Can we talk about how buggy 2.1 was?

I always found new updates, expansions and skills exciting, but that's gotten a lot harder after 2.1. How much of ascendancy should I assume will be broken on release and left that way? Chris mentioned someplace, probably reddit, that he would be more involved with Ascendancy. So they get that this update was bad, but do they really get just how costly an update like that truly is?

In a game like this, bugs are to be expected. This is not a AAA team with a huge budget and tons of time. Their turnaround on content is admirable, but when something like 2.1 comes out, the value proposition turns such that the velocity no longer justifies the rough edges.

I'm not talking about any one thing. Game stability is worse, exciting featured content was flat out broken for weeks, and unbelievable bugs were introduced. In terms of what you expect from a team of software developers, releasing an update this messed up and then going on vacation is just incredibly sloppy work. If anything I'm being too mild. 2.1 was an epic fuckup of a release, and this was exacerbated by very little communication about the worst issues. "I'll pass this on to the team" just doesn't cut it when featured content is broken and sitting there in player's inventories.

What message does it send, when they post news about exciting new content, release it in a broken state ("See ya! Holidays now!") and the only way anybody can get so much as an acknowledgement about it is by posting on reddit? I feel burned for getting excited about talismans and threshold jewels.

Will I keep supporting? For now, yes. Support has always been good to me. When it comes down to it, I do believe they care, and the lack of communication is simply that they are tone-deaf about the message conveyed by their actions. But consider this one a free pass. If ascendancy isn't leagues (no pun intended) more polished than 2.1 was, I can live without new pets.

Spoiler
Dead Reckoning says hi.
Which bugs spring to mind?

I've not really encountered many with 2.1, probably because I haven't really left my comfort zone much and messed around with the new skills.

Femurs springs to mind, I saw a lot of upset posts about that. Abyss is still pretty rekt. The Blade Vortex Aura bug looks nasty, as does the "Oops, I switched to CI and died in my HO" one.

I'm not really up to date on all this stuff though.
== Officially Retired 27/02/2019 ==

Massive thanks to GGG for producing such a fun and engaging game, it has taken up faaaaaaar too much of my life over the last 5 years.

Best of luck in the future!
"
Crocodarrel wrote:


Will I keep supporting? For now, yes.


as long as you do, there 'is no problem' from the financial perspective. cynical and sad but true. by supporting you support the direction a given company goes - want to change that direction? well.. paying is not the way to do it, sadly

writing posts is a good step (however most of these do not reach decision makers anyway but there is always a chance) but.. companies - being complex as they are - like simple indicators and money in-out is one of the best ones to tell if 'users' are happy. you pay? you support releases like 2.1

'but oooh, if you stop paying theyll have no more money to fix things'... well, business is harsh isnt it? one way is cutting the stream of new unpolished content and release polished one. 2.0 was rushed, 2.1 was rushed. it is now a given that playing the game on day one is just asking for trouble.

oh.. and 'each patch has a skill that makes all other look like dumpster thrash' gets old real quick (blade fall)
In our team, that kind of behaviour was called "commit and run" and was considered a newbie crime :)
I hope we can take Chris at his word that GGG will put strong focus on performance and stability in 2016.
May your maps be bountiful, exile
Look at the bug report forum for that AAA game that you think has less bugs. Go through and see just how many critical software breaking bugs they have against their releases.

I can tell you that all of them pretty much look the same. Software is fucking hard, anyone that tells you otherwise doesn't do it.


"
I'm not talking about any one thing. Game stability is worse, exciting featured content was flat out broken for weeks, and unbelievable bugs were introduced. In terms of what you expect from a team of software developers, releasing an update this messed up and then going on vacation is just incredibly sloppy work. If anything I'm being too mild. 2.1 was an epic fuckup of a release, and this was exacerbated by very little communication about the worst issues. "I'll pass this on to the team" just doesn't cut it when featured content is broken and sitting there in player's inventories.


You are going to need to expand on this a little. What exciting featured content was flat out broken for weeks? (I assume you mean the femurs staff?)
What unbelievable bugs were introduced?
What do you expect a community manager to say? They arn't coders, all they can do is pass it on to the team.

As I dev I can tell you that they do care. But what can they say other than, "we are working on it"? What are you looking for them to say?
"


Game's far from perfect but I've not found 2.1 to be any more or less buggy than any other major release. Then again, I remember game-crashing bugs making it to live, so maybe my standards are far lower.


In a Nutshell [this]
~ Adapt, Improvise and Overcome
pixel art -> pixel art wet dream style -> runescape lookalike -> alpha -> closed beta -> open beta -> closed beta -> open beta

Logic dictates closed beta is next followed in order -> alpha -> runescape lookalike -> pixel art wet dream style -> pixel art.

Spoiler
ok, logic might not be the correct word, i blame english not being my main language


Peace,

-Boem-

Spoiler
seriously though, there have been numerous bugs, but that's not any different from other releases so far.
Freedom is not worth having if it does not include the freedom to make mistakes
The ones which bothered me the most

* Traded almost everything I had in TSC for an Eyes of the Greatwolf, which was broken and couldn't be fixed because everyone was on vacation.
* I did a Null's Inclination build for Spirit Guards only to find out it didn't work unless self casting. That was left broken for a month.
* Levelled summoner for Dead Reckoning, but it turns out skeleton mages don't work with any projectile support gems. So, they're decorative then.

If you count the Volley Fire bug, that is three out of thirteen jewels released with severe bugs, and the number one farming goal of the entire league released in a broken state. I'm pretty surprised if people are okay with that. Expecting better is not unreasonable.

"
What do you expect a community manager to say? They arn't coders, all they can do is pass it on to the team.
For smaller bugs, a one line "we're working on this" is enough. These are not smaller bugs. Teasing content and then releasing it with these kinds of issues is a huge fuckup. I expect an ETA or patch number containing the fix at the very least, but a lot of these haven't gotten so much as an acknowledgement until we see them (or never see them) in patch notes.

My point in this topic is, why should I care when they tease new content if it's going to take them a month or longer after release for it to work like I would expect?

If you think this release is no worse than previous releases, I must have just missed all the times they teased content that stayed broken for weeks. If that really was as much as could be expected from GGG, I'd have given up on them a long time ago.
Last edited by Crocodarrel on Jan 26, 2016, 11:41:49 PM
Let's be real here.

The larger the code base, the more likely conflict is going to happen.

Of any game I've ever played online, in my life, the PoE dev team has been the most adamant about clearing the nonsense out of the coding structure within a very reasonable amount of time.

Most notably, a free-to-play game.
There hasn't been any game breaking bugs???

There hasn't been much server instability???
Creator of the Praxis ring.
Want to stop power creep? Gut crit chance and crit multi.

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