Talking to mark skaggs (producer)

[SL802404]

^^^ so if any of you are having problems, post quickly. I am telling him issvars suggestions/problems now.

[Exeon]

have battle clans and fix custom match

[SL802404]

2 weeks for custom ladder and I think he said 2 weeks for battle clan too. Custom match is being fixed tonight. 800x600 in QM is one of the things they are looking into changing. Patch tonight will be a technical patch. Should be out tonight, early early morning at the latest.

[SL802404]

Disconnect issue where if someone disconnects it counts against you is being fixed in the upcoming patch.

[SL802404]

They are going to give Cases ladder a try for a little while and if it doesnt work out a little while after it gets started then EA will possibly put their own official ladder in.

[Neverside]

^Thats just their excuse for being lazy ass bastards, they know cases ladder wont work and its just a coverup for them being retarted

[SL802404]

Quickmatch does try to put you against someone in your rank class, but if no one is QMing in your rank class then it keeps moving down each class. So basically it tries too, so this should help prevent newb bashing a little.

[Issvar]

Many people have a problem with the game crashing, are they looking into that?

Will it be possible to have arranged 2v2 quickmatch like in WC3? (pick your ally before you start quickmatch).

And I wonder why the game was released when so many things weren't finished yet, like the gamespy not being prepared, no ladders, no clans?

[SL802404]

I couldnt understand what he was trying to say when I asked him about a disable the cursing blocker.

[SL802404]

Crashing problems should stop after new patch. Arranged quickmatch; Maybe in an upcoming gameplay patch, he will add it on a list of suggestions.

[SL802404]

As far as refreshing games, he says for now just click on one of the icons on the top and it will refresh. (such as buddies, connection, or name). Now he is saying the 800x600 in QM will be left alone for a little bit to see what the general reaction is. This was done because they did not want anyone put on some crazy resolutions which could slow the game down to a point where its was too bad for the opponent to play. (harvards idea-apparently hes a little paranoid)

[Issvar]

I agree with Harvard on this. I've seen people saying that Generals runs very smooth on their p3-450. You cannot trust anyone.

Did you send him the whole of my list of suggestions?

[SL802404]

Doesnt know if delphi is moving to the new studios. He wasnt able to contact las vegas studios last week. He says roughly 300 new people will be hired at the new studios.

[SL802404]

err the ones i could remember issvar..I couldnt find it. Would you mind copying and pasting it in here?

[Issvar]

Interface
Allow selecting and numbering multiple buildings, or add a hotkey to select all War Factories and one to select all Barracks.
Allow attacks and making new buildings in waypoints.
Allow waypoints to be set on the minimap.
Allow waypoints to be set into a building, to fill up garrisons, tunnels, automatically start getting resources, etc.
Allow attack and build orders into the fog of war.
Dragging over the minimap should scroll the screen.
Give an option to set whether or not you want to turn around the radar map when the camera is turned around.
Add a Quit to desktop button in the menu while playing a game.
Save replays to a subfolder of the generals folder, not somewhere hidden on the harddisk.
Make it easier to redefine keys than through downloading a third party utility, extracting the proper ini from a big file, and then changing it.
Show what a unit is going to do when it's selected.
Allow launching Superweapons from the right side of the screen, like some special abilities.
Allow fast forwarding and pausing in replays, allow to toggle fog of war on and off, and allow to lock view on a player, so you can see what he's looking at.
It's hard to add buddies, because names jump up and down too fast, please scroll the names list in the lobby more sensibly.


Multiplay
Ladder scheme is useless. The person who plays most wins the ladder, change it to how it was in RA2, so skill plays a role in your ladderstanding.
Disconnects should count as a loss for the disconnecter and a win for the remaining person. Otherwise this offers an easy way to avoid losses.
Play a distinct sound when a message from another player arrives.
Allow setting the number of starting units, crates, superweapons and the ability to generate cash from hackers/blackmarket/supply drops, fog of war when starting a custom game.
Allow pausing and saving multiplayer games.


Singleplay
Allow change of speed in the missions.
Allow skipping cutscenes and briefings.
Add a quick save and quick load feature.
AI needs to build better attack groups later in the game, instead of the same groups of 4 tanks that attack you in the first few minutes.


Bugs
Replays are way too large. Did you forget to compress them? WC3 replays are less than a tenth of Generals's size.
Pathfinding is buggy, many units of a group often stop moving completely when they have to move over a bridge or something like that.
Allow fast units to overtake slow units when they follow the same path to a destination.
Units don't automatically return fire when fired upon and the enemy is out of firing range.
When using attack-move units don't always attack all enemies, only the first few, and then continue moving without attacking.
Direct Connection doesn't work through a router, even when all ports listed in the readme have been mapped.
The keyboard shortcuts for scrolling the map get stuck sometimes.
Hotkeying a group of units, then deselecting them, then pressing the hotkey doesn't select the group, but only centers on them.


TrainersMap/shroud trainer is out and working online. Please don't just check integrity when going online, but also during the game. And please put some effort in stopping cheating. We've had way too much trouble with cheaters in TS and RA2 already. It's about time you start fixing this.
Other trainers cause desync. Be sure to send CRCs of game data to ladder admins so they might be able to punish the cheater.


Other
Replays sometimes say out of sync when played? With only one person watching a resync this shouldn't be possible.

[SL802404]

Patch will be up in 2 hours (Technical issues only)

[SL802404]

Hes getting shanahan for me and I will e-mail him that list...if there is anyone who wants to add suggestion to that list, please do so now.

[Issvar]

I think I emailed shanahan yesterday, but he didn't reply. I have his email as *censored*

[SL802404]

Still trying to get shanahan...he says it would be more useful to send it to him.

[SL802404]

Thats not the one he just gave to me, but I just spoke to him. Im sending it now.

[SL802404]

Issvar..can I ask for your e-mail just in case he has questions. I wont know what to say.

[Issvar]

issvar@hotmail.com

[SL802404]

K, everythings sent.

[SL802404]

He says not to give out his e-mail or anything, but if you got anymore just tell me and ill write him. Im sure he will e-mail you anyways.

[SL802404]

Issvar, this is regarding the 300 people hiring posts. I told them you are very good programmer so if you have any questions ask him, and they asked are you a professional. I said maybe. They said they are hiring alot of people, so if you want you can send them your resume. They said they would be interested in reading it. Im dead serious by the way. If your not interested, no problem there not gonna start like hunting for peoples answers.

EDIT:BTW I dont know where you live, but I think the offices are in the LA area.

[SL802404]

Less than 90 minutes to patch....sorry for excess posting by the way. Ill try to just add stuff to a one post now. Its just been easier to do quickreply then have to do edit each time.

[SL802404]

bump........They e-mail you yet issvar? I told them to e-mail you only.

[Neverside]

Issvar lives in the netherlands and Id doubt he would move to LA for EA studios, btw he is a programmer

[Henl86]

ALLOW CUSTOMIZING OF HOT KEYS

[SL802404]

K thanks xanthine.

"Make it easier to redefine keys than through downloading a third party utility, extracting the proper ini from a big file, and then changing it." I didnt ask him directly anything about hotkeys, but it was included in issvars list to shanahan.

[Henl86]

ok, sorry didn't see that..

[SL802404]

np henl

Shanahan says gonna be another patch in a couple days(1-2). There going all out for a little bit i guess. Didnt say techincal patch or a gameplay patch, but I think technical patch.

[ikku]

LOTS OF BULLSHIT! Just download the patch

[SL802404]

huh?

The patch only fixes a few things, I asked him more stuff about gameplay and other stuff.

[Murlaw26]

LoL@WW asking for Issvar to work for them. Well EA.

What Tim said anyways.

Tell them they should have had put the speed to watch the replay. Like forward, rewind, or change the speed faster.

[Issvar]

SL802404: they haven't emailed me yet.

[Murlaw26]

Originally posted by Issvar
I agree with Harvard on this. I've seen people saying that Generals runs very smooth on their p3-450. You cannot trust anyone.


It does on mine. Do you trust me?

[SL802404]

btw..murlaw I havent forgot about your question. Mark hasnt been on in a while, so I should see him maybe today cause of the patch.

[Murlaw26]

OkieDokie. Thanks :)