Age of Conan

Beta's working great for me, just that the load time on screens is very long..I have a brand new pc, very high end.  Everything runs smoothly except the load screens.

Originally posted by Wharg0ul

They aren't trying to scare anyone off, and the only people who ARE scared are the people too fucking ignorant to understand what is going on, and to read the goddamn notices, dev blogs, and other information that testers might need to know.

People think they get to play the game for free, and then bitch when they actually have to test something. They are told that they are being allowed into a "stress test", and then bitch about performance.
Stupid.

Either do the job you volunteered to do by joining the testing or shut up and wait for release.

 

Edit: and to think, I was just talking to other CB testers last night about how sorry we felt for you guys being stuck with a shit client in a stress test.

Guess you deserve it.

Actually, the ignorant one is you. If what you describe is true, I find that very unusual that Funcom is still doing that at this stage of development. Focus testing should not still exist 2 weeks from launch. The usual practice in game development is from the time of "gone gold" to the time of launch is "crunch" time. Meaning no new features will be added to the game. The only thing developer do in this time frame is to stabilize the game and fix critical bugs. They should not still mess around with multiple code branches.

The concept of stress test is not to test the client code. Stress test is to test the network and server infrastructure and may be server code. How they behave under load. If you say they release an old buggy version of client for stress-testing purposes, that make no sense at all. You have to take whatever PR people tell you with a grain of salt. That's their functionality, to spin the truth.

The release version of the game that you will buy from store is actually a much older version of the game than the one we are using right now. Judging from the open beta client, it will be a huge patch right at launch day.

Also, like I said above, after "gone gold" nothing new will be added to the game. So if they don't have DX10 and Spellweaving ready for testing right now, they will not make the launch. Well, there is still small chances that Funcom will pull something stupid and push the changes directly from internal to release. Judging from the Anarchy Online launch, that's possible. I don't know if any of you were at AO launch but it's actually went into MMORPG history as a gigantic disaster. AO was used everywhere for a long time as an example of bug infested MMO at launch.

Originally posted by BigMango

 Absolutely.

I'm also sorry you guys are having problems with the open beta client, because I just tried the CB client again with a new char on the first levels (1-10) and the thing flies. I get none of the problems you guys are seeing. Instances loading screens go from 1 second for things like the Tortage Inn to 4 seconds max for the bigger instances.

Everything runs smooth and fast. The only minor trouble I get with the current client is that it freezes on me about once per hour (requires killing the process and restarting the game), but this is one of the usual beta things that get fixed easily.

Playing with all the settings maxed out on a C2D 6400 2.13Ghz, nvidia 8800GT, 4Gb ram, vista x64.

That sounds really odd to me. It means that someone messed up somewhere and may be someone is getting fired right about now.

Originally posted by Slythe

Originally posted by Wharg0ul

 

Originally posted by URMAKER

hardware is already in place for 600k people.

ok, parting shot....600k people have never logged on to that hardware. It needs to be tested and stressed to see if it will in fact put up with 600k people.

 

FC is simulating a worst-case scenario so that we don't have to have a real one come launch day.

Which of course, was posted quite a while ago when they mentioned that this would be a stress test, but no one pays attention to these things.

I understand what you're saying, but why are they collecting bug reports then if it's just a stress test? And why use an out-of-date build to test the servers? And why collect bug reports on an old version of the game? These are the questions I have at least.

In this case, they filter out what they need, and toss the rest.

The real data they're gathering is not done through the bug reports, but through the debugger. It sends them a constant stream of information the entire time the game is on.

It's also a goddamn memory hog and I can't wait to be rid of the damn thing.

Originally posted by Wharg0ul

 

Originally posted by Slythe

Originally posted by Wharg0ul

 

Originally posted by URMAKER

hardware is already in place for 600k people.

ok, parting shot....600k people have never logged on to that hardware. It needs to be tested and stressed to see if it will in fact put up with 600k people.

 

FC is simulating a worst-case scenario so that we don't have to have a real one come launch day.

Which of course, was posted quite a while ago when they mentioned that this would be a stress test, but no one pays attention to these things.

I understand what you're saying, but why are they collecting bug reports then if it's just a stress test? And why use an out-of-date build to test the servers? And why collect bug reports on an old version of the game? These are the questions I have at least.

most of the bug reports are pointless, with the rare exception where data might be helpful in the case of a problem that has persisted through all builds.

 

In this case, they filter out what they need, and toss the rest.

The real data they're gathering is not done through the bug reports, but through the debugger. It sends them a constant stream of information the entire time the game is on.

It's also a goddamn memory hog and I can't wait to be rid of the damn thing.

 

you post between crashes or whats up?

Originally posted by Wharg0ul

 

most of the bug reports are pointless, with the rare exception where data might be helpful in the case of a problem that has persisted through all builds.

 

In this case, they filter out what they need, and toss the rest.

The real data they're gathering is not done through the bug reports, but through the debugger. It sends them a constant stream of information the entire time the game is on.

It's also a goddamn memory hog and I can't wait to be rid of the damn thing.

 

So it doesn't matter which version of the game the debugger is running on? Which would lead me to believe that the versions are close enough so that the information received from the debuggers would be the same on both versions. Which looks like they are the same version to me.

 I don't know about these things, I'm just saying how it looks to people, like me, who have no idea even how to run a server or how they collect information.

Originally posted by Wharg0ul 

The real data they're gathering is not done through the bug reports, but through the debugger. It sends them a constant stream of information the entire time the game is on.

 

This is not true, sniff your own network and you will see.

Originally posted by Thachsanh

 

Originally posted by Wharg0ul

They aren't trying to scare anyone off, and the only people who ARE scared are the people too fucking ignorant to understand what is going on, and to read the goddamn notices, dev blogs, and other information that testers might need to know.

People think they get to play the game for free, and then bitch when they actually have to test something. They are told that they are being allowed into a "stress test", and then bitch about performance.
Stupid.

Either do the job you volunteered to do by joining the testing or shut up and wait for release.

 

Edit: and to think, I was just talking to other CB testers last night about how sorry we felt for you guys being stuck with a shit client in a stress test.

Guess you deserve it.

 

Actually, the ignorant one is you. If what you describe is true, I find that very unusual that Funcom is still doing that at this stage of development. Focus testing should not still exist 2 weeks from launch. The usual practice in game development is from the time of "gone gold" to the time of launch is "crunch" time. Meaning no new features will be added to the game. The only thing developer do in this time frame is to stabilize the game and fix critical bugs. They should not still mess around with multiple code branches.

Unfortunately in this case, we know, they ARE still adding features to the game. Bar Brawls are still in develompent, for example.

The concept of stress test is not to test the client code. never said it was. Stress test is to test the network and server infrastructure and may be server code. How they behave under load. If you say they release an old buggy version of client for stress-testing purposes, that make no sense at all. Sure it does, if that client build has more of an impact on server stress than recent ones. You test with excessive load so that under regular load you know you'll be fine.You have to take whatever PR people tell you with a grain of salt. That's their functionality, to spin the truth. I'm not listening to PR people, I'm reading the CB forums, and corresponding with devs, so that I know what the hell I am doing while testing, and what they need me to do.

The release version of the game that you will buy from store is actually a much older version of the game than the one we are using right now. Judging from the open beta client, it will be a huge patch right at launch day. The OB client is older than the version I was playing last night. And can you tell me what version number exactly the release client is?

Somehow I doubt it.

Also, like I said above, after "gone gold" nothing new will be added to the game. So if they don't have DX10 and Spellweaving ready for testing right now, they will not make the launch. Well, there is still small chances that Funcom will pull something stupid and push the changes directly from internal to release. Judging from the Anarchy Online launch, that's possible. I don't know if any of you were at AO launch but it's actually went into MMORPG history as a gigantic disaster. AO was used everywhere for a long time as an example of bug infested MMO at launch.

And this is key. After that debacle (which I was there for), when AoC was getting ready for release I can pretty much guarantee that FC said to themselves "ok, let's come up with a game plan that will guarantee that it doesn't happen again".

So they came up with a structured system of tests and stress programs designed to avoid just such a situation.

This being the case, people cant understand why FC is doing the kinds of testing in the ways they are. We don't need to....it's their code, they know what they need, and what to do to accomplish it.