1.5 update vs 1.6 update

[stardew_luv]

Ok be honest everyone who remembers. I’m a several year mobile player. I started on 1.4 for quite some time then out of they blue (cause I didn’t know I was supposed to be waiting for a massive update) 1.5 came and with it tons of bugs, they ironed out quite a few for a few weeks then stopped. Wasn’t perfect but still worked fairly well if you weren’t to attached to a particular day or it’s events or earnings as it randomly crashed, a lot. Save, save, save and it wasn’t bad at all. Enter 1.6 and every update brings more bugs and the ones before it weren’t fixed yet. I’m fine with it as it was released, but the more update patches the more bugs. I wish they would have stopped a few patches back honestly. They are fixing them in console and it’s getting worse each time. I think they released it too soon. They had everyone at their throats and felt pressured, I understand that. But it wasn’t ready. Honestly just wasn’t ready. Was it like this with 1.4, then 1.5 updates also?

 

[FilthyGorilla]

It's generally always like this, regardless of how diligent a testing team is, there are always going to be bugs (especially since it's a super small dev team of only a few individuals, and there is no open beta for console or mobile). There are literally millions of players, issues are bound to popup, many of which are hard to diagnose or run a lot deeper than initially suspected.

To be entirely honest, I do agree that it does feel a bit rushed right now, the latest patch introduced as many issues as it patched. It is important to take the whole picture into consideration though, if you were on reddit or the discord you'd see the literally dozen+ complaints a day of those unable to divorce their spouses, and in turn, we got more issues, but that are relatively minor in comparison.

I will add too, that 1.5 had a LOT more bugs than you may think. I'm a bug finder by heart and have documents for tracking them. Just by myself I've managed to find dozens and dozens in 1.5, many of which (most of the considerable ones) are no longer in 1.6. If you fixate on a couple bugs that are hard to root out (ones pertaining to the unique save state system mobile has with wandering npcs and other issues), it's often easy to overlook the other issues that are gone along the way, and the positive changes that outweigh the negatives still remaining.

 

[Lew Zealand]

I remember the v1.5 release and it had bugs but not as many as it seems are mentioned here. However that's my impression based on being more connected today than 4 years ago and don't forget the whole Stardew Valley Community is bigger now. More game sales means more game experiences and a more complete scope of bugs experienced.

I'd like to suggest a reason for this. Not an excuse, instead looking for a why.

The v1.5 update was focused on adding a new location to the game which means that aspect of the game could be tested and managed relatively independently from the main game, while the v1.6 update adds new content to the game integrated absolutely everywhere. The scope of interconnections between the v1.6 updates and everything that existed beforehand is likely orders of magnitude larger than any previous update and that simply means the scope of little details that are the potential sources of bugs also spread to every corner of the game.

Does the scope of these bugs suggest that maybe the sheer volume of changes and updates to the game ended up like biting off a little more than the dev team can chew? Perhaps. That said, the game works very well for the most part though of course bugs that directly affect parts of the game which are someone's favorites will call huge attention to themselves for those people, and those bug reports need to be heard. It could be that in their efforts to deliver us all so many fun changes and gameplay expansions, the devs ended up like a kid that pours out the giant pile of ice cream only to peter out with it half-eaten. +1 for intent, -1 for finish.

Hmmm, you know what though? I'll take an excessively irrational amount of exuberance over calm and staid every time. Especially when it's my favorite game. Yeah it can be quite a bit messier but it's also just wayyy more fun and that's a tradeoff I will always choose.

 

[Ereo]

Bug reports for the 1.5 mobile update were sorted into one thread on the forum so you can check back on that one easily.

The reports feel like more to me now but this might be because there’s mobile and console at the same time, people are reporting the same bugs over and over, and everyone opens their own thread.

 

[Grumples]

It seems like it's a combination of a small dev team and way too many platforms to juggle. They're just spread way too thin. Or as Bilbo would say. "Like so much butter across bread." Having to deal with console multiplayer issues on top of it all certainly doesn't help either.

I do wonder though: Do they do any playtesting before releasing a patch? It just feels like some of these bugs would have been caught by testers, were they given the opportunity.

 

[stardew_luv]

Thanks everyone. Yes I agree they should have just tell all those literally verbally abusing them to stuff it and get it done in their own time and it would have likely been a bit more ironed out. Easier said than done when you and your team are legit trying to earn a basic living and please a bunch of jerks of impatient customers. When I was a kid in the 5th grade we bought the all new NES (yes the original lol) you bought your NES game as it was and if it was messed up you might get it refunded with a replacement copy, or if it was well used you got nothing. Those games were $40-$70 dollars a pop which was a LOT of money in the 80’s. No patches. And update was making another cartridge sequel to the game which as another $40-$70. Other games today are pay to play and you can go broke or worse so easily if you don’t have temperance. We have it SO easy with Stardew, why don’t people get that?

I do agree with the poster who said they are stretched way too thin with so many platforms, and I applaud CA for stating his next game is most certainly not coming to mobile and likely not to console. He’s very brave protecting himself and staff like that cause he’s going to get so much verbal abuse over that on discord, Reddit and all that. I’m glad he is finally putting himself and his teams emotional and physical health first this next time around. Until then they are abused, release too quickly because of it, and no one is ever happy. If I were him I’d be so sick of Stardew Valley and its ingrate fans by now it would literally make me physically ill to work 12+ hours a day on it. Poor guy. Poor Stardew team. I wish they would just let it go as is. So what if it makes people mad. He owes them nothing, nothing at all.

 

[evergreen oak]

Hey luv, can we stop bending over backwards for a man we don't even know? He's quite literally a multi-millionaire. Quit parading around with this notion that he's some poor little indie dev working out of his garage. He is filthy rich.
He is also a respectable guy and generally does right by his customers and his team of employees.

He owes all modern releases a stable and supported game. That's the bare minimum all developers owe their customers. I'm sorry if you don't agree with me on that, but that's just how it is. If I sell something and it has issues, I am obligated to fix those problems. If I can't handle the fixing process on my own, I have to find / hire assistance. If it still will take longer than I anticipated, I need to communicate clearly and set expectations carefully. That's how business is conducted in the adult world.

Let's stop making excuses for him, stop saying he doesn't owe anyone anything, and stop with this Eric Barone pity-party day in and day out. It honestly is a bit concerning how fixated some folks are on this man they have no personal relationship with. Respecting him as a creator and enjoying his work is perfectly fine, but a lot of y'all are taking it way, waaay too far IMHO

 

[stardew_luv]

Hey luv, can we stop bending over backwards for a man we don't even know? He's quite literally a multi-millionaire. Quit parading around with this notion that he's some poor little indie dev working out of his garage. He is filthy rich.
He is also a respectable guy and generally does right by his customers and his team of employees.

He owes all modern releases a stable and supported game. That's the bare minimum all developers owe their customers. I'm sorry if you don't agree with me on that, but that's just how it is. If I sell something and it has issues, I am obligated to fix those problems. If I can't handle the fixing process on my own, I have to find / hire assistance. If it still will take longer than I anticipated, I need to communicate clearly and set expectations carefully. That's how business is conducted in the adult world.

Let's stop making excuses for him, stop saying he doesn't owe anyone anything, and stop with this Eric Barone pity-party day in and day out. It honestly is a bit concerning how fixated some folks are on this man they have no personal relationship with. Respecting him as a creator and enjoying his work is perfectly fine, but a lot of y'all are taking it way, waaay too far IMHO

I’m not making excuses for him in particular but for all in the tech world. Yes he’s a millionaire and I would hope (and think) that he shares that wealth with his hard working team. That’s way more than most come out with. But unless you or a very loved family member are in IT/tech right now you just cannot understand what they are going through, most aren’t compensated enough to live past paycheck to paycheck for literally 24/7/365 work hours with nothing but angry, impatient customers that want everything done yesterday for something that honestly in the scheme of life is so very unimportant. Just wait patiently and if and when it happens it will. If it doesn’t we paid for as is game just like in olden days. lol!

 

[evergreen oak]

I will be waiting for more patches to consoles, because the work isn't done and there are still many issues left to be addressed. Obviously it goes without saying that the work will be done on their time as they see fit, but I am allowed to hope that it doesn't take them more than half a year like the update itself did- that was ridiculous

I will be waiting for Chocolatier news, and hoping for port announcements. I will not wish that myself and others who don't have access to a gaming-capable PC don't get to enjoy HC at some point down the line, just because it would be more work for CA and his team. This is their chosen profession, not their garage hobby. If a port of HC isn't possible, I totally understand that based on how they struggle to support SdV outside of the PC ecosystem, and it will also be a major disappointment for me and countless others. Hopefully they find a way to include everyone, but we will all just have to wait and see together, I suppose

 

[Grumples]

Personally, I wouldn't blame him if he decided to make Haunted Chocolatier for PC only. You don't have to look any further than the 1.5-1.6 patch releases to understand why. There are just too many consoles out there. Plus mobile. It's just too much of a headache for one guy to deal with. I mean, I suppose he could farm out the patches and ports, but we all know how that works out. And he's the kind of person who takes pride in doing things himself, and I doubt he'd be satisfied with letting others handle his work, and he'd get blamed for problems either way.

I'm not a developer or anything, so I don't know what challenges they're dealing with. I can only assume. It'd be one thing if you could just fix an issue on one console and that fix would work on every other console. But it doesn't seem to work like that. So yes, while I am impatient to a certain degree, I do understand the delays we're seeing.

I think some transparency would go a long way to placate a lot of the more angry vocal people, but not all devs like doing things that way. I'd prefer they take their time and get everything sorted all in one go, rather than 2-3 bugs at a time. But doing that takes time, and if there is no news during that time, people tend to think the worst.

On the plus side, I've been getting through a lot of my Switch backlog while I've been waiting for 1.6 to be released/bug-free.