There shouldn't be day 1 DLC in Portal 2

[Phishfood]

It is incredibly naive of people if they think that (almost) no time was spent on making this. It might look simple, but that's the case with a lot of things in software development. Trust me, you need way more than two hands to count the number of manhours that went into this. In addition to making the hats themselves, code had to be written for equipping and displaying the hats, and the store itself obviously needed to be programmed as well. All of that also needs to be tested.

TF2 code.
Copy.
Paste.
s/mann co/robot enrichment/
done as far as the store is concerned. Valve out and said that because hats turned out so popular in TF2 they were going to do it again, oh look they did.

Although, I must agree looking at the "free" DLC what they have done is chopped a feature that portal 1 HAD (ie - challenge mode) in order to crowbar in the hats. Hmm. So in fact, they DIDN'T release a finished game. Huh...I seem to have switched sides. Unsettling.

 

[Trolldor]

There are several months between release and finished product. The store would have been left till last, and no it wouldn't have been complicated because they had already done a much more complex store in TF2.

Also, your beef with the plate is nonsense. They deliberately didn't use the model for a reason, to catch you off-guard. It's a fairly normal thing to do. You're complaining because you wanted it pointed out to you with a big neon sign and a spruiker.

 

[DeadlyYellow]

Basically what if in a random map on tf2 the scout had the nail gun he did in their beta shots instead of his scattergun. Would seem out of place. What if you then knew they wasted resources on hats rather than polishing this easy fix.

Nailgun as in the power tool, or more like the Quake model? Either way it would have been pretty sweet. I love projectile based weaponry focused on sharp spikes.

To think I never unlocked the huntsman.

 

[daubie]

If game content is finished when the game is released then it should be released WITH said game. Maybe I'm just old fashioned, though. I used to love Valve, but I can't help but feel like their doing everything they can to pull money from people. I know it's a business, but still...

 

[GGZeta]

Actually I'd just like to see you show any kind of evidence that mapping some tiaras, crowns and plastic cages for the bots to wear somehow took away from the production of the rest of the game. As has been explained by other more eloquent people, various teams within the company work at different paces and on different schedules. Just because the modelers and texture artists had a lunch break to make a few silly hats doesn't mean that game critical resources were being wasted. How long does it take to model a hat and texture it? For a professional, you could have it done before your coffee got cold. The example you gave at the beginning involves quite a lot of the team (modeling, textures, programming, animating) whereas hats can be done by two people goofing off in their cubicle.

I can just imagine the people that made the first silly accessories, on lark, and then their managers thought other people would like to have them for what amounts to pocket change since everybody likes it in TF so much. And then there is this insane backlash, what kind of message does that send to these people?

 

[NightlyNews]

Actually I'd just like to see you show any kind of evidence that mapping some tiaras, crowns and plastic cages for the bots to wear somehow took away from the production of the rest of the game. As has been explained by other more eloquent people, various teams within the company work at different paces and on different schedules. Just because the modelers and texture artists had a lunch break to make a few silly hats doesn't mean that game critical resources were being wasted. How long does it take to model a hat and texture it? For a professional, you could have it done before your coffee got cold. The example you gave at the beginning involves quite a lot of the team (modeling, textures, programming, animating) whereas hats can be done by two people goofing off in their cubicle.

I can just imagine the people that made the first silly accessories, on lark, and then their managers thought other people would like to have them for what amounts to pocket change since everybody likes it in TF so much. And then there is this insane backlash, what kind of message does that send to these people?

Jesus christ this is starting to get insulting. My opinion of portal 2 was it was good not great. How it could have been great is if their was a consistent world with no visual artifacts from beta and if they had cleaned up some of the "non-testing" rooms to make the puzzle pieces stand out more.

Both of which could've been solved by graphic artists (who I assume also model hats).

I know everyone has their stupid argument already picked out, but to not even make an attempt to change it to my question leads me to think everyone is brain dead once an escapist employee has made a decision on a topic. Everyone in these threads become mindless parrots.

 

[GGZeta]

...Snipped...

And since you have your arguments picked out for anything any of us says in response without considering another point of view the matter goes no where. Sum Zero~

 

[NightlyNews]

...Snipped...

And since you have your arguments picked out for anything any of us says in response without considering another point of view the matter goes no where. Sum Zero~

Are you chastising me for thinking through an idea before posting it? Pick any post in this thread and chances are if you read the three posts above it they are nigh indistinguishable. I made this thread knowing the popular opinion and asking if anyone had other reasons because I clearly didn't agree with whelp they couldn't have made the gripes with my game better because it takes one person half an hour to make a hat. That seems blatantly false to me. The item shops are strings of code programmers have to debug, marketing spent time thinking up pricing and placement. Games are huge sprawling monsters and thats exactly why I doubt a single person made the item shop and all the dlc. In that huge of a institution no individual person can create and install something by themselves without others overseeing/helping.

Heres some examples of arguments I can't touch:

You legitimately believe you get more enjoyment out of the shop than small graphical changes to single player.

You are convinced adapting and installing tf2s item shop and inventory in Portal 2 is easy and took them less than a week.

Granted both of these are merely speculation like my points because I honestly only know what the developer commentaries told me. I didn't design the bloody game. But, saying hey if hats can be made by users like they were for tf2 it surely must be easy. I blatantly don't agree. The good items on fps banana normally cite 3-5 hours each and I would assume longer for animations. Then they have to implement the monetary system and trading. No doubt since they've done it before it was quicker, but I'd bet a lot that it took at least a 3 man team of artist, programmer and marketing rep for pricing and overseeing a week to implement.

 

[GGZeta]

You know, it really sounds like your problem is with bugs and graphical errors and I completely agree that those sorts of thing should be polished before a game goes out. But what I don't understand is why you level the blame for that on the DLC store. The precedence for Steam's DLC stores was set in TF2 so its not like they were building an entirely new infrastructure to handle it for Portal. Also, I don't really believe the same team responsible for making the game Portal were also simultaneously tasked with making the DLC store.

In addition I direct you to this video (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9kUTML6D_e4a simple example but appropriate) to show how something as simple as a crown can take very little time for a trained person with the right tools. I was using hyperbole when I mentioned a lunchbreak but yes, one person can make a hat in very little time when you're a professional using a very expensive industry toolset. And as for animations, if you have the wire frame for a model an animation takes very very little time, as someone that has worked with them in the past I can tell you this from experience. When you compare user made content to content made by a developer (as you do when describing time spent on FPS Banana for items), you are comparing a hobbyist/unpaid-part-time-contributor to someone whose survival depends on working quickly and efficiently. I'm not saying that those modders aren't really good at what they do, but they aren't spending 8 hours a day being paid to make those items.

 

[Ranorak]

What does the DLC even have anything to do with the fact that you think it's unpolished?

You do realize that once the models are made for the game, the game is far from finished and thus gives the model artists plenty of time to make some hats.

Or hell, even when the game is considered finished but before the final master copy is made, there is still plenty time to make some animations.

The two have NOTHING to do with each other.

 

[Bags159]

Huge part of the game. As you are about to encounter Wheatley you are pushed to his platform and crushers by a box instead of a faith plate.

So uh, what does them using a wall instead of a faith plate to catapult you near the end have to do with the game being unpolished? Why is this a "huge part of the game" if no one but you has noticed it? And what does that have to do with the cosmetic item shop???

I don't like this DLC either, but that's just because I don't like any DLC that was conceived of before a game is launched. It's not the worst DLC put into a game by a long shot, but that gets offset that this was done by Valve. One of the few developers that have such a pristine reputation that you wouldn't expect this from them.

There is no DLC currently available for Portal 2. DLC stands for "DownLoadable Content". You don't download the hats.

If game content is finished when the game is released then it should be released WITH said game. Maybe I'm just old fashioned, though. I used to love Valve, but I can't help but feel like their doing everything they can to pull money from people. I know it's a business, but still...

The hats did release with Portal 2. They're just not part of the actual game and cost $0.99 -> 2.99 to buy. Not sure how them selling cosmetic hats has lowered your opinion of them.

Jesus christ this is starting to get insulting. My opinion of portal 2 was it was good not great. How it could have been great is if their was a consistent world with no visual artifacts from beta and if they had cleaned up some of the "non-testing" rooms to make the puzzle pieces stand out more.

So the game is good but not great because there's one panel that you feel is inconsistent? Is there a written rule somewhere that if you are catapulted it must be by a faith plate?

 

[Ickorus]

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/columns/experienced-points/8834-Experienced-Points-DLC-Again.2

Read number 4. Shamus says it better than I could, but the point is: little bugs and texture errors like this happen in every game. The DLC had nothing to do with it. If you want to be angry at DLC, that's your prerogative, but actually come up with a legitimate reason first.

Also be angry at bad DLC, not good stuff like this.

Just thought i'd add that in to what you said.

Also I wouldn't even call these hats DLC, they're just fluff.

 

[BiscuitTrouser]

I don't like how pointless achievement points have replaced the skins as a reward for doing interesting or difficult tasks did in old games.

Why are these skins any less useless than the points we rank up and DISPLAY on our PERSONAL PROFILES to SHOW WHAT WE HAVE ACHIEVED "cough" exactly the same "cough". Its like camos on the CoD guns. They are equally as pointless.

 

[Megacherv]

Hat: Model, texture, parent to bone. Total time: an hour, maybe two.

Why is this an issue again?

How long would've it taken to replace a single bloody face plate they already had the model and texture for then!?

It was offputting enough that it made me lose immersion before an important part of the game.

First: It's not the same as the original faith-plate, it's just a clear glass panel attached to the same arm that all panels are attached to

Second: Why does it matter?

 

[Shilkanni]

Huge part of the game. As you are about to encounter Wheatley you are pushed to his platform and crushers by a box instead of a faith plate. If you remember back to the trailers its actually an original faith plate (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9GUT78G7gDI). When this alpha faith plate shoots you over it doesn't even move or seem to be animated in any way and it kind've bothered me as it didn't seem to make sense. What bothers me is this could've been animated or replaced with a new face plate by a graphics artist (you know the ones who were doing pay for animations and hats).

I read this paragraph about 5 times and watched the linked video but I don't understand what you're saying. Are you saying that there is a faith plate in the final game (towards the end) which looks different and doesn't have a proper animation? If so do you have a video of the one you're talking about?

It's pretty clear that I didn't remember it from the game so it obviously didn't stand out as obviously unpolished. In fact, nothing in the game stood out as unpolished.

I definitely want some more challenging puzzles and/or challenge modes, something to give it re-playability.

There's so many arguments you can have about where a company should spend it's resources, you might have preferred an Aerial Faith Plate animation but if they can sell 10000 virtual hats I can understand why they do it.

 

[NightlyNews]

I don't like how pointless achievement points have replaced the skins as a reward for doing interesting or difficult tasks did in old games.

Why are these skins any less useless than the points we rank up and DISPLAY on our PERSONAL PROFILES to SHOW WHAT WE HAVE ACHIEVED "cough" exactly the same "cough". Its like camos on the CoD guns. They are equally as pointless.

Because I like skins and don't like numbers. It's really that simple. Points are for other people to see the skins I enjoy myself.

 

[Kingsnake661]

I'm a bit of a late comer to the portal party, but my understanding of it's day one dlc is, that's is basically stuff to dress up your robot? Correct? So.. no real effect on gameplay at all?? And it's sturing *this* much fuss? *shrug*