A deeper appreciation of the HC team's capabilities.

[Luminara]

I recently had the misfortune of using EA's launcher app.  I'm astounded by how bad it is.  Seriously, it's atrocious.  It's ridiculously bloated, badly coded, and hammers your network connection like it's a sex toy.  The interface is dull and uninspired, and throws a pop-up on the screen that pins itself to the foreground.  It forgets login information at random.  It uses almost a gigabyte of storage.  A gig, with no textures, no flashy graphics, no massive database, just the base launcher.  I had to wait three hours for it to finish downloading when I was forced to install it to access that game, and then another three hours when it updated itself.

 

That brings me to the worst offence it commits - it doesn't even work half the time.  I've had to force-kill and restart it up to a dozen times to get it to work, and that's a regular thing.  Every time I want to play the game linked to it, I go through that.  When it does work, it takes several minutes to launch the game, and it's always with a panic notification about not being able to load cloud data (that notification exists purely to manipulate the user into turning on cloud storage by playing on his/her fear of losing data... and that pisses me off).  By contrast, a game using the same engine and many of the same assets launches in seconds through Steam.  Without the drama queen tactics.

 

EA is a multi-billion dollar company, it could've afforded the best programmers and designers in the world... and it puts out a launcher that looks and functions like it was created by a 9 year old using a WYSIWYG program to piece it together.  Practically unlimited funds, and they shit that thing out.  They can't even blame their framework, Qt, because I have other programs that use it and they work.  No, they somehow found a way to take something functional and fuck it up in every way they could... and still published it, like they were proud of their origami ashtray soaked in kerosene.  "Here, we made this!  Use it!"

 

Actually, I apologize, that was a bit over the top.  9 year olds aren't that incompetent.  Sorry, kids, my bad.

 

Yes, I'm fully aware that their launcher is actually a marketplace they're desperately hoping people will use so they don't have to give Valve a dime when someone buys their software on Steam.  And that it's supposed to "prevent" piracy... by making their games harder to access, bombarding the user with invasive marketing and selling their telemetry to spambotters... or just leaving their databases wide open to hackers...

 

Irony: Palpable.

 

Contrast that with the HC Launcher.  3.66 megabytes.  Simple, clean interface.  Gives access to all of the HC shards, delivers news and updates, doesn't devour resources... oh, and it works.  It just works.  No hoops to jump through, no frustration, no annoyance, it just fucking works.  And this is something cobbled together by our guys and girls in their spare time because they wanted to make logging into Co* faster and easier.  This freeware launcher outperforms the multi-billion dollar company launcher in every way, without even trying.

 

I don't know what the HC crew does for their day jobs, I don't know how much other experience they have as game developers, but this experience with EA's software refreshed my perspective of our team.  I appreciated them for bringing Co* back to the public, and I lauded their efforts to keep the game free and doing everything on a volunteer basis, but now... now I respect their skill.  Granted, it's not hard to set a bar higher than EA's, but looking at everything the HC team has done over the years (untangling the spaghetti code, removing hard-coded limitations like mandatory T1 secondary powers, creating the HC launcher), they're clearly a cut above anything we had any right to expect from a bunch of freelancers working on this game as a hobby.

 

Yeah, I'm definitely liking our crew even more after that eye-opening experience.

[Skyhawke]

Would be kinda funny if they all worked at EA, though. 😄

[Force Redux]

Well said... 👏👏👏🙂🙂

[Techwright]

28 minutes ago, Luminara said:

I recently had the misfortune of using EA's launcher app. ... a launcher that looks and functions like it was created by a 9 year old using a WYSIWYG program to piece it together. 

 

 

Hey, don't drag the 9 year old down to that level!

[Oubliette_Red]

25 minutes ago, Skyhawke said:

Would be kinda funny if they all worked at EA, though. 😄

 

Programmers and UI and such do not always have control over the design of a product or application or are listened to when providing advice/feedback.

 

[Faultline]

A while ago I bought the game "It Takes Two" to play with my SO while I'm in Europe, which is strictly a two player co-op game. I got it on Steam, but it still installed the EA launcher and forced to launch the game through it. The darn "friends list" refused to work, so I could never play the game. We appeared as offline in each other's friends list no matter what we did, and EA support just said blamed the developers of "It Takes Two" and said it was their problem. I contacted the developers, telling them basically "hey, you know that EA is saying your game's broken when it's clearly their launcher, did they ask you to fix anything?" and they responded that EA had not made them aware of any issues with their launcher whatsoever, and to contact their support. The game has fantastic reviews, but to this day, we haven't been able to play it. At this point we'll just do couch co-op once we're back in the same continent.

[Cipher]

40 minutes ago, Luminara said:

Contrast that with the HC Launcher.  3.66 megabytes.  Simple, clean interface.  Gives access to all of the HC shards, delivers news and updates, doesn't devour resources... oh, and it works.  It just works.  No hoops to jump through, no frustration, no annoyance, it just fucking works.  And this is something cobbled together by our guys and girls in their spare time because they wanted to make logging into Co* faster and easier.  This freeware launcher outperforms the multi-billion dollar company launcher in every way, without even trying.

 

All credit to @Number Six here, he's one of the most talented people I've ever had the pleasure of working with.

[Number Six]

TBH half the reason the launcher exists* is because I was annoyed that all of the existing launchers like Tequila used .NET or Qt or some other heavyweight framework that's almost as big as the game itself. Especially .NET since it's a pain to get it working in Wine for mac/linux folks.

 

Running a launcher and waiting 15 seconds for a ton of .NET assemblies to load just to get the list and start verifying files is not great. So I decided the new launcher needed to be written in straight C** and not require anything that the game itself doesn't, that way if your system can run the game either natively or through something like Wine, it can run the launcher. And it should prioritize fast startup and optimization to get the game to a playable state in as little time as possible.

 

Thank you so much for the kind words. It makes me very happy that it seems to be meeting the design goals of being fast, just working, and getting out of the way so you can play the game!

 

---

 

* The other half is of course outlined in the license announcement.

 

** Sort of, the core and updater is C, and the UI is implemented in Lua with C bindings as an experiment and proof of concept of some things we want to do with the game client's UI.

[Healix]

Number Six....YOU ROCK!

 

[Luminara]

11 hours ago, Cipher said:

 

All credit to @Number Six here, he's one of the most talented people I've ever had the pleasure of working with.

 

It's not just the launcher, though, it's everything.  The point I was making, which might've been lost in my vituperative condemnation of EA's crapware, is that you all approach this like it's your job.  Not a hobby, not a project.  You do this like it's your living, and bring a level of professionalism that some "real" development teams don't, or can't, deliver, even though there's no money in it.  I knew you cared about the game, but until last month, I hadn't realized that you were coming at it like a real development studio.

 

I do now.  I don't think of you as enthusiasts any more, you guys are the real deal.

[Number Six]

It really is a great crew, there are times I wish I had people with that level of capability and professionalism working with my at my real job. Not that the people I work with are bad by any stretch, but it's unusual to have so many folks who are truly next level working together. And so many people who are very very good at what they do but have no problem working as a team, no issues with egos or butting heads, it's just been amazing.

 

Going to shout out @Telephone for now for all of the awesome work they've done building and documenting our infrastructure (internal documentation is something a lot of people overlook but is critically important!). From the servers to the automated deployment systems, the auto-triage system for the crash reporter, for taking the time to teach me what the heck kubernetes is... and so much more.

 

There are several others as well who haven't had much of a public persona but have contributed hugely, and I hope in the coming days may be able to be a little more visible now.

[Amaterasu]

13 hours ago, Luminara said:

I recently had the misfortune of using EA's launcher app.  I'm astounded by how bad it is.  Seriously, it's atrocious.  It's ridiculously bloated, badly coded, and hammers your network connection like it's a sex toy.  The interface is dull and uninspired, and throws a pop-up on the screen that pins itself to the foreground.  It forgets login information at random.  It uses almost a gigabyte of storage.  A gig, with no textures, no flashy graphics, no massive database, just the base launcher.  I had to wait three hours for it to finish downloading when I was forced to install it to access that game, and then another three hours when it updated itself.

 

That brings me to the worst offence it commits - it doesn't even work half the time.  I've had to force-kill and restart it up to a dozen times to get it to work, and that's a regular thing.  Every time I want to play the game linked to it, I go through that.  When it does work, it takes several minutes to launch the game, and it's always with a panic notification about not being able to load cloud data (that notification exists purely to manipulate the user into turning on cloud storage by playing on his/her fear of losing data... and that pisses me off).  By contrast, a game using the same engine and many of the same assets launches in seconds through Steam.  Without the drama queen tactics.

 

EA is a multi-billion dollar company, it could've afforded the best programmers and designers in the world... and it puts out a launcher that looks and functions like it was created by a 9 year old using a WYSIWYG program to piece it together.  Practically unlimited funds, and they shit that thing out.  They can't even blame their framework, Qt, because I have other programs that use it and they work.  No, they somehow found a way to take something functional and fuck it up in every way they could... and still published it, like they were proud of their origami ashtray soaked in kerosene.  "Here, we made this!  Use it!"

 

Actually, I apologize, that was a bit over the top.  9 year olds aren't that incompetent.  Sorry, kids, my bad.

 

Yes, I'm fully aware that their launcher is actually a marketplace they're desperately hoping people will use so they don't have to give Valve a dime when someone buys their software on Steam.  And that it's supposed to "prevent" piracy... by making their games harder to access, bombarding the user with invasive marketing and selling their telemetry to spambotters... or just leaving their databases wide open to hackers...

 

Irony: Palpable.

 

Contrast that with the HC Launcher.  3.66 megabytes.  Simple, clean interface.  Gives access to all of the HC shards, delivers news and updates, doesn't devour resources... oh, and it works.  It just works.  No hoops to jump through, no frustration, no annoyance, it just fucking works.  And this is something cobbled together by our guys and girls in their spare time because they wanted to make logging into Co* faster and easier.  This freeware launcher outperforms the multi-billion dollar company launcher in every way, without even trying.

 

I

 

 

 

Oh that's easy, the Origin App was released on June 3rd 2011.

And given EA's love of absolutely binning teams that make software for them, they probably launched it, fired the team and used interns to keep it running.

Of course those interns has no idea how to actually -fix- anything so they just kept it running, and given that EA's doors are like a blender on turbo with a motor that's not electric but nitro-methane powered, the original interns are probably long gone. (That is why they couldn't include multiplayer in the Mass Effect Legendary Edition, they closed that studio that made that part and fired/laid off all of the employees, so no one was around to import it, they (Bioware) actually admitted they didn't have any of the assets or files pertaining to that, they DON'T HAVE CODE THEY PAID FOR.

 

With that said, is it any wonder their software was so bad they had to entirely replace it with the EA App in October of last year?

I mean they change creative directors and project leads like a rapper changes his fitted cap and shoes, Anthem had at least four directors.

And it was all EA's fault, so yeah, badly written program that was more than likely meant to be replaced maybe in four years, certainly not meant to last 11 years (Origin got discontinued in october 2022). Most likely by a programming studio that no longer exists because EA cannibalized them for other projects, or maybe it was a side project they had some devs doing.

[Bionic_Flea]

1 hour ago, Number Six said:

Going to shout out @Telephone for now for all of the awesome work they've done building and documenting our infrastructure (internal documentation is something a lot of people overlook but is critically important!).

 

Telephone is all about communication! . . .

[lemming]

1 hour ago, Amaterasu said:

Oh that's easy, the Origin App was released on June 3rd 2011.

And given EA's love of absolutely binning teams that make software for them, they probably launched it, fired the team and used interns to keep it running.

Of course those interns has no idea how to actually -fix- anything so they just kept it running, and given that EA's doors are like a blender on turbo with a motor that's not electric but nitro-methane powered, the original interns are probably long gone. (That is why they couldn't include multiplayer in the Mass Effect Legendary Edition, they closed that studio that made that part and fired/laid off all of the employees, so no one was around to import it, they (Bioware) actually admitted they didn't have any of the assets or files pertaining to that, they DON'T HAVE CODE THEY PAID FOR.

 

With that said, is it any wonder their software was so bad they had to entirely replace it with the EA App in October of last year?

I mean they change creative directors and project leads like a rapper changes his fitted cap and shoes, Anthem had at least four directors.

And it was all EA's fault, so yeah, badly written program that was more than likely meant to be replaced maybe in four years, certainly not meant to last 11 years (Origin got discontinued in october 2022). Most likely by a programming studio that no longer exists because EA cannibalized them for other projects, or maybe it was a side project they had some devs doing.

Ack! Corporate Flashback!

 

I had written a framework of perl code that did a major amount of testing of a key product.    I wound up moving to other projects and my old task was taken over by a few others.  Two years later, I wound back on the old project and noticed that they hadn't changed my code at all.  Apparently the lead was terrified of breaking it and it hadn't been updated for a lot of logging that the tested products were putting out, so let's just say it was a bit of a shock.

The code wasn't great due to my previous inexperience, and in the first month I fixed a lot of stuff that I knew better methods and took advantage of better hardware.  Cut a process that used to take ~18 hours to a six hour run was a nice bonus.

Left the company and about two years later was contacted by a recruiter (I think he only scanned the buzzwords)  to see if I wanted sign up as an intern for the same company.  Why of course I'd love to work for free when the same job used to be six figures...

[starro]

Sorry if I repeat myself.  While I love powersets, zones, missions, AE, the sg base updates and new task force the best two enhancements COH:HC did was the 64-bit client and the HC client.  I have no idea how that was  done but it's cool.

 

Year 2019, I crashed SO often.  I would say at least twice or more hourly and pick up teams thought I flaked or whatnot.  Tequila would have its own issues getting the game to start or tell me files were missing but they were there.  I even reloaded my computer Windows fresh bi-monthly and while that helped.... 95% of the crashes ended with the 64-bit client and 99.9% with the HC loader.

 

I love the attention to infrastructure to just get people into a stable environment.  I look forward to finding out more about server hosting, security and beefing up services for what I hope will be an increase in player population.

[Snarky]

But can they…play flaming bagpipes while riding a unicycle in a Darth Vader outfit?  Huh???

Edited January 7 by Snarky

[Faultline]

1 hour ago, starro said:

Sorry if I repeat myself.  While I love powersets, zones, missions, AE, the sg base updates and new task force the best two enhancements COH:HC did was the 64-bit client and the HC client.

 

UI scaling is also pretty huge. If you have a 1080p monitor you won't think about it, but 4K monitors are a significant part of the market now, and the game is borderline unplayable at that high resolution with default UI scaling.

[starro]

34 minutes ago, Faultline said:

 

UI scaling is also pretty huge. If you have a 1080p monitor you won't think about it, but 4K monitors are a significant part of the market now, and the game UI is borderline unplayable at that high resolution.

..,..but i am still on my win 98 box monitor.

[Doc_Scorpion]

5 hours ago, Luminara said:

The point I was making, which might've been lost in my vituperative condemnation of EA's crapware

I thought your post was pretty milquetoast myself...  At least when compared to that that POS crapware deserves.

[golstat2003]

6 hours ago, Number Six said:

It really is a great crew, there are times I wish I had people with that level of capability and professionalism working with my at my real job. Not that the people I work with are bad by any stretch, but it's unusual to have so many folks who are truly next level working together. And so many people who are very very good at what they do but have no problem working as a team, no issues with egos or butting heads, it's just been amazing.

 

Going to shout out @Telephone for now for all of the awesome work they've done building and documenting our infrastructure (internal documentation is something a lot of people overlook but is critically important!). From the servers to the automated deployment systems, the auto-triage system for the crash reporter, for taking the time to teach me what the heck kubernetes is... and so much more.

 

There are several others as well who haven't had much of a public persona but have contributed hugely, and I hope in the coming days may be able to be a little more visible now.

 

As someone who works as a Senior BA/QA Lead with other Lead Devs, yeah documentation is absolutely critical even in mostly agile shops.

[golstat2003]

3 hours ago, starro said:

Sorry if I repeat myself.  While I love powersets, zones, missions, AE, the sg base updates and new task force the best two enhancements COH:HC did was the 64-bit client and the HC client.  I have no idea how that was  done but it's cool.

 

Year 2019, I crashed SO often.  I would say at least twice or more hourly and pick up teams thought I flaked or whatnot.  Tequila would have its own issues getting the game to start or tell me files were missing but they were there.  I even reloaded my computer Windows fresh bi-monthly and while that helped.... 95% of the crashes ended with the 64-bit client and 99.9% with the HC loader.

 

I love the attention to infrastructure to just get people into a stable environment.  I look forward to finding out more about server hosting, security and beefing up services for what I hope will be an increase in player population.

 

Yeah I don't thik I have crashed EVER since the new launcher was built. Kudos to Number Six and crew!

[GM Crumpet]

I am also in awe of our development and admin team. I've seen them knock together a hot fix for a game breaking bug in minutes, then act as if they just made coffee. What makes it even more incredible is I know how busy most of them are in real life. I swear they have Nemesis duplicates running round doing the mundane stuff so they have time to fit everything in 🙂 

[Ironblade]

20 hours ago, Luminara said:

EA is a multi-billion dollar company, it could've afforded the best programmers and designers in the world... and it puts out a launcher that looks and functions like it was created by a 9 year old using a WYSIWYG program to piece it together.  Practically unlimited funds, and they shit that thing out.

Sounds about like Ubisoft's networking.  They have some really amazing co-op shooters (The Division 1 & 2, the Ghost Recon series, etc).  The games are amazing when you can get their crap back end to allow you to play with your friends.  We tried to play Ghost Recon: Wildlands over the holiday and it kept dropping people off the team.  In the past couple days, it has settled back down to working REASONABLY well.

[lemming]

34 minutes ago, GM Crumpet said:

I am also in awe of our development and admin team. I've seen them knock together a hot fix for a game breaking bug in minutes, then act as if they just made coffee. What makes it even more incredible is I know how busy most of them are in real life. I swear they have Nemesis duplicates running round doing the mundane stuff so they have time to fit everything in 🙂 

Did they ask you about the TPS reports?  That's one clue

[lemming]

HC is great.   EA sucks.   Used to be a cool place to work, but all my friends that worked there in the 90s are elsewhere now.