KickStarter Underworld Ascendant is a disaster

[Steamboat Willie]

Yet they've only received crash logs from two players?

I think having half of your active playerbase submitting crash logs is a problem.

 

[MasterLobar]

Amateur hour.

As an update to the end of this week, in light of the new-player-crashes that we’re finally catching up on, this is most likely going to set us back on Update 4 and console work. (...)

It was unlikely that our external QA, 505’s QA and our internal QA was able to miss crashes so serious, but it happened anyways, most likely because we did not do a broad compatibility sweep before launching Update.

https://forums.otherside-e.com/t/april-22-2019-weekly-update/10041/14

 

[Nyast]

From the Steam forums: story telling level: grand master

Spoiler

 

[BEvers]

Hooray, a weekly update! …on a Wednesday.

If you’ve been keeping up with our casual updates, you know that our biggest priority right now is optimizing performance for console builds. At the same time, we are investigating all of the crash reports we’ve received related to Update 3 and still trying to determine the root of it.

For our Update 4 timeline, this may delay us, as well as our console release. Originally, the plan was plan was for Update 3 to be a Very Stable build of UA that we could use as a springboard for Update 4’s more ambitious NPC work. However, we were blindsided by some pretty serious crashes from new players as well as some returning players, and we’re still struggling to nail down the exact cause. As a result of our local QA, 505’s QA, and our external company’s QA who we hired out to assist us ALL missing these crashes, we’ve changed up our QA workflow to cover more specs as we move forward with testing. This also means that some significant time of Update 4 is being taken up to fix issues flagged during Update 3, and ensure they do not persist in the console versions. Obviously we do not want the game to take steps back as we release updates, so it’s important for us to be as timely as we can while being mindful of our limited budget for UA.

Update 4 plan was originally slated for late May / early June. We’re still tentatively aiming for that area, but note that our current priority is submitting builds to console so we can have something ready for this coming year. (These console builds are focused primarily on performance, which will in turn be reflected in PC’s Update 4). For those curious about Update 4’s overall status, most of the frameworks for the systems, new characters, and additional areas we want to include have been set up and require polishing and testing. There are some minor changes that you may be surprised to notice as well, such as the introduction of combat music…

There are also some features that we are experimenting with in the interest of making gameplay clearer. We had many new players mention that they didn’t understand combat or didn’t find it interesting and a LOT of feedback on the game UI. Both of these issues have been flagged and are under review from the team with various prototypes that we hope will make these systems easier to understand. We need to be mindful of our scope and budget with these, of course, and crashes and performance still have priority, but it’s a part of the work we’ve been kicking around.

The front lines will be quiet for awhile as I myself will be working on some QA as well as preparing some gif / video assets of our work for Update 4. I’ll be checking in every morning to see what you all think!

https://forums.otherside-e.com/t/may-1-2019-weekly-update/10053

 

[Child of Malkav]

Hooray, a weekly update! …on a Wednesday.

If you’ve been keeping up with our casual updates, you know that our biggest priority right now is optimizing performance for console builds. At the same time, we are investigating all of the crash reports we’ve received related to Update 3 and still trying to determine the root of it.

For our Update 4 timeline, this may delay us, as well as our console release. Originally, the plan was plan was for Update 3 to be a Very Stable build of UA that we could use as a springboard for Update 4’s more ambitious NPC work. However, we were blindsided by some pretty serious crashes from new players as well as some returning players, and we’re still struggling to nail down the exact cause. As a result of our local QA, 505’s QA, and our external company’s QA who we hired out to assist us ALL missing these crashes, we’ve changed up our QA workflow to cover more specs as we move forward with testing. This also means that some significant time of Update 4 is being taken up to fix issues flagged during Update 3, and ensure they do not persist in the console versions. Obviously we do not want the game to take steps back as we release updates, so it’s important for us to be as timely as we can while being mindful of our limited budget for UA.

Update 4 plan was originally slated for late May / early June. We’re still tentatively aiming for that area, but note that our current priority is submitting builds to console so we can have something ready for this coming year. (These console builds are focused primarily on performance, which will in turn be reflected in PC’s Update 4). For those curious about Update 4’s overall status, most of the frameworks for the systems, new characters, and additional areas we want to include have been set up and require polishing and testing. There are some minor changes that you may be surprised to notice as well, such as the introduction of combat music…

There are also some features that we are experimenting with in the interest of making gameplay clearer. We had many new players mention that they didn’t understand combat or didn’t find it interesting and a LOT of feedback on the game UI. Both of these issues have been flagged and are under review from the team with various prototypes that we hope will make these systems easier to understand. We need to be mindful of our scope and budget with these, of course, and crashes and performance still have priority, but it’s a part of the work we’ve been kicking around.

The front lines will be quiet for awhile as I myself will be working on some QA as well as preparing some gif / video assets of our work for Update 4. I’ll be checking in every morning to see what you all think!

https://forums.otherside-e.com/t/may-1-2019-weekly-update/10053

Local QA, 505's QA, external company QA and the community manager (I assume that's what's called).....so they basically have 4 testers. Cool.
Also the combat was difficult to understand????? Such a wide and in-depth system can indeed be difficult to grasp at first but....... really, that's an actual, real, verifiable complaint? I.......no comment.
And just lol at console release and SS3 and SS4 and whatever Spector was delirious about. You're going to get closed down. You have way bigger problems than updates and consoles and SSs.

 

[Curratum]

The official forum is still the community manager conversing one-on-one with that delusional ass-licker Sandro, who still hasn't bought the game, right? :D

 

[Cael]

The official forum is still the community manager conversing one-on-one with that delusional ass-licker Sandro, who still hasn't bought the game, right? :D

So in other words, their community manager conversing with his alt?

 

[Efe]

to be frank i look forward to playing this game when it goes to humble bundle (or when i get a free/cheap key). it must have some value if it could entice about 70 pages of discussion on codex

 

[Silentstorm]

Yes, there is value in it, it has value in having been released as a buggy mess lacking content that the developers are fixing...to reveal a mediocre game that fell far below people's expectations or what they wanted.

Seriously, had this been made by some random nobodies as a small indie game, it would have just passed through with no one caring, at best maybe one or two pages about it in this forum, but it had a Kickstarter and the Steam page saying it's from the creative minds behind System Shock, Thief and the Underworld series, and they literally mention the Stygian Abyss, it's like they were asking for hype that could only be fullfilled with a good game.

 

[sk2k]

I have finished the game. I played with Update 3 and i only had 26 crashes in 21 hours playtime. It was maddening!

The amount of bugs is still high. Inventory bugs, AI bugs, object placement bugs, slowdowns, physics bugs (A LOT OF THEM) etc.

I'm looking forward to System Shock 3.

 

[Steamboat Willie]

The official forum is still the community manager conversing one-on-one with that delusional ass-licker Sandro, who still hasn't bought the game, right? :D

This game's biggest apologist is a guy who claims to have never played it. Imagine that.

 

[MasterLobar]

People are now getting censored by the community manager for pointing out that the developer/QA is incompetent (which is apparent to everybody):

https://steamcommunity.com/app/692840/discussions/0/1648791520838918149/#c1648791520839641827

 

[Silentstorm]

So another developer trying this, huh?

Has censoring critical users or removing negative opinions and reviews ever worked?

As far as i know, they are always found out, people warn others about it and people get rightfully angry, plus they come across as assholes who think they know better than anyone and refuse to learn how to make better games.

 

[ShaggyMoose]

I still can't bring myself to play this.

 

[Silentstorm]

I still can't bring myself to play this.

Probably for the best all things considered, it seems like all the patches revealed a mediocre game, nothing that should be compared to Ultima Underworld at all.

 

[JDR13]

It would be better if they just remastered UU 1 & 2.

 

[Glic2000]

Yeah, I figured they would just fall back on doing a remake of UW 1 when their crazy ideas failed to work out. But no, they didn't have the common sense to do that.

 

[Silentstorm]

To be fair, i don't think they are part of EA and last i checked, they are still the ones holding the IP even though they fucked it up to oblivion and destroyed one of the biggest and most influential series ever, and i don't mean RPG series, i mean just in games in general.

Heck, it isn't even part of the Ultima franchise, they tried to talk to EA, but the best they got was the right to use the Underworld name and some others like the Stygian Abyss, but not the actual setting, characters and such, so while you play as an Avatar, it's not THE Avatar and the Stygian Abyss isn't the one from the old games.

This is not Ultima precisely because EA insists on not doing anything with Ultima and didn't let them use the franchise, though it is part of another RPG's setting, it's in the same universe as Shroud Of The Avatar.

Basically, Ultima Underworld remakes will only happen when EA remembers they have Ultima and do something with it, which is to say, it will likely never ever happen.

 

[Cael]

To be fair, i don't think they are part of EA and last i checked, they are still the ones holding the IP even though they fucked it up to oblivion and destroyed one of the biggest and most influential series ever, and i don't mean RPG series, i mean just in games in general.

Heck, it isn't even part of the Ultima franchise, they tried to talk to EA, but the best they got was the right to use the Underworld name and some others like the Stygian Abyss, but not the actual setting, characters and such, so while you play as an Avatar, it's not THE Avatar and the Stygian Abyss isn't the one from the old games.

This is not Ultima precisely because EA insists on not doing anything with Ultima and didn't let them use the franchise, though it is part of another RPG's setting, it's in the same universe as Shroud Of The Avatar.

Basically, Ultima Underworld remakes will only happen when EA remembers they have Ultima and do something with it, which is to say, it will likely never ever happen.

After the humiliation that is Ascension, EA would rather forget Utima existed and bury it as deep as it can.

The motherfuckers.

 

[Silentstorm]

Like Ascension, and to a lesser scale, Pagan(because it's not as bad) weren't mainly their fault for heavily rushing the games, not letting the staff do their job, or wanting to focus way too much on Ultima Online, who knows, maybe if they had let Richard Garriott and his staff do their job and take as long as they wanted, we could have had Ultima ending on a high note.

 

[biggestboss]

I forgot I owned this game on Steam. Maybe it's time to install it just for the meme value.

 

[newtmonkey]

I have this and Arcania permanently installed for lolz, when I want to play something horrible in between more substantial games. Having said that, at least Arcania is stable (if you use the legacy version and hack it with a hex editor to run on modern OS). Ascendant is just ridiculous, it's like a the most buggiest bullshit game you'd play from some fucking kid releasing an asset swap on steam, combined with modern design sensibilities (insanely long tutorial section to explain the most basic of fundamentals, checkpoint saves only, etc. etc.).

 

[Steamboat Willie]

Like Ascension, and to a lesser scale, Pagan(because it's not as bad) weren't mainly their fault for heavily rushing the games, not letting the staff do their job, or wanting to focus way too much on Ultima Online, who knows, maybe if they had let Richard Garriott and his staff do their job and take as long as they wanted, we could have had Ultima ending on a high note.

Garriott and Origin fucked up Ascension all on their own.

 

[Bad Sector]

So i was watching at the level design videos from this guy (The Playing Field) and in the Prey one shows (not released at the time) Underworld Ascendant as a game from the company he worked on (he uses it as an example of something going wrong). He has a few other videos where he clearly shows he understands these types of games and level design in general, which while watching the videos makes me wonder how with someone like him on board they made UA to have so many issues.

Then i watched the Thief 2 video where at the end he mentions that he was hired for QA instead of level design.

 

[Ivan]

The Thief 2 vid predates the Prey vid. He must have moved up the ladder