I'm sorry, but I am dissapointed.

Solendon · 2003-06-20, 08:55 PM

Before anyone flames me, please note that I am not flaming SOE. I'm not using profanity, being rude nor acting like a 2 year old. I'm simply stating how I feel thus far with the quality of PlanetSide.

I've been a software developer for many years now. I've worked on and lead projects both large and small, ranging from a few lines of code to millions, in a variety of languages from C++ to Java to ASM and beyond.

Claiming to write bug-free code I am not. I've had my share both obscure and blatant. I've had to deal with bugs in the platforms built on and the bugs of coworkers. I understand developers make mistakes, we are only human.

There is just one thing that has bothered me when seeing some of these bugs in PlanetSide. They seem so obvious, that they should never have got into a production release. Seriously, some of these bugs should have been spotted in one pass.

I say this because reading through the patch logs there are bugs that should have been spotted. For example, before 1.4 the Phalanx wall turrets were not firing correctly? Why did they break?

The highest probability is that someone was changing code for the turrets. If a developer was changing that code, they should have tested the turrets to make sure they worked. The typical process is then to let QA testing know changes were made. QA testing then tests the turrets again before putting in to beta. Then beta testers are notified of the change and test the turrets again. This should happen for as many levels of testing SOE has in place until production.

Another example is the well publicized Reaver missile bug. I can get grief points 80% of the time until I switch to 3rd person and back. This must have been working at one point. Once again, why did it break? Someone was likely changing the code. That person then should have tested to make sure anything that code changed worked correctly and the whole process I outlined above should have took place.

And the same goes for the two 1.5 bugs I've heard of no hotspots and wrong empires assignments on terminals. I have yet to see these for myself as I can no longer log in to PlanetSide since the 1.5 change (see my post in the Tech board).

Granted, a lot of these bugs they have patched are obscure. Which most likely could have only been found by the thousands of subscribers using the system. But what amazes me is the relative frequency of the ones that are not, especially to systems that were working.

I'm not saying SOE, the developers or the QA staff can not do their job. The reality is I don't know their process, how large their team is, what language their using or how the engine was designed. All I am saying, well I'm not saying anything specific. Except that with my knowledge of the software development process, I am disappointed so far.

I'll continue to play though, I like the game a lot. I just hope (as I am sure you all do too) that they start to release higher quality updates.

Peace.

Sleepwalker · 2003-06-20, 09:11 PM

well god bless you for being mature about it.

still, though, might wanna get a fire extinguisher...

just in case.

Peacemaker · 2003-06-20, 09:15 PM

Yea. Not gonna flame u here. I understand what ur saying. Back when the release date was getting close and they were STILL fixing bugs I told everyone that they were gonna get pushed into a realease they shouldnt go with yet b/c of the bugs. I said Id rather wait a few more weeks for them to fix it all.

Jaged · 2003-06-20, 09:25 PM

Another obvious bug is the hotspots not working. Three seconds of testing could of shown that one. This man has a point.

Solendon · 2003-06-20, 09:30 PM

Originally posted by Jaged
Another obvious bug is the hotspots not working. Three seconds of testing could of shown that one. This man has a point.

I had mentioned the hotspots. Considering all sides though, the hotspots bug might only show up when an X amount of people are on a continent. Perhaps that number was never reached in the "Internal Testing" they claim they did.

I'm curious if the bug goes away in the wee hours tomorrow morning when the population is at its lowest.

Navaron · 2003-06-20, 09:59 PM

Well written.

Solendon · 2003-06-20, 11:13 PM

Oh, by the way, before someone brings it up. I do understand the huge pressures the developers and their support team are probably under to produce. I've certainly worked at code-shops where all they care about is churning it out and have no regard for quality.

However, the larger places I've worked for do care about the image they present to their customer base (almost to a fault sometimes). The policy at my current place of employment does not even allow code updates to go out at the end of the business day or on Fridays. Because if a serious bug did slip through our levels of testing, the clients would be down all weekend which is deemed unacceptable.

BUGGER · 2003-06-20, 11:26 PM

Flame, FLAME!!!

nah jsut kiddin, yea i agree, tho since i was so F'ed up about finilly getting te game a few days after release, the bugs were only apart of my windshield.

But then from what i hear about these resent bugs (still havnt played today), wtf.

Kaikou · 2003-06-20, 11:41 PM

I agree completely, that's what I like about these forums. If you had posted that in the OF, you'd have probably been banned from both the game and the forums, and the thread would have become a giant flame fest.

In this forum however we are allowed to speak freely about what we think of the devs and some of the obvious problems that can only be overlooked because of laziness. This patch wasn't ready obviously, but they pushed it out anyway. I'm sure the people would be happy to help out by joining a test server and playing for awhile before the patch goes live on the main servers. But the devs either don't know this or don't want the help. They're really hurting themselves by pushing patches out like this though.

I always have wondered why the bugs that have been in since beta haven't been fixed yet, nor mentioned by the devs besides an occasional "we're looking into it" meant only to put the masses at ease. The unhackable doors is one of these bugs. It ruins the gameplay. Regardless of this, they prefer to add support for 3000x800 resolution rather than fixing this bug.

I too am disappointed and am seriously considering taking a long if not permanent break from this game. The incompetence of the devs is beginning to get to me. Not to mention the fact that they will ban you if you express your first amendment right on their forums... Oh well...

Matuse · 2003-06-21, 04:37 AM

I'm not saying SOE, the developers or the QA staff can not do their job.

You should. For the better part of 4 and a half years that I've been dealing with them, their QA department could be (and this is being kind) unfavorably compared to an overflowing Port-A-Potty that has been left out in 110 degree heat with 90% humidity for a month.

Patches introducing new bugs is something you will become deeply familiar with if you play Planetside for a lengthy period of time. Everquest players will know of what I speak.

BigFreak · 2003-06-21, 04:51 AM

Yea, nice post Solendon, and I completely agree. They even said that they've done significant testing on the latest patch, and one of the things that's supposed to have improved doesn't work at all. They're doing a good job, but the bugs get a wee irritating, especially ones that carried over from beta and were clear then, I found that weird.

Arakiel · 2003-06-21, 04:59 AM

First there was exclusive beta.
Then there was closed beta.
Then, open beta.
Welcome to paid beta.

BigFreak · 2003-06-21, 05:02 AM

So true, but I guess one should expect to be in for this sort of a ride in the first few months of a new MMO, and on the plus side bugs like these in non-persistant-world games don't get fixed for months, so we're kind of lucky...but compared to the cash we're paying, we're getting a pretty raw deal

SumYungGui · 2003-06-21, 03:06 PM

not catching the bug where infiltrators light up like a friggin christmas tree through a bolt driver's scope? that's kosher. seriously, who in their right mind would think 'I better test this infiltrator suit against every zoom level, there might be a bug!'

not catching things like the pulsar beta typo goof? hey, we're all people, stuff happens.

'gee, for some reason I cannot hack the base right next to my own sanctuary. why do I not have a link there?' wtf? do you have a QA department?

Hamma · 2003-06-21, 03:29 PM

It's hard to test a patch in QA for a game like this.. you just dont have 5000 players you can have hit it

They should do the test server for at least a week before every patch.. and start releasing patches early week instead of end of week.. so if it is bad it doesent screw up weekend playtime.