Uninformative or sparse patch notes infuriate me

[Vexii]

I can't stand it when an update for a game comes out and all it says is:

• Various fixes

Click to shrink...

Or:

• 1.3

Click to shrink...

Or:

• Base game updated

Click to shrink...

This drives me crazy! Devs, please! Tell me what you fixed! Or maybe what you changed?? Did you change a colour somewhere? Did you tweak the way that shadows render in one very particular scene of the game 40 hours into the story? Did you increase movement speed of the playable character by 1.3%? I want to hear it all!

I get that you can't list every security change that you made for very obvious reasons, but please at least tell me about that one very specific bug that you fixed that was reported by exactly 4 players who decided to pause the game at the exact same moment that they tried to fast travel whilst holding 3 cantaloupe melons and a ball of yarn on day 11 of the campaign.

Which leads me into another related topic: Has the PS5 made patch notes completely optional now? Half the games I play don't even have a patch notes option in the context menu. I hate it. Reading the Cyberpunk 1.2 patch notes was like patch note heaven, and I don't even play the game anymore.

 

[Ruck]

Shoutout to Ubisoft who always puts insanely detailed patch notes into their games directly. It's fun to read them even if you're playing the game two years later just to see what was added

 

[Indy in the Fridge]

PS4 firmware updates were a hoot. everything was "stability"

 

[Transistor]

PS4 firmware updates were a hoot. everything was "stability"

Click to shrink...

Many times these are left generic as it fixes security exploits and they don't want to advertise what those exploits are.

 

[Launchpad]

It annoys me when there's a big patch for a game on Steam but they don't put any patch notes up on the Steam news feed. So I have to go to an external website to find out what they've done.

 

[Dekuman]

You don't want more Stability?

 

[Praedyth]

Increased performance

Edit: Also nerfed Fusion Rifles by 0.04%

 

[Prophet Steve]

To be honest, it is kind of difficult to create good patch notes. I'd still appreciate it if they do it, but it is not completely trivial to do so.

 

[Vexii]

It annoys me when there's a big patch for a game on Steam but they don't put any patch notes up on the Steam news feed. So I have to go to an external website to find out what they've done.

Click to shrink...

YES, Steam has always been terrible for this. I still think that the "News" sections for games is shockingly underutilised... and if it's not going to be used for patch notes at the very least, what is it really good for?

 

[elenarie]

Keeping patch notes up to date can be a bit tricky, because honestly, after a certain point, things will be too technical and just appear like a wall of text.

Imagine a team of 200 or so people submitting multiple changes per day. And you have to write a line for each of those changes, if you want to be very detailed. That alone can be an entire person's full time job, to simply translate submits from perforce into player-readable format. :)

 

[0451]

I hate it. I also hate when games say "Slightly increases X" or "Provides a boost to Y". Give me the specifics!

 

[SteveWinwood]

It annoys me when there's a big patch for a game on Steam but they don't put any patch notes up on the Steam news feed. So I have to go to an external website to find out what they've done.

Click to shrink...

Or even better you have to go to the discussion section where somebody else already started a thread asking what it was.

 

[Indy in the Fridge]

Many times these are left generic as it fixes security exploits and they don't want to advertise what those exploits are.

Click to shrink...

they have historically been terrible at that, then lol

 

[julia crawford]

Keeping patch notes up to date can be a bit tricky, because honestly, after a certain point, things will be too technical and just appear like a wall of text.

Imagine a team of 200 or so people submitting multiple changes per day. And you have to write a line for each of those changes, if you want to be very detailed. That alone can be an entire person's full time job, to simply translate submits from perforce into player-readable format. :)

Click to shrink...

Keeping a nice and tidy changelog is a moral good and an ethical obligation tho

 

[elenarie]

Keeping a nice and tidy changelog is a moral good and an ethical obligation tho

Click to shrink...

2021-04-28 16:44
JIRA-78462: Moved a few rocks to fix some collision.
Submitted by: level artist that kind of doesn't really care if this is mentioned in player-facing patch notes because it is not their job to worry about that.

🙃

Again, you can have something like 500 submits per day. How much time do you want to have someone spend making their submit descriptions pretty for public view, and how are you going to maintain that over a month-long patch production cycle?

 

[Yoshi88]

To be honest, it is kind of difficult to create good patch notes. I'd still appreciate it if they do it, but it is not completely trivial to do so.

Click to shrink...

Understandable. Not every patch note has to be as detailed as Ubi's f.ex. But at least some notes of any kind should be a standard. So many games just don't give any notion what happened in major updates.

 

[Forerunner]

 

[julia crawford]

2021-04-28 16:44
JIRA-78462: Moved a few rocks to fix some collision.
Submitted by: level artist that kind of doesn't really care if this is mentioned in player-facing patch notes because it is not their job to worry about that.

🙃

Again, you can have something like 500 submits per day. How much time do you want to have someone spend making their submit descriptions pretty for public view, and how are you going to maintain that over a month-long patch production cycle?

Click to shrink...

I mean there is a balance between showing all changes and tagging a small number of notable efforts and bigger improvements for each release. Something like "Revised assets to reduce possible collision errors" can aggregate a ton of bug fixes. The OP is being a drunkard by asking for what is essentially direct access to internal process tools, but patch notes are always good i think.

There are other arguments for not having patch notes, but implementing a kind of relatively low effort pipeline for having some release notes i think would be a good long term investment.

 

[kafiend]

Click to shrink...

Entertaining patch notes are the best patch notes.

 

[John Caboose]

To be honest, it is kind of difficult to create good patch notes. I'd still appreciate it if they do it, but it is not completely trivial to do so.

Click to shrink...

Yeah, I think it's enough to summarize large changes. "Various bugfixes" should cover most of the rest.

 

[Aangster]

How about something of the opposite, but equally bad variety (with vague, unhelpful descriptions mixed in too)?

EA Origin's patch notes should be legendary for how bad they are at being straightfoward. Users can't even access them outside of the application client and there's no date attached to any version release whatsoever.

Here's a (big) snippet of the 'creative' writing rubbish that gets put out:

Version 10.5.39

• We gave some devices (and ourselves) a much-needed caffeine boost as they were going to sleep in the middle of downloads & updates. Mmm, coffee.
• The download progress bar got a little overzealous and showed users a message saying games were "Playable at XX%" during repairs. We gave the progress bar a Lite-Brite to play with instead so it can display "fun" messages in a more appropriate setting
• Mirage took his illusion skills up a notch by messing with users' hours logged in Apex Legends. He has a great power, but the man takes no responsibility. So we've taken away his clock privileges.
• The Sims™ 4 Build Your Own Bundle needed a few more building blocks as it was not letting users scroll to the bottom of the page. Now the keystone, lintels, straws & bricks are all in place and the page is functioning properly.
• Every time Origin Access Basic subscribers tried to re-add Battlefield™ 1 to their libraries after previously holding Premier subscriptions, some guy with super speed flashed by and took the game with him. We put tire locks on his shoes, so now users can add Battlefield™ 1 and play it, too.
• The guy with super speed had some friends who infiltrated PCs, making it difficult to boot up Battlefield 4™ and Battlefield™ Hardline. The launch error has been fixed, and that's the last time we hire supers as interns.

Version 10.5.38

• What's the point of an awesome gift if you can't find it? Un-opened gifted games now appear in a user's Vault library.
• We applied Pym particles to Origin shopping cart buttons so they now adjust on screen properly when resizing your browser or client.
• We popped that overzealous notification bubble that shows up in your chat window after sending a message to another friend.
• You could buy The Sims 4 Seasons for yourself more than once but it really is a one-time purchase sorta thing, so we fixed an issue enabling users to buy the same thing over and over and over and over.
• We unclogged our filters so certain options and games correctly appear in searches again.
• In the latest release, we implemented a security fix that included new defenses, like a bigger moat and cyber-enhanced archers.

Version 10.5.37

• We squashed bugs, fixed crashes, and made Origin that much better.

Version 10.5.36

• The Premier & Basic badges got scrambled & overlapped when they flew in from the multiverse. The particle accelerator responsible for the little hiccup has been stabilized and all badges have returned to their rightful spots.
• While a title drawer was open, titles would disappear from the Deals page when resizing the browser window. The Deals page has since had a feng shui adjustment.
• Maximizing the browser window caused the game library to display a lot of empty space. The page took Marie Kondo's teachings too seriously but is now in working order.
• Our utility belt is well-equipped with repellent & traps to eradicate more bugs this week.
• The matching magnetic forces of the social hub & the filter short-circuited the Deals page, causing the display to go all haywire. The magnetic charges have been adjusted, and our magnet privileges have since been revoked.
• A gremlin cut the hems too short on interstitial pages, leaving gaps between elements of the page. The pages have been taken in for alterations, but the lone gremlin remains at large.
• The "Installed" filter in the game library was not displaying recently downloaded games and multiple editions correctly. The culprit? An amateur sorceress with a broken wand and a penchant for sleeping spells.
• A case of mistaken identity struck the Deals page and caused titles to display duplicate links with different descriptions. The reclusive scientist who lives down the way and has an interest in cloning swears he had nothing to do with it.
• As a result of a checkmark surplus, the game library was incorrectly displaying checkmarks during the finalizing stage of downloads. The overzealous checkmarks have been removed and are now being stored for future downloads.

Version 10.5.35

• All Origin Access members can now receive gifted DLC from friends, family, significant others, BFFs, interdimensional beings and class V or lower spectral entities.
• We slayed the beast blocking players from completing their purchase of the Ultima Online King's Collection Theme Pack after placing the DLC in their carts.
• The Final Hours DLC no longer directs players to the main Origin Titanfall homepage and now appears in players' libraries upon being purchased or added.
• We fixed the crossed wires causing lapsed offers to remain visible and linking to 404 error pages upon being clicked.
• You're supposed to play hide and seek with your friends, not downloadable content. The Final Hours DLC will now appear in players' libraries after adding Titanfall Deluxe Edition through their Origin Access membership.
• We've put the release dates and times for upcoming titles back on their respective description pages, so you don't have to glean into your crystal balls anymore for info. Psychic hotlines can be expensive!
• We fixed an issue with the Origin/DownloadCache folder preventing some users from installing games.
• FIFA 18 and FIFA 19 points no longer appear duplicated in the Virtual Currency section of your game.
• We fixed an issue preventing the "Most Popular" sorting option from working on the Lunar New Year 2019 and Sims Anniversary Sale 2019 deals pages.
• We fixed an issue causing party invites to be automatically rejected if not answered in time. Now your buddies won't feel spurned and need a hug because you were in the middle of something and couldn't accept the request fast enough.
• There was an unexpected side effect to Wraith's interdimensional teleporting causing Apex Legends articles to not appear. A little tachyon insulation fixed the issue just fine.

Version 10.5.34

• We flushed out the pipe-clogging bugs that created issues with the finalizing phase of game downloads and installations. Gone are the days of process bars being stuck at 100%.
• A bunch of bugs got torched while we tested out the thrusters on our javelin exosuits.

Version 10.5.33

• Our graduate thesis was to fix the downloading troubles for The Sims 3 University Life. Now that that's done, we're going to go sleep for a year.
• A few tiles on the Store page had difficulty waking up from the winter hibernation, resulting in 404 error messages. Now, everyone has had their caffeine fix and is working much more efficiently.

Version 10.5.32

• Because life moves pretty fast we've introduced a new drawer design that gives you everything you need to know in a clean, little dropdown when you click on DLC whenever there are awesome sales events. Ain't nobody got time for new windows or tabs.
• Love having the freedom to move files from one place to another for fun or just to free up space on the ol' computer then locate them after? We do too, and now you can move and locate your Origin purchases.
• We've made it way easier to do your homework and see what games are included in Origin Access Basic and Origin Access Premier membership.
• Everyone hates drawing a blank. We fixed an issue where the Manage My Membership on-screen window opens up empty after clicking on the EA Account link.
• Origin Access subscribers will leave no stone unturned when searching for extra content like DLC, expansion packs and more as these items now appear in search feeds.
• We purged a small bug nest causing problems for those trying to purchase DLC for The Sims 3.

Version 10.5.31

• We fixed an issue causing Premier exclusive game notifications to linger for a while, like that neighbor that always catches you between your car and your front door to just "say hi."
• Some dragons went on a team-building retreat causing all Fade to break loose and disrupt users' ability to download free DLC packs for Dragon Age and Dragon Age 2. They're back now and, being the tech-savvy ones, have restored the DLCs.
• After downloading a game patch & restarting Origin, the play button would be grayed out. The inert gray portal that was the play button has since been scrapped, rebuilt, sonic screwdriver-ed and is now back in business.
• We exorcised the ghosts that prevented The Count Lucanor from opening the Origin In Game.
• Users encountered a bug where they couldn't place voice calls. We swam to the bottom of the sea and reclaimed the stolen voices and calls from a sea witch and her moray eels.
• Everything looks amazing in 4K. Except for crashes on startup. We worked out the kinks causing Origin to crash for some players with 4K monitors.
• Don't worry, we bagged and tagged the gremlins causing some games to start changing drive locations after users log out of Origin while repairing or locating another.

Version 10.5.30

• We got rid of a bunch of real creepy crawlies that ran amok after we tried to use them as Halloween décor. We went a little overboard with our haunted house.

Version 10.5.29

• We gave our ratings much needed dance lessons because they kept overlapping and stepping on toes of other content it shares the page with.
• The download queue finished watching The Sopranos and decided to end its messages mid-sentence. The download queue has since agreed to display full messages as long as we make ziti and rewatch all 7 seasons with them.
• Origin updates got some very necessary ninja training and will now be very, very quiet and work in the background when you start up Windows.
• Imagine sampling an ice cream flavor, ordering it and being told they don't have that flavor. The imaginary frustration you're feeling was experienced by some users trying to upgrade from the Madden 19 trial to the full game. Both the full game and the hypothetical ice cream have been restored.
• It's that time of year to binge scary movies and the Origin Access banner is a more than a little jumpy, hiding when you come back from offline mode. We explained to the banner scary movies aren't real and it's not going anywhere.
• Nope, you're not experiencing déjà vu when changing your Origin Access membership plan from Basic to Premier, it was just a few nuts and bolts that needed some tightening.
• The CTA on some DLC pages mastered being able to move so incredibly slow it became invisible to the naked eye. Okay, not really, but it is back where it belongs; nice and visible.
• You may have noticed the awesome new layout making it easier to bundle games and DLCs at checkout. No bugs or anything, we refreshed that because we HEART you.
• You know that face you have to practice when you're gifted something you already own? Well, you won't have to practice that because of Origin – we shook out some bugs that allowed friends to gift you stuff you already own.

Version 10.5.28

• We found and patched up an Einstein-Rosen bridge that was zipping members to the Origin Access landing page when trying to upgrade from Basic to Premium. We really need to stop leaving our Mass Relays on when we're done with them.
• Libraries grow. That's a fact of nature. We think your library should grow, too, which is why we zapped the bug that removed your ability to add games to your library.
• The "Buy it Now" button was hiding behind some cover in Battlefield 1 and Battlefield 4. But, the coast is clear and it's out of hiding.
• Looks like the Need for Speed Speedcross expansions and DLC got a weren't going anywhere when trying to purchase from a wishlist due to a flat tire. We busted out our jack and tire iron and it's back on the road.
• Scraps of an invisibility cloak fell onto The Sims 4 Seasons page, causing text bubbles to seemingly disappear when adjusting your browser's window size. We collected the scraps and knitted a lovely beanie. Now where did we put it…
• Little circles on the Deals page understand one thing and one thing only: circular motion. But a professor tried to explain to them that time is not circular...or linear. It was pretty complicated, so the circles temporarily short-circuited. We put on The Terminator, and they returned to their cycles.
• There was a bug where, when signed out, you could still access "Manage My Membership." Who do we suspect caused this? Ghosts. Ghost subscribers who come in, move the furniture, and turn down the thermostat. Their shenanigans were stopped by a curious film crew.
• A masked villain tried to taunt his nemesis by leaving clues all over Origin. He's not tech-savvy (or even good at his job), but he did make something go all screwy when you try to add friends a second time. The spat between caped hero and amateur bad guy has since ended.
• The radio towers were misaligned and keeping users from connecting to EA servers when opening Battlefield™ V. We scoured the city rooftops, made sure all the satellite dishes were pointed in the right direction, and restored the connection. Who knew high-tech could be so simple?
• The Sims 3 University Life was displaying different prices for different users. Much like college tuition, though, the price should be fixed, equal & preferably under thirty bucks. We think that's fair.
• Nothing's worse than buying something and coming home to see you already HAVE three tubs of cookie dough in the fridge. That's why we made sure you get a warning message when buying bundles for The Sims 4 with content you already own. Now, who wants cookies?
• All game editions deserve love (which is why we own 4 different copies of Skyrim and people ask us why and it becomes this whole big thing). So if you own standard & deluxe editions of a game you should be able to play either, even if you're a Mac user.
• Our Thermian's translator box broke when he was operating the control board, so he mistakenly waved a tentacle over the boar, causing suggestions for Premier edition titles to appear for non-Premier users when buying a game. His translations (and human form) have been restored.
• The Average Joe android operating the search function kept opening pink cans of diet soda instead of opening games in a new tab. He's been sent back to the distributor to work on his language skills.
• When viewing Origin.com in a window that's not full-screen, the "Get the Game" button transformed into The Illusive Button. Thankfully, it was fixed before any Reapers could get involved.

Version 10.5.27

• The subscriber information text decided to play hide and seek. We found it in the rafters and put it back where it belongs.
• Some Terms and Conditions messaging got turned around and ended up in a completely wrong location. After giving it a better map it found its way back home.
• We let a bunch of Sims intern for us and they added a few of the same product within itself in the Extra Content sections. We took their plumbobs away and fixed it.
• Our Sims let us know it needed to be easier to create a shin dig using Game Packs and Stuff Packs, so we made sure to make it easier to take advantage of The Sims 4 BYOB options.
• The Screenshots and Videos section cut in line making it impossible to see the MORE drop-down menu when clicked. After giving it a stern talking-to, it apologized and jumped to the back of the line.
• We zapped some moths that got into Battlefield I causing it to clog up and not un-pause the game when in OIG.
• A bunch of rowdy Krogans got into a brawl with some Turians, leaving some structural damage to a few Origin modals causing them to exit and crash. We got them to cool off, talk things out and fix everything they broke.
• We've got the information you've been looking for. Game landing pages now show you if the game is available with Origin.com's Basic or Premier subscriptions.
• Language isn't a Sims' strong suit, which is why no warning message would pop up when upgrading from The Sims 4 Limited Edition to Digital Deluxe Edition. It's ok, Sims, we've got it from here.
• We repaired some broken article links that were knocked loose by some plants trying to nail a horde of zombies.
• We found some bugs, but they weren't very cuddly or good on leash so we zapped 'em.

Version 10.5.26

• Some gremlins moved things around causing the wrong messaging to display when trying to pre-download Battlefield V with Origin Access Premier. Our cryptozoologists wrangled them so our engineers could clean up their mess.
• A tachyon surge caused a paradimensional rift to open, leaving some blank spaces on the Madden NFL 19 Origin.com page. Both the portal and spaces have been closed.
• Say goodbye to long load times and buggy results - Origin.com's filters now run on kyber crystals.
• We had to clean up a bunch of necromorph corruption that clogged up the Origin.com cogwheel when trying to upgrade games. We should have left that Unitology Marker where we found it.
• We noticed the navigation bar kept vanishing after looking at Origin Access subscription information so we super-glued its feet to the ground to keep it from running off.
• We fumigated some DLC mites that knocked out a few plugs preventing Origin Access Basic members from adding the DAI DLC to their account.
• We fixed a wonky plumbob that tipped over and prevented users logged in with a child account from viewing their The Sims 4 DLC.

Version 10.5.25

• We guess our linebackers got a little carried away but, don't worry, the refs threw a flag so now nothing's blocking your Play First Trial of Madden NFL 19.
• Our cornerbacks caught and squashed a bug that was showing incorrect upgrade messaging.
• We discovered and flattened a new species of insect, Refugium Decipio Aranea, that was putting out incorrect refund messaging.
• We said 'da svidania' to some bugs causing issues with how Russian prices would display on Origin.com.
• It turns out that jittery feeling we got from launching Premier wasn't just from us being excited; so we shook out digital ants from our proverbial pants.
• Our last cleanup left behind some icky, sticky, pulpy bug goo that prevented purchasing here and there, but we got some really good squeegees and cleaned up everything.
• We found some weird, six-legged beetle looking things that loved to chew on Tiberium pages causing them to 404. We did some fumigating and they're gone now. Whoopie!
• Some ants got into our TOS links and moved a few characters around causing them to load incorrectly. After writing an angry letter to their queen the drones put things back and everything is working fine.
• The Cloud Sync conflict error message had a little too much coffee causing it to overzealously pop up for some games. Don't worry, we gave it a chill pill and now it's working as it needs to.
• Our engineers rubbed a magic lamp and asked a genie to nix some bugs preventing users from removing things from their wishlist.
• We sprayed some pesticide on some creepy crawlies that made it hard to bundle titles here and there. Now you should be able to add bundled title purchases without any problems.
• Our boots are super slimy after squashing a bunch of bugs that removed Premier specific Vault games from the Vault list.
• We saw you were having trouble viewing your library after adding a Play First Trial and trying to see it in your collection. We found, caged and sent the insectoid culprit up river.
• We called in a raid on all those bugs who crashed your Origin Access Premier party to better your good times.

Version 10.5.24

• We cleaned up a nest of bugs after they got into some lab equipment causing a slight telepod mix up that cronenberged a few employees. We got them sorted out - all good now!

Version 10.5.23

• Our search feature really wanted to display game results in English…which is great for folks who understand English. It's not so great for those who don't. After a little tinkering, it's back to it's normal, multi-lingual self.
• Added an "Are you really sure?" message for when you hit "Cancel" while installing the client. Great for those times when your button-clicking finger is moving a little bit faster than your brain.
• Have your Mass Effect 2 DLC downloads been stalling out lately? We sent Garrus over to perform some calibrations and get things working properly again. Now you can take on the Shadow Broker, team up with Kasumi, investigate that mysterious Cerberus base and more!
• We squashed a bug that was making players' achievements pages look a little bland. Now the game art's back where it belongs - making your achievements look even more stunning!
• Some of our text badges were wandering off their game tiles and following players around from page to page. We left a trail of (virtual) breadcrumbs to lead them back home again.

Click to shrink...

 

[elenarie]

I mean there is a balance between showing all changes and tagging a small number of notable efforts and bigger improvements for each release. Something like "Revised assets to reduce possible collision errors" can aggregate a ton of bug fixes. The OP is being a drunkard by asking for what is essentially direct access to internal process tools, but patch notes are always good i think.

There are other arguments for not having patch notes, but not implementing a kind of relatively low effort pipeline for having some release notes i think would be a good long term investment.

Click to shrink...

Fun fact, on BF1 we used a tag for each submission to mention whether it should be mentioned publicly or not. It still took a few hours per day from 1 person to just go through all submits, compare with the previous days, update the notes, re-do this every day.

It works well for a small team, but it does get ridiculous if you have a large team, unfortunately.

 

[hikarutilmitt]

Having done this sort of thing for other projects, there's an advantage to not noting every little change in your notes as they invite undue scrutiny. On the other hand, I also like knowing what changed in more than just "version update" or something.

There's a balance between being overly verbose, which I don't think anyone really needs and saying literally nothing. I honestly miss having the update notes for PS5 games, but at the same time if a developer doesn't want ot tell me what changed, that's up to them. Overwatch finally started putting the actual patch notes into the game a few updates ago and I wish Bungie would do the same for Destiny, but I also follow Destiny a lot closer and it's easier to navigate Bungie's site for patch notes (that are generally just right, too).

 

[DoctorDake]

2021-04-28 16:44
JIRA-78462: Moved a few rocks to fix some collision.
Submitted by: level artist that kind of doesn't really care if this is mentioned in player-facing patch notes because it is not their job to worry about that.

🙃

Again, you can have something like 500 submits per day. How much time do you want to have someone spend making their submit descriptions pretty for public view, and how are you going to maintain that over a month-long patch production cycle?

Click to shrink...

That's what task/bug-tracking software is for. You don't write a patch note per submit, you write a patch note per task (when appropriate). I totally disagree with you here, caring about players should be something every on the team wants to be a part of.

We make a 'patch notes' field available in Jira for everyone when closing a task/bug. They are welcome to put "N/A" where appropriate, but everyone understands why it's important and likes seeing their fixes publicly hailed.

 

[zma1013]

Eh i don't need minor things detailed. I want to know about major changes.

 

[elenarie]

That's what task/bug-tracking software is for. You don't write a patch note per submit, you write a patch note per task (when appropriate). I totally disagree with you here, caring about players should be something every on the team wants to be a part of.

We make a 'patch notes' field available in Jira for everyone when closing a task/bug. They are welcome to put "N/A" where appropriate, but everyone understands why it's important and likes seeing their fixes publicly hailed.

Click to shrink...

What about iteration on the same, let's say, asset? How do you collaborate to have several people work on the same asset and share in-dev progress between them? Surely you have to submit things in? How do you filter out which of those checkins are valid to be mentioned in the patch notes?

 

[Anustart]

Eh if they don't give notes, if the change is big enough I'll notice it, if I don't notice any changes then who cares.

 

[DanteMenethil]

Compiling a good and accurate changelog can be harder than you think. It really depends on how good the dev team's work pipeline is.

 

[zma1013]

What about iteration on the same, let's say, asset? How do you collaborate to have several people work on the same asset and share in-dev progress between them? Surely you have to submit things in? How do you filter out which of those checkins are valid to be mentioned in the patch notes?

Click to shrink...

The K31/43 sniper rifle in BF5 does not do damage when using the 6x scope. Pls halp :)

 

[lexony]

Lot of fixes could be about improving/optimizating scripts, deleting of unnecessary code, or fixing something which caused a minor maybe non-visible bug.
There is no need to know what they fixed when it is some minor thing that propably no one understands.

+ Updates are used for advertising sometimes, so if they detail their fixes it is also sometimes to generate some buzz (Like with Cyperpunk patch 1.2). When a game is precieved as running already good, there is in some cases not much reason to give detailed bug fixes. And even if they are detailed I'm sure that even then a developer/publisher leaves out many things that are in their opinon not important enough for the public to see.

 

[Smash-It Stan]

Played dota for the past 8 years, not having detailed patch notes is infuriating to me now in gaming. Even worse when it's just "bug fixes" written in the notes because it's never the bugs the whole community knows about so the developers don't want to get yelled at by the community. Easy way to save face I guess 🤡

 

[Phellps]

I feel like the Sims 4 devs actually have a person hired just to write their patch notes. They're hilarious.

 

[Prine]

Too much overhead. They know what's gone out internally with ticket history, they don't care if a small amount of people get upset I'd imagine.

 

[DoctorDake]

What about iteration on the same, let's say, asset? How do you collaborate to have several people work on the same asset and share in-dev progress between them? Surely you have to submit things in? How do you filter out which of those checkins are valid to be mentioned in the patch notes?

Click to shrink...

For us (and I freely admit this is unwieldy), we use tasks vs subtasks in Jira; so a single asset has a task and then the subtasks are for the various teams. It's bloated and a little gross, but it really helps make sure nothing falls through the cracks. But a 'new asset' obviously isn't a patch note-worthy thing of course.

Ultimately, our Community team does the 'first pass' on collating every single patch note/task for a release, then sends the entire 40-page doc to the entire team; we have more than enough people who volunteer to help clean them up and clarify notes where appropriate so that the final version looks great and has the right level of detail. But this really does require a supportive environment from the top-down to push everyone to understand the value and ROI of good patch notes.

I can hit you up in Slack if you want to see more about what we do on our side ;)

 

[elenarie]

For us (and I freely admit this is unwieldy), we use tasks vs subtasks in Jira; so a single asset has a task and then the subtasks are for the various teams. It's bloated and a little gross, but it really helps make sure nothing falls through the cracks. But a 'new asset' obviously isn't a patch note-worthy thing of course.

Ultimately, our Community team does the 'first pass' on collating every single patch note/task for a release, then sends the entire 40-page doc to the entire team; we have more than enough people who volunteer to help clean them up and clarify notes where appropriate so that the final version looks great and has the right level of detail. But this really does require a supportive environment from the top-down to push everyone to understand the value and ROI of good patch notes.

I can hit you up in Slack if you want to see more about what we do on our side ;)

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Hahah, :p.

I mean, I agree for sure, I myself prefer detailed patch notes and love to read through them, but still, it can at times be a cultural and workflow challenge to put them together, and I can understand how some may prefer to avoid doing that.

We do still put some thought into them, example: http://eaassets-a.akamaihd.net/dice...2_Lightning_Strikes_Update_14012019_FINAL.pdf

 

[Vareon]

Was about to post something snarky but got an actual discussion from developers instead. Thanks guys.

 

[No Depth]

Shoutout to Ubisoft who always puts insanely detailed patch notes into their games directly. It's fun to read them even if you're playing the game two years later just to see what was added

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Yep, I too enjoy reading the bulletpoints when I finally check out one of their games, often years after release.

 

[Deleted member 13101]

Infuriating? Or should we say Vexii-ng?

(That's just a little pun for us all on a Wednesday.)

Didn't expect the hyperbole though. The OP isn't even even that infuriated.

Sure, I'd like to know everything fixed, adjusted, and broken too. But intra-dev-process type stuff isn't really a consumer purview.

But I'd say moving rocks to fix collision is caring about the product, the quality of work, and the players - whether it specifically makes it into patch notes or not. That's a bit strong to say just based on this that people working on a game don't care about the end-user experience.

And a recent anti-example: Ubisoft was (and is) keeping very detailed patch notes on AC Valhalla. But with things continuing to newly break or still not 100% fixed in certain things, it hasn't been so much of a help as it surely was intended to be. They have publicly addressed this already so my comment is not meant to bash on them, it is clear that they care about the game and players' experiences.

As someone who has developed and managed dozens of software projects, I'm sympathetic to wanting and maintaining thorough documentation. But as an end-user consumer of games, I will take sparse notes and fixed/working over gory-details and still not quite smoothly-playing.

 

[DoctorDake]

Hahah, :p.

I mean, I agree for sure, I myself prefer detailed patch notes and love to read through them, but still, it can at times be a cultural and workflow challenge to put them together, and I can understand how some may prefer to avoid doing that.

We do still put some thought into them, example: http://eaassets-a.akamaihd.net/dice...2_Lightning_Strikes_Update_14012019_FINAL.pdf

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Mmmmmm these are so delicious. It's awesome that y'all can post a straight up PDF; our poor Community team has to deal with ancient website CMS in order to get these into a legible state.

Patch notes are my hill I will die on, so apologies for getting overexcited about a thread about patch notes. I haven't even started to talk about my manifesto on Known Issues!

 

[JumbiePrime]

Capcom's Street Fighter patch notes can be annoying to read, not because they aren't detailed but because they are written by different people at different times to the same thing can be said in many different ways..

 

[FarZa17]

When PS4 has this feature (Update History) to read information of the updates, it's such a great thing. I like when game devs listed out what exactly new, fixed and changed to the game in pretty detailed texts. They can be long, but still helpful.

I like one, for example, Driveclub, that listed out all those changed notes in details.

However, other than example in OP, I hate the one where it simply says "visit the website for more information" of the fixes/patches.

I think IOI Interactive's Hitman has this as example, and also PD's Gran Turismo Sport.

I really disliked when they force players to go and read those to the sites instead, and without even giving the link/URL.

 

[elenarie]

Mmmmmm these are so delicious. It's awesome that y'all can post a straight up PDF; our poor Community team has to deal with ancient website CMS in order to get these into a legible state.

Patch notes are my hill I will die on, so apologies for getting overexcited about a thread about patch notes. I haven't even started to talk about my manifesto on Known Issues!

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Looks nice!

I have a dream that one day we will all be using GitHub or some similar public issue tracking solution for known issues, but that is not this day. It would require such a cultural and mindset shift from both industry folks and customers to make that work. :D

 

[DoctorDake]

Looks nice!

I have a dream that one day we will all be using GitHub or some similar public issue tracking solution for known issues, but that is not this day. It would require such a cultural and mindset shift from both industry folks and customers to make that work. :D

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I'm super jealous of the games that can utilize public Trello boards to track their roadmaps and publishes. Dauntless always has my favorite example. I know Epic has one for their app too. And the smaller companies that just have their Jira or issue tracking fully public is the ultimate dream but hoo boy would it take some massive support industry-wide to make that a standard.

 

[Falchion]

Blizzard and Ubisoft are great about patch notes. Nintendo is one of the worst.

 

[Zeal543]

Smash ultimate is the worst when it comes to this. Not only will the patch notes not include the specifics of character changes, they will also for some reason omit some a entirely for no reason.

Soul Calibur 6 patch notes is what fighters should aspire to achieve

 

[SlasherMcGirk]

I think Team Ninja should be noticed here as the Nioh games got regular updates and patches with several pages of detailed patch notes for years. I always appreciated that.