I can only imagine what Firaxis is going through right now

[Disk Killer]

The ATI Render problem and the XML problem must be causing quite the commotion over at Firaxis HQ; yet it's good to know they care... I remember reporting a serious franchise-mode bug in NHL 06 and being told by EA Tech support that I should send my comments to "Feature Requests" instead.

I know what they're going through... I've finished development of my relatively small vb.net application that passed QA today and tomorrow will start getting distributed to our corp's 9000 PCs. The logon script that activates the app also goes into prod tomorrow (yes, it runs every logon; in fact it launches a dialog box that our security group requires for reasons too esoteric to explain).... it's going to be in every user's face by the middle of next week depending on how long the app distribution takes (but even Tivoli can handle a 400K MSI pretty easily!)

The butterflies in my stomach are intense. I know we've tested the hell out of it; I've got error-handling to ensure that errors are quietly logged and do not become unhandled Win exceptions.. yet I still worry. Look at Firaxis; months and months of testing and only when it goes out to thousands of people do esoteric problems like this pop up.

My mind is going through a million different scenarios where everything goes wrong...... urgh

So good luck, Firaxians and those who need their help; I know the frustration is intense and I sympathize. Soon enough this will all be a nasty memory.

[evizaer]

Good luck with your program, Disk Killer. I hope it turns out well for you. Have you ever had another of your applications deployed to even over 100 people before?

I also hope that Firaxis makes this game a little less hardware intensive. My laptop stutters while playing Civ4 and i have no problems playing games like UT2k4 on high graphics settings at the same resolution.

[Darkstar]

Good luck, Disk Killer!

Remember, no bug is really bad, unless they happen to Big Management (or their assistants), your chain of bosses (and their assistants), or the guys that control your budget. Everyone else is unimportant.

[Disk Killer]

Originally posted by evizaer
Good luck with your program, Disk Killer. I hope it turns out well for you. Have you ever had another of your applications deployed to even over 100 people before?

I'm in our Windows Workstation group, who brought WinXP to our company. Initially I was 90% application packaging (Wise Package Studio, capturing installs, cleaning them up to our standards, releasing our own MSI) and 10% platform deployment/standards, and that led me to VBScript... Used those for various packages, which led me to VB6. Started migrating our older vbscripts to vb6 because of the versatility. Then started using vb.net, got the company to send me to a one-week course because of my self-learning and the fact they were asking for more and more on the app development side.

To make a long story short, some things I've worked on have been deployed company-wide..... but this is the first application that A) is major and B) will actually be visible by everyone.

Thanks for the good wishes, I really appreciate it. I'll let you guys know how it goes the next few days.

[animaster]

Good Luck

[cassembler]

I'd imagine there's a couple of tee times scheduled. They met a major goal, and they need a vacation. Then, back to the patch.

[Gully Foyle]

Originally posted by cassembler
I'd imagine there's a couple of tee times scheduled. They met a major goal, and they need a vacation. Then, back to the patch.

I'm sure they'd all love to take a vacation, after working 17-hour days for the past several months. Unfortunately, it's AFTER the release when the fit hits the shan, and the bugs and configuration errors start flooding in.

[Nikolai]

I so agree with the OP, poor Firaxis, right now they're going through a small hell I'm sure... But they seem to be actively working for a solution, that's a huge plus.