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Old 2004-03-02, 02:16 PM   [Ignore Me] #33
Krinsath
Sergeant Major
 


Here's the point Unknown was trying to make:

Let's say there are 5 devs. There's more, but for the sake of this illustration, there's five.

They breakdown as follows:

Smoke - Idea man
2 Guys who do engine work and bug fixes
1 Guy who does textures
1 Guy who does database tweaks

Now, while there's certainly a general level of computer competence across most programmers, once you get a project of this involvement going it becomes a monster where only those who know exactly what's going on are going to work on it. For instance, the database guy is not going to go messing around with the engine because without a complete understanding, it's easy to make an unintentional mistake and cause bigger problems. In a similar vein, the guy who does textures is not going to work on the database.

Let's say Smoke comes up with a new vehicle. The design parameters are given to the engine boys, the artwork to Mr. Texture and the relevant information for tracking it given to the database guy. They each do their own thing, and in this case, are all involved in the same project.

Now, pretend that there's a bug where the database does not store inventory favorites properly if there's a Punisher loaded with AP ammo and a Frag grenade included in it. What on God's green earth is the texture guy going to do with this problem? Exactly Jack/Squat. So he goes and works on another project, let's say making new models for the vehicles that look schnazzier and allow players to identify enemy vehicles faster.

The texture guy finishes in time to get those changes into QA, the database guy is still plugging. Spork says "hey! We have new textures for vehicles!" and you guys all go "BUT MY PUNISHER FAVORITE IS STILL BROKEN!! OMGWTFBBQ!!!!111one!!!!"...IT'S BEING WORKED ON, THERE JUST ISN'T THE STAFF TO MAKE IT WORK AT THE MOMENT. The texture guy finished his project, that doesn't mean the Devs don't care about Punisher problem, it just hasn't made it into QA yet. Would you rather them develop all this stuff with people and then NOT release it because issue X, which may take another month to be fully resolved, is still being worked on? That's idiotic...get the stuff out as quick as is safe to do so.

We don't get status updates every three seconds because some issues are complex. Working in the field, the general statement you give someone who asks for an ETA is "Well, assuming nothing goes wrong...". Since most PS gamers take Spork and Smoke as sort of demi-gods and every word they utter is the immutable truth and *any* delay is obviously a conspiracy to milk the playerbase...yeah, I'd be hesitant about giving any projections about things that aren't already in the pipeline.

That's why you see random things getting "fixed" that don't seem to be that important, because the guy (or girl) who could fix such things had it come up on their list. You have to have these people doing *something* because otherwise there's no point in paying them. If you don't pay them, they leave and then when you DO need a texture guy (such as in the case of a new vehicle), then you're shafted because you have to wait for a few weeks to get applicants and hire someone and then wait for them to produce things.

Moral of the story: STFU about these strange improvements. A guy who knows how to work 3D Studio MAX like a champ isn't going to know squat about the PS engine code so he CAN'T do optimizations, even if he WANTED to. Having him sitting there twiddling his thumbs because the emphasis is elsewhere is bad business, so they give them other projects to do. These other projects sometimes finish before your issue is resolved...Grow up, sit down, shut up, and play the game (that's not directed at anyone in particular, but if you whine about the Devs doing things that aren't Issue X...if the shoe fits...).

Last edited by Krinsath; 2004-03-02 at 02:20 PM.
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