Posts by Thrik

Sure it was a bit dodgy then, but we're not in 2001 anymore. Patches these days generally don't have to be installed in a certain order and all that rubbish; most of the time you can just download one big one that overwrites anything before (keeping configurations, obviously).

I'm not really sure how using an example like Battlefield 1942 is really relevant. Even its successor, Battlefield 2142, has a handy news ticker at the bottom of all pages on the menu which notifies players of new patches. And the patch overwrites any previous ones, including the game as freshly installed from its DVD.

As long as players are properly notified of new patches and the developers have produced the patches properly so you don't need to go 1039 -> 1040 -> 1069 -> 1080 -> 2010 -> 2060 -> etc, it's no real issue.

Of course, I do find it bewildering when games don't take advantage of the ability to notify players on the menu of new patches. Tribes 2 cracked this one years ago by simply doing a check of Sierra's web servers when the game's started.

As far as I'm aware Source mods already have the ability to display web content in the GUI, so it shouldn't be that much of an issue to implement.

Although with the above point made, it's worth bearing in mind that most non-Steam games these days require separately downloaded patches. At best, they have some kind of news area on the main menu which lets everyone clearly know there's a new patch by hooking into a web server.

This is something I'd imagine any HL2 mod, including Insurgency, would benefit from.

The process of downloading patches is far from something players aren't used to. It's just generally better communicated to them in the games themselves nowadays rather than relying on people reading about them in magazines or on sites.

Yeah, they're both awesome. I just find the second one extremely funny because of how badly it basically went; the last thing you want after pulling an extreme prank is for them to be too messed up to even acknowledge it.

He quite obviously meant in the sense of how well it penetrated the HL2 player base (read: not very, apart from an initial buzz).

HAHAHA THE SECOND VIDEO!!!!!

Yes I also approve of the way Minos has conducted himself in response to criticism, particularly with accepting where it's justified.

Haha, wow. You sure steered this thread into a new direction effectively since page one FMPONE. Guess I'd better go beyond my usual long posts and come up with something to suit the size of this thread.

Having just read everything in the universe, it has become apparent to me that the "release a shit first build and then iterate quickly" strategy is no longer as effective as it was in HL1. Back then there were few expectations as far as the mod scene went, so when some that provided drastically new gameplay came out everyone jumped on them.

Mods could also be pushed out at a fast rate then due to much simpler asset creation requirements. You could put together a map of HL1 standard in a relatively minuscule amount of time, which was more than enough to satisfy people then. It takes significantly longer to put together something of HL2 quality, which is what people will expect.

There's also the simple fact that there're a lot of (team) multiplayer games these days, as opposed to the distinctively minimal amount of them back in the TFC/CS/DOD heyday. As such, the demand for each is less and that's why even decent ones like DOD:S struggle.

Regardless, it's clear that INS is now out, so the whole argument on the "release early and often front" is completely redundant and not worth continuing.

This post is looking very texty so here's a nice picture to break it up:

[Blocked Image: http://serve.ryanjohnwilliams.com/images/insurgency.jpg]

INS does have a good player base right now, but I'd severely advise the team against getting into too strong a sense of security. If the game isn't patched quickly and often, the player base will very rapidly dissolve, and as speculated earlier you'll find yourself in the same position as the little-known mods above.

Bear in mind that the majority of this player base is stemmed from the huge amount of hype beforehand (hundreds of people in the IRC room before the mod was even released, for example -- they weren't there because of the gameplay) and the syndication of hype on news sites and FilePlanet. You couldn't really help but get thousands of players after that.

This is the time to kick that "release often" strategy into gear. Pump out gameplay enhancements, get feedback on them, apply the feedback, release again. Keep doing this until you end up with a totally winning formula; don't worry too much about making dramatic changes or altering the game significantly, and definitely don't ignore player feedback and think your formula just cannot possibly not be much fun. This is basically what your DOD and your CS did, except without the several years of asset creation first.

The biggest mistake you could do now is to not release often. If the next patch comes after all the people who downloaded it and didn't like the gameplay much have put the mod out of their mind, they'll most likely never try it again. And without their word of mouth, you're righteously fucked.

Just please, please don't let your current player stats go to your head. I understand it's exciting and it's wonderful you have so many players, but it doesn't make you invincible. Tribes: Vengeance was released to a large fanfare, had thousands of enthusiastic fans from Tribes 1 and Tribes 2 waiting to play it, and was very well built from a technical perspective.

However, because its gameplay just wasn't that appealing the player numbers very rapidly went from many thousands, to hundreds, to an average of 80 after a few months. A retail game, released by Vivendi, with two generations of community plus new players. Despite it being a beautiful game with few bugs, due to the gameplay not really hitting the right note its players literally melted away. To put this into perspective, Tribes 2 which came out in 2001 to this very day averages around 400 players, and Tribes 1 which came out in 1998 still has more than Tribes: Vengeance (2004).

The same story can be said of a number of games, although with Tribes it holds a particular relevance due to it also being a primarily multiplayer game.

I thought Snake Eater was the best game in the series as far as gameplay goes, by a very long way. Granted, I still enjoy a bit of the indoor action that Twin Snakes and MGS2 offer, but the gameplay is so rounded in MGS3 and you feel so truly out there in the world I fail to see how anyone couldn't enjoy it.

Not discounting your opinion or anything, but just pointing out that not everyone agrees with your interpretation of MGS3 as a step down for the series. I thought the majority of it was excellently implemented, especially the CQC moves; however, the whole healing/eating thing could have been streamlined more.

Beats more of the same at the very least, no?

Perhaps you'd like to elaborate dux, thus transforming your post from 'totally useless' to 'interesting'.

Of course, you were deliberately aiming for someone to ask "What do you mean?" anyway.

Yeah, avoid the Javascript pop-up things that take over your URLs (eg: javascript:ImageWindow('ns_eclipse_1.jpg', 'ns_eclipse_1.jpg')) like the plague.

If you absolutely must have pop-ups (although be aware that a lot of people including me use Firefox which can and does simply redirect and pop-ups into a new tab in the background), use one which adds an onclick to the link itself rather than completely replaces it.

Failing that, a supremely popular technique right now is to use Lightbox or a variant thereof (Greybox, etc). I don't personally like the Lightbox idea much, but it does have its place in portfolios I guess.

Guys, get used to people criticising your work if it's not very fun. Otherwise, you're going to find it crippling once you work on retail games that get hit with dozens of professional reviews and thousands of amateur reviews.

From what I can see the criticism in this thread is very honest but also quite tactfully put; it certainly isn't insulting, and I'd encourage those on the development teem to take heed of what's being said rather than pick on the individual for actually saying it.

People can compare with other games all they like. After all, those're what they're going to play instead if INS just isn't that fun. Is that's what you'd prefer, rather than them honestly telling you what stops them from enjoying the game? Or would you prefer they spare your pride and just let the mod crumble?

ShackNews has commendably done the obvious and gotten in touch with a bunch of developers, some of whom chose to remain anonymous. It looks like SK isn't alone after all.

http://www.shacknews.com/featuredarticle.x?id=468

As I suspected before, the reality is probably that the companies (or executives, rather) don't want to face the battle of a lawsuit. That does not mean the employees and developers aren't having a bad time with the software. In fact, even complaining about it and acting as a representative of the company would probably get them in trouble with their bosses, hence the anonymity.

What, you think the directors of my company would sue Adobe because I and others in my team find some areas of Flash and Photoshop inhibitive to smooth development? Don't be crazy!

That said, a lawsuit does seem a bit over the top. However, sometimes being over the top is the only way to force a neglectful company to wake up and pay attention. The lawsuit could end up being completely dropped as long as Epic sorts things out (although the risk of a counter-lawsuit is there, making this strategy a little dangerous).

Probably more related to a lack of desire to burn money on court fees than a genuine lack of any dissatisfaction with Epic's support.

That's fair, but as Reno says it isn't just SK who've complained.

Hahaha, oh god.

I knew it'd be Brazil as soon as I saw "Orkut" in the title. Seems to be quite the phenomenon over there.

Could probably be considered a spiritual sequel to an extent, but no, it isn't.

They made the amazing

Wow, ImageShack is one seriously piece of shit site. It just threw up a pop-up ad every single time I clicked on one of those screenshots to see the full-size version.

More like never again.

Yeah, I was referring more to his million+ bonus and the plethora of stocks he was granted, but his salary certainly isn't to be sniffed at either.

The new guy looks a bit boring. Clearly a console company's top dogs need personality.

Yeah, way too dark there. Are you using a CRT perchance? One critical issue with CRTs that affects any kind of visual work is that over time they lose their tone gamut, which means darks become darker and eventually dark greys/colours merge into just black, and it gets increasingly worse. People usually pump up their brightness/contrast/etc to compensate but invariably end up making it look like a mess for people on properly calibrated monitors like mine.

LCDs don't suffer from this issue. If you're not using one, I suggest thinking about upgrading since you're a visual designer. If you are using an LCD, I suggest checking out some thorough calibration sites like this.