I remember when I used to want to work for Valve
Whenever someone writes patch notes like these, Software Engineers cry blood.
First, the patch in question is the Left 4 Dead 2 patch from here: http://store.steampowered.com/news/7787/
What's wrong with it? Pretty much the entire thing is "In certain areas, the AI can't reach you. Rather than update the navigation to allow them to do so, we simply put up invisible walls everywhere to block people from getting to these spots, because fixing navigation deducts too much time away from making more hats."
These aren't bug fixes. This is bug hiding. Sweeping a real issue under the rug and hoping nobody notices. It's like hanging a poster over a giant hole in the masonry, or putting a light fixture over some water damage, or using spices to disguise the taste of rotten meat. The real issue is still there and all you've done is put up a Somebody Else's Problem field around it.
A real programmer - a real Software Engineer, someone who knows what they are doing and takes pride in their work - would fix the underlying issues. The AI can't get on top of X object or into Y area? Add some extra navigation nodes so it can reach. An object lets a player jump past an event? Move the object, or delete it, but don't just put an invisible wall over it so people who (logically) assume it can be moved on top of will wonder why they can't get onto it.
Video games are supposed to have at least some semblance of logic in them. If have been able to climb onto the last fifty generators, why should the fifty-first have an invisible wall on top of it? If I can go into the last twenty trucks, why should the twenty-first be impossible to enter? Recognizing and using patterns to our advantage is what gamers do to succeed - and cheap, lazy, shoddy patches like these punish innovation and exploration. Soon we'll see "Added invisible walls to prevent survivors from straying off the set path to the safe room".
If I ever saw someone at my company write a patch like this, I would fire them. It's shamelessly lazy corner-cutting indicative of not giving a damn about the quality of the final product. It's the kind of person who says "Yeah, this loaf of bread I sold you is burned, but you can just cut the black bits off". Or "Yeah, over a certain altitude the plane will explode, so I disabled the ability to go higher than that". Or "Yes, this medication is incredibly addicting, so we only sell them five at at time". Not the kind of person I would ever want to have working for or with me.
All in the name of having as much time as possible free to make hats for TF2, I suppose.
First, the patch in question is the Left 4 Dead 2 patch from here: http://store.steampowered.com/news/7787/
What's wrong with it? Pretty much the entire thing is "In certain areas, the AI can't reach you. Rather than update the navigation to allow them to do so, we simply put up invisible walls everywhere to block people from getting to these spots, because fixing navigation deducts too much time away from making more hats."
These aren't bug fixes. This is bug hiding. Sweeping a real issue under the rug and hoping nobody notices. It's like hanging a poster over a giant hole in the masonry, or putting a light fixture over some water damage, or using spices to disguise the taste of rotten meat. The real issue is still there and all you've done is put up a Somebody Else's Problem field around it.
A real programmer - a real Software Engineer, someone who knows what they are doing and takes pride in their work - would fix the underlying issues. The AI can't get on top of X object or into Y area? Add some extra navigation nodes so it can reach. An object lets a player jump past an event? Move the object, or delete it, but don't just put an invisible wall over it so people who (logically) assume it can be moved on top of will wonder why they can't get onto it.
Video games are supposed to have at least some semblance of logic in them. If have been able to climb onto the last fifty generators, why should the fifty-first have an invisible wall on top of it? If I can go into the last twenty trucks, why should the twenty-first be impossible to enter? Recognizing and using patterns to our advantage is what gamers do to succeed - and cheap, lazy, shoddy patches like these punish innovation and exploration. Soon we'll see "Added invisible walls to prevent survivors from straying off the set path to the safe room".
If I ever saw someone at my company write a patch like this, I would fire them. It's shamelessly lazy corner-cutting indicative of not giving a damn about the quality of the final product. It's the kind of person who says "Yeah, this loaf of bread I sold you is burned, but you can just cut the black bits off". Or "Yeah, over a certain altitude the plane will explode, so I disabled the ability to go higher than that". Or "Yes, this medication is incredibly addicting, so we only sell them five at at time". Not the kind of person I would ever want to have working for or with me.
All in the name of having as much time as possible free to make hats for TF2, I suppose.