Commando Archive
Thread: NDA Lifted on JTL
Sorry to say this but ALL AOFTWARE HAS BUGS. You can never completely test all software. I speak from both education and experience. In fact I am part of the QA team beta testing software at two hospital sites. (I do UNIX/Linux server QA testing, and hold my MSCIS). I can guess the software that runs SWG/JTL is 10x complex that what I work on (medical record software)
Come back to reality, there WILL be bugs, it will not have everything YOU want. I had fun in beta and look forward to it hitting live.
Here is my biased and completely prejudiced (and unprofessional) thoughts on JTL:
I really liked JTL...even when it was buggy. Playing as a first person twitch shoot-em-up is alot of fun for me and a nice break from the SWG ground game monotomy (sp?)...It feels like real combat. 
...I also really liked playing as a Shipwright. Anyone who is into crafting will really like it, I'm sure. The Vet Ship is also quite nice. Very Pimp like.People could throw some really wild parties in one of those. hehe.
All the classic ships from the movies are there...except Star Destroyers. Bah! At least there were none present the last time I played it about 10 days ago. X-Wings are cool to fly, but A-Wings kinda stink (unless you can maneuver so well, that you avoid getting hit). B-Wings are hard to fy but they are amazingly good in combat even though they look really weird. I can't say anything about Imp ships since I never flew one.
My negatives are that the starter areas (where you do your first missions) are really laggy since there is so much traffic that goes through them. This may have been fixed or worked on in the last few days. Another negative is that Space Stations are way too small. They should be bigger! Also, like I said above, I haven't seen any Star Destroyers. Big negative. You also can't enter space stations which really stinks and takes away from the game. They need to implement this stuff in future patches - not in an expansion.
Needless to say, this will really keep us entertained for a couple of months. The Devs can use that time to work on the next big urgent need: The Combat Upgrade/Rebalance/Ravamp. If they get that right, then they need to work on the Galactic Civil War after that...but I'm crossing my fingers because the game could be much much better by the end of the year with JTL and Combat Revamp in the game.
Message Edited by LuciusScipio on 10-22-2004 11:49 AM
Darth_me wrote:
Ahhhh...you all rant about how bad it will be. Well here is my run to rant..
Sorry to say this but ALL AOFTWARE HAS BUGS. You can never completely test all software. I speak from both education and experience. In fact I am part of the QA team beta testing software at two hospital sites. (I do UNIX/Linux server QA testing, and hold my MSCIS). I can guess the software that runs SWG/JTL is 10x complex that what I work on (medical record software)
Come back to reality, there WILL be bugs, it will not have everything YOU want. I had fun in beta and look forward to it hitting live.
Here's my rant to your rant:
There are quite a few things on my list that can be associated to bugs. As you say, bugs will always be around with software. Ok. That's fine and I can deal with it.
But here's my true beef: Gameplay issues and balance. Read over again my list, and my rants aren't all about bugs.
Message Edited by Warmaker01 on 10-22-2004 09:29 AM
garvin wrote:
I started playing JTL way way back before a lot of others (we Correspondents snuck in slightly early) when there was still a lot of content unfinished...We even only had the intro ships to play with and no way to enhance them...And even back then I really liked what I saw...We didn't have Frogs so we had to do some serious grinding to get anything (still can't believe TK grinding out Master DE without the Frog for the Beta)...
I've never been much of a person into Combat Flight Simulator games, but I thought this game was fun...I really enjoyed the dogfights some of use Correspondents got into....I enjoyed flying through Asteroid fields and zero'ing in on targets...The missions, while they were a bit broken, were still interesting and easy to follow...and the reward of the Flight suits were pretty sweet...
The fact that they've created a multi-directional Space Combat MMO based on Star Wars is very cool and a nice addition to the ground game....And I see MUCH possibilities down the road for the GCW moving into space...I also see other expansions of the ground game into space including adding smuggler content, Profession bonuses, and more...
Anyway...that's just my opinion...I think JTL came out great...it's not perfect, but I definitely ordered it right after I tried it out...
I can see the potential for a big role for commandos (and all combat classes)down the line too. We could act as "Space Marines" by being able to participate inboarding missions of a damaged ship (as a group) and do some cool quests. Sort of like the Corellian Corvette...but we would have to disable it from space via dogfighting. This would validate the need for multi-player ship too.
Warmaker01 wrote:
Here's another thing I want to throw out:
JTL, if it was to hit it's announced released date with as much quality as possible, seriously, seriously needed to hit Beta much earlier. Maybe even 1-2 months earlier for Beta testing.
Did it not botherany other Beta testers, other than myself,that they just startedfixing such a criticalaspect, the flight model recently? In every sim that I have played, the flight model is the single most critical aspect of any "flight" related game. Graphics take a secondary seat to the flight model! If your fighter/bomber/spaceship even feels off, the sim is screwed... and I'm not just talking about hardcore sims.
Also, didn't people complain that SWG was released ridden with bugs? I wasn't in SWG's Beta, but I have read and heard this repeatedly from veterans who were in the Beta since I joined up. Well, JTL has quite a number of bugs, but in our anxiousness to get the expansion to go gold, we're all of the sudden willing to deal with lots of bugs? So again, if Quality Assurance (and I work in QA for my squadron... F/A-18 Hornets) does mean something, the bugs and issues really need more time to be ironed out. If you think some of us pointing out issues in the Beta are annoying... wait until the expansion goes live. Mark my words.
Message Edited by Warmaker01 on 10-22-2004 09:29 AM
To be completely and painfully honest...I'm glad the Devs stuck to their releases date (they are still as far as I know releasing JTL on 10/27) with any bugs still in there...It's a fun expansion bugs or no bugs...but it's also not as important to me as fixing the ground game...by NOT delaying it, we now get them to work on the Combat Upgrade sooner...if they delayed JTL in anyway, the Combat Upgrade would also get delayed further and most will agree that they really need to get onto fixing the core game...
Remember, JTL will have it's own group working on it's bugs and issues...I'm sure for a few weeks their team will be enhanced still with SWG staff for some "after release" clean-up, but the brunt of the SWG staff that was moved over to JTL will return to SWG to work on the Combat Upgrade...
As for your feelings of extending the Beta time...you might want to remember that IF it comes up during the Combat Upgrade testing...Basically the Sandbox will be Beta testing the Upgrade...There may be delays on the Combat Upgrade release to hopefully get all the bugs out...
The key thing is what is more imporant...the Core game or the Add On...The Core game came out of Beta with Bugs that needed to be addressed...The Add On will also be coming out with bugs in it, but they won't be game breaking AND they will have no impact on the Core game for the average player...That's why I'm personally ok with JTL releasing with bugs in it...Also I've noticed that many of the "bugs" being reported lately and subjective...Some really hate these bugs (like the screen issues) while others have no problems with it and play just fine...To me, that makes them secondary bugs that aren't critical enough to prevent release...I see a big difference in a Beta of a Core game and a Beta of a secondary Add-On...It's hard to compare the too and justify further delays...
Awhile back I took some certification courses in software and web bug testing...I learned all about Black Box and White Box Bug testing...In those courses you learn to place bugs at various levels...I strongly feel that the bugs that are still in there aren't critical enough to risk delaying the Combat Upgrade any further then it already has...I'm happy enough with JTL for the Devs to finally move on...the more we complain about JTL, the more we risk the Devs thinking that maybe they should delay it's release AND the more we risk further delays to the Combat Upgrade...
Anyway...that's just my opinion...Are you satisfied enough with JTL to have SOE release it'sfolks to work on the Combat Upgrade?
Message Edited by garvin on 10-22-2004 09:45 AM
