Cmac1992
12-23-2008, 09:55 AM
Well here goes then. Recently I had an e-mail conversation with JD over what was happening in the Treyarch offices and what they were currently working on. I did make it clear at the start I was not expecting much news and tbh there was nothing groundbreaking or seriously interesting however I am here to tell you the gist of what was said.
First off I sent a list of questions to JD from many different points of view. From the stock game players to the compeititive scene to the modders and mappers I tried to soread the questions around as much as possible in an effort to gain answers for many different sections of the community.
Three of the main areas I looked at where:
• The expectations of communication
• The mod tools problems
• The problem with the features the competitive scene require
The problem over the communication although in some ways made out to be a very large problem it has improved recently with announcements made at the Call of Duty boards and although there are hopes that JD can be more definitive over what is happening at Treyarch he has said he is unable to tell us as much information as he would like to due to the fact that if they miss deadlines it is expected they would be slated for being unable to predict the unknowns they are coming up against in development.
JD as what seems to be a point of principle does not respond or acknowledge over-reactions to problems posted over at Callofduty.com and tbh this could be seen as one hurdle where the lack of communication is exaggerated an easier way of communicating problems would be a simple email detailing the problem and they would be much more likely to reply.
JD did accept there were things missing from the mod tools package mainly the lack of MP prefabs, sound sources and also accepted there were errors with the effects editing. The main reason for the lack of the sound sources is that it is being held up by the legal side of things due to licensing concerns which need to be addressed before they can be released to the public.
A sort of spanner in the works here was the two sides of the argument of the way the tools should have been released. I made it clear that from people I had spoken to, they would have preferred it if the tools had been released later and had much more intensive testing. His side however was that the community were expecting the tools out with the game and that a large majority would just be incapable of waiting for them. (He did not comment about the testing of the tools (Hands behind back anyone?))
On a side note it was accepted that there were claims that the tools were released prematurely and were buggy (once again he was unable to give an official comment over this however it was made clear that some of the errors people were getting could be solved)
Although not a main area I planned to discuss the issue of the Downloadable content was brought up and although no new information was released I was assured that when he is able to tell the community more about their plans he will.
The final main point discussed was the problems with features that the competitive scene require to function in a respectable way (mainly the lack of a record feature). Not much was said about this as it was confirmed that it would be looked at and hoped a fix would be out for patch 1.2 but JD was unable to guarantee its inclusion.
Prioritisation is what there work is based around. Treyarch are coming up against three sections of the community and are only able to fix one area at a time. Due to this they are focusing on the issues affecting the majority of players and this is the stock game they plan to fix first. Treyarch once done with this are going to make an effort to sort out the issues affecting the rest of the community however this will need to wait until after the second patch is released
That is basically a summing up of what was discussed by JD and I over e-mail as I said nothing really groundbreaking to report which is why I didn’t really see the need until now. Sorry if this information being held back has affected any of you in a great way however I doubt it has.
On an off-topic note Happy Holiday’s to everyone :d
First off I sent a list of questions to JD from many different points of view. From the stock game players to the compeititive scene to the modders and mappers I tried to soread the questions around as much as possible in an effort to gain answers for many different sections of the community.
Three of the main areas I looked at where:
• The expectations of communication
• The mod tools problems
• The problem with the features the competitive scene require
The problem over the communication although in some ways made out to be a very large problem it has improved recently with announcements made at the Call of Duty boards and although there are hopes that JD can be more definitive over what is happening at Treyarch he has said he is unable to tell us as much information as he would like to due to the fact that if they miss deadlines it is expected they would be slated for being unable to predict the unknowns they are coming up against in development.
JD as what seems to be a point of principle does not respond or acknowledge over-reactions to problems posted over at Callofduty.com and tbh this could be seen as one hurdle where the lack of communication is exaggerated an easier way of communicating problems would be a simple email detailing the problem and they would be much more likely to reply.
JD did accept there were things missing from the mod tools package mainly the lack of MP prefabs, sound sources and also accepted there were errors with the effects editing. The main reason for the lack of the sound sources is that it is being held up by the legal side of things due to licensing concerns which need to be addressed before they can be released to the public.
A sort of spanner in the works here was the two sides of the argument of the way the tools should have been released. I made it clear that from people I had spoken to, they would have preferred it if the tools had been released later and had much more intensive testing. His side however was that the community were expecting the tools out with the game and that a large majority would just be incapable of waiting for them. (He did not comment about the testing of the tools (Hands behind back anyone?))
On a side note it was accepted that there were claims that the tools were released prematurely and were buggy (once again he was unable to give an official comment over this however it was made clear that some of the errors people were getting could be solved)
Although not a main area I planned to discuss the issue of the Downloadable content was brought up and although no new information was released I was assured that when he is able to tell the community more about their plans he will.
The final main point discussed was the problems with features that the competitive scene require to function in a respectable way (mainly the lack of a record feature). Not much was said about this as it was confirmed that it would be looked at and hoped a fix would be out for patch 1.2 but JD was unable to guarantee its inclusion.
Prioritisation is what there work is based around. Treyarch are coming up against three sections of the community and are only able to fix one area at a time. Due to this they are focusing on the issues affecting the majority of players and this is the stock game they plan to fix first. Treyarch once done with this are going to make an effort to sort out the issues affecting the rest of the community however this will need to wait until after the second patch is released
That is basically a summing up of what was discussed by JD and I over e-mail as I said nothing really groundbreaking to report which is why I didn’t really see the need until now. Sorry if this information being held back has affected any of you in a great way however I doubt it has.
On an off-topic note Happy Holiday’s to everyone :d