Yes, it's pretty much set Battlebit's course to stay as a small FPS hit. Nothing is stopping them from hiring later and funding a battlebit 2 or other projects with their engine, and trying to go for more!
Oki pointed out in one of the devcasts that as the sole programmer for the game, he would need time to teach the new hires on how his code works, and unfortunately all of his time right now is spent on getting this new update released.
@@eeek143 Beforehand, he had several months and sufficient funds to hire and train a new programmer. However, the time spent training staff cannot mask the mismanagement of the project.
@@xyzmn1985 to be fair if u seen how much they have earned since launch, i would call that a huge success and more than a "mismanagement". the 3 of them are not obliged to satisfy the needs of anyone but themselves.
For the price and the fact that it's a small team I'll wait. I'm used to open-source side of things, often lone devs with passion projects. Let em take their time. Hopefully they find a sustainable business model as well.
Likewise. It would be an awesome thing if they could at some point in time open source the game. Say the game dies and they loose interest in developing it further. And instead let everybody have it instead. The closest thing that comes to mind is Project Reality.
the whole "lack of update" argument just does not make sense to me. are there any game breaking bugs making the game unplayable? (there isnt) is the game fun to play? (it is) games like bf1 and mw19 havent had a gameplay update in almost 5 years and its still one of the best fps games in recent times. its not like theres any game breaking bug that makes the game unplayable. there are people whining in game, on the discord and on the subreddit but somehow i still see them playing the game regularly, if it was as bad as they were complaining about, i dont think they would still be playing it but guess what, they still are. i swear sometimes the player base are just a bunch of entitled kids who thinks the devs owe them something (they dont). people seem to forget that it took them 7 years to reach the point where the game is today. despite all the unfair criticism that the team is facing, the truth is the game is still fun. movement is fluid, gunplay is satisfying and the game can practically run on any system. for a $5 game, some people here are expecting it to be compared with a $80 AAA game.
It's been wild to me when I saw people complaining that new maps and lighting and gun models are getting worked on while we're still waiting for the 'sound' update. Do they not realise that each dev works on a different area? The other two won't stop while the programming continues!
i think steadily putting out small quality of life improvements to the game could show them still working and caring about the game, unless they're working some into the next update. i think mod support would be a great idea for fixing or adding things while the devs work on the greater aspects.
Clippy, glad to see you make another video. Your reviews of each weapon months ago were well done. I can't help but imagine the unexpected drop-off of updates impacted any content plans you may have had in store for us. Hopefully when the update finally drops, we'll be able to see more BBR related videos from you again!
Thank you, and yes! Videos such as the weapon reviews will be obsolete when the update does drop, which demotivates me from producing the rest of them, as the update always seems "almost here" I'll be putting out loads when it finally does land!
While the current state of battlebit is stagnant, I' terrified of what might happen when the update finaly drops. Not only will it change the gameplay radically, but any added performance load may lead the game to an unplayable state for low-end players like me. Either way it's great to see you upload again.
0:40 Yes this is my biggest fear, there are so many changes at once that will alienate the majority of the player base, honestly, they could make a sequel entirely.
Indie dev with here adding some context: It's not a "bad coding practice" exactly that they are combining all the changes into one big update, likely just lack of foresight for how long a specific change (the audio update) was going to take. So, they probably continued developing all the other features on the same source control branch as the other updates. This is generally good practice if you are a solo indie game developer. In large teams, going branch heavy is something done automatically, because each dev is working on their own branch and needs to later merge their changes in. It's then normal for those devs to need to pay a cost later on, changes have to be merged together and then tested after being combined, which may or may not go smoothly especially when there are binary assets involved as well. This is needed no matter what for huge teams, but it's optional for a solo or tiny dev team, going *mostly* single branch is the correct choice because it dramatically (imagine 2x or more) speeds up game development and everything is being tested on one branch in one pile. However, I said mostly, not always. Even with small dev teams when a single change is 1. experimental 2. the path to final implementation is not necessarily clear and/or 3. the change breaks the existing implementation, meaning it cannot coexist in the codebase with the older system, branches should still be used. Knowing when to branch like this is hard. For example i use branches for game engine upgrades all the time. What's obvious to me is that the battlebit dev team made a mistake by putting this mega experimental and slow audio system on the same branch as all the other changes, and now they need to finish it before they can release the rest. It was a mistake but not the kind most people seem to think it was. Learning to predict exactly what kind of change is best branched is something solo and indie developers can only learn with experience. It is not a "bad coding practice" either way though, if anything it's bad project planning. Lumping changes together into one update will make it very hard to isolate what effect each change has on the overall gameplay experience and accurately get feedback, which is something i'm worried about way more than with just the update being delayed.
They released a blog post yesterday where they explain the state of their code in more detail (I have made a video covering it) What you said is largely true, and thanks for the in depth explanation!
oh, nice to see a new upload from you, wondered if you were still around :) I agree with most of the points in the video, but i find it suspicious/weird/worrying that no news or statements have been given to the public, it makes it very easy to bash on the current state of the game with the promised April update ticking further and further into the past (they shouldn't have given a public date, but too late for that). I'm keeping a skeptical optimism myself too though, you can still have plenty fun with the game, and it's just active enough to where it's easy to find full lobbies even outside peak hours
Thank you! I've been playing a couple other (non-fps) games recently but felt like I wanted to hop on BB again! I agree, as long as you can find multiple full matches, it doesn't particularly matter about player count, except for players with no local servers now (Asia, south america). The game is still really fun!
@@ClippyTactical Man exacly i like to go back for like a week and play battlebit hope the update makes the game bring more users cuz rn the bigest flaw is the matchmaking as its hard to get a good server that doesnt limit certain things or is full without people camping in tanks etc even tho there is always counter play to these strategies
Sound update woupd be nice, im not too fussed about new maps but i get that people want more, id like to see some graphical updates like better shadows or maybe even a ray tracing mod, but thats probably too much😅 either way i hope the devs are doing well, game is fun and always great to come back to
Mod tool would really ease the players tensions with the slow rollout of updates. I myself would love to fiddle out with the tool and just make few small changes here and there, mostly slow the duracell bunny like movement that just grinds my gears personally, buff the vehicles just a bit so that they don't feel like paper and most importantly add a vehicle repair and / or resupply station. As a vehicle main, my interest has taken a nosedive mostly because teammates just don't seem to support tanks, APC or any vehicles and rarely if ever engies rock the repair tool. Most of the times while I use a tank it just boils down to playing artillery at the edge of the base, fire my rounds and resupply as moving to the points only means that when I take a shot I have to drive all the way back to base for repairs and that's slow as a sloth taking a shit, doesn't really fair as infantry just zoom around with RPGs and C4 while my tank feels like a turtle with it's shell cracked. But, again, we'll see where the game goes after the next big update I'll come back to check it out and hope it will give some extra life for this great game.
i'm actually sort of glad i can enjoy this state of battlebit a while longer. i have a feeling the new update will make the experience miserable as i dread how they will be lowering the time to kill and how the hp will work. also not a fan of removing bleed. i found it useful to let me know i was either low on health to regen or if i got hit once i knew it was a sniper gunning for me. also helpful for sniper duels where you could just wait the other guy bleed out after hitting them 3 or 4 times. i've also had a few kills from bleed when a guy i shot hide and waited to ambush me but bleed out before he was able too
I miss the dlc era tbh. The base game was pretty loaded with content and then by the time the next title would come out you could either decide to expand your older game and keep on playing it or upgrade to the new title with an even fresher experience. Bad company 2 and battlefield 3 were my absolute favorites as a kid I’d do anything to relive those times
I think the key difference is that DLC-based games are still designed to be fun first, whereas modern games simply value player retention / getting you into the store interface / FOMO over simple fun design
When the devs do something,they do it well.....agreed? in comparison to other big game tittles i won't mention. Paitence is my plan, this game is all i needed in pc game life,i can wait...lets not bite the hand that feeds us, Im confident this game will be here for the long haul...and i can honestly say i beleive it will get better than it already is. Time will tell. Keep us updated.
I’ll never delete this game from my library, as long as they are here and willing I’ll be playing. I trust these devs to make a fantastic update and bring a lot of player base back
The game has so much things what got changed what was totaly stupid, then telling the Community about an BIG Major update what never was happen, so then he should upgrade his Team, i mean for this price what he all payed…. He could buy more workers but the game is so dead, the creater will do nothing anymore its the same as like Cube World
The worst part is that content creators like you are in a real dilemma about creating new content because they are afraid that the in-game stats will change after a game update.
Make at least a million off the game and can't be fucked to hire more coders so one dude is endlessly working on the game with no sense of worry because he already made his bag. I see a comment bring this example up, but this is dead on like Cube world. Make enough money to not have to worry and just endlessly reformat the game over and over with overhauls without releasing any of it, become reclusive because your customers are upset that you're not delivering the product. Just like Cube world now, he's basically updated the game like a sequel but I think 1 it's too late, and 2 the changes aren't looking like good ideas and will piss people off
Lot of mfers in comment sections talking about mismanagement of the project and how the devs are incompetent is if they have any idea how much work goes into anything in game dev. Gamers as consumers are so annoying. Scope creep happens, and these guys are human.
It's extremely sad to me how videos like this are actually necessary because of how rabid people are for smaller games to update constantly. Imagine being the 3 people who made battlebit. TThe game was talked about like the next coming of christ and now they have to try to live up to the immense expectations.
With the small grassroots feeling of Battlebit. They should try out sourcing some of the work to the community. "Hey guys we need a new RPG projectile modeled"
Agreed, or by extension just develop modding tools as I mentioned, the engine seems really good performance wise (to run 256 players real time with this smoothness is an achievement by itself)
@@ClippyTactical In your video you mentioned mods, Now I can't wait to see a D day mod, Vietnam, or an all out fight in a flat landscape. Like in BF3. imagine that but invasion.
Battle Royal is a bit tired, so hopefully not, they can do something more with their large scale combat engine (100 person vs. 256 BR would feel pretty much the same anyway)
Wait don’t they make like millions? Having 3 ppl isn’t much of an excuse anymore… oh you address this. Okay but “losing time” to have even just like 6 ppl would be so much better than 8months per mid update (steam sale noob)
It's tricky for sure. I think if they could go back they might have changed course, but I can see why they did what they did, and hopefully they do expand at some point as the bones of this project are so good! If they did a year or two more support with a bigger team to upskill them before going for a Battlebit 2 with them (or another game using this engine), that would be great!
It's understandable given the ambition of the update compared to the size of the team, but it is unfortunate that they overpromised - let's just hope they do deliver (better late than never!)
@@ClippyTactical they are definitely overpromised. and I agree that they should've do small but consistent update rather than a big one that takes too long
don't go presenting games in eras of purchasing and act as though its okay. Its not, try again. Do all you can to deny these companies the luxuries of considering their game a "service" (which it isn't) Its a game, The Battlebit devs where talked to up and down during development about how the update cycle would be or the longevity would be but it seems that with most things actual scope and long term size of the project was not taken into consideration. They told us not to worry and that they have it under control but they aren't getting the benefit of the doubt from me.
It's not a live service game, that was my point, and people assess it as if it is meant to be producing regular updates. And yes, they obviously lacked experience at the start but they are learning from it. BBR is already a successful product launch (based on $$$) and they can use that to learn and do better with their next project
"and not having some more experienced managerial/ PR hands on board to guide player expectations and future content direction was and is unfortunate." I completely disagree with this. What games with orders of magnitude larger dev teams and budgets can even do this right? And the problem with hiring new devs is it neglects one of the biggest problems in the games industry, in that its a very saturated market and that the demand for quality programmers completely outstrips the supply. The reality of the industry is that if your a talented programmer, and actually want to be paid well and work on good codebases, you just aren't working in the games industry.
A lot of those big companies fall foul of corporate greed / deadlines / fix later mentality. one that does it right is Old school runescape, imo. I feel like just one manager would have been all BBR needed for a much smoother launch. I think it's clear having watched the progress of the game that the current team is fantastic at developing a game, but might need some help in terms of the running of it / priorities / vision / PR or clear comms (which is why they hired a community manager). I think currently them juggling all that takes away from just letting devs be devs.
Im not mad at the devs because they took so much time trying to perfect their game and make good updates but hiring more developers would help them so much
