My thoughts are that I'm probably the only person on this forum that genuinely liked Colonial Marines, but that it's not a hill worth dying on.Chimpzy said:
That said, I can't help but find this pretty funny...in a somewhat depressing kind of way.
Aliens Colonial Marines AI broken because of one letter. [UPDATED]
- Thread starter Chimpzy_v1legacy
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That said, I can't help but find this pretty funny...in a somewhat depressing kind of way.
Hey, that means that we only need to find the other three people that did and we can create a very exclusive club!Hawki said:
The only clue would have been the developer console having solid blocks of red/yellow text reading "WARNING: SCRIPT PecanGame.PecanSeqAct_AttachPawnToTether NOT FOUND" as the AI tried desperately to find its pathfinding guide. But from what I understand of the game's development, the console output was probably a great wall of red and yellow text.Major Tom said:
Ok, little bit of an update on the Colonial Marines typo story:
Gearbox has posted a job opening on their website for a Programming Copy Editor [https://gearboxsoftware.bamboohr.com/jobs/view.php?id=117].
Basically, someone whose entire job is to go over the game code and find typos. Applicants are required to fill a 'rigorous questionnaire' which pretty much amounts to proving you can spell the word 'tether' correctly. No really, that's all there is.
Make of this what you will. I'm sure Gearbox thinks it's funny and self-depreciative and all, but it's really easy to construe as insulting towards its audience in a "Hey, we messed up. Fuck apologising or fixing it tho. Instead we're gonna laugh at our own incompetence" sort of way.
Gearbox has posted a job opening on their website for a Programming Copy Editor [https://gearboxsoftware.bamboohr.com/jobs/view.php?id=117].
Basically, someone whose entire job is to go over the game code and find typos. Applicants are required to fill a 'rigorous questionnaire' which pretty much amounts to proving you can spell the word 'tether' correctly. No really, that's all there is.
Make of this what you will. I'm sure Gearbox thinks it's funny and self-depreciative and all, but it's really easy to construe as insulting towards its audience in a "Hey, we messed up. Fuck apologising or fixing it tho. Instead we're gonna laugh at our own incompetence" sort of way.
If a patch rolls out to every platform fixing the typo, I think its an amusing way to roll with it. I wouldnt expect any straight apology because the internet has abused them for years. If everyone's reaction had been say, crestfallen and disappointed about ACM, then an apology would be good. But enough abuse has passed that they can acknowledge the mistake, without needing to apologise.Chimpzy said:Ok, little bit of an update on the Colonial Marines typo story:
Gearbox has posted a job opening on their website for a Programming Copy Editor [https://gearboxsoftware.bamboohr.com/jobs/view.php?id=117].
Basically, someone whose entire job is to go over the game code and find typos. Applicants are required to fill a 'rigorous questionnaire' which pretty much amounts to proving you can spell the word 'tether' correctly. No really, that's all there is.
Make of this what you will. I'm sure Gearbox thinks it's funny and self-depreciative and all, but it's really easy to construe as insulting towards its audience in a "Hey, we messed up. Fuck apologising or fixing it tho. Instead we're gonna laugh at our own incompetence" sort of way.
If no patch rolls out, the joke makes them look like smug dicks.
Near as I can tell, a patch does not seem to be forthcoming. That's why the joke falls rather flat. Like you said, smug.Elijin said:
Well, it's all about context. If this one typo was the sole cause of the game's problems and the game would be awesome without it, it's funny and self-depreciative. Because, woopsie, boy is my face red, but it's fixed, right? Let's all have a good laugh and a beer.
If however, even with the fix, the game has standing problems Gearbox refuses to fix, it's arrogant and insulting.
If however, even with the fix, the game has standing problems Gearbox refuses to fix, it's arrogant and insulting.
After that point it raises questions about what constitutes a real problem, vs a more... complain-y? problem.Potjeslatinist said:
The AI was bad. This was a big issue impacting gameplay. But can apparently be addressed.
The other issues were about the ol' "it looked way better at e3 // in promotional material" dance and the ever present debate about general quality of the story being told, and game being....gamed.
So of those issues, the e3/promo debate is...I dont know. If you buy a game based on old promo content, rather than seen content, isnt that a buyer beware issue? And quality is as always a subjective matter.
Ultimately, it was a middling game with some real technical issues, that due to feelings at the time got held up as the poster boy for the hotbutton issues which were E3 tech demo lies, pre-ordering existing, and licensed product cash ins.
I personally dont believe it deserves the bile it generates, and is at worst, inoffensively forgettable (which is condeming for a triple A game). But it got to hold a lot of resentment up on its shoulders, and thus is viewed waaaaay worse than it was.
You should edit the update into the OP since you edited the title. That's where I look for updates anyway.Chimpzy said:Ok, little bit of an update on the Colonial Marines typo story:
Gearbox has posted a job opening on their website for a Programming Copy Editor [https://gearboxsoftware.bamboohr.com/jobs/view.php?id=117].
Basically, someone whose entire job is to go over the game code and find typos. Applicants are required to fill a 'rigorous questionnaire' which pretty much amounts to proving you can spell the word 'tether' correctly. No really, that's all there is.
Make of this what you will. I'm sure Gearbox thinks it's funny and self-depreciative and all, but it's really easy to construe as insulting towards its audience in a "Hey, we messed up. Fuck apologising or fixing it tho. Instead we're gonna laugh at our own incompetence" sort of way.
What is painful here is not that they did not see a typo in the code (that shit is easy to miss) but that they did not notice that the AI was not working as intended. An entire part of the code did not have any effect on the final product. If your code does that, there are ways to find out where the error is. If Gearbox had put their mind to it, they could have found and fixed this within weeks, possibly days. The AI not functioning as advertised was rather well documented.Chimpzy said:Ok, little bit of an update on the Colonial Marines typo story:
Gearbox has posted a job opening on their website for a Programming Copy Editor [https://gearboxsoftware.bamboohr.com/jobs/view.php?id=117].
Basically, someone whose entire job is to go over the game code and find typos. Applicants are required to fill a 'rigorous questionnaire' which pretty much amounts to proving you can spell the word 'tether' correctly. No really, that's all there is.
Make of this what you will. I'm sure Gearbox thinks it's funny and self-depreciative and all, but it's really easy to construe as insulting towards its audience in a "Hey, we messed up. Fuck apologising or fixing it tho. Instead we're gonna laugh at our own incompetence" sort of way.