"Ideas are easy, production is hard"
Understanding the logic behind why updates take time
Mon, 04/21/2014 - 06:17
Mon, 04/21/2014 - 08:09
#2
That's one way to view. Another popular belief is that the production is slow because OOO has been seeking a game engineer since they've been one down since about a year ago. This would explain the excessive amount of promos (which require effort primarily from the art team) and the lack of proper content updates (which require effort from all devs, including the programmers).
Mon, 04/21/2014 - 08:16
#3
:;
A few things:
- People talk like the only thing they're working on is the gunner update ("WHY IS IT TAKING MONTHS OMG") - they're definitely working on other things at the same time. At this point, it's probably safe to assume they set the gunner update aside to work on other features.
- Unfortunately, I didn't play the new mission from the anniversary event, but that aside, some of the more recent events (Apocrea, Tortodrone) all had features that as far as I'm concerned, were new and interesting (it's a shame that they were only for temporary events rather than permanent content) and definitely required some work. So those count as new content/features.
- Releasing promos has no effect on feature release speeds, so people who are like "omg OOO is only greedily making promos now" are pretty ignorant. Artists can work on content different from features that programmers are working on.
If something requires new behavior (bug fixes, new bosses), it needs programmer work;
if it can work with existing behavior (level layouts, skins, models), then artists/designers can work on them by themselves.
Heck, judging from spoilers that people have posted, the art for most of the new guns (models, skins) have already been done. What's probably missing from the gunner update can be either: modified gun mechanics, stat tweaking, behavior tweaking.
I'm not excusing the long delays between OOO's permanent content, but at the very least, I'm an advocate for people being more informed before they complain about things.
Tue, 04/22/2014 - 00:24
#4
I'm so funny I should be a forum clown or something..
It's funny how we're all running on guesswork here. Can't we just trust the occasional vague quip from the staff instead of coming up with all the assumptions? [Redacted;Super offensive towards major religions, oh my], I'm starting to think General Discussions was for real discussions, with all the player discussions going on.
Tue, 04/22/2014 - 00:56
#5
"In theory, theory and
"In theory, theory and practice are the same thing. In practice, they aren't."
That is a programming motto. And it is oh so very true. Basically, you plan something try it, and it doesn't work.
Tue, 04/22/2014 - 01:19
#6
Practice is when everything works and no one knows why. Theory is when nothing works and everyone knows why. My programming projects are usually a combination of the two: nothing works and I have no idea why.
Tue, 04/22/2014 - 02:03
#7
http://www.spiralknights.com/?page=20
Browse few pages and look at dates. Have fun.
Tue, 04/22/2014 - 02:25
#8
Haha
Then there is that one too.
Maybe people will now understand? :P
OOO is a small company, so they don't have many people working on the gunner update...
Plus there might not be very much funding involved...