Why has a broken patch been released AGAIN?

[Paddington]

Re: Why has a broken patch been released AGAIN?

I just can't believe how stupid idiot programmers there are at DICE. This game is built with glue and tape and also will be the 2142 with the same engine.

[mlkmnz]

Re: Why has a broken patch been released AGAIN?

I just can't believe how stupid idiot programmers there are at DICE. This game is built with glue and tape and also will be the 2142 with the same engine.

I wouldnt say its the programmers who are stupid. Its the person that has designed the processes within the patching team. From the sounds of it the programmers who patch are also testing the game, and they're most likely doing it on a standardised specialist development PC with little or no 3rd party apps running, unlike the general public who are running a myriad of different hardware and software configurations.

[imported_SpungE]

Re: Why has a broken patch been released AGAIN?

From the sounds of it the programmers who patch are also testing the game, and they're most likely doing it on a standardised specialist development PC with little or no 3rd party apps running,

IIRC that's EXACTLY how they're doing it. I wish I could find the quote.

[imported_Deliverance]

Re: Why has a broken patch been released AGAIN?

Skull cross-bones disappear from friendly mines when the engineer who droped them dies. About 40 seconds later or so the mines themselves will disappaer. Could it be that? It's all I can think of.

Not true. It happens to me all the time. Say i lay 5 mines, 3 will have skull and crossbones and others dont. I figured it was a glitch with my client software so asked a squad mate over VOIP to shoot at the ones which to him had no skull and crossbones. They were the same 2 that didnt have the icon on my screen.

IIRC that's EXACTLY how they're doing it. I wish I could find the quote.

Then they really dont have a clue if thats the case. You can test all you like under lab conditions, but its your obligation to test under real world conditions and at least TRY to take into account natural variations in software, hardware combinations (i know its not possible to account for all of them, but they should at leas try to identify the biggest problem makers)

[mlkmnz]

Re: Why has a broken patch been released AGAIN?

IIRC that's EXACTLY how they're doing it. I wish I could find the quote.

Then that explains everything. How incredibly short sighted. Or maybe they try to spend as little as possible on the game to maximise profits. Hopefully it will hurt them in the long run, I'm not too sure how much of the community they have lost to issues with patching but it would have to bite into sales of upcoming games surely.

Coincidentally, does anyone who had issues previously getting BF2 to run stabily now find 1.3 has corrected things for them?

[DrJambo]

Re: Why has a broken patch been released AGAIN?

I get the feeling the game loads quicker...

But that's more than compensated by the time spent trying to battle with the buggy browser in 1.3.

[mlkmnz]

Re: Why has a broken patch been released AGAIN?

I get the feeling the game loads quicker...

But that's more than compensated by the time spent trying to battle with the buggy browser in 1.3.

The lord giveth, the lord taketh away

[imported_Apostle]

Re: Why has a broken patch been released AGAIN?

Not true. It happens to me all the time. Say i lay 5 mines, 3 will have skull and crossbones and others dont. I figured it was a glitch with my client software so asked a squad mate over VOIP to shoot at the ones which to him had no skull and crossbones. They were the same 2 that didnt have the icon on my screen.

Exactly the same for me. I grown to ignore it, and play on FriendlyFireWithMines 0 servers, it's the only solution because we know DICE aren't fixing it. Also, I've experienced enemys running over my mines, the mines exploding, but the enemy drives off unharmed.

Both these bugs were present before 1.3, but obviously haven't been addressed in 1.3 either.

I get the feeling the game loads quicker...

But that's more than compensated by the time spent trying to battle with the buggy browser in 1.3.

Your game loads quicker!? Aren't you the lucky one!

Mine seems to log in slower, and the maps load slower, aswell as my FPS has gone downhill.

[Consultant01]

Re: Why has a broken patch been released AGAIN?

Threads like this are why I dont torture myself by trying to play on patch day... Thats a lesson I learned from my World or Warcraft days and it is doing well by me in this game as well.

Patch day = horrible.

I wouldnt say its the programmers who are stupid. Its the person that has designed the processes within the patching team. From the sounds of it the programmers who patch are also testing the game, and they're most likely doing it on a standardised specialist development PC with little or no 3rd party apps running, unlike the general public who are running a myriad of different hardware and software configurations.

You just hit the nail on the head and solved your own argument.

The potential combinations of hardware components and active software running in the background of an end-user's gaming PC are in the millions, if not billions... It is physically impossible for them to test under every configuration.

This is proven by the fact that some people still get these bugs while others do not.

YOu cant play, that really sucks for you, but for the hundreds and thousands of people not posting here because they *can* play, they are having no issues and the patch worked fine.

Suck it up.

[mlkmnz]

Re: Why has a broken patch been released AGAIN?

Suck it up.

Suck it up? What about the money I invested in the game? If they set system requirements for a title, and I meet those system requiements, is it too much to ask that the game runs? If it doesnt then am I entitled to a refund or is it a case of spend the money and cross your fingers? If you couldnt get the patched version to run (and you havent even installed it yet cause you're an expert), would you suck it up yourself or join the legion of discontented posters here?

I understand all about differing systems and software, but if they have a team of a handful of people only testing it in one environment, thats just a bit too short sighted. Maybe if they dont want to spend the money they could engage in a controlled beta testing before public release to, say 1000 different players?

[*Lost*Soldier*]

Re: Why has a broken patch been released AGAIN?

Once again we have been hit with a major patch that simply does not work. Bugs are rampant, inparticular CTDs are more prevalent and the server browser is a joke.
No doubt another hotfix is on the way, but really why is this acceptable?

Certain fanboys shall run around proclaiming that we should be grateful for the ongoing "support" the community is receiving, well I propose this is the kind of support we could do without.

I suggest some of you guys try running 1.0 or the demo, and see just how different this game used to be. I remember a time when rockets did not fire through vehicles, and commanders could not drop hummers on runways. I remember times when the PC you needed to run BF2 didnt have to be heinously powerful. As it stands to play BF2 on high you need a system that barely existed at the launch of BF2. I remember when the official (laughable) statement from EA was to reinstall the game and revert to 1.0 when the first broken patch was released.

Gameplay changes are rampant, while some of these are beneficial, some are counterproductive, others are odd, and other obvious gameplay deficiencies and balance issues go unchanged (think J10 anybody?)

To be honest I have reached a state where I would say to Dice: If you can't do a job properly, don't do it at all.
I'm sick of having to deal with their consistently poor standard of work, and if that is all they are capable of, then I would rather they would just lay hands off and leave the game as is.
Doing a bad job is worse than doing no job at all.

Edit: Double spaced paragraphs for easier reading

i agree totaly whit u

[ptegan]

Re: Why has a broken patch been released AGAIN?

But there was a controlled beta test. You never see the bugs found by the testers only the ones that they didn't catch and those that they did but DiCE decided not to correct.

[TheEn|gma]

Re: Why has a broken patch been released AGAIN?

The potential combinations of hardware components and active software running in the background of an end-user's gaming PC are in the millions, if not billions... It is physically impossible for them to test under every configuration.

This is proven by the fact that some people still get these bugs while others do not.

YOu cant play, that really sucks for you, but for the hundreds and thousands of people not posting here because they *can* play, they are having no issues and the patch worked fine.

Suck it up.

I take that you have no major bugs that many others are encountering, people like you annoy the hell out of me, you seem to have the attitude that "If it works for me that’s all that matters" okay to a certain extent.

But aren't you annoyed by investing £30ish (I paid £50 including SF+EF) for frankly a game that doesn't live up to expectations, that doesn't run on recommended hardware?

Suck it up? I'd rather not

I admit their is going to be people that have problems I don't excpect DICE to have software that will run on every machine, that meet the minimum specs, but there apears to be a fair few people,(increasingly so since 1.3) having problems, maybe these people that are posting are just posting because their having problems, or they could be regulars would be interesting to see how many regukkary active members are having problems in comparrision with new people to determine how many people are actually having problems.

[Consultant01]

Re: Why has a broken patch been released AGAIN?

Suck it up? What about the money I invested in the game? If they set system requirements for a title, and I meet those system requiements, is it too much to ask that the game runs? If it doesnt then am I entitled to a refund or is it a case of spend the money and cross your fingers? If you couldnt get the patched version to run (and you havent even installed it yet cause you're an expert), would you suck it up yourself or join the legion of discontented posters here?

I understand all about differing systems and software, but if they have a team of a handful of people only testing it in one environment, thats just a bit too short sighted. Maybe if they dont want to spend the money they could engage in a controlled beta testing before public release to, say 1000 different players?

I've had patch issues in the past, just like you are describing and somehow I've been fortunate enough to solve them through various combinations of reinstalls and re-patches. If your problem is truely terminal, which I highly doubt, then I feel bad for you. However, if, as I suspect, your problem can be solved then I say suck it up and find a fix like the rest of us.

Maybe I'm jaded because the experience you are reporting has been an issue since the old days of Battlefield 1942...their patches sucked then, their patches sucked in BF Vietnam, and to some extent, for some users (you and others) the patches are an issue for BF2.

In your 25 years of PC Gaming experience, have you never had a problem like this? If not, then you have been living some kind of charmed life, because as long as I've been playing PC Games, the only consistent thing has been the inconsistency with which PC Game patches have been implemented.

Suck it up isnt meant to brush you off, its meant to encourage you to suck it up, pick yourself up by your boot-straps and keep on trouble-shooting.

You can do it. It's part of the deal with PC games. Always has been.

[Maxor127]

Re: Why has a broken patch been released AGAIN?

It really wouldn't bother me if there weren't completely obvious bugs that anyone who took two seconds to test the game could've found. Never in all of my years of game playing have a seen such bad patching. A game shouldn't get worse with each patch. Old bugs don't get fixed and new bugs get introduced. I probably would've forgiven any new bugs that cropped up since I understand testers can't find everything and things happen randomly so it's hard to figure out. But the server ping bug shows that someone needs to be fired over there. If I were EA or DICE, I'd fire whoever I felt was responsible for this. 1.22 is looking a lot better now. I think everyone should revert back to that since the only good thing 1.3 introduced was coop and bots, which should've been included when the game shipped but oh well. I'm not crazy about the vehicle drop thing. I thought it was a pointless idea to begin with and it serves no real purpose except to get cars where they're not meant to be since a lack of transportation was never really a problem. Almost every base has at least one or two cars and good teamwork would allow everyone to have transportation.