Sybylle
   |
Posted - 2005.02.15 15:38:00 -
[1]
Quoted from here (requires logging)
what is ccp doing now? fixing bugs? adding content? eating sheeps *********!
reported by Oveur | 2005.02.04 10:51:00
I posted this on the forum a while back, and thought this might be of interest for more of you that don't frequent the forums. EVE-I also posted it so some of you might have seen it there already. I'll just paste the forum reply here below.
The sheep testicle part is true however, it's now our annual "Thorrablot" where we eat various sour food, amongst them sour sheep *********. It's all about being traditional and "going back to our roots". What I can't fathom though is that why did somebody decide that we should eat sheeps ********* in stead of roots, I think it would have been a better choice. I'm sure you agree. Well enough rambling, here is the post.
"Hello everybody, I'm a game addict. I am also a member of the CCP staff and management, head of the Content department and the Producer of the Exodus expansion amongst other things (Resident beer drinker and such).
I can't write a single line of code in Python or C. If I were to touch the source code of EVE, I would mess up by just moving my cursor. Fortunately I can't even do that since we have stringent version control.
CCP has 40 other staff members, where of 7 work for me in the Content department, the rest is split between Programming, Art, Testing, Marketing and Financials.
Of those departments, only one can write a single line of code in Python or C, which is obviously the Programmers (Trust me, you don't want Marketing doing that).
Now, as an example, programmers have been fixing bugs and improving systems since Exodus was released. There have been no new features programmed. There is minimal programming scheduled for the EW and Missile overhaul (about a week in manhours total) and that's it for the next months, because programmers are still dedicated fixing bugs and improving the server and the client. We did the client performance in Exodus and were successful, now we're working on the server and we will be successful. It'll take 5 manyears of work, but it's worth it.
Now the staff members that can't fix code, are working within the systems to create Art and Content. As an example, the new patch does not include any "new coded features" it's pure Art and Content (Reads: numbers in a database and textures/models). Neither did the previous patch or the patch before that have "new coded features".
The next patch will very likely include the weeks worth of "new coding" for the EW and Missiles depending on how that all goes, but it will still be predominantly fixes and improvements, like the patches before that.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Fixing bug and adding stuff are 2 things completly apart.
Adding stuff won't change anything to bugs, as long as it's design and basic parameters additions (ships, items, BPOs...).
Then, in coding (fixing patches) you include new functionnalities, probably bugs also, as these last ones weren't in place and extend the code, thus increasing its complexity and :
-slowing the database
-interfering in other operations
-acting not as supposed...
Well...Bugging.
If you want to add 10% of speed to all ships, this will go throught the coding phase.
All ships will be affected, this meaning it's an heavy change, and you must be sure the less people will be affected by any bug.
If you add new ships, even if they are faster than any other (for instance, inties), they won't affect any other ship. They are still part of the same group, but they are an independent part of it.
Problems occurs on global changes, i.e. changes affecting wide playerbases, indepedently from their ship/race/class. So adding stuff allows adding content to game and making the playerbase more wide in terms of work/specialisation.
Fixing stuff means fix one problem affecting many people, and requires more work.
Adding content : clicking on a smilie to add it in a post.
Coding : writing the whole page to make available the icon, then link it to a 'onclick' like function, then to a paste in the post....
(\_/)
(O.o)
(> <)=Oveur (proof)
"Jumping 50 systems I can like, have sex 150 times during that period" |