Another wimpy update...

Under Dev Diaries, Cari just posted this:

There won't be further beta updates to the gameplay itself. Just connectivity updates. The released version will have the gameplay updates (just a few weeks away).

poop

Hm so we wont get to try out all the ballance fixes before day0 ? =/

Well, for me, the connectivity was worse on the first evening (March 19) of version 0.95.033's release than during the previous version (0.94.033). I then had no problems joining games (at last!), but on the evening of March 19, I could not join one single game.

NAT Traversal did complete, with the all players becoming green, but the "Connecting to Players" part never ended.

I missed 2 important games (around 9 : 45 PM Eastern and 10 : 30 PM) with 5 or 6 interesting players. That was too bad, because there were so few games available...

In both cases, the same situation occured : NAT Traversal got completed, but the next part never ended in a succesful connection.

That had never happened to me in the previous version (0.94.033), when I could rapidly join games.

I have a very fast and stable cable-connection, but I'm behind a router (if that matters).

Not complaining : just reporting.

(I spent over 2 hours gazing at the lobby, while reading a book, and there were so few games offered. Too bad I could not connect to the very rare games I was interested in. This situation does not look good, I'm sorry to state.)

Whatever you did in this update, undo it.  Connectivity was almost ideal in last update (probably about 8/10), now it's back to 2-3.

yea this update made it worst.  hopefully you took a step back so you can make 2 steps forward.

In reply #5, I was refering to the first of the two March 19 updates : 0.95.033.

When I left the game program, around 10 : 36 PM (New York time), just before reporting here, I was not aware that a 0.95.034 update had been released (or was about to) to fix the problems raised by 0.95.033.

I have not tested 0.95.034 yet.

Any plans for Gamma, Frogboy?

No plans for a public gamma I'm afraid.  

Any hints at what the upcoming changelog might include? 

If we know what changes are upcoming, we may be able to provide more salient feedback, based on the current state of the game.

Out of curiousity was there any particular reason you changed your mind?  I know you guys had planned a Gamma in the past...

We have a gamma, just not a public one.  We've never done public gammas. Too close to release. 

I like this man and his ideas!

Of course there will be the obligitary hysteria when it comes to balance changes if a future balance change list is released, but it's not like you wouldn't get the same when the changelog eventually comes out with the actual patch anyway.

Guaging the reaction prior to the patch will at least tend to highlight changes seen as excessive, (whether or not they truely are excessive, though I'd hope there's enough intelligent responders to provide some useful insight.) I'd prefer a moderate approach to balance, if a change looks unpopular change it incrementally over a number of patches untill you're happy.

Plus smaller incremental balancing lets you mess around more often without so much fear of "breaking" the balance.

Things can get pretty tight around release. Expecially when you are also dealing with manufacturing (CD, Box, etc). Not to mention that we are not getting the same betas they are using. I'm sure the extra work forming our beta is better spent elsewhere at this point. Good luck!

sorry for being silly, but what is gamma?

@ X-Raider : It is never "silly" to ask a question.

Computer game developers often use the Greek alphabet to label the series (A/B/G) of major phases in the development of computer games :

1. ALPHA builds (letter A)

2. BETA builds (letter B : which include internal betas and public betas)

3. GAMMA pre-gold-master builds (letter G : comes before the D of DELTA, in the Greek language, skipping C)

Not all developers test Gamma builds : often, they go from the most advanced Beta build to the "gold master" that will be used to manufacture the commercial, release version.

I suppose, here, that GPG and SD are currently holding an internal, closed, pre-release phase of testing.

There are some features, such as in the Internet Games lobby, that are being tested during that Gamma, and that we will not have access to before the mid-April release version.

I'm happy with the state of the game at the moment, despite the Spartan lobby, and I look forward to being surprised, in a few weeks, by the new features which they are currently Gamma-testing.

Since I have no inside info whatsoever from anybody at GPG or SD, feel free to correct me if you are one of the cognoscenti.