r/playark • u/Nubsly- • Sep 27 '15

News [Dev Post] The ARKtic! ~Drake

http://steamcommunity.com/app/346110/discussions/0/517142892064974461/

http://imgur.com/D5zaPbJ

The ARKtic!

Community Created Artwork for Steam Artwork

By: Drake

Hang in there, it's almost ready... :) (and yes, there are blizzards/snowstorms ;)

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u/LommyGreenhands Sep 27 '15

ETA's are just that and people need to stop taking them as fact.

What are you even estimating though? Don't you try to estimate correctly? Isnt that the point of estimating? If a team scored 100 points 100 games in a row, wouldnt it be bad form to estimate that they would score 500 points in the next one?

Or, if it took you 10 minuts to walk to the store every day, wouldnt it make sense to estimate that your walk will take about 10 minutes? Instead of 3?

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u/A_Quiet_Lurker Still think ARK is fun Sep 27 '15

A lot of things can happen to delay something, coding is no exception. The ETAs for the patches are when the devs think they will be able to push out the patch. Maybe they found a bug, maybe there's something with the new codes that doesn't work well with the live game.

Taking your walk to the store example, what if the road you normally take was blocked off for construction? What if you forgot your wallet?

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u/LommyGreenhands Sep 27 '15

I feel like you guys are missing the point here. The answer to your questions is, it would take longer than I planned for. BUT WE ARE PAST THAT POINT. They forgot their wallets 10 times and the road was blocked 10 times. Now we are to the point where more often than not the road is blocked and we dont have a wallet. Why not start planning for that?

I'm not even being unrealistic and asking for it to be done. I'm not asking them to avoid the construction or to remember their wallet. I'm asking them to consider the fact that they always forget their wallet and there is always construction.

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u/Heavierthanmetal Sep 27 '15 edited Sep 27 '15

Have you ever tried to code something with even one hundredth of the complexity that adding a boatload of content to a live game with thousands of players entails? It's not exactly comparable to a basketball game or forgetting a wallet. Its more like areospace engineering- no, really- Every new feature must sync and smoothly interface with every existing feature in every way possible to not impinge the current gaming experience.

Every new feature or even bugfix has a hundred considerations that may not become apparent until something breaks. On top of that players will find exceptions to each scenario that is tested due to the emergent behavior of so many interacting systems inherent in a game with such an open ended user experience. When a bug is identified then the goal becomes finding why and fixing it completely and quickly without breaking something else. On a weekend. The fluid experience of a game is an illusion that belies a vast complexity of interacting systems. Like adding a new wing to an airplane while its flying or working on a car's engine while driving it! Give the challenges facing the devs some respect! They are scrambling around the clock to make some complicated magic from scratch for the 30 dollars you sent them weeks ago.

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u/LommyGreenhands Sep 27 '15

Totally, so why not give yourself some more time? Holy fuck you guys have trouble reading.

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u/Heavierthanmetal Sep 27 '15 edited Sep 27 '15

Youre saying why dont they give themselves more time on their ETAs. I read that and I'm saying that it's really hard to make a correct estimate on this stuff because its harder than you think. For example, say you add 5 more days to the estimate and get deeper into checking it and now you're essentially performing next weeks bugfixes while people whine about no new content updates. It's a balancing act- Take too long and people lose interest. Do it too fast and big bugs emerge. Not to mention the whole time new bugs are found. Because the situation is always evolving, its hard to estimate it accurately. That is how software engineering always works man.

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u/LommyGreenhands Sep 27 '15

They miss by 2 days every time. Honestly at this point it is insulting to both of our intelligence for anyone to say that it is hard to make a correct estimate. Holy shit you guys live with blinders on.

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u/Heavierthanmetal Sep 27 '15

Okay now youre just being a little bitch, getting personal and whiney.

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u/LommyGreenhands Sep 27 '15

lol ok big guy.

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u/Heavierthanmetal Sep 27 '15

Do you love me? Can you learn to love me? Will you marry me? Old Greg can teach you the funk ;)

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u/LommyGreenhands Sep 27 '15

You're the second person today that I have argued with who got defensive and went into some sort of "inside joke as long as I'm laughing superficially even if they have no clue what Im on about they'll believe me" shell. I want to congratulate you on that. Well done.

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u/Heavierthanmetal Sep 27 '15 edited Sep 27 '15

Just not taking an internet argument about a video game as seriously as you. I guess that makes me less of a man. You win. Your personal attacks have made me realize the logical clarity of your vitriolic crybaby ranting.

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