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I had previously played in 3 weekends and all of them were pretty much bug and lag free for me.
Last weekend they deployed a new patch AND invited a whole slew of people (they gave out keys to a ton of gaming sites)...
I logged in, and that weekend was the first really buggy experience I had had, and their new patch actually introduced bugs that hadn't existed previously.
That being said, I think that inviting a slew of new people for the first time you deploy a big new beta patch might be a problem. The preceding weekend would have been fine, and this coming weekend(where they are apparently inviting everyone who ever signed up and raising the level caps) will probably be fine... But I saw a lot of (justified) griping after last weekend, and it is a shame that that was the first experience many people had had of the game.
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Yep, UI 2.0 was the main problem. Especially the cause of fps problems.
This weekends patch probably will be the same as last week's. Real improvements will come with beta weekend 4 and open beta.
Stages of a new mmo: 1) It's just beta. It still has plenty of time before release. 2) It just launched. Give it time. WoW wasn't built in a day. 3) We don't need you anyway. 4) F2P announced. 5)Huge influx of players. 6) Look how much has changed. 7) Cash shop is the only thing developed lately. 8) It has been a long journey and we thank everyone who was part of it. Shutting down in 3 months. (Courtesy of Robokapp.)
I agree entirely about the cause of the problem... That is not the mistake I think they made.
I think the problem was deploying an overhaul like that on the same weekend they were inviting a whole slew of new players. Should have given it at least one full weekend test before doing that, just to give them a chance to stabilize it. Like it or not a global giveaway like that is as much a preview for most of those people picking up keys on the sites as the open beta... And a bad experience this close to launch is enough to turn off many people, if that is the only experience they have had.
Was pretty interested. Came to test the game .. suddenly! BAM running at 15 fps (yes, 15 fps .. sure its not like planetside 2 (120 fps) or GW2 (90 fps) or Assasins creed 3/thief (steady 60 fps at maximal graphics at all but jesus christ XD) while being able to glitch out stuff ..
sad to say any excitement i had was flushd down the toilet
https://ashesofcreation.com/r/Y4U3PQCASUPJ5SED
How can Beta Testing new features be considered a 'Mistake'?
Would you rather they Patched the game, and Launched with the bugs?
Some people...
"The problem with quotes from the Internet is that it's almost impossible to validate their authenticity." - Abraham Lincoln
Pretty much the same for me was getting between 15 to 35 depending on the area. As of right now I have lost all interest in buying the game. Will wait until after launch and see how performance is if they have a free trial.
Its fine that you want to wait after launch to buy the game, but to say youve lost interest over a bug during a BETA is a lie and you know it.
I played the last Beta weekend and didnt have any issues. I'm not saying you didnt either, but its obvious that the issues affects some while others were fine.
I think people need to realise that Beta means Beta, not Pre-launch Preview.
"The problem with quotes from the Internet is that it's almost impossible to validate their authenticity." - Abraham Lincoln
Beta used to mean Beta. As in, things will change between now and release, or actually be improved upon, fixed and polish.
The last dozen "AAA" MMO releases have so far redefined the term to be more "This is what we're shipping with, we're not going to fix shit."
AN' DERE AIN'T NO SUCH FING AS ENUFF DAKKA, YA GROT! Enuff'z more than ya got an' less than too much an' there ain't no such fing as too much dakka. Say dere is, and me Squiggoff'z eatin' tonight!
We are born of the blood. Made men by the blood. Undone by the blood. Our eyes are yet to open. FEAR THE OLD BLOOD.
#IStandWithVic
Oh yes. I am fed up with this "release is just an open form of beta" mentality and fanboys supporting that. If Wild Star launches with all the bugs from betas, i will ask for a refund too like i did with ESO.
Stages of a new mmo: 1) It's just beta. It still has plenty of time before release. 2) It just launched. Give it time. WoW wasn't built in a day. 3) We don't need you anyway. 4) F2P announced. 5)Huge influx of players. 6) Look how much has changed. 7) Cash shop is the only thing developed lately. 8) It has been a long journey and we thank everyone who was part of it. Shutting down in 3 months. (Courtesy of Robokapp.)
Back in the days of Yore, when games actually came out when they were ready and devs used beta as a way to test the game's bugs not advertise it; games came out and most of the "bugs" arose as a consequence of people doing things that the devs and beta testers didn't think of or because there were more people than they had ever tested the game with; very few of these being completely avoidable like we see now-a-days. Its really stupid that that is not the current trend anymore. Paying for a "beta" of a game that should be released 6 months to a year after the current release is pretty stupid and not something I wish to be doing with every MMO from now on because some people think its ok. There's a difference between a game that has major bugs because of unforeseen issues and a game with bugs that are clearly avoidable with actual beta testing and a development cycle that isn't driven by corporate greed.
That being said, from what i can tell of what ive read and played of wildstar, they have put a decent amount of time into trying to make the game pretty solid. If i compare the care that was taken with this game against say the most recent monstrosity, ESO, its very clear that there are two completely different mentalities behind the two games. ESO was rushed out and based on the NDA and beta weekends, Zenimax wasn't very confident in how well their game would do nor did they take enough time to address the actual issues in the game right now. Wildstar on the other hand, while it has issues, it seems that the dev team is actually using the beta tests to test these issues and try to fix them as a result. I just hope that they have the sense to postpone the release if they find something that will take a large period of time to fix. The engine seems to be relatively well optimized this weekend as opposed to the beta i played a few weekends ago.
So, to summarize... No, just No.
No, I would rather they patched the game and then continued with the same tester base(all the CB people PLUS all of the pre-order people) who have already experienced the game running stable and who are more likely to give it slack and who aren't just looking for a free preview.
they should have pushed had at least 1 full weekend of testing before they opened the flood-gates on a stable version.
And if it was un-stable they should have opened up additional testing once they thought they had fixed it to make sure it was stable before they essentially gave a giant community preview.
Edit: Just to clarify, this post is about 2 weekends ago. This past weekend was much more playable, although there were still some serious UI glitches. I anticipate most of them being gone for next beta weekend.
Now that is a post I don't understand. while you may not like it for whatever reason(aesthetics? ambience/concept?) the game is solid and a lot of people do and will enjoy it....
There are still things which need to be tweaked(i.e. auction house...) and bugs to fix with the new UI... But I have no idea how you can come to the conclusion that making the game was a mistake.
This thread contains my only gripe so far, which is that they are making mistakes in managing public opinion and perception... And those 2 things can make or break a game regardless of how good it is. I have pre-ordered because I like the concept, the gameplay, and I love the humor... But if people get massively turned off it because they previewed it and it played like drek, they aren't going to buy... And I know you love running around an empty world, but that isn't really what I am signing up for.
They have been smart about that, they have added many extra beta weekends and before this it was being tested full time, I know I was one of the full time testers =-)
Like this is a surprise. Nuff said.
To me it looks like Carbine is pretty confident in their product and their abilities in general. At least they are not shy to scrap or replace systems at any time, like introducing a new UI this close to launch.
I have been in alot of betas where even the lightest changes in early stages of the beta took the company forever or stuff they changed in early beta wasn't finished until month after release. Or one beta in which nothing happened at all for month, to a point where testers were about to boycott the beta.
In a genre where giants like Blizzard move slow (and at times not at all) or incompetend studios continously play hit and miss with every change to their game, Carbine instead seems pretty agile and shooting straight. With this company and game, it's like anything can happen until launch and 1-2 big patches after release can turn some baseline mechanics upside down again.
I'm still on the fence with the game itself, but i like Carbine's approach as a developer so far.
I get what you're saying but the game has to move on. The obviously sat on patchable stuff for a long time based on how ungodly huge the patch was. I'm not sure that is such a great idea since any given MMORPG patch of size will bring issues and bugs along with it, so going gargantuan just means more of it.
But they do NEED to patch and keep moving forward with the game since it's still in development.
And they do need to stress test their infrastructure by having more people in the game - as was clearly demonstrated with the laggy at times performance over the weekend (wasn't that bad there was server side lag at times - and one nice thing I've seen having reported it and having them respond is that they can reset zones themselves rather than having to bounce entire servers or all servers for localized lag issues).
Premium MMORPGs do not feature built-in cheating via cash for gold pay 2 win. PLAY to win or don't play.