But when people make up stuff just to throw mud around, don't you think it's only fair that we point out facts to inform them they are talking nonesense? 
Well, I can look at this from two sides, but calling it nonsense is somehow a little bit strong MF..
Would you actually like to be told by a customer support for a company that all your complaining about a product with failure/bugs is
nonsense?
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Yeah, sure, there is a lot of problems with SSE, we can agree about that. Now, they say "it will be fixed". So then, let them fix it and learn from it. No matter what, if VSTEP doesn't learn from it...ouch..it will strike back on them later. This scene is an example of what may come if they ignore us:
1 - the activity on this board will fall to a minimum
2 - bad reviews from major game sites on the Internet
3 - low sales
This scene will hopefully never come. Therese a lot of known shut downs of game titles before where people was looking for the first release of a major new game tittle. But suddenly the chief announced "Sorry folks, but we are out of money, the game can not be completed". Remember what happened to EA games (or one of the child companies) in previous years, where some games could not be completed? That's also something that strikes Ubisoft now and then.
Well, that's not the case when it comes to VSTEP, lucky us... So don't try to black-paint this up in another level.
What VSTEP needs to do now is:
1. Correct all bugs and errors
2. Add missing things, for example content that was a part of SS2008
3. Continue developing SS, AND read this board to get new impressions of what people think and want to be added
Point 3 is still a point where VSTEP need to improve, even if I can understand that they sometimes want to tell us "folks, its hard to program all this".
Looking at other games, Crytek released two patches for Crysis when the game came out. It's common to release 1-2 patches for major game titles today to fix issues that they where not prepared for.
Just think about what kind of jungle of hardware they have to put attention to, and also Microsoft that releases another operating system each 1-2 years, and DirectX that they updates into another version.
These are things that game developers need to stay updated on, because the game need to be compatible with the newest hardware, operating system and DirectX.
Even if VSTEP used another type of game engine (not Quest 3D), there would still be bugs, crash to desktop and more.
Well, at the end, VSTEP will need to pay attention to their customers, regular or new, or they will likely end up in the scene described above. So even if there is a case of major problems, bugs, delivery of product to the customer etc, it will hit back on VSTEP if this gets out of hand. For now, it still looks that they have some sort of control.
When it comes to the moderators, they just should be open to any complain or case where a customer need a hand. I've followed this board from the beginning since the birth of the international SS2006-version, and it still looks like the mods do a sweet job. I agree that this defending of VSTEP in any case might look a little bit stupid. Instead of defending they should forward it to the headquarters of VSTEP, and let VSTEP respond.
If VSTEP doesn't respond..uhm..they will likely lose a customer. That is the price they have to pay for not responding to a support request by the customer.
Now, it is easy to generalize all this and say that all the ones that bought SSE is having major problems running the game. That statement is probably false. If it was true it would with no doubt become a fatal situation for VSTEP. Now that's not the case.
To continue beating the "dead horse" a little:
When buying the Game from SHIPSIM.COM, there where NO information that the game was unfinished, full of bug´s, faults, errors and pails of pails with things to fix.
There are barely no game companies that does that. In fact, they receive a lot of issues trough a customer support system, a board like this one, makes an announcement and then starts to develop a patch.
Even if they had a lot of alpha/beta tests before the gold version, there may be bugs and errors that occur after the release. This is not a wanted situation for the game company, but they are probably already prepared for it.
Belive, if VSTEP would have declared the status, the reason, and facts involved, asking for our patient officially, most would settle with that, and as devoted SIPSIM users, we would gladly assist to develop the game! Instead now and noted from endles discussions, there is VSTEP, the puplischers, roumers, non confirmed information, etc, etc. Why wasent this information given eralier. I though i bought a finnished product.
Now moderators make endles efforts to blame publishers, and due dates......
I agree that there are a lot of things that VSTEP could do to cooperate with the users of the game. They could make a demo BEFORE the gold version, or a public beta.
But thanks to the file pirates, this is not an good idea these days, since public beta versions is getting pirated before the final release, something that some game companies know about. Some are giving out beta keys before the final release to get the game beta tested by a lot of users. As an gift they give them the game for free or gives them additional promo content..
When it comes to rumors...uhm...that's one of the main headlines on major game sites. There will always be rumors around new game titles, and rumors are very weak sources, they may even be "made up".
When it comes to release dates, there are games that where delayed as much as one year. VSTEP just delayed this one a couple of months. So VSTEP is not holding a world-wide record in delaying a game
Currently, many buyers throw out the game, and wont return, just by core anger!
(How many have bought the game who will newer visit the forum, and now belive VSTEP are amatures and SSE are rubbish??)
That's usually not official/public stats that game companies shares, its so typical. But it got something to do with marketing. The company will only reveal the number of sales. The best way to find out if a game is good or bad is to read game reviews. The first best thing to do is to not join the first wave of customers that buys the game. Read reviews and make up your mind, because it's only you that can decide if you want to buy it or not, that's not something VSTEP decides for you.
It's a little bit funny that someone attacks the company for buying the product. Make sure that you know everything about the product before you buy it. As I said, reading product reviews is a clever thing to do. But you need to wait for the reviews to come, or else you might buy the cat in the bag
VSTEP is not amateurs, just exploring a new arena of opportunities. So far they are just holding back the good stuff for the professional simulator called Nautis and where Ship Simulator is the little brother. So far they have a long way to explore and go to be able to give us a simulator that ends up at the same level as the flight simulator FSX. There are a lot that still is not yet simulated or added in Ship Simulator like:
- real time weather from the real world
- real world scenery (sail to any harbor/port)
- advanced weather simulation
- wide simulation of bridge instrumentation
- advanced navigation (especially for ships)
- sea charts (ECDIS) with a lot of chart symbols
- sea marks/ IALA A-B system
- sophisticated AI-traffic system
- free roaming with advanced setups and custom scenarios
- multiplayer with a wide range of possibilities and more
- cargo freight/ passenger handling simulation
Let's add 3-4 new versions of Ship Simulator and maybe...maybe some of this is included.
It depends of how far VSTEP can go when it comes to game programming. Even if they now can make professional products for companies, they are far from using the same programming/coding as Microsoft used in FSX, simply because they have yet not discovered that code.
Of course, they could license the simulator engine used in FSX, but in the same time they would have to fix the code or piece of it to make a simulator engine for flight simulation to fit into ship simulation.
Why Microsoft is so good at this compared to VSTEP is because Microsoft started to program the first version of flight simulator in the 80s. We are talking a lot of years where Microsoft improved this code from one year to another. So what VSTEP does now is something that some may call "reinventing the wheel". Yeah, some of this is true, but they will still have to fix that code to fit another type of simulation, ship simulation.
I would gladly tell VSTEP to head for Microsoft and learn from them. It wouldn't hurt would it?
The cards on the table would be enough for me. Then i would wait for months and months for patches, no probs! Just declare the facts! After all, i have spent EUR 40 on a product listed as a finished game! Now it turnes out as not to be!
Well, next time, don't buy the "hype". I did the same mistake, but at least I donated my portion of money for VSTEP. Hopefully as optimistic/pessimistic (I can never chose a side..strangely
) as I am I want to think that VSTEP spend those 40 EUR to keep this sim on track, on budget and in the oven as long as possible. Despite that some of us may get harsh and throw this game away for a year or some, it will hopefully one day turn into what we want this game to become. So my final word is
dream on!.
