Patches is just another name for updates. What you try to differentiate here is between game changes, which require sync between versions, and client bugfixes, which can be separate.
But… that just means PC users can get bugfixes first. All the joy to mobile/console players! They can enjoy staying on the bugged version, while PC players “betatest” their bugfixes for them!..
No patches are not another name for updates. Two separate things my friend.
Oh really? Because the devs used both with the same meaning, in the past.
How about this one:
Usually “patches or patching” implies fixing something. Patches and fixes are basically the same thing. Updates however usually are full game changing things. Hints why you have numbers like Version 1.8-1.9-2.0-2.1 because it’s an addition to the game not just balances and what not. 1.0.9 was a patch not an update. Two different things.
Hk is right.
Updates are 2.0 2.1 2.1
Patches are 2.0.1 or 2.0.01, 2.0.02
Ah that’s why, thank you Don. 1.0.9 was a patch not an update. 2 different things. The numbers were throwing me off lol.
The code doesn’t care what you call it. Neither does Microsoft, Sony, or Apple. If you change executable code, it’s got to go through their approval process. Changing non-executable data, however, is a regular part of playing a game with online connectivity. You communicate with the game’s servers, upload and download data, and it affects your play experience.
Yeah I don’t know why you’re telling me that, I know that stuff already. Usually though the only thing I’ve seen them fix on their own without needing approval is stuff like marketplace mess-ups. I think they can fix some small stuff, but for major things, that has to go through update approval. They can’t patch troops at their whim otherwise Great Maw on console would already be fixed. They need full updates for that.
The distinction is if the change is on the client or server side. Now if I wasn’t drunk watching season 2 of Narcos I’d explain it to you, but I’m also not totally certain how to differenciate it on this game. And it gets more complicated that some server updates require client updates. But some changes can be made purely at the server level.
Though if people bugged Sirrian less on dumb questions he’d answer the real smart ones more often since he’s very busy.
Yeah the marketplace must be server side, but patching troops are not. So I don’t know what all they can change server side, but it must not be much on consoles.
See, this is the smart type of question Sirrian might answer if he wasn’t bombarded by people bugging him all the time.
Semantic versioning is unfortunately an optional construct. There is no hard and fast distinction between an “update” and a “patch” unless a developer makes one and sticks to it. The distinction between code and data, however, is a meaningful one, though admittedly not technically inviolable.
They almost certainly can patch troops on a whim, within certain constraints. I haven’t poked around in the data files to see what fields they have, but I would guess that they can change skills, description, and even which traits a troop has – but they can’t in most cases add new traits, which fixing The Great Maw would require. Spells can be changed, as long as what they want to change it to fits within the scripting system they have for it. If they need to add something that the system doesn’t currently support, that would require a code change, and thus must go through the approval process.
Anyone who’d looked through the game’s data files, and understood them, could give you some pretty good answers on what the devs can change without going through the approval process.
I’d like to meet the people that can go through the game files on console. (Devs I’m looking at you) I don’t know if I’d use the words hard and fast as you did, as I reserve words like that for other things. There is a distinction between a patch and an update since they are 2 separate words and meanings. Historically this has always been the case. Patches became the term if you will by players and devs alike for quick game fixes/balances.
The structure of the data files likely isn’t any different than it is on PC, or any of the other platforms. It’s a flash game that runs in Adobe Air, presumably for ease of development and portability. I wouldn’t be surprised if the console version was the same.
Date vs. Executable code I think is the big difference. You seem to know what you’re talking about though.
A regular person can’t gain access to the game files though on consoles, that’s the problem.
A regular person cant. I don’t play the pc version but I can make educated guesses, others might look at the files and make even better guesses. Just accept your limitations and don’t bug the devs unnecessarily. When they aren’t bugged incessantly when the right person asks the right question we might get the right answer.
Who is that message to? I haven’t asked any questions of the Devs.
Consider it a broadcast message. You can help by discouraging people from at Sirrian unless we as a group really don’t know and really want to know.
when will be the update released? do we know the date yet?