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Mark Jacobs post about Preview Weekend
Ender4
Member UncommonPosts: 2,247
http://vnboards.ign.com/Message.aspx?topic=108341444&brd=22997&start=108342776
Okay, it was a wild and crazy weekend in WAR and while some of you might be tempted to go all Samurai on us for a couple of the bugs, overall things went very, very well. As long-time readers of my notes now, I wont do a Nick Winters and we are anything but pathological liars so well always own up when we make a mistake and we made a couple here. So, lets talk amongst ourselves and have a little chat about the top nine list of the biggest issues and where we stand in regards to them.(1) Client Crashes Ive talked about this as one of the reasons why we didnt release the NDA until recently. Heres the current status.
- Just a little too many currently. While we are better off than we were in beta, we must do better still before release.
- A number of players will lower spec machines had more CTDs than higher spec machines.
- Number of fixes already in pipeline. They are working their way through our testing servers and will be pushed to the players once they have been vetted internally.
- Engineering time for CTD issue has remained heavily committed; our top engineers are working on the various issues.(2) Monster Pathing and AI Well, what can I say other than not even all of King Tuts wealth could have made us feel better for messing up on this one. Well, maybe all his wealth.
- Yes, that monster seems to be behaving a little oddly. Monster responsiveness was very sketchy, odd pauses and tethering issues.
- Oh, was I supposed to go in that direction? Pathing sometimes wonky - mobs get stuck or go in wrong direction.
- Utter confusion at times as both monsters and pets will engage and disengage seemingly at random
- Internal server optimizations last week broke the pathing/AI. And I mean really, really broke it. This truly was a Opps, we broke this code moment for us and we dont have many of them.
- Going to ensure that this problem is fixed this week. As I said in my first Preview Weekend, this is a major concern for us. Fortunately we have no underwater combat in this game or some of the NPCs may have been appropriately dubbed land sharks.(3) Pet Responsiveness With similar issues to Monster Pathing and AI, this was not our finest hour.
- Need to transfer "combat responsiveness" fixes to pets - have pet move immediately on button press.
- Oh no, Mr. Bill! Pets suffer from same pathing and lack of response as general monsters. Pets hopping around like they were headed to Del Staters.
(4) Global Cooldown Timers This seems to be a hot topic for players to talk about. However, things arent always as they seem.
- Reality and perception are two different things, Warhammer has a GCD of 1.4s, WoW has 1.5s
- Ability not ready messaging needs to be improve, a sound effect if Global Cooldown in effect, maybe more cowbell?
- Need to improve on the feeling of sluggishness of the GCD and UI. Bug with display where our timer shows 2s when it is really 1.4
- The next best thing to a queue is? We will add in better "slop timer" to allow players 0.3s extra to pre-queue a second ability followup.(5) Better animations
- So much more coming in the next two versions of the client. We are currently incorporating serious amounts of new animations into the game. Hopefully nobody will sneak a coneheads model into the game.
- Look at what my XXXX does now? Over the next month we will address many class-attack specific issues across all 20 careers.
- U think you can dance? Nope, but we have added new racial animations for movement, fidgets and redid some emotes.(6) Texture Blurring
- Textures are currently cached in a manner that results in blurriness on entering a region.
- We will look at adding a client scalar.(7) Client Performance This is one of those issues
- Need better scalers on effects, sounds, graphics, etc to help lower end machines (already lots of additions to coders)
- This thing loves memory like Dan Aykroyd loves bass. We have already improved the memory consumption of the client and taken 100M out of current test best.(8) Targeting, Camera, etc
- Currently our targeting system differs from many MMOs in terms of our features and how we go about things. We will identify and make a more standard initial setup but allow flexibility.
- Will add additional keybinding selections to allow flexibility(9) Renown rank gear
- Unfortunately, a new bug (well an old bug we fixed and then managed to break again) which allowed Rank 10 RR 6 players can go to Tier 2 to get better gear and then come back to Tier 1 and own scenarios. We are currently working on a fix.I hope you enjoyed the Preview Weekend and we thank you for your interest and we hope, patronage of our game.
Guess what folks, thats the news and I am outta here!
Mark
Whether or not they can fix all of this is one thing but it makes me happy that they have their finger on exactly what people didn't like about the game so far. The 0.3 second soft queue on the 1.4 sec GCD should go a LONG way towards fixing the combat complaints.
Comments
It is good to see posts like these from the head guys.
The effort and communication from the devs is just astounding and they can have my money for that.
(I hope other MMO devs read this)
Mythic has been thoroughly impressive throughout all of beta. There is not another company that speaks with it's customers in such a human-like manner in this industry, and it is exactly what is needed as games go through the beta stages.
I love how he apologizes and you can tell they are really embarrassed about the pathing. I know this feeling after working on dev teams and having buggy releases. It is the worst pit of your stomach feeling that you can ever get.
The ability to buy RR6 gear and come back to Tier 1 scenarios was a bug? Wow.
there very on top of things, lets hope its fixed soon enough.
Nice open 'We know it. We've got to fix it and fix it now'. Have to love that.
I really believe they can do all this by release if not open beta.
The last major patch was August 7th so we already have 18 days of extra changes ready to go into the game and that isn't even including the fact that the internal servers were a good 2-3 months ahead of beta servers. They easily could dump 40+ days of work into the next patch which could make HUGE changes.
I'm excited to try it all as an Elder Tester~ MUAHAHAH!
Iam sure they get those isses fixed in time; i realy appreciate this kind of information policy and honesty. The thing is: I want to play a fun mmo and i am willing to pay for that; so, just give me what i want and everybody will be happy
WAR has the time on their side! Wow gets grey hair and the people are looking for something new -> something could happen here in the long term! Lotro is fine as well and think the market is big enough for more then 1 high quality mmorpg
Have a nice day
I'm worried also by the lack of patching and the fact that the servers are now closed until Sept 7... i've been in the closed beta for a whole 1 week....
If the quotes of the OP are correct,
.....
This is the FIRST time that I see a bland lie from a designer in public !!!!
Cooldowns of Rogues in Wow are standard 1 second. This is commonly known. Not 1.5.
So his UI of his interface shows 2 seconds, but it "really" is "1.4" according to him.
If he even lies about another game's cooldown how much can you trust this ?
It's great knowing what's wrong. Just don't cause something else to break with the next major patch!
Thanks for the post OP.
So WoW is called World of Roguecraft? Gee, did they really change the name right under my nose?
Is MJ supposed to be a WoW expert? He can't make a .5 second mistake so he's BLATANTLY LYING?
Tough crowd.
The GCD in WoW for everything except rogue and cat druid(rogue form) melee abilities is 1.5 seconds. It isn't a lie, there is just an expception to the rule.
Don't be absurd. WoW's global cooldown is 1.5s except with Rogues or Feral Cat Druids. In general though WoW's global cooldown is 1.5s. There is a special case only with Rogue's and cat Druids.
They have been very honest, and I have read numerous reports about it being less than 2 seconds already from elders.
lol, get a life. Most of wow is on a 1.5 second cooldown, and even if it was 1 seconds, people can't make mistakes anymore? I would hate you work for you.
Wow.. just wow.
Now with 57.3% more flames!
Facts are facts. Sorry.
So he made a mistake ? or was it a twisted fact ?
God.. this sounds like they are in the middle of beta test, rather than about to release.
Yes it's good they are addressing all the complains that we could read in the forums. Very good indeed. But still... oh well not much else to play so... gogo Mythic... I guess..
Wow's global cooldown IS 1.5. The Rogue class has a GCD of 1.
OOOooooOOOOoooOOOOO Big fucking deal. He got his facts wrong. Go play WoW.
I'm an Elder. Time for killin.
Somehow when I read the post from the guy about 1 second instead of 1.5 seconds in Warcraft.. I picture the Comic Book guy from Simpsons. Anyway, I am very glad to see what sort of attention to detail and general likeablility to the general public this guy has in his responses to issues. I think the company itself is leaps and bounds above the rest merely for being honest. Funcom left alot of Vendettas waiting to happen in their wake.
------------------------------
'Cry Havoc, and Let Loose the Dogs of WARRRRR!!!'
um.....I don't know what to tell you other than it IS in Beta.
Preview Weekend was a BETA for STRESS Testing. On September 7th OPEN BETA starts.
Where are all the people coming from that think games are supposed to be perfect while in Beta?
Wow's global cooldown IS 1.5. The Rogue class has a GCD of 1.
OOOooooOOOOoooOOOOO Big fucking deal. He got his facts wrong. Go play WoW.
I'm an Elder. Time for killin.
Gotcha !
Not only the rogues, there are the other classes...
because with the new spell haste all classes have faster GCD than 1.5 in Wow.
Gonna to continue because I know more...
next ?
Damn! I did'nt know that was a bug either.
Well I had my fun while it lasted..
You know from the dev's responses to issues that Mythic is really going to be on top of their game and not lay out the bull $hit like Funcom did.
I wasn't totally drawn into WAR during PW, but I still felt it was a fun game. What makes me sure I'll be subbing is that WAR is in good hands and will continue to grow and evolve into the best it can be thanks to realistic and honest dev's.
Wow's global cooldown IS 1.5. The Rogue class has a GCD of 1.
OOOooooOOOOoooOOOOO Big fucking deal. He got his facts wrong. Go play WoW.
I'm an Elder. Time for killin.
Gotcha !
Not only the rogues, there are the other classes...
because with the new spell haste all classes have faster GCD than 1.5 in Wow.
Gonna to continue because I know more...
next ?
So in the WoW FAQ where it states that the GCD is 1.5secs your calling all of the WoW developers liars? Now that the GCD is Variable because of Spell Haste, I guess no one can ever guess how long the GCD is since it's not always set in stone, right....right?
I have 2 70's, but fully equipped from everything up until BT. Don't even try telling me you know more, I'm not some NooB who is trying to diss one game, while hyping another non-stop.
WoW is a great game, and so is WAR. They are just made for different playstyles; WAR for PvP, and WoW for PvE. They both have both elements, but both lack in those opposite departments.