GamersCrib
05-03-2009, 07:25 PM
A new developer blog was posted over on the Quake Live forums (http://www.quakelive.com/forum/index.php) a few days ago telling everyone how the game is coming along and some plans for the future. Check it out:
It's been a while since we've provided a broad update on the scope of activities that the QUAKE LIVE team is working on. Some of you may be totally new to the game, while others have been with us since closed beta and already have some insight into the information below (based on previous developer blogs). I'll try to organize the information in somewhat of an outline of broad topics with as much information as I can provide. Our goal with these has been to be as open about our plans as possible. That said, there will be some topics where we'd prefer to not divulge every detail here in a dev blog. We have activities, feature roll-outs, content additions and a number of other things planned that we will want to make a bigger deal of than just listing them in a developer blog. So, just because something isn't included below doesn't mean we aren't considering it or even working on it.
Awards and Leaderboards
If you've been with us since we first launched the open beta just over 2 months ago, you'll remember that we had a few crazy weeks of queues, database load issues, and ended up choosing to take our leaderboards and about 1/2 of our awards (all of the awards based on single frags) offline in order to improve the reliability and "up-time" of the QUAKE LIVE service while we re-engineered the way those systems work. Bringing these systems back has been the top priority for a number of the programmers here and we've made terrific progress. We've significantly changed the way that our back-end systems and database manage all of the statistical data and also the way that data is queried by players when being accessed from the website (i.e. leaderboards, match results, and profiles). We now have leaderboards back up on our INTERNAL test site. We'll be doing everything we can to load test these before re-enabling for the public. If all goes well, we expect we'll be able to make Leaderboards available again sometime this month (exact timing will depend on testing), and the awards should follow soon after.
Next Big Update
We're planning an update for the middle of May. In addition to including a number of bug fixes both in-game and on the site, this update will include a few updates/additions:
+ The "Practice" section of the site is being completely re-worked. You might think this is unnecessary, but it is being done to accommodate the following two elements - starting a practice match and tutorials/training.
--Starting a Practice Match - the reason this is being re-done is because the new interface/graphic design and general functionality for starting a practice match is nearly identical to, and can be applied directly to what we're developing for the "private server/match" functionality (more on that below). Once we roll this out, you'll have a good idea of how the basic interface will work for starting a private match. There will of course be extensions to this system to handle the additional demands and administration of a private match, but starting a private match will be very similar to, and as easy as starting a practice match against bots with the new interface.
--Training/Tutorials - We have a number of newer players and have had a number of requests for some ability to learn and practice the finer points of QUAKE. Training arenas and tutorials is something we've wanted to develop for a long time and we now have the first two - Rocket Jumping and Strafe Jumping/Running) that will be made available in this mid-May update (there will be a new section for these under the "Practice" option). These will include written tutorials explaining the basics of these skills along with videos, and demos that you can play back. For each skill we've developed a practice arena with challenges ranging from the very basic to the advanced. In addition to explaining how to begin practicing and mastering each skill, the tutorials will demonstrate how to achieve each of the challenges within the practice arenas. We also intend to include additional tutorials over the months on other skills.
There is alot to this posting so head on over and check out both Part1 (http://www.quakelive.com/forum/showthread.php?t=22698) and Part2 (http://www.quakelive.com/forum/showthread.php?p=144134#post144134) of the blog entry and as always stay tuned to GamersCrib.net (http://GamersCrib.net) for all the latest news and updates to Quake Live!
It's been a while since we've provided a broad update on the scope of activities that the QUAKE LIVE team is working on. Some of you may be totally new to the game, while others have been with us since closed beta and already have some insight into the information below (based on previous developer blogs). I'll try to organize the information in somewhat of an outline of broad topics with as much information as I can provide. Our goal with these has been to be as open about our plans as possible. That said, there will be some topics where we'd prefer to not divulge every detail here in a dev blog. We have activities, feature roll-outs, content additions and a number of other things planned that we will want to make a bigger deal of than just listing them in a developer blog. So, just because something isn't included below doesn't mean we aren't considering it or even working on it.
Awards and Leaderboards
If you've been with us since we first launched the open beta just over 2 months ago, you'll remember that we had a few crazy weeks of queues, database load issues, and ended up choosing to take our leaderboards and about 1/2 of our awards (all of the awards based on single frags) offline in order to improve the reliability and "up-time" of the QUAKE LIVE service while we re-engineered the way those systems work. Bringing these systems back has been the top priority for a number of the programmers here and we've made terrific progress. We've significantly changed the way that our back-end systems and database manage all of the statistical data and also the way that data is queried by players when being accessed from the website (i.e. leaderboards, match results, and profiles). We now have leaderboards back up on our INTERNAL test site. We'll be doing everything we can to load test these before re-enabling for the public. If all goes well, we expect we'll be able to make Leaderboards available again sometime this month (exact timing will depend on testing), and the awards should follow soon after.
Next Big Update
We're planning an update for the middle of May. In addition to including a number of bug fixes both in-game and on the site, this update will include a few updates/additions:
+ The "Practice" section of the site is being completely re-worked. You might think this is unnecessary, but it is being done to accommodate the following two elements - starting a practice match and tutorials/training.
--Starting a Practice Match - the reason this is being re-done is because the new interface/graphic design and general functionality for starting a practice match is nearly identical to, and can be applied directly to what we're developing for the "private server/match" functionality (more on that below). Once we roll this out, you'll have a good idea of how the basic interface will work for starting a private match. There will of course be extensions to this system to handle the additional demands and administration of a private match, but starting a private match will be very similar to, and as easy as starting a practice match against bots with the new interface.
--Training/Tutorials - We have a number of newer players and have had a number of requests for some ability to learn and practice the finer points of QUAKE. Training arenas and tutorials is something we've wanted to develop for a long time and we now have the first two - Rocket Jumping and Strafe Jumping/Running) that will be made available in this mid-May update (there will be a new section for these under the "Practice" option). These will include written tutorials explaining the basics of these skills along with videos, and demos that you can play back. For each skill we've developed a practice arena with challenges ranging from the very basic to the advanced. In addition to explaining how to begin practicing and mastering each skill, the tutorials will demonstrate how to achieve each of the challenges within the practice arenas. We also intend to include additional tutorials over the months on other skills.
There is alot to this posting so head on over and check out both Part1 (http://www.quakelive.com/forum/showthread.php?t=22698) and Part2 (http://www.quakelive.com/forum/showthread.php?p=144134#post144134) of the blog entry and as always stay tuned to GamersCrib.net (http://GamersCrib.net) for all the latest news and updates to Quake Live!