Actionable quality expectations/goals

[frelmedieval]

I’ve been on this forum since release. i don’t pretend to be an expert in gaming and the different systems. the one thing that i do know is that there’s a ton of feedback but much of it isn’t actionable.

please propose and discuss actionable performance goals and/or expectations of KCD and its associated DLC. expectations might vary PC v Xbox (one) v PS4 (pro) so please indicate sys specific expectations accordingly . please be civil.

to kick this off, i’ll throw out the idea that there should be a minimum target fps of 40.

as RL permits, i’ll try to summarize/distill points below into a list

First tier (minimal user quality goal/expectation)

• main quest bugs - none should be present that prevent story progression; workarounds acceptable if WH posts (eg in forum); timeliness in acknowledgement/resolution TBD
• texture pop in/glitches - shouldn’t be noticeable for all close and medium distance objects within view of character
• stability - game should be free of constant/persistent (at least 1x/day) crashes
• fps rate - fps minimum 30 for pc and console; 60 rec for PC and 40 for consoles
• save system - all save types should be functional and reliable; capacity limit notification
• DLC payment options - notification in advance about whether content free to all users, backers only, or paid by all (how long in advance TBD)

.
Second tier (by itself not minimal goal/expectation but when combined with others could be)

• role playing - behaviours to be consistent and expected of role (eg stealth kill should be stealthy; animal & human NPCs react to arrows shot by head); exceptions and limitations should be discernible from text associated with perk, codex, etc
• inventory - once quest items acquired, they shouldn’t be ‘lost’
• general bugginess - a single, sit down play through shouldn’t have too many (def?) non-first tier bugs

[Akuhdemik]

Ill just put my thoughts on what an accepted base should be in point forum.

• fps minimum 60 for pc, 40 for consoles
• texture pop in/glitches should be almost non exsistant
• save system should be fully fuctioning as it is crucial to the game.
• quick responds to bugs. I’m not saying bugs should be worked out fully before "releasing as bugs can be unpredictable. However a fast responds to game break bugs I think should at least be applied to newly released games.

That’s the main points I can think of for now.

[frelmedieval]

last bullet point - ‘game breaking bugs’. to me, that means main quest should not have a bug that has no workaround and doesn’t permit the user to progress. do you have a different expectation?

[Akuhdemik]

No that would be my itent with that point. Although if say the work around was obsurce and not easily discoverable I would still consider it game breaking.

[frelmedieval]

re: saves. what if one type of save worked but not all? would that be adequately functioning? reason i ask is that FO4 had a well known quick save corruption. users were told to cease and desist from using it. patch was late in coming if ever. still don’t use quick saves anymore.

by ‘quick response to bugs’ - does that mean Daniel or Jan acknowledges it? or that it’s fixed? and quick is 1 week or less?

[Akuhdemik]

I dont excuse any dev from this. I think all save systems should be working as intended. Bethesda is know for their lack lust releases and it’s sad to me that people forget about it. I believe however they should be held to these standards as well. This is a side note I actually think “demos” should be a thing say before release it would act as a mini stress test before launch with out giving access to the full game.

[frelmedieval]

my point wasnt so much to emulate Beth or their product. it was more about getting a tighter understanding of your save expectation and whether there’s room for flexibility

[Akuhdemik]

I don’t think there is flexabilty in that regard as a save system is so important. Another point;
On console controller functionality should be flushed out it’s how you inter act with the game having issues like the r2 issue ppl are having to me is unacceptable and should have been flushed out before release.

[LordJulian]

They did mention in their dev videos in the past that they will try to include cut content for free due to constraints after the release of the game, which depends on whether it is free solely for kickstarter backers, for people who bought the alpha/beta before it release, or free for everyone who bought KCD now.

• The distinction whether DLC will be free or paid for both cut content and proposed upcoming ones: (Female character DLC, Blacksmithing DLC, Dog Companion DLC, Story Continuation DLC) and who will get free DLC.

[Tau1310]

I am on ps4. Here goes my expectations.

1. Game was advertised 30 fps. It is not. It is some times. Fix asap

2. Texture pop in slow loading. Stuff on trader stand as an example pip in when char is 2 m away. Hats pop on and of. Building roofs texture pop in, trees pop in, rocks pop in, armors on npc pop on. Fix asap

3.Various small bugs and annoyances, like npc disappearing and reappearing, npc freezing, npc with no head, npc clipping, npc in inn somewhere in the forest telling me that trader is in Talmberg exact same line as you get when asking for trader in Talmberg. Stuff like that is everywhere. Rain from a blue sky… Rescuing hans when hunting, getting attacked fleeing, entering cutscene in the middle of fight to defend hans. Bandit stands idle in background while Hans and Henry discusses whether there could be more bandits in the woods.

4 all the bugs I have not encountered myself.

[frelmedieval]

1 and 2. understand. see 1st post.
agree about 3 but need more actionable stuff. are you saying there are too many? or, shouldn’t be any? or they should be acknowledged (wthin x amount of time)?
not sure what to do/say about 4

[frelmedieval]

pls see list in first post to see if captured your sentiment.

[Akuhdemik]

For number 3 I don’t think fixing all little bugs that annoy is feisable. Small annoyance bugs will always be present in all games. Also I think what we are getting at here with this post is a acceptable state of quality not a perfect state.

[frelmedieval]

Yes, the intent is acceptable state of quality, not perfect or ideal state

[Tau1310]

1 and 2. Yes saw the post but did not want to say just “this”.

3. Of course, far to many, should be fixed asap. These are small glitches that should be easy to fix. Without knowing if they are since I am no developer.

Regarding 4. If you take a look at YouTube there are so many bugs you can hardly mention them all in one post… And the game breaking bugs, I have been lucky to avoid. Everything I have mentioned that I experienced myself was only up until the hunting with hans quest. And I did not even mention all of them. I have had a minor or major glitch roughly every 20 min of game play on top of the performance and pop in issues. That coupled with everybody else’s additional experiences says broken game to me.

[frelmedieval]

yeah, lots of bugs. at what point, does it become… ‘i gotta walk away’

so what is game breaking? not being obtuse. think there’s some variety in interpretation here. just want to define it.

[Tau1310]

I am aware of that. But many of those needs to be ironed out. To make the game look and play more as a finished game. I know that small bugs and glitches are in every game. But never have I played a game with this many. 20 min roughly of game play then a new one appears. That on top of all the optimisation problems and such makes the game feel like a beta.

[Tau1310]

Are you guys actually trying to help things with this thread, or just downplay issues?

[frelmedieval]

trying to triage. not diminish.

not going to hide or suppress the issues. just want to draw attention to miinimum quality level first. will hit on others too

[Flashfire]

To me, game-breaking is something that literally prevents you from being able to progress forward. That includes corrupted/lost saves (so back them up just in case!). It does not include simply being unable to pick a lock, for example, even if that mechanic is getting a tweak for consoles.

If you run into a problem, the first thing to do is restart the game from a prior save. That often fixes a minor glitch. Is it annoying? Yes, but it may just get you moving forward again. Of course, you should document what happened anyway, and try to determine if anything you did may be repeatable in it happening again.