I'm a bit disappointed with the list of improvements - I expected more.
No content, no massive physics changes, just a multiplayer patch basically... and it's taken nearly half a year.
Let get things straight here, the major complaints have been from people that cant play online for whatever reason. That is the major thing to get sorted. Those of us who don't have any online problems still find it the best racing experience ever on a PC.
Another major complaint was the crappy demo, with no online facility..that too has now been addressed.
There are physics changes..but no, no massive changes. Massive changes simply aren't necessary..nKPro has arguably the best physics of any current sim as it is.
The new content is still being worked on...a 17km+ hillclimb track isn't a quick thing to model accurately.
New cars are in the pipeline and the track editor isn't far away either.
Yes, progress has been far too slow on development so far, everyone acknowledges that, but i think this should be a good step forward.
Being able to race online with at least one person (racing online alone isnt fun) without lag, and being able to connect fast and smoothly would be a bloody marvelous step forward............
My experiance has been awfull, never anyone online, and when on the very odd occasion there is someone online, the UI is totally terrible, and the cars jump, warp and lag around like no ones business, I also either get disconnected a few mins into a game, or just sit there waiting for it to syncronise, and it never does.
Well, you right about the lack of online action...there's still very few pickup races happening as the user base just isn't big enough. That will only change if the new demo is good enough and the few remaining multiplayer issues are sorted out.
The amount of people joining GPC is increasing every week though, and there are two FR2000 leagues and an FF1800 League that are still oversubscribed, so nKPro is definitely getting more popular by the week, but it seems everyone's efforts go into the PQ sessions and the actual races, then people tend to take a break for a week.
The jumping/warping/lagging i have only experienced when my ISP introduced traffic shaping. Once i got them to unblock the ports it was absolutely fine, no better or worse than LFS. That was also the reason for not synching or getting dico'd iirc. Now i don't have that problem at all.
(not saying that's what the problem is for you, but it would be worth looking into)
The ONLY other lag issues have come from people driving on a server with really poor FPS. nKPro just doesn't function well with less than 25fps.
I really hope that 1.03 get's things sorted ,so that many more people will discover what a fine sim it is. But i will totally understand if nKPro never becomes more than a niche product in an already niche market.
It will be a shame as there's so much potential, but the Dev's didn't get off to a good start and it's always going to be difficult to turn things around.
If it does ultimately fail then they will only have themselves to blame...but i believe it will take off. It's just taking a long time to do it.
I applaud the progress - getting the online bit sorted is very important, and is the reason why I barely ever load it. FPS/lag issues are important too - no point being able to connect only to find your 160fps (in LFS) computer is reduced to 5fps at times.
Regarding the physics, obviously there is a bug in the F2000 (iirc), because it's almost impossible to spin. I guess that will be fixed. And the (multiplierless) flatspots are back (hurrah, I think). But what about the 'canned' (for want of a better term) 90° spins that sometimes occur - I think this really annoying. It just seems too fake and too frequent to be either me (not THAT bad) or realistic (doesn't happen in cars I've driven)...
Also, what position do you hold in the dev team. On RSC you don't seem to be an oracle of info, but here you seem to know everything happening behind the scenes. Is it all fact, or is some of it made up based on the odd post from Jaap?
i just hope this patch actually does what it is spose to and fixes things so i can finally get some online time with this game. I dont think it would ever overtake lfs for me, especially at the rate they are updating it. S3 will probably be out by the time nk is at v1.05
I really hope there will be improvements to the framerates as nK has a lot of potential and regardless of whether the netcode is sorted I reckon that hillclimb would be fun. Is there any indication whether the hillclimb will be included in nK or sold separately?
Quite frankly i gave up posting very much at RSC as it's a sad, depressing excuse for a forum.
I'm not in the Dev team ,but i am in the Beta test team and get my info from testing and from the people in direct communication with the Devs.
As for your points...i haven't seen 90 degree "canned"spins since 1.01
As i said, the physics have been tweaked now anyway.
The Ftarget had the rear axle bug, that seems to be sorted.
I don't claim to be an oracle of info,i dont know everything thats happening, I'm just reporting what i do know ,(within the confines of what I'm allowed to say) to those who are interested.
I don't need to make thing's up based on Jaaps posts thanks very much.
I meant relative oracle (i.e. you know more that is on RSC, and more than any of us).
Barely driven since 1.01, as none of the patches improved the sim enough to warrent perseverence. Hopefully that will change with .03. I might see if I get the random 90 degree spins at the moment.
The 'making up stuff based on Jaap' wasn't serious, it was just a theory if you, like us, where an unknowing customer. With betatester status I can see that you know most of what he knows, and probably a bit more too. Thanks for clearing it up.
As for my play on dates (about patch releases), you have to admit that the nKP team brought it on themselves in the first place. With more communication, more frequent and better tested patches, more content and fixed online play I can see nKP becoming a contender; but not before.
Yup, your absolutely correct...the Dev's have indeed brought most of the criticisms on themselves. The lack of communication has been shocking.
I'm not surprised nKPro has the reputation it does.
I really hope that things will change for the better, only time will tell.
Ohh ,and i know no more than Jaap does. He is the closest to the devs, and now he has the roll of the 'middleman' between the devs and the community we should at least see more communication. It's all a step in the right direction.
Were you talking about the latest beta version? "Function"? Wasn't the FPS issues supposed to be history in 1.03? "Improved multiplayer performance", that better mean I can finally play it more than 30 fps online with a computer that is still above the official recommended specifications.
I wonder why there needs to be a "middleman" in the first place? Why the devs simply doesn't tell this stuff directly to the community?
Even more shocking was the official "response" in the ASS March issue...
I just wanted to post this, I guess not everyone have seen that.
I don't quite like that expression. As been said by the Moose, he is the 'middleman', connecting the dev team to the crowd.
I'd say you have to develop to make part of the dev team.
From now on I have joined the netKar PRO team. I will carry out various tasks, but the one you will notice most is that I will be the 'linking pin' between you (the community) and the netKar PRO development team.
Another interesting read is Tristan getting his wrist slapped in the motorcycle thread.........They obviously aren't used to his 'ways' over there heheheheheh
and from the people in direct communication with the Devs.
