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The Daily Grind: What was the best patch ever?

Eliot Lefebvre — Sun, 15 Apr 2012 08:00:00 EST

Filed under: Culture, Expansions, Game mechanics, Patches, Opinion, The Daily Grind, Miscellaneous

There are three responses to every patch released by every game, no matter what the patch does or doesn't contain. There will be people who decry the patch as something horrible, those who act indifferent, and those who enthusiastically gush about how wonderful it is. But there are some patches that stand out as being real game-changers, from Star Trek Online's enormous Season patches to the various content-and-system upgrades doled out regularly for World of Warcraft.

If you've been playing long enough, you can reflect on the patch history for your favorite game. What was the best patch that you can think of in terms of its individual impact? Was it one of the major overhauls introduced to Final Fantasy XIV? One of the story updates for Lord of the Rings Online? Or some of the large epilogues added to Guild Wars? What has your nod as the best patch ever, and why?

Every morning, the Massively bloggers probe the minds of their readers with deep, thought-provoking questions about that most serious of topics: massively online gaming. We crave your opinions, so grab your caffeinated beverage of choice and chime in on today's Daily Grind!

The Daily Grind: What was the best patch ever? originally appeared on Massively on Sun, 15 Apr 2012 08:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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New EVE Online launcher will simplify patching

Brendan Drain — Wed, 09 Nov 2011 14:30:00 EST

Filed under: Sci-fi, EVE Online, Expansions, Patches, Dev Diaries, Sandbox

EVE Online developer CCP Games has dedicated this winter's expansion to small features, balance changes and small quality-of-life improvements. Most of the changes we've heard about so far have been gameplay features and graphical improvements, from starbase tweaks and blaster balance changes to magnificent new nebula graphics. In a new devblog, CCP Topknot shows off a brand new launcher program designed to simplify the patching process.

Currently, players launching an out-of-date client get a pop-up about the latest patch and have to restart the client. This becomes a nuisance when frequent optional updates are released. The new patcher will work like a standard MMO launcher, detecting which files aren't up to date and downloading new versions. "A big-ass progress bar will tell you what's going on and how much work is left," explains Topknot, "and an unnecessarily huge button allows you to play the game once it is ready."

The new patcher is currently on the test server and should be making its way to the main game with the winter expansion. In the future, the patcher will be able to download updates in the background and may be able to download content in stages, giving new players access to character creation while the game content downloads.

New EVE Online launcher will simplify patching originally appeared on Massively on Wed, 09 Nov 2011 14:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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EverQuest reduces downtime with faster patches and expanded hotfixes

Justin Olivetti — Wed, 27 Apr 2011 12:30:00 EST

Filed under: Fantasy, EverQuest, Bugs

While behind-the-scenes logistical tweaks may not get the glory that other news does, they can and do have a huge impact on the game. This looks to be the case with EverQuest, which has undergone "substantial server side changes" to allow the team to update the game more efficiently.

The bottom line is that now Sony Online Entertainment can apply EverQuest updates much more quickly than before while reducing the potential for issues to pop up during file transfers. As a result, players should be seeing reduced downtime in the future during these updates.

The changes have also expanded the team's ability to apply hotfixes on the servers without bringing them down for patches: "While we still aren't able to hotfix everything, the hope is this will reduce the number of times we have to bring the servers down between our regular monthly updates."

You can read the full notice at EverQuest Players.

EverQuest reduces downtime with faster patches and expanded hotfixes originally appeared on Massively on Wed, 27 Apr 2011 12:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The Daily Grind: Browser-centric MMOs

Lesley Smith — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 08:00:00 EST

Filed under: World of Warcraft, Fantasy, Sci-fi, EVE Online, Game mechanics, MMO industry, Browser, The Daily Grind, Legal

The other day, I watched this demo of Gaikai, a new service being spearheaded by the legendary games developer David Perry. The idea is a simple one: using a browser you can access everything from MMOs to racing games and even the memory-hog that is Photoshop with all the actual software installed on a remote server and accessed via the cloud. Now it seems like an awesome undertaking but I came out of it feeling really impressed. WoW and EVE were running at lightening speed and the prospect of not patching or updating got me a little excited. Now browser-based MMOs are now new. Just look at Free Realms and the plethora of free-to-play titles. But the idea of playing seriously intensive games like EVE? Wow, just wow. You still need some kind of graphics card in your computer but the cloud seems to do the vast majority of the work.

So readers, what do you think? You might well have used browser-centric MMOs in the past and their ease of use is encouraging. Would you play WoW on a browser if it could mimic your current setting or even improve on them? Would it make your life easier knowing that someone else was dealing with all the patches? On the other hand, cloud-based technology is still new and shiny, would you rather stick with actual discs or your own hard drive? Tell us, readers, and drop your thoughts in the box below.

The Daily Grind: Browser-centric MMOs originally appeared on Massively on Sat, 04 Jul 2009 08:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Bruce Maclean's WAR dev diary is crazy but awesome

William Dobson — Sun, 21 Dec 2008 11:00:00 EST

Filed under: Fantasy, Patches, Warhammer Online

The latest Warhammer Online developer diary is up on the official site, and we've got to say, Bruce Maclean's eccentricity is infectious. The subject of this dev diary is an explanation of Mythic's patching schedule, which could well have been a very boring topic, but if you visit the page you'll soon see that Bruce is just brimming with AWESOME! HOT! FIXES! and SEXY! COOL! NEW! FEATURES! that he simply must share with the WAR-playing world.

It sounds like Community Coordinator Missy Hatch had a hard time getting Bruce to cough up his input to the dev diary series -- she'd been chasing it up for the better part of two months -- and perhaps it is because he and his team were working non-stop to bring that sexy content out, improving WAR for current and future subscribers. He mentioned that, without including smaller things like server maintenance, there have been ten proper patches since the game's launch, which really wasn't that long ago. We've got no idea how Bruce got so zany, but if this is one of the secrets behind Mythic's patching schedule then we hope that he stays that way.

Bruce Maclean's WAR dev diary is crazy but awesome originally appeared on Massively on Sun, 21 Dec 2008 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Conan's female avatar DPS bug will take weeks to correct

Michael Zenke — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 08:30:00 EST

Filed under: Fantasy, Age of Conan, Bugs, Patches

A few weeks back our own Adrian Bott took a close look at a very ... unique ... bug in Age of Conan. It seems that differing animation cycles in the game have resulted in an unforseen side effect: female avatars do less damage then male ones. At the time, the Funcom developers said they'd let us know as soon as they could about a fix. Today they let us know, but the news is mixed. The good news is that 'straight damage' (what they call white damage) has been fixed. Simple autoattack routines use few animations and they've all been fixed and pushed to the live servers.

The problem comes in with the much-vaunted realtime combat system, which requires heavy use of combos and unique animations. There are almost a thousand of those animations, and every single one will apparently have to be tweaked by animators and then retuned by a designer. "I know that many of you will probably be disappointed to hear that it might take us as much as another three to four weeks to solve this issue, for which I can only apologize, but we want to make sure that we devote the amount of time that an issue of this magnitude and importance deserves ... I have to stress that even with our internal goal set and everything currently proceeding on schedule I cannot currently promise that this will be patched to Live at the projected date."

Did you enjoy this? Make sure to check out our Age of Conan destination page, including all of our interviews, hands-ons, galleries and original features!

Conan's female avatar DPS bug will take weeks to correct originally appeared on Massively on Tue, 01 Jul 2008 08:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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New patching schedule for Age of Conan

Adrian Bott — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 11:30:00 EST

Filed under: Fantasy, Age of Conan, Bugs, Patches, Server downtime

While it initially seemed like good news that FunCom were patching twice a week, and thus doing their best to nail the wheels back on the Age of Conan wagon as it bumped unsteadily down the trail, it didn't work out quite so well in practice. The frenetic pace of updates has meant that new bugs got added even as old ones got found and fixed, and the recent calamity in which a patch had to be rolled back altogether has possibly convinced FunCom that fewer, more rigorously tested updates are preferable.

The additional testing, as we've mentioned, comes with the opening of the new TestLive server. Patches will also be slowed to the rate of one a week; Wednesdays will be the day to watch out for new updates. These two measures ought to make the unfolding progress of Age of Conan much smoother. Of course, FunCom also need to deliver a balanced, fun game as well as a bug-free one. There's a lot more subjectivity involved in that assessment. We've seen some exciting-looking announcments for the game's future; now we just have to see if they can deliver.

Did you enjoy this? Make sure to check out our Age of Conan destination page, including all of our interviews, hands-ons, galleries and original features!

New patching schedule for Age of Conan originally appeared on Massively on Mon, 30 Jun 2008 11:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Turbine plotting something special for the 100th Asheron's Call patch

Michael Zenke — Sat, 07 Jun 2008 20:00:00 EST

Filed under: Fantasy, Asheron's Call, Patches

The forums depths of Asheron's Call have been churning and swirling of late, in a tizzy about the imminent arrival of the 100th patch to their beloved game. Asheron's Call has been around for some time now, released as it was back in 1999; it will be sharing its 10th anniversary with EverQuest next year. In the meantime, the Turbine developers are teasing and poking at the players, offering up some tasty hints about what might be in that next patch. Without a doubt, the patch will be building on the game's ongoing story; just last month the Introductions chapter of the game opened up some new game elements, storylines, and even rewards for patient players.

Some of the hints the developers have dropped touch on treasure chest rewards, and the mechanics with the treasure system. They also have plans for a new landscape hunting quests. The most firm new information comes from Frelorn, with the AC community relations team, about an incoming tier of loot and its role in the landscape hunting game. Says he, "One of the ways we are looking at [adding this loot] is to use the Direland Champions mechanics. So that players who like to outdoor hunt would have a random chance of spawning a "Boss Creature" which would then either have this new profile or a key that would allow a pull on one of the new chests. This is of course, not set in stone, and we may go with another way of doing this, which we will explain when we begin releasing all of the information on the 100th update."

Turbine plotting something special for the 100th Asheron's Call patch originally appeared on Massively on Sat, 07 Jun 2008 20:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Age of Conan beta delayed until 4 PM EST

Seraphina Brennan — Thu, 01 May 2008 13:45:00 EST

Filed under: Betas, Fantasy, Age of Conan, Patches, Server downtime, News items

[Update: Observant reader Phobic99 has see that the developers have pushed the beta launch back again. This time, we're set for 5:00 PM EST (22.00 GMT). Thanks Phobic99!]

The title says it all. The Age of Conan FilePlanet beta has been pushed back until 4 PM EST (20.00 GMT) for a few more spit shines and polishes before it throws itself into your loving arms.

The reason for the delay stems from the developers wishing to get in that one last hotfix onto closed servers before opening them up to the public. So, if you haven't logged onto Conan yet, we recommend you do so to get your client up to date. Only the game servers are down, the patching servers are not.

If you completely haven't attempted to log in yet, you will be presented with a 300 mb patch, so if you're a rabid Conan fan and want to get into the beta the second the servers go live, it's recommended you try to start the client now to get yourself ready. Especially if you want to hit that level cap for the FilePlanet power levelling contest.

In the mean time, why not go watch some television or something? You know, Law and Order is on at 2:00 PM EST on TNT. That should get your blood thirst up while you're waiting for 4:00 PM EST.

Age of Conan beta delayed until 4 PM EST originally appeared on Massively on Thu, 01 May 2008 13:45:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The lifecycle of an EverQuest 2 hotfix

Michael Zenke — Sun, 27 Apr 2008 19:00:00 EST

Filed under: At a glance, Fantasy, EverQuest II, Patches

EverQuest 2 Associate Producer Jennifer Gerull posted an entry on the official EQ2 developer's blog the other day, discussing the process involved in pushing out a hotfix to the game. Though she equates herself to 'George Jetson with longer hours', endlessly pushing buttons all day, it's an interesting look into Sony Online Entertainment's revision process. As Gerull describes it, code fixes are pushed to an internal server, where the QA department can take a look at them. If the build of the game compiles nicely, it's reviewed by Quality Assurance to ensure the changes are working as intended. If the build doesn't compile nicely, some poor developer gets saddled with "a really ugly doll named 'BoB' that gets to sit on their desk until the next coder gets the "Breaker of the Build" title."

While most of the time the team waits patiently for QA to do its work, important hotfixes result in rushed phone calls and nervous waiting. Inelegantly applied solutions can have the QA team sending one or two of the items on the hotfix list back to the coding team, which in turn requires Jennifer to start a new internal update. She notes that each internal update is labeled with a letter, starting with A and working down. "A few times I've gotten all the way to L, M and N builds, but that is usually the exception rather than the rule on the number of iterations in one day. By the time we get to N, its usually time to go home and try again the next day." Make sure to read on for the full view of this process, and hints of future developer updates to come.

The lifecycle of an EverQuest 2 hotfix originally appeared on Massively on Sun, 27 Apr 2008 19:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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