Announcement - Public Patch Preview

#1

HW:RM’s Future Development Goes Public

With the release of HW:RM 2.1 the process for future patches is going to be MUCH different. In addition, HW:RM Multiplayer is no longer Beta - so this forum will be renamed shortly.

Moving forward patches will be developed in full view of the public. How will that work?

  • There’s now a public build of the upcoming patch accessible via Steam
    – In the Properties dialog for HW:RM on Steam, go to the Betas tab, and in the lower box type: ilovehomeworld
    – This will unlock a ‘patch_preview’ build that you can change to. You may need to restart Steam to see the actual item in the upper drop-down list.
  • These forums contain a list of changes in, or intended for, the next patch.
  • In addition an ongoing list of known issues is kept here, open for discussion.

Rules / Guidelines

  • Feel free to start a topic for an issue that you have. Once a topic can be cleanly converted into an issue it will be edited to reflect the exact issue being tracked, given a number, and added to the global issues list. It may at that point end up in a build changelist. Please do not number your own issues, it will quickly become confusing, and result in Moderator action.
  • Once a preview build is underway we’ll work to add things when possible (fixing issue A makes fixing issue B very easy, etc), and the lists will be reflected to show the current state of development.
  • A build’s changelist has various states for each entry:
    – Pending - The item MAY be addressed in the build if possible. This can mean that development research is required, or we’re waiting for community feedback, etc.
    – In Progress - The item is intended to be resolved, and may not yet have been.
    – Maybe Fixed - The issue is resolved, but needs verification. If it was an uncommon or hard to catch issue, this status may stick around until a number of people have failed to replicate the issue, or it is clearly resolved.
    – Resolved - The issue has been verified as resolved.
  • Once a changelist is complete (or nearly so), we’ll work with internal QA to determine when it can be given adequate review and a release date.
  • The cadence/timing of patches moving from preview to public will not be fast except in unusual circumstances (major exploit, etc). A few weeks to a few months should not be unusual.
  • The frequency with which the preview is updated will vary, but ideally should be a few times a week.
27 Likes
Ship Patching - Stage One
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Higaran mothership texture sym problem
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#2
#3

Great idea. I am sure there will be plenty of people jumping on board.

1 Like
#4

THIS IS MADNESS ! :scream:

but in a good way ^^

3 Likes
#5

Sounds very good in fact I’ve seen it twice before on steam working quite well for some other games.

So good luck. I’m sure I will join the patch testing. But in order for it to work properly us the users & non modders we need exact details on what was changed after each mini patch.

Or how something was bugged before and got fixed or worked around to get it going somewhere else. So that the testers can comprehend and check for those additions, changes and fixes.

1 Like
#6

Suhwheet! This is awesome news. :slight_smile:

#7

Aw yeah.

#8

This sounds like a fantastic idea to me, I’m excited!

#9

This is huge! Not only for the game itself, but the gesture of keeping everyone on touch! Thanks :smiley:

1 Like
#10

I’d like to get involved with this as well, but I agree that – if the code base gets updated in the beta builds – people would need to know what changed between builds, or people will have no idea what is changing. A way of being able to communicate with the devs in a real-time environment for such a thing would be a good idea (Discord with voice chat might be a good idea?)

#11

Yeah that’s a good point. As much as a pain it may be, it would be hard to get an idea as to what changes were made and need to be tested in the beta builds without some sort of in-progress changelog. :confused:

#12

Guys, relax :wink: As it says in the OP - details will be clear soon. Yes there will be a running changelog, a ‘next patch’ backlog, areas for people to post and explain issues, as well as track if a bug is fixed enough to be clear for release…

9 Likes
#13

That sounds super awesome ! I really like the idea of it and it enables everyone of us to give feedback and be involved in the process of shaping this game’s future :slight_smile:

#14

Well, can I install this beta version and normal non-beta version at the same time?

#15

Yup, it should show up as a separate game in your steam client

#16

Are we ever going to see a unified multiplayer between GoG and steam? Or at least allow players from different platforms to connect through their own hosted servers. Maybe dedicated server hosting kit? It sucks how this cleaves the community.

#17

it doesn’t seem so :

1 Like
#18

From what I’ve seen so far with doing this myself, no. You either have the current public version installed, or the beta version. And when you change back and forth, you have to download a few hundred megabytes. I end up with one copy either way.

#19

@BitVenom Will more details be released as to how GBX plans to communicate with those using the public beta? Discord might be a good manner of doing this, through voice channels while in-game (as it will show who is talking). Of course, a few people don’t particularly “like” Discord, which is understandable, though it’s quite stable with HWRM in the few instances I’ve used it. :slight_smile:

#20

Aren’t the forums good enough? I think so.