Kein Patch am Donnerstag - nächste Woche

Hey everyone,

So, I know it's been a bit of continued ruckus here late in May and everyone has been anticipating patch 1.05 just about more than Kane himself appearing at your doorstep, though, if you could get both at the same time, i'm sure that would be amazing. Patch 1.05 has been an enduring process, primarily because it is a massive patch with tons of technical fixes, a myriad of game-changing balance fixes, new UI features like alternate classic C&C mouse-setup, and a competitive multiplayer collection of new maps that are bound for success and popularity amongst the community. I think historically we've been known to do big patches, and while we are trying to move away from such epic patches, it was imperative that patch 1.05 included everything which it has.

To that extent, I know we initially said "later this month", but we have had to test this patch to infinity and beyond to ensure it is 10000% clean, especially because of its size. The last thing we want to do is release a patch that affects your game negatively and does not simply fully enhance it in a 100% technical manner. We were on track to release patch 1.05 in late-May, however, last week we hit some technical snags before the Memorial Day Holiday weekend which set us back a number of business testing days within our QA department. This was not our intent but had we released patch 1.05 with these issues, it would not have been a very positive situation.

Because of this, we are moving the patch 1.05 release to next week. A little producer bird tells me the 1st half of the week is the better case scenario, but as all things go, we'll keep you posted. We feel very confident on release next week. Our QA department is about to sign off (barring the Apolocalypse) and then the patch will be put through the final CQC and ECG approval routes (they are just a final testing gate that any EA game or patch must go through). Standard testing fare as always.

Everyone who has been patient and respectful of the time it has taken to make patch 1.05, I am confident will be very pleased with the ehancements it does to Command & Conquer 3. And those who have been impatient, screaming, raging, I apologize and understand, but I also think, the wait will be worth it. If you need something to make you smile quick and pass the last bit of waiting time, I highly suggest you visit our "Take a Photo of You with C&C 3 Thread":

http://forums.ea.com/mboards/thread.jspa? threadID=225847&tstart=0

Beyond patch 1.05 we are going to aim to move in a direction of smaller patches that take less time to develop. This simply means we will work on creating patches that fine-tune the game from a balance and technical standpoint, but only the most critical enhancements necessary. I think everyone gets caught up in wanting a thousand fixes to their game, when in reality, having a smaller number of fixes that really address the most important issues is what ends up mattering most to the community. That is the direction we want to steer after patch 1.05.

We're committed to releasing quality patches and supporting our RTS community, that is our mantra, our goal, and it is what we will continue to do.

Thanks again for your understanding and patience. We've got a lot more to look forward to after patch 1.05 including the MOD SDK, competitive ladders, Battlecast enhancements, future patches, and more. This is just another stepping stone in to making Command & Conquer 3 as great an RTS experience as possible.

Thanks,
APOC

Smudge: just wanted to chime in and give you another perspective on the 1.05 patch. Apoc has done a fine job outlining the struggle of finaling a patch this large, but I wanted to share my thoughts on this too.

Since we’ve launched C&C3 it has become one of the most popular PC games of the year, and the fastest selling C&C ever. While we’re humbled by our fan’s response to the game, we’ve obviously had more than our fair share of post-release challenges, and we regard the success of the title as only ratcheting up the burden of responsibility that we must bear in supporting the title. The 1.05 patch, being our first major content patch, was always expected to be beefy, but even we didn’t expect it to be quite this large. We are always trying to balance timeliness against “bang for the buck,” but by necessity the first content patch is usually going to be a big one. As Apoc has noted previously, it is our intention to release patches regularly, and I would certainly expect that they will be smaller and more frequent.

I do want to apologize for the patch’s delay. For better or for worse we favor giving you guys the scoop on our patching efforts as our plans are made, but that does mean that when we encounter problems we risk disappointing you. In this case we’ve had a bad run of luck and our able Q/A department has found a number of show- stopping bugs that we have had to fix. Had we rushed this out the door, I’m confident that you guys would be even more unhappy with us. We are working as fast as we can while still ensuring that the patch will be of a high quality, and are in the home stretch. I don’t think we know the exact date of release, but it will be quite soon.

Great games require great support, and we have a lot of stuff in the hopper. The Mod SDK has been in development for quite some time and is looking good. Our plans for a quick 1.06 follow-up patch are starting to take shape, and then we’ve got some stuff coming in July that I think is really going to rock your world.

There can be a tendency amongst the cynics to think of EA as the huge, monolithic Borg, with boundless resources and insatiable greed. This is not the EA I work for. Our teams are autonomous, largely responsible for our own community engagement, and composed of gamers – real people, just like yourself – who are passionate about playing and making great games. We make mistakes just like everyone else, but at the end of the day we make our games for you and won’t be happy until you’re satisfied.

- Smudge

To each their own on the assertion of what you feel, but we are just making sure that when we update its concrete and as helpful to your understanding and our confidence as possible.

Its really nothing less or more, we're just trying to keep a level head and an honest approach.

-APOC