I have 2 words for Overhaul:
MinscandBoo
Member Posts: 77
"BETA TESTERS!!!!!"
Ok, but in all seriousness. I'm close to the end of the game now with a solo run and I really need to say that the amount of bugs I've encountered are breathtaking to say the least. I'm not a hater, I applaud their effort, but there are so many bugs (even after patch 3) that I cannot for the life of me believe that most, if not ALL of them could not have been fixed prior to release. I'm not talking about bugs related to specific systems or O/S or graphic cards as I am fully aware that even the biggest gaming companies in the world cannot program a game with the millions of potentially differently configured PC's. I'm only talking about bugs as they relate to game mechanics, scripting, functionality, encounters, etc.
On the first day of play, I came on the boards and mentioned 6 game bugs. Since then, I have just played and worked around them as I could not imagine the time i would have to take each time to come back and post. I just can't believe that their primary objective was to fix all that was wrong with the finally patched BG/TotSC from Bioware to still have so many issues.
Just for reference sakes, my last playthrough before BG:EE was announced was with the Big World mod which is VERY ambitious in what it does and adds so many more elements that can (and to be fair sometimes does) cause problems and bugs. But I was able to do so many more things and also play as a Cavalier in the BG2 portion and follow a different path other than siding with the Shadow Thieves or Bodhi.
I was actually just looking forward to play the original vanilla BG (with the much needed improvements of BG2) with a bugless game. The 30 mins of extra material per new party member (so I've read) is not what got my $20. I bought this game to support Overhaul in refreshing my favorite titles of all time. I was so looking forward to PST and BG2, but this experience has left me with a sour taste.
Finally, and I hope someone at Overhaul reads this, next time please, I will PAY you the $20 to play the game as a beta tester and report everything back to you! At least then I'll know what my role is and I would enjoy being part of the beta testing community. It's a win/win. You don't lose a sale and you have another beta tester. PST!
Ok, but in all seriousness. I'm close to the end of the game now with a solo run and I really need to say that the amount of bugs I've encountered are breathtaking to say the least. I'm not a hater, I applaud their effort, but there are so many bugs (even after patch 3) that I cannot for the life of me believe that most, if not ALL of them could not have been fixed prior to release. I'm not talking about bugs related to specific systems or O/S or graphic cards as I am fully aware that even the biggest gaming companies in the world cannot program a game with the millions of potentially differently configured PC's. I'm only talking about bugs as they relate to game mechanics, scripting, functionality, encounters, etc.
On the first day of play, I came on the boards and mentioned 6 game bugs. Since then, I have just played and worked around them as I could not imagine the time i would have to take each time to come back and post. I just can't believe that their primary objective was to fix all that was wrong with the finally patched BG/TotSC from Bioware to still have so many issues.
Just for reference sakes, my last playthrough before BG:EE was announced was with the Big World mod which is VERY ambitious in what it does and adds so many more elements that can (and to be fair sometimes does) cause problems and bugs. But I was able to do so many more things and also play as a Cavalier in the BG2 portion and follow a different path other than siding with the Shadow Thieves or Bodhi.
I was actually just looking forward to play the original vanilla BG (with the much needed improvements of BG2) with a bugless game. The 30 mins of extra material per new party member (so I've read) is not what got my $20. I bought this game to support Overhaul in refreshing my favorite titles of all time. I was so looking forward to PST and BG2, but this experience has left me with a sour taste.
Finally, and I hope someone at Overhaul reads this, next time please, I will PAY you the $20 to play the game as a beta tester and report everything back to you! At least then I'll know what my role is and I would enjoy being part of the beta testing community. It's a win/win. You don't lose a sale and you have another beta tester. PST!
3
Comments
Just learn to live with it or you'll get an heart attack.
That said, I do think we (as consumers) should start demanding a Known Issues list from day 1. It's always better to know what bugs to expect and that are already known by the developers.
Yeah, that's really weird, that there were so many bugs at the realase, which can be spotted after 2 minutes of playing (like map marker CTD). But hey - they are repairing all reported stuff. So let's just report bugs and wait for repair team
Even though there are plenty of bugs, I had no problem with finishing game the way I wanted...
"Defenestrate"
"Fenestrate"
I don't get out much.
But, you can't change what happened so here we are dealing with it and it isn't all bad. I just look at this stage in the enhanced editions life as a big open beta. Beamdog is getting way more feedback than they ever would with just a few beta testers, if they stick with it and try to fix all the bugs we will have a perfect game in no time.
It's hard to draw a line and I may be drawing it too far. It's just... I don't know mate... for such a small business like Overhaul/Beamdog and such a big risk like BGEE, I'm personally willing to be more permissive than I would for other game development studios.
"Didn't they test this?!" "Do they even HAVE testers?!" etc.
Now that I've been working on software products for a while I have come to realise that actually there are probably plenty of testers and they've probably found a hundred more bugs than you realise... and that the developers simply aren't given enough time to fix them all.
Believe me, I know!
What i liked about the devs is that they did not release the game until it was at least in a playable state and have since done nothing but patch and patch some more so the support is there and is a continuing work in progress.
I like to use my personal story to show what they're going through if you don't mind. Using a freeware copy of an old Havoc engine, i started building my 1st town and some of my personal ideas on what a good crafting system should be. Took me over 6 months to get the town into working shape with all pathing issues from my npc's done etc etc. Just as i was close to finishing, i made a change that introduced a whole slew of new bugs(insert growl here). Took me 2 more months to iron out all the new bugs and though i still had a few minor ones, my town is playable now. Just saying a project like this needs time and as many players have finished it despite the bugs, obviously there's nothing overly game breaking and many of the bugs i see in the bug section are minor twaddles(a few big ones though as well but not game breaking).
Sorry for the length.
The Help tooltip wouldn't lead to a bug cascade. Same can be said about the Journal. And et cetera.
I prefer to just be permissive instead of lumping into "it's not the poor developers fault". I'm a software developer myself and I'm not poor nor innocent.
At this point we can just help them and ourselves by spotting and reporting bugs.
After that, it will be time for a reward: new GUI, DLC, etc, etc.
and then, inwardly, "Thank goodness."
We're doing the best we can. But that first line made me laugh. And I needed that. Thanks!
/rollplay emo 17 year old: what I really meant to say WAS >>>>>> "____ ___"
Can you fit "Merry Christmas" in those lines??
That's what you meant, right?
Anyway, I didn't mean to interrupt or derail the thread. Carry on.
Nonetheless, it's kind of good that they are addressing the issues so promptly. We have had what, 2 patches in the past 2 days? That's pretty good by all accounts, and in a way, it makes me hopeful that there is some light at the end of the tunnel.
Think they might have benefited from an open beta, perhaps from pre-order customers (maybe something to keep in mind for BG2:EE?). Right now, it seems that it's the customer doing a lot of the "beta testing," and there has been a lot of feedback going through. With BG being such an old game, it might be beneficial to open the doors to at least some customers prior to release to squash all those bugs.
No disrespect to the OP, but I can't believe how few bugs I've found. Honestly, I'm on my second playthrough and have found ONE bug, which was my mouse cursor disappearing.
I played this game when it originally came out and this is the first time I've played it since (never modded, never will). I have had so much fun for my 20 bucks that I want to slap current developers and tell them "THAT is how you make a game."
But how can you say "THAT is how you make a game" when there are PAGES of reported bugs?
Of course, by asking them to defenestrate fenestrate, I was telling them to throw windowed out the window, I suppose. I've no rhyme nor reason, I just wanted to claim two good words for Overhaul.
This is just one scenario of many that have been happening. FULL disclosure however, I do have a bag of holding for my solo playthrough which I added via console. I'm not sure what bugs if any that may have caused but I can't believe it's responsible for most, if any.