They released the game on November 28th, 2012 (for PC) which is when they said they would. While that was delayed from their original date in September I'm not aware of any other examples where they have publicly stated a release date and not lived up to releasing it (as buggy as it first was).
Most likely you have a date set because I just cant believe you work without deadlines. Make it public and commit yourself to making it. I would be more understanding if you dont make it with good reason instead of hiding behind you screens.
There is lots of work being done at the moment. I know its tough given the legal difficulties but you need to have some more patience.
You are constantly abusing the love for this franchise to cover up incompetent behavior. The attitude of "they'll wait anyways they have little other choice" is making you look arrogant.
There is no incompetence here or anything like the attitude you describe. They are a relatively small team and they were faced with a complex situation. In-game problems are being worked on.
"that said, I still don't understand why they can't release hotfixes for very blatant and very easy-to-fix issues like Firebead's quest or the grinding noise in East-Baldur's Gate."
[...] that said, I still don't understand why they can't release hotfixes for very blatant and very easy-to-fix issues like Firebead's quest or the grinding noise in East-Baldur's Gate.
Well, if you check last update patch notes you can see this : "Bug Fixes [...] Firebead's Beregost quest has been touched up [...]E Baldur's Gate music has been corrected"
That's really the problem here. There are a lot more examples of this (like Yeslick, the effect of Charm on NPC, etc.) that have been fixed (or so they said) over and over, in each patch since BGEE release. And it's not always working even now.
So, i can see your point Adul. But then, i really hope that THIS next patch, on which they are working for 6 months by now, is the last and definitive patch... that it won't need another update to fix the things they could break again by fixing other thing, like they did until now.
When it comes to patches, there's generally two approaches: 1. Everything is a hotfix - Bugs are fixed and a patch released very quickly, with little quality control which often leads to more accidental bugs and additional hotfixes. Users complain of game breaking bugs that keep getting introduced, and hours lost, but they get fixed relatively quickly with the next patch. There's often a lack of polish, and some elements are under developed or unfinished. Remember when NWN1 was released? You couldn't even finish the first chapter until they'd patched it a couple times, and it crashed all the time.
2. "When it's done" - Everything takes forever, patches are released rarely but they're larger, containing more fixes and features with better quality control. Very few new bugs are introduced, but those that are generally have to wait until the next release to get fixed, whenever that is. Users complain about patches taking forever.
On a game as complex as Baldur's Gate, I can only imagine the nightmare and sh*tstorm that would occur if a late-game game breaking bug was introduced so that hundreds of players get stuck, so I'm content for the dev team to err on the side of approach 2. It also makes the patches we get all the more fun as opposed to "oh joy, another hotfix".
It would be really nice if there were a development blog updated weekly describing what work is being done like the OpenMW (www.openmw.org) team does, but doing so takes away time from working on the patch, and it also releases the floodgates of criticism on the work the dev's do, which I don't imagine helps much, especially if they had to cut a feature you wanted.
Just wait 'til Tuesday you mutton mongering riff raff!
You call them good news? God, the patch had to be ready as soon as the legal mess was over.
How so? That would suppose it was on the verge of being ready prior to the legal shenanigans, which as far as I know was never claimed by anyone relevant.
Here's the text from the AUA thread, for those who don't feel like clicking links
We're planning on doing something slightly (very) different with this next patch, due to the size and number of things it does.
In the next couple of weeks (and I won't say exactly when), we're going to release an Open Beta that includes the patch. This will allow you to test out the new features and bug fixes, and--if something breaks--you can go back to the live version while we fix the issue. We've done some substantial testing, but there are still a few things we're working out, including (among many other things) the new renderer and a spiffy new UI.
The Beta will be open to anyone who has purchased the game through Beamdog.com, and will be distributed via the Beamdog client. This allows us to send out fixes quickly if necessary, and also simplifies the process of installation for users. We know this means Mac users won't have access right away, and we're looking at possible solutions for that.
I'm sure that there will be a lot of questions about this, and I'm prepared to answer some of them, while others will have to wait for early September.
Good time of day. I beg pardon for my English, but just can't silently watching. You, the developers, build there plans for the next mega-patch, its beta, etc. But you have forgotten those who have ALREADY bought, but can'T play your game. They are willing to wait a fully stable version and longer, simply furious at not being able to play the game in their native language. The Russian-speaking community know the translated text is fully completed and handed over in June. Is it really so difficult to release a mini-patch with all complited localizations? Do lyrics depend on the errors in scripts? Don't you know that thousands of fans of the game don't buy it just because of the absence normal localization, and the prolonged waiting for this localization discourage potential buyers exponentially? I don't want to teach you to develop games, but just want to draw your attention to the fact that you own hands to push away from yourself the most faithful fans. Thank you for your attention.
Yes, definitely something like that! However, I have already gone ahead and fixed the bugs in my game using NearInfinity months ago because I didn't know about that post. (And that's really the problem with those hotfixes, isn't it: visibility.)
Open beta sounds like a bullshit now. The game is already released and received several patches and you already HAD a patch you wanted to released, but now after even more time of work on the patch, you decide on beta. Someone in your company is bad at your work, whether you admit it or not. Logistics is not your strong point. This is reflected in that many players are sad about your strategies. I hope you will rework how your patching/developing processes work. It's possible, you just have to dig at the root.
Personally, I think this beta is a wise move. In my mind I see this patch as the herald to bring in the "definitive" BGEE experience. As such I think it should be tested, then tested again and then tested some more. And then actually put through a final round of testing, with maybe a small confirmatory test after that.
Needless to say, I don't want any bullshit when the patch is released. If it takes a little while, no worries, as long as when I play it, stuff just works.
Oh, and the Journal had better update correctly for ALL QUESTS :P
Open beta sounds like a bullshit now. The game is already released and received several patches and you already HAD a patch you wanted to released, but now after even more time of work on the patch, you decide on beta.
Someone in your company is bad at your work, whether you admit it or not. Logistics is not your strong point. This is reflected in that many players are sad about your strategies. I hope you will rework how your patching/developing processes work. It's possible, you just have to dig at the root.
Normally I would agree; however, this next patch is a lot bigger than most of our others. We want to make sure that it works for everybody (as much as possible) before we release it into the wild.
You may have noticed that a few of our previous patches introduced new bugs that weren't intended. We've gotten a lot better about testing things before we release them, but for the amount of things, and the scope of the changes, that are in this patch, we don't want to leave anything to chance.
Unfortunately, the open beta will only be for those who purchased through Beamdog.com and have access to the client. We may look at other possibilities as well, but this is meant to allow us to fix things quickly if need be within that beta environment.
Beta is a great idea. Patience people.., if you haven't made a game yet, you can't really get angry with the bgee team. They're also human beings... Pressure is OK, but telling them they don't know what they're doing isn't going to help the situation.
It is nearly September, a year from when we were first expecting the game ... As a Mac user, we had to be more patient than others but to still have bugs in the Prologue this amount of time later is just ridiculous. It's a great game, no-one wants lousy quality, yes there have been problems and yes the guys are / have been doing a great job bringing BG back to us ...
However, the key thing here is COMMUNICATE ! I don't want to have to check forums every day to read lots of speculation but no official statements. Nor do I expect to have to rummage through multiple threads to have to find fixes that players have created themselves. What's the point of having Forums if you don't make regular official update on them.
Make a statement, make a commitment and stick to it ! If you don't manage your customer's expectations then you will end up with no customers ...
Very nearly all questions asked there will be answered by someone on the development team (usually me, though others may chime in from time to time), and important "official" answers get posted in the FAQ, here: http://forum.baldursgate.com/discussion/19123/faq-2
So to start with, I would bookmark or "favorite" those two threads. If you have your notifications set up, you'll receive an email any time either of those threads is updated. Those are the threads with the most reliable and up-to-the-minute information, and if you don't find the answer you're looking for, you can ask there and (usually) expect to receive an answer relatively quickly.
When we have something official to announce we'll post it here in the News section. We probably should have announced the game going back on sale, so that's our bad; we'll throw something up about the Open Beta when we have more concrete information to provide (dates and the like).
The resources are there, you just kind of have to know where to look (and the FAQ is stickied, which should make it easier to spot).
You call them good news? God, the patch had to be ready as soon as the legal mess was over.
Yeah, a week ago we didn't even know if we'll ever work on this stuff again.
Oh really? You kept telling us that the matter wasn't "if" but "when".
@Blash For some of the contractors, things were time-dependent. It is very possible, if things stretched out, that some us would not have been able to work on BG2EE again. We're incredibly glad that things were sorted in time for everybody to be able to jump back on board.
Unfortunately, the open beta will only be for those who purchased through Beamdog.com and have access to the client. We may look at other possibilities as well, but this is meant to allow us to fix things quickly if need be within that beta environment.
Will we need to use the beamdog client or will the standalone BGEE installer/launcher suffice?
Also, once the beta period ends, will PC users (who purchased the game from beamdog) have to wait an extra month for the final version of the patch due to the annoyingly slow approval process of the app store?
I get that keeping versions consistent across platforms is a big deal, but since I guess most of the player base is on pc, the delay is rather frustrating. Maybe you could give us the option to opt into the patch without waiting for the app store and just let us decide if cross platform multiplayer is worth the wait for us or not(it wont be in my case).
Comments
"Bug Fixes
[...] Firebead's Beregost quest has been touched up
[...]E Baldur's Gate music has been corrected"
That's really the problem here. There are a lot more examples of this (like Yeslick, the effect of Charm on NPC, etc.) that have been fixed (or so they said) over and over, in each patch since BGEE release. And it's not always working even now.
So, i can see your point Adul. But then, i really hope that THIS next patch, on which they are working for 6 months by now, is the last and definitive patch... that it won't need another update to fix the things they could break again by fixing other thing, like they did until now.
i admit it's hard not to lose faith sometimes...
1. Everything is a hotfix - Bugs are fixed and a patch released very quickly, with little quality control which often leads to more accidental bugs and additional hotfixes. Users complain of game breaking bugs that keep getting introduced, and hours lost, but they get fixed relatively quickly with the next patch. There's often a lack of polish, and some elements are under developed or unfinished. Remember when NWN1 was released? You couldn't even finish the first chapter until they'd patched it a couple times, and it crashed all the time.
2. "When it's done" - Everything takes forever, patches are released rarely but they're larger, containing more fixes and features with better quality control. Very few new bugs are introduced, but those that are generally have to wait until the next release to get fixed, whenever that is. Users complain about patches taking forever.
On a game as complex as Baldur's Gate, I can only imagine the nightmare and sh*tstorm that would occur if a late-game game breaking bug was introduced so that hundreds of players get stuck, so I'm content for the dev team to err on the side of approach 2. It also makes the patches we get all the more fun as opposed to "oh joy, another hotfix".
It would be really nice if there were a development blog updated weekly describing what work is being done like the OpenMW (www.openmw.org) team does, but doing so takes away time from working on the patch, and it also releases the floodgates of criticism on the work the dev's do, which I don't imagine helps much, especially if they had to cut a feature you wanted.
Just wait 'til Tuesday you mutton mongering riff raff!
Phillip Daigle:
#BGEE The BGEE patch is quite large in scope and complexity so we will be doing an open beta for it in a few weeks for a short while.
Phillip Daigle:
#BGEE Expect it around early or mid-September. Fixes made during the open beta will improve #BG2EE as well!
http://forum.baldursgate.com/discussion/comment/343236/#Comment_343236
Oh really? You kept telling us that the matter wasn't "if" but "when".
I beg pardon for my English, but just can't silently watching.
You, the developers, build there plans for the next mega-patch, its beta, etc. But you have forgotten those who have ALREADY bought, but can'T play your game. They are willing to wait a fully stable version and longer, simply furious at not being able to play the game in their native language. The Russian-speaking community know the translated text is fully completed and handed over in June. Is it really so difficult to release a mini-patch with all complited localizations? Do lyrics depend on the errors in scripts? Don't you know that thousands of fans of the game don't buy it just because of the absence normal localization, and the prolonged waiting for this localization discourage potential buyers exponentially?
I don't want to teach you to develop games, but just want to draw your attention to the fact that you own hands to push away from yourself the most faithful fans.
Thank you for your attention.
Someone in your company is bad at your work, whether you admit it or not. Logistics is not your strong point. This is reflected in that many players are sad about your strategies. I hope you will rework how your patching/developing processes work. It's possible, you just have to dig at the root.
Needless to say, I don't want any bullshit when the patch is released. If it takes a little while, no worries, as long as when I play it, stuff just works.
Oh, and the Journal had better update correctly for ALL QUESTS :P
You may have noticed that a few of our previous patches introduced new bugs that weren't intended. We've gotten a lot better about testing things before we release them, but for the amount of things, and the scope of the changes, that are in this patch, we don't want to leave anything to chance.
I was about to give up hope when i got the news.
Edit: but not telling => but telling
It's a great game, no-one wants lousy quality, yes there have been problems and yes the guys are / have been doing a great job bringing BG back to us ...
However, the key thing here is COMMUNICATE ! I don't want to have to check forums every day to read lots of speculation but no official statements. Nor do I expect to have to rummage through multiple threads to have to find fixes that players have created themselves. What's the point of having Forums if you don't make regular official update on them.
Make a statement, make a commitment and stick to it ! If you don't manage your customer's expectations then you will end up with no customers ...
There's a dedicated "Ask us anything" thread here: http://forum.baldursgate.com/discussion/20476/ask-us-anything-volume-3
Very nearly all questions asked there will be answered by someone on the development team (usually me, though others may chime in from time to time), and important "official" answers get posted in the FAQ, here: http://forum.baldursgate.com/discussion/19123/faq-2
So to start with, I would bookmark or "favorite" those two threads. If you have your notifications set up, you'll receive an email any time either of those threads is updated. Those are the threads with the most reliable and up-to-the-minute information, and if you don't find the answer you're looking for, you can ask there and (usually) expect to receive an answer relatively quickly.
When we have something official to announce we'll post it here in the News section. We probably should have announced the game going back on sale, so that's our bad; we'll throw something up about the Open Beta when we have more concrete information to provide (dates and the like).
The resources are there, you just kind of have to know where to look (and the FAQ is stickied, which should make it easier to spot).
Also, once the beta period ends, will PC users (who purchased the game from beamdog) have to wait an extra month for the final version of the patch due to the annoyingly slow approval process of the app store?
I get that keeping versions consistent across platforms is a big deal, but since I guess most of the player base is on pc, the delay is rather frustrating. Maybe you could give us the option to opt into the patch without waiting for the app store and just let us decide if cross platform multiplayer is worth the wait for us or not(it wont be in my case).
You'll need to use the Beamdog client, as the beta is an entirely separate program from the "live" version.