Matrix has shocked me with this Patch silliness.

[TheHellPatrol]

You wouldn't be the first to start that topic as it has been covered before, i believe after the dust settles they were going to look into it as well as Witp merchandise. When??? I don't think anyone knows yet but if i'm wrong we'll soon find out...or not[;)]....SunDevil response is imminent[;)].

[SunDevil_MatrixForum]

http://www.matrixgames.com/default.asp? ... 6%23658112

half way down, official response.

[mogami]

Hi, Sierra broke my heart when they cancelled Civil War Generals III. But the good news is that is how I found Matrix. There was this forum following the game at another site and someone posted a link to Matrix because there was a post about it here. (I never got around to going back to the other site.)

[TheHellPatrol]

ORIGINAL: Mogami

Hi, Sierra broke my heart when they cancelled Civil War Generals III. But the good news is that is how I found Matrix. There was this forum following the game at another site and someone posted a link to Matrix because there was a post about it here.

I still have that game installed on what is now my sons PC...great game, i too was sad to hear the news about CWG3...i'm still waiting for him to "mature" enough for a head to head[:D].

[2ndACR]

I will take Matrix's method over a certain company who did a certain space based 5X style game. It also had a rabid
fan base, they spent 5+ years in developement, released 1 patch and said that's it. Fastest I have ever seen a game
go to the bargain bin. I wiped that game off my HD after the patch broke half the stuff that worked right. Half the stuff in the game, the company still has no idea what it does or if it is working right or how it works.

As someone who has 56K, I will say that I miss the retail stores. But Matrix has yet to let me down with their support.
At least here I know they will do whatever it takes to correct a problem as fast as they can. What other game company do you know of where the staff and developers are this involved after release and on a weekend? I can think of none.

[Black Cat]

Yeah.. It wasn`t easy to destroy a great franchise like MOO, supported by a huge Fan Base , but they did it with one Game with one " patch ".

Soooooo Sad[:(]

[mark24]

ORIGINAL: Erik Rutins

I'm glad it worked well for you and many others. We appreciated the support. However, we really need to hear from customers for whom it is not working well so that we can make sure everyone has a positive experience. As is, we've already collected a number of suggestions. I'm doing a review of the Members Area right now after one conference call and we're scheduled to have another tonight. We don't want any of our customers to be unhappy, but if they are, we want to hear it so we can fix it.

- Erik

Hi Erik,

I was one of those at-the-time-disgruntled-customers for much the same reason as everyone else who has had problems. I understand the reasons for the members area, & anything that stops piracy & makes sure the cash gets into the right place so as you can make more great games is fine by me. So, no complaints that the procedure for patch access changed per se.

The only criticism I think that is fair to level at Matrix, is that the process by which we could access the patch was not made clear enough. I'm sure it was documented somewhere, but us dull creatures of habit expecting to go straight to the d/l area, or members area & it be straightforward were stymied. We really could have done with something waved under our noses before we began to attempt access that outlined the process step by step. Perhaps a sticky thread in the forums devoted to that purpose, or something equally visible & clearly labelled.

I hope you can forgive us blowing off steam, it's just frustration.

Mark

PS. The error I had where I could not extract the download was purely my error, my trial version of Winzip had expired. Doh!

[BartM]

[:D]

wow

actaully, I kinda agree with the original poster, as well as others along this thread, and was it Erik ? who responded, which I was amazed (after the years of seeing companies ignore negative comments). Not a fanboy, just a very old (sigh) really old wargamer..

80$ is alot, for anything, and for a game, which you can buy 2-3 games with the same money, it's even more. that said, all here boiught the game, spent the money so I assume we wanted the game !

I get really harsh at times with posts about games I buy, if they seem to be really lacking in content or functionality, this has PLENTY of content, and like I mentioned elsewhere, 2-5 patches and it will run smoothly, and actually not be such a monster to navigate.

dunno, bored waiting for the patch to finish I still want a sortable leader table, and a way to make computer controlled areas just that (really dont want to run china and russia's stalemate war). more HQ locations (instead of seven, perhaps 9 or 12) leaving the "west coast" alone as it's own entity, same with Japan.

as for the download and SS#, well, not much more can be said that hasn't been. Its very different then what most companies do, but it will get better.

ttfn

[Platoonist]

I was curious.....did anyone out there ever play Three-Sixty's 1993 Pacific Theater wargame Victory at Sea? Designed by the legendary James Dunnigan . Was only ever available on the Mac. Looked good but I understand it was rife with problems. I still own a copy although I have never played it.

[pompack]

I advanced ordered the PC version of Victory at Sea. I waited expectantly for about a year then they were nice enough to send me a message saying they were scrapping it (they never cashed the check either).

[Platoonist]

Interesting pompacl....I do seem to remember reading somewhere back then that James Dunnigan was planning to completely disown himself from the game. I knew then it was in trouble.

[wzh55]

[&:]

[font="Verdana"]Well, I like the game and patch process[/font], I found I had no problems at all. I thank Matrix and Gary and his crew at 2 by 3 for a game that I am sure took many, many hours of research, not to mention the programing, testing, re-works, etc. I helps design a few scenarios for Steel Panthers for the old NovaStar company and on some of those small scenarios I spent much time to research the oob, armaments, history, and such. I commend all for a job well done and even though I was surprized at the cost initally, upon reflection, I figured if I was on the side of the games designers, that would be a fair price for the amount of effort involved in making a game of this magnitude. WELL DONE.[&o][&o][&o]

[myros]

MOO3 ...ah the memories I did a complete overhaul UI mod for that game thats still kicking around ...didnt help with the death spiral though

Did notice recently though that some fans have hacked the exe and are fixing things on their own now, they have actualy made a good amount of progress. Now thats some hardcore fans huh.

Myros

[Sultanofsham]

ORIGINAL: 2Stepper

ORIGINAL: Mr.Frag

I fondly remember various Adventure games where you'll invest 80 odd hours only to run into a show stopper bug that basically prevented you from continuing any further. Bungee had that, Sierra is famous for that, the list goes on and on where the game was completely useless and was NEVER patched to fix the issue.

Sierra was actually the one that cancelled a game that I thought would have been a gem! But it laid out dead on the matt without looking back. Then there was Interplay, but they too are a bad memory for most. LOL! Situations like those are why I have the respect I do for Matrix for making the gargantuan effort this game took. [8D]

Good old Sierra. I still remember Front office football 99 being recalled from the shelves because it was so screwed up.

[2ndACR]

I liked MOO1, never played MOO2. MOO3 completely disgusted me though. Even now I look up from my PC and can see it sitting there. Needless to say those 2 companies will never see another dollar of mine. I have'nt been back to the forums since I removed it from my hard drive. I got WITP now to occupy all my time or BTR if the fancy hits.

[rroberson]

ORIGINAL: Sultanofsham

ORIGINAL: 2Stepper

ORIGINAL: Mr.Frag

I fondly remember various Adventure games where you'll invest 80 odd hours only to run into a show stopper bug that basically prevented you from continuing any further. Bungee had that, Sierra is famous for that, the list goes on and on where the game was completely useless and was NEVER patched to fix the issue.

Sierra was actually the one that cancelled a game that I thought would have been a gem! But it laid out dead on the matt without looking back. Then there was Interplay, but they too are a bad memory for most. LOL! Situations like those are why I have the respect I do for Matrix for making the gargantuan effort this game took. [8D]

Good old Sierra. I still remember Front office football 99 being recalled from the shelves because it was so screwed up.

I kept my copy of that as a reminder to NEVER purchase another Sierra game again. I would like to think I contributed to the demise of that company.

[Tankerace]

If I can be blunt, I love this game. But, it seems to me that it was released far to early just to make Origins. For all these errors, that everyone noticed on the first day, I feel more like a payign beta tester than I do a gamer. But, because of what this game is, and the fact that given its scope its at least 85% finished and bug free, I'll move past that.

However, going through hoops and stuff to get patches is not a bad thing. That is if the game you got was a finished product, not released early. WiTP, however, isn't. I love this game, but I happen to know enough about programming and such to be able to tell this game was released too early. And given the fact that most of us paid 80 bucks the first or second day of July, and most of that had to either shelve the game or still haven't received it, I feel that going through all this hoopla about getting the patch is too much. I had to suffer with not playing WiTP for weeks, because I was told the patch would have "Major OOB changes needed to fix balance issues". Well, as we have seen, that wasn't 100% accurate. My stance is this. If we had paid you 80 bucks for a FULLY working game, then yes, make us go through hell to get the patch. But if we paid you 80 bucks for a game that we had to wait almost a month before we could play it to its full potential, and even then there are rumors contradicting that, just give us the patch without a lot of hassle.

Don't get me wrong, I am not trying to flame. I love WiTP, and I thank Matrix/2by3 for it. But considering the product didn't work wholly as advertised, I think the consolation to the consumer should be we can get the patches without going through a lot of crap.

Just my $.02

[MadDawg]

ORIGINAL: Tankerace

If I can be blunt, I love this game. But, it seems to me that it was released far to early just to make Origins. For all these errors, that everyone noticed on the first day, I feel more like a payign beta tester than I do a gamer. But, because of what this game is, and the fact that given its scope its at least 85% finished and bug free, I'll move past that.

Yep, I feel exactly the same way and have said so in the should I purchase thread below. I would have happily waited another couple of months to buy a finished product but as is I am going to be far more cautoius with future purchases. That being said I think this game has great potential and I am looking forward to seeing a finished product.

Dawg

[David Heath]

Hello

Yes we are working on this but we are not readyyet with Kinkos to start taken orders.

David

[David Heath]

ORIGINAL: Tankerace

If I can be blunt, I love this game. But, it seems to me that it was released far to early just to make Origins. For all these errors, that everyone noticed on the first day, I feel more like a payign beta tester than I do a gamer. But, because of what this game is, and the fact that given its scope its at least 85% finished and bug free, I'll move past that.

Just my $.02

Yes there were some problems and we always expect OOB issues do to the scope. We do feel the game was playable and was and currently is being played by many. We as a company will be making changes to our proceedures to get it more right the next time around.

David