Not sure you meant to post that here (we've all done that :-) ), but I
think it's a good idea. He should take you up on the offer. I'm sure you'd
do a good job.
--
David G Fisher
Not sure you meant to post that here (we've all done that :-) ), but I
think it's a good idea. He should take you up on the offer. I'm sure you'd
do a good job.
--
David G Fisher
| Stefano,
|
| I really love the work so far with NKPro and believe this will be a
| truly great sim. However, I am concerned that the lack of communication
| (at least for English speakers, I am not sure if there are Italian
| speaking forums covering this in more depth) may harm the uptake of the
| sim leaving a core group of people who have complete faith in you and
| your small team.
|
| As you are no doubt aware the sim racing community can be strange group
| (much like any other I guess) in that I get dismayed how little trust
| and belief is displayed and we then see speculation and wild rumour
| abound with poor efforts from the fans to put them right. Hence we end
| up with "fanboy" and "whiners" drivel on the forums.
|
| I do believe you need an entrusted communications officer. Possibly this
| is already the role of "Schummy1", but even he seems too distant from
| the real developments to be able to keep the groups happy that things
| are really happening. I think you need a native English speaker to
| handle the forums as often things get lost in the translation.
|
| I have been so taken by your sim and dismayed by some of the negativity
| that I have felt compelled to post to counter some of the hysteria being
| posted. However, that is simply my view based on speculation of what I
| believe you are doing. I have faith based on the evidence I have seen
| and find it hard to understand at times why others do not.
|
| Now you don't know me, I am a 43 year British sim racer of 16 years
| (since Indy 500), run the European Division of the Middle Aged Racers
| Association (MARA) running GPL 69 and GT Legends and have raced in
| online leagues since GPL's launch in 1998.
|
| As you would expect MARA contains many mature sensible sim racers. I
| would be more than willing to act as a NetKar Pro spokesperson and run a
| web site and hopefully even organise some download locations. All I
| would ask is for some degree of "official" status so as to have a voice
| of some authority on the forums, and to offer MARA as a beta test team
| (we have our own dedicated servers).
|
| If you consider the role already covered (with someone you know!) then I
| fully understand. Whether you think it a worthwhile idea or not you can
| count on my full support for your venture.
|
| Best Regards
| Tony Rickard
This is a good idea. It might quell this so-called "wild speculation",
though I think this speculation is not so wild.
The reasons I say this,
1. The sorry state of the initial game release
2. The first patch, delayed for three days because the lead developer was
not going to be available to troubleshoot activation problems that might
arise. This seemed very odd to me, especially when there presumably are
others developers who could have done the troubleshooting. It lead me to
believe that possibly the patch was not ready and an excuse was made for its
delay.
3. The first patch-- which really did nothing but fix activation issues.
The severe lag problems and other multiplayer issues were not addressed at
all. And these problems, two weeks since the game's release, still exist.
4. Excuses. It was reported on the RSC boards that Kunos (or someone in a
similar position) was intimating that the lag problems with NKP might be
related to server distance or personal computer problems rather than the
software. This is a specious argument, since rFactor and LFS servers work
very well. I find it odd that when I set up a server for NKP, my ping to my
own server (which is on a LAN) sometimes reaches 400-500. With rFactor,
this ping is usually 6-10. The server pings in NKP are apparently broken,
but you have to go with what you have. I do believe it is obvious to
everyone that NKP's multiplayer module has some serious problems. When
frames in general (not completely related to ping) drop 30-40% from offline
to online, something is not right. And then when wild excuses are made, it
only compounds my feeling of slight distrust.
5. On another similar issue as the above, there is this very serious
muliplayer join-lag problem with NKP. I would think that it could be easily
fixed, but it seems more excuses are being put forth as to why it might be
happening, without anything being done about it. First, on RSC, someone
close to the development of NKP claimed that the lag began with the second
patch, caused by the skins being loaded, fixed from the initial release.
This was blatantly false. The lag was there all along. When this fact was
pointed out, no response was made. Then, it was mentioned that rFactor had
the same problem at first. This also is false. Either these guys are
actually believing what they are saying, or else something else is going on.
5. This little thing was really troublesome to me. When NKP was released,
the routines that disallowed the AIM to be displayed in the***pit and the
exclusion of tracks and cars (for the Demo) caused problems with the
activation. Kunos came out and said that when the patch is released, he
would open up everything in single player for the Demo, and give paying
customers the limited single-player (no AI, etc.) and the multiplayer. But
once the patch was released this did not happen, since he found a way to
keep the limited demo without it screwing up the activation process. I do
think that giving demo users as much as he said he was going to give them
was a mistake, but the fact that he reneged on a promise is what is
troubling. And I don't recall Kunos or anyone else explaining this sudden
change of heart.
These are the things that disturb me, and these things are not built on wild
assumptions. I think they are valid points and should be the concern of
many. Employing some sort of communication's person, as you suggest, can
meet things concerns head on and give consumers a little more confidence
about the direction of NKP.
I do think that NKP gives the user the best, most-realistic feel of any
racing simulator out there today. But for a multiplayer-only simulator,
it's got a very long way to go. Somehow I feel I'm not getting the straight
story with all these evasions and excuses. Tell the story truthfully and
people will be forgiving and patient; evasion and duplicity will only result
in the opposite.
Alanb
Anybody who's been on r.a.s. for more than 6months (well in today's
simracing world that means barely _one_ title release) knows that here we'll
never be satisfied by a racing sim. It's a love/hate relationship, where
love is secretly shown outside the barriers of the Usenet, unlless you want
to see yourself as a total fanboy.
Except for Bruce ;)
--
-- Fran?ois Mnard <ymenard>
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