April 19th Patch Up-date

[Dagger 21]

We have just spent a weekend testing the Beta 8 build of V1.02. Overall we are very pleased with the results. It appears that single player is very stable and I personally played most of the F-15 and A-10 single missions and found no serious problems. The multiplayer testing went well also, but there are still a few problems in multiplayer that need to be addressed.

 

I've discussed where we are at with the Testers and all of us agree that V1.02 is a significant patch that will give most people a much more stable and enjoyable Lock On experience. The list of fixes, enhancements, and even new features is extensive and we have labored hard to get it done correctly. This had meant that it has taken longer than any of us wanted. We sincerely believe that it will be more than worth the wait.

 

We are very close to being finished with V1.02. Here are the major items that remain to be fixed:

 

1. All training missions must play back correctly. Work on any track file based part of the program needs to be addressed last as changes to the program make older tracks invalid. The training missions depend upon the track file recording system. We are currently redoing all the training missions so that they run properly under V1.02. This is time consuming and difficult.

 

2. If a player is padlocked to another aircraft and then attempts to padlock a missile, the game will crash. This is a crash bug that we are trying to fix.

 

3. If player crashes using TrackIR while padlocked to a target/missile, TIR will be unresponsive when the player recovers. In a possibly related matter, mouse look will cease to function if the player crashes while padlocked to a target/missile.

 

4. We are having some anomalies with the new connection speed settings. All players (host and all clients) must use the same speed settings (upstream and downstream). If players are using different speed settings, corrupted game play will result. It is likely that there will be a requirement that all players in a session must use the same connection speed settings. We are trying to make it possible for multiple speeds to be used by players but we need further testing.

 

5. There are some strange things happening when a player respawns into a multiplayer session using the recover function.

 

6. In the latest build mavericks will often not hit moving targets. Instead, they will hit behind the locked target.

 

7. During a multiplayer game clients cannot see helicopters.

 

8. Large bombers such as B-52 and Tu-22 are dropping only a single bomb on a designated target if it has bombs on its external racks. If a bomber is only carrying an internal payload, then it will drop all bombs as it should.

 

9. There appear to be some problems with the new RWR modes.

 

10. There are some problems with visibility ranges that need to be adjusted.

 

11. There are also a handful of minor things that require adjustments and tweaks.

 

We need to address as many of these as we can. There is the possibility that we may not get to all the less serious problems but we are trying to knock out all of them with V1.02.

 

Some of you are getting impatient. We understand the desire to obtain the patch as soon as possible. But I want all of you to remember that it makes no sense to release this patch if there things that we have identified as being problems like the items listed above. We could release this patch right now but in doing so we would only be giving you a patch with known problems.

 

Granted there will no doubt be problems in this next version that we either thought we fixed or that we missed completely. I do not say that as an excuse but more as a fact of life. We have done our very best to fix everything we thought was serious or that we had identified. The fact remains that this is a complex product that has to work on a wide spectrum of systems and configurations. It is impossible for us to make it totally bug free. Fortunately, most bugs have a work around or are something we may address in another patch if required, but no promises on any further patches. It is also important to remember that our testing resources have not been as extensive for these patches as they were for the full release version. The testing effort for the patches has been almost exclusively external. Our testers have worked hard and give lots of their own free time to make Lock On a better product.

 

Will there be a V1.03? I cannot say as yet. It all depends upon what happens with V1.02. We'll evaluate the response we get from the community after we release V1.02 and then we’ll determine if another patch is needed.

 

There are no more development funds forthcoming from Ubi Soft for Lock On. The work on the patches is provided as a condition in our contract to address major problems in the original release of the game. We are not getting any extra money doing patches. We do support our product and stand by our work as best we can but cannot work on patches indefinitely. We believe in Lock On and feel we must support it, but there is no unlimited development budget. This is why we have tried to address most of the major problems in V1.01 and then address the remaining problems in V1.02. We have also made some enhancements to Lock On with V1.02 to bring Lock On to the level we feel it should have been at with V1.0.

 

I know many of you are asking what is next. Good question. We at TFC/Eagle are intending to do our own independent add on product for Lock On. We are still working on the details and will make an announcement at the appropriate time. In the meantime, please be patient. We are almost finished with V1.02 and when it is released we are confident that Lock On will be an even more enjoyable experience for everyone.

 

I know all of you want to know when exactly. I cannot give you an exact day but I can say that it should be soon.

 

Carl

 

Sorry I got it here late...didn't see anyone else posting it.

[SlickWili 0]

Yep. My bad... I'm usually on top of these posts. :(