Experimental Branch: 0.50 Discussion

[Super_Duty 466]

Thanks for the reminder Bone's... I retract my mini "rant".  Apparently I should have no expectations, expressed or implied.  I think most of us are well aware of this, but every once in a while I get my panties in a bunch.  No offense.

 

http://forums.dayzgame.com/index.php?/topic/210847-what-is-experimental/#entry2111510

[ryanh 36]

You really think it's appropriate to demand 24/7 uptime for the experimental branch servers of an alpha game? I don't think this is a matter of old-school or not, but rather expectations that are divorced from the reality of the situation at hand. There's just an astonishing amount of entitlement in assuming that anyone is going to be working over the weekend to keep the experimental branch running. Go do something else.

I dont think it's entilement. its more the fact that they (the devs) seem to try and give us new content to test right before the weekends giving us the weekend to play on it, Also like most working people, the weekends are naturally the best time to do such testing.

[shinjuru 114]

What kind of discussions did they think would take place here when the Experimental Servers are "up", but players are unable to connect and access even the most rudimentary parts of the Experimental build?

[☣BioHaze☣ 7337]

When they fix the server reset problem you will all never speak of it again and soon forget it ever happened.

 

And how many of you will praise them when it's fixed?

 

Yes, entitlement.

 

Yes, what Boneboys posted.

 

If your reading comprehension skills are not strong enough to internalize the post regarding experimental that Hicks made, you shouldn't be "contributing" to this thread.

[ebrim 998]

Weird, it happens to me and all my friends when we would try a new Exp. Save me your 'fanboy being'.

 

Frustration happens to you? Clearly experimental isn't for you and your friends, not participating in it is then the rational thing to do. Experimental isn't mandatory (in fact, it's opt-in) and if you don't enjoy it, play stable.

[Deathlove 2286]

If we cant play the experimental its NOT the end of the world. Ether play another game till its back up and working or just go do something else. And if you cant find something else to do and this is your life...... well i feel really sorry for you lol.

[jubeidok 495]

Experimental or not, you are delivering something to the public/investors and when you continue to deliver something that doesn't work it makes your company look bad. I'm not sure if they do, but they need to understand that every time they release a build, it's their company's reputation behind it. I'm sorry, but their sign post, no matter how big the print, does not excuse a steady release of broken builds. I just think that every time they release a new build on experimental or stable, they should be treating it like they were sending a build off to a publisher.

 

I lose just a lil more faith in the team with each new release. Probably not something they should be shooting for.

[.+sl4yer+. 3]

Frustration happens to you? Clearly experimental isn't for you and your friends, not participating in it is then the rational thing to do. Experimental isn't mandatory (in fact, it's opt-in) and if you don't enjoy it, play stable.

 

So many professional Alpha testers here (*coff-Cofffanboys). I'm not free to say that something isn't working all the time they push out an exp. Don't worry, I'm out of here *facepalm*

[blackberrygoo 1416]

Well when the servers are up most likely tomorrow in the AM , I'm going to kill all of you with my new cowboy gun , cowboy hat and medic pants . I don't match my outfits on purpose so you're that much more confused whilst i slay you . But seriously I'm gonna avoid this thread til tomorrow and search for a tent on stable til then .. Or maybe I'll just play mega man x4? Or x5? Or x (for snes , so fun ) . Lemme stop before I derail with mega man .

[zenonek2000 2]

do you have to physically be at your workplace to restart a server that isn't located there in the first place ? 

dunno maybe someone could type the restart command from home in about 30secs ? 

just askin

When you finally grow up and get a job, you might understand that nobody will interrupt their rest time, just so some kids can have fun playing... Why would you expect anyone to do their job at home unpaid anyway...

[deniz0790 42]

When you finally grow up and get a job, you might understand that nobody will interrupt their rest time, just so some kids can have fun playing... Why would you expect anyone to do their job at home unpaid anyway...

 

because i'd do it, but only if it was just a command to type in that would require 30 secs of my spare time.

 

Just like I always do, as i have my own business. If you grow up and maybe have your own business and customers especially in the IT-Sector, you will maybe understand .

 

Enough Off-topic like i said i would do it IF it was easy and not time consuming

 

*hope i'll get a job soon*

[zenonek2000 2]

because i'd do it, but only if it was just a command to type in that would require 30 secs of my spare time.

 

Just like I always do, as i have my own business. If you grow up and maybe have your own business and customers especially in the IT-Sector, you will maybe understand .

 

Enough Off-topic like i said i would do it IF it was easy and not time consuming

 

*hope i'll get a job soon*

Did you just want to brag about your own buisness thing or what? Cos what you said is completely missing the point, you HAVE TO spare those 30 seconds cos that is what YOU are getting paid for. Devs are getting paid for making a game which you agreed to test and you knew its not gonna work every now and then... Besides did you even think it might not be that simple as restart the servers??

[AnarchyBrownies 1383]

As the nature of the experimental branch is for the above mentioned testing methods, neither uptime, character data, nor stability is guaranteed.

 

Clearly some of you have still not read what Boneboys posted at the top of the page (not that he should even have to post it!).

 

...neither uptime, character data, nor stability is guaranteed.

...neither uptime, character data, nor stability is guaranteed.

...neither UPTIME, character data, nor stability is guaranteed.

...neither UPTIME!!!, character data, nor stability is guaranteed.

 

There is an epidemic of people on here who are desperate to post their opinions as soon as possible, rather than spend that time to inform those opinions. Asinine. That's what that is.

[odin_lowe 3686]

Just came back from a small session. Servers seem to be back online. I could test a bit and was pleased to find a repeater! This thing is a beast!

 

Also, I haven't read much about this, except that someone posted here that you could open cans of food with a crowbar, but the opening can system seems to be all messed up!!

 

We can't open 90% of cans with a  can opener, only beans it seems. I could open cans of peaches with only a machete, and it would always be at 100% without any spilling out. Didn't find anything yet to open up tuna cans. And when using a crowbar, lots of spills!! Probably placeholder or temporary, but it's kind of useful to know.

[Tatanko 5591]

Experimental or not, you are delivering something to the public/investors

You are not an investor. You did not supply money in exchange for a chunk of ownership in the company -- you supplied money for the opportunity to test out the game prior to it's release, and at a discounted rate at that.

[Deathlove 2286]

Just came back from a small session. Servers seem to be back online. I could test a bit and was pleased to find a repeater! This thing is a beast!

 

Also, I haven't read much about this, except that someone posted here that you could open cans of food with a crowbar, but the opening can system seems to be all messed up!!

 

We can't open 90% of cans with a  can opener, only beans it seems. I could open cans of peaches with only a machete, and it would always be at 100% without any spilling out. Didn't find anything yet to open up tuna cans. And when using a crowbar, lots of spills!! Probably placeholder or temporary, but it's kind of useful to know.

They did say they were reworking the ENTIRE system with how cans are opened to where you can use everything to open them with.

[☣BioHaze☣ 7337]

Twice I have been crouching and tried to eat a can of food and encountered a bug where the process would time out and I would actually see a message saying, "Error trying to move item into hands."

 

Both times I was inside a building, and both times standing fixed the problem.

 

It is annoying to eat so much food and drink so much drink but not reach "healing" before stuffed.

 

I would hope that this gets some attention before a new stable release.

 

Sewing kit should fit in the medkit, IMO. Especially now that you can apparently sew wounds closed with one....

 

Splitting axe opened all the cans I tried to open it with.

 

Server reset on the 1st person character I was playing.... just as I was entering a spot with a possible firearm. :(

[jubeidok 495]

You are not an investor. You did not supply money in exchange for a chunk of ownership in the company -- you supplied money for the opportunity to test out the game prior to it's release, and at a discounted rate at that.

 

We invest our time and money to help further development of this game, we're investors. You can muddy the waters all you want, but at it's most basic form, we invest in this product. For shits and giggles though, lets remove all that from the table and at the end of the day we still have a company that is damaging it's reputation when they continue to release less than playable builds to the public. Is that the kind of pride you would take in your work?

[ebrim 998]

We invest our time and money to help further development of this game, we're investors. You can muddy the waters all you want, but at it's most basic form, we invest in this product. For shits and giggles though, lets remove all that from the table and at the end of the day we still have a company that is damaging it's reputation when they continue to release less than playable builds to the public. Is that the kind of pride you would take in your work?

 

Less than playable to whom? Stable is plenty playable and it's the only one that is generally released. You opt-in to experimental knowing full well that it won't be operating all the time, that it will often be buggy and will have larger issues than will be present in the current stable build. This is not the default experience for anyone, at any time.

[AnarchyBrownies 1383]

We invest our time and money to help further development of this game, we're investors. You can muddy the waters all you want, but at it's most basic form, we invest in this product. For shits and giggles though, lets remove all that from the table and at the end of the day we still have a company that is damaging it's reputation when they continue to release less than playable builds to the public. Is that the kind of pride you would take in your work?

 

Experimental isn't supposed to be playable in any nice way. If it were playable there wouldn't be anything experimental about it. And someone else already put it best: In the case of experimental you're investing time, energy, and money, in TESTING. NOTHING is guaranteeing you ANY sort of quality playing experience. End of story.

 

I don't think anyone has a damaged reputation except for yourself.

[jubeidok 495]

You guys need to inject some logic into your posts, your all emotion. The experimental branch is still publicly accessible, therefore is still representing the company. All I'm saying is that I personally wouldn't want to release a build in that state and neither would the studios I've worked for. I guess we are really just looking at two different boats here; people that want it fast,often and don't care what state it's in and then there are those that would prefer to wait months for the next build if it meant stability. I'm in the latter boat.

[☣BioHaze☣ 7337]

JubeiDOK

 

By your logic this branch should be closed Alpha then, right?

 

And then what would you say?

[ChainReactor 922]

(...) and then there are those that would prefer to wait months for the next build if it meant stability. I'm in the latter boat.

 

Thanks for the fit occasion. You might want to play on the stable branch.

 

The experimental branch is there to allow BI to test their builds with a large number of players, more than they ever could test internally, specifically when it's about stuff like server load and performance. Please keep in mind they are developing an MMO on an engine that originally never was meant to be an MMO engine, so there are many variables and unknowns that could use some heavy testing with many players before actually realeasing it.

 

I think you should try to understand that the stable branch would be much less stable or much less rapidly developing without BI having the possibility to test the builds on the experimental branch before. That being said, it should be clear that the players that decide to opt in on Exp are the ones who get the unstable builds first, for the benefit of the entire community and to discuss and report anything they stumble across that doesn't seem right instead of complaining about it. If it would be up to me, people would not be able to play experimental without at least having an account on the feedback tracker.

 

Noone forces anyone to opt in to experimental. If it's not what you are looking for, just revert back to stable. Only because its publicly available doesn't mean you have to have it.

Edited October 12, 2014 by ChainReactor

[jubeidok 495]

Thanks for the fit occasion. You might want to play on the stable branch.

 

The experimental branch is there to allow BI to test their builds with a large number of players, more than they ever could test internally, specifically when it's about stuff like server load and performance. Please keep in mind they are developing an MMO on an engine that originally never was meant to be an MMO engine, so there are many variables and unknowns that could use some heavy testing with many players before actually realeasing it.

 

I think you should try to understand that the stable branch would me much less stable without BI having the possibility to test the builds on the experimental branch before. That being said, it should be clear that the players that decide to opt in on Exp are the ones who get the unstable builds first, for the benefit of the entire community.

 

Noone forces anyone to opt in to experimental. If it's not what you are looking for, just revert back to stable. Only because its publicly available doesn't mean you have to have it.

 

I'm fully aware of the purpose of experimental, of what it should be and what it really is. We're not discussing the difference between the two branches here. We're discussing the ramifications of releasing broken builds to the public. The last couple of builds delivered to experimental have been a gong show, from instant CTDs to mismatched files to servers that have no loot or get completely borked. What kind of metrics do you think they are getting from those builds? Would you sign your name to a build that everyone takes the time to download only to load up and find out it doesn't work?

 

I know what kind of person you think I'm being here, but I assure you I am not. I'm a DayZ addict and I would be the first to admit to the possibility of being overly critical. All the power to you if you are OK with these practices, if your faith in the dev team hasn't been tested, but I am not and mine has. Ya, I'll still play the game and give them their data, but I'll also continue to voice my opinion on how I'm feeling about the state of the game and it's development.  

[ChainReactor 922]

(...) What kind of metrics do you think they are getting from those builds? Would you sign your name to a build that everyone takes the time to download only to load up and find out it doesn't work?

 

The fact that they are broken / not ready and where and why the problems come from. Do you think they would have been pushed to Exp when the internal QA would have shown what we experienced later when trying out the latest builds? That would render the dev's some quite sadistic people that only release stuff to see us players suffer.

 

 

I know what kind of person you think I'm being here, but I assure you I am not. I'm a DayZ addict and I would be the first to admit to the possibility of being overly critical. All the power to you if you are OK with these practices, if your faith in the dev team hasn't been tested, but I am not and mine has. Ya, I'll still play the game and give them their data, but I'll also continue to voice my opinion on how I'm feeling about the state of the game and it's development.  

 

Nah dont worry. I am not categorizing you in any way, thats not my kind, i replied to your opinion. Sorry if i did sound overly didactic on what you should play or not, that wasn't my intention. I just think whoever decides on his own to go for experimental should be aware what he has to expect and if it doesnt run like intended how to help the devs to find out why.

 

You know, i love playing experimental. It's just a different mood on the servers between the players. But I am also aware that we are the real guinea pigs. Voluntary guinea pigs.

Edited October 13, 2014 by ChainReactor