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Pier5 -> RE: 1.3 update? (9/29/2004 5:13:16 PM)
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This whole process has been rather frustrating for me and, obviously, many others. After venting my frustrations somewhat, I find that many of the major problems I became frustrated with are going to be fixed (or at least changed). Where, before this thread, was any of this addressed? What did I miss?
I complained about the whole amphibious operation, which is quite unrealistic. This was mostly caused by a defective bombardment model, which, I now learn, will be fixed. I complained about the devastation of AP's by so-called CD artillery. This should largely be corrected if a reasonable bombardment model is used. I also note that whomever wrote the manual specifically points out that AP's will be largely unaffected by CD artillery. He certainly knew how is should work. Too bad whoever coded this aspect of the game did not. In any event, a rational bombardment system will fix this problem. What I really wonder is how, with so many fine beta testers involved, this crap made it out on the street. It seems as though this aspect of the game was never effectively tested.
Now we get to the whole process of beta testing of this and, in fact, other Matrix games. I certainly have no fault with the selection of the beta testers and I'm sure they put in many, many hours of work in the Alpha (extensive) and Beta (very short) testing. In spite of this, a game was produced which was buggy as a termite mound and had quite a few modeling issues which were, quite simply, utterly ridiculous. There are also a number of other issues which are highly debatable and, therefore, needed to be debated before the final game was released. We have the issue of surface combat, particularly target selection, the effectiveness of Long Lance torpedoes, the ASW issue, torpedo attacks in shallow water, etc., etc., ad infinitum. What we don't know, of course, is how much and what kind of internal debate took place between the testers, producers and coders. It had to be extensive and, regardless of what is said, the need to get something out that produced income, has to, at some point, become paramount.
My point in this rambling BS is that, after all these years, what was produced was a product that is potentially the best war game ever, but not even close to a finished product. There are two schools of thought about the release of a game. Some think that the product should be 99.9% ready. Other are more pragmatic and realize that isn't likely to happen. I specifically propose that in the future, preliminary beta copies be SOLD to the Matrix gamers who desire to participate. There should be only one restriction, high speed internet connections. Task forces could be formed by a coordinator (Kid, I think that is the task you performed in the actual event), but the number of testers vastly greater, the view points more extensive, all aspects of the game thoroughly tested, while income is created for Matrix/2X3.
Pier5
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