Anymore Patches Planned?

[Syd Thrift]

Originally Posted by satchel

I have zero doubt that there will be another patch.

On a scale of 1 to 10 where 1 is not confident, 4 is very confident, 7 is unconfident again, and 10 is mildly confident, how confident are you that there will be another patch?

[kingpin1976]

Originally Posted by Syd Thrift

On a scale of 1 to 10 where 1 is not confident, 4 is very confident, 7 is unconfident again, and 10 is mildly confident, how confident are you that there will be another patch?

Alien Mathematics

[spitfire]

On a scale of 1 to 10, the proper answer is of course 13.7 .......

[SittingDuck]

Well, what if we do this in Chinese, then you need to read that from right to left. It gets worse.

My thoughts are that if his system went down, then that put a crush on the update. I don't know if it is more a matter of delaying it or limiting it in scope. But it had to have a big impact.

I'm not a big fan of the lack of presence, however.

[Gerry58]

Originally Posted by StyxNCa

Must be nice to be able to afford a 2 month vacation. It's been July since any word from any of them.

Don't forget that he works in Europe...vacations here are 80-90 days minimum

[AirmenSmith]

Yeah especially in Italy where they decided to take the whole month of August off.

[1998 Yankees]

Originally Posted by AirmenSmith

Yeah especially in Italy where they decided to take the whole month of August off.

Not a good way to run this business, though. [grumble, mutter] ()

[satchel]

Originally Posted by SlyBelle

Anything to base that on?

Based on a couple of things.

One reason is timing. The last v9 patch came out about five weeks after the game's release. Other versions' final patches were issued well after five weeks had passed. The original version 9 came out about ten weeks ago, and I think that Markus usually issues patches for longer than that; he continues to revise old editions for at least three or four months.

Another reason is that there are a few issues which need to be addressed. Some fixes need to be made, which don't seem like they'd take major amounts of work, so it makes sense that he'd patch them. Also, the latest patch accidentally took a step backward in a couple of areas, so I reckon that those will be corrected.

Haven't we been promised fixes for a couple of particular problems? The design team will surely honor any commitments that they've made.

Those are some of my reasons for believing that another patch is forthcoming.

[satchel]

apologies for double post

[Greatgrampa]

Originally Posted by spitfire

My own preference would be for any major new features to be held over for the next version. Gives more time to debug those features so they work properly, as well as seeing how they interact with existing components of the game. Those new features also become selling points for version 10. And of course it leaves more time free to concentrate on getting the bugs out of 9 and revamping some of the stuff which may technically be working the way it's supposed to, but isn't quite cutting it (like line-up selection and on-field AI). I like new features as much as the next person (as long as that next person isn't much interested in sound or ball-flight .....), but I'd sure like to see the major emphasis placed on getting this program to play a sounder game of ball. Right now I think it's the stuff "under the hood" that needs the most attention.

I agree with you, spitfire. I think it would be best to fix the current bugs, the AI problems (and there are many) especially and just save the new stuff for version ten. I think the game has plenty of gusto to it right now without adding any more features. Let's get this version nine working properly before adding any new features. Yeah, I like new features but not before the old ones are fixed.

As for if there will be another update, I am hoping so and I do recall seeing a post where that was mentioned. Probably will be one more fix, I would think. And as for vacations. What's wrong with going on a one month vacation? If he has the money, then good for him. He deserves time off I think. Let's remember, we have this sim because we like it and because Marcus and others put in the time to develop it as it is now. I am not going to complain about how much it cost me because it was well worth the money, even with some of these problems not being fixed yet. They will be, eventually, I am sure, and then the naysayers and browbeaters will just have to find something else to complain about. And they will. Some people just like perfection, and there is nothing in this world that is perfect. Be glad we have the game we have!

[bosunmate]

Originally Posted by Greatgrampa

I agree with you, spitfire. I think it would be best to fix the current bugs, the AI problems (and there are many) especially and just save the new stuff for version ten. I think the game has plenty of gusto to it right now without adding any more features. Let's get this version nine working properly before adding any new features. Yeah, I like new features but not before the old ones are fixed.

As for if there will be another update, I am hoping so and I do recall seeing a post where that was mentioned. Probably will be one more fix, I would think. And as for vacations. What's wrong with going on a one month vacation? If he has the money, then good for him. He deserves time off I think. Let's remember, we have this sim because we like it and because Marcus and others put in the time to develop it as it is now. I am not going to complain about how much it cost me because it was well worth the money, even with some of these problems not being fixed yet. They will be, eventually, I am sure, and then the naysayers and browbeaters will just have to find something else to complain about. And they will. Some people just like perfection, and there is nothing in this world that is perfect. Be glad we have the game we have!

Well said and I agree forget new features and lets fix this thing as much as can be done. I understand some things just can't be fixed, but there is alot that can be fixed. As far as going on holidays for a month. Big deal thats really none of our business. Lets remember we only payed 25 dollars for this game...

[StyxNCa]

Originally Posted by Greatgrampa

Some people just like perfection, and there is nothing in this world that is perfect. Be glad we have the game we have!

Nothing wrong with striving for perfection. It beats using the excuse "nothing is perfect" as a reason for not bothering to fix something.

I know I am a perfectionist and that makes me work harder to accomplish whatever it is I am trying to do. Granted, I drive some people crazy , but that goes with the territory.

[StyxNCa]

Originally Posted by bosunmate

Well said and I agree forget new features and lets fix this thing as much as can be done. I understand some things just can't be fixed,.....

Remove the things that can't be fixed. They removed things from 6.5 that did work when they re-wrote the game, so there isn't a reason not to get rid of permanently broken things.

[StyxNCa]

As far as vacations, that's all well and good, but that leaves no one around to respond to inquiries in the forum. All of them took a vacation at one time? I doubt battists took a month, being American. We don't usually get that much vacation time.

There have been a lot of questions asked the past few months about game play issues that have not received as much as one word in response from those who truly can answer them. Many of these are coming from new people, based on the number of posts they have posted. Is this how to build a customer base?

Not really the world's best customer service.

[SlyBelle]

Originally Posted by StyxNCa

As far as vacations, that's all well and good, but that leaves no one around to respond to inquiries in the forum. All of them took a vacation at one time? I doubt battists took a month, being American. We don't usually get that much vacation time.

There have been a lot of questions asked the past few months about game play issues that have not received as much as one word in response from those who truly can answer them. Many of these are coming from new people, based on the number of posts they have posted. Is this how to build a customer base?

Not really the world's best customer service.

And if they are all on vacation, hard to believe one of them were unable to sneak a laptop with them, especially since this game is their bread and butter

[Syd Thrift]

I'm pretty sure Andreas is working on a patch... for Title Bout Championship Boxing, that is.

[Greatgrampa]

Originally Posted by StyxNCa

Nothing wrong with striving for perfection. It beats using the excuse "nothing is perfect" as a reason for not bothering to fix something.

I know I am a perfectionist and that makes me work harder to accomplish whatever it is I am trying to do. Granted, I drive some people crazy , but that goes with the territory.

I didn't say that there was anything wrong with striving for perfection. I am a perfectionist too, ask my daughters. But there is nothing that is perfect. As for answering questions here, if they answered all of the questions here, they would never get anything else done. And sometimes it gets to be very annoying answering the same questions all of the time. Most of those questions have already been answered, if people would take the time to search for them here.

Anyway, striving for perfection is fine as long as it doesn't get to be monotonous. Some people here think everything about the sim is wrong and should be fixed. If that is the case then why the heck have the game in the first place?

[StyxNCa]

Originally Posted by Greatgrampa

I didn't say that there was anything wrong with striving for perfection. I am a perfectionist too, ask my daughters. But there is nothing that is perfect. As for answering questions here, if they answered all of the questions here, they would never get anything else done. And sometimes it gets to be very annoying answering the same questions all of the time. Most of those questions have already been answered, if people would take the time to search for them here.

Anyway, striving for perfection is fine as long as it doesn't get to be monotonous. Some people here think everything about the sim is wrong and should be fixed. If that is the case then why the heck have the game in the first place?

Maybe they should get someone to answer questions. There are questions I have asked that I never got an answer for which have nothing to do with the deep secrets of the engine, things such as clarification as to what the running ratings exactly mean and in the editor what exactly does "modern era" mean as far as what year does that era begin. Others have asked questions of the same ilk and are reasonable questions if one is trying to understand the game which apparently no one except the developers can answer with any certainty.

I do agree that if the game is so bad to some people they should just not buy it. I also agree that some people will find something else to complain about if their pet peeve does get fixed.

As far as the "nothing is perfect" comment, I was alluding to software designers, not your statement. It's this mindset which results in half-hearted efforts in software production and this thing of releasing software as a final product only to find it is nothing more than a beta for the general public to trouble shoot. Of course, the general public also goes for the "nothing is perfect" excuse and doesn't demand a better "final" product.

If they insist on releasing a product with problems then it is their responsibilty to fix those problems ASAP when they are told about them. After all, we consumers spent our money on the product.

In the case of OOTP, there are some real problems that have been there for a long time and there has been nothing said by the developers about fixing them. Over time this erodes the customer base.

For one, this problem with the AI forces me to manually control all teams in my historical league (1969) because of the stupid decisions it makes. It would be nice if I could just control the Senators and expect the AI to reasonably manage the rest of the teams. Right now it can't. To me, the best way to see how the game works is to use an historical league and then see how it does with that. It isn't very good as it is now.

Have any of the developers said one word about working on the AI? Maybe the occassional "minor adjustments", but it is crying for a lot more than minor adjustments. The argument that it would be hard to do doesn't fly. It's called work, and many times work is hard. If they were doing it for free I can see that reason, but they are being paid. I reckon the only way we will see any real effort put into fixing the AI is for the money flow to slow down dramatically. I have a feeling that if the money dropped they would take some of these issues more seriously, but people just keep complaining while continuing to pay for the next version.

It's just like the trucking industry. Everyone says something needs to be done about this or that, but when it comes down to putting words into action, it never happens.

[bosunmate]

Originally Posted by StyxNCa

Maybe they should get someone to answer questions. There are questions I have asked that I never got an answer for which have nothing to do with the deep secrets of the engine, things such as clarification as to what the running ratings exactly mean and in the editor what exactly does "modern era" mean as far as what year does that era begin. Others have asked questions of the same ilk and are reasonable questions if one is trying to understand the game which apparently no one except the developers can answer with any certainty.

I do agree that if the game is so bad to some people they should just not buy it. I also agree that some people will find something else to complain about if their pet peeve does get fixed.

As far as the "nothing is perfect" comment, I was eluding to software designers, not your statement. It's this mindset which results in half-hearted efforts in software production and this thing of releasing software as a final product only to find it is nothing more than a beta for the general public to trouble shoot. Of course, the general public also goes for the "nothing is perfect" excuse and doesn't demand a better "final" product.

If they insist on releasing a product with problems then it is their responsibilty to fix those problems ASAP when they are told about them. After all, we consumers spent our money on the product.

In the case of OOTP, there are some real problems that have been there for a long time and there has been nothing said by the developers about fixing them. Over time this erodes the customer base.

For one, this problem with the AI forces me to manually control all teams in my historical league (1969) because of the stupid decisions it makes. It would be nice if I could just control the Senators and expect the AI to reasonably manage the rest of the teams. Right now it can't. To me, the best way to see how the game works is to use an historical league and then see how it does with that. It isn't very good as it is now.

Have any of the developers said one word about working on the AI? Maybe the occassional "minor adjustments", but it is crying for a lot more than minor adjustments. The argument that it would be hard to do doesn't fly. It's called work, and many times work is hard. If they were doing it for free I can see that reason, but they are being paid. I reckon the only way we will see and real effort put into fixing the AI is for the money flow to slow down dramatically. I have a feeling that if the money dropped they would take some of these issues more seriously, but people just keep complaining while continuing to pay for the next version.

It's just like the trucking industry. Everyone says something needs to be done about this or that, but when it comes down to putting words into action, it never happens.

I have to agree with you on your comment about buying every issue of the game even though the bugs aren't dealt with. I am mainly a historical player and can tell you not being able to lock the lineups really irks me to no end. I love this game but I have started to play less because I'm tired of setting lineups and the AI changes my lineups. I don't want to play out every single game I'm a simmer thats how I play, but you can't control your team when you sim. I realize this is a small company but your right the fan base is changing and I want so much for it to grow not decline. But you know what nothing lasts forever and maybe this is as far as the game can go. All I know is that every year since 6.5 there seems to be more and more complaints about bugs being carried over. If a feature isn't working maybe your right it shoud be removed. Enough of my blathering I just wanted to give my thoughts.

[deadringer]

I sincerely hope there is another patch with at least something new. I realized today that most of the important new features for OOTP 9 I either don't like or have turned off.