When is the next patch coming out?
ThunderSoul
Member Posts: 125
Hi guys,
Do you know when the next patch will be coming out? I've been hearing "soon soon soon" ever since the crisis was resolved, but that was back in August. Anyone have any updates?
Thank you,
-TS...
Do you know when the next patch will be coming out? I've been hearing "soon soon soon" ever since the crisis was resolved, but that was back in August. Anyone have any updates?
Thank you,
-TS...
0
Comments
Steam clients (like me, sadly) will have to wait another couple of weeks probably while it goes through Steam's process., so maybe into November.
@Dee et al, does that sound right as it stands?
Philip Daigle's Twitter, August 21: #BGEE Expect it around early or mid-September.
Now early/mid-September is a "generous estimate"? For an open beta that precedes a patch that's been in the works since February, during which time at least 200 bugs have been allowed to persist in the game?
But somehow i'm now immune to their communication. I'm always adding one month to their estimation and now feel cool about it.
So yes, i'm expecting BG2EE for Christmas, and not for mid november like officially announced.
When we don't give any concrete information about timelines, we get angry people.
When we give tentative information about timelines, we get angry people.
When the timelines change, we get angry people.
And in most cases, all three groups are made up of the same people.
I will take full responsibility for the initial estimate, because it was based on feedback here that I pushed for an estimate to be made. So if you have qualms about credibility, direct them at me. If you want to be angry about the flow of information, be angry at me.
But come on. I could point at specific posts where people have been angry about the lack of information, and then--when information comes out--those same people are angry because the information isn't to their liking.
Now. Snarkiness aside. We're doing the best we can to get the patch ready for beta. If it ends up being a little later than mid-September (and I'm not saying it will be), then I apologize for the miscommunication earlier. If we end up having to rush our work because people are impatient and the beta isn't as polished as people would like, then I apologize for raising expectations. And if, by some strange miracle, the beta is released on time and exceeds everyone's expectations, then I apologize for not giving people enough to complain about.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but did you just snap? That's not too professional of you...
Dee, I hope you keep being you and keep talking with us and being yourself.
I'm a huge fan of these games and I think they did great with the resources (money,time, and staff size) they have .
Most of us spend more on fast food
every month than the cost of bgee.
It's always the same thing. Sorry we have issues, sorry we can't finish it in time, sorry we can't talk about it...
I'll get bg2ee but after that I will be very careful before getting another beamdog game.
It is more curiosity than anything. I am using the spare time to try to learn Japanese and working on school anyways and personally I already got my money's worth on Baldur's Gate so I am happy.
When I snap, the rearranging of inanimate objects molecular structure is in order. Sitting and typing intelligently is not an option.
@ Dee Besides, you're a rock star around here. Haters gonna hate lovers gonna wait.
Playing the victim card (ie: "Poor us, always getting yelled at by indistinguishable angry people for no reason at all") only works when you've actually been wronged.
The reality is that Beamdog's communication with its customer base is defined by uncertainty. You don't know when your own open beta is meant to start; you don't know how long it will last, or when the resulting patch will be available; you can't confirm features in a game that's two months away from release; you have plans for DLC but can't say what they are.
And in the midst of all that nebulous talk, when you finally do make a concrete commitment ("concrete" being a relative term, since "early/mid-September" is not a specific date), you immediately backtrack and then fail to see why that might frustrate people.
If you can't keep a commitment, don't make it in the first place. And if that results in not being able to make any commitments at all, don't be surprised when that projects a certain image to your target audience.
Unless there where any 'cease and desist' orders given during the whole bankruptcy FUBAR...
It's because they are passionate about your game, and want to play it in the best conditions possible.
I'm a backer, i've preordered BGEE, and BG2EE, but I also do kinda feel like it's been ages since an update has been released.
Even a small update to correct the biggest, glaring bugs (That can be fixed using community-content, I know, but come on, a small patch containing these fixes could have been distributed)
So, yeah, I also felt a bit sad, that, after seeing a glimpse of hope, and thinking "Hell, yeah, in up to two weeks, I'll be able to check all that stuff I've been waiting for 5 (or 6, 7... not even sure how long it's been..) month" we're told "err no, not yet, actually, it'll be later on" and thinking "... again"
Don't be misunderstood, I fully understand that more time testing = better product in the end, and that sometimes, in a product development cycle, you do get some unforseen problems that delay the release of the product.
But you (as in, the whole team, not yourself) should be cautious about the informations you're giving, because your players/backers had to go through quite a bit during the summer already, and due to that, are probably very sensitive about any information given. (Yeah, I know, the team also suffered from that, and that's also a pretty good reason why you can fully understand how your backers/supporters feel)
Nothing personnal, overall, you're doing a great job, but I don't think getting yourself frustrated due to your fans beeing frustrated is the best way to answer their frustration
BUT :
i can see two groups of people who have the right to be "angry" / annoyed on these points :
- first, the Android users. The Android version was announced for release on November 2012. As of today, almost one year later, you still can't say when this will happen.
- the next patch, on which you're working for six months now (without taking the July / August unfortunate legal matter). People can understand a big patch needs a LOT of work. But they can't understand why a patch (not a full game) planned to be released after 4 months (31 May was at a time the "official deadline") is now planned to be released, on a beta state only, after two more full months of work.
My conclusion (not a complain but what i hope to be a constructive criticism) :
just don't plan a thing you obviously can't make in time. I mean, how on earth could you expect to release android version last year, if it's not even ready by now ? Similarly, how could you expect to release a full patch in May, when a Beta of it is not even ready two months later ?
I think you don't have a communication problem (you @Dee are making a great job on this now).
You only have a big problem of estimating your own working speed, which needs to be matched by your perfectionism (a good thing by the way) and the really small size of your team.
You know, shit happens in every job, but it's a part of the job to plan effectively when you can give something to your employer or client. I'm doing this every day in my work like a lot of people. Sometimes i have to delay a bit and can't respect the deadline i had. It happens to everyone. But a full year delay ? Wow, my employeer would fire me if i would do that.
Hope it's clearer that way. I'm not an Android user, but i can understand them. I'm not really happy with the big patch delay and don't expect Bg2EE before Christmas but hey, i'm cool with that. I just understand how people could get angry by your extremely big delays.
I preordered BGEE back in the mists of time, and I am still playing and enjoying it almost a year later (how many 'modern' games can I say that about?). Not only am I still playing and enjoying it, but the game is still being improved with updates and patch's, all for free, which require no further committment on my part. All I have to do is keep playing and enjoying myself.
How can I get annoyed at being given the opportunity to play and enjoy Baldur's Gate all over again, and for my game to still be supported and updated almost a year later, and with the added bonus of BG2EE not to far off (and yes, I've pre-ordered that too).
Yes I can moan about things. I can gripe and whinge and procrastinate. And maybe I would have good reasons to (Most notably Android users). But BGEE and BG2EE are some of the best pounds I've spent in recent memory, and in all good conscience I cannot resort to moaning and complaining, not when the game has brought me so much happiness and fun over the last year!
And now I'm sitting here waiting for the next patch, and for BG2EE, and I am looking forward to another year full of happiness and fun!
Well said, and to put things in perspective here a tweet from Trent from April 16th.
@jbeige The current plan, barring disaster is to roll the new renderer before the end of May. We may roll out a partial version earlier
Must have had couple dozen of those disasters.
That said I understand that they need to take whatever time they need to properly polish the patch, but seriously you have soon been working on this thing longer than some good indie games take to make. At this point I really wouldn't play the victim card anymore.
If that is the case, fair stuff, I would get a bit touchy if my life depended on it.
However it doesn't, so how about that cold beer, sex with the wife, a lovely weekend with the kids or the freinds.
Surely you lot got better things to do than calendar manage a budget videogame production.
All software products of any size have bugs, and when you're working with a large code base (like I assume BGEE is), it can be very difficult to accurately estimate how much time is required to fix a certain bug - if it can even be safely fixed. This can often make it very difficult to meet specific release dates, and accurately say what changes will be in the next release.
I think it's great that so many people are enthusiastic about the game and are eagerly awaiting the next patch. But, also I think many on these boards need to back off a bit and let them go through their internal processes to ensure the release meets their quality standards.
Also, I've seen companies that allowed the community to push them to get releases out faster than they wanted to...and it rarely ends well for the company or the community. (yes, I was with one of those companies - and we paid for one of those rushed releases for several years)