UFO: Aftershock modding and patching!

[SBOY]

Thanks pete

[Pete]

Just a note about the above I forgot to post - I realise Starforce ships with Aftershock and that it was their choice , but it's a separate programme that merely prevents the game from loading without the original disc in the drive.

 

ALTAR cannot fix any issues with Starforce copy protection as they don't own the code and can't alter it to fix any issues people are having, which is why you'd stand a better chance contacting Starforce about any issues you may have. It's a little like fuzzy dice in a Mini Cooper. No boy racer can start their car without the fuzzy dice to complete the look, but they're not going to get any help from the chaps who make Mini's if the string breaks on the fuzzy dice and it wrecks the experience

 

I didn't word it well originally, but there it is re-worded. Hope it makes a little more sense this time.

[Red]

I must say that I was taken aback by strict condemnation. I am not going to deny it: obviously the game has bugs, otherwise we wouldn't be working on a patch. Nor I am going to explain why it is so, it was pointed out even in this thread, and in many other places besides it. Suffice to say that I am actually quite happy about the game we shipped, despite the bugs. Our choice was either fewer features and fewer bugs or more features and more bugs, we chose the latter, reasoning that the bugs can be fixed, but no feature can be added later in a patch. In ideal world we would have all the features and no bugs, but in such a world Cenega would have to have in excess of 200k preorders.

 

You might say that we should be more careful about planning the project and promising features, and I can but wholeheartedly agree with you. In an ideal world, we would have a complete game design before the first line of code is written, but this would add another year to development time.

 

Back on topic of the modding tools. I might have promised something along the lines you suggest; I don't remember and am in no mind to search out. Obviously, this was the impression I made. The reality is that, as opposed to Aftermath, our internal tools were much more sophisticated and made designing the game much easier (i.e. possible). However, they are also complex and difficult to set up.

 

I have no problem with releasing the toolkit 'as is': PostgreSQL and ActivePerl are OpenSource projects, everybody can download and install them. Everybody has Excel. Once you manage to get it up and running, you will find it is easier to make modifications: add new items, modify their properties, models, etc. than it was in Aftermath. It was only my naive assumption that there are people in the modding community who would be interested in evolving this toolkit.

 

But I am really sorry if you feel that we betrayed your trust. The modding tools will be released, they will be more powerful; it is yet to be seen how easy to use they will be and when they will be available.

Just a note about the above I forgot to post - I realise Starforce ships with Aftershock and that it was their choice , but it's a separate programme that merely prevents the game from loading without the original disc in the drive.

 

ALTAR cannot fix any issues with Starforce copy protection as they don't own the code and can't alter it to fix any issues people are having, which is why you'd stand a better chance contacting Starforce about any issues you may have. It's a little like fuzzy dice in a Mini Cooper. No boy racer can start their car without the fuzzy dice to complete the look, but they're not going to get any help from the chaps who make Mini's if the string breaks on the fuzzy dice and it wrecks the experience

 

I didn't word it well originally, but there it is re-worded. Hope it makes a little more sense this time.

I starting to see the Programing Politics being played out here. I HIGHLY suggest to Watch

Grandma's Boy even tough some are Offensive to me; Most are Hillarious. PLUS it really shows How developers have to deal with the Question of PLAYABILITY or More Fearures.

 

I guess Releasing something that is More Stable and Playable IS the Priority, when releasing the game.

UNLESS the Better Features are attached to the engine then You have no choice but to GO with Martins Descision. BUT I Agree that the Game Stability is a Priority to Modding Tools.

 

So people can play the game till the end and have the Modders Recieve a COMPLETELY STABLE MODDING TOOLS. As It is a really pisser if your modding and the whole thing didn't work because of the tool. Therefore Release the ModTools ONLY when it's 99% Stable.