With the influx of new folks from CoX, my hope is these persistant bugs in the game that have really started to discourage some of my friends from CoX get fixed.
It seems like I just finally got my friends used to difference between the two, and they have actually stared to enjoy it, then these bugs in VB crisis, Whiteout and others keep hitting them smack in the face.
One of my friends asked me "why should I pay to beta test the bugs in a game?"
Please, please, please devs...........please fix these bugs before my friends from CoX leave and alot more leave as well.
Oh no, bugs??? in an MMO??????? oh my godddddddddddddddddd alert the presses the public must be informed
Yeah there's just going to be bugs in MMOs, it's kind of a standard thing. CO is quite a bit more buggy than most other games I've played, though, which is bad. I'm looking forward to new content as much as anyone else, but it'd be nice if a big effort was made to do some sort of big ol' bug squashing update.
________________________________ @kelpplankton
Oldschool CoH player, Lifetime CO and STO subscriber, animator and artist.
CO's history has been a cycle of significant bug releases (the infamous kitchen sink patches) followed by attempts (sometimes frantic, sometimes lackadaisical) to fix them, followed by a period of relative stability before the next major code addition or rework starts the cycle again.
We're in the bug-heavy part of the cycle at the moment. Given the activity we're seeing from the devs at the moment, most will probably be fixed within a couple of months, though there'll be costume issues and certain parts of the game that have fallen off the devs' radar that will go neglected.
wow..very discouraging words ..kind of sad to hear them..makes me rethink wanting lifetime...
Wow.......See that Devs?........Now multiply that by how many belong to the CoX channel and more.
See that money POTENTIALLY walking away?
Unfortunately the things that are broke are some of the coolest stuff in the game. The stuff existing players can brag about (when they work). NemCon, Whiteout, VB crisis, Bunker Buster and various other things.
New shinies are nice. The new glide travel power is cool for example.
But to new players, EVERTHING about this game is a new shiney.
Fix the bugs so new people can enjoy the games experience.
Just my thoughts. I really enjoy this game alot and getting friends who played CoX to enjoy it as well and experience it with me will keep me here too.
Yeah, having also come from CoH, I have to agree 110% with the OP.
It really is shocking the number of MAJOR bugs in CO. By "major" I mean bugs that make it nearly or totally impossible to complete adventure packs, or gain Arms Skill, or beat certain bosses, etc.
Bugs that stop players' progress should be fixed on a weekly basis. Finding out from other players that major bugs can go for MONTHS without being fixed (or even acknowledged by the devs) is pretty discouraging.
wow..very discouraging words ..kind of sad to hear them..makes me rethink wanting lifetime...
I wouldn't, buying lifetime in Jan 2011 was a great decision for me personally. I bought it when they had a 20% off sale so I got mine for $240, but even at $300 it would have been a steal. I keep accumulating vet rewards and stipends every month, I don't feel like I'm wasting money if I take a break, plus I get 16 character slots and 1 for each character that reaches level 40, it's a sweet deal if you enjoy the game.
The new bugs that recently came out, especially the Vibora Bay Apocalpse one should eventually be fixed, I don't see them letting a complete zone being cut off from new players, worsed case scenario they let you go to Vibora Bay withough doing the Crisis, like all the other zones.
Problem is, Polish, the way some folks in here carry on about the bugs, you'd think nothing ever gets fixed. You know, kind of like the last two months of Atari's ownership of CO, when they didn't see the point in doing anything to help the game they were getting rid of anyway...
Making it sound like that's just the way things always are can discourage those who haven't been around long enough to know that some posters just like to complain (and others, like you, like to make jokes about the complaints...).
Trust me, folks, there might be a couple of minor bugs that can hang around for a while (like the way that Demon and Lemurian Recognition items fail to unlock for the entire account, or the hangup at the beginning of Bullet For Biselle, which is a pain-in-the-neck mission anyway, and completely unnecessary), but when there's something major, they either bend effort to fix it, or (as in the bugs plaguing the Lemurian Crisis, or the Red Winter issues) remove the entire section until it can be figured out. (Poorly-documented code written by people no longer in the shop is annoying.) Some folks just get upset when they point out a flaw on a Friday afternoon, and it's not fixed first thing Monday morning.
(And some folks are such fanbois of other recently-released games, they can't seem to help slagging on CO for not being that game...)
"Science teaches us to expect -- demand -- more than just eerie mysteries. What use is a puzzle that can't be solved? Patience is fine, but I'm not going to stop asking the universe to make sense!"
I hear ya jon, but I'm not just concerned that my friends will leave, but that CO will miss this big opportunity to get a whole lotta fans of the superhero kind of games and turn too many people away.
I do understand you on the general bug thing, and I agree. But all I know is I have talked up the cool aspects of this game to my friends like the missions I mentioned above and they seem to get very disheartened when after trying a certain mission over quite a few days cant complete it. Not from lack of skill but a bug that makes them totally incompletable. One of my friends was really looking forward to Vibora Bay. I described the villian groups and everything and he was excited. I told him about the really cool crisis story line and he was excited. He gets in and cant complete it. We discussed it and he tried all the "tricks" to complete it that have been suggested here and still could not.
Other than those things, his wife and him have really enjoyed the game. Yes they enjoyed CoH but are not in the least "faybois" who come here and ***** about this game cause it aint CoH. We use vent and they have not once said..."CoH is better than this because of this or that".
Just dont want CO to miss this opportunity thats all.
Progress-stopping bugs in content should prevent it from going live, period.
MMOs are complex creatures and occasional flubs are understandable, but I've seen more flat out broken stuff in a few weeks here than in my last few *years* of playing CoH.
The community has been very welcoming, which is terrific, but the prevalence of 'showstopper' bugs is worrisome.
@jon, personally, since I've been here all the game breaking bugs have been fixed. I think Cryptic stumbled into a really bad time to have the latest bugfest with many Superhero MMO players looking for a new game.
@grazerr a quick trick to get into the real VB, wait for the "Day at the Mall" Grab Alert to come up, take the Power House in the instance to the Power House, when you exit you'll be in Vibora Bay. You may want to finish the Alert though, as to not leave your teammates hanging.
@NoOneInParticular, If new players are going to base there entire game experience on those few missions being bugged then that's to bad. Personaly when I started playing and thought something was bugged, I'd look it up on google, if it was I'd skip it until a fix was annouced in the patch notes.
I hear ya jon, but I'm not just concerned that my friends will leave, but that CO will miss this big opportunity to get a whole lotta fans of the superhero kind of games and turn too many people away.
I do understand you on the general bug thing, and I agree. But all I know is I have talked up the cool aspects of this game to my friends like the missions I mentioned above and they seem to get very disheartened when after trying a certain mission over quite a few days cant complete it. Not from lack of skill but a bug that makes them totally incompletable. One of my friends was really looking forward to Vibora Bay. I described the villian groups and everything and he was excited. I told him about the really cool crisis story line and he was excited. He gets in and cant complete it. We discussed it and he tried all the "tricks" to complete it that have been suggested here and still could not.
Other than those things, his wife and him have really enjoyed the game. Yes they enjoyed CoH but are not in the least "faybois" who come here and ***** about this game cause it aint CoH. We use vent and they have not once said..."CoH is better than this because of this or that".
Just dont want CO to miss this opportunity thats all.
Well not to be a killjoy, but I doubt Cryptic is missing the opportunity, but even if they magically got every last Paragon dev for the CO team (unlikely) with the training they would need, regardless of experience with the Cryptic engine on CoH (which was OpenGL versus the Champs engine being DirectX which already makes things different) you are talking the soonest we would see results of all that being at the earliest around Spring next year, and that is assuming a very fast turn around in training and acclimation.
I doubt Cryptic is ignoring this, but in part I think it is unrealistic to expect them to pump out an expansions worth of content the day November 30th rolls around as well.
Well not to be a killjoy, but I doubt Cryptic is missing the opportunity, but even if they magically got every last Paragon dev for the CO team (unlikely) with the training they would need, regardless of experience with the Cryptic engine on CoH (which was OpenGL versus the Champs engine being DirectX which already makes things different) you are talking the soonest we would see results of all that being at the earliest around Spring next year, and that is assuming a very fast turn around in training and acclimation.
I doubt Cryptic is ignoring this, but in part I think it is unrealistic to expect them to pump out an expansions worth of content the day November 30th rolls around as well.
He isnt asking for Cryptic to hire Paragon devs, or for them to pump out an expansion before Novenmber 30th. He said nothing of the sort here.
He just hopes that Cryptic can fix some of the bugs preventing completion of existing content so that people coming over from COH can experience CO in its entirety.
First impressions are important. CO has a lot going for it to make a good first impression. Character appearance customization. The ability to create the superhero you really want with the FreeForm build system. A varied game world (as much as I would like a bit more Urban Jungle, the variety we have is very nice). A very broad selection of power and weapon types. Asymmetrical costume options (I love being able to choose different accessory options for each limb). Etc.
It is very important, IMO, for the new players who may very well be as delighted as I generally am with all of the stuff I mention above to not be faced with too many flies in the ointment right of the bat.
Discovering the odd problem here and there after you have had time to come to like or love your characters and the game is one thing. Being faced with major problems before that can drive someone away.
The OP is not preaching doom and gloom, neither am I for that matter, we do recognize that Cryptic could capitalize on the opportunity created by COH's closure by ensuring that the best possible first impression is presented to new players over the next few months.
To be honest, the APs bugs are major gamebreakers to a lot of people. Everyone is saying how great they are yet when they try it out and finally get into the story and atmosphere, they hit the bugged area and it becomes a killjoy. Spending hours on it to not being able to complete it is really disheartening. I have tried three APs and have never finished one of them (Whiteout didn't let me enter the complex, Resistance's final fight really showed why being locked out of a boss fight is one of the dumbest features to this game (especially with such a strong boss (I dropped that AP right after we gave up and will not take it again until I'm 40)), and on the Demonforge? one, the demon key got stuck in a wall and couldn't release probably the last avatar). They are so much better than the regular content but I probably won't play them again until they fix the bugs (though I might try the demon one again where ever it puts me in the story when I log back in).
It happened around free to play, it happened when the steam push happened. Cryptic kinda has a history of having *awful* luck when it comes to this sort of thing. But, let me speak in their defense.
A: They are bug fixing. A lot. A lot went toes up when nighthawk went live, and we've gotten cycles of bug fixes at least once a week. Anyone remember last weekend when devs were here on saturday trying to fix a latency issue? Give em a break, it's not like they're just twiddling their thumbs.
B: As much as we test content on pts (and we do, check the forums. There's constant feedback) the fact is that it's impossible to tell what bugs will pop up when the build goes live. It's not like they just flat out yoink the code from pts and push it to live exactly as is, live and PTS have different code bases. Stuff like this is *bound* to happen, and there's not really a lot that can be done to control it.
My suggestion? Do what I've been doing, make sure people know that this happens, and it's temporary. Don't feed it, because a lot of the speculation is working with only half of the info.
In game, I am @EvilTaco. Happily killing purple gang members since May 2008.
OP, I feel for you because I'm sorta in the same situation. I've got friends from CoX that are being put off the game due to numerous things Cryptic could have avoided, very much including bugs, so you're not alone with this problem. Don't let the fanboys fool you, it's a problem that needs addressing more than anything else.
...I just recently realized something really disturbing. We're all eating Sodapop3's "humble pie."
This is what happens when you have three games all running the same version of the core engine.
Cryptic is really left with a choice. They can keep each games engine separate, running a different version for each game. Or they can try to keep each engine synced to each other with different graphic, interface, and game play overlays. They opted for the second system.
So what happens. Say STO gets a new system. Something that needs something new added to the core engine. Those changes eventually get passed down to the other games, even if said options arnt hooked up to the game overlay. Like the foundry, the engine supports it. It is just not hooked into to COs game overlay.
As you can expect anytime they do major engine upgrades it can cause all kinds of problems to the outer game play shell. Problems that often are hard to detect without a huge number of players trying EVERYTHING on the test server. Its why we seem to get these patches that add what seems to be a single item and ends up breaking all kinds of unrelated stuff. And even when detected, they might not get fixed quickly because cryptic seems to feel syncing the core has priority.
So we end up with these bouts of huge bugs from time to time. The options to avoid this are tricky. Run multiple versions of the same engine...and that problems that would cause. Or devote more resources to QC in what is obviously a skeleton crew. And even that wont fix it all. Because from my understanding of it. The engine guys and the guys who work each game shell are completely separate crews.
Obviously, id love to see Cryptic focus on simply one game. So we can feel properly supported. But, if having several games running is one of the things keeping Cryptic profitable...and subsequently keeping CO operating. Ill live with these problems.
Comments
Let him know he's not beta testing the game, in beta the company tries to fix the bugs. He doesn't have to worry about that here.
That made me laugh more than it should have.
Yeah there's just going to be bugs in MMOs, it's kind of a standard thing. CO is quite a bit more buggy than most other games I've played, though, which is bad. I'm looking forward to new content as much as anyone else, but it'd be nice if a big effort was made to do some sort of big ol' bug squashing update.
@kelpplankton
Oldschool CoH player, Lifetime CO and STO subscriber, animator and artist.
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Funny one .. but sadly also true :redface:
We're in the bug-heavy part of the cycle at the moment. Given the activity we're seeing from the devs at the moment, most will probably be fixed within a couple of months, though there'll be costume issues and certain parts of the game that have fallen off the devs' radar that will go neglected.
Wow.......See that Devs?........Now multiply that by how many belong to the CoX channel and more.
See that money POTENTIALLY walking away?
Unfortunately the things that are broke are some of the coolest stuff in the game. The stuff existing players can brag about (when they work). NemCon, Whiteout, VB crisis, Bunker Buster and various other things.
New shinies are nice. The new glide travel power is cool for example.
But to new players, EVERTHING about this game is a new shiney.
Fix the bugs so new people can enjoy the games experience.
Just my thoughts. I really enjoy this game alot and getting friends who played CoX to enjoy it as well and experience it with me will keep me here too.
It really is shocking the number of MAJOR bugs in CO. By "major" I mean bugs that make it nearly or totally impossible to complete adventure packs, or gain Arms Skill, or beat certain bosses, etc.
Bugs that stop players' progress should be fixed on a weekly basis. Finding out from other players that major bugs can go for MONTHS without being fixed (or even acknowledged by the devs) is pretty discouraging.
I wouldn't, buying lifetime in Jan 2011 was a great decision for me personally. I bought it when they had a 20% off sale so I got mine for $240, but even at $300 it would have been a steal. I keep accumulating vet rewards and stipends every month, I don't feel like I'm wasting money if I take a break, plus I get 16 character slots and 1 for each character that reaches level 40, it's a sweet deal if you enjoy the game.
The new bugs that recently came out, especially the Vibora Bay Apocalpse one should eventually be fixed, I don't see them letting a complete zone being cut off from new players, worsed case scenario they let you go to Vibora Bay withough doing the Crisis, like all the other zones.
Making it sound like that's just the way things always are can discourage those who haven't been around long enough to know that some posters just like to complain (and others, like you, like to make jokes about the complaints...).
Trust me, folks, there might be a couple of minor bugs that can hang around for a while (like the way that Demon and Lemurian Recognition items fail to unlock for the entire account, or the hangup at the beginning of Bullet For Biselle, which is a pain-in-the-neck mission anyway, and completely unnecessary), but when there's something major, they either bend effort to fix it, or (as in the bugs plaguing the Lemurian Crisis, or the Red Winter issues) remove the entire section until it can be figured out. (Poorly-documented code written by people no longer in the shop is annoying.) Some folks just get upset when they point out a flaw on a Friday afternoon, and it's not fixed first thing Monday morning.
(And some folks are such fanbois of other recently-released games, they can't seem to help slagging on CO for not being that game...)
- David Brin, "Those Eyes"
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I do understand you on the general bug thing, and I agree. But all I know is I have talked up the cool aspects of this game to my friends like the missions I mentioned above and they seem to get very disheartened when after trying a certain mission over quite a few days cant complete it. Not from lack of skill but a bug that makes them totally incompletable. One of my friends was really looking forward to Vibora Bay. I described the villian groups and everything and he was excited. I told him about the really cool crisis story line and he was excited. He gets in and cant complete it. We discussed it and he tried all the "tricks" to complete it that have been suggested here and still could not.
Other than those things, his wife and him have really enjoyed the game. Yes they enjoyed CoH but are not in the least "faybois" who come here and ***** about this game cause it aint CoH. We use vent and they have not once said..."CoH is better than this because of this or that".
Just dont want CO to miss this opportunity thats all.
MMOs are complex creatures and occasional flubs are understandable, but I've seen more flat out broken stuff in a few weeks here than in my last few *years* of playing CoH.
The community has been very welcoming, which is terrific, but the prevalence of 'showstopper' bugs is worrisome.
@grazerr a quick trick to get into the real VB, wait for the "Day at the Mall" Grab Alert to come up, take the Power House in the instance to the Power House, when you exit you'll be in Vibora Bay. You may want to finish the Alert though, as to not leave your teammates hanging.
@NoOneInParticular, If new players are going to base there entire game experience on those few missions being bugged then that's to bad. Personaly when I started playing and thought something was bugged, I'd look it up on google, if it was I'd skip it until a fix was annouced in the patch notes.
Well not to be a killjoy, but I doubt Cryptic is missing the opportunity, but even if they magically got every last Paragon dev for the CO team (unlikely) with the training they would need, regardless of experience with the Cryptic engine on CoH (which was OpenGL versus the Champs engine being DirectX which already makes things different) you are talking the soonest we would see results of all that being at the earliest around Spring next year, and that is assuming a very fast turn around in training and acclimation.
I doubt Cryptic is ignoring this, but in part I think it is unrealistic to expect them to pump out an expansions worth of content the day November 30th rolls around as well.
Silverspar on PRIMUS
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He isnt asking for Cryptic to hire Paragon devs, or for them to pump out an expansion before Novenmber 30th. He said nothing of the sort here.
He just hopes that Cryptic can fix some of the bugs preventing completion of existing content so that people coming over from COH can experience CO in its entirety.
First impressions are important. CO has a lot going for it to make a good first impression. Character appearance customization. The ability to create the superhero you really want with the FreeForm build system. A varied game world (as much as I would like a bit more Urban Jungle, the variety we have is very nice). A very broad selection of power and weapon types. Asymmetrical costume options (I love being able to choose different accessory options for each limb). Etc.
It is very important, IMO, for the new players who may very well be as delighted as I generally am with all of the stuff I mention above to not be faced with too many flies in the ointment right of the bat.
Discovering the odd problem here and there after you have had time to come to like or love your characters and the game is one thing. Being faced with major problems before that can drive someone away.
The OP is not preaching doom and gloom, neither am I for that matter, we do recognize that Cryptic could capitalize on the opportunity created by COH's closure by ensuring that the best possible first impression is presented to new players over the next few months.
'Caine, miss you bud. Fly high.
A: They are bug fixing. A lot. A lot went toes up when nighthawk went live, and we've gotten cycles of bug fixes at least once a week. Anyone remember last weekend when devs were here on saturday trying to fix a latency issue? Give em a break, it's not like they're just twiddling their thumbs.
B: As much as we test content on pts (and we do, check the forums. There's constant feedback) the fact is that it's impossible to tell what bugs will pop up when the build goes live. It's not like they just flat out yoink the code from pts and push it to live exactly as is, live and PTS have different code bases. Stuff like this is *bound* to happen, and there's not really a lot that can be done to control it.
My suggestion? Do what I've been doing, make sure people know that this happens, and it's temporary. Don't feed it, because a lot of the speculation is working with only half of the info.
RIP Caine
...I just recently realized something really disturbing. We're all eating Sodapop3's "humble pie."
Cryptic is really left with a choice. They can keep each games engine separate, running a different version for each game. Or they can try to keep each engine synced to each other with different graphic, interface, and game play overlays. They opted for the second system.
So what happens. Say STO gets a new system. Something that needs something new added to the core engine. Those changes eventually get passed down to the other games, even if said options arnt hooked up to the game overlay. Like the foundry, the engine supports it. It is just not hooked into to COs game overlay.
As you can expect anytime they do major engine upgrades it can cause all kinds of problems to the outer game play shell. Problems that often are hard to detect without a huge number of players trying EVERYTHING on the test server. Its why we seem to get these patches that add what seems to be a single item and ends up breaking all kinds of unrelated stuff. And even when detected, they might not get fixed quickly because cryptic seems to feel syncing the core has priority.
So we end up with these bouts of huge bugs from time to time. The options to avoid this are tricky. Run multiple versions of the same engine...and that problems that would cause. Or devote more resources to QC in what is obviously a skeleton crew. And even that wont fix it all. Because from my understanding of it. The engine guys and the guys who work each game shell are completely separate crews.
Obviously, id love to see Cryptic focus on simply one game. So we can feel properly supported. But, if having several games running is one of the things keeping Cryptic profitable...and subsequently keeping CO operating. Ill live with these problems.
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