Matrix Games Forums

One of our now long retired engineers used to gleefully say, "Well, I've fixed the last bug in GRAD-1" (our radiation shielding design software). And we would all laugh. Because Tom was the original author of the program back in the 60s. It had to fit in 64K of main memory of an old IBM mainframe. It has grown to a suite of 4 programs with 3d visualization and 150,000 lines of code. I've (with his help) added new features to it that required parsing variables that were stored 3 to a variable to save memory space. (number A, multiply by 100,000, number B muliply by 1000 and add, number C, add to the previous). You had to unpack them the same way. It was almost like writing in Assembler (which Ive done and you DON"T want to, believe me).

Anyway, the last bug will NEVER be found. Some day, some bright young engineer will execute a combination that hadn't been exercised before and <clunk> Oh, look. There's a bug.

Best thing in that program was an error message our group leader put in. Only 3 of us ever came across it, because you had to do something particularly brain dead to get there:

"FATAL ERROR: Are you trying to solve a problem or be one?"

ORIGINAL: JPFisher55
Ok, in the past, the developers have been excellent in fixing bugs and adding features. So, I trust that they have a plan to make CMO a great game.

I'm not game programmer neither a full time programmer, but a part of my career requires little bit of knowledge on C++ and Python and Fortran so I can tell something.

As a level of complexity and features increases in any software, bugs and optimization issues exponentially increase.

To solve such issues, major game studios just use brute force - they put a lot of budget and manpower to the project. Even then, think about how many game titles and franchises gone wrong from those "major Studios". So many trash level games are there, even from "top-tier" game makers and publishers with tons of manpower and budget investment. I don't even need to mention about EA. I still feel I'm straight robbed by Fallout 76. That was really a disaster and close to scam level. How about Mass Effect 3 and Mass Effect Andromeda? I still remember so many angry people towards early phase of No man's sky (but now NMS is good enough to enjoy) How about "never-ending" Star-citizen? Well, SC is not major game studio's work but context is the same. Game making is very difficult job which requires ton of budget and manpower.

As PC spec / console spec increases and will increase, more issues of bugs and resource optimization will become much more difficult to solve. As level of 3D engines and difficulty level of customer needs increases, required manpower and budget will greatly increase. Comparing old and new environment is easy, but if you closely look into it, you will figure out that is unfair.

Now, look at a lot of wargame "studios" working with Matrix and Slitherine or others. Some wargames begun as hobby project. Some are still one man project. Some begun as a project of group of friends or close grogheads, with great interest in military and wargames and have some coding skills, then made 3~5 ppl studio to develop their wargame. Manpower and budget of those wargame studios cannot be compared to that of "major games" we are seeing from Steam. While I agree there are bugs, but regarding quality, we cannot ask the level of major studio games to most of wargames we are playing. Of course they are not creating their game buggy - but just because there is not enough money and time and programmer to solve all those issues. It is very sad, but it is true. I also suggested somethings to CMO but I don't even expect that will be fixed next week. (Of course I will happy if they take my suggestion) I respect their priority, they should know about their code the most and I expect they are properly spending their time and manpower to priority issues in their standard.

Some people complains, how they put such high price to such buggy game. I understand. But if you don't like it then you can pass it. We are living in the society with freedom of choice and it is free market. No one force you to buy those. If you don't like it, you can just pass it.

But when I see some posts of very old PC wargamers saying, I really wish to enjoy full game before my last day on the Earth, I feel really sorry for them and devs both...

I'm curious if wargame devs can open Patreon or any social funding account or not. If it is possible, I have some games which I gladly invest to.

o solve such issues, major game studios just use brute force - they put a lot of budget and manpower to the project.

Excellent point! Check out the “The Mythical Man-Month: Essays on Software Engineering” (Fred Brooks, 1975).

The essential thesis, which is still missed by many in and out of the software development world, is one woman having a baby in nine months does not equate to nine women can have a baby in one month.

-WS

Addendum:
I almost wrote a bug free program once: "HELLO WORLD". But I spelled it "HELLO WORLDE". Had to fix that bug!

"I always write 'bug-free' code.
It's not more fault if the user does something unexpected and crashes it. Tell the user to stop doing that and it won't crash."
I once worked with someone a long time ago who had that philosophy.
[:D]