Steam Launch of Patch...When is this going to happen? (A. Now!)

[eladan]

You can chit chat all day, week, month year about how most companies dont work on weekends, and thats fine for steam its their decision. Its also peak gaming hours and probably when most of their bandwidth is used. The people working there probably receive a salary, and its not much to remote in, download a file, upload a file, create a page copy over all the tables and ads that they use and post a link with a short desc. With their servers Id say 10 - 20 minutes including the page.

Woah there. Are you saying that you have knowledge of what the steam guys have to do in order to make an update available? I wouldn't presume that knowledge myself, except to say that I'd think it highly unlikely to be as simple as what you are suggesting there.

Also, I'm sure their employees get paid, as most do, to work during work hours, not outside of them. If my employer wants me to work out of hours, they're going to pay me for it.

My old lady when shes sick can do alot of work at home remoting into the servers at work, and using 3rd party programs to log on to co-workers computers to fix, alter, or whatever she need do.

Neither here nor there. I can do the same thing. But again, during work hours only, unless there are special arrangements in place.

[RJV]

Yes there's no way, unless we're steam employees, that we can know what they have to do. You're forgetting all the change control procedure, sign-off, deployment testing and all that stuff that all of us hate (apart from auditors, who love this stuff).

I'd presume Steam are quite regimented when it comes to schedules too, so once the agreement is signed, there's a fair chance it will cost money to change it.

This patch was slightly different because of the influence of outside retailers, but in future if Ego ensured they held back any patch releases until Steam confirmed it was available on their servers, then there'd be no complaints would there...

Cheers,

Rob.

[MadArkael]

Whether it be that simple or not, I doubt its rocket science. And obviously for something of this nature to function there would obviously be some sort of arrangement prior to this happening. Whether it be a guarantee of money or not.

I dont know what you do for work, but its definately your right to demand whats yours (money). My theory is 15 to 30 minutes here and there is not a big deal, and I'll tell you up front, its put me ahead of the game several times.

I did sales and marketing prior to what I do now, and I guess I got used to the idea that I could put in a 18 hour day and make jack nothing or it could be the exact opposite and make what others make in a couple months in a couple hours. My point being Im thankful now that when I'm at work Im getting paid, and Im not going to cry over a few extra minutes. (helps to have a good boss)

But thats me not you. Just sharing my thoughts. You do enjoy a good argument right?

[Duncans_pumpkin]

Seriously cant believe how impatient some people are if someone says the patch will be released on the 7th and its released early really we should be complaining to the person who ruined the simulatanious release. Those damn brick and mortars.
And just be glad it could be worse it could have been on impulse or D2D.

[eladan]

Whether it be that simple or not, I doubt its rocket science.

I'm not suggesting that it's rocket science, but... RJV's on the track that I was thinking of. Let me give you an example from where I work.

If you need to do something like, e.g. install a patch on a production server. Simple, right? Simply run the patch installer and you're done? Nope. Think again. In order to install a patch, you first need to submit a request to a 'Change Committee' outlining the work to be done, when it's to be done, and how long it's going to take. You also need to outline any potential hazards in the work you're proposing, along with the steps you're taking to both mitigate that risk, and if it fails, what you intend to do about it. You need to say what services will be affected by the work you're doing, and who will be impacted by it. There you go. What was simple just became a lot more complex and time consuming. And God help you if you need to make a change to any of those details, because you need to start the process all over again.

What I'm describing there won't be unusual anywhere else. I'd be surprised if it's not something done with steam.

You do enjoy a good argument right?

Of course. I'll happily convert people to my way of thinking anytime.

[s_mak]

Next time Egosoft publishes a game, they should consider Stardock's Impulse digital distribution platform. it works so much better than steam. At least it is not so damn client centric.

[Tiedyeguy]

Whether it be that simple or not, I doubt its rocket science.

I'm not suggesting that it's rocket science, but...

I strongly believe it includes some Scientific Rocketry though...

[strude]

Additionally, it's not a given that just because a company uses servers, they allow remote access. Remote access gives hackers a point of attack, even if it is secure, so it might be just disabled to remove any threat.

In extension to what eladan wrote, even if someone was committed to do the task remotely, they'd also have to be prepared to go in if things went screwy, like a dropped connection leave the job half done and the server drops out.

Could really stuff up your weekend.

[krapht]

If you need to do something like, e.g. install a patch on a production server. Simple, right? Simply run the patch installer and you're done? Nope. Think again. In order to install a patch, you first need to submit a request to a 'Change Committee' outlining the work to be done, when it's to be done, and how long it's going to take. You also need to outline any potential hazards in the work you're proposing, along with the steps you're taking to both mitigate that risk, and if it fails, what you intend to do about it. You need to say what services will be affected by the work you're doing, and who will be impacted by it.

That sounds like ITIL. Im working at a once small new company. Way back installing patches on production servers were just that, install and if it goes bad you fix it. Now we have grown, our customers are bigger and expect more. Nowdays there is not a byte going into production unless it goes through all the ITIL paperwork. It may sound horrible, but in the end it's for the greater good and there is a good reason certain principals and practices have evolved.

I haven't seen anyone mentioning testing (or I just missed it) but I assume Steam does it's fair share of testing on the patch to ensure that it's working properly. Testing also takes time. Wouldn't be nice to release a patch that corrupts everyones installs now would it?

I'm a steam user myself, and im in no hurry tbh. A lovely spring weather has hit Sweden the last few days so Im trying to enjoy that for now. I can play later =)

[RJV]

The general point behind it all is, that Mad Arkael is possibly quite right when describing what actually needs to be done to go the final step towards making it live.

The process that needs to be followed in order to get to that final step is substantially more involved, and usually by its very nature slooooows everything down.

@ MadArkael - I'm not suggesting here that you don't understand that Simply pointing out that there will be a whole raft of procedures to be followed which mean the guys at the sharp end simply aren't allowed to do that final step.

I dont know what you do for work, but its definately your right to demand whats yours (money). My theory is 15 to 30 minutes here and there is not a big deal, and I'll tell you up front, its put me ahead of the game several times.

I'm a systems snalyst, developer, fixer, patch installer, business analyst and project leader. I am hopeless at, and hate doing, all the paperwork that we have to do (ITIL, audit, British Standard accreditation) and my boss drives me absolutely mad insisting on dotting every i and crossing every t...

Cheers,

Rob.

[Tiedyeguy]

I just about went out an bought one of these early released DVD versions just to "show my support" but then I remembered my gaming computer doesn't have a working DVD drive in it >_< US Steam user (currently) I sort of doubt that a networked DVD drive over 11mbps wireless would be very good for installing purposes.

[BurnIt!]

I'm sorry it wasn't possible to release the update on Steam at the same time as on the website.

We've been trying to make this happen and prepared everything but a number of circumstances led to some inevitable delays:

Everything was set to go, but we had to stop the Steam release because of the 2.0a hotfix. We're not going to deploy the "glow bug" version via Steam obviously.
So we had to make sure they can integrate the fixed version into the update which requires additional time.
This and staff availability means that the update cannot be deployed before next monday.

We realize you are unhappy about this delay and apologize for the inconvenience but we can assure you that you are not missing out on any of the features of 2.0 because of this.

[pixel]

I'm sorry it wasn't possible to release the update on Steam at the same time as on the website.

We've been trying to make this happen and prepared everything but a number of circumstances led to some inevitable delays:

Everything was set to go, but we had to stop the Steam release because of the 2.0a hotfix. We're not going to deploy the "glow bug" version via Steam obviously.
So we had to make sure they can integrate the fixed version into the update which requires additional time.
This and staff availability means that the update cannot be deployed before next monday.

We realize you are unhappy about this delay and apologize for the inconvenience but we can assure you that you are not missing out on any of the features of 2.0 because of this.

Thanks for the update, but I admit to being baffled by another week of delays. I accept this is not Egosofts fault, but it is pretty pathetic service by Steam.

[Apocalypse King]

I'd be interested to know why, in this digital age, it takes almost a whole week to get an updated patch onto the Steam service.

Not blaming you guys though, at least we know what's happening now, thanks!

[jbigg]

I'm sorry it wasn't possible to release the update on Steam at the same time as on the website.

We've been trying to make this happen and prepared everything but a number of circumstances led to some inevitable delays:

Everything was set to go, but we had to stop the Steam release because of the 2.0a hotfix. We're not going to deploy the "glow bug" version via Steam obviously.
So we had to make sure they can integrate the fixed version into the update which requires additional time.
This and staff availability means that the update cannot be deployed before next monday.

We realize you are unhappy about this delay and apologize for the inconvenience but we can assure you that you are not missing out on any of the features of 2.0 because of this.

Thanks for the update, but I admit to being baffled by another week of delays. I accept this is not Egosofts fault, but it is pretty pathetic service by Steam.

You're joking right? Late April fool?

Another week of us being second class citizens I guess. Steam is such a lovely service isn't it?

[whiteknightr1]

I awoke this morning with great anticipation!!! and again to have the feeling crushed . still no patch so off to work i go feeling like a second class citizen..lol

[strude]

We realize you are unhappy about this delay and apologize for the inconvenience but we can assure you that you are not missing out on any of the features of 2.0 because of this.

How does that work? If the features of 2.0 are included in the 2.0 patch, and the 2.0 patch isn't being distributed until next week, then the features included with 2.0 can't be used. Doesn't that define missing out?

[damador]

nevermind

steam is lazy

[cfw]

We realize you are unhappy about this delay and apologize for the inconvenience but we can assure you that you are not missing out on any of the features of 2.0 because of this.

How does that work? If the features of 2.0 are included in the 2.0 patch, and the 2.0 patch isn't being distributed until next week, then the features included with 2.0 can't be used. Doesn't that define missing out?

It just means that the 2.0 features will be there waiting for us when the patch does arrive.

[Targ Collective]

No Glow bug? Aw, I'd have liked to see that.