Polishing EAW

[Ismael]

LEC said something about polishing EAW alot long ago.

 

How do developers polish a game? I mean when they finished the main work of buliding a game.

 

How they search for errors and bugs? They only play the game or they also have other ways of doing it?

 

Were do you assume most of the bugs will be? and when usualy developers should concentrate their attention more.

 

I say they should concentrate more on how ships react to each other and alos to the textures.

[Vader89]

When a developer polishes a game they go back and make sure everything is working correctly they run hundreds of tests, both human and computer. Perhaps they'll play and put eachother in different scenarios and see if the game handles itself appropriately, if not then a fix is needed. They also have computer programs that run through the code and search for errors. After all of this then they probably go back and make sure everything looks nice. And after that perhaps some beta testing and fixing. It is a long process escpecially with such large games such as EaW.

[Juggernaut1985]

Internal beta testing.

 

Polish can be many things from balancing to making stuff just look good.

[Darkmark]

I think you may be overlooking the obvious. They could actually be polishing the game, you know making the CD all clean and shiny.

 

But in all seriousness it's most likely the stuff Vader89 points out. Bug identifcation and repair, the all important balancing, and perhaps the later less complicated elements which they had already left room to expand upon at a later date. These could be things such as unit skins, fine tuning wepaons fire to give the right effect. Small things that won't effect the running of the game too much but give the game a more graphically appealing effect during play.

[Vader89]

lol Darkmark! Yeah, when they polish a game they just make sure its how they wanted it to be or better, they fix things, make things better/more balanced make things look better or like DarkMark said just make sure each and every CD is clean. lol It like before you turn in a project or something important you made, you make sure it looks good, and works right and serves its purpose.

[Admiral Cotla Charre]

Beta!!!!!!!!!

 

Well, besides the fact that I just really want to play it, its generally a good thing to get an outside opinion on what you're doing. Sometimes you get so into it that its really difficult to take a step back and observe from an impartial perspective, so it can be helpful to have a couple (thousand) people try out the game and give you their input.

 

Kinda like how you might write a paper for something and it makes perfect sense to you, and somebody else reads it and just goes, "What the hell?!?!"

[Vader89]

That was the example i was going to use, writing a school paper and thats a proven fact, my Social Studies teacher (who was also a Psyche Teacher) would give us little psyche tidbits left and right and that was one of them. Think about it these guys have been slaving away at this game day and night for a long time now. If there are any little things you need to do to make something go properly they know them outsiders dont. Its always better to check your work with someone else than go putting it out there unchecked. There are many many examples of people who dont do this and im going to go into that cause it'd be a long post.

[Juggernaut1985]

I'm a single player type of person, so I hope they really polish that.

[Ghostly_Substance]

Same here. I mostly play single player unless someone wants to play multi or I just join a multi game and I bet other people do the same

 

Well as long as the bugs dont cause problems its all good

[Gen.Vader]

i think SP players are going to like EaW alot more than MP people. think hoow long it would take to find an iopponent. start,save,meet again,start agian,save etc...sure would have to be dedicated to do that. and its especially good since i like SP too

[Vader89]

What they are probably focusing on is the SP aspect. Most of the bugs you get you get from multiplayer. I too am a SP kinda guy, i hope we can play the computer in a skirmish type battle too, but i suppose the "How do you get resources in this mode" question comes into play.

[Overkill]

Vader your Social Studies teacher also taught Psyche? Mine too either its a double package deal or we are from the same place you live in Long Island NY?

 

Almost forgot to stay on topic. They might also perfect scaling(but I'm not complaining about it) Put in wanted features and units if they get a lot requests for for it. Also the polishing stage is where the company give me free money.

 

Oh Noes!!! Tie fighter attack!!!! Vader's with them!!

 

lOl lOl [OO] [OO] lOl lOl

 

[-O-]

[Joshinator]

I agree, it's always good to get a fresh perspective on something, seeing things that may have been missed, espeically if it may be in plain site, and u didn't notice, lol. Other things i was thinkin was ballancing, and i'm sure they mentioned in an interview that every week they would play a fresh version of the newly updated eaw, finding bugs and ballancing issues. It also looks like they're making models and explosions better. Adding more music, sound effects, unit voices and all that jazz.

[Foshjedi2004]

I'd release it to us amazing posters and see what error's come up when we beta test it!!

[Joshinator]

Wow what a coincidence Fosh, i was thinking the same thing

[Vader89]

Agreed!

 

Overkill - Sorry dude not the same guy, i live in Eastern Pa.

[Delphi-PG]

Hola Guys,

 

Just stopped in for a few minutes. I responded below. =)

 

 

How do developers polish a game? I mean when they finished the main work of buliding a game.

 

Delphi – Once everything is in the game and working, we continually go through the game balancing units, tweaking maps, enhancing features and smoothing out controls. We also try to find and eliminate as many bugs as possible before ship.

 

How they search for errors and bugs? They only play the game or they also have other ways of doing it?

 

Delphi – We have an in-depth checklist of tests that are verified to ensure everything is working as intended. We also count on our QA department to be creative and come up with new situations that may or may not create new types of bugs. Example: What happens if you are saving your game and accidentally Alt-Tab? Will it crash, will the game save properly? These are the things we need to know. Another example: Does Vaders Force Crush ability work on all enemy vehicles? What happens if Vader is being attacked by Jawas and uses his Force Crush on a Rebel T2B? Hope this helps. =)

 

Were do you assume most of the bugs will be? and when usualy developers should concentrate their attention more.

 

Delphi – Hard to say, it is usually spread out across the board.

[Foshjedi2004]

Thanks Delphi for the Insight.

 

Is SW EAW stable. I mean, Stargate SG1 may be pulled from production. Any possibility of this for EAW???

 

How's the Beta Testing Coming?

[Ghostly_Substance]

lol nice

[Vader89]

Fosh, if anyone is this site deserves to be a beta tester, you and ghostly are definitely the ones. 1000+ Posts congrats!

[Ghostly_Substance]

/bows This forum is mine and fosh's home and other peoples home also

[Darkmark]

Yes, congrats on the 1000 posts both of you. Like Vader almost said in ANH (had he been slightly tipsy and also been seeing two Obi-Wans instead of just the one):

 

When you first came here, you were but the learners; now you are the masters...

 

And thanks Delphi for finding the time to explain about the 'polishing'.

[Foshjedi2004]

Best Quote: "The Circle is Now complete"

[Guest JediIgor]

Thanks Delphi for the Insight.

 

Is SW EAW stable. I mean, Stargate SG1 may be pulled from production. Any possibility of this for EAW???

 

How's the Beta Testing Coming?

 

That was Stargate Alliance, not Stargate SG1 [the series] and from what I've seen of the previews JoWood made the right move. The game was being developed by some no-name company (Petroglyph has all the C&C names behind it, remember) and as it was going I know as a Stargate fan I would've been disappointed.. and developing for consoles simultaneously was a kiss of death to a good FPS IMHO. Games have a really hard time being good on console+PC at the same time (although Morrowind and GTA did it).

 

I mean the basic idea behind an Stargate game isn't so hard, make a scripted campaign the players follow but also let them manually dial gate addresses and if they go to someplace that wasn't made by the developer it could be a randomly generated planet . Plus the main enemy was the Goa'uld which got defeated last season, not so much fun if you know how it ends .

[Foshjedi2004]

Well SG1 is being pulled from production aswell!!! Season 9 is reported to be the Last one!!!