Getting Old

[palef]

Originally posted by twitchy

I kinda feel like I'm paying 15 bucks to help debug a beta now...
I have heard alot of folk on the BB say this "isn't a box game", well right you are, a box game is usually debugged thoroughly before its release and there is a clear understanding of the system requirements needed to run the game.

I call BS there. I haven't bought a box game in the last couple of years, particularly a simulation box game, that didn't require some major tweaks to work well, including being unplayable until a patch is released 6 months after the game came out, a la LO:MAC.

You want frustration bud, go buy a box game and then find out that the publishers or developers have gone out of business or been laid off, and the game doesn't work on anything except the reference system it was developed on, in house without player beta testing. With racing simulation games like Nascar 2003, Grand Prix Legends, and F12002 they would be either stale or unplayable without significant hacking by the unpaid community that supports them now that the publishers have either abandoned them or fired their creators.

HTC are the best of the bunch in the game development world. I've just done a Masters paper on IT developments and my 8000 word essay was on the growth of Internet based gaming communities over the background of developments in social and cultural attitudes to computers, gaming, and games development. There's more SNAFU out there than not, and HTC, like Kesmai before them (at their peak at least) are paragons of development and game design compared to EA, Sierra, and even id software.

I think you're probably a little frustrated that AH2 is subtly but substantially different to AH1. I wouldn;t like to see you leave because you're a grade "A" character.

Hang in there Twitchy.

[DrDea]

Shoulda been in on the WW2ol fiasko.Half the crap on the "Box" wasnt even developed yet.This is by far better than most games you get from the box.

[FT_Animal]

I don't see any refrence to your OS. or any spec info. Maybe the long wind through me off. ;-)

I also don't see you listing any REAL tweaks. turning this off that on,.... but I don't see you attacking any meat.

YOU have a bottleneck, period. All it takes is the right one out of hundreds that could pinch you off.

And if HT's post seemed rude, then I think maybe you have some issues, not HT.

Have you checked BIOS settings?
I don't think anyone knows how to help you because we know so little about what you have or have done, other then you may in fact actually be more long winded then me. ;-)

I have a PIII 450 with a *POS* GF420 MX
It pulls a 25 FPS on the runway in AH2. granted that won't pass around other objects, but sheeesh man. it's a 450.

A simple basic fact of life, the bottleneck is on your end, not HT's.

Why don't you list what you have and what you've done. That would go along way all by itself.

good luck

Anim

[Gixer]

"I call BS there. I haven't bought a box game in the last couple of years, particularly a simulation box game, that didn't require some major tweaks to work well, including being unplayable until a patch is released 6 months after the game came out, a la LO:MAC. "


True but a box game is a one off cost or no cost at all. depending on where you get it from.  And I can't remember the last boxed game I bought or copied that was "unplayable due to system probs and/or crashes" would have to go back as far as Falcon 4.0 which was a real can of worms.

AH is ongoing $15 a month and I understand twitchy's point of view that he feels as if he's paying $15 a month to do beta testing and work out why his system is always crashing.




...-Gixer

[palef]

Originally posted by Gixer
"I call BS there. I haven't bought a box game in the last couple of years, particularly a simulation box game, that didn't require some major tweaks to work well, including being unplayable until a patch is released 6 months after the game came out, a la LO:MAC. "


True but a box game is a one off cost or no cost at all. depending on where you get it from.  And I can't remember the last boxed game I bought or copied that was "unplayable due to system probs and/or crashes" would have to go back as far as Falcon 4.0 which was a real can of worms.

AH is ongoing $15 a month and I understand twitchy's point of view that he feels as if he's paying $15 a month to do beta testing and work out why his system is always crashing.




...-Gixer

LO:MAC and WWIIOL were both unplayable out of the box, and the 1.2 patch for LO:MAC was only released three weeks ago.

I can afford the spread out payments from AH2 a lot better than I can a one off of $100, and surely you aren't suggesting copying games?

He may well be having to work out problems with his system, but all boxed game manufacturers would have abandoned Twitchy to his fate by now, and he would be very unlikely to have direct recourse to the development team via email, phone, or a bulletin board like this one. All boxed publishers websites are cheerleading sites, and the place to get support for EA games for instance, is from a fan site specific  to the particular game you need help with.

I prefer this business model to the take their money and run model that most game publishers seem to operate.

[shoppe]

Twitchy, Raptor,

Burnsville here, howdy neighbors!

Shop

[twitchy]

Originally posted by twitchy
I have done all I can do on my end, I have run spyware detectors, I have cleaned my registry, I disable my antivirus, before I play I open task manager even and end everything useless, I defraged it, I updated drivers, i went so far as to restore my entire system for this game. I can't do anything else.

And my system specs are supposedly well within the minimal requirements to run AH2 while it isn't top of the line, it works fine, when it isn't crashing on me I get a frame rate of 85...
1.9 GH Athlon AMD
GEForce 4 440 64mghz
Audigy Platinum Pro 2
Windows XP
85 hz monitor
256 mg RAM
DX 9.0
Your telling me that it is my system, my bottleneck? I can edit and render NTSC quality video on my system while playing mp3's, no other game I have installed has had any critical errors or CTD's, I have had no problems whatsoever with my system, but everyone seems to be having similar issues and yet a few of you continue insist that it is not game bugs. Pretty bad ones, that need acknowleged and dealt with. CTD's are a game killer.
Like I said I know that it is tough on HTC right now, alot of issues, alot of complaints and cancellations, but IMO these are beta level bugs and AH2 wasn't ready to be released, much less forced out on us. By denying that the bugs exsist, or blaming them on a fairly common and otherwise good running system isn't going to get the bugs addressed and dealt with.
I'm glad you can run the game perfectly with no problems, but there are ALOT of us out here that are experiencing problems.
I know it is is a new game, I know that it will take some time to work problems out, but CTD's and stutters, freezes, total system lock outs, see through mountains, these are real problems not bottlenecks or illusions. What I am so dissapointed in is the fact them saying "it is your system" to everyone. Nobody has a perfect system, from the day you turn your computer on for the first time, things start screwing up, but I don't have any other problems, nor do alot of the people having similar problems. I have one squaddie who just bought a brand spanking new computer just for this game, a high end machine and he has alot of the same bugs I do. If I was the only one having a problem then would be a different story.
It boils down to this, I want my game back! I play it every day!
But I want to cut the game on and sit back and not worry about CTD's or being able to see through mountains or loosing my perks points and ranking because my screen freezes long enough to send me into the ground. I have (had rather) a 30 member squad, one of the best in the arena, and am loosing that to AH2 as well and yes I'm a little bothered by it.
Admit we have bugs, fix the bugs, and let us know that the issues are being dealt with, that is all I'm asking. I don't like paying to debug, I am willing to do it, but I want to see results, feedback, affirmations not "it's your system" or "it's spyware". My system runs like a top and has since I bought it. I am no computer genius, but I know how to keep spyware off of it, and I know how to cut off IM's, but last night I lost a three kill sortie due to a screen freeze and that's why I am complaining.

I love this game, and I love this comapany, I wouldn't have subscribed to it for three years now if I didn't, but I am disaapointed and eager to see some confirmation and resolution here, please. I don't want to quit, I don't want to give up on a game that I can honestly say is one of the few that i enjoy and find worth paying for, but fix it! Call me a whiner and tell me I have a crappy system, given that I was able to run AH1 perfectly for three years, what kind of business strategy is that?
We should get a free hotdog or something out of it at least until the bugs get worked out. (if you guys go with the hotdog idea, I would like mine with relish, chili onions and mustard btw)

Am i the only one on here that is having game bugs???

Bottom line is this....
I want to play AH2, I want to send you guys my money, I don't want to play a game with code errors or CTD's.

shoppe  
Cool Burnsville!!! I played Joe Bob in the movie "Inbred Rednecks" that we shot out in Barnardsville, we shot alot of stuff in Burnsville including a couple of scenes in the Burnsville Hardware Store there in town. Nice to see some locals!!

[Adogg]

twitchy: My specs:

1.7 Ghz PIII
128MB Nvidia 4800 (?!?) Video Card (It's at home and I'm at work)
512MB Ram
Win XP Pro
85 MhZ monitor
DX 9.0
Soundblaster (cheapest one on market)
DSL Connection through 100 Mbs LAN shared with 3 other users.

My system RAM is higher than yours but I'm not sure that would make that much of a difference. As you say you do a high level of video compression

Video Card perhaps?

This is an untweaked system I use it for too many OTHER things to worry about AH specific performance. Frame Rate sits at about 59 most of the time.  Textures set to 512.

Hardly an Uber Box by any means.

[DrDea]

Hajo had a post on here about your Sound card.Said he had to yank it out because it caused all kinds of issues.I would pull that out and see if it helps.His post in in this pile somewhere.Do a search for it.Might just be the issue.

[twitchy]

Conisder this metaphor...

Suppose you liked steak, and you went to a steak house, one that you had been going to faithfully for years. They always had a really good deal on a really good steak and excellent service (we'll thorw in cute waitresses here just for prosterity). So you sit down this time to order and they say, well we don't have your usual any more, we have a new big fat juicy super steak though, and before you can say anything they run off into the kitchen to cook it up. You wait and wait while you hear them back there clamboring around and after a while the waiter comes out with a huge, juicy, massive and delightful hunk of meat, but it is RAW. They set it in fornt of you, hand you the bill and when you complain about it being raw, they tell you "Well, its the way you are holding your fork." or "Your stomach just can't handle it." or even worse, "Eat the steak, or get out of here!"

Edit:
Then as you sit there, trying to explain to the waiter that your fork always worked fine before, people at the tables next to you begin saying, "hey my steak is raw too!" But back in the back corner, a few guys are sitting at a table with the restraunt owner and they are saying "Don't listen to that guy man, he's holding his fork wrong." or "Listen to that whiner! Why the nerve complaining about a Raw steak!" or "I like buying raw steak!"

[Muddie]

It's cause he live in P'cola.  I grew up there, visit Asheville about once a year (well o.k. Franklin/Highlands/Cashiers) but can only stand it for a week or so before I have to get back down to REAL water.  Not just something you can see across.

    You're right about the BBQ though.

Originally posted by twitchy
How in the world could you grow up in asheville then want to move to florida Drifter1234?? Yuck! I could never leave the mountains and be happy about it. While your down there though, teach them flat landers how to cook some real BBQ!

[jodgi]

Originally posted by twitchy
...a box game is usually debugged thoroughly before its release and there is a clear understanding of the system requirements needed to run the game.

(lol)

As far as Falcon 4.0, Lomac and IL-2 series is concerned, it wasn't the case.

I'd even dare to state that AH2 was smoother than those sims at initial release.

[twitchy]

It would appear that we have a similar set up aside from the RAM size, what kind of bugs are you having? Anything similar to what I have posted?

[DrDea]

Twitchy...check this thread.
http://www.hitechcreations.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=121791

[twitchy]

drdea
I had already read and responded to that thread, I think the Audigy 2 is probably one of the best sound cards on the market, or at least it was when it came out. Never had an issue with it except when I first installed it about two years ago and then it was only because windows didn't seem to want to 'let go' of my default sound cards drivers. I don't think that the major bugs that I have seen are going to be system related, and if they are than AH2 is in trouble becuase I have a fairly common set up and a fairly recent system.