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This game is going downhill really fast.
terrek41
Member Posts: 33 Arc User
Constant server issues for logging in.
Random Disconnects.
Unresolved Issues with pvp and pve dungeon content.
Class issues that were reported long ago, and still no fix in sight.
Client issues on every patch day. Laggy servers, heavy overload. Authenication issues. Can't get past the login screen. Stuck on cryptic logo screen. Stuck on D&D logo screen. Can't load the character into the game. Client crashs on any of them..
Having to find resolutions to the client issues, off the forums by actual players. Not admin. Not a development team member. Not a moderator. But a player. How inept can the development team actually be?
A dev team that keeps breaking unrelated stuff, that is in no way linked to anything they actually try to fix.
We really NEED more zen shop stuff. Really.. Nice priority there. Generate more cash flow, who cares what the playerbase has to say. You do have your prioritys after all. Make money.
Oh, I made a new character. Gotta patch every single zone and dungeon file all over again, when I enter them for the first time on that character. Despite having been through them already with my other 3 level 60 characters. AT what point does the patched files actually SAVE so they don't need to be patched yet again and again? All my characters are on the one account, on the same server.
Reported problems dating back to before beta ended. Nearly all of them ignored unless they pertain to anything zen related.
No point in having a bug report forum when no one who works for the company actually reads any of it. Aside from the moderators, protecting the *reputation and integrity* of the people who work for the company right? What a joke.
You also want to merge the 3 shards into one? Likely never going to happen. Not with the stability issues that this game already has.
And you actually PAY the development team for all these problems? About the only thing that hasn't actually been broken is the protectors enclave environment. I can't say that with any certainty though. After all i've only been here 2 months.
Random Disconnects.
Unresolved Issues with pvp and pve dungeon content.
Class issues that were reported long ago, and still no fix in sight.
Client issues on every patch day. Laggy servers, heavy overload. Authenication issues. Can't get past the login screen. Stuck on cryptic logo screen. Stuck on D&D logo screen. Can't load the character into the game. Client crashs on any of them..
Having to find resolutions to the client issues, off the forums by actual players. Not admin. Not a development team member. Not a moderator. But a player. How inept can the development team actually be?
A dev team that keeps breaking unrelated stuff, that is in no way linked to anything they actually try to fix.
We really NEED more zen shop stuff. Really.. Nice priority there. Generate more cash flow, who cares what the playerbase has to say. You do have your prioritys after all. Make money.
Oh, I made a new character. Gotta patch every single zone and dungeon file all over again, when I enter them for the first time on that character. Despite having been through them already with my other 3 level 60 characters. AT what point does the patched files actually SAVE so they don't need to be patched yet again and again? All my characters are on the one account, on the same server.
Reported problems dating back to before beta ended. Nearly all of them ignored unless they pertain to anything zen related.
No point in having a bug report forum when no one who works for the company actually reads any of it. Aside from the moderators, protecting the *reputation and integrity* of the people who work for the company right? What a joke.
You also want to merge the 3 shards into one? Likely never going to happen. Not with the stability issues that this game already has.
And you actually PAY the development team for all these problems? About the only thing that hasn't actually been broken is the protectors enclave environment. I can't say that with any certainty though. After all i've only been here 2 months.
Post edited by terrek41 on
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Just think how much fun you can have if you stick around for a few years. Imagine if you will, all those wonderful things you get to see placed in the Zen Store.
Life is a dream for the wise, a game for the fool, a comedy for the rich, a tragedy for the poor.
~Sholom Aleichem
< devils advocate rant >
1) The developers actually coding the game are a different lot from the decision makers to go live with the game.
The decision to push things into the done box when they aren't is generally done from the management side. And most of the time it's done in a move to appease either management above that layer, or some higher up management layer who reports to the investors.
2) The developers don't always get to prioritize what gets fixed and what doesn't.
Most of the time patches are done with a timeline priority and keeping ROI in mind. That's not to say that fixes don't go into the timeline, but it's generally some balance of what they can fix and what they can add to show investors they are still getting some ROI out of every patch.
3) Saying a fix is unrelated to some other code is just shooting in the dark there.
We don't know how their code is put together. Sure we can assume it's built in the cleanest and most orderly fashion, but, this is the real world and I guarantee it's not. There's lots of reasons code doesn't fall together in a perfect order, especially when you have a team of people working on it. Anything from varied skill levels of coding to differing opinions on how things work best and more than likely pressure from management, this is generally the leading cause.
< / devils advocate rant >
As a player, I am having all of the same issues you have described above, including not being able to even log in some of my characters at certain times of the day, but being able to with others, on the same account...Go figure that one.
So I hope that they will shift towards some bigger fixes to help keep customers here since not being able to play the game kinda pushes a customer away even if that customer wanted to stay.
Bugs will either be fixed or not.
There are other problems this game is facing.
PVP, lack of endgame content.
So pickup that speed NW, PICK UP that SPEED!
They seemingly have no intention of fixing any issues that players bring up aside from anything client related to keeping them online. Or any cash shop related fixes to keep whatever income they can squeeze out of us. There's a bug report forum for a reason. Yet its constantly overlooked in favor of the cash shop and the client issues.
I hope it will be a good launch but as of now its probly going to fail big time
Hammerfist Clan. Jump into the Night: NW-DMXWRYTAD
+1
Being someone that's actually WORKED in the industry, I can tell you, this is how it's done.
It was reported in 2007, that Cryptic had around 200 employees. Currently, Cryptic has NW, STO, Champions and their "Super Secret Project." That's 4 games. Now, once a game is fully developed and released, typically it's *NOT* the entire team working on the game. They have stuff in the pipeline they want to get done. Now, let's just say Cryptic actually has HALF that number.
15% are management - That's 15 people.
20% are Leads (that means, Lead Artist, Lead Animator, Lead Sound Editor, etc.) - That's 20 people.
15% are programmers. - That's 15 people.
40% are the artist/FX team - That's 40 people. (Now, before people all start arguing, yes, this IS fairly accurate. The art department deals with visual FX, 3D character models, 3D environment models, riggers/animators (and a smart team has these split in their own groups), concept art, storyboards, icons, sprites, etc. It's the largest group.)
5% are Sound Editors. - That's 5 people.
5% are Human Resources - That's 5 people (All these people need to get PAID!)
Now, this is probably +/- 5 or so. Now DIVIDE this by FOUR, and take into consideration that MOST of them are working on the NEW project, 'cos that's the NEXT moneymaker. Any company that isn't already working on a new project once they've released a game, is asking for a quick death. I figure there's less than 20 people currently working on NW.
Yes, it's true that there is a timeline and a pipeline for patches, a lot of times, it's HARD to find a code bug (and I'm in the FX department, but I know this.) Management comes down to tell the developers what needs to be done and that's usually from the money backers, IE PWE. If we're getting Zen Items, it's safe to say Cryptic is probably hemorrhaging money and bleeding out. While I'm extremely irritated with the immune exploits in PvP, the contest winnings at later levels, the bugs in T1 gear, etc., certain things may not be fixed, simply 'cos they can't find the problem and with limited people working on a project, you run into issues.
However, this does NOT excuse Cryptic for their poor patch notes. When they fix a bug, I want to know WHERE the bug was found and what was done to fix it. Take a queue from BioWare here.
From the Neverwinter Nights 1.69 Patch Notes:
Fixed the caster level being used for holy avengers. (It is now always set to 10 as it is cast from an item, rather than using the player's paladin caster level.)
Updated weapon finesse to work with all creature weapons regardless of the creature's size.
Made some minor game optimizations.
Fixed some issues that could be used to intentionally crash a server.
Fixed client crash that seemed to be related to other players coming out of stealth.
Fixed issue where your henchman/associates could sometimes overlap the position of your character.
The rapid reload feat now gives you the proper number of extra attacks.
Fixed an issue with the deflection bonus being added in twice when determining a touch attack.
Fixed bandoleers on hobgoblins.
Fixed an issue with VFXs not attaching correctly to zombies/mummies.
Fixed issue with item weights being wrong for extremely heavy items (such as the tower shield).
And this, right here, sums it up. It's not like working in the AD (Art Department, not Astral Diamonds :P), where you HAVE to abide by specific rules, such as concept art, polycount, bone limits, etc., PROGRAMMERS do not have such luxury. One my have an issue coding something specific and can't do it, whereas someone else does code it, but it's kludgy, yet works. This is where the above patch notes would help out TREMENDOUSLY with the end user bug reports. That way people could send in reports that say, "Hey, you fixed the loop error with Block dropping, when you're CC'ed, but it happened again today, with another control power." INSTEAD of "Hey! BLOCK DOESN'T FRAKKING WORK!"
I'm one of the most vocal on here about all the problems with the game, but it's mainly due to frustration. I sincerely enjoy the game, but when I can't play PvP, 'cos of the exploits and bots, yet we're getting UI fixes, it's insulting, to say the least, and I'm sure I'm not the only one that feels this way.
HOWEVER, I do know where they're coming from and sympathize. It's rough working for a company and all you get are either a) the rabid haters, b!tching about stuff being broken or b) the empty praises from the "fanbois" that don't bother to tell us anything that's wrong. There's a reason the devs avoid the forums. Remember, Cryptic is a game company. They make games. They have several and MMOs aren't like a closed environment, like say Sonic.
Just my 2p.
I'm apparently very lucky, since none of that sounds familiar.
Question: have you turned off "on demand patching" in your Launcher options? (Not that I'm saying what you're experiencing isn't a bug, but the whole "patch when I enter an area" thing is part of the On Demand system. I turned that off the first day, downloaded the patch as a single file, and never had to deal with the whole download-patch-on-zone-entry <font color="orange">HAMSTER</font>.)
I can't speak for inside the regular game much, but the Foundry servers suffer from timeouts all the time. Login timeouts when launching the editor after you've logged into the main servers, timeouts when resetting or exiting editing when in preview mode, and timeouts when saving. This is well known among Foundry editors, and it's not getting any better, ever since beta.
Hammerfist Clan. Jump into the Night: NW-DMXWRYTAD
As far as this goes, it could be this, or it could just be pure panic or a perceived perception of this. Or it could simply be the investors themselves demanding to drive the show. We can't really know that as a customer unless they tell us that.
Whatever it is, I agree with your feelings, it does definitely feel like it's due to lack of return and someone needs to show some bottom line to keep their job.
Now before you start reading what i post, i will say i am not supporting PWE, i have not been a fan of PWE for a few years now, BUT i play their games for free, so i don't really have a right to complain.
Yes, there is a lot of problems with this game, and maybe they did release it a bit early without fixing some major bugs (NOTE: They did the same with RaiderZ) but, in time i do believe they will fix these bugs and exploits, some things like PvP bots and Zone spammers usually don't get fixed, because the bot programs always find a way and the Zone spammers have nothing else to do. As far as i have read, the Community Moderators have posted somewhere that they are in the midst of getting more staff (More staff = fixes faster) and that it takes time to fix these things, the Community Moderators themselves get paid nothing for what they do, neither do they have benefits. As for the Cash shop content which you are not happy about being updated often....they need income. As i said above i am not a big fan of PWE at all, but, even if you don't like them and you get angry with what they do, you have to understand the process and stuff.