Issues, Workarounds & Localization

Since the new launcher and patch, if thats what you want to call it. Here are the issues that have been seen and still waiting to resolve. I have sent petitions, but of course I might get an answer sometime around christmas.


The new launcher is much slower. And in Windows XP on a laptop of mine , if you start the launcher it injects 5 tasks in task manager. Then if you quit the game and launcher, 4 tasks hang, and will not close.

Experience of others in multiple OS's have shown that the patch was crappy. and then required a log out of 2-3 times to regain all settings to the users. In certain cases , members have run repair, and then had to delete and do a total re-download of the client, and had to reset everything manually.

I guess this either reflects on **** poor quality control of the new software. Or a total lack of caring of the project manager, or personal. 50,000 SP for the inconvenience which is still happening, as others are still coming back into game, and the rest of us have to be their trainers. I believe 50K SP is a drop in the bucket. Why not save the programming team the trouble of using calculators for the SP, and just refix the new software you have already hosed.

6 years in this game, and the last few updates and patches have been the absolute worst. Look internally to strengthening your teams work ability, and less on covering up your screw ups.

Drop boxes are good for occasional, not repeating data entry. We are talking about gamers that want a smooth experience, not office workers.
What I propose does not cause issue with people using keyboard, those who like to TAB through controls, those who like to "point and click" without rolling in and out stuff and even - for the future - those who will use a touch screen to select the characters.

Anyway, almost any approach including yours is going to be quicker and more practical than the current implementation.

Is this a joke? The launcher update pushed out for Sisi today is broken even worse than yesterday's debacle. It hangs up at "downloading launcher update" and you'll never even see the "Play" button without jumping through a few more hoops. Triple facepalm well deserved!

Making software ready for a possible rollback is a task with challenges and cost and also requires a specific, conservative corporate attitude.

I.e. I developed such kind of software for the military. Their budgets were not tight, their delivery schedule was not super-tight, they knew that things *can* go wrong.


CCP budget is not of such size, they timed this delivery with a very small window (right before Odyssey, it HAS to be pushed out before it, as Odyssey prolly don't even have a log in screen coded at all) and CCP management are very, VERY overconfident and prone to these incidents.

You know that they will be disabling the eve.exe option shortly, yes ?

Do you still think that CCP are awesome, as next time they break the launcher, there will be no workaround.

100%
Anyone worth a hill of beans in UI design knows to avoid drop boxes and listviews like the plague. They have their places and are very good at what they do but they are not the "go-to" option when a more user friendly option is available. Personally I can live with them but I'd rather see a better UI.

A great Icelander once said, "Watch what they do, not what they say". Fearless. Or awesome. Or something.

Dang CCP thanks!
You guys keep up with the awesome!

I am more concerned with the ghost launchers populating my computer

CCP needs more Web Devs for sure.

While CCP Explorer probably passed on my blog post, I just want to make sure it's covered:

I run multiple clients, on 3 different screens, using the Fixed Window option.

I do this using junctions, to have three different sets of settings, to specify which 'adapter' to use for each client.

I used to run the launcher once from each location with it quitting after starting the eve client; when when switching alts, just logged out, leaving the client up on that screen to log in.

Now:
I start the launcher, log into it, and start up one client.
Then I run the exefile.exe from the two other junctions.
When switching alts, the ones running from the exefile worked as before. The one from the launcher drops to launcher and then back in (assuming the SSO works right, after a significant delay)


It'd be nice to have a launcher that could pick which set of settings to use when you hit play. Ideally remembered from the user account. (and ideally with multiple logins at the same time)

Or a launcher which could run from a junctioned exe at the same time as another copy, as long as it's got a different path.