[Megathread] Gamestar-Review zu Line of Defense MMO

[Max]

Da der kürzlich veröffentlichte Gamestar-Artikel mit dem zugehörigen Video zu Line Of Defense MMO derzeit sehr populär zu sein scheint, erscheint es mir das Beste zu sein, ein Oberthema hierzu zu erstellen, um eine zentralisierte große anstatt von mehreren kleinen Diskussionen zu ermöglichen und so das unnötige Zusammensuchen von Meinungen zu vermeiden.

Der Artikel mit dem zugehörigen Review-Video kann hier gefunden werden: Gamestar.de - Line of Defense (PC)[www.gamestar.de]

[dsmart]

Originally posted by Dunnerschlach:

No it isn't. Ben was running the game on an Intel i7 something with 32 GB of RAM and a GeForce 970 GTX and the frame rate was not really earth shattering. ;)

Yeah, that's true. But again, it's entirely up to what game settings he chose, what else he was running at the time etc. We don't know what those are.

I have since given keys to four German players from this thread and thus far two reports have popped up showing their rig, performance etc.

OK, but this actually is not a problem until the game is officially out. Being not polished is totally acceptable in alpha, beta or EA state.

Yeah, most people are conveniently forgetting this because they just want to continue with attacks and anti-social behavior. And laughably "we're going to report it to Valve" even though they don't even own the game. heh

[dsmart]

Originally posted by abdelraheim:

So it looked like no driver issues at all, just possible design bug (or keep horror style at night), glad you were able to root cause the issue.

It was never an "issue". The game has day/night cycles and it is dark by design. I already posted about it in this thread.

We have various items and weapon attachments for use at night and they were designed specifically for that. These include night vision goggles, scopes, infra-Red / Infra-Green scopes and items, flashlights etc. ALL of which are currently in the game and working, as can be seen from the Steam screenshots.

This is how it is supposed to look at night

And this shot was taken by a new German player I gave a key to recently

Here is another one

And another

Sun going down.

Early morning.

AQHeat vision scope

Night vision scope

Pitch dark

Full daylight (Frostbite)

Dusk

Full day light

The day/night cycle is fully dynamic. So the time of day is dependent on when you join the server.

And the amount of lighting also depends on the scene because all four (Heatwave, Gulge, Frostbite, Nightbridge) have different themes and lighting.

So it looked like no driver issues at all, just possible design bug (or keep horror style at night), glad you were able to root cause the issue.

There were some driver issues which I did notice. Which is why I mentioned it before.

[dscoAndy]

Originally posted by Dunnerschlach:

No it isn't. Ben was running the game on an Intel i7 something with 32 GB of RAM and a GeForce 970 GTX and the frame rate was not really earth shattering. ;)

OK, but this actually is not a problem until the game is officially out. Being not polished is totally acceptable in alpha, beta or EA state.

Ok ok ..I forgot , he has magic driver

[Der Klotz von Rhodotz]

Originally posted by dsmart:

Yeah, most people are conveniently forgetting this because they just want to continue with attacks and anti-social behavior. And laughably "we're going to report it to Valve" even though they don't even own the game. heh

I assume that this is mostly due to the overly strict banning of people, deleting certain posts and closing of threads, which one could see as censorship. People who come here to inform themselves about the game should be given all sides of how the game is perceived, even if that means that someone is very upset and doesn't give very constructive criticism.

[dsmart]

Originally posted by Werejellyfish:

Originally posted by dsmart:

Yeah, most people are conveniently forgetting this because they just want to continue with attacks and anti-social behavior. And laughably "we're going to report it to Valve" even though they don't even own the game. heh

I assume that this is mostly due to the overly strict banning of people, deleting certain posts and closing of threads, which one could see as censorship. People who come here to inform themselves about the game should be given all sides of how the game is perceived, even if that means that someone is very upset and doesn't give very constructive criticism.

The reasons are irrelevant. There are rules that everyone has to abide by.

[heino63]

Everyone apart from you!?

[Der Klotz von Rhodotz]

Originally posted by dsmart:

Originally posted by Werejellyfish:

I assume that this is mostly due to the overly strict banning of people, deleting certain posts and closing of threads, which one could see as censorship. People who come here to inform themselves about the game should be given all sides of how the game is perceived, even if that means that someone is very upset and doesn't give very constructive criticism.

The reasons are irrelevant. There are rules that everyone has to abide by.

Like laws that exist to forbid the muzzling of journalists?

Edit: Quick research: "Artikel 5" of the German Constitution. I am sure something similar exists in the USA, too.

[dsmart]

wtf are you talking about wrt "muzzling of journalists"?

[Der Klotz von Rhodotz]

Originally posted by dsmart:

wtf are you talking about wrt "muzzling of journalists"?

You banned Ben, right?

[dsmart]

Originally posted by Werejellyfish:

Originally posted by dsmart:

wtf are you talking about wrt "muzzling of journalists"?

You banned Ben, right?

Yes. He wasn't known to be a journalist at the time. Not that it would have made a difference. Journalists are just people who are subject to the same behavior.

Though he has since been unbanned, I stand by that decision. I treated him like any other person who appeared to be engaged in inappropriate and trolling behavior.

I already gave a detailed explanation about what led to this. There is no point in going over it again.

It was obvious that he was trolling us for a work-in-progress article and not really interested in getting tech support assistance from us. This is evident in the fact that he had an article[www.gamestar.de] and YouTube video ready for the article he was working on.

And right in the very first frames of his video (which was edited and not raw footage from the game), his intentions for doing this were clear.

This is despicable and unethical behavior, especially by someone in the media; and is the sort of crap that caused GamerGate to erupt here in the US wrt to journalistic ethics and integrity; of which he doesn't appear to have any.

This was the post that led to a variety of things :

So, i tried all maps. Only on Heatwave there is some kind of lighting, every other map completely misses lighting from the beginning. The screen is full time black. If i try to get to anything shown on the minimap, nothing changes, everything stays black.

The FPS drop regularly below 20 on Heatwave without any other players around. On the other three maps the fps with black screen (only minimap can be seen and some random brighter texture fragments) drop below 10!

It's definitely not a question of hardware, because my rig handles actual games (like The Witcher 3) in highest graphics settings smoothly (look at my rig in the first posting).

This game suffers many serious issues (i had more than sixty crashes in five hours - and that's only the technical side of things; not to mention the overwhelming amount of glitches or the fact, that there is absolutely nothing you can do but run around and fire weapons which do not properly reload and not properly fit into the holding hands).

Do you test your builds on several computers with different specs? Even DX11 is not working - and the game is in early access since last year.

So, my question is (since the roadmap on your website is empty): What are your plans to get this game fixed as soon as possible? When will you implement the items promised in the TAK-Packages?

Please tell us, when we can expect a working build of the game and features, which finally can be tested.

So, a "journalist" was unable to play an Early Access game, yet...

• didn't know (even though it's in the docs, the FAQ etc) that the game has dynamic time-of-day (hence dark maps at night) and for which (as I explained previously) the game has a LOT of items, weapon attachments etc for night vision, infra-red, infra-green, heat sensors (Advanced Quantum Heat) etc. ALL OF WHICH WORK AND ARE FREE TO OBTAIN BY ANY ACCOUNT IN EARLY ACCESS
  
• didn't know about most of the game's features. this despite the fact that the FULL game docs are built into the game and also available online[lodmmo.com].
  
• says weapons don't reload (they do)
  
• says weapons don't properly fit hands (they do)
  
• says DX11 not working (it always did)
  
• talks about the game being in Early Access for a year, like there is some deadline on game development (FYI there are games which have been in EA since 2013!!! e.g. H1Z1 from SOE/DayBreak has been in EA since Jan 2015)
  
• using a F2P account (CBT) with Starter Kit[lodmmo.com] (has no entitlements), and asked about delivery of TAK tier items[lodmmo.com] he neither bought, nor owns. Also for which over 99% were already implemented and working in the Build 00.09.05.02 | 15-07-17[lodmmo.com] he was running in his July 20 report. As of this writing (2 builds from his version), they're all 99.9% completed and delivered, with only the Portable Teleport Unit in TAK Tier III left to unlock.

And to make things worse, as he stated he opened a support ticket, then subsequently DELETED IT[3000ad.com]. I restored it and found it to be devoid of any information. So this was just another ploy to make it look like he had sent in a bug report. Anyone who has ever filled out a support ticket, knows that we respond to ALL of them upon receipt.

Which is precisely why I gave a group of interested German players in this forum, free keys so they can check it out for themselves. And one of them even bought his own $19.99 tier.

Aside from the crashes; they all had vastly different reports than he did. And every one of them wrote their reports (1, 2, 3, 4, 5 ) in a manner that was 100% indicative of their desire to make a genuine effort to show us issues - even if they didn't like the game.

And it was a result of his "hit piece" that this forum got flooded (which required a German Valve admin/mod to come here and help keep the peace by corralling everyone and multiple threads into this one) by those looking to attack us and the game as some sort of payback for my three scathing Star Citizen blogs[www.dereksmart.org]; as if somehow, I am exempt from writing about a product that I backed and which, when it fails, has the potential to completely disrupt the industry and make things worse for the upcoming generation of gamers and gamedevs.


So, your post about "muzzling of journalists" is just the usual nonsense in this thread.

[Draco]

Originally posted by dsmart:

This is despicable and unethical behavior, especially by someone in the media; and is the sort of crap that caused GamerGate to erupt here in the US wrt to journalistic ethics and integrity; of which he doesn't appear to have any.

I know you will now either ban me or say something like "this is out of context", but what the hell:

I would call YOUR behavior towards SC (not the criticism part where you said that such a project might not be possible, but all other stuff after that) despicable and unethical. And YOU sir are the one who started this.

I am still (for reasons unknown to me, maybe it is a bit of masochism) considering spending 20 bucks to take a look at the game myself.

But at the same time I think I would have more fun exchanging 20 bucks into 2000 1-cent pieces and go feeding ducks until they drown.

[Sir_Stubert]

Originally posted by Werejellyfish:

You banned Ben, right?

I don't think that this is muzzling. But it is a bit strange when you remember dsmart's reaction after getting banned by CIG.

Originally posted by dsmart:

Yes. He wasn't known to be a journalist at the time.

That is not true. You did not ban ben after he wrote his comments. Ben was banned after the first links to the GameStar preview have been posted here. (Which you have deleted by the way)

Originally posted by dsmart:

It was obvious that he was trolling us for a work-in-progress article and not really interested in getting tech support assistance from us. This is evident in the fact that he had an article and video ready for the article he was working on.

What are you talking about? He was writing an article and also recording his gaming sessions. They often do videos for their articles. You got some attention because of what you have written about SC. You also wrote about your game, so they decided to make a preview of your game, they often do previews to EA games. That is all.

Originally posted by dsmart:

And right in the very first frames of his video (which was edited and not raw footage from the game), his intentions for doing this were clear.

What are you meaning. At the beginning the video shows your webpage. This is followed by a few scenes of your trailer. Then there is a transition to recorded gameplay. All i am seeing is the transition from trailer material to gameplay material. This transition takes about 1 second.

Originally posted by dsmart:

the post that led to a variety of things :

He is only writing about his problems and asking you things about your game. You are one of the developers, so it was obvious to ask you. I don't see any insults or something like that. All the questions I see could also be asked by a curious gamer.

Originally posted by dsmart:

• didn't know (even though it's in the docs, the FAQ etc) that the game has time-of-day (hence dark maps at night)
  
• didn't know about most of the game's features
  
• says weapons don't reload (they do)
  
• says weapons don't properly fit hands (they do)
  
• says DX11 not working (it always did)
  
• talks about the game being in Early Access for a year, like there is some deadline on game development (FYI there are games which have been in EA since 2013!!! e.g. H1Z1 from SOE/DayBreak has been in EA since Jan 2015)
  
• using a free CBT account, and asked about delivery of TAK tier items[lodmmo.com] he neither bought, nor owns. Also for which over 99% were already implemented and working in the Build 00.09.05.02 | 15-07-17[lodmmo.com] he was running in his July 20 report. As of this writing (2 builds from his version), they're all 99.9% completed and delivered, with only the Portable Teleport Unit in TAK Tier III left to unlock.

• day-night-cycle: when you are going outside by night it is usually not that dark, especially in video games. So the first thing I would expect also would be some kind of bug. But if it is in the docs he maybe could have found it.
  
• weapons don't reload: That is not what is said in the video. It is only said that weapons disapper during reloading and if you reequip the weapen to early it still is empty and that there is no indicator when the weapon is reloaded.
  
• weapons fitting in hands: Then you have to watch the video again.
  
• dx11: Obviously its not always working! As you may have noticed there are not many people playing your game, so bugs that don't appear for every player may be reportet just once.
  
• free CBS account: So you are saying only people who bought something have the right to ask questions? But what is if somebody want's to have information before buying?

By the way do you remember this?

Originally posted by dsmart:

Accusing us of wrong-doing, is a personal attack and a bannable offense. You already knew this. So...

Is it okay to accuse other people of wrong doing?

[dsmart]

Originally posted by Sir_Stubert:

Originally posted by Werejellyfish:

You banned Ben, right?

I don't think that this is muzzling. But it is a bit strange when you remember dsmart's reaction after getting banned by CIG.

Why is it strange? CIG deleted my account as retaliation for my articles. I wasn't banned. I never used their systems, forum, chat or anything. And they confirmed[www.dereksmart.org] this to the same media they sent that crap to and in which they made it look like they were justified in doing it because I had used their systems. So they had no plausible reason to delete or ban my account.

Go ahead, explain that to me.

That is not true. You did not ban ben after he wrote his comments. Ben was banned after the first links to the GameStar preview have been posted here. (Which you have deleted by the way)

False. I banned him here. I warned him in the previous page after I brought the servers back up after taking them down because of him.

It was later that we found out he was the reviewer of the article that multiple people - all from Germany - started creating.

We have the logs; as do the Steam admins/mods. You don't.

Nothing else about your post warrants a response from me because I'm not interested in time-wasting circular arguments which have no merit or basis in reality.

[jetsam1338]

Originally posted by Draco:

Originally posted by dsmart:

This is despicable and unethical behavior, especially by someone in the media; and is the sort of crap that caused GamerGate to erupt here in the US wrt to journalistic ethics and integrity; of which he doesn't appear to have any.

I know you will now either ban me or say something like "this is out of context", but what the hell:

I would call YOUR behavior towards SC (not the criticism part where you said that such a project might not be possible, but all other stuff after that) despicable and unethical. And YOU sir are the one who started this.

I am still (for reasons unknown to me, maybe it is a bit of masochism) considering spending 20 bucks to take a look at the game myself.

But at the same time I think I would have more fun exchanging 20 bucks into 2000 1-cent pieces and go feeding ducks until they drown.

Wait a second.. So.. He posts something telling, more or less, the Games Journalists to treat one of their media darlings like any other company and report potential troubled development....
Said journalists get on his game, rush through his ♥♥♥♥, don't read the material, don't open tickets, and then write a hit piece on his game...

And Derek Smart is the bad guy?

Let's assume Smart is wrong about Star Citizen (And honestly, this is sort of akin to saying Ford doesn't understand cars considering the particular genre). It's STILL between Smart and Citizen. Why would Journalists be involved at all to attack Smart?

♥♥♥♥ that noise. To claim Smart was unethical (which, no, he feels something is true, has experience, SPECIFIC experience, that directly relates to a product similar to his goals for much of his career) is ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥. If you see something bad, you are supposed to speak up. Why does pointing out something is wrong make you the badguy these days?

Literally, Smarts SC thing doesn't justify journo's attacking, lying, and reporting fake ass ♥♥♥♥.

And, while I've not got the experience on this game, the media attention sort of brought me here and I like to know what's going on with potential products, I think the steam/admin log thing sort of seals the deal here..

[Sir_Stubert]

Let me answer this part first.

Originally posted by dsmart:

False. I banned him here. I warned him in the previous page after I brought the servers back up after taking them down because of him.

It was later that we found out he was the reviewer of the article that multiple people - all from Germany - started creating.

We have the logs; as do the Steam admins/mods. You don't.

Nothing else about your post warrants a response from me because I'm not interested in circular arguments.

I agree that you warned him. Ben's last post in the LoD forum was on 21st of July. But Ben got banned on 27th of July. That is the day the preview article was released at 11:08 CET. Below the preview article ben wrote a comment at 15:28 CET saying that he was banned. I also remember looking in the LoD forum that day and ben was not banned. If there is no long delay until someone gets banned it looks to me that Ben got banned because of his article.

Originally posted by dsmart:

Why is it strange? CIG deleted my account as retaliation for my articles. I wasn't banned. I never used their systems, forum, chat or anything. So they had no plausible reason to delete or ban my account.

Go ahead, explain that to me.

If you banned Ben because of his preview it looks strange to me because the preview was released at gamestar.de and not here. So Ben would have gotten banned for something he was writing somewhere else. Exactly like you did.

If that is not true I am sorry, but I am sure you understand why it looks that way for me.

Edit:
I'm not sorry, dsmart lied. Thanks to SantinO for this link.
http://www.gamestar.de/_misc/images/original.cfm?pk=2651980