everyday i open up Steam, i see a Skullgirls update.
i read the changelog and i’m amazed at the attention to detail (not to mention how well documented these changes/new features are).
not only the netcode was tweaked to perfection, but they added a featureset that embarasses the larger, established fighting game developers:
concurrent matches in a lobby
rematch button
myriad of training options (like hitboxes and hitstun representation)
etc. etc.
console patches cost in deployment and certification… and companies are typically slow to respond to the customer’s needs.
for example: Ultra drops… with inexplicable crappier netcode, huge oversights (can’t even set training dummy to DWU - an advertised mechanic) etc.
we paid for the game (like idiots that we are) and Capcom makes us sit through this crap until it accumulates enough fixes to deploy a cost-effective patch from their perspective.
this slow and limited support cycle only hurts games and their respective playerbases.
besides, good luck growing the competitive scene without PC hardware sponsors.
Last time I checked there are several really popular PC games, and plenty of PC games no one gives a fuck about. SF4 is on PC and where has that gotten us?
The thing is, Skullgirls is a unique case since LZ’s development cycle isn’t hampered by any sort of bureaucracy. Mike just fixes whatever he sees needs fixing and pushes the patch out on the beta. A bigger company would still have hoops to go through internally before being able to push a patch out.
While it seems backwards, it also means that certain things aren’t pushed out before they’re ready. I.e. how Skullgirls’ saved teams option (entourage) currently crashes the game during network play since it wasn’t caught in the beta.
you’d make a valid point if we didn’t have Rolento’s knife freeze bug in the past… that players had to deal with even at Evo with the risk of getting an automatic loss
seems like the same thing to me when quality is concerned, actually no… MikeZ could fix his bug the next day… which is even better than planning for a patch
M$ has been shown to charge developers in the order of $40K just to deploy a patch. So, no. Capcom can’t simply just pop out adhoc patches when they feel like it. Their cumulative incompetence would blow their budget.
Even aside from that; USF4 isn’t a new game. It doesn’t have a new game’s budget.
I’d be willing to bet any of the Capcom devs know how to fix the issues, they’re just not allowed to yet.
Skullgirls is both a good example and a bad example.
It’s a good example because it’s got a great feature set.
It’s a bad example because none of those were publisher demands, they’re almost exclusively the call of Lab Zero and Mike Z and it only happened because there is a void in their publisher relationship and they’ve been doing that out of sheer dedication and masochism. Since summer 2012 and until recently they basically haven’t been paid for all that work and practically didn’t have to answer to Autumn for anything. I’m sure publishers would consider having great features added without them paying a great asset but it’s a flawed model.
Capcom’s Resident Evil 4 HD on Steam is much closer to what you seek.
patches and user modifications are accepted without problems.
SF4 on the other hand feels slow in everything, not just gameplay…
I am sure had the SG developers known in what sort of trouble they’d run into, they’d have made the game a PC exclusive from the start. would have saved them tons of money.
Can confirm that Cyclops is permanently fucked in MvC2 XBLA and PSN because of MS. :sad: (Fixing the broken secondary move recovery tables, most notably affecting Cyke, Chun, Psy, and Magnus, would have increased the patch size enough to take it out of MS’s free patch range.)
Pretty sure that policy was changed a year or two ago, though. I distinctly remember feeling very bitter about it. :sad:
pretty sure mk9 received numerous, almost weekly packs to correct every bug they found?
But yeah, ultra is not a good example. While the same not necessarily happened with the marketing, the developing department was short in resoursers for sure. They basicaly tried to port all content from SFxT to sf4.
But yeah, there’s more things possible in PC environment, like this
MK9 got weekly hotfixes that only worked if you were connected online at all times. Wasn’t technically a full fledged patch that you downloaded and installed to the game.
I don’t like the way MK/Injustice were handled. The hotfixes were only for balance and not for any bug fixes. This meant that some actual bugs could not be fixed outside of actual patches (which eventually stopped coming) and the community became filled with a bunch of whiners who kept asking for balance changes instead of learning to adapt and advance the game’s meta.
I still remember that one week where Kano was supposedly S tier for like 3 days and then was apparently nerfed to mediocre tier immediately. Those hotfixes were awful.
As people have said Skullgirls is an exception case. The console version of the game follows the same rules as other FGs. Only one big patch per version.
SF4AE steam is fine it has higher resolution particle effects, one sided visual mods work. You can have INK or penciling on any character color.
If you play PC on 4:3 you can move the ultra bars in and see the whole flame effect plus it shows you more vertically so all of the UI aren’t in the way as much. Kind of reminds me of more old school look and more clean looking see footsies in the corner a bit better.
I think the pc version is great it’s just the normal internet problems and people playing on not-optimized systems or leaving the steam overlay open. Windows has a really big problem with gaming with other programs open anyway it’s better to try and run games in high priority if you are getting consistent issues.
How many people actually realize that a network driver can create latency, not very many most people are probably using the first network driver or one through windows update, there is a lot of factors that make the PC version less casual and difficult to have a smooth experience, the steam over-lay though that is a major problem then again my experience with steam has been pretty sour, issues with every game where I had none on GFWL. Don’t forget in 08 09 when steam was down you were cockblocked from games that used steam’s copy right protection for online mode or if the game detected an update you couldn’t even play offline.
The only console I own right now is a GameCube. I have a PSP as well but it’s a portable. Sold my PS3 and only miss the console exclusives. Red Dead Redemption, Journey… <— Because I didn’t get to play them
oh man, I just realized the slight stupidity of my post.
well like what everyone said, consoles have fees for patches. Apparently, nintendo doesn’t follow by that policy and devs can patch their game with no fee.
Spoiler
OP mentioning skullgirls though makes me wonder why the game isnt on WiiU. I think now would be a good time to do so since lab zero can now gain profit from sales.
IMO, I think that LZ has had a better relationship with Sony compared to the other two so they’re working with them first (Mike even plans to make the driver for PS3 sticks to work on PS4 freely licensable for anyone who wants if they can pull it off).
