Estimated time for release?

[Winchester]

In such long term collective card game, I see no point making any progress if there's gonna be a reset.

It really is gonna suck to get a full upgraded deck just to have it taken away from you. When is the reset coming?

[Kubik]

When we was in closed beta people complain that only few can "play". I say "play" not play because as many of you seen when we start Open Stress Test. If you check discord you will see that many players have problems with disconnects, so they still can not play. Server still crashing from time to time. And maybe you forgot, but we do all of this in our spare time.

So based on what we should do an estimations?

• Based on percentage of players reporting bugs? That would be very bad, because most of them do not report them, even if they get 3 big messages on screen asking them to report a bug. And probably never?
• Based purely on statistic that first 90% of software work take about 10% of time? I am not sure from where this common statistic come, but if it is based on big companies (like the one I work for) then it would make sense. And based on that after 5 years we already reached that 90% line probably, but the activity was highly varying.
• Based on the fact that there are still problems we have no idea what cause them? Then never?
• Based on my pessimistic approach to estimations? NEVER!
• Based on optimistic approach? I have no idea  But if you ask my boss (in real life job) if something will be done next month, he promise it. But if you ask if it can be done already next week, he will say of course. If you ask him if it can be presented next day, because customer want to see it, he will promise that too, no mater how complicated the request is. But I am not optimistic person  

So what exactly you want us to say? 

[Winchester]

5 minutes ago, Kubik said:

When we was in closed beta people complain that only few can "play". I say "play" not play because as many of you seen when we start Open Stress Test. If you check discord you will see that many players have problems with disconnects, so they still can not play. Server still crashing from time to time. And maybe you forgot, but we do all of this in our spare time.

So based on what we should do an estimations?

• Based on percentage of players reporting bugs? That would be very bad, because most of them do not report them, even if they get 3 big messages on screen asking them to report a bug. And probably never?
• Based purely on statistic that first 90% of software work take about 10% of time? I am not sure from where this common statistic come, but if it is based on big companies (like the one I work for) then it would make sense. And based on that after 5 years we already reached that 90% line probably, but the activity was highly varying.
• Based on the fact that there are still problems we have no idea what cause them? Then never?
• Based on my pessimistic approach to estimations? NEVER!
• Based on optimistic approach? I have no idea  But if you ask my boss (in real life job) if something will be done next month, he promise it. But if you ask if it can be done already next week, he will say of course. If you ask him if it can be presented next day, because customer want to see it, he will promise that too, no mater how complicated the request is. But I am not optimistic person  

So what exactly you want us to say? 

I just asked about any estimation, any assumption to how long it can take.
I played on test servers before and fortunately they aren't account progression based, but this is a different state. I am not coming with any complaint what so ever, don't take this the wrong way.
It was mere a simple question, you can say you don't know it's fine, you've all done great service to people who didn't even ask for it, so thanks for the response and good luck!

[Kubik]

For true (not guess, nor whenever you want) estimation you need metric and data, I provided you with multiple metrics and responses based on the data I have.

Right now from my point of view factor that slow us down most is "most of players do not report them, even if they get 3 big messages on screen asking them to report a bug.".

When we was in closed beta we have maybe third of testers reporting bugs, but we have problems to get 10 players online to test things related to server load, and many things break with increased server load  

[Winchester]

3 minutes ago, Kubik said:

For true (not guess, nor whenever you want) estimation you need metric and data, I provided you with multiple metrics and responses based on the data I have.

Right now from my point of view factor that slow us down most is "most of players do not report them, even if they get 3 big messages on screen asking them to report a bug.".

When we was in closed beta we have maybe third of testers reporting bugs, but we have problems to get 10 players online to test things related to server load, and many things break with increased server load  

You need QA tester to make things faster? I used to work as QA tester and test writing for many applications, now I study CNC and have free time.

[Kubik]

"I see no point making any progress if there's gonna be a reset." it was response to this mainly that there is a point.

If no one will play we will not find bugs, if we not find bugs we can not fix them, if we can not fix them we will not go to next stage

I am not sure about exact description of "QA tester" so I can not say for sure. But the company I work for have "weird" philosophy that software needs to have bugs for users to discover so they can fix them, without bugs they lose money for fixing them. I disagree with this but I can not change the decision of my boss  

[Winchester]

3 minutes ago, Kubik said:

"I see no point making any progress if there's gonna be a reset." it was response to this mainly that there is a point.

If no one will play we will not find bugs, if we not find bugs we can not fix them, if we can not fix them we will not go to next stage

I am not sure about exact description of "QA tester" so I can not say for sure. But the company I work for have "weird" philosophy that software needs to have bugs for users to discover so they can fix them, without bugs they lose money for fixing them. I disagree with this but I can not change the decision of my boss  

You can find bugs, I said I can help (no payment required) I'll just need to see code logs (non editable) when I run missions and certain loading screens to help reporting any bugs.
I run on windows 7 so any compatibility tests I cannot run but other than that, Most of them I can.

 

I'd like to give my share of help to the game too

Edited February 6, 2019 by Winchester

[Kubik]

"no payment required"  we can not give you payment even if we would want  

"I'll just need to see code" what? why?

To be honest only "compatibility" issues we have are with antiviruses, and nothing can help there

[Winchester]

4 minutes ago, Kubik said:

"no payment required"  we can not give you payment even if we would want  

"I'll just need to see code" what? why?

To be honest only "compatibility" issues we have are with antiviruses, and nothing can help there

When you run the loading screen and get a crash, it usually stops at some line you can see through the logs, I can run tests without code too. however, when I played for the past few days
I haven't encountered any crashes what so ever or long loading screens. The only issue was some units missing animations or when attacking, they deal no damage.

[Kubik]

We do not have source code for the game.

So even if I would want to, I just can not give them to you  

Game source codes would make fixing some bugs much much easier.

[Flrbb]

Just wondering; If you have no code, how do you alter the game?

[Kubik]

do you know what hex editor is?
if no try opening any exe with notepad and edit something, do not expect it will be working after the edit, but you may get lucky and change some unused part

we have bit better tools to do that that at least suggest what we are editing, but editing the game is really hard, We generate server provided data, can modify the config, so everything outside the exe that is loaded by the exe provide us limited ways to alter the game without spending too much time guessing what the exe do.

But almost whole last week I was searching the exe for 1 stupid number  and I still do not have it.

[fiki574]

14 hours ago, Flrbb said:

Just wondering; If you have no code, how do you alter the game?

We've made a tool that let us "alter" the game.

Edited February 10, 2019 by fiki574

[MrXLink]

I don't mind the detail that this topic is getting into, but just for the sake of clarity and to give you a definitive answer to the topic's question:

We can't give you any estimation time regarding our development progress due to the sheer uncertainty and unpredictable nature of this project and its development team. Considering BF is a complex and strange game when it comes to code, and due to us working in our spare time, we can't make any accurate prediction. Any ETAs made in the past that we were unable to abide by due to sudden bugs, sudden dev inactivity or development hindrances, have caused serious backlashes, flamewars, accusations and unnecessary conflict within the community. This in combination with development uncertainty sadly turns us to not be able to give you any semblance of an ETA for the sake of the game and community environment's health and atmosphere, and to not give you any sort of false expectations.

Sorry about that, but we believe it's in everyone's best interest in the end to not set or announce any deadlines.

[Flrbb]

23 hours ago, fiki574 said:

We've made a tool that let us "alter" the game.

So, either you just edit some databases, or you can at least see parts of the code lines and alter/add them?

I am only a spare time programmer, but somewhat interested in general technical possibilities...

[Kubik]

http://www.cs.virginia.edu/~evans/cs216/guides/x86.html

one of the "tool"s we using convert the binary to disassembly and add some info.

so we can not get any code lines that EA write. Game do not have any local database, only local storage is xml-like file in documents.

If you want to discuss general technical possibilities... fell free to pm me in discord, but they are almost limitless as long as your time and patience is limitless

If you want detailed information about how we alter this game this is about everything I am going to disclose.

[Chimaka( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)]

This looks painful... But i've seen people modding sega games (played it). I have no idea how hard it is, or what kind of megamind you have to be, just to find out how "alter" it and then actually do so... >_> 

Edited February 12, 2019 by Chimaka( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

[Flrbb]

20 hours ago, Kubik said:

http://www.cs.virginia.edu/~evans/cs216/guides/x86.html

one of the "tool"s we using convert the binary to disassembly and add some info.

Looks painfull. Probably you have to study computer science for that.

[Kubik]

no  I did not learn anything useful in school.

at least not related to this  I lean things like tell teacher my solution is 100% correct, even  thou I have no idea if my random number is correct  so for things like lying yea school. for reverse engineering  google was only a bit of help to me in this case, most helpful was Blank, so you must ask him how he learn it.

[Daddy]

I also stoped playing because of the reset that is coming later on. Only feedback i would be able to give is the ping was too high for me atleast. Around 200-300ms.  Thanks for trying to get this game back online :D

[Kubik]

Again. where did you get ping?

the game do not show ping, it show command latency (I explain again), and network latency that is incorrect for some reason, no one bothered to investigate.

command latency is your ping to server rounded up to next 100 ms, plus ping back rounded up to 100 ms so 200-300 ms command latency is good, and players with ping 1 ms and players with ping 91 ms will have almost same command latency. (one of good implementation details EA did)

[SuperIT]

I have download the game yesterday and its amazing how it was the original battleforge. I have read your post "FURY" and i have realy apreciate your honesty on the answer.

I want just add a thanks at all the staff and at all the glorius donators who have made this project possible and gift another chance to play this gem game.

Collecting card is a meta yes but the pleasure to just play at this game for me is more then enough (old veteran with all the promo cards and more).

[Horja]

Whats the exact reason of the reset? Is it technical or something else?

I mean why is there a "have to" here.

[Kubik]

to be fair to player that start at release. We do not want new players to start with nothing while most players will have most cards, or does that seem fair to you?

[Horja]

Right now every1 has the opportunity to join and play right? Or correct me if im wrong, but if i am right, its like new players joining to a running game.