1.0.3 Status?

#1 Odd... after the GG site's face lift my CSK download link gives me access to a file named CombatStarterKit_1_0_1.zip so we've either regressed or it has been mis-named and should be CombatStarterKit_1_0_3.zip

Going to open it and see what's what....

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Cursory inspection shows newer file dates with some from last week which suggests that QA beat on it a bit then passed it. Runtime appears to approximately the same after a quick play test.

Perhaps there is a readme.txt somewhere that indicates version number?

Anyway, hope that helps. Let me know what you find.

#2 I diffed the two folders and unfortunately it looks like we've regressed given that there is less source art in the 1.0.1 package i.e. no helicopter or avatar folders. Other than that it looks there is a bug fix in guiVehicleGaugeCtrl.cc from 1.0.1 to 1.0.2. Sound familiar?

#3 sounds like the reverse altimeter/horizon gauge fix... that my version of 1.0.2 didnt have fixed.

#4 ... but then why is there less source art? Where is the Harrier VTOL? Strange ...

I've contacted GG staff and they're following up with the third-party contract coordinator. Hopefully, we'll all have more news soon.

#5 Ashley... any news for us?

#6 Yes please, we need some updates. Getting a little fidgety here, money already spent...product not delivered.

Has 1.03 even been released (mentioned above) ?

Thanks

#7 this is getting to be too much, I really hope this was not a waste of money

#8 No 1.03 yet, Just waiting for ashley to tell us it has been uploaded to GG.

#9 Keep us Up-to-Date Ashley, This is becoming a real problem.

Quote:this is getting to be too much, I really hope this was not a waste of money

P.S. I Can Agree

#10 Surely there has been some progress...

#11 Hi, any news about 1.03 ?

#12 Okay, now this is really not good business, and for the one that said it was not a complete thing, well I know that but youd expect the stuff that was listed on the purchase page to be there, half of it is not.I have learned a valuable lesson purchasing this pack, and that lesson is that you should not buy something from a dev who's forums is not available publiclly. Flame all you want,but there is no denying the fact that we are left with our ***** in our hand while the dev of this product has our money. Almost like one of those cheap webhosts that promise unlimited web hosting,they get your money and run.

#13 Can we get an Admin to recognize our problem here.

Ashley what is going on here, should we be prepared for a new update with our long missing SourceArt or should i find out if this is false advertisement?

#14 Ashley,
As your products consumer i would have to say that this bullshit you keep pulling on us, if we would have had what was promised this product could have possibly lived on to be so much more, but instead you have released an incomplete product... there was no prior-indication of this because of forum restrictions and the sales page boasts full source included in which none of us have recieved and what little source that was included was DOA(so much source was not included or corrupt that i have not successfully exported a single model from the csk).

I cannot even imagine what i would be thinking if i bought this at the time of the release date.

#15 Can we still do reviews of products ? This really is a bunch of crap. GG really needs to start screening people a lot better. Now we are out 100 bucks and time. May this teach a lesson to all who read this. CSMP I am sorry to you also because you was one of the ones who really helped me with stuff.

Ashely please do not release something unless you are going to go through with it. I should have saved my 100 and put the stuff in together from the resources.

#16 Yeah it would be nice to be able to still review products in the store with the current website. I would love to see the poor reviews the CSK would recieve.

At first I though the Kit was an excellent purchase but over time I've come to feel otherwise. The apparent lack of commitment for support for the kit from DreamGames is troublesome to say the least. Promised updates and even the promised forum support by one of the developers have continually failed to be seen.

The kit is great, if you use it as is. Lack of documentation and "proper" source art makes it almost useless if you desire to make changes. After comparing the changes by the developers to the actual resources used in the kit, I soon discarded the kit and it's supposed "reworking and compatibilty fixes" of the resources in favor of the actual resources themselves which have a greater chance of "support" by the community itself.

Just how difficult and time consuming is it to package up the advertised and promised source art and deliver it to the kit owners?

I asked this question back in August, August 15 2008.

2 days later, August 17, Ashley Kelley said:

Quote:I will try to have a new build with the source art by the end of the week.

2 weeks later, August 27, Ashley Kelley said:

Quote:We need a couple more days... we will make a version update in the next few days to include the promised source art.

A month later, September 17, Dave Young said:

Quote:A quick update, we have stabilized several of the bugs but am still goofing on the Vista sound lockup.

If we can't find it by the end of this month we will put out an update regardless.

Another month later, October 14, Ashley Kelley said:

Quote:Putting it together now

Nearly a month and a half later, December 02, Dave Young said:

Quote:We're just days away, although the team got sidetracked I spoke with Ash today and she is trying to round up the sources for upload.

...and finally, December 03, Ashley Kelley said:

Quote:1.02 has the artificial horizon and compass fixed. (they were both backwards in the origional release). Dave made to corrections to the engine reguarding the area impulse lock ups. The source was added for helicopters and players.

And for what did we wait? The only "fix" was for the artificial horizon compass (a one line change), there were no area impulse lock up fixes, and everytime that I've downloaded the update and attempted to modify the source for the one helicopter and the one player model both have refused to export, in fact the player will not even import correctly. Not to mention problems with some of the already existing source art.

Then there was talk about another update to include more/improved source art, fixes, and features.
December 03, Ashley Kelley said:

Quote:Think Christmas for the 1.03 version.

Three months later and nothing has yet materialized! And this is on top of the four months taken to partially address the original question - a total of 7 months in all. Do I even have to point the inconsistencies in the quotes above? I have never been able to gain access to the DreamGames forums, and I tried signing up three times! Their support of any of their products and their community in general has been practically non-existent for a year now, in fact anything related to DreamGames (their website, Torque School, their product store, etc) seems to be on hiatus.

And over all of this time, more and more people have expressed discontent with this product and it's support. There have been many new users who've mentioned problems with the "faulty" source art. Yet none of these concerns have been addressed. I can't help but feel that we were sold an incomplete product despite all of the "QA", especially in view of the advertising and the promises made in blogs by the developer(s) in question.

I think that these are all indications of very poor product & business management, with a distinct and apparent lack of commitment to their product(s) in general. I for one will not be purchasing anything further associated with DreamGames. In fact I feel I should discourage others in the future from trusting DreamGames, especially with this kind of run-around and what seems to be "take your money & run" treatment.

#17 You're right in many ways Michael. The CSK dev team disbanded and so have our projects in general. It has taken a ridiculously long time to get the art update even, but that, at least is finally been sent to me for review today. If there are code changes I will need to put up the entire new build, otherwise I'll put up the art files which were included.

DreamGames hasn't been actively staffed for quite some time now and the site etc is there really for the remaining community's sake. I thought some of the CSK dev team would be in here providing support but it looks like that hasn't happened at all regularly and I apologize.

It's doubly embarrassing because that is something I get steamed up on for products I buy myself. If I had known what was going in the forum next door I would've been here sooner, I thought this was taken care of long ago.

#18

Quote:It has taken a ridiculously long time to get the art update even, but that, at least is finally been sent to me for review today. If there are code changes I will need to put up the entire new build, otherwise I'll put up the art files which were included.

Forgive me for saying this, but I won't hold my breath. We have been told this stuff before and to be frank about it, I am tired of the fiasco. So if you release something, you release somthing. If you don't, well you don't. I honestly do not care either way. The damage has already been done as far as i am concerned.

#19 Thank you for the update Dave. As a fellow indie, I can empathize with your situation.

It's unfortunate that Dream Games is getting less active, developer-wise. The Combat Kit was a great idea to help get many of us off the ground in our development.

I do have one request. There is a bug with the vehicles that causes the game and server to crash. Unfortunately, I have had a tough time figuring this out myself, and the TGE stock vehicle code has been modified beyond my understanding.

Whenever a vehicle explodes under certain conditions (like when being destroyed underwater), the application reports a fatal error. This happens most often with the HGT, but also happens with the other vehicles. This is with the stock CSK, with no changes.

If you have any idea why this occurs I (we) would love to know. I would imagine it has to do with the impulses that were disabled in the scripts. Any kind of tip in the right direction would help, and I'm sure one of us GG'ers can help solve it with the right information.

Many thanks and good luck in your future endeavors.
-JP

#20 I'm pretty good at troubleshooting engine level crashes. If you can give me some solid steps to reproduce it I can spend some time on it next week. I am cramming for an iPhone app release date at work and can't stray right now, but after Monday I can get into it.