game simply not ready for release?
Lemernis
Member, Moderator Posts: 4,318
Not to make light of a real tragedy but this launch reminds me of the Challenger mission control soberly stating "obviously, a major malfunction has occurred" as we watched that horrifying spectacle.
I'm still completely on board as a customer, and I eagerly await the game once I can play it. I also understand that there were likely to be some problems. But this seems to be kind of... well, not just a few hiccups.
This isn't intended as a complaint thread, at least from me. Stuff happens in life, and when venturing forth in some endeavors there's always an element of risk and possibility of error. I have faith that Beamdog will work it out, and fast as they humanly can.
But I'm wondering if those of us experiencing serious problems with the game are going to have to uninstall and then resintall after at least several days of round-the-clock work by the devs to solve whatever is so badly amiss.
I'm still completely on board as a customer, and I eagerly await the game once I can play it. I also understand that there were likely to be some problems. But this seems to be kind of... well, not just a few hiccups.
This isn't intended as a complaint thread, at least from me. Stuff happens in life, and when venturing forth in some endeavors there's always an element of risk and possibility of error. I have faith that Beamdog will work it out, and fast as they humanly can.
But I'm wondering if those of us experiencing serious problems with the game are going to have to uninstall and then resintall after at least several days of round-the-clock work by the devs to solve whatever is so badly amiss.
Post edited by Lemernis on
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Compared to other game releases this has been smooth and the game is exactly what I was expecting, BG but updated to run on a modern machine with no hassle of mods and fixes.
I've experienced two bad bugs myself - the one where the mouse cursor vanishes forever after clicking on an object in the inventory while in full screen mode, and the one where Rasaad keeps triggering empty dialogue every second. (And I mean literally every second.) I can work around the first by playing in windowed mode, but the only fix I've found for the other one is to not have Rasaad in the party. Given that I started this play through specifically to try out the new characters, this is unfortunate
I'm sure the devs are on this, however, and look forward to patching. I also wish they'd caught some of this stuff before release.
But there's a whole lot of us for whom the game crashes (in my cases it actually crashes my computer). It seems that folks who have the combo of Intel chipsets and NVIDIA graphics cards are experiencing this almost en masse (?). But in the Windows PC support forum we're seeing it for other video cards as well.
I'm also reading in the support forum that folks are having all sorts of problems once the game is running. Although it's true that only those who are having problems are going to post there!
It's hard to estimate how many the game is running perfectly well for, how many are having some minor problems that are easily fixed, and how many for whom the game doesn't work at all. Perhaps those for whom the game is working great vastly outnumber those for whom it isn't. I hope that is the case! I want to be in a tiny minority here.
Right now, though, I just wish I knew what's causing it! Obviously he's not bugged for everyone, so I'm wondering what the controlling variable is.
Here's hoping we get some patches and fixes in the next couple of days and people don't walk away from this project disappointed.
It seems like overhaul still wanted more time on this, the suits have probably been rpessuring them and WE'VE been pressuring them but in the end I feel like what we've got is a beta which is being worked on as we speak.
The good in all this however...we are getting to air our disconcerns before the first patch, instead of having something 'complete' and having the developers concentrate on dlc and hopefully through this we'll get the minor things changed aswell as the major like the inventory bag's colour, maybe customizing colours on the UI, weapon icons on portraits being optional, feedback circles optional, in general more customizable options etc.
I like the fact that we all will get to voice our opinions about this agreeably unfinished project and get in the end hat we all want from a BG rerelease! The devs are leaving it like this and thats good enough for me.
In other news I have a nvidia card and intel graphics chipset and all I needed was some slight control panel tweaking and everything was good. A little V-sync would be nice but eh maybe later.
However the best course of action is to give structured helpful feedback to the Devs about what your problems are, making threads slating the game doesn't help any one.
There are going to be bugs and issues people have and the small number of beta testers wont have had played with every PC set up possible or located every bug themselves, as I said helpful structured feedback and patience.
Look, for those of us who are having problems it will be great to learn that we are a minority! This gives us some perspective, hopefully, if we are. Honestly, a thread like this shouldn't be viewed as nonconstructive.
http://forum.baldursgate.com/discussion/7388/important-with-regards-to-intel-graphics-driver-issues-slow-performance#latest
There is a sticky about the intel gfx drivers and I assume they will update on your problems there aswell.
To answer the "majority having issues because they are on the board" 1400 is not that much and I see alot of people posting how much they love BGEE.. just look at me! I am hare to give my impressions and do not suffer any issues.. (I must admit I have the urges to start the game so I need to be quick in the threads)
"Come hell or high water, it will release 28 Nov"
(and everyone cheered)
I guess this is high water. Big deal, want to fight about it?
I think my perception is likely skewed as someone experiencing issues running the game (due to Intel graphics), and the majority of what I'm reading in General and Support is people either freaking out or more stoically seeking solutions (I consider myself in the latter camp). But that's still a small slice of all the customers--and for all I know most people are having little to no problems running the game.
as always this is the customers fault and they come here blaming the devs, funny how Ive seen this for EVERY single games Ive purchased for PC in the last 2 years ,always a handful of insatisfied people bashing at the devs and bashing the game when most of the ppl are playing the game (like me) without a single issue/bug. ITS YOUR FRIGGIN PC NOT THE GAME. seriously if your PC cant run this game fine,I hope you never considered gaming on it and playing wtv else game
I crawled my way out of Candlekeep and the graphics look much sharper to me and the Gorion battle was much improved, look forward to the rest of it when they sort out the teething problems.
I've never hung around on forums waiting for a game on release day and I was really taken aback by the vitriol, if I worked for Obsidian I'd be truly worried because if anything there is even more expectation on them and they got more money up front from fans, who all think they own the game, and when the inevitable happens ...
I won't be recommending games development as a career choice
They were able to add bugs that did not exist in the original game. Well done.
Here is what I would like to see:
1 A single announcement link, top of the forums, top of the home page, top of the support page, and emailed to all purchasers.
The link goes to a single, locked message that contains the following
A. List of all known game-stopping issues linked to suggested solutions. When one solution gets high enough acceptance, announce it, make it obvious.
B. Explanation of the testing the software, including the configuration of the test machines.
C. A clear statement of the refund policy and step by step instructions on how to get a refund.
2 a commitment to a solution that does not ask the community to go fix opengl. Your product, folks, and your dependency. Either say you support it or you don't, and don't sell it to folks that can't use it.
On a personal note, don't despair. A complaint is a gift. It means the person still trusts you enough to expect a solution.
Mutliplayer has been interesting. The wife and I played through the first screen outside Candlekeep last night. In Candlekeep, (wife was lead) every time she finished speaking with someone, on my screen it looked like she attacked them. On her screen, no attack animation. No notice by npcs in general. However outside the guard barracks, second time to visit, one of the guards started attacking my wife on my screen, doing no damage, but attack animation. The guard wasn't even on her screen. Very weird. Later in the wilderness, we had bugs with where the enemies were. As an archer I was moving and shooting and on my screen, wolves and bears were several feet away. The wife kept telling me they were right on me and keep moving. And indeed a dire wolf finished me off after I stopped thinking I was a good 20 feet away, only to die when the teleporting beast suddenly appeared beside me and said boo.
I'm getting the feeling the game still wasn't ready for release. We'll see in the next few weeks with the patch progress.
just a thought, and i wish i could help.