7 months to prevent cheats?

[endorphin]

First off, unlike some other threads, I do not think its a huge conspiracy and VALVe leaked the source.

Also note that there are alot of unconfirmed info I'm basing this off, but thats what this forum is all about right? =)

However, what pisses me off is that this gives VALVe an oppertunity to delay the game alot, without being blamed.
I don't know exactly whats in the source, I'm no programmer and I havent got (or tried to get) the source.
It's seems reasonable that the graphics engine and the physics engine ( 2 parts of the source that has been confirmed, right?) is a big part of the source, maybe half?
I don't know, but say it is, and apparantly 1/3 of the complete source was leaked (I heard this here, might be wrong), say the parts that a hacker would look into for making cheats are the other half of the code, that makes this code 16.67% of the code.
For me, it seems unlikely that it would take 7 months (october - april) to recode 1/6 of the code enough to prevent cheats (since apparantly, the game was done in september "the game is done, we're now playtesting" so the coders should be able to concentrate on this).

My point being, is the april 2004 delay really so much based on the stolen code, or is it other stuff, and the theft is being blamed (to make people feel sorry for VALVe and others envolved in the making of HL2 instead of blaming them)?

 

[Saltpeter]

Didn't know it was delayed.

 

[endorphin]

Saltpeter, not official statement by any VALVe personel, so once again, unconfirmed info, but I based it all what I thought was likely, and the delay seemed likely since alot of pages has gotten this information.

 

[JohnnyBeverage]

While it is not confirmed would it really surprise you?

 

[Pressure]

They just posted not long ago the date was still set for "Holiday 2003."

 

[dawdler]

First, the delay is not confirmed.

Secondly, its still a financially impossible situation of such delay. A beta is out, so much is certain. How done where valve? They should have been almost completely done. Meaning we have a 95% (at least) complete beta out there (at the moment I dont beleive in the 1/3rd thing, though I like to think its true). The source wont mysteriously dissapear or be forgotten, its also out there. The launching of it, the ATI deal, the 9800XT as the ultimate HL2 cards, everything leads to one thing: A delay is not an option. But that's just my view on it, doubt its Valves...

 

[T.N.T. Toulouse]

Seems like Valve & Vivendi would rather have your (and my) money sooner rather than later. I'm sure they'd rather not delay at all, but if they have to in order to fix major bugs, or stop cheats that could happen due to the stolen source code, I think it's to their credit that they're taking the financial hit to make things solid or secure (whichever) for us gamers.

 

[Wasserstoff]

why dont they release only the sp version? the mp part can be released in april or whenever but the rest...

 

[DiSTuRbEd]

Originally posted by Wasserstoff
why dont they release only the sp version? the mp part can be released in april or whenever but the rest...

That would be stupid. If they don't release for holiday seasons, VALVe might be done with Vivendi IMO, I think there projected profit was like 55 million dollars for the game or around there, now they will get nothing. TBH they should just change server authentication and cdkey system and other things, then just release it, and patch every once in awhile.

 

[Kadayi]

I love the conspiracy theories. Me imagines scene in valve offices:-

Doug Lombardi rushes into Gabes office panting hard whilst Gabe is feverishly previewing his outlook mail

'Bad news gabe........turns out we got the predicted dates wrong for release, it's not 30th sept 2003 after all it's 30th september 2004!! that idiot temp Romero messed up the diary system good and proper, don't worry I fired his lamer ass for this one'

Gabe 'Well shit me a canoe, we are going to be the laughing stock of the world when this breaks out, and the fan base are going to hit the roof (let alone ATI), we need a plan and fast!!'

Ten minutes of deep thought later

Gabe chewing on a donut 'Brilliant idea Doug, well release a junked version of the game that we've spent 5 years developing onto the net and let every hacker and game developer this side of mars pilfer our investment, that should get us not only the sympathy of the playerbase, but also allow us to bump the release. Firstly we will say April, and then when april hits we bump it to September, who cares if our profit margins go through the floor, at least we save some face'

Doug 'You think it will work?'

Gabe 'Its a plan thats for sure'

Doug' Sweet, got any more donuts?'

 

[endorphin]

I don't know if thats what you think Kadayi, but I didn't mean I think they leaked it to get more time, but I think they're blaming the delay on the leak, instead of other stuff.

 

[budgie55]

Interesting that Vivendi have just accepted a merger with NBC.

More info on http://money.cnn.com/2003/10/08/news/international/nbc_vivendi.reut/index.htm

Should help Vivendi Universal set off some of their huge losses. What impact it will have on HL2 is anyones guess

 

[vacs]

Originally posted by Wasserstoff
why dont they release only the sp version?

very easy... because HL2 is not nearly finished! Valve has been spreading lies about HL2 since it was first announced beginning of the year. They could never ever have released HL2 on the 30th September (neither SP nor MP) since they still far away from completing the game content and fixing all the bugs.

As the beta leaker confirmed, he stole EVERYTHING by mid September which valve had finished at that time. And that "everything" really didn't look like a ready to ship game. Forget about HL2 being released this year. It won't happen!

End Q1/Beginning Q2 2004 at the earliest...

 

[Kadayi]

OK Vacs, why exactly would Valve state a date that they never had any hope of achieving? Whats the motive ? And lets discount pissing the community HL2 off (which didn't even exist prior to the games announcement.......theres a clear paradox in there somewhere ). The truth is there exists no logical motive for them to lie to people or anounce a date that they didn't believe they could achieve.

The way I read it from what I've seen of the E3 Stuff and the news it's pretty clear that by the time Valve announced the Game at E3 they were pretty much in the refinement and polishing stage with the product (lets not forget they've already spent 4 years on it at this point) the storyline was complete, the game engine was complete (if it wasn't I doubt troika would be developing Vampire the masquerade bloodlines with it ETA Q1 2004). So pretty much all that remained for them to concentrate on was optimising the code for single and multiplayer and polishing the game up through play testing.

For sure I'd imagine the issues with Steam probably resulted in an extension of the 30th of September deadline, but certainly not to the extent that has been announced post hackage. People make a big deal about steam and it's capabilities, but frankly the the issues it brings up are small potatoes in comparision to server side demands the persistent online activities of some of the bigger MMPORPGs games like lineage or SWG.

As for what hackers say, and what hackers do, trust me there exists a world of delusion between. I've experience in this respect having dealt with a few in my time. There are some intensely smart cookies out there, but there are also a hell of a lot of halfwit hangers on who talk big, but can't deliver on their promises.

 

[Someone]

Originally posted by Kadayi Polokov
OK Vacs, why exactly would Valve state a date that they never had any hope of achieving? Whats the motive ? And lets discount pissing the community HL2 off (which didn't even exist prior to the games announcement.......theres a clear paradox in there somewhere ). The truth is there exists no logical motive for them to lie to people or anounce a date that they didn't believe they could achieve.

Agreed....pretty much my exact opinion. And all this is the reason why I don't buy the fragmaster prediction as being truthful. It just doesn't add up. They make a game in secret for 4+ years, come out and annouce a date they can't make....makes zero sense.

Since the game was hidden they had no need to pull a date out of their ass like that; they would have surely picked a date they could make. Especially considering how late Half Life 1 was...they didn't want to repeat that.


That leaves things like Steam, Nvidia, VU, perhaps the hacker (although Gabe denied this), and maybe some bugs that popped up late in the process, but I highly doubt they would be earth shattering at that point.

I second the steam issue at this point, though. They were overwhelmed when it came out of beta, and was late at that point, and it also never quite worked right only weeks before the supposed release of the game.

 

[Someone]

Originally posted by vacs
As the beta leaker confirmed, he stole EVERYTHING by mid September which valve had finished at that time. And that "everything" really didn't look like a ready to ship game. Forget about HL2 being released this year. It won't happen!

As for the hacker stealing "everything" and therefore knowing the game wasn't complete...well how would he know what "everything" was? He took a build from Gabe, that's it, that doesn't mean Gabe had the entire game on his computer.

 

[ReadingTooDeep]

Read my name please.

 

[Kadayi]

Someone

The steam problems generally stemmed from an underestimation regarding the number of servers they needed more than anything. After that it comes down to optimising the code, but the only way to do that is to load it heavily, pinpoint the problems and patch, patch, patch. Even running a beta it's simply impossible to uncover everything or optimise fully, betas are simply there to bring the show stopper bugs to light.

 

[Mcn@sty]

ROFL Kadayi Polokov

Shit me a canoe, HAHAHAAH. Thats classic.

Man if they do delay this game till April thats like more than half a year away. Thats CRAZY. Won't doom 3 be out by then ? Rather release b4 d3 and get some more sales.

 

[Kadayi]

TBH Doom 3 looks like it has a great cinematic engine which will no doubt earn ID a few million from the licencing, but a mediocre gaming experience at best.

 

[rage_fan]

the way i figure, the longer they delay it, the more time they have to add in more features, make existing features work or look better, and get the game even more polished. As far as gameplay goes, nothing negative can come of this delay.

Now of course Valve is going to be spending a lot of time changing the leaked code, but not every Valve employee will be doing this. So I think we'll be coming out with a better looking and feeling release than if HL2 had met its original release date.

 

[-JeZ-]

The thing that makes the least sense out of all of this is that if HL2 is released in April next year, VtMB (Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines) will be out before it. Theirfor instead of VALVe showcasing their Source engine to the world, a third party liscensee will be the one to unleash it. That simply does not make any sense. Anyone else agree?

 

[Kadayi]

Well I'm sure that as a result of this troika will probably have to delay V:TMB, though it probably depends upon exactly how much they have utilized sources multiplayer capabilities.