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Author Topic: So many updates  (Read 1251 times)

Offline blastpop

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So many updates
« on: February 12, 2012, 04:04:18 pm »
As a preface I'm mostly a lurker in these parts. That said I like getting updates and improvements as much as the next guy, so don't get me wrong this isn't criticism, merely a question.  Why is the game updated so frequently? Is it love of the game, player exploits, fine tuning and balancing or something else entirely?

Its kind of hard to keep track of things as they pass by with changes from patch to patch.

Anyway, keep up the good work.
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Offline chemical_art

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Re: So many updates
« Reply #1 on: February 12, 2012, 04:14:15 pm »
It is perspective I suppose.

I consider a lack of updates in a very bad light: stagnation.

The changes done since 5.0 have been anything but ground breaking. They have been balancing.
« Last Edit: February 12, 2012, 04:16:44 pm by chemical_art »
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Offline keith.lamothe

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Re: So many updates
« Reply #2 on: February 12, 2012, 05:13:24 pm »
Quote from: blastpop on February 12, 2012, 04:04:18 pm
Why is the game updated so frequently? Is it love of the game, player exploits, fine tuning and balancing or something else entirely?
All of the above, really. 

If a unit is universally loathed as useless, we want to make it more useful.
If a unit/strategy is letting people bypass so much challenge that they're having less fun, we want to rebalance it so that it doesn't short-circuit the game.
If a particular bug (or feature) is causing lots of player annoyance, anguish, etc, then we generally want to make it less painful.
If I'm feeling like making the hybrids do something really dangerous, well... ;)

And there's various degrees of all that.  Mostly the current work is towards refinement of what was there in 5.0 and taking advantage of some relatively gentle iteration with player feedback while we're focused on AVWW.  Some of it is new stuff, because a little new stuff is fun.

Quote
Its kind of hard to keep track of things as they pass by with changes from patch to patch.
You'd probably have been horrified to see the times we're actually working seriously on AIW :)  Only one patch a week?  Hah.

But we don't/can't keep the really high-speed stuff up for long, it wears everyone (us and y'all) out.  But what's going on right now is pretty sedate.
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Offline zoutzakje

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Re: So many updates
« Reply #3 on: February 12, 2012, 06:44:11 pm »
hehehe, as keith said, only one update a week really isn't much. I haven't been around for years, but I have been around since about 4.020 and I can tell you we were getting a lot of patches. I'm not sure, but I believe sometimes even twice a day. It's all just to improve the game though. when Chris and Keith are working on a major expansion for AI war, there's usually a lot of stuff going on and changing. But since 5.000 so far it's only been balancing, bug fixes and occasionally something new and fun for us to try out (damn hybrids). Us players who hang around the forums are pretty much just testers. Chris and Keith put in new stuff and we'll test if it's working properly. If there's a serious bug hanging around we usually don't patch until it gets fixed (cough tractor paralyze cough), and for the rest we just enjoy our developers  compassion for this game. Personally I don't like a game that hasn't been changed somehow for many years. there have to be some sort of updates to keep the game fresh.
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Offline Cyborg

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Re: So many updates
« Reply #4 on: February 12, 2012, 06:50:14 pm »
Don't feel compelled to update and play every single patch. If you are into it, and you want to see the iterative balancing and maybe a couple new features, go for it. But you are not forced, the achievements don't short-circuit, and so on.
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Offline TechSY730

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Re: So many updates
« Reply #5 on: February 12, 2012, 08:29:29 pm »
If you are really concerned about the frequent patches, try reading a bit on the forums about the reactions to the patch, see if people are complaining about a really annoying new bug or oversight (in that case, avoid that patch) or see if they are praising it for being a major improvement (in which case, consider upgrading). Once you get a "praised" version, you can just consider that a stable version (even though its technically beta, many of the betas are release quality), stick to that version for a while, and check back in later.

If it is neither praised nor has an annoying thing in it, then that is where it gets tricky. Generally though, in that case, you aren't missing too much by skipping it.

Yes, that is a lot of work, but that's what you get for keeping up with the cutting edge. ;D

That said, as mentioned before, once a week is nothing. During active AIW development periods, a release a day is not unheard of.
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