V.1.96 beta

[Parvus 0]

Hi @ll,

can somebody tell me why we get the last time this *Beta-Invasion*?

1. I mean, im happy for one part that OFP will be supported in the future and some things used to be supported (cheats, bugs etc.). Thank You Marek for your work! I dont want to be missunderstood but ...

2. The severals OFP-Betas breaks the Mulitplaying-Community in 2 and now in 3 parts (1.91 / 1.94 / 1.96). This means that if i want to play OFP with others, i have first to decide which version a want to play and have a look at f.e. ASE (All Seeing Eye) in which version the most players are. Mostly it is not possible to fill all slots up (f.e. Battlefield, Riverbattle), because there are not enough players. That cannot be the best solution for all ...

3. My opinion is that if there is one version of OFP, the problems of point 2 are fotgotten.

4. Please tell me the idea behind this situation. I can not remeber that it was so in the last updates (and there were a lot of updates in the past). Is it possible that in the future, the remaining OFP-Players are united in one version? That will be the day when 'full' Maps can be played ...

greetz

P.S. excuse my very bad english, although im in the possibilty to write a better eng., i want that a lot of people do understand what i mean.

[nyles 11]

The point is that if they want to release a proper (non-beta) patch, BIS would have to send it along for Codemasters QA where it has to undergo intense testing until it is released as an official patch. Sending along a beta patch every few weeks probably is 1) costly and 2) unneccessary, considering you want to release a *beta* patch to see if other bugs come up and if everything has been fixed like intended. Then you send the stuff over to CM. While you would have to pay real beta-testers to do the job for an official patch, a beta patch has the advantage that the community can be used as beta-testers, which 1) offers a wider range of different pc-systems and 2) is cheaper.

Personally I don't mind the beta patches. They did a lot of good in the past and the splitting of the community isn't that problematic either.

The only thing I would have liked to see is that ALL beta patches would have only been compatible to servers with exactly the same version. That there would have been two types. 1.91 and the 1.9x beta stuff. Currently I have a seperate .exe for starting 1.91, 1.92, 1.93, 1.94, 1.95 and now 1.96, just for the case I want to play on a yet not updated server.

[Parvus 0]

ur right in some points, nyles but:

- the splitting of the community is definitly a point of the different Beta-versions.

- BI hasnt *pay* for 1.92 f.e. if 1.94 has got the same bugfixes like 1.92 and some new more. Why do we have to support 1.91 longer if there are 4! new patches.

- Sure they are Beta, but remember: the changes of 1.91beta => 1.91 official was zero ... in numbers: 0

- i would be glad if we see a solution before the OFP2 Demo will be realesed.

[FireFox_uk 0]

me personaly like the fact that game as old as flashpoint is still getting upgrade patches for it even if they are betas, because the sad fact is that nearly all game created only get upgrade support for about year and half after released, after that you don't tend to see any upgrade patches weather their are offical or beta unless it is a readly serious bug for. but i do agree that they should be more compatible as the 1.92 and above isn't compatible with 1.91 or below and 1.94 and 1.95 & above isn't compatible with 1.94 and below. so this does cause problems for people.

p.s one thing i would like to see in a possible upgrade patch is logging for chat type in gobal chat in mutli-player as for last two months spamming on server is getting worst and worster and because of the minor bug in chat that prevent you from find out the spammer if you type too many line in one chat box it won't display the spammer name.

[mr burns 131]

imho the main problem is just the players (or server admins) who hesitate to install the latest version because of the word beta. if everyone had 1.95 .. err i mean 1.96 installed, there wouldn´t be any problem at all

[joltan 0]

Apart from the map download fix (anti-cheat measure), all 1.96 does is fix two bugs introduced in 1.95. I wouldn't complain about that...

[pitufo 0]

I just wanna know why there are so many servers still running 1.91! Often it seems there are more people still playing on 1.91 so I start OFP up in 1.91 mode (being careful to manage my addons correctly) and then it's usually laggy or crashes. Someone should tell all those servers to upgrade!

[Parvus 0]

1.91 is official. Some Gameserver-provider only patch official Patches. Other patch the version you want. Anyway this is no solution.

Its not so easy: One point that its very fine that OFP is still be supported, otherwise its useless for me because i have to play DM with max. 8 Players

... C&H with 18-20 arent possible .. not enough gamerz

[sicilian 0]

196 is the most acceptable patch BI ever brought us!

Thank you guys cause I have not to do so much work against cheats anymore!!!

Best work ever..... as I said as programmer myself it is not to hard doing some against maphacks

Also the ID thing is very cool! Can't express my feelings about testing with 196... so cool what you've done!

But it had been done much earlier!

Love you boys!

Regards and even more regards from my side!

[noundo 0]

Didn't see it in the readme, but have they patched the tank commander rapid fire bug yet? It wasn't fixed in 1.95 and has been around for awhile.

[nyles 11]

- BI hasnt *pay* for 1.92 f.e. if 1.94 has got the same bugfixes like 1.92 and some new more. Why do we have to support 1.91 longer if there are 4! new patches.

You don't got my point. The reason why we get beta patches since 1.92 came out last autumn is that they don't cost much. They will continue to do so until they think the version will do and then they will release a final patch for OFP. I don't really care if this will take another 3 months or so, the fact alone that they WILL release a final patch eventually is reason enough for me to love them!

What could be done about the splitting of the community is more public relations work on behalf of BIS like even announcing BETA patches on the OFP mainpage and provide the download in the files section. I think that many people don't know where to get the files after they didn't find them on the OFP mainpage. Sad but true.

Nevertheless, BIS has done the mulitplayer community a very big favour by fixing all the cheating and crashing issues that have been in OFP, with the patches since 1.92. Cheers!

[iNeo 0]

Releasing as beta gives us the patches way faster, so they only do it for us. That the differences between 1.91beta and 1.91 official was none only prooves that the beta patches aren't particullary buggy etc.

[Koolkid101 0]

Just means they care.

[Babalon 0]

I have good things to say about all these BETA patches, and I have a few bad things to say about them.

Pros:

[*]They are putting time and effort to improve their product and make it more enjoyable for the consumers (at no additional cost to us).

[*]BIS is keeping the community involved with all these new upgrades by having "Public BETA" with their patches.  Many other game developing companies keep BETA patches private, but BIS seems to be taking a "work with the consumers, for the consumers" aproach.

[*]This really lets us know they are working fast and hard to improve their product for the consumers and OFP fans.

[*]Since so many people are using the BETA Patches in many different ways in a short amount of time, what bugs there are become apparent fast.

Cons:

[*]The Online Community is not as strong as it would be if there was an official upgrade (people are divided since a few use this patch and others use another, etc.).

[*]A good amount of time has passed with no Official Patch, thinning out the community over a wide area as more time passes.

If you are not close to an Official Patch, then make a "stepping stone" official patch, so the servers waiting for an offical upgrade can upgrade, and so that a good portion of the online community can get back together.  It would show a great acomplishment for the work already done.

Unless the head BIS Boss incharge of this patching effort has said that "there will only be one Official Patch at the end of this project", how could it really hurt to make an official one now, and if more work still needs to be done, make another later?

And to BIS,

Thanks for the great work, and the great game.  Everything is looking great so far with all the hard work you have put into it. I cant wait for an Official patch.    

[benu 1]

I am one of the admins that always patches up to the latest version, and i don't really see a decline in players. The problems would be the "casual gamers" that do not even know there are beta patches. Although i don't see how one can not know that when in every game browser there are crossed out servers which say "you can't play here because this server is version 1.96 and you have 1.91". But, yes, there are those players. I rarely meet players that do not want to install a patch because it is "beta".

OFP Community is small and most players are dedicated. This means they are usually informed well enough, either because they read ofp sites or because they know someone that does. I don't really see the new patches as a problem. There is some kind of "rift", but imho it's not as big as you say, because most players play on the same servers anyway and they will use the version that the server is using. And all of those versions can be run in parallel anyway. The only thing you really have to decide is which version to use for the server.

[joltan 0]

Also it's hard to speak of "inflation" when 1.92 came out in August, 1.94 in October (1.93 was not a public beta and very short lived) and 1.95 in January... 1.96 is just a quick bugfix for 1.95, and I'm happy (especially for those unfortunate Nvidia users) they provided it so quickly and didn't wait another 3 months.

[Parvus 0]

@benu: You can see here how *big* the problem is: ESL-League

And im talking about the most *public* Players or *public* Servers... the majority not a minority who playes on there server with password.

I understand that if you play with your teamates there is no problem (You know your 5..6 guyz) ...but whats with the majority?

[benu 1]

GDT is a public server without password. We get new players although we use the newest version of ofp all the time.

And leagues should have no problems at all as leagues should have rules as to which version players have to use.

And as i said before: you can use all versions in parallel, they only exchange the executable.

[Parvus 0]

Hello,

My intention was not that somebody is pissed of about the the different opinions here. I esteem yours benu and i know that a discussion with you is usefull.

My hope was that somebody with the authority to changes things reads this postings. But it isnt ...

P.S. f.e. our server is patched by our provider. Therefore we do not have a really chance to change different patches every week.

If i try to play this game with my provider ... i get my patch in 1 year or so.

The point is, if i ask 10 OFP-Gamers at the moment, 7 of them doesnt say: *Jipppieh! A new patch*.

They tell me that the chance to fill up with 20 gamers is round about zero if more patches are coming....

greetz

[Babalon 0]

I am a member of STO, and we have all pitched in our resources for our high-end dedicated server. We like large games of about 12-20 people, and the people in charge of maintaining the server have decided that its best to wait for an official patch before patching our dedicated server.

[Guest jacobaby]

For my personal 24/7 dediczted server, we always arrange for it to run the latest patch ASAP.

And also encourage all players (around 20 - 25 regulars) to use the latest.

It was due to this and other servers doing the same that many of the major bugs with the new series of patches were quickly identified and a response taken.

Of course, if you are in the unfortubate state that you do not have remote admin of your dedicated server, then it is wise to stick to an official version. Which I really cannot see as a problem, as none of the new patches have interefered at all with 1.91.

As an BAS addon maker, I also try to support the latest releases as far as possible. 1.92 > finally fixed a major problem for addon teams, and as such is a vital patch.

1.95 fixed the map lag in editor problem that also held back the development of realistic terrain islands, again a vital patch.

The new anti-cheat measures are VERY welcome, and I hope will prove to be useful to BIS for a future OFP product that has Join-in-progress, where the number of players online will surely multiply.

Given the extended period until OFP2, I am very happy that BIS continue to apply time and resources to OFP, which will enhance and improve our enjoyment of the game.

TJ

[benu 1]

My intention was not that somebody is pissed of about the the different opinions here. I esteem yours benu and i know that a discussion with you is usefull.

I usually sound more rude than i mean it, i try to stick more to arguments than to pretty words. If i seem pissed you got the wrong impression and i surly hope i did not offend you in any way.

Quote[/b] ]My hope was that somebody with the authority to changes things reads this postings. But it isnt ...

I think they do read here. I mean there were wishes in the community that the new/last patch should not be compatible to the ones before so one can be sure that one only plays with "patched" players and they did it for 192 and for 195 again. Which lets me hope that 196 won't be the last patch as it compatible with 195.

Quote[/b] ]P.S. f.e. our server is patched by our provider. Therefore we do not have a really chance to change different patches every week.

If i try to play this game with my provider ... i get my patch in 1 year or so.

Ouch, that sucks. Well, there will be an official patch sometime, and i even guess it will be sometime soon. And as you said, there are lots of people still playing with the old version, or at least a lot of people running it. I can only say from my experience that we did not have a shortage of players using the latest beta patches.

Quote[/b] ]The point is, if i ask 10 OFP-Gamers at the moment, 7 of them doesnt say: *Jipppieh! A new patch*.

They tell me that the chance to fill up with 20 gamers is round about zero if more patches are coming....

I don't know, we sometimes have to close the server because it gets too crowded. Although that really is not the norm, but it happens. I can't tell you if this is because or although we always use the newest server version. Normally it is because we play cti or rts3

[RN Malboeuf 12]

We'll probly upgrade to 1.96 as soon as several leagues look at it, right now we're staying with 1.94

[Lt_Damage 0]

OGN updates as soon as a new version is available. After the work the developers put in we feel we should at least help them test it asap rather than sit back and wait for others to do so.

[Colossus 2]

ANY big bugs on this version?