Smaller, more frequent patches vs. a couple publishes a year?

[Ender]

This upcoming publish just got me to thinking about it. It has a lot of different changes to the game that as far as I know are not really related to each other and don't necessarily have to be released all at once. Large publishes could still be done but saved for larger, more involved changes like the one a while back (71?) that changed a lot of weapons and several skills.

-Loot changes
-VvV
-Cleanup stuff
-Trader Quest?

We're not exactly in the stage of the game where they release a publish every month and a half, the last one was at the end of 2013 while we're almost 2/3 of the way through 2014. It just seems like an outdated method and not the best one with today's technology and internet capabilities.

Just wondering what everyone else thinks.

 

[Promathia]

We had publish 74-80 in 2012 - If you count all updates in between you have 10 Publishes
80-85 in 2013 + anything inbetween

2014 - 85.3, 85.5
But this year we have had major issues involving:
Mythic -> Broadsword transition
Vendor Search development and the following issues
Development of a whole new UI for EC
Development of a whole new PvP System in VvV
+ who knows what else since Broadsword took over

So I would say we are getting the amount of updates you would expect. 2014 has been a bit slower, but what they are going through/working on is bigger/more involved than things in the past.

So I say, they keep doing what they have been doing.

 

[Jirel of Joiry]

I'm okay with publishs. On the other hand what about smaller say monthly bug fixs? We've got 16 year old bugs in this game, event mess that needs cleaning up (Kalhdun!!!) How about fixing them even if its one bug at a time?

 

[Ender]

If you check the last producer's note, there are several things already completed. How hard would it be to just push those to TC1 NOW instead of waiting on other, unrelated things to be finished? That's my point.

 

[The Old Man]

They have said it will be on TC this week.

As far as lots of little publishes go...Remember that however few changes are in a publish that there is an overhead in terms of developer time to actually 'do the publish' that does'nt necessarily scale with the number of changes. Time that would be better spent coding

 

[Promathia]

If you check the last producer's note, there are several things already completed. How hard would it be to just push those to TC1 NOW instead of waiting on other, unrelated things to be finished? That's my point.

...But....they are putting it on TC...like REALLY soon.

 

[Lady Storm]

I started this game with publishes nearly every few hours! A day didnt go by when there wasnt a publish to fix something. Most times a whole shard would disapear for days...hence why I have homes around uo like a squirrl has nuts.
So a few small published would be fine and would feel normal to me. And for the bigger majors as it is is fine too.

 

[Ender]

...But....they are putting it on TC...like REALLY soon.

After it being scheduled for May originally, wasn't it?

Also it'll likely be a long testing period because of VvV, which every other part of the publish doesn't require before it goes live I would think.

 

[Promathia]

After it being scheduled for May originally, wasn't it?

Also it'll likely be a long testing period because of VvV, which every other part of the publish doesn't require before it goes live I would think.

The focus group was announced in may, so I doubt they even had anything to PUT on TC back in May.

 

[Ender]

My bad, the original plan was for this month.

So I guess we'll see our one publish of the year in September or October then.

 

[Viper09]

My bad, the original plan was for this month.

So I guess we'll see our one publish of the year in September or October then.

Highly unlikely. As someone who is very critical of the devs and their process in releasing publishes, you should know that once it hits TC it usually doesn't take very long before it goes live.

 

[RockoNV]

I posted a couple times in support of smaller more frequent publishes but that is just not feasible in my reflective evaluation. Time for coding and testing internally would be the greatest impediment. Perhaps if UO Broadsword had the resources to add a dozen more coders and alpha testers then it might be feasible to step up the cycle.

Broadsword > EA

 

[Uvtha]

This upcoming publish just got me to thinking about it. It has a lot of different changes to the game that as far as I know are not really related to each other and don't necessarily have to be released all at once. Large publishes could still be done but saved for larger, more involved changes like the one a while back (71?) that changed a lot of weapons and several skills.

-Loot changes
-VvV
-Cleanup stuff
-Trader Quest?

We're not exactly in the stage of the game where they release a publish every month and a half, the last one was at the end of 2013 while we're almost 2/3 of the way through 2014. It just seems like an outdated method and not the best one with today's technology and internet capabilities.

Just wondering what everyone else thinks.

What ever ends up with us getting more CONTENT. Hopefully more than the kind where a rehued walrus has a 1-10000 chance of dropping a renamed bowl of peas.

Seriously. UO has become nothing more than a yearly Halloween activity for me, as that is the only time I ever play at all anymore, and even then only when it's more involved than a 15 minute (or less) questlette.

Remember the booster idea? That was almost FOUR years ago. That was the last time we got a substantial content addition. :/

 

[FrejaSP]

I think it's fine and they do their best.
I 'm happy with one large public a year and then some small public, booster packs and holiday events/ gifts.
I agree waiting is hard and do make us lose players but we have to give Broadsword a chance to get it done. The transition from Mythic and their moving to new office did slow down the publics. That's fair enough.

A little thing going on each month, like the Halloween and Turkey events keep thing going but it also give them less time to the large stuff.
We also have stuff that could be good to look at for small public together with bug fix.
The BoD system, Make LBoDs already have the small BoD's included like the fish quest, update them with BoDs for other skills
The Heartwood quests, maybe move them to the good old towns and close Heartwood and update them with new quests and new rewards
Update the Quest system, so you can have something like 20 quests going at one time and make BoDs a part of it, no more houses and vendors filled with BoDs
Make new quests for crafters, hunters, tamers, fishers, treasure hunters, that make them have to explore the land to get some special items for an order.

One thing UO need is to get players, special the crafters out of their houses without forcing them to kill hard stuff.

 

[Naxatilor Feluka]

The reason it takes so long is because everytime that add something you find a way to abuse and.or complain about it - thus they must test and retest and test again, then have us test - then fix what was tested to prepare for the next stage of testing.