Development rant

I didn't mean that I don't understand any of it, but rather if there's the code examples. So, I guess I didn't fully understand one part of one of his posts.

 

Well, I can program sooooooo you should learn too

 

pssssh i already know html so thats plenty of programming knowledge.

</s>

I've learned some Python, but I need to start learning it again. I would try to learn some more, but atm I'm finding German to be a bit more fun to learn, language-wise.

 

You know what would make this into even a rudimentary game?

>game saves
>saving vehicles in a damaged state
>Physics sleep

Because then you could spawn a lot of cars and objects into the game, the physics sleep would make it less laggy. The game saves would allow you to keep all the nice arrangements you've made and you can have a kind of actual sandbox then.

Then just to improve things,

>the ability to repair vehicles without completely respawning them

and you'd have a kind of davidsfarm on your PC.

 

this right here

these 3 features would open up a whole WORLD of possible things:

we could have our own virtual craigslist (or should i say, gabeslist), people could spawn loads more vehicles (meaning once there's also a racing AI, you could have huge races as well), the people who like to RP wouldn't have to manually spawn and place all their vehicles EVERY TIME they start the game, people who like to continue what they were doing from last time EXACTLY as they had it also wouldn't have to redo everything everytime.

and that's just what I can come up with, imagine what the modding community could come up with

- - - Updated - - -

i know java

 

Just no. No. No no no. I have an intense disliking of Java, not as bad as my disliking of lua but I am not a fan.

 

meh, i've really only done learning things (so learning the different aspects, that kind of thing) and a mod for minecraft (a fancy block mods, basically just adding things like granite, limestone, marble, that kind of stuff)

i haven't really done any actual games or programs or anything

also java master race

if anyone want's to see my code i can link to the github for said mod on general disucussion

On-Topic:

seriously though, those 3 features hati listed would seriously open up the amount of possible things, imagine all the things our amazing modding community could come up with, not to mention what drowsy and b25mitch could come up with

heck, it would also open up the world for OTHER features for the devs to add (for example, the start of a career mode)

 

I agree with a lot of what has been said above, but I'd also like to add my two cents. I've learned jbeam and am learning Blender, all for the sole purpose of releasing content for this game. However, I think I am approaching the wall that many others have hit: Boredom. The lack of updates and the continually breaking old features with new updates is very disconcerting, to the point now that I'm not sure I'll bother to finish learning Blender or to ever release content for this game because it feels like it's dead or dying. Yes, it's an Alpha. Yes, you need a stable platform upon which to release a full game. However, 90% of the changes that the infrequent updates do produce are invisible to the average user (which begets repetition and therefore boredom) and as stated by someone else, it is really hard to pitch this game to people that would probably play the shit out of it simply because it's not a game yet. You need more exposure and a bigger community for more hype which means more money to support development and we, your community, would LOVE to spread the word but you gotta give us something to work with here, guys.

Then there's the Parts Selector. Broken in the latest update. (Cue the torrent of people flaming me for not using the Stable version where nothing's broken. That's not really feasable at the moment because so many of the mods here on the Forums require Experimental to work. I shouldn't have to choose content over basic functionality in ANY version of the game.) There's nothing to do with this software yet but drive cars. One of the key components of Beam for me (and how I learned jbeam) is the ability to interchange parts as I see fit. I'm sure this is true of most of the community members, as interchanging parts is all we can do to stave off repetition. Yeah, it's the Experimental version, but wouldn't you test for major things like this and fix them before release? All you have to do is run the game once and it's instantly apparent, then some "oh, shit" reprogramming and voila, everyone's happy. It really rubs me the wrong way that Force Feedback was researched and figured out (benefiting only the 10-25% of the community that have driving wheels) when at the same time something that most of us use was broken. Force Feedback implementation could have waited. That's one of those fringe features that could have been added after things more geared for playability. This is like Bethesda releasing an experimental update for Skyrim that supports Wii controllers on PC but completely breaks the sound. That would fly for all of 10 seconds.

The Point, I guess:
Devs, no one means to hate (at least I don't) and we all appreciate the immense amount of work you have put in and are continuing to put in to making BeamNG a bleeding edge revolution in racing and driving gaming. However, you guys have to give higher priority to the feedback from the community in your development process. The whole point of an early release and a forum-based community setup is feedback from us, your customers. We've spoken softly, asked nicely, some of us have yelled and screamed and waved their arms and all we've gotten in return is a dangled carrot. If you can't give us more frequent updates -or- more content with each update, then it would behoove you to at least provide us with a solid calendar of development goals. That would shut everyone up, right there. "Why isn't this or that feature out yet?" "Well, because the calendar says it'll be out Mid-2016." Done. These don't have to be set in stone, they just need to be goals for us to visualize and understand. This continually restated promise of "soon, just please be patient" is wearing thin for some of us. I know it's a TON of work to do what you're doing, and that you're all people with lives to live on top of the work you're doing on Beam, but everyone on this Forum paid to be involved in this project because we are/were excited about the way it was going, and you're losing a lot of support because it's no longer apparent where (or if) the game is actually progressing in any user experience sort of way.

 

HTML is a markup language, not a programming language. Knowing HTML makes you a web designer, not programmer.
I hate all the faggot designers calling themselves programmers because they can do HTML/CSS, when they couldn't write a hello world in C.

On topic: all very interesting arguments. Where is tdev now? gib answer plox :|

 

I dislike it too, but sometimes it's necessary for what I do. I did some LUA for this game. I dislike it more than Java.

 

I think all we need to intrigue the fans is a few really simple missions to let them know what's to come. Like theBurnout Paradise demo where you get one junked up car from the scrap yard and there is some things around the world to do. If you choose to put the D14 in the mission demo, you could do some little transport missions to a build site, say a few 2x4's to you're friend building a carport. Then once you finish he'll let you buy the carport and you can park you crappy truck there, and eventually repair it. I know a lot of those things are long term and will take a lot of work, but imagine how cool it would be to see BeamNG something other than just drive around and crash into trees.

Another thing that would be awesome would be interactive 3D garages where there is really cool customization sorta like The Crew. Personally, I thing we should lose the parts menu and replace it with that.

 

Excellent post cuytastic. The FFB issue is a prime example of the rag tag priority going on. The last dev blog update was so wonderfully full of
information and goals the "here and now" picture gets completely lost. A nice release of a few ironed out features from experimental into the stable build
on a reasonably regular basis makes sense rather than hearing about a trillion different things all slated to be solved and in game in "sometime in
the future".

Additionally, I suggest a revamp of the way the experimental build is being handled as the "dejour" beam build for new customers expecting a full on
"game". Communicate more clearly that the EXP build is a secondary cutting edge testing ground that requires some skill because it's been released
to the community strictly for feedback, NOT AS THE BEAMNG GAME. Then, update the stable build with the small stable features out of the EXP
build and present THAT as the big show that new customers will enjoy way more. In my opinion, BeamNG has grown in name recognition to the point
that the large cadre of carry over fans from ROR can no longer be justified as the core base of beamers who get, love and understand the theory
of a broken, WIP and ultimately messy experimental piece of software.

 

<p>True that</p>

Estama gave an answer on the last page

 

I know it isn't a programming language, hence my end sarcasm tag

 

So out of all this we've had one Dev reply? Do you just not care that half your community is super pissed, or what?

Estama, in your reply on the first page you talk about buildings needing a good foundation. This is true, however the foundation of a building isn't going to have elaborate trimming and paintwork, now is it? Seems to me you guys are spending a ton of time on trim and fresco at this point, which is backwards. FFB and pretty menus are not required for a functional game. They are pretty add ons that can wait. Content is more important. Half of the pretty menus you guys have made will need to be revamped anyways once more content is added. So why waste your time? The priorities here make no sense and its very frustrating.

Sent from my phone because NCG: Wreckfest is taking up my computer screen. Case in point.

 

So you honestly think force feedback and a GUI is more important than being able to choose car parts and actually supporting some gameplay more than smashing into trees? I wholeheartedly disagree.

 

well

since the car part selector is PART of the gui that they are WORKING ON

i'd say yes, that is more important

and one of the things they are working on for force feedback will also help keyboard and mouse users (dev confirmed as well, it's in one of the dev blogs)

i'd say yes, that's also more important, because being able to control your vehicle is pretty darn important

 

My point exactly. We didn't need a new GUI until all of the planned features had been implemented. Hacking together half a GUI that breaks key functions is not an update, it's gilded regression.

How many people on here actually have a wheel? Seems strange you'd bother (intensively) researching and releasing something that benefits the minority, instead of using that time to make the entire game better. I use a controller, and it's worked just fine since the beginning. It doesn't vibrate yet but hey, Alpha Release, right? This is what I mean by trimwork and fresco.

Empty promises. Anyone remember the "Race Update" that was dangled in front of us for awhile? Then we got a half-broken "PreRace Update" and it was never talked about again. But at the time we were all assured that it was "almost done" and "coming soon". Since then, all we've gotten are a half-broken racetrack, two half-vehicles, a broken GUI and the few people on here that use wheels get to feel them vibrate. Woo.

I get the Early Access thing. But I don't appreciate being lied to. If something isn't ready or is a year away, admit it. If something is broken, why release it and ruin an important part of the game? We waited a month for the update that broke the parts selector and haven't heard anything about a timeline for the update that fixes it, so WHY would you not wait to release the new GUI until it actually works? There never has been a timetable for updates, or for progress or for anything else for this game. If the standard you're setting is "sit down, shut up and wait" then what I'm waiting for had damn better work.