Unplayable?

[Warioguy]

Oi, I agree. It's quite a mess, really. I myself have a very state-of-the-art computer, but even I have to set the graphics to the absolute minimum (textures low, shadows off, the whole nine yards) in order to keep the lag to a point that I can play at all. I've been trying to get to the Governor's Mansion to get the seal since 6 PM yesterday, and everytime I get even close to the building I crash. It's a pain in the neck, really.

That, and the ship that was sailing directly through Port Royal's town. O_O

-War

[searage]

Well they obviously fixed a bunch of the old bugs/lag issues, but in the process made a bunch of new ones! Quite a common occurance in software development sadly.

It's quite obvious they have no formal internal QA process, they are just tossing out new patches and letting us test everything for them. I can't see how this can be even remotely efficient, but that's what they are doing!

[JoG]

Originally Posted by searage

Well they obviously fixed a bunch of the old bugs/lag issues, but in the process made a bunch of new ones! Quite a common occurance in software development sadly.

It's quite obvious they have no formal internal QA process, they are just tossing out new patches and letting us test everything for them. I can't see how this can be even remotely efficient, but that's what they are doing!

This must be your first beta then. It is quite common for the program to be at different stages of stability during full beta. All things are logged and reports are generated for the programmers to see. Just because some people have stability issues does not mean everyone does. As far as a Q&A process, there is no real need during a beta. Your feedback is all that is required. Just put in a bug report and let them know the facts as you see it. We have no need to know what they are looking at or working on aside from specific things they ask us to test. Since you do not have a programming back ground it will look like it is not efficient. I can tell you it is and they know exactly what is going on. Keep trying to play as normal and submit all the bugs and errors that occur.

--JoG

[searage]

Originally Posted by JoG

This must be your first beta then. It is quite common for the program to be at different stages of stability during full beta. All things are logged and reports are generated for the programmers to see. Just because some people have stability issues does not mean everyone does. As far as a Q&A process, there is no real need during a beta. Your feedback is all that is required. Just put in a bug report and let them know the facts as you see it. We have no need to know what they are looking at or working on aside from specific things they ask us to test. Since you do not have a programming back ground it will look like it is not efficient. I can tell you it is and they know exactly what is going on. Keep trying to play as normal and submit all the bugs and errors that occur.

--JoG

On the contrary, I have 22+ years experience developing and delivering software, so I know the difference between the right way and the wrong way. Most of my career has been spent building a selling platform for big box retailers, which handles over $10 million in sales daily, so I know what it means to develop highly reliable client/server applications that scale to thousands of users.

If they really were shooting for a delivery in May, the code base should be much tighter at this point in time. No one can tell me with a straight face this is "beta" quality code. This is at best "pre-alpha" code quality we're dealing with here.

If you're serious about developing a platform that scales, you build a system that simulates real load on the system. You had this in your budget from day one if you knew what you were doing. You use this system to ramp up the load until things start to break. These so called "stress tests" we've had the last few weekends are just for show. There haven't been more than 75 people on each server. You don't rely on a handful of gamers to plink away at the servers in their spare time to decide if your software is ready for prime time.

Now I'm not trying to bash VR Studios, I'm just calling it like I see it. I'm sure they're all in serious crunch time pouring their heart and soul into 100+ hour weeks right now. But unfortunately for them, their management hasn't seen fit to spend enough on internal QA, making their lives that much harder.

[Dennis]

I have to agree. How is it a "stress test" with 75 people on when the day it goes live, you could have 75,000 people trying to play.

[Warioguy]

Agreed. The server has serious lag issues with just 3 or 5 people on one screen, how is it going to be able to handle a number like, let's say, 10,000.

-War

[wolf]

o__O woah.. you all are lucky that you could actualy play yesterday.. i couldent even get into the game because the "connection was lost" and now i see that happening today..

[Bizneo]

yarr!! I was able to play a little yesterday, lost connection q lot though. The lag dont seem to be as bad today.

If this keeps up i'll be dancing the hempen jig!

[Warioguy]

Originally Posted by wolf

o__O woah.. you all are lucky that you could actualy play yesterday.. i couldent even get into the game because the "connection was lost" and now i see that happening today..

Welcome to the club, I haven't been able to play all day, either.

-War

[Minichristy]

Ah, Molly O'Hara is one sad pirate. I am able to get on, but the game stops responding in minutes. Met up with friends, and we could not sail away. I spent my time frozen!

[Dennis]

Well...maybe I'll try to play tonight. Between freezing and getting my ship sank before even firing a shot, I'll see how it goes. Considering both my quests involve either sinking a Navy ship or the never present EITC ships I don't hold out too much hope for success.

[IceSphere]

Unplayable?

So unfair, but it seems like any enemy that is tracking you (ships are the worst) zaps the the server, and causes mass lag... Ships will freeze the frame with no escape... (if I have my sea chest open, the screen will let me click Minimize, and I can end the program a little faster)

It's almost like you get lost on the server... Sometimes pressing Enter seems to make the game find you if you aren't too far gone.

When you are in a shop, no program is hunting you down, and there is no lag at all... This seems to also get them off your back for a while, letting you play a little longer..

You can tell they are working on it because some of the tracking program is turned off in the caves... Skellies will just walk away from you while you are killing them. Levels that are way too high for to handle (for now) might attach, and give up so you can go places they were ment to keep you out of... The fly traps won't even fight back, they just let you kill them (for now)...

Um... I play VMK, and had Toon Town, so I know more or less what not to type... but it seems like I typed something the filter didn't like, and now none of my chat works...

Unplayable? I signed up for Beta a year ago... and couldn't open the game until last week...