issue 26 Patch Notes for January 28th, 2020

[Jimmy]

Sorry, but I need to respond with a bit of a rant here. Posts like the ones recently made in this thread only serve to demoralise the individuals giving up their free time for your enjoyment.

 

Calling for a rollback is an extreme overreaction. This was a huge update with a large amount of necessary back-end changes. Aside from this one problem it's had a very positive impact on the game in a wide variety of areas - especially for those that were still stuck on Safe Mode!

 

Rollbacks only happen within minutes or hours of an update going out if a game-breaking critical issue is found. You don't jump right to the extreme reaction for stuff like this because rollbacks are not quick, and they are not easy. This small issue is not more important than all the positives from this update, nor does it warrant the resources required to actually perform a rollback successfully and safely.

 

And yes, this is a small issue - it's a minor inconvenience to a small number of sets. It is not intolerable. It's not causing a mass exodus. These are, quite honestly, ridiculous claims. I say this as someone who plays the game a lot, and has several characters impacted by this bug. I'd also like to point out that this issue would have likely been caught on the test server if we had more players participating there and submitting bug reports (there's a reason I wrote this post and put this FAQ together - it couldn't be easier to join in with testing now!).

 

Bugs happen in live games, and you need to just accept that. Worse issues have persisted for longer than this in games that people pay money for.

 

This, however, is a collaborative community effort. You are not a customer. You need to set your expectations accordingly, and pitch in where you can if you want the game to be as good as it can be.

[Widower]

3 minutes ago, Jimmy said:

It's not causing a mass exodus.

Just to quantify this - the patch has not, as far as I can tell, impeded in any way the steady growth of US primetime player numbers - Excelsior has hit 1000 players every day of the last week, which is likely the first time that's happened since September or October.

[Blackfeather]

4 minutes ago, SHOCKnAWE said:

My point is, that this bug is very, very bad for those affected by it, especially if it’s affected your primary toons. Try to understand our frustration.  We appreciate the work being done to rectify this, but you gotta let folks vent man! 😀

Have you checked out the latest beta patches that came out a couple of days ago? Apparently it has more taunt fixes - give it a shot, and send your feedback on it! I'm sure the devs'll appreciate it.

[SHOCKnAWE]

12 minutes ago, Blackfeather said:

Have you checked out the latest beta patches that came out a couple of days ago? Apparently it has more taunt fixes - give it a shot, and send your feedback on it! I'm sure the devs'll appreciate it.

Yes, I was just on Pineapple yesterday and provided some test feedback, thank you.  I’ve removed many of my past comments on this thread.  I wasn’t trying to piss off any of the great Homecoming team.  I was just meaning to have a productive dialogue and exchange of ideas on this bug.  Overall, It was a great, very important patch!  Keep up the good work guys!

[VileTerror]

@Jimmy  . . . cake or pie, and which flavour?

You know.  As a morale booster.

 

 . . . don't say "pizza pie" with "pineapple flavour," though.  Then I'd be forced to implode.

[EverStryke]

8 hours ago, sacredlunatic said:

No one is attacking or getting defense except those who are insisting on a roll back because of one bug that effects only a handful of powers.

So I guess now having an opinion is an attack because someone doesn't agree with you???

 

Talking about getting defensive, you assume that others don't know meaning and etymology of basic English.

 

Standing on that soapbox declaring your superiority, exercising your digital courage is so 2019.

 

We're well aware they're not going to roll back anything.

 

But I personally am allowed to have my opinion, and I would appreciate a hotfix ASAP. I also know Droves of people that would appreciate the same thing.

 

I don't know why you have to take everything so personal.

Edited February 11, 2020 by EverStryke

[Wavicle]

32 minutes ago, EverStryke said:

So I guess now having an opinion is an attack because someone doesn't agree with you???

 

Talking about getting defensive, you assume that others don't know meaning and etymology of basic English.

 

Standing on that soapbox declaring your superiority, exercising your digital courage is so 2019.

 

We're well aware they're not going to roll back anyting.

 

But I personally am allowed to have my opinion I would appreciate a hotfix ASAP. I also know Droves of people that would appreciate the same thing.

 

I don't know why you have to take everything so personal.

 This is the kind of histrionics I’m talking about. No one is taking it personally except for you. Of course you’re allowed to have an opinion, but you need to relax about it. Go try out the fix on test.

[srmalloy]

2 hours ago, Blackfeather said:

Have you checked out the latest beta patches that came out a couple of days ago? Apparently it has more taunt fixes - give it a shot, and send your feedback on it! I'm sure the devs'll appreciate it.

And what annoys me most about the bug that's affecting taunt is the people who complain in chat about how it's ruined their enjoyment -- or, more commonly, their ability to quickly run +4/x8 AE farms -- who, when it's suggested to them that they get set up on the Pineapple shard to test the changes in beta, say that they're not interested in the beta. The Homecoming team is putting their time in for your enjoyment; you should be willing to put in some of your time to help them make sure that it's done right. The way I see it, if you can't be bothered to put in at least a little time on the beta shard testing changes and bugfixes, you don't really have much of a basis for complaining when things slip past the people who do.

[siolfir]

28 minutes ago, EverStryke said:

But I personally am allowed to have my opinion I would appreciate a hotfix ASAP. I also know Droves of people that would appreciate the same thing.

I don't think anyone is disagreeing with wanting a fix for it ASAP; the disagreement was about the severity and impact of the bug, and we were pre-emptively stating what @Jimmy finally came in and posted by saying that a rollback was an overreaction, and while some people may find it intolerable for their play, overall it seems to be either tolerated by the people I've teamed with, or else they play other ATs and didn't even know there was a problem.

 

[Abraxus]

Sometimes, you gotta push forward, even if it's the harder thing to do, in order to make the greater strides for the long term. 

 

It's understandable that some who play the archetypes most affected by the bug are frustrated, but unless there is some willingness to jump over to Pineapple, and help test, the only thing that will assuage that frustration is a little patience.  You can take as a fact nobody is doing this to push players away intentionally.  However, this appears to be a group of changes that are more easily fixed than rolled-back, so demanding they be rolled-back anyway is asking for a little too much.  This isn't a billion dollar development house.  It is a community/volunteer effort, and they are doing a darned good job at it, given their resources, and available time.  So, cut them just a little slack, and let's try to keep our expectations realistic.

Edited February 11, 2020 by Abraxus

[Doc_Scorpion]

4 hours ago, Abraxus said:

It's understandable that some who play the archetypes most affected by the bug are frustrated, but unless there is some willingness to jump over to Pineapple, and help test, the only thing that will assuage that frustration is a little patience.

Yup.  None of the people complaining are among the three people who have tested the latest patch and reported their results.  (And before you ask, yes, I am one of those three.)

[Myrmidon]

13 hours ago, Jimmy said:

 

Bugs happen in live games, and you need to just accept that. Worse issues have persisted for longer than this in games that people pay money for.

Case in point, back before The Snap,Tankers once had a Gauntlet bug that made all of their attacks automatically miss. This beauty was live for months before it was fixed, so I don’t see any cause for concern for the current “crisis”.

[Myrmidon]

13 hours ago, GM Widower said:

Just to quantify this - the patch has not, as far as I can tell, impeded in any way the steady growth of US primetime player numbers - Excelsior has hit 1000 players every day of the last week, which is likely the first time that's happened since September or October.

This.

 

Also, the Brute Bug hasn’t caused any issues on any teams that I have been on (and there have been many), neither from a performance aspect, nor from a team denial for those affected.

[Myrmidon]

10 hours ago, srmalloy said:

And what annoys me most about the bug that's affecting taunt is the people who complain in chat about how it's ruined their enjoyment -- or, more commonly, their ability to quickly run +4/x8 AE farms -- who, when it's suggested to them that they get set up on the Pineapple shard to test the changes in beta, say that they're not interested in the beta.

Just do what I do and collect their tears for later use. Once you possess enough, they can be distilled into an elixir that renders the imbiber immortal.

[Jimmy]

@EverStryke @SHOCKnAWE @Myrmidon @Doc_Scorpion Take a look!

[KauaiJim]

I am happy to report that the latest patch on test fixed the aura toggle issue and mob behavior seems to be back to how it was originally (tested with my fire/fire brute in an AE I am extremely familiar with).  

 

Thanks again to the Homecoming team for everything you do!  You folks are awesome!

[Mister Mass]

12 hours ago, Myrmidon said:

Just do what I do and collect their tears for later use. Once you possess enough, they can be distilled into an elixir that renders the imbiber immortal.

And is DELICIOUS! 🤤

[Troo]

On 2/10/2020 at 3:03 PM, EverStryke said:

I would appreciate a hotfix ASAP

soon

[VileTerror]

Look, if you people are going to do soon, do it right.

Soon!™

[Captain Powerhouse]

When a company releases a “hot fix“, it still goes through internal QA processes, it just tends to be expedited and the patch pushed out of regular patching schedule.

 

Nothing should ever be pushed live without at least some testing. Rushing any fix almost always tends to result in issues. Sometimes bigger ones.

 

Biggest issue we have compared to any live game is we don’t have a full QA team to test changes. It is not too rare for QA departments to be larger than development ones. For a long time I had people ask what can they do to contribute to the game. I know testing is not the most glamorous answer, and can be both, monotonous and a waste of time that could otherwise be used to do actual in game progress, but it is honestly the answer.

Edited February 11, 2020 by Captain Powerhouse

[VileTerror]

Per Captain Powerhouse's second line:  See exhibit B (Bethesda).

That's not a dig at their QA teams, either.  I know their QA teams actually do a lot of hard work.  It's just that Bethesda's particular test-patch scheduling methodology has some gaping holes in it.

[Troo]

19 minutes ago, VileTerror said:

Look, if you people are going to do soon, do it right.

Soon!™

Yes, but I used the lower case 'soon' which is considered 'fair use' of the proper ^TM .

= )

[VileTerror]

Where's the "BAH" "like" token?

[Myrmidon]

1 hour ago, VileTerror said:

Look, if you people are going to do soon, do it right.

Soon!™

As you wish.

[Number Six]

Well to be fair lots of commercial software houses don’t have dedicated QA teams anymore either and routinely go live with bugs that should have been showstoppers. Microsoft I’m looking at you.