Patches Without Notes... Again

[RaDian FlGith]

If there was one singular area that I would like to see Mythic improve in, it would be a simple, single process:

Publish the patch notes the moment BEFORE pushing the patch out to the client. When I fire up the client and there's no patch notes, it's a bit like, "Okay, what's going on?"

It would be greatly appreciated if patch notes came at the same time as the patch, not hours later as is usually the case. There must be an approval process to push out the patch. That process should definitely include the words, "Publish patch notes, then push the patch."

 

[looker118]

/agree

 

[Barok]

/signed

 

[G.v.P]

Unless my robe falls off I'm good.

Edit: Hm...Juka loyalty. Town loyalty doesn't quite work yet or display correctly on Origin. Didn't notice Juka loyalty on Test, though.

 

[MalagAste]

/signed

 

[Silverbrook]

To be perfectly and utterly honest, I am still waiting for the better communication that has been promised... and promised... and promised.

I have no doubt that this will fall upon deaf ears or never even be read, but please, UO Team... stop consistently ensuring that your detractors are right when they belabor the negatives (communication such as this just an example) with the game and its developers.

Please.

 

[Mapper]

I agree however if it's the case of not getting the patch until a community person is in the office to post the notes.. I'd rather the patch, especially if it's a bug fix.

 

[Cogniac]

My problem is how often they don't post any patch notes whatsoever.

I have to catalog these things for UOGuide. It annoys me having to constantly mark the client patch pages with "No patch notes given."

 

[Taylor]

Where's R Traveler with our spolier? XD

 

[startle]

/signed

 

[Woodsman]

A fix for the placement tool?

 

[Basara]

Devil's Advocate:

If it's a fix for an exploit, they probably won't announce it until after all the shards have gone through maintenance (and have it to where you have to restart the client & patch to log in after maintenance). Sometimes stuff like that is serious enough to fix, but not serious enough to actually bring down all shards to fix (especially with all the house placement and IDOC looting in progress).

While this is probably not what happened, such things have taken place before.

 

[MagicStar]

sometimes patches go through we dont need to be told everything and maybe its not that big of a deal or maybe if they said what it was then many wouldnt patch and take advantage

also i doubt theyd do it just for uoguide to be happy
its not like uoguide is official or anything
i say just relax and be happy they are working

 

[EvilPixieWorks]

I totally agree as well... but yeah... the issue of “communication” is a big problem. This really needs to be the staff’s 2012 resolution to improve upon, but will they? Uo.com... I mean... frankly I could care less about challenges and fluff and worry more about items that effect all of us. (All of us who play, that is.) Fluff like what shard challenges what shard to whatever contest. Fluff.

And I also agree with Basara... I fully can understand wanting to keep exploits and other problems (overlooked mistakes they made) quiet. At the same time, they could just be turning on switches... like V-Day (Candy Day) gifts and installing those bits of artwork. For that kind of thing, it would be nice to know. And on the other hand... it would be nice to not have the in-game snow. If that was turned off and I didn’t patch, I’d be a little disappointed in my not doing so. hehe

 

[RaDian FlGith]

I agree however if it's the case of not getting the patch until a community person is in the office to post the notes.. I'd rather the patch, especially if it's a bug fix.

If it's the case that a "community person" is necessary to publish the patch notes, then the "patch push team" needs to be given the ability to publish the patch notes. Not to put too fine a point on it, but if there's only one person "allowed" to perform that function, then they have no redundancy in operations, and god forbid that person were to be let go from his job.

At my last job, we used to have what we called "Bus Protocol." That meant we were prepared in case the person doing any particular job happened to be run over by a bus on the way home. Morbid, probably, but what do you expect from a bunch of gaming geeks?

Patch note process should be (1) publish patch notes, (2) publish patch. There should not be any variation from this. Publishing patch notes, unless they've got a very lousy CMS for their website, should take all of 30 seconds, because by the time the patch is cleared to go live, the patch notes should ALSO have been prepared to go live.

 

[RaDian FlGith]

Re: patching if it's an exploit and that's the only thing fixed, the patch notes could simply read:

Patch Whatever.Number.Version:

- Fixed an exploit.

Sure, people here would debate endlessly which exploit was fixed, but we'd know that something occurred. I know the argument will be "but that lets the people who know about the exploit run over to other shards that haven't hit maintenance run around and exploit it more, but if it's a client patch, it's rarely exploit related, and regardless, the people who are aware of such exploits are going to run around and test it out everywhere the minute the patch hits anyway. Saying "fixed an exploit" lets the rest of us know what's going on.

Re: they can patch stuff we don't need to know about...

Sure, they can, but they really shouldn't. They could patch the entire game and never let us know a single thing about what they've done, but again, they shouldn't. It's in the best interest of communication -- particularly a game that is known for its stark lack of communication -- to let us know what's going on when there's a patch.

I understand that the past is the past. I also agree with a couple of others that after we lost Cal we were promised better communication, and our new producer, who likes to Tweet a lot, still hasn't provided his producer's notes that we've been waiting for since he "took office."

Patch notes are the barest level of communication they can provide us, and if that's not being done regularly and properly, how can we ever expect the lines of communication to get better. A strong, solid foundation is required first.

 

[Xalan Dementia]

I understand wanting to know every little thing ever done to the game but sheesh. Its a small patch, if it was something earth shaking I'm sure they would have posted notes right away. If its a bug/exploit fix then let them apply the fix and make sure it works before letting us know what theyve done.

 

[Frarc]

One thing that been patched is the text when you gain town loyalty.

 

[Shelleybean]

Where's R Traveler with our spolier? XD

This!

 

[Woodsman]

Not to put too fine a point on it, but if there's only one person "allowed" to perform that function, then they have no redundancy in operations, and god forbid that person were to be let go from his job.

At my last job, we used to have what we called "Bus Protocol." That meant we were prepared in case the person doing any particular job happened to be run over by a bus on the way home. Morbid, probably, but what do you expect from a bunch of gaming geeks?

UO, Camelot, and Warhammer would be screwed if Kai was let go. That would really suck. I wish they'd in fact add two people, and have one person for each game. I find it hard to believe they can't afford it.

 

[Tina Small]

One of the things in the patch might have been turning off the distribution of holiday gift tickets. The Publish 73.0 notes said the gifts would be active from December 1st through January 25th. Perhaps they also turned off the sneaky turkeys?

 

[flappy6]

how about a...."Dont take your house down to upgrade,because the house tool only works for some people" that way i would still have my house

 

[Tazar]

One of the things in the patch might have been turning off the distribution of holiday gift tickets. The Publish 73.0 notes said the gifts would be active from December 1st through January 25th. Perhaps they also turned off the sneaky turkeys?

My bet is on what Tina said above... plus "Cliloc Updates" (or however you spell that).

 

[popps]

If there was one singular area that I would like to see Mythic improve in, it would be a simple, single process:

Publish the patch notes the moment BEFORE pushing the patch out to the client. When I fire up the client and there's no patch notes, it's a bit like, "Okay, what's going on?"

It would be greatly appreciated if patch notes came at the same time as the patch, not hours later as is usually the case. There must be an approval process to push out the patch. That process should definitely include the words, "Publish patch notes, then push the patch."

Well, I do not know........

I mean, usually the patching process is like when there is a patch, there is first the Test server, then Origin and then all of the commercial servers.

Now, there are times when things contained by the patch may affect players game play like with the fixing of bugs, use of certain items for events or whatever.

What I am trying to say, is that if the notes are too detailed before the changes are actually introducted on all commercial servers, then players might take an advantage from it.

For example, say that the notes mention a bug getting fixed but between the notes' release and the actual changing of code on all servers. there is days, perhaps weeks difference. Players might have the chance over that time to figure out what that bug was and exploit it before the changes are actually introduced onto all servers.

There could be other examples, of course.

So, I do not favour the release of publish notes if not when all servers' code, not just Test or Origin, have been updated. Only in this way players may not take advantage from the informations contained in the notes before their servers' code actually get changed.

Or, the notes should be as thin as possible without giving out any info which players might take advantage of before hand.

That's how I see it.

 

[Tazar]

Well, I do not know........

I mean, usually the patching process is like when there is a patch, there is first the Test server, then Origin and then all of the commercial servers.

That is a Publish - not a patch. The patch puts information on our computer to add content, and to keep our clients updated to work properly with the server as changes are made server side.

The patch has to be put out so that the publish can be tested on TC, Origin, etc.

 

[RaDian FlGith]

I understand wanting to know every little thing ever done to the game but sheesh. Its a small patch, if it was something earth shaking I'm sure they would have posted notes right away. If its a bug/exploit fix then let them apply the fix and make sure it works before letting us know what theyve done.

Uh... shouldn't they have made sure that it works internally before pushing it out to us?

What you state is part of the reason the patch notes SHOULD come out with the patch. If it's a bug fix, the only way they're going to find out externally is if one of us catches it still functioning inappropriately. But how would we know if we don't know what they did in the first place.

Obstensibly, when they push a patch down to us, they should already know it worked internally in the first place.

 

[RaDian FlGith]

The patch has to be put out so that the publish can be tested on TC, Origin, etc.

Well, and even if that's all they said, "Updated client to allow items on Test Center to be tested," that would be fine.

A patch means, "Hey, something changed." Keeping us in the dark about whatever it is in no means is a good thing. (Mind you, not saying you said this, just responding in general to the idea of why it would be a good thing for us to know about even minor changes.)

 

[phantus]

UO, Camelot, and Warhammer would be screwed if Kai was let go. That would really suck. I wish they'd in fact add two people, and have one person for each game. I find it hard to believe they can't afford it.

Oh they can afford it. They don't have to however. EA stockholders look at the bottom line only and if 1 person can do the job of 3 then so be it. How well that job is done isn't important obviously.