Hi Everyone,
I suppose that this has been mentioned before, but the update frequency for CS Source is too high for my liking. We are seeing updates a few times a month, and when bad things happen it can even be as often as twice a day. This is not a pleasant experience at all, and places a large burden on admins to continually update their servers. This is not a trivial task, and the quote "If it ain't broke, don't fix it" comes to mind. This is why I kinda like how CS1.6 is going - there have been no patches in ages, and nobody is complaining unless it's about VAC.
I could understand that patches for Source need to be rolled out if there were serious problems in terms of security (e.g. DoS attacks) or gameplay issues (e.g. server crashes on maps), but often these patches do not contribute to a significantly improved gaming experience. If it's not going to make current servers better, why does Valve bother to release patches so often? Microsoft's approach to cumulative patches would be something I think would be useful and relevant, because it gives administrators less headache in terms of teething problems with each patch - they only have to deal with a 1 set of patches, not 5-10 sets of micro patches.
It appears to me that there is very little quality control going on in Valve when it comes to patches, and timing patches to coincide with weekends is absolutely horrendous. I trust that admins would like peace over the weekends and that gamers want to play their games without having to grapple with technical issues on a Friday evening. Patches should ideally be released on Mondays, when everybody goes to work and game server traffic goes down. There is really no need to use weekends to get feedback on server issues because it diminishes the gaming experience for everybody.
Do you see banks overhauling their IT system at 3pm in the day? Do you see other games issuing patches that mean hardly anything to the gamer-at-large? It is fine a balancing act to decide whether a certain fix would cause more good than harm, but Valve has fallen on the wrong side not just once, but time and again. I'm extremely disappointed that Valve continues to behave as if the gaming community is beholden to its own internal development schedule. I'm trying to run game servers here, not a beta-testing programme. People who run game servers should be treated more like game players than software testers.
Possible suggestions (we've heard this thousands of times but nobody seems to listen): 1) Release patches on Mondays, not Fridays 2) Reduce frequency of patches - once a month for engine patches, more frequently for non-engine related patches *only*. 3) Start a beta programme and allow all other admins to run a *stable* branch of SRCDS. 4) Start listening to feedback. Stop behaving like everybody has been converted to CS Source.
There are so many others who have not switched over from HL1. If Valve were to continue with this nonsense how is it going to evangelize the greatness of the Source engine? Game development is not merely about technical excellence (e.g. disabling menus, banning creative cheaters) , it is about providing a fun and enjoyable experience to everyone involved, server admins and gamers alike. People understand that sometimes the process can be painful, but I don't see any light at the end of this tunnel.
Regards, Christopher Choo Fragnetics LLP
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