Thanks for Watching Devstream #134: Empyrean!

[(PSN)xxav1xl6ivax]

On 2019-12-09 at 7:05 PM, MirageKnight said:

That's a fair point. PoE seems to be a bit more "alive" now than when it was first introduced, but it could use further work.

That could work.

I see what you did there 😛

Agreed. Gotta give credit where it's due.

Not going to argue with that. It's nice that the Railjack is content we won't burn through in a couple of days but rather improve over a span of perhaps a couple of weeks at the very least. I'd also say it's about time we got something like that 🙂

There are a few things that really concern me though. 

First, the devstream mission show-off looked to be a micro-intensive nightmare. I get that the team was in a mission whose level was way above what they should have tackled, but it really underscored how much running around and multi-tasking is needed in a firefight.

Another concern is the whole "build ammo and repair tools" in-mission gimmick. How exactly are they going to deal with the resources needed for them? Is it a shared pool or does that come from the Railjack's owner? Is it only resources gathered in the mission itself?

Thirdly, the lack of an AI / NPC crew to assist in the fight when this goes live might be a bit of an obstacle for some players, in particular solo players.

Finally, it's obvious that Phase 2 is going to be pushed out imminently. This begs a question: What else is going to be left out in DE's rush to get this into our hands?

 

So far, I am having difficulty in seeing how “DE” is really rushing anything. Just working through (and “rolling out” on all platforms) what has been delivered over the past couple of months, alone, is packed with more “content” than the entire preceding 10+ months. 
 

Again, this is just how things seem to me.

That the course of development, now, is far more on a “track” (or multiple, simultaneous tracks) of continuing processes, than of point to point delivery.

And the point to point delivery concept really has been pretty dominant, as it had been an early imperative, to update “content” quickly and frequently. Since there was no structure at all to speak of. Along the way, “DE” got to try out, and invent all sorts of different ways to deliver content and build systems. The got to find out what would and did work, and what would “stick,” (the things that could be kept within a whole game, and running cohesively), and what sorts of things did not work, or could not really be sustained. The years of putting things in the bottle, and shaking out what wouldn’t fit together well. 
 

Then there were the years of content delivery to the mapped out area. Bigger, and more integrated content & systems. It did not feel like the kind of “content” that was being delivered before. And less and less of it was. More and more of it was, however, “sustainable.” Deadlines became much more of an arbitrarily decided thing, suggested by events, conventions or holidays. 

That is, it seems, the perception which is still lingering. But it also seems to be one that is being much more forced by what players expect, because it’s what they’re used to, than by what “DE” is and has been, especially most recently doing, and working on. 

If there is any rush, it’s not for the sake of an external agenda, but for the sake of minimizing how severely an enormous amount of radically expanding and “game changer” new “content” and systems creates turbulence. They seem very harried, in a rush to tighten their capacity for responses, simultaneously with continuing delivery of a hell of a lot that is “new,” and has to keep rolling, not to get to players before holidays, convention schedules, or any external timetables, but in time to be flexible, responsive, and creative enough to get the whole universe inflated, adjusted, and fully running well enough, and as seemingly non-disruptively enough, so that it holds together. 

Pretty much, how the majority perception of “content” has framed things, in terms of prepping shipments, and delivering them to unpack, all to meet with some sort of analogous timetables of deadline expectations, except that it’s now VERY MUCH more just players guesses at what is defining those deadlines and expectations, despite there not being any consensus or rational reasoning to them.

Steve, understated as ever, in covering important points (which, for any other developer, would never even be made mention of, much less require, ironically placing emphasis on), that it’s really counterproductive to be trying to take the time to explain the intentions of what they are doing and describe how they are trying to do things, rather than just doing them. 
 

A recurrent question that pops up in “communities,” is “How do I scan a cephalon fragment?” 
 

Given the structure of “communities,” any efforts to reply to that sufficiently are doomed to fail. I finally just made a graphic chart with 10 panels and arrows that illustrates and explains the whole thing. But, for anyone who has “just done it,” that seems like it’s over complicating something that’s just way simple. But what would be all the worse, is trying to explain how the scanner, cephalon fragment and other scanning in the game are going to work, and how, and why, before even adding them, and the Codex, etc. 
 

It seems like it SHOULD BE obvious (and I am, predominantly, though not exclusively, a “solo” player), that getting the systems and “content” worked in, worked on, and worked out, with multiplayer networks, is what is fundamentally necessary for modeling the AI behaviors and systems that will be required to provide supplemental support to “solo” players. 
 

It seems a hell of a lot better than trying to work it the other way around. 
 

Again, that is just sort of how things seem, to me.

I’m sure as hell no expert. I’m not really a “gamer,” and despite having working in just about every creative field that intersects with gaming, how developers do the things that they do, and how game engines work (despite finding, to my surprise, that I have actually already worked with some of them)! is mind boggling to me. 
 

The mention, early in, of a hang-up resulting from two million lines of code with one wrong letter, is a pretty damned good example of just how amazing it is that a single application some THIRTY PLUS GIGABYTES and growing, that requires consistent on-line connectivity, can actually work at all, and not cause whatever hardware that’s trying to run it to do a cyber impersonation of “Scanners” once it connects with a server.

 

[elZach]

I dont think we should applaud any developer for having their engine not fry user systems and for someone who "worked in just about every field intersecting with gaming" you come of as very naive when it comes to engine functionality?

And the fact that there's constantly news about them having to deal with "spaghetti code" or more prominently regressions (as in future patches undoing, what previous ones fixed) on almost any patch they put out, seems to me that they are having real problems with either their setup for version-control and codesharing or the engine itself.

[Askary56]

Le 09/12/2019 à 19:32, kapn655321 a dit :

To fix the resource expenditure worry,

If you have nothing in the cache, the group can donate to that at any time for the future to thank or help you.
Could also incorporate a "DONATE TO PLAYERS RAILJACK" function to hook up people running dry on ammo in an away mission.
Sent like an Air Support Charge, donated to, much in the way you would for alliance or dojo donations.

Same as dojos, donations are one way.

Here below is my suggestion for the needed resources during a mission:

- Create a Blueprint (for single use or infinite uses) in the Drydock Research Center like "Kit Ammunition Railjack", "Kit Fire Estinguisher Railjack", and so on for each specific actions, similar to the Medical Kits, Energy Kits, etc...

- Blueprints should be replicated and built in the foundry like other kits

- Each kit contains a certain fix amount of ressources that will be used during the missions, for example 10 Fire Estinguishers, 10 Ammos Boxes, etc...

- Each player that joins the Railjack Squad should be equipped with at least 1 (or more) of each kit in order to participate to the current mission (similar to the Orokin Derelict Keys)

- When needed, the kits are consumed in a predefined order like this: captain (basically the host), joined player 2, joined player 3, joined player 4.

- If the mission does not need any kits, all players are lucky and keep their investment for a future mission.