Commando Archive
Thread: SOETyrant Speaks...
RankorCity wrote:
January....
Lets see...
January 15 - Alpha begins
February 15 - Alpha completes, team regroups to discuss the changes to be made based upon the Sandboxers input
March 1 - "Whats Going On In Combat Part 3" by Thunderheart makes the boards. Beta invites go out, coding begins for TC. Beta forums open. Lithium forums prompty throw up, players are unable to log in for 3 daysCoding begins for beta testing.
April 1 - Coding is complete, CU is loaded onto private server. Beta testing begins.
May 1 - Beta completes. Team regroups to discuss changes requested by Beta testers
May 15 - Coding begins to make changes as requested by players, fix bugs.
June 1 - Coding complete, bugs halfway fixed. Devs ignore warning of players regarding problems. TC2 is loaded with CU. TC2 lags to high heaven. Client crash every 30 seconds.
June 15 - Coding is loaded into live. Client failures. Server crashes. Bugs present in alpha/beta testing still there.
Any people want to make a friendly wager that this isnt the timeline?
Not sure where you are getting your ideas for that timeline...TH and other's have said that the Beta should start around 2 weeks after Alpha begins...but of course, we've seen them underestimate things before...
So let's say it does take a month between Alpha till Beta starts...once Beta hits, things will be "more concrete" and for the most part, the devs will be looking for minor tweaks, exploits, bugs, etc (and they'll make the fixes as we go just like they did with JTL)...I estimate that once Beta starts it'll likely last about amonth before it's done (which would mean testing would have been going on for 2 months)...Beta will likely occur on the SAME servers as the Alpha (the devs said a while back that part of the delay was that they ordered extra equipment to soup up the Sandbox servers to allow for a higher volume of testers)...
So that puts the CU hitting TC around March...Once it hits TC, if the system doesn't crash, I doubt it'll be longer then a week before it goes straight to live (TC will basically just be a "publich patch test")...
So by all of that, I could see the CU hitting live, at the latest, by the end of April...You can disagree with that...But think about it this way...JTL was a completely NEW add-on to the game and took the game into a completey environment where any direction was possible...and JTL took less time from Alpha to Launch then you are proposing that the CU will take...Are you suggesting that the CU is more complicated then JTL? Remember that a lot of the JTL programmers were actually "borrowed" SWG programmers who have since returned to working on the CU...Alpha for JTL started around August (maybe a little before) and went Live in October...Personally I can't see the CU being more complicated then JTL since the brunt of the code, animations, etc is already there...even a lot of the new weapon certs graphics are already patched to the game...all they are really doing at this point is retooling various professions, changing some formulas and redesigning some of the systems...Beyond that they are creating ingame apps to "convert" current itemsand allow folks to "reallocate" (something that the framework is already set up and was used for the Jedi...I know because I used it during the Jedi Beta)...
So, as I said, I'm not sure what you are basing your 6 month timeline on...it's obviously not based SWG's recent Beta track record...I could understand things ending in May IF Alpha began in mid-February (which could happen, but I am feeling even more optimistic thanks to Tyrants post...
Message Edited by garvin on 12-15-2004 07:48 PM
garvin wrote:
http://starwarsgalaxies.station.sony.com/content.jsp?page=Star%20Wars%20Galaxies:%20Studio%20Update
Just wanted to restates something said there that some of it you may recall that you heard from some other source
More details on the Combat Upgrade will be coming out in January as we enter the alpha testing phase of that development.
PS...Notice that Gordon (SOETyrant) has been with SWG for 5 months...anyone notice any big changes in the way SWG has been getting things done in the last 5 months...This is a man who keeps an actual Rocket Launcher on his desk that he uses to "inspire" people.
Message Edited by garvin on 12-15-2004 04:31 PM
You have to be kidding me.
If you're not, then I shall have to raid his office and liberate it for myself!
I'm totally serious...although he CLAIMS it's not loaded...I'm not sure if I'm willing to be around there should he every "test it"...
Ryubushi wrote:
garvin wrote:
http://starwarsgalaxies.station.sony.com/content.jsp?page=Star%20Wars%20Galaxies:%20Studio%20Update
Just wanted to restates something said there that some of it you may recall that you heard from some other source
More details on the Combat Upgrade will be coming out in January as we enter the alpha testing phase of that development.
PS...Notice that Gordon (SOETyrant) has been with SWG for 5 months...anyone notice any big changes in the way SWG has been getting things done in the last 5 months...This is a man who keeps an actual Rocket Launcher on his desk that he uses to "inspire" people.
Message Edited by garvin on 12-15-2004 04:31 PM
You have to be kidding me.
If you're not, then I shall have to raid his office and liberate it for myself!
garvin wrote:
I'm totally serious...although he CLAIMS it's not loaded...I'm not sure if I'm willing to be around there should he every "test it"...
Ryubushi wrote:
garvin wrote:
http://starwarsgalaxies.station.sony.com/content.jsp?page=Star%20Wars%20Galaxies:%20Studio%20Update
Just wanted to restates something said there that some of it you may recall that you heard from some other source
More details on the Combat Upgrade will be coming out in January as we enter the alpha testing phase of that development.
PS...Notice that Gordon (SOETyrant) has been with SWG for 5 months...anyone notice any big changes in the way SWG has been getting things done in the last 5 months...This is a man who keeps an actual Rocket Launcher on his desk that he uses to "inspire" people.
Message Edited by garvin on 12-15-2004 04:31 PM
You have to be kidding me.
If you're not, then I shall have to raid his office and liberate it for myself!
I think what your missing here was that in doing the Jedi revamp and setting it up to be a Balanced profession in what they see as the future they have already laid out most of the conceptual groundwork for the combat upgrade/rebalance. By "Balancing" Jedi that means they already have a basis of how powerful and what skills/modifiers/specials/formulas/etc... are going to be expected and used in every profession. given that they already have this information mapped out it really shouldn't take that long to impliment it, now it's just a matter of tweaking "these" numbers(the new numbers not the old setup) in order to find the right balance, which in my opinion is going to be the most difficult and time consuming part. There is a very fine line to balancing all of these professions and it won't be an easy task, esepecially since all the professions feel that they should be the best lol.
RankorCity wrote:
In my way of thinking, taking a new idea, and making it happen is easier than taking something that is already there, but is inherently, and completely, FLAWED.
JTL was an add on.
The CU is the removal of an existing system, removing it, thenreplacing a new system in its place. Its already been said that "tweaking the numbers" is not an option. Look how long the Jedi revamp took to implement, and it was ONE class. How many combat classes are there? 15? Two publishes, if you count the first publish that put Jedi in the game to begin with (albiet very quietly).
One profession. Two publishes. Three months? Four, maybe? Lets actually look at this way (a more optomistic approach). Jedi is actually 5 subclasses. So...5 professions. Four months.
15 professions. Three times as many "professions" that make Jedi.
Thats where I get my line of thinking.
Now you're going to counter that they have more resources devoted to the CU. I'll conceed that. In fact, I hope they have ALOT more resources devoted to the CU than what was devoted to Jedi. But you have said yourself, delays have been caused by the sandbox team speaking up for or against certain things. What do you think will happen when beta invites go out, and hundreds of other people get access to the same information that you have? More people inspecting it under a microscope. More people finding flaws. More people finding means of using certain profs in a way not intended. People screaming about their prof being relegated to a certain style of play or role they dont want to be in, or dont envision that class being relegated to (even if they dont play that profession). That is inevitable. I realize I hold a very pessimistic approach to this game. I really love playing it. I love getting immersed in the world I have loved since I was a kid. I used to have a positive outlook to it. But the more I have become educated about the game, and the people running it, the more pessimistic I become.
Its easy, in your shoes to have a more positive outlook. You have the ear of the powers that be. I have had a glimpse. And that makes me even more pessimistic. Because I cant see what will change. Because I cant affect the outcome. I am not sure if its pessimism. Or frustration out of futility.
