Stuff

[elmerlee]

After waiting some time I finally bought this game late April. Really got into it and made some usefull utilities and stuff. David gave some good input and I enjoyed working with the game.

Some things that are major problems were said to be fixed. Good. But where is a new patch,release,beta - whatever. I think my last post was about March 8 and I looked forward to the fixes so I could get back to some things I was working on.

But no update and very little input from David. Okay I've had my monies worth but really spent a great deal of time on some things that just seem waisted. Would it be possible to find out what is happening and not just a "soon" or "when it's ready" reply.

[David Winter]

Well work is being done. A huge amount of it really but 99.999% of the work is behind the scenes and nobody is going to see it until 1.35 is released sometime later in the year.
 
I really wish people would not expect updates and new versions every couple of weeks. That's simply not a schedule I can keep. There's too much to do for that, and there are dependences involved as well even if I personally could manage a schedule like that.
 
The next update is ready and matrix is preparing it. But that is out of my hands now. I've delievered my part and matrix needs to fit everything into their schedule. And as we all know, Maximum-Football is far from their only game.
 
Brought about by some (in my opinion) stupid decisions by microsoft, the games graphics engine is being stripped out for 1.35 and I'm currently building a new one into the game. The sound engine too for that matter. That's going to be several months worth of work just to get it back to the point it is now. Which raises the question, is it worth it? Well unfortunately no, but this change is being forced upon all developers, not just me. The pros and cons of 'forced migrations' is a debate I've had numerous times with microsoft folks. The final result though is always the same. They don't care until you're EA or UbiSoft. The most frustrating part about it is, that instead of building compelling features my paying customers are asking for, I end up spending time replacing something that worked fine in the first place. But this is turning into a rant....
 
So, please rest assured that development hasn't stopped or that neither matrix or I are no longer supporting the game. If anything, my work on the project has grown. It's just that nobody will see it.
 
thanks

[elmerlee]

On one hand your saying people will "not see it" (the work) till later in the year in 1.35.

On the other hand you are saying an update is in the hands of Matrix (I'm not real surprised Matrix has done nothing with it).

How does this fit with later in the year?

We all know the deal with 1.35 and I did NOT, repeat NOT, indicate that I expected it now. But you have stated that there would be an update prior to 1.35 with some "bug fixes". It would seem something like that is what I had in mind.

I really don't understand why you felt it necessary to fire-away reguarding my post.
Seems like you may be reverting to an attitude that turned so many off prior to the last few months. Maybe not.

[David Winter]

Okay.. there's some confusion here.

There are two branches of the game.

1. is 1.3.171. This is the update to the game you currently have and matrix has it.

2. is 1.35.nnn (no build number yet). This is an update that includes the new graphics/sound engine, as well as the requested depth chart design changes, granualized player positions, and a couple of other things that I can't think of off the top of my head.

So there are now two distinct versions of the game.

My appologies if I came off the wrong way. It's been a lot of 2am nights working on 1.35 to get it ready. And this is work that should never have been generated. It's frustrating. It has nothing to do with you. That said, I don't think "I was fired a way" at all. I don't think there was any attitude involved. I was explaining what was going on. I really don't understand how come people see my posts as containing 'attitude'. I mearly explain the situation.

[elmerlee]

David - thanks for taking the time to answer.

Maybe this is the confusion. My version number is 1.3.149 and not 1.3.171 as you mention.

The .149 seems to be the one in the members section. Am I missing something?

[David Winter]

Nope.. you're not missing something... 1.3.171 is the update to the .149 version and matrix currently has. it has not been released yet. 

[elmerlee]

OK - I misunderstood.

Thanks

[Marauders]

elmerlee,
 
Thank you for bringing this up.  It should be known that David has had to split his time between support of the 1.3 game and changes in 1.35.  The debacle that Microsoft has put the gaming industry in is really causing problems for many developers.  Not only is Vista support required, but Microsoft has changed many support tools and files that were fine already.
 
Please understand that David was not attempting to "fire-away" at you at all.  He was just explaining his frustrations with the bureaucracy at Microsoft.
 
David has forwarded an update (1.3.171) to Matrix Games, and that will be posted soon.
 
By the way, have you posted your utilities in the third party area?  Any good utility is worth a good look.
 

[elmerlee]

I quit work a few weeks ago. Just too many
problems right now. Not with the part of the game which I worked on but with other items that just spoil it for me. When I see that these things(like AI subs), which Dave has said are fixed in the "Matrix held patch" then I'll go to work again.

Probably need to wait till Matrix is finsihed rehashing old games.