PATCH Information from BHG

Hi Guys,

Thanks for all your compliments about the game and your patience with the patching process. The earlier-than-expected release of the game caught us all (both at BHG and MS) a bit by surprise on a couple fronts, but we hope to have things back under control shortly. I just wanted to catch everyone up on where we stand and where we go from here.

When we sent RON to manufacturing we did so because as far as we knew all major problems had been addressed; so the various issues that have appeared are all things we weren't aware of in spite of a very thorough testing process. We could have all kinds of debate on why this sort of thing can happen, but ultimately the onus is on us to correct the issues as quickly as possible.

So here is the latest information on various known issues and what (and when) we plan to address them.

ITEM #1 -> "THE PATCH DOESN'T WORK"

Here are several reasons that could cause the patch to fail for you:

(1) You have a foreign version (including a British version). We've discovered as I said above that the manufacturing process introduced some unexpected EXE differences (all versions in theory run the same EXE). We had tested the game and the patcher of course, but had not been able to test them -alongside- a full manufacturing run. Again, our apologies, and we hope to have the problem fixed within the next day or so. Our understanding was that we weren't shipping in Europe until the 23rd, so this particular issue caught us a little by surprise. WE EXPECT TO HAVE THIS PROBLEM CORRECTED IN THE NEXT DAY OR SO.

(2) You have "modded" some of the game files (for example rules.xml). If your patch is stopping somewhere OTHER than 37% complete this is to be strongly suspected. The solution is to fully reinstall the game (including recopying files) and then patch. We'll work on something to make the patching process more friendly to modders.

(3) You have a warez version.

(4) We haven't identified any definite cases of US versions with differing EXE's, so we suspect most US cases are (2) above. If there ARE instances of this they should also be CORRECTED IN THE NEXT DAY OR SO when we put up a new copy of the patch that doesn't have issues with this. In the meantime if you know you have a US version and you know you don't have problem 2 or 3, it's possible that a completely clean uninstall and reinstall would overcome this).

If you HAVE the patch, your version number will be 01.14.05.0902.

ITEM #2 -> PREVENTING FUTURE PATCHING PROBLEMS

As soon as issue #1 is squared away, we're going to update our patching system so that we can check out these issue for future patches to avoid further patching problems. This will take a few days.

ITEM #3 -> PEOPLE WHO CAN'T RUN CONQUER-THE-WORLD

A few people seem to have a crash involving Conquer the World. Correcting this is one of our highest priority items once the patching system is back under control. We hope for a solution within the next week or two.

ITEM #4 -> PEOPLE WHO HAVE UNEXPECTEDLY HIGH LAG IN MULTIPLAYER FOR THEIR CONFIGURATIONS

Also a problem we hope to address within the next week or two. We're working on obtaining a machine that reproduces this problem (we never saw this in the config labs either at MS or BHG so there is probably a rare configuration combination that produces this); we're probably going to pay a generous volunteer to ship us their system that exhibits this problem.

ITEM #5 -> HOSTING PROBLEMS BEHIND ROUTERS AND NATS

We are looking into the problem hope to be able to address this on the "in a week or two" list, but I can't say 100% yet because we need to set up some test cases and see to what extent a fix requires changes on the RoN side or the Gamespy side. Thanks to those who've sent in helpful router technical information.

Those are the known "top priority" items right now. It's possible issues might get added to that list we find one of the "stopping people from using the game" variety and reproduce it. I know a few people have reported problems not listed above, and we're sorting through them to determine if there are some that aren't "don't-have-the-latest-driver" kinds of issues.

Then, for a patch in a few weeks, we will work on improvements/enhancements/fixes to the Gamespy environment. Some items currently on this list include:
* Rated games issues
* Stopping the scrollbars in the chat lobby and player list from "popping back down"
* Making sure everyone in the room has same patch
* Further anti-cheat/hack stuff
* Various other improvements

There will also be some improvements/additions to the rest of the game either for the in-a-few-weeks patch or afterwards. Among the things on the list--
* Multiplayer Save/Load
* Making the game (even) more friendly to "modders"
* Game Balance patches as needed
* Additional anti-cheat/hack patching as needed to keep up with the usual "arms race" with hackers.
* "Quick match" aka "blind" matchmaking

I'll try to keep everyone posted as I know more. Again, thanks to everyone for your support--they keep on rising!

Brian

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