning b6. I'm wondering about the dev team here- things are very vague right now, and while we are pretty early in testing, I'm still curious as to if there is anything the dev team is really going for here. Is it truly about balance, or is it about balance-to-a-point-then-lets-get-bus-up-and-running, or is there anything you all CAN say about it, period? Vagueness vanished for quite a while when Zunni came to his PR position(notice: He replies to almost every single thought provoking thread out there), and I'm just wanting to see where were going with this new patch.
...once again, mini-changelogs ftw!
Can a dev or PT fill me in on why the devs keep making such grandiose patches that take months to finish? I just don't see the logic behind it. Beta 2 took less than a week, Beta 3 took less than two, Beta 4 took 2 months, Beta 4a took a week, and Beta 5 took 4 months(I understand the circumstances behind that). Why can't Beta 6 be a smaller patch? What's wrong with Beta 5a and 5b?
I've never really understood it either. I've simply come to accept it as being Charlie's style.
Can a dev or PT fill me in on why the devs keep making such grandiose patches that take months to finish? I just don't see the logic behind it. Beta 2 took less than a week, Beta 3 took less than two, Beta 4 took 2 months, Beta 4a took a week, and Beta 5 took 4 months(I understand the circumstances behind that). Why can't Beta 6 be a smaller patch? What's wrong with Beta 5a and 5b? <!--QuoteEnd--> </td></tr></table><div class='postcolor'> <!--QuoteEEnd-->
As usual in development, if there are no other factors, the releases of patches are based on the importance of the changes. For example if there’s a bug frequently crashing the server you can expect a patch within a week.
Featuring and bug fixing releases depends on the plans and what you want to feature or fix.
And if you want to know how much commercial software are able to release their software to the announced date: they just drop as many features so they will able to release to that date.
And if you want to know why: Because they have commercial interests behind it. You have to release to that date because it’s in the company financial plan.
A mod team don’t have that commercial pressure and are able to release version at that date they are satisfied with it. Or to say it simpler … it comes out: when its done.