BFC Support, radio check

[Dirtweasle]

Can't see an answers to any questions in the past week or so, are you all still engaged or ???

Am especially interested in the issue with the fonts / text or icon appearance.

[Statisoris]

I think Huntarr said in some thread somewhere that they are pulling back a little, due to all the griping about known issues and all the unnecessarily repeated questions and issues on the boards.

[Dirtweasle]

Hmmm, interesting strategy. You have a set of customers not satisfied with the product, some with technical issues, some more to do with aesthetics and intended product use and you on purpose disengage from your customwrs?

Not sure, do they teach that at the Wharton or Kellogg School?

[Huntarr]

Several of us have tried to stay engaged in the outer boards by helping answer what we can and direct questions to previous threads. But having received again negative commentary about the assistance, I do not see many reasons to not just keep everything in Skunkworks until BFC releases the next patch. Being brought in after the initial release I can fully appreciate the frustration of not knowing what's going on behind the scene for the average player. (Mushroom effect)

I can say this BFC is still activily working on CM:SF and we are working on 1.05x

[Dirtweasle]

Outerboards? That's just lovely Huntarr, a fine example on how to win over people.

...having received again negative commentary about the assistance, I do not see many reasons to not just keep everything in Skunkworks...

One reasons might be to sell and support a product, but call me old fashioned.

Anyhow, I was not even thinking about beta testers chiming in and helping explain some game functionality or another. Which is nice especially in the tactics section.

[Sixxkiller]

What is wrong about the outerboard title? You are not on the innerboard. j/k

I will tell you when we like your ideas we say, so and so on the outerboard had a good idea, so if you have a better descriptor I am all ears.

I still think you guys think it's an US vs YOU kind of thing. The beta testers want the same things as "you" do. Sheesh, we play the game as much as we can and see it more in it's "broken" state than you do.

And it's too bad you didnt get a "patch" build we got recently. Would have been like Christmas, Easter, and your 21st birthday all rolled into one for ya. :eek:

[Dirtweasle]

Originally posted by Sixxkiller:

... I still think you guys think it's an US vs YOU kind of thing. ...

I'm not really concerned with any of that.

A clear answer on the text/fonts, and a couple other visual oddities I and others have posted about for the past couple weeks and secondarily the other weird bugs I discovered in the Mole People thread is what I am concerned about.

Then I realized nobody with BFC has posted anything in tech support or the main CMSF board for over a week.

If the answer is that the customer base or some segment is disgruntled only a fool would think going silent is the answer.

[Dirtweasle]

Look at it this way Six; In the past whatever is has been 10 days or 2 weeks whatever how many prospective customers have come by checked the forums and formed an opinion influencing their likelihood to buy a BFC product?

[Huntarr]

wow weasel, you need to relax. This is kinda what I was aluding to about why there seems to be less responses here the the CMx2(forums for next-gen CMx2 engine based games) forum.. there sorry I used the term "outerboard", my fingers were crapping There are a few that are making it unpleasant here and having to walk on egg shells just isn't productive. So that's why folks are just focusing on fixing what we know has been stated and getting a better product out so we can enjoy it. My apologizes for offending you, by whatever you were offended by. Smile will ya?

[Dirtweasle]

Look, making this into some kind of personality issue is a sidetrack, and counterproductive,

I am looking to understand why a product I spent good money on is doing X which it should not do. It's nice that you've chosen to answer some questions for people, but AFAIK you have not been successful in answering many others, including these;

Why have the text/fonts become blurry all of a sudden after patching to version 1.04

Why are vehicles driving into buildings and getting stuck?

Why was my ATGM team sucked underground and held hostage by Mole People?

Why is my HQ unit under the spell of shapeshifters?

...and the three dozen or so other legitimate questions asked by customers being ignored by BFC.

[Sgt Joch]

"Outerboard" :eek:

as in:

"Denizens of the underworld, kneel before your god!" Outerboard :confused:

[ October 17, 2007, 12:10 PM: Message edited by: Sgt.Joch ]

[Huntarr]

I'm glad we agree to relax. The reason I have been unsuccessful in answering those particular points, for one I have never tried to answer those, two some were already placed in the Projects (NDA violated for saying that, thank you ), three I can't reproduce so I can't speak to them. I'm just trying to alleviate your anxiety about being kept in the dark and fed ****e (mushroom effect) Those having served understand that frustration. I’m with you not against you.

Sgt Joch

Zardoz best worst Connery next to Sword of the Valiant: The Legend of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight

[ October 17, 2007, 12:35 PM: Message edited by: Huntarr ]

[Sixxkiller]

Dirt, they are just bugs. When fixing some others become broken. I dont have mole people or shapeshifters stealing my units, nor do I drive vehicles into buildings.

As for BFC not responding, would you rather they respond or work on your issues? You seem to think they are shying away from your posts. Charles has even posted. Not like he does that much, and Steve most likely reads most of the threads that have ever been on here. So there could be a reason as to why you havent had all the answers you seek.

[Dirtweasle]

No, Six, not just my posts, *ANY* posts in the last week or so and I double checked when I posted this thread.

So, here for instance is a tech support forum the ONLY place to get support for this product and yet ALL questions asked of BFC for 10 days or 1 week or whatever it is today have been left unanswered. Is that not correct?

[ October 17, 2007, 12:47 PM: Message edited by: Dirtweasle ]

[Sgt Joch]

Originally posted by Huntarr:

Sgt Joch

Zardoz best worst Connery next to Sword of the Valiant: The Legend of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight

I'm impressed, I was sure no one would recognize the movie.

Is there a site where we can see more of those USMC cartoons, I get a kick out of them.

[Pandur]

BFC Support, radio check

...said in some thread somewhere that they are pulling back a little, due to all the griping about known issues and all the unnecessarily repeated questions and issues on the boards.

hm, maybe that sounds obvious to many, but when there is not even a place where you can report bugs or ask "if" this is a bug, or better said, arent aware of the "current" buglist or something where people can see "for sure" that this is noticed and is looked at "sometimes"...

ofcourse the things get repeated over and over in many threads to come until this is fixed or gone. i mean wheres the problem with it, they cant know better as there is no place to look it up!?

i am here rather often to check the threads but not everyone can dig up "official" response out of XXX pages of threads. as simple as that, so they do a new thread.

its a matter of organisation; a single "bug report" forums would have done the trick, with a few pinned threads like the LOS/LOF issues thread and some others.

nearly all other game forums have a seperate technical support and bug report part in the forums. so its no wonder that people place bug reports/questions just anywhere but in the technical part becouse its the one wich fits the last. its about problems runing the game, not playing it.

as said, thats maybe too obvious, even too obvious to be true but i guess partly its beouse of this

[Statisoris]

I think the developers should make "token" posts every so often. For people like me, it just makes me feel all warm and fuzzy to see a developer answer a question or three every once and a while. They dont need to get into arguments or lengthy discussions with posters, just answer a simple question or three a week and most of us will remain in our realm of gaming happiness.

[Sixxkiller]

Well Strat, I am just assuming that maybe they are VERY busy doing BFC work (There is more than just CMSF as far as the company goes responsibility wise), or they are working hard on 1.05, or that they are taking a break after working 20 hours a day to be with thier families, thier internet is offline, they are planning on breaking MadMatt out of prison, Steve has found the motherload of military uniforms and has closed himself in a room to try them all on, or Steve has just been on a 96 hour binge doing wheelies in his Weasel and his wife has decided to have him work on a new CM game titled, "Combat Mission: Clean Up the Yard Before the Divorce Lawyer Gets Here." CM:CUYBDLGH for short.

Oh ya, and so you don't call me a fanboy or think I have gravitated to being a PR Genius or helpful, if I was BFC, I would just not post until I got 1.05 out the door and you guys learned to be constructive. But that's just me....

[thewood]

That is a pretty constructive customer service model. There have been plenty of constructive posts and questions asked. The ones that get the most out of control are the ones where BFC doesn't answer a legitimate question and rampant guessing and speculation ensues.

As I have said before, a cleaned up manual or a good FAQ would go a long way to answering the majority of questions and free up BFC to actually do BFC stuff while still answering questions from new customers. If I was a new customer and saw no responses to questions after a week or so, I'd probably write it off as another bad purchase, especially considering the state of release after a couple of months.

Yeah, some people are just going to complain, but there are a lot of real questions on the boards right now with no official response. The only reposnse we get is from beta testers that are guessing also.

It's also obvious a lot of people don't understand how certain game mechanics are supposed to work and the current explanations haven't really helped. Not responding in some way just causes customers to speculate amongst themselves and that leads to confusion and even more complaining. I have seen several small software companies actually say they are shutting down for a week or more and they will answer questions when they are get back.

[Madmatt]

Hey guys, I didn't realize so much time had gone since my last posts here but I had been busy with a ton of other issues lately including getting the new expansion to SC2 ready as well as implmenting the all new order system.

Normally I try to only post when I have something relevant to say or if something since my last post has changed.

Having said that, we are working on v1.05 and are aware of the issues being raised here and on the main CMSF forum.

I will go through the forum and try to update everyone on each key issue as best I can with the info I have at the moment.

Madmatt

[ October 19, 2007, 03:04 PM: Message edited by: Madmatt ]

[Dirtweasle]

Yea, time flies. I notice Steve has returned so perhaps you all have some news on what's up with the graphic issues post 1.04?

Where we left off was after updating CMSF to 1.04 folks had noticed that the icons and text became fuzzy, lines and IIRC especially shadows jagged. I 've not made any other modifications besides updating to 1.04 when this happened, but have now tried all sorts of combinations of settings with CMSF as well as my graphics card. No real improvement... ideas?