Patch 2.1/1.5

[PhoenixReborn]

Jolly Joker said they're trying to make sure the patch does not create any new bugs. This is a good thing in my opinion.

Also, I took a look at the dark messiah patch list, there's two U.S. and German. For heroes V there's U.S., European, Asian, Russian etc.

1.4 came out November 9th 2006 according to the ubi website. I think HoF was a couple of weeks later.

Supposedly they are limiting training and necromancy.

Inferno for the win.

[King Imp]

Jolly Joker said they're trying to make sure the patch does not create any new bugs. This is a good thing in my opinion.

Uh huh. I can't wait to see how the "defenders" try to spin it when this patch is released with bugs and when previously working options no longer do.

[PhoenixReborn]

Jolly Joker said they're trying to make sure the patch does not create any new bugs. This is a good thing in my opinion.

Uh huh. I can't wait to see how the "defenders" try to spin it when this patch is released with bugs and when previously working options no longer do.

The defending is just as tiresome as the attacking. The game is what it is. I have a few problems. It's par for the course. In Heroes II sometimes all my black dragons would disappear completely. They never fixed that bug. But I can deal with it. In Heroes III undead can raise skeletons from undead. It doesn't make any sense but I can deal with it.

That's just how we'll have to deal with H 5. There's a game there and it works.

[King Imp]

Jolly Joker said they're trying to make sure the patch does not create any new bugs. This is a good thing in my opinion.

Uh huh. I can't wait to see how the "defenders" try to spin it when this patch is released with bugs and when previously working options no longer do.

The defending is just as tiresome as the attacking.

The difference is though, the "attackers" have more than enough reason to do what they do. But, when statements are constantly made trying to make excuses for why Ubi and Nival can't do this or that and how they are taking their time to ensure it's done right and then it's STILL released buggy, it's pretty pathetic when the "defenders" still defend them on something they specifically said was being delayed so it would work.

Give it up and call a spade a spade. They don't know what they are doing and they are taking far too long for the amount they give us in each patch. At this rate, they'll probably still be trying to fix the game in 5 years.

[Alamar]

@King Imp: I don't think that it's an issue of they don't know what they are doing. I suspect that there isn't enough manpower to tackle what they want to tackle in the time period given ...

[King Imp]

Fine, but that does not make the situation any less acceptable.

Here's a little info for everyone. I did a little math and even though it's probably a little off, it's not too far away from the truth.

Fabrice himself has said in the past that they have a database with the errors and bugs that need to be fixed and this number is in the thousands. That's right, the thousands.
Now, since we know that they only get us a patch every 2-3 months (if that), that makes it roughly 4-6 patches a year. In each patch, there is basically only about 20-30 things fixed each time.
At the low end of saying maybe it's 1000 errors even, do you know what that comes to in how long it will take to fix everything? Oh, anywhere between 6-12 years. I'm so glad the game we all paid for will finally be done around 2012-2018.

[Caradoc]

Fine, but that does not make the situation any less acceptable.

Here's a little info for everyone. I did a little math and even though it's probably a little off, it's not too far away from the truth.

Fabrice himself has said in the past that they have a database with the errors and bugs that need to be fixed and this number is in the thousands. That's right, the thousands.
Now, since we know that they only get us a patch every 2-3 months (if that), that makes it roughly 4-6 patches a year. In each patch, there is basically only about 20-30 things fixed each time.
At the low end of saying maybe it's 1000 errors even, do you know what that comes to in how long it will take to fix everything? Oh, anywhere between 6-12 years. I'm so glad the game we all paid for will finally be done around 2012-2018.

Sarcasm aside, you must realize that what matters is fixing the most severe bugs. The reason companies keep track of the trivial ones is so that when programmers work on important bugs, they can also clean up the minor stuff. And the minor ones are not even mentioned in the patch notes.

I'd say that Nival/Ubisoft have gone way beyond the norm for games of this type, certainly farther than NWC ever did. In less than a year, we have already had 4 solid patch releases, some with new content, and a robust expansion. Frankly, I feel a little spoiled.

[King Imp]

3DO & NWC also released games that didn't have that much wrong with them, thus didn't need to be patched as often. Heroes 5 is a beta compared to what 3 & 4 were upon release.

I don't recall numerous typos in 3 & 4.
I don't recall the game constantly crashing in 3 & 4.
I don't recall NWC's patches constantly creating new bugs and breaking things that previously worked.
I don't recall the AI being this bad in 3. I'll concede the fact on 4 though.
I don't recall all the other numerous problems which would keep me here for a half hour typing in 3 & 4 that we have seen in 5.
Aside from the memory leak in the beginning of 4 (which was promptly (learn that word Nival) fixed), there weren't constantly slowdowns. I can't even play HoF because of the lag.

So, to say that they are doing such a great thing by giving us patches is ridiculous. If this game was released as finished as 3 & 4 were, then they wouldn't need to patch as often either.

Oh, but by all means, let someone once again bring up the fact that Nival is Russian, thus why there are typos. If you are truly professional, which they should be, then there is no excuse for how lazy they are on their spellchecking.

[Caradoc]

KI, I agree with what you say. The quality of Heroes 5 is not as good as before. I have not had a problem with crashes, but I am disturbed by all the typos and other minor bugs. However, I do give Nival credit for trying to make things right and I recognize the company's level of commitment to the product for them to sustain the development effort so far after release.

And now that you mention it, I wonder whether there are lots of typos in the Russian version.

[aulfgar]

It seems to be rocket science for game developers to understand this simple fact. Never let someone translate into a language they aren't a native speaker of.

FF12 is killing me in reference to Marquis, said phonetically for english, when it has a french pronunciation.

Bottom line is that game developers need to actually hire a native english speaker for an english game and a native french speaker for a french game. A VERY simple concept but one that seems beyond the gaming industry's limited capacity for what gamers actually want.

[murasamune]

has anyone else thought that they probably won't release a new patch until vista comes out?

or would a vista machine still be able to run heroes V without ubi releasing a patch

[okrane]

when will the patch be released??

[Jolly Joker]

has anyone else thought that they probably won't release a new patch until vista comes out?

or would a vista machine still be able to run heroes V without ubi releasing a patch

Huh? Isn't Vista out for a long time?

[murasamune]

Huh? Isn't Vista out for a long time?

do you mean "hasn't vista been out for a long time?"???
and yeah you're right. its been out since nov. 8th. so i'm gonna go back to my college and demand a refund.

[King Imp]

when will the patch be released??

Tuesday

[Caradoc]

Anyone who thinks the AI is not aggressive enough, get this: I am playing a Large random map on 2.1 as Fortress and it is Day 4. Not one, but two opposing heroes come blasting into my area, knock out the guards to a Refugee camp, pick up a couple of Archliches, and then make a beeline for my castle. I get back in time to defend, but against 70+ Gremlins, some Gargoyles, and the ArchLiches, I don't stand a chance. I lose on Day 6.

[omegaweix]

I don't recall numerous typos in 3 & 4.
I don't recall the game constantly crashing in 3 & 4.
I don't recall NWC's patches constantly creating new bugs and breaking things that previously worked.
I don't recall the AI being this bad in 3. I'll concede the fact on 4 though.
I don't recall all the other numerous problems which would keep me here for a half hour typing in 3 & 4 that we have seen in 5.
Aside from the memory leak in the beginning of 4 (which was promptly (learn that word Nival) fixed), there weren't constantly slowdowns. I can't even play HoF because of the lag.

Another interesting difference between NWC and Ubival is that NWC and it's masters from 3do were nearly dead and bancrupt by the time Heroes 4 was released!
It was a small miracle to me that they still even made patches (and crap addons) for Heroes 4 at all...... NWC/3do was a falling star at the time... in opposition to Ubi and Heroes 5 now, one is a huge proseperous comapny and Hereos 5 is selling quite well and reaches far more people than Heroes 3 and 4 together ever did.
So i'm glad that there is constant patching for H5 but i think viewed from this point(s) above i think the game (and the customers) really deserve this treatment!