News on the patch.

[JFC]

Become a software developer on a massively complex project with unmissable deadlines looming and financial constraints on how many people you can employ and how much time you can spend testing and you will begin to understand.

DaveyBaby, Sorry fella, but that irritated me. We, the consumer, shouldn't/don't need to understand! We want a product that works! Or at least by now have some kind of 1st patch that is starting to address problems raised to keep the interest going.
If I buy a car that gets delivered without a steering wheel and tyres I'm gonna be a bit miffed and I aint gonna become a mechanic to understand why!
It's a business I agree, however they have sold a product with problems! (and no offence to CA, quite a few!) And who decides the release date? Isn't it them and SEGA?

[Freedom Onanist]

DaveyBaby, Sorry fella, but that irritated me. We, the consumer, shouldn't/don't need to understand! We want a product that works! Or at least by now have some kind of 1st patch that is starting to address problems raised to keep the interest going.
If I buy a car that gets delivered without a steering wheel and tyres I'm gonna be a bit miffed and I aint gonna become a mechanic to understand why!
It's a business I agree, however they have sold a product with problems! (and no offence to CA, quite a few!) And who decides the release date? Isn't it them and SEGA?

Well, in your estimation it is flawed and presumably unplayable. To many others this isn't the case. CA would be liable if they had released the game you are talking about, but many people don't recognise as such. Certainly, my CA "car" has got a steering wheel and tyres. It mightn't be as responsive as I hoped in some situations, but CA are releasing the suspension and low profiles to "pimp my MTW2".

Yes the AI can be improved and CA have stated that they are working on just that. But, the AI, as it is, doesn't make the game useless, many people are enjoying themselves - maybe they don't know any better eh?.

As has been said, CA are working on a patch. If the patch is late, so be it. The complaining usually starts with "this game has been rushed to the shelves....", so i don't think you can have it both ways and complain if they are taking their time this time round.

[Quickening]

Yes the AI can be improved and CA have stated that they are working on just that. But, the AI, as it is, doesn't make the game useless, many people are enjoying themselves - maybe they don't know any better eh?.

[Doug-Thompson]

You know, enough really is enough.

I fired up my computer this morning, came to the forum, and found four patch/general bug threads on the first page. The games been out a couple of weeks.

All right. A bunch of folks not happy. You haven't been happy for weeks. The number of threads where people think their individual unhappiness deserves a thread of its own is a clear sign of that.

We all get the message. However, we got the message a long, long time ago.

If you must remind everybody at least once a day of how unhappy you still are, would you all please find one thread — one that has been created already, giving plenty to choose from — and stick to it. There'd be no danger of it sinking to the bottom. There's obviously enough misery to keep it afloat.

It's gotten to the point that you have to choose up sides between being a fanboy or perpetually p*ssed off.

[Freedom Onanist]

You know, enough really is enough.

I fired up my computer this morning, came to the forum, and found four patch/general bug threads on the first page. The games been out a couple of weeks.

All right. A bunch of folks not happy. You haven't been happy for weeks. The number of threads where people think their individual unhappiness deserves a thread of its own is a clear sign of that.

We all get the message. However, we got the message a long, long time ago.

If you must remind everybody at least once a day of how unhappy you still are, would you all please find one thread — one that has been created already, giving plenty to choose from — and stick to it. There'd be no danger of it sinking to the bottom. There's obviously enough misery to keep it afloat.

It's gotten to the point that you have to choose up sides between being a fanboy or perpetually p*ssed off.

Great idea

[Proletariat]

If you must remind everybody at least once a day of how unhappy you still are, would you all please find one thread — one that has been created already, giving plenty to choose from — and stick to it. There'd be no danger of it sinking to the bottom. There's obviously enough misery to keep it afloat.

QFT

This problem is making this forum unwieldy and unapproachable. I was checking in very frequently before, but now it's become too annoying to try and search down the actually useful threads like the General's Traits, Guild Info, and Merchant income.

This issue with all the purposeful, research threads being lost in a sea of rants/raves is the reason why I'm for a dedicated research forum for MTW2, but I believe that is still being decided by the appropriate staff members whether it's justified or not.

[BigTex]

QFT

This problem is making this forum unwieldy and unapproachable. I was checking in very frequently before, but now it's become too annoying to try and search down the actually useful threads like the General's Traits, Guild Info, and Merchant income.

This issue with all the purposeful, research threads being lost in a sea of rants/raves is the reason why I'm for a dedicated research forum for MTW2, but I believe that is still being decided by the appropriate staff members whether it's justified or not.

Yes, sing it prole. Completely agree, a dedicated research forum would be wonderful. The good useful threads, general traits, merchant income, charges, Army wide formation techniques are all lost on page 3-5 or further god forbid. The forum is completely filled daily with rants, and there will be two or three more threads started by someone else ranting about the exact same thing. I believe there was even a thread ranting about there being a bug with auto manage. It would be wonderful to have a nice place devoted to understanding the basic rules the game is run on.

[Daveybaby]

DaveyBaby, Sorry fella, but that irritated me. We, the consumer, shouldn't/don't need to understand! We want a product that works!

Shrug. Not saying you have to understand, but i was responding to somebody who said they couldnt understand how the game got shipped with bugs. The reason is, basically: in software, bugs happen. The more complex the software, the more likely it is to happen. Thats how.

We'd all rather the game had been bug free, but if you can name one complex strategy game that was released in that state in the last 10 years, i'd be interested to hear it. Even bog-standard RTS-by-numbers games get patched several times after release, and most of those *still* dont do anything more complex than the command & conquer did 15 years ago.

Or at least by now have some kind of 1st patch that is starting to address problems raised to keep the interest going.

In case you havent been paying attention, there IS a patch, its in the publishers QA cycle, which means stuff like checking it doesnt format your hard drive when you install it (cos i'm sure everybody would just LOVE that) across umpteen different versions of windows and hardware, and adding the copy protection so that the all the leet crackers have something to keep them busy for another 15 minutes. This stuff takes time - about... oooooh... 2 weeks or so on average.

I think it would be nice if CA kept us a bit better informed as to whats going on, but to be honest i cant blame them for keeping their heads down until they know for definite when its going to be released, cos god forbid they give a date and then have it slip - i can just imagine the tantrums.

If I buy a car that gets delivered without a steering wheel and tyres I'm gonna be a bit miffed and I aint gonna become a mechanic to understand why!

This isnt a car. You may as well make comparisons with buying a cake for all the relevance that has. Nor, for that matter, is it a shoot em up or beat em up with the exact same gameplay as last time bolted onto a swishy new graphics engine for the next generation of consoles. Crank that handle.

It's a business I agree, however they have sold a product with problems! (and no offence to CA, quite a few!) And who decides the release date? Isn't it them and SEGA?

Unfortunately, business reality sets the release date. Christmas season has a say. So do finances, profits and the march of technology. There is a window of opportunity where your product is viable, a fixed target that has to be met.

There are a lucky few (valve, sid meier) who have sufficient funds that they can dictate their own timescales, but everyone else is all too aware that it doesnt take much to sink a software house. And its usually the ones who are doing something different that are the first to go.

You can say "i shouldnt have to care" all you like. In a perfect world you would be right.