Developer Journal: Schtoofa
Posted 1 decade ago Team Lead / Project Manager
So you probably have an idea about how FF is going... or do you? Either way, here's some info for you. No one in particular has asked these questions.
Q: How's the beta going?
A: Pretty well, I think. As expected, we've uncovered a bunch of new bugs. The beta testers are great and cooperative. Their fresh perspective on FF is appreciated and helpful. Thanks, FF beta testers!
Q: Why isn't the FF beta open to everyone yet?
A: In the modding world as far as we can see, a mod beta is really a release. I mean, a mod really is always a work in progress. Appending "beta" to the end of a mod name is really just an excuse for saying "we know we have bugs, but we're going to give you this software anyways!" Well, shoot, I can tell you right now FF (whether or not it has "beta" in the title) is not going to be completely bug-free once we release it, but we're doing our best to make it stable and fun. So the FF beta isn't open to everyone yet because we're not ready to release it.
Q: Speaking of stability, how's FF's performance?
A: While playing in a conventionally full server (~20 players), the performance isn't that bad. Ambiguous phrase, I know. Some good news, though, is that we've spent very little time optimizing FF so far, and if it performs decently right now under most circumstances then we're in pretty good shape. Some maps cause players to have worse FPS, but we're working on it.
Q: Why haven't there been any main page / media updates since that crazy Dustbowl video was released?
A: Good question. As we get closer to releasing FF, it makes sense to build up some hype through media releases. Although we've made some good progress since we released the video, FF exhibits some fundamental problems (like those referred to by jesse in his latest journal) that need to be fixed. I guess I haven't championed any updates for a couple of reasons, namely because I've been investing time in other areas and I didn't want to give out "just a few screenshots" following a video like our Dustbowl clip. We'll probably end up doing the latter anyway, but a big part of me really wanted a full release to follow the video. When will you see the next media update? Not sure.
And now onto a more free-flowing write-up...
I will say it's depressing we're without rebo, FC, and mirv (for the most part). They all have invested so much time into FF, and for that we're thankful. We're just selfish and want more of what we can't have :) Some folks have stepped it up in the meantime, though, and as you can see on our job openings page we'd love to fill some more slots to help speed things along.
If you're curious about how the bug fixing is moving along, here's some background info first. We use a bugtracker system called mantis, and it's proven to be very useful. The dev team members and beta testers use this system to enter in and record bugs, and on the dev team side we use it to assign issues to people (so people know who needs to fix what). In our mantis system you'll find entries for anything from missing models, sounds that need to be tweaked, programming problems, map props needed, etc.
Here are some bug tracker stats for your viewing pleasure:
# of bugs fixed so far in the month of November: ~40
# of bugs fixed total: ~1000
# of known bugs waiting to be fixed: ~200
As tempting as it is to extrapolate: "Well, they've fixed 40 bugs in November so far -- 21 days, so that's an average fix rate of ~2 bugs per day... so FF will be out in 100 days!" ... yeah, don't do that. Many of the bugs are related (so a fix of one will indirectly fix a handful of others), some are super minor, others are more difficult to solve, and so on. Some are so minor that maybe they don't need to be fixed in an initial release. I just figured you might find the numbers interesting!
So lastly...
Q: Okay, no really. Enough BS. When the hell is FF coming out?
A: We really are shooting for a December 2006 release. It's an agressive goal, I'll freely admit, but we're going to haul ass and do the best we can to meet that goal.
View all developer journals Q: How's the beta going?
A: Pretty well, I think. As expected, we've uncovered a bunch of new bugs. The beta testers are great and cooperative. Their fresh perspective on FF is appreciated and helpful. Thanks, FF beta testers!
Q: Why isn't the FF beta open to everyone yet?
A: In the modding world as far as we can see, a mod beta is really a release. I mean, a mod really is always a work in progress. Appending "beta" to the end of a mod name is really just an excuse for saying "we know we have bugs, but we're going to give you this software anyways!" Well, shoot, I can tell you right now FF (whether or not it has "beta" in the title) is not going to be completely bug-free once we release it, but we're doing our best to make it stable and fun. So the FF beta isn't open to everyone yet because we're not ready to release it.
Q: Speaking of stability, how's FF's performance?
A: While playing in a conventionally full server (~20 players), the performance isn't that bad. Ambiguous phrase, I know. Some good news, though, is that we've spent very little time optimizing FF so far, and if it performs decently right now under most circumstances then we're in pretty good shape. Some maps cause players to have worse FPS, but we're working on it.
Q: Why haven't there been any main page / media updates since that crazy Dustbowl video was released?
A: Good question. As we get closer to releasing FF, it makes sense to build up some hype through media releases. Although we've made some good progress since we released the video, FF exhibits some fundamental problems (like those referred to by jesse in his latest journal) that need to be fixed. I guess I haven't championed any updates for a couple of reasons, namely because I've been investing time in other areas and I didn't want to give out "just a few screenshots" following a video like our Dustbowl clip. We'll probably end up doing the latter anyway, but a big part of me really wanted a full release to follow the video. When will you see the next media update? Not sure.
And now onto a more free-flowing write-up...
I will say it's depressing we're without rebo, FC, and mirv (for the most part). They all have invested so much time into FF, and for that we're thankful. We're just selfish and want more of what we can't have :) Some folks have stepped it up in the meantime, though, and as you can see on our job openings page we'd love to fill some more slots to help speed things along.
If you're curious about how the bug fixing is moving along, here's some background info first. We use a bugtracker system called mantis, and it's proven to be very useful. The dev team members and beta testers use this system to enter in and record bugs, and on the dev team side we use it to assign issues to people (so people know who needs to fix what). In our mantis system you'll find entries for anything from missing models, sounds that need to be tweaked, programming problems, map props needed, etc.
Here are some bug tracker stats for your viewing pleasure:
# of bugs fixed so far in the month of November: ~40
# of bugs fixed total: ~1000
# of known bugs waiting to be fixed: ~200
As tempting as it is to extrapolate: "Well, they've fixed 40 bugs in November so far -- 21 days, so that's an average fix rate of ~2 bugs per day... so FF will be out in 100 days!" ... yeah, don't do that. Many of the bugs are related (so a fix of one will indirectly fix a handful of others), some are super minor, others are more difficult to solve, and so on. Some are so minor that maybe they don't need to be fixed in an initial release. I just figured you might find the numbers interesting!
So lastly...
Q: Okay, no really. Enough BS. When the hell is FF coming out?
A: We really are shooting for a December 2006 release. It's an agressive goal, I'll freely admit, but we're going to haul ass and do the best we can to meet that goal.