March Patch Notes (formerly february)

[Mustakrakish]

These patches would probably be out sooner if they didn't fire 95% of their staff after release. Just a thought.

OMG they fired everyone except for the lead designer! Wait... OMG, but he left too!!!

 

[brxbrx]

These patches would probably be out sooner if they didn't fire 95% of their staff after release. Just a thought.

is that really the case?

 

[SlightlyMad]

is that really the case?

There was an extremely large round of layoffs about a month prior to release, but it was nowhere near 95% of the staff. It was however most of the QA team, which really explains the state of the game at release.

 

[Valkrionn]

There was an extremely large round of layoffs about a month prior to release, but it was nowhere near 95% of the staff. It was however most of the QA team, which really explains the state of the game at release.

Because an extra month would have toooootally changed that.

 

[lschnarch]

Because an extra month would have toooootally changed that.

You want to indicate that a month of additional testing and QA wouldn't have changed much?

 

[Valkrionn]

Enough? No. No, I really don't think it would, given the time it has taken since release to reach a balanced state (assuming this patch does so; If not, add a few more months to the total). One month would not have been time to perform enough iterations, and successfully test them, to reach a balanced state, IMO.

In any case, it was the decision of 2K. Firaxis has no control over it.

 

[SlightlyMad]

Well, it certainly couldn't have hurt. It might have at least meant we got some meaningful patches sooner.

 

[Martin Alvito]

Because an extra month would have toooootally changed that.

I don't think we'd have gotten a balanced game, but we might have gotten a less buggy one.

 

[Zyxpsilon]

Whatever shape the "Design" ended up in, it simply isn't a matter of having extra months of QA but rather what the exact amount of man/hours were assigned during a specific time period.
Bad timing for the layoffs, early release.
The perfect Storm.
Thing of the past but it took Patches... they gambled and Very Nearly lost the core fan base since.

 

[brxbrx]

There was an extremely large round of layoffs about a month prior to release, but it was nowhere near 95% of the staff. It was however most of the QA team, which really explains the state of the game at release.

question&answer team? what they do?

 

[SlightlyMad]

question&answer team? what they do?

I assume that was a sarcastic comment possibly trying to imply that there was no actual QA done on the game, but just in case you were serious, it means Quality Assurance (testing). Keep in mind too, that regardless of the impact on the game, these were real people with bills and families who worked hard on getting a game out the door that, although it may have disappointed us, earned their employer truckloads of hard cash. It was a damn shame and an incredibly heartless thing to do.

 

[The Mad Russian]

There was an extremely large round of layoffs about a month prior to release, but it was nowhere near 95% of the staff. It was however most of the QA team, which really explains the state of the game at release.

that explains a lot

I mean I haven't had one glitch or crash since I've gotten my new CPU but I would like to have a complete, fixed game that's 100%, especially in the AI war/Diplomacy area

 

[Valkrionn]

I assume that was a sarcastic comment possibly trying to imply that there was no actual QA done on the game, but just in case you were serious, it means Quality Assurance (testing). Keep in mind too, that regardless of the impact on the game, these were real people with bills and families who worked hard on getting a game out the door that, although it may have disappointed us, earned their employer truckloads of hard cash. It was a damn shame and an incredibly heartless thing to do.

I absolutely agree with you here.

I'm not particularly fond of 2K.

 

[KevinMiles90000]

Trust me guys, I have inside sources. The dev team now just consists of 2k Greg, Sid, and a room full of those typewriter monkeys that they gave computers to.

 

[SammyKhalifa]

As far as it being stable and bug-free goes, it was (at least for me) probably the cleanest release yet.

 

[Zyxpsilon]

question&answer team? what they do?

Okay, listen brxbrx... can you at least contribute more than just repetitive one Liners?
My mind hurts just knowing i have to skip such interruptions that add nothing of substance. It was at 2K, it's still the case here.

 

[SlightlyMad]

Trust me guys, I have inside sources. The dev team now just consists of 2k Greg, Sid, and a room full of those typewriter monkeys that they gave computers to.

"Damnit Sid, this is just the complete works of Shakespeare again! I told them to re-balance maritime city-states!"

 

[jerseymike25]

Layoffs about a month before release likely means that the game was "Gold" around that time. I do QA for a living, if their coding/release schedules are similar to ours, 1 month before release is considered very late and typically takes a show-stopper type issue to get a fix in.

 

[Martin Alvito]

Layoffs about a month before release likely means that the game was "Gold" around that time. I do QA for a living, if their coding/release schedules are similar to ours, 1 month before release is considered very late and typically takes a show-stopper type issue to get a fix in.

mmm...hoagie...

Not as good as the legitimate Philly product, but as good as you're going to get once you get more than fifty miles away from Philadelphia. Which is still quite good, just not transcendent.

 

[jrockman13]

Are we live? I have 1.0.1.167....that was an update, but it might have been an old one that I just downloaded.