[Megathread] Leviathan Release Problems
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Rather than respond to this post point by point.. I'll respond this way:
If you aren't a programmer, you don't know what you are talking about.
If you are a programmer, I think you need to be introduced to the idea of "Unit Testing". Since I'm unsure about posting links here, I'll just direct you to your favorite search engine.. and please enter those two little words and go read. This stuff actually works. And combined with good regression testing it contributes to high quality releases (there is more to delivered quality than this, but its a good start). I have no idea how exactly some of Paradox's patches got released in the state they are, but I know without a shadow of a doubt that activities that I think are mandatory in software development are NOT being followed. WHY they are not being followed is a different question (I've seen stubborn programmers, stupid/aggressive managers, deranged directors, idiotic planning, unrealistic delivery dates, features with moving goal posts, etc. etc., and all combinations thereof.. ). But I know steps were skipped.
Quality in software is hard because most people think they are better than they actually are.. and trust their ability to think, rather than verify, to go quicker than they can, to act without planning. It is a hubristic reaction I'm only TOO familiar with.. I spent a lot of my career managing programmers.. so I've seen a lot of how things can go wrong.. but I've also organized teams that met dates and delivered quality.. so I get the game and how its played. At this late date, I've consigned myself that the world just doesn't want to learn these lessons.. I knew this stuff in the early 1990s. Yet here we are.. with the same crap 31 years later. It makes me sad, but it is reality.
I wish Paradox all the best.. and to learn how to get better at all this. Their games are great.. and these types of incidents are all together avoidable. There are always going to be bugs in software.. but you can squash the majority with good goals and discipline. Why it wasn't done for some of the currently releases is a mystery.. but I've seen the real and the nasty here (I watched 90% of a company disappear through lay-offs and quitting because 3 major customers (90% of their revenue stream) walked out because of bad quality).
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I remember the project we were told by management there is no time for writing tests. Not a one test with a 30+ people working on an business application.
Such a fun year in the trenches
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Which makes the post you are responding to utterly absurd.. Nice distillation by the way.
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Oh yes.. I totally get it!I remember the project we were told by management there is no time for writing tests. Not a one test with a 30+ people working on an business application.
Such a fun year in the trenches
At my current company the strategy de jour is to reduce schedules and make people work overtime to make up the difference (what we call 'death marches'). Since the programmers are trying to make the managers happy.. what is their first action? Drop unit tests!! You can imagine how that lengthens the schedule since you must spend so much extra time fixing the crazy mass of bugs created during initial coding.
There are so MANY ways to get the same insane result.. it just boggles the mind.
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Imperator got "canceled", because it didn't grow fast enough. (see latest Paradox Podcast for how and why they allocate ressources to the different teams)
It didn't grow fast enough, because it had a desasterous launch and growing your fanbase from a couple of hundred people to CK III levels is harder than just making a new game. The reason it got supported for this long is that Paradox wants to maintain their reputation as a company that doesn't abandon their games - even the unsucessfull ones - before they are in a good state.
CKIII on the other hand, released in a stable state and exploded in growth.
So the lesson here seems to be the opposite of what you are implying. Don't rush out your games when they aren't done, yet. You only have one release and if you screw that one up, even 2 years of quality fixes wont make your game profitable enough to justify further investments.
(Unless you are No Mans Sky of course. They are basically the mongols of computer games.)
It didn't grow fast enough, because it had a desasterous launch and growing your fanbase from a couple of hundred people to CK III levels is harder than just making a new game. The reason it got supported for this long is that Paradox wants to maintain their reputation as a company that doesn't abandon their games - even the unsucessfull ones - before they are in a good state.
CKIII on the other hand, released in a stable state and exploded in growth.
So the lesson here seems to be the opposite of what you are implying. Don't rush out your games when they aren't done, yet. You only have one release and if you screw that one up, even 2 years of quality fixes wont make your game profitable enough to justify further investments.
(Unless you are No Mans Sky of course. They are basically the mongols of computer games.)
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Imperator 2.0 was the only 100% good update to a paradox game in years. I will fight anyone who disagrees.
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As a rabid CK2 enjoyer for years now I won't be bying CK3 unless it's 70% off on steam with all DLC's included. Just don't see the worth in that game. Graphics are overrated. And Victoria II is the living example for that.
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I don't know anything about coding EU4 so I can tolerate bugs and wait for the devs to fix them. I can only give suggestions on game design itself. For me the most questionable part of Leviathan is the development stealing which kind of invalidates development as a mechanic.
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Totally fine, of course. No product can please everyone.
The numbers so far are indicating that that's a minority opinion, though. The game sold a lot more than expected and there seems to be a lot of interest for further content, if the Paradox Podcast is to be believed.
Well if we go by pure numbers then something Fortnite is the best game in the universe but we all know that is not exactly true. There are plenty of terrible games out there with massive numbers of players. Take every single Call of Duty game for the past 10 years for example. Not saying CK3 is 100% bad since I haven't played it yet but if I did I probably wouldn't enjoy it as much as I have CK2. Imperator was starting to be one of my favourite games but they stopped development becasue not enough people were playing it. I feel like I got March of the Eagles'ed with this so hard.
I was surprised to discover that CK3 is not that played, on steam at least
steamcharts.com
Comparison - Steam Charts
An ongoing analysis of Steam's player numbers, seeing what's been played the most.
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It is also acceptable in gastronomy in certain parts of the world. But that's pretty much it.
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Also spynetwork broken sometimes. It's not giving me 1.29% it says in the game, only 0.29%. So good luck making those claims...
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It would be great if they could incorporate some of the graphics mods so you can revert to low-res mode for when the game starts to slow down.
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I'm still waiting to know how old you are to produce such an inane answer.
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Im afraid tinto will be exploited into oblivion to fix a game they didnt want to release uncompleted beacuse pdx wanted money. All my sympathy for the working horses, all my hate to the greedy company that released it without caring about consumers or their own workers which now will endure weeks of taking all the frustration of the community
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I'm enjoying the new patch. Didn't get the DLC but I'm enjoying a new game I started.
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