There's a school of thought that it's better to have fewer but bigger updates to software. I tend to be in that school of thought.
But as a developer, we really enjoy sharing what we do with our customers as quickly as humanly possible.
For example, in v1.02, if you're using it right now, you hopefully noticed that we were able to vastly improve the per turn times over v1.01 and earlier. We thought that a big deal (we came up with a different algorithm for finding units more efficiently which, late game, is a big deal). v1.02 also starts out using a lot less memory due to dynamic memory caching, a technique we have been working on for awhile but wasn't expected to be ready until v1.1 but actually got done early so we included that.
Right now, for v1.03, we're working on a new way of storing compressed textures and clearing the texture cache (right now, we cache textures for the entire game session which gives a slight performance improvement but over the course of the game can eat up a lot of memory). We're doing this because we know how many users like really big maps and we'd like to pave the way to larger sized maps eventually.
So anyway, are these regular updates annoying you? Would you prefer if we slowed down and had fewer, bigger updates?
Thanks!
As long as the updates are engine based or just not concerning the XML I want to mod, more is better. If we got into a situation where so many things were being updated I couldn't keep up, that would kind of make it hard to mod. Nice to see that larger maps are a priority. My new comp can run massive maps already. I am excited to see what will happen next.
I prefer more and smaller updates. Too much changed and it all becomes a bit overwhelming. ie civ5.
I am extremely impressed the way you guys are rolling out patches for this.
I don't mind frequent updates, just so long as I am loved.
Keep em coming AND make them available in the Stardock Central please.
The only time I have issues with frequent smaller updates is when:
a. they break save games
b. I'm forced to install them
c. they need to all be applied individually if I come back to the game after some time. (Neverwinter Nights is a great example - you have to apply like a dozen patches to get the game up-to-date if you are doing a fresh install)
As long as none of these are true, I have no problems with the updates.
Edit: seanw3 brings up a good point - if you're breaking mods all the time, that sucks too. Better to save all the mod-breaking fixes for larger releases if they are not addressing game-breaking bugs.
As long as the backward savegame compatibility is kept, keep them comming fast and furious After all, if someone doesnt want to update, he can wait as long he wants before installing an update. I dont really see how frequent updates can be problem for somebody (except perhaps modders)
I prefer the fast patching. Smaller patches mean less chance of things going wrong. Also easier to find new bugs introduced by the patch.
Love it and the game! Keep it up!
On that note, I would also enjoy frequent DLC releases to keep me content. Things like new rare resources (Skath pool that generates 0.1 Skath mounth every season?), factions, races, traits, etc.
Love your game. Already banked 100 hours in the game to my girlfriends great dismay
I don't mind the regular updates, but could you keep them backwards compatible? So I can update to 1.03, even if I still have 1.01 installed. Or maybe that is already done? I haven't missed either post-release updates but during the beta it happened several times, forcing me to do a complete reinstallation. Having the older updates remain available would work too.
Which reminds me, is there any way to have the game installer not extract to the C drive by default? If you don't have enough room there the extraction stops (without telling you why) and you can't install the game. I ran into this several times during the beta and while installing 1.00. It's very annoying to have to go hunting for a few megabytes of space when I have another partition with more than enough room for the game and the installer.
At the moment the updates are coming around every two to four weeks, I think this is a good amount of time. Any shorter and people will be waiting for the next update instead of playing the game.
I would love to see a top of the line installer though, speaking of the subject, one that can detect how many of the old patches you need (say I have version 1.00 and need to patch to 1.05, it would need all that info).
But then again, I am a consumer, I want all and everything
It would be nice if you included some items in the patcher, that would find old sovereigns, factions and custom units and either prompt me to delete them, or update them to the new version...
Sincerely~ Kongdej
Like said quite a few times in this thread already, keep 'em coming.
You're never forced to install them.
I like the frequent updates.
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