Free Weekend? Now?

[Depraved]

IMO, this is absolutely THE WORST time to have a free weekend. Right after one of the biggest updates? They are still patching to try to prevent the crashing. It is certainly not a time for HLL when new players will see it at its best. The temporary chaos that has ensued is not a good example to new players unless we want to attract those who identify with that chaos - bad for the game as a whole.
Such moves may be why so many feel the direction of the game is becoming more tailored to those who just want a "better" FPS.

[osheamat]

Indeed. Player gain and retention are critical. Its EA but damn... poor timing!

[asti223]

Eh, todays patch sorted a lot of issues. Zero crashes and stable FPS in carentan. Of course it depends on your machine.

[osheamat]

agree but looking at steam forums right now, growing body of evidence issues persist across all maps.

[Delicia Suprema]

Yeah, the person who tho this was a good idea really needs a day off or two...

[D R E W D R E W]

I don't think it's fair for people to write it off instantly after trying it for a few hours both on EA and free weekend, simply due to the optimisation issues (which personally have never effected me and I by no means have a super computer - I can run on medium settings fine and it's enjoyable).

I have a feeling people spend 5k on a computer and expect the world, which is fair, but I don't think it's a reasonable judgement in this case.

Makes me sad because we all know what a great game it is regardless :(

[osheamat]

optimization is a major barrier. People are hard to please. If I am a fickle consumer, expecialy if its a free weekend, If I encounter such a barrier, I wont come back

[Depraved]

Fairness has nothing to do with it. Marketing has it's timing element. People's perception is their reality and planning a free play weekend while simultaneously releasing quick-draw patches to stop major issues from a 3 day-old major update? Huge risk IMO. New players won't have yet engaged in all these forum threads. All they will see is the in-game confusion and excess of other players who have no idea what to do but maybe TK. Not the kind of knowledge base and stability it had when I joined. We are in the midst of a major shift in tactics to support an overall strategic endeavor that is no longer there. New members who just want to shoot a gun might not care but there was so much buildup about the immersive, large map, sim-style play that what the new player sees may not be what they have been expecting. Therefore possibly no sale.
In addition, veterans who are currently frustrated with the changes amidst the influx of newer players will be inundated with more "trial" players with no knowledge about the game or recent changes. Vets might be alienated as well or it could be a nail in the coffin for those who have played less and less leading up to the update. Just bad timing all around.
I've watched video reviews of "what happened to BF V" and such and this is tempting fate IMO.

[Chrysler 5th Avenue]

Bad idea... many people, including myself, are finding the game borderline unplayable with crashes and FPS problems. Not going to leave a good impression... and asking early adopters to go change their driver version, download an nvidia inspector, install more patches, go into multiple .ini and .cfg files etc, etc... Not gonna happen and not gonna retain the free weekend players.

All my other games work fine... no thanks on swapping out drivers and windows settings for the slight chance it may help.

[Stryker]

Originally posted by datCookie:

Valve are the ones who determine these kinds of things lads. Isn't entirely up to the developers

Valve decides when a game goes to free weekend? You sure about that? That doesn't quite make sense to me. If a publisher wants to advertise their game, valve decides when? That can't be.

And to the OP, now is the BEST time to have a free weekend. So all the new players get to experience everything us veterans have been dealing with over the past year. I mean, what better way to make sure you snag LOYAL fans to your game, if they are going to stick with you through thick and thin, right?

[With_Teeth]

I played it for the first time today since Update 7 (after the hotfix) and the frame rate would tank down to like 5-10 then slowly recover on Hill 400.

happened every few minutes. loads of people in server chat with the same problem.

I had generally good performance before this update.

I agree, terrible time for a free weekend. they should have made sure the patch was stable first.

[schwank167]

yes horrible performance, same issue.... drops to 10fps and slowly recovers (to a fps that is lower than I was used to before the update). Big botch job. Way to cram the servers with new players after a really important update with major game flow changes, too.

[ravioli]

I had two friends play with me and they said no. Didnt help that I explained the situation with other game features that I think are ridiculous.

PR nightmare is having a terrible product (even if its just due to a short term update issue) and then handing that out for free. Easiest way to dissuade a whole wave of people that might have been willing to purchase the game had they not known what occurred with this ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ update.

[MaTheMeatloaf!]

I played for the first time today for about 40mins on 2 different maps and didn't have a single technical issue and my fps never dropped.. What kind of potato you guys on.. I9 2080ti no issues

[Horse Gang of Bailie]

I've just played two hours straight. No crashes or game breaking bugs for me personally. The game has been a very good experience. There were some few seconds frame drops but it hadn't caused much problem for me. I have all settings on max too.

[Psycha]

The game is garbage guys... Play and populate Post Scriptum and help it grow