29 réponses à ce sujet

[Rob Bartel]

Hi everyone,

Last week I made the following post in RaenImrahl's very helpful Solutions Roundup thread:

Thanks for the excellent and exhaustive list, RaenImrahl. As you rightly point out, a lot of this information is out-of-date and unofficial.

Solutions exist for 99% of the problems that PC users are experiencing and we need to do a better job of communicating those in a clear, concise, and official fashion.

For the 1% of critical blocking issues for which there are no solutions, we need to do a better job of identifying those and then working with users to find solutions that will get them unstuck. If that requires further code changes and patches, so be it.

This is going to be a long-term process and we aren't going to be able to solve everything overnight. We're going to ask that you be patient and bear with us. I'll start with some fresh documentation surrounding some of the core issues expressed in this thread and will attempt to post that next week. From there, we'll set up some threads to identify who is still experiencing major road blocks and we'll iterate from there.

I know this may seem like too little, too late but I'm here now and will do my best to help.

Here's an update on what's currently underway...

First of all, we've started on a patch to address some of the outstanding issues people are still experiencing with authentication, in particular. There's some fairly complicated and tightly interwoven code in there that interacts on a fairly deep level both with the game and with EA systems. We're in the very early investigative stages so please don't expect a new patch to be released anytime soon but I wanted you to know that this work was now underway.

In the meantime, I'm also trying to consolidate the various threads, tips, and pointers that RaenImrahl's been gathering into a clear, central, and official Technical FAQ. A lot of these issues are ones that have only occurred in the wild and we've never been able to reproduce internally. As a result, it can be particularly challenging for us to provide clear and comprehensive solutions or workarounds but we're going to do everything we can.

To be clear, this is an issue that we're taking very seriously and are applying significant resources to. Our senior online programmer is heading up the patch effort, for example. As for myself, I'm a senior producer on the Dragon Age Operations team and have a 13-year background with BioWare, dating back to the original Baldur's Gate and lead design on Neverwinter Nights. Fernando Melo, who you've also seen present on the forums, is the head of the Dragon Age online group.

Lastly, I wanted to turn the question over to all of you. What are some simple and pragmatic things that we can do here at BioWare that will actually be of real assistance to those of you who are experiencing critical problems with our games? What would you like to see me doing to help? Please use this thread to help brainstorm and discuss some constructive solutions that could be applied.

Thanks,
Rob

[Luke Barrett]

Hey, everyone. Just wanted to chime in and say that I'll be taking charge of relaying all these issue on to design/programming in order to get this patch rolling. Now, admittedly I have much more experience with DA2 mechanics than DAO so I apologize in advance if I ask anything really dumb

Modifié par Luke Barrett, 20 avril 2011 - 11:08 .

[Luke Barrett]

RaenImrahl wrote...

Rob,

Thanks for the update.  On the subject of replicating errors, I'm curious about the hardware specs and OS information of the machines Bioware uses for its testing of DAO.  I think some of the issues you refer to above, the ones that are very hard to reproduce, seem to be very machine-specific.  For example, some of us with Win 7 64-bit machines almost never encounter crashes, while it seems others do-- extensively.  Perhaps at some point (I don't think this is urgent), you'd be kind enough to post some of your test machine specs... maybe comparing specifics, we can see a pattern?  Just a thought.

Our in studio hardware is somewhat limited compared to the enumerable combinations of PC setups these days. We've got access to compatability labs that pretty much have everything but that obviously takes longer to test and requires very specific instructions on how to produce the issue.

The majority of us test on win7 x64 but whenever we see hardware issue we contact users to get config info and then attempt to replicate those specs.

Modifié par Luke Barrett, 20 avril 2011 - 11:24 .

[Rob Bartel]

Thanks everyone. Luke Barrett from our QA team will be parsing through this list, following up with some of you for more detail, and filing individual bugs on these issues. What I'm hearing, however, is that there are three primary categories of concern - authentication, crashes, and character profiles. Beyond that, there are also a range of issues with the actual game content and then, beyond that, some further issues with the toolset. For now we'll do our best capture the data and get the bugs filed so they can be tracked and assessed in a more thorough manner. Once we have a handle on the overall scope, I'll start making some judgment calls as to what we can properly address and what we can't. We won't be able to fix everything, of course, but I'm going to try to ensure that the major sources of pain are getting addressed and that DAO PC is on firmer footing for the future.

Also, I've invited RaenImrahl to become a tech support moderator on these forums and he's graciously agreed. It'll take a little while for him to tackle the paperwork and emerge out of his chrysalis with his new BioMod powers intact but I'm sure you'll be there to welcome him when he does.

A big thanks to all of you for your continued patience. We're trying to be as transparent as possible in this process but, as a result, it will likely seem like a much longer wait before you're seeing tangible results. Your help and support in these threads is definitely appreciated.

[Luke Barrett]

So far here is what I've got written down and PLEASE correct me if any of these things no longer apply as I'm going entirely off community feedback:

PC:

- [69380] 64bit Windows 7 CTD issues
- [69381] Combat delay/lag (not framerate issues)
- [69449] Memory Leak issues
DAO:

- [69382] Ancient Elven Armor Boots are supposed to show up in the closet in the Lothering Chantry, but they don't. It's a PC only bug.
- [69383] 'Zombie fight' during Redcliffe Night doesn't fire in rare cases
- [69442] some properties not working on weapons/armor/etc? "weakens nearby darkspawn", "messy kills", "increases hostility and intimidation", "monetary gain", "healing received" ?
- various plotflag errors
- various conversation errors
(big thanks to Ejoslin who provided me with a very indepth list of both of these things)
- [69490] Rogue's 'Find Vitals' isn't working
- [69491] Warrior's 'Shattering Blows' isn't working
- [69486] Crossbows not gaining any benefit from attributes
- [69493] Haste and Swift Salve work in reverse on ranged attacks
- [69488] Shale's 'Rock Barrage' isn't working
- [71541] Quest 'Jowans Intention' is not working
DAO UE:

- [69451] achievement consistancy across locations
- [69384] autologin always has a "please try again" error, requiring you to re-enter your password
- [69386] can't upload characters/screenshots to BSN
DAA:

- [69389] If you don't allow Amaranthine to be destroyed companions who stayed at Vigil's Keep will be marked as dead in codex, even if they survived according to epilogue.
- [69485] Sigrun's Joining Issues
- [69390] If you have started or completed 'Law and Order', you cannot initiate Sigrun's Roguish Past
- [69483] Velanna's Joining Issues
- [69391] Silverite Mine stealing character's equipment indefinitely
- [69392] Dworkin takes all three Lyrium sands and only counts as one for 'Bombs Away!' quest
- [69422] Templar's Heraldry turns in to Redcliffe Heraldry when used
- [69423] Legion of Dead heraldry gives +20 all stats
- [69424] Rogue Warden is unable to detect traps (really?)
- [69439] barrier rune tracing cannot be purchased
- [69438] the vs.creature type runes are flagged as armor instead of weapon
- [69453] Anders' gift only gives one approval point
- [69425] If you use [Esc] to stop the ending, then you read the epilogue, you get a bug that causes the "killing the Mother" cutscene to play on an infinite loop after the credits.
- [69427] Chose to execute the Darkspawn that helped save Ameranthine, yet he is shown as alive in the end credits helping others
- [69428] Even after the Warden speaks to each of the three leading figures after their taking back of Vigil's Keep, the quest 'The Awakening' does not register that Mistress Woolsey has been spoken to.
- [69429] In Rumblings from Beneath: Despite Kendrick saying he owes you a reward, and the journal reporting that he did so the quest actually gives you no reward
- [69431] In Rumblings from Beneath: Despite both quests giving you access to the hatch in the Crown and Lion, this quest is only obtainable after you finish Smuggler's Run. If you complete Law and Order this quest will be unobtainable
- [69435] Oghren's gift ratings are wrong when importing from DAO
- [69453b] Velanna's Elven Trinket approval ratings are wrong
- [69437] Manual of Focus is awarding additional skill points for imported characters
- [69448] Random Encounter map issues
- [69447] Random encounters not firing easily
- [71511] When choosing to kill the Qunari merchant "Armaas" in the Silverite Mines, he still shows up erroneously at Vigil's Keep later in the game.


There are a few other things that are issues but most of them have easy work arounds such as a quick save/load. As for anything with model/art changes: afaik these will not be getting fixed (I'll double check but that was my understanding) 

Modifié par Luke Barrett, 02 mai 2011 - 04:18 .

[Luke Barrett]

[updated the list] I think that's a website issue but I'll look in to it.

[Rob Bartel]

Jean-Funk Van Damme wrote...

If all those are getting fixed, it'll be a great day for all DA1 users ../../../images/forum/emoticons/wink.png

Yes, and to be clear, this is simply a list of issues we have on file, not a list of promised fixes. We still need to assess and investigate all of these, identify and implement potential fixes, and then test and verify any resulting changes.

This list is a very important first step, however, and we appreciate all of the help you've been providing. I know Luke has already been pinging some of you for more information about your specific issues. Save games, install logs, and config tool reports are a big help when it comes to tracking down some of the more elusive issues so please have those prepared and make them available where appropriate.

Another thing that would help is if you could verify the issues you're reporting with all community-created mods temporarily removed. Mods are great and most of them are perfectly safe but they are officially unsupported, out of our control, and can result in a range of issues that may be getting mis-reported as bugs in the game itself. As an example, on DA2, various users were reporting corrupted map interfaces after installing our recently released patch and it turned out to be tied to interference from a community created mod that added new icons to the dialog wheel. I doubt there are very many cases of this remaining on DAO but it's extremely helpful to us if you can rule that out in advance.

Thank you for your continued help and patience,
Rob

[Luke Barrett]

Akolonus wrote...
If this is indeed directed at the memory leak(or CPU) issue, then sure, it does fix it temporarily but should a consumer really have to reload their game every 30-60 minutes to have their product working to a satisfactory standard?

No, it wasn't. I actually did put that on the list at some point but it somehow disappeared - it's back now, sorry for the confusion.

Anyways, SAVE/LOAD is a term that refers basically to just loading the area again in most cases. If it required a full restart of the client I would specify that.

Modifié par Luke Barrett, 27 avril 2011 - 03:45 .

[Luke Barrett]

Just for clarification, for the Runes issues, is it just that certain vs. enemy type runes arent working?

"Bug! There is a bug with runes vs. creature type (Cold Iron, Silverite) and passive resistance (Dweomer, Hale) Masterpiece and Paragon tier weapon runes. They are erroneously flagged as Armor Runes in Dragon Age: Awakening. Cold Iron and Silverite do not trigger either with melee or ranged weapons when inserted into armor slots. However, both Dweomer and Hale grant the resistance bonuses normally. "

or are there other issues in DAA+ with runes that I need to be aware of.

[Luke Barrett]

Jean-Funk Van Damme wrote...

Luke Barrett wrote...

or are there other issues in DAA+ with runes that I need to be aware of.

Yes. dragonage.wikia.com/wiki/Novice_Barrier_Rune

Barrier rune tracings can't be bought in vanilla DAA.

Awesome, thanks. Im thinking I'll have all these issues filed by the end of the week and we'll be able to start working on solutions after that. Hopefully we can get a good chunk of these remedied, obviously it may not be feasible to do them all but I'll at least try to push that idea

[Luke Barrett]

Elath Huskeh wrote...

I wanted to ask if you're going to look into codes issues for Dragon Age: Awakening. The main one is with Arlessa Isolde and Connor quest (in codex it states that both/one of them died when you tried to save them -> http://dragonage.wik.../Arlessa_Isolde )
Another one would be with post campaign save for Awakening. It's causing a lot of trouble because you have to destroy Amaranthine or otherwise companions who stayed at Vigil's Keep will be marked as dead in codex, even if they survived according to epilogue.

I know it have little involvement with DA2 but wanted to start it with clear and "shiny" story as I wanted it to be... or is there any editor avilable that could allow me to change entries in my save? Would be grateful.

That issue with the post campaign saves I'm going to push as being critical as it currently has ramifications in DA2 with Nathaniel. As for the other one, is it just the codex entry that is wrong or is there actually a plotflag that is getting set incorrectly?

[Luke Barrett]

In case anyone is wondering, I'm adding tracking numbers to each issue as I file them to make it easier to get additional information on each one later should we need it.

(please dont read too much in to the number order or if certain ones dont have a number at all, it doesnt necessarily mean I didnt file them)

[Luke Barrett]

Alright so I've got the list (http://social.biowar...37421/3#7215629) done for now and entered in to our system. I put the issue # at the start of each bug for easy reference point when sending me files and what not.

So, for now I just need output from the config tool for anyone having CTDs in Win7 x64 [69380] as well as those having the combat lag (not FPS issues) [69381]. To generate this file you need to use the Launcher and click the 'Configure' option (before hitting Play) this will load the config tool; simply select File > Save to generate an .xml wherever you want to save it. If you have this file for me, send me a PM and ill give you an email to send it to.

I'll get to anything else that we need as it comes up.

Modifié par Luke Barrett, 29 avril 2011 - 05:47 .

[Luke Barrett]

I'll add the additional bugs tomorrow when I'm in the office. As an update, I've gotten about 6 config files from users for the crash to desktop issues (thanks!) but I have yet to get any for the combat lag issue; if this is happening to you, please send me a PM, it helps a lot.

Again, I'd like to stress that while we'll be taking a look at all these issues that not all of them will be addressed. Now, I know most of these have community made mods/fixes and I think I'd like to possibly try to catalog any outstanding issues we don't fix and package all those 'unofficial fixes' together for ease of use for the community. Just a thought

Modifié par Luke Barrett, 02 mai 2011 - 05:52 .

[Rob Bartel]

Hi everyone. We definitely hear and understand your frustration. Rightly or wrongly, we had been heavily focused on the DA2 patch cycle and had not been planning on a 1.05 patch for DAO until our server outage highlighted that not all was working as intended on the game. We've pulled some targeted resources off of DA2 in order to address these issues and have what we believe to be a final PC 1.05 patch candidate currently in beta testing. Our primary goal with Patch 1.05 is to address the various DLC authentication issues that people are experiencing. We also have a CD-Key hotfix in beta testing to correct a Windows Registry issue in the EADM install of Ultimate Edition.

If you would like to assist us with beta testing either or both of these fixes, please contact Luke Barrett (BioWare QA) or RaenImrahl (Tech Support Forum Moderator). If you prefer to wait for the final version, please be patient. As I warned at the beginning, this is a lengthy process but work is well underway and we're nearing the end. I apologize for not being more present on these forums recently but there hasn't been a lot of additional news to report.

Thanks,
Rob

[Rob Bartel]

Hi Kastagir,

Thanks for the question. We filed bugs on all of the issues reported in the thread and coming to us through our Customer Service team. We then prioritized them based on a variety of factors. By far, the most common and critical issues being reported centered around DLC authentication. As part of our investigations into those issues we also identified a critical CD-Key issue with the EADM version of the Ultimate Edition. So, at this time, we're focusing our key patch 1.05 efforts on addressing those critical concerns. The fixes haven't been easy but they are coming. Those of you affected by DLC authentication issues are encouraged to join the beta group so we can confirm that the patch works as intended and gets you up and running as soon as possible.

Once again, thanks to all of you for your patience,
Rob

[Rob Bartel]

Wil SilverHeart wrote...

Hi T.N. I read and understand what you are saying and I some-what agree, however what about the new fans that are buying for the first time? Do you think it is fair that they spend this money for a product that in essance is supposed to be playable when you install it.

Correct, and that is what we are currently focusing on - ensuring that the game and DLC are playable once installed. Yes, there are other issues and we've logged them for future reference. Right now, however, these DLC authentication issues are the mountain we need to climb.

Thanks,
Rob

[Rob Bartel]

As RaenImrahl points out, the system is not functioning as intended. Some of these DLC authentication issues run deep and were leading to some nasty memory overruns and file corruption issues. The server outage really highlighted some of that unintended behavior. We don't have all of the details yet and are continuing to test but we believe that some of these other programming-related issues that people have been reported are actually stemming from this symptomatic file corruption.

Needless to say, we aren't happy with the authentication system on DAO and chose to rewrite the bulk of it for DA2, despite the project's aggressive timeline. You'll note that when the servers went out, DA2 authentication was largely unaffected - it was relying on the same servers but failed far more gracefully thanks to that rewrite (we did lose some of our access to DA2 crash reports during that period but that thankfully didn't impact our users directly). While we unfortunately can't just port the DA2 code back into DAO, we are applying some of what we learned from DA2 to make this fix.

I was hoping to have the initial DAO beta patch out to the beta group in time for this weekend but we're still finding some lingering corruption issues that we want to make sure we understand and correct before handing it over to you. Rest assured that we're continuing to make progress behind the scenes and I look forward to getting these fixes out to everyone as soon as they're ready.

Hold steady,
Rob

Modifié par Rob Bartel, 27 mai 2011 - 11:26 .

[Rob Bartel]

SLAYEROO wrote...

What i get from Mr.Moderator is that bioware will only fix the DLC issues and only that... so much for that big list a bioware employee made on one of the earlier pages and said they will fix as many as they can. Turns out only one thing will be fixed.

We're proceeding in priority order. The DLC authentication issues are both critical and complex so it's important that we focus there first. Once that's resolved to our satisfaction, we'll make a further decision as to how we ought to proceed with the remaining issues that we're now tracking.

The big list you're referring to was critical in helping us get a handle on the issues still being experienced in the wild. We filed bugs based on everything reported in that list, both large and small, and have been using that list to assign priorities. Now they've been filed, those issues will continue to be tracked within our system and we'll continue to reference them moving forward.

I understand your disappointment that, at this time, we may not be addressing the specific issues that you have reported or that you care most about. The harsh reality, however, is that there are people who have paid for their DLC or Ultimate Edition and are fundamentally unable to play it or who are being forced to log in every single time for a purely single-player game. I'm sorry but that's unacceptable and absolutely has to take priority over the other issues that have been reported.

Thanks,
Rob

[Rob Bartel]

Again, if anyone wants to take part in the beta test of Patch 1.05 on PC, please say so. The broader the range of machines and user experiences we have, the better we can assist.

Thanks,
Rob

[Rob Bartel]

We're expecting the 1.05 beta to begin in earnest today or tomorrow - sorry for the delay but we caught a last-minute issue that also explains why some Ultimate users who attempt to re-apply the 1.04 patch (which is already included in Ultimate) are suddenly informed that they need to re-install the game. We made some course corrections and, thankfully, that situation will not be recurring with 1.05.

We're doing a final pass of internal testing just to make sure that the beta isn't unleashing any new evils upon the world and then we'll roll it out to the beta group so we can see how it behaves in the wild and make any further adjustments there.

Thanks,
Rob

[Rob Bartel]

Thanks, Sami. I've got it and will pass it on.

[Rob Bartel]

Rob Bartel wrote...

We're expecting the 1.05 beta to begin in earnest today or tomorrow - sorry for the delay but we caught a last-minute issue that also explains why some Ultimate users who attempt to re-apply the 1.04 patch (which is already included in Ultimate) are suddenly informed that they need to re-install the game. We made some course corrections and, thankfully, that situation will not be recurring with 1.05.

We're doing a final pass of internal testing just to make sure that the beta isn't unleashing any new evils upon the world and then we'll roll it out to the beta group so we can see how it behaves in the wild and make any further adjustments there.

Thanks,
Rob

We unfortunately needed to divert resources away from this yesterdayto assist with the DA2 PC patch launch and today to address a critical failure with one of our internal build processes. There's a slim chance it might still go out to the beta group today but, if we don't have it ready by 1pm Edmonton time, I'm going to push it Monday.

Sorry for continuing to miss the date on this, everyone. This is why, under normal circumstances, we tend to avoid discussion of dates until we're 100% certain. These are not normal circumstances, however, so I'll continue to be as transparent as possible, even when it means disappointments such as these.

Thanks for your continued patience,
Rob

[Rob Bartel]

Rob Bartel wrote...

There's a slim chance it might still go out to the beta group today but, if we don't have it ready by 1pm Edmonton time, I'm going to push it Monday.

Scratch that - we've decided to proceed with the beta launch today with a known caveat. More info is available in the beta group for those of you taking part.

Thanks again and enjoy your weekend,
Rob

[Rob Bartel]

Brent, can you provide some more information about what you're experiencing?

Thanks,
Rob