Concerns from game development of TB and RT...

G

gameart3d

First time out of the vault
I have been a QA Tester for a few game companies for the last few years and I wanted to voice my concerns about developing a game with both turn based and real time combat implemented. I'm not trying to bolster anyone's opinion of my views by saying that I'm a tester (lowest on the totem pole of game development), but I have SOME experience in seeing a game go through it's dev cycle.

Anyway, here's my big fear....

Testing games (especially RPGs) takes a very long time and the company cracks the whip to make sure that things are done as quickly as possible. Especially as the dev cycle gets closer to "the end", the testers are going through the game faster and faster.

The testers HAVE TO do everything they can to speed up their play through the game. The obvious conclusion is that more testers are going to have to be spending more time in Real Time mode to speed up the testing process.

Yes, a good test team will make sure to hit all areas, including turned based. But if they need a lot of people really hammering at different areas of the game, I would imagine most will be running RT to get through faster. Therefore, more RT problems will get noticed, and more RT problems will get addressed...
 
gameart3d said:
Yes, a good test team will make sure to hit all areas, including turned based. But if they need a lot of people really hammering at different areas of the game, I would imagine most will be running RT to get through faster. Therefore, more RT problems will get noticed, and more RT problems will get addressed...
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All it takes is a simple plan to coordinate which testers are testing what. Assign two testers to each area, one goes through it in RT, the other in TB. Then swap every week or two weeks to keep things fresh.
 
I appreciate your response...and I agree. As I said, it's a concern of mine. It doesn't mean that it can't be solved..

However, I have NEVER been a tester on a project that the producers gave us enough time to test everything as much as we would have thought it needed before they demanded we have it finished and pushed it out the door.

So, Lets say there is 30 hours minumum gameplay to run through the game (not completing every side quest).

I would assume that number would fluctuate by quite a bit depending on RT or TB. Probably more like 22-25 Hours for RT and 35-38 for TB.

So, I'm not concerned that Turned Based won't get tested. I'm sure there will be a tester or 2 placed solely on TB. My concern is that the rest of the test team will be going through the game in RT.
 
Guys, it's not like they can drop anything they want on a whim. Personally, I'd like to see how they manage both real-time combat and multi-playing. At least they're giving it an honest effort. Let's at least see the final product before we shout, "NAY!"
 
I'd rather see a grrrrreat game with tb or rt and later on added MP than a crappy half assed trytohaveeverythingononego game...

For example, System Shock 2, a great single player game and like 1 or 2 months afterwards they released the patch for multiplayer, and it was a great game without having to waste time adding multiplayer when it was released, and releasing it later when they had a few weeks to solve released game issues.

To download SS2 go to http://www.the-underdogs.org/game.php?gameid=3924(it isn't ISDA protected anymore, and therefore available for download)
 
Thanks, and no, they don't sell it directly anymore so the ISDA dosn't care anymore. You can download some new games too...
 
Gustav_Drangeid said:
Then drop both.
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It's not the dev team's call to make. We HAVE to have MP. We HAVE to have RT. Beyond that we're pretty much free to do what we want I think.
 
Briareus said:
It's not the dev team's call to make. We HAVE to have MP. We HAVE to have RT. Beyond that we're pretty much free to do what we want I think.
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What about TB, why is it that all the crap from Tactics (RT and MP) is so important while things like TB from the preveus fallout games aren't even included in the "HAVE to have" list?
 
It will be in the game Gustav, so no problem there, you just have to understand Iplay execs are "special" people, with "special" needs...
 
"special" as in, generally uninformed, ignoring fans, ignoring gamers except for what in their minds seems to be popular.
 
No it will be like the other Fallouts, on that for know we don`t need to worry, we just need to keep an eye on things.
 
I don't understand the company's obsession with real time combat either. They've got their heads up their asses. 'Duuuuuh....me stooopid, only understand clicky clicky fighting......duuuh......GIVE ME CLICKY CLICKY BANG BANG FIGHT.......' that's what the execs seem to be thinking about. Probably also, 'duuuhhh why we got no money, we got one BILLION SHITTY COMBAT GAMES with REAL TIME.... and we got FALLOUT with THONGS for console thing.... duuuh..... why no moneys?? MORE CLICKY FIGHTING!'
 
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