Hotfixes/Bugfixes, and Patches, Differences and ED Misunderstandings

[Drexx]

I need to say my piece about this because I think it has gone far too long.

 

1. When you release a patch, like you did last friday, for 1.5.8, bugs WILL show up, Eagle Dynamics SHOULD hotfix the game breaking bugs, The stuttering issue and the crash interactive window falls into this category. Opps, quick fix, or push fix for 2 things ASAP, done, not let your hard working supportive DCS Multiplayer servers deal with this issue for an entire week (its driving us completely crazy, some people cant deal with it, and some servers don't want to, they just shutdown, mp servers DO SELL MODULES (and us servers wish we could have an affiliate link to support us, and prove this fact to you, we generate more sales than you think (small percentage of sale).. maybe one day?))

 

2. After we deal with not having a hotfix which we should have, you post this needed hotfix into the BETA branch, essentially forcing us STABLE servers to force all our players to UPDATE since we NEED this hotfix, so our servers don't stay down, while we are sleeping, offline when a crash happens (there are PLENTY of things in the game that cause crashing currently, pm me and I can update you on some of these)

 

It comes down to this:

Public Release, needs hotfixes within 1 day, of the worst patches, every developer firm I ever work at and know does it this way, they don't leave there customers hanging like this, patches get pushed and we are ON CALL until its deemed ok

 

Patches can come later with all the other lesser fixes, that's not a problem

 

The ONLY reason I can think of pushing this patch to beta, is because it is untested in MP

Edited December 22, 2017 by Drexx

[Nero.ger]

+1

again need 2 versions to play on all my favorit servers, because maybe some of them dont update imideatly :(

 

 

also:

mp servers DO SELL MODULES

brought 4 modules just because of MP

(never thought a transport chopper would be interesting until BlueFlag appeared on my radar)

[Skarp]

I agree with what Drex has said. I feel as a paying customer you do not provide equal support for features you have offered in your product. You offered a multiplayer experience but it barely even works. Crash after crash, stuttering, lag, units committing suicide by driving into rivers, AI getting stuck, sling loading physics are incorrect causing multiplayer sessions to crash, A10C illumination flares causing servers to crash, not being able to use arty unless I reconnect to the server. Losing options to control units after a disconnect. The list goes on. I do however still play because of the community and fighting against humans is far more challenging than the AI. I for one am one of those who bought a module because of Drex’s server. In fact I bought two and will probably get a 3rd. If it wasn’t for his server I would have just stopped with the A10C and not boherered with any of the others. Please in 2018 give the multiplayer a greater focus and polish.

[Johnny_Rico]

+1 to your post Drexx

Worst thing right now is that there will not be enough people playing beta

to get a decent test of it

 

last weeks release patch must not have had much testing done to it before being unleashed upon the poor unsuspecting public

 

The MP stuttering would have been picked up with in 10 seconds of being in

a plane on an MP server , it is so apparent

[BIGNEWY]

ED can not win either way.

 

They push patches into release some moan about it not being tested in beta first.

 

They push patches into beta first, some moan about it not going into release.

[D4n]

+1

[=DECOY=]

ED can not win either way.

 

They push patches into release some moan about it not being tested in beta first.

 

They push patches into beta first, some moan about it not going into release.

 

 

I agree with you on this one , No matter people will always complain.

 

NOW don't get me wrong MP has issues for sure but i understand it needs testing, and yes having the release patch sooner would be better (well not for this one as it would be Christmas day hehehe)

 

 

 

Hope no one takes offence to this. this is not aimed at anyone on here

[Shazwazzer]

ED can not win either way.

 

They push patches into release some moan about it not being tested in beta first.

 

They push patches into beta first, some moan about it not going into release.

 

I think this is a little different. The stutter literally makes the game unplayable. If you have a fix for this, you push it out right away. It can't break it anymore than it already is. The way we see it now, they have a fix, but they haven't tested it yet to see if it works. So they want us to test it for a week and then, maybe, if it works they push it to stable. When you have a game breaking bug like this, you need to drop what your working on, fix it properly, and then, and only then, continue on your work. You need a stable product if you want it to sell, and this is anything but stable. General content, I would agree with you. It should be tested before going to release. Whether that is internally or external, well, that's not my place.

[Drexx]

ED can not win either way.

 

They push patches into release some moan about it not being tested in beta first.

 

They push patches into beta first, some moan about it not going into release.

 

A patch and a HotFix are 2 different things, Hotfixes are needed! they require small code changes which shouldnt break things, not like huge patches, what I am getting at is ED doesnt understand what a hotfix is quite yet, that's all, just part of the dev coding cycle.

[Johnny_Rico]

ED can not win either way.

 

They push patches into release some moan about it not being tested in beta first.

 

They push patches into beta first, some moan about it not going into release.

 

Correct (damned if you do, damned if you dont)

 

But last weeks mess of a patch was pushed into release without much testing from what I see

I dont know why a mini patch(hotfix) to address the MP stuttering issue was not pushed into release this week

With the Beta having that stuttering fix + other fixes

 

Does this Beta have the massive black flashes when someone on the server is sling loading fixed ?

[NineLine]

@OP, I agree with much of what you said. I will pass on your feedback as well. Even if it means fewer patches in a month, I would like to see longer Open Beta testing periods. Hot fixes can be tricky as one fix for one thing can seriously break another.

 

It's a balancing act for ED, wanting to get 3rd party fixes, their own fixes and new content to release as fast as they can, and the most stable version they can. And MP testing is a little tougher as well.

[Drexx]

@OP, I agree with much of what you said. I will pass on your feedback as well. Even if it means fewer patches in a month, I would like to see longer Open Beta testing periods. Hot fixes can be tricky as one fix for one thing can seriously break another.

 

It's a balancing act for ED, wanting to get 3rd party fixes, their own fixes and new content to release as fast as they can, and the most stable version they can. And MP testing is a little tougher as well.

 

Thank you sir! Yes, Dev cycles are tough, at my job (Akamai), we build in unit testing which is 3x the code to test the original code THEN that goes off to a huge QA department, Then the end-users get to see it (and still find bugs... lol), working with 3rd party adds even another layer on that.

 

Crazy world we live in, just do your best, all you can do!

[NineLine]

+1 to your post Drexx

Worst thing right now is that there will not be enough people playing beta

to get a decent test of it

 

last weeks release patch must not have had much testing done to it before being unleashed upon the poor unsuspecting public

 

The MP stuttering would have been picked up with in 10 seconds of being in

a plane on an MP server , it is so apparent

 

I asked about this very issue, and it only appeared when many servers are active. With internal and Open Beta testing, not as many servers are active, and the issue was not experienced. In this case, the issue could not be replicated until release. Not much you can do about that.

 

Fix is in Open Beta for testing, and release version should be out next week.

Edited December 22, 2017 by NineLine

[USSR_Rik]

The MP stuttering would have been picked up with in 10 seconds of being in a plane on an MP server , it is so apparent

No. Absolutely no. This bug can't be catched in internal or beta version because of it appears only when a lot of servers in list (30...50+)

[Johnny_Rico]

Ah ok , thanks for replying Rik (this bug comes from server list part of the code?)

 

Has anyone looked at the new Black flashes on the screen when someone

in the server sling loads cargo yet ?

[USSR_Rik]

No flashes observed. Please try to make screenshot. Is it reproduced in track?

[Coxy_99]

@USSR RIK is there no way to have a public test say once a month or once every two months, To make sure things in Multi player are good, I know it sounds time consuming (And most likely is) But testing it with say missions from 104th and the BlueFlag event creators scripts etc, Could possibly help solve such issues? Is that a possible thing to do, Of coarse each mission would be run off an ED server.

 

The last one solved the DLL weapons crash for example.

[NineLine]

He did say the current MP issue didnt show up until release though, so there wont be one perfect solution either.

 

@USSR RIK is there no way to have a public test say once a month or once every two months, To make sure things in Multi player are good, I know it sounds time consuming (And most likely is) But testing it with say missions from 104th and the BlueFlag event creators scripts etc, Could possibly help solve such issues? Is that a possible thing to do, Of coarse each mission would be run off an ED server.

 

The last one solved the DLL weapons crash for example.

[Coxy_99]

No not after a perfect solution just a general test, In general. So bugs of such can be caught in a way?

[Johnny_Rico]

@Rik - black screen flashing bug with sling load cargo

 

See this thread -> https://forums.eagle.ru/showthread.php?t=198087

 

tracks are pretty inconsistant so I dont bother with them

I need someone to join my server to fly with a sling load so i can record it

 

Repo steps

1. Start dedicated server

2. Client one connects joins a plane slot (observer)

3. Clent two connects, jumps into an MI-8 takes off and sling load lifts cargo

4. Client one observes client two, crazy black flashing all over screen if client two is in view of client one

 

NOTE: person picking the cargo up sees nothing, everyone else on the server (20 people) are freaking out with graphic glitches

Edited December 22, 2017 by Johnny_Rico

[Coxy_99]

@Rik - black screen flashing bug with sling load cargo

 

See this thread -> https://forums.eagle.ru/showthread.php?t=198087

 

tracks are pretty inconsistant so I dont bother with them

I need someone to join my server to fly with a sling load so i can record it

 

Repo steps

1. Start dedicated server

2. Client one connects joins a plane slot (observer)

3. Clent two connects, jumps into an MI-8 takes off and sling load lifts cargo

4. Client one observes client two, crazy black flashing all over screen if client one is in view of client one

 

NOTE: person picking the cargo up sees nothing, everyone else on the server (20 people) are freaking out with graphic glitches

 

Yep and ED host the server to pick the issue up, Think thats what all is being asked for.

[Drexx]

@rik to throw a quick one in there, is calling static:destroy() (on a crate) = crashed server bug fixed (I think ciribob put a ticket into your system for it) - would like to turn ctld back on (with reg sling loading)

Edited December 22, 2017 by Drexx

[Johnny_Rico]

U mean if a crate got dropped and destroyed it would crash the server ?

[Drexx]

U mean if a crate got dropped and destroyed it would crash the server ?

 

No, it's when the crate is turned into a vehicle or tank, the script runs static:destroy() on the crate object(its considered a static object) and that crashes the game (haven't tested it in beta yet)

 

ciribobs ctld script is the script used

Edited December 22, 2017 by Drexx

[Coug4r]

Also curious about this, had to disable CTLD because of server crashes.