[Official] SOCOM: U.S. Navy SEALs Confrontation

[+Audioboxer Subscriber²]

SOCOM: Confrontation Update October 20th, 2008

Hello,

I wanted to keep everyone up to date on where we are and what we are doing.

The consumer response to SOCOM: Confrontation has been huge. We are consistently seeing almost 100,000 people log in everyday with peaks of 25,000 simultaneous users. On average, you are playing about 3.1 hours per person with a total of 300,000 player hours everyday. I would like to thank all of you for helping to make SOCOM: Confrontation such a great success.

As I'm sure many of you are aware, the launch has not gone without its share of problems. Unfortunately, the server environment is not holding up during peak loads. We've made many changes and improvements to the server to improve the issues (the first few days were really rocky) but we are still seeing server issues when we get up to around 25,000 simultaneous players during peak hours. Our primary focus at this time is to resolve these server issues. We have all available resources looking into the issues and we are trying to resolve them as quickly as possible. It is not as easy as adding more servers, we have to identify and fix the bottlenecks in the system which are preventing the servers from scaling properly. The servers should continue to get progressively better as we roll out server side updates.

As a reminder, our scheduled daily server maintenance is between 5am and 8am PDT (8am to 11am EDT). We bring the servers down during this time to roll out updates. The servers will usually only be down for about 20-30 minutes but some updates may take longer.

In parallel to the server updates, we are also working on a new client patch which resolves some client side stability issues. These issues include getting booted to the XMB, large number of players getting disconnected from a specific game and other issues. We've been working on and testing this since the game launched and we should have a final version ready for release in the next week or so. It is hard to provide an exact date or timeframe as we need to make sure the patch is thoroughly tested and does not introduce any new issues.

We are also working on a patch to enable trophies and address various user feedback but this will be after the stability patch. Our top priority is getting both the servers and client as stable as possible before making any changes which could possibly cause other issues. Please continue to provide feedback in the SOCOM: Confrontation PlayStation.com forum. We do read it and use the feedback to make further changes and tweaks in future updates.

Regards,

Seth Luisi

Director of Development

Sony Computer Entertainment America

Source: http://socom.us.playstation.com/post/2008/...th%2c-2008.aspx

Hopefully by the time this hits PAL territories it warrants me spending an extra ?10-13 on my headset.

GameDaily gave it 5/10[/b]>

Yikes(N))

I've just properly read that and

For instance, if you have a rifle and need to throw a grenade, you'll need to take the time to actually pull out the grenade, rather than just tossing it. This small delay takes just enough time to turn the tide in a battle, leaving you vulnerable to enemy attack.

WTF?

:laugh::

Lamest complaint of the year confirmed. This ain't Halo!

They gotta fix lag/server issues though or the game's just broke.

Edited October 20, 2008 by Audioboxer

[DrunknMunky Veteran]

I think they mean the amount of time it takes for the animation to play out before you can start firing a weapon again. I absolutely agree with it, and yes it's not an FPS, but it really is slow changing between weapons.

[Sethos]

I just think the entire weapon switching in SOCOM is a dud, sometimes it doesn't even register that you wanted to change weapon.

[Rookas]

GameDaily gave it 5/10

Yikes (N)

I'm honestly surprised it's not lower. I expect the game to average around 40%. It's a fun game to play, but it is just plagued with issues and considering how long it was in development, and how long it was in beta testing there's just no excuse for all the problems.

[HTF]

finally got my adapter so i can play, it a great game, just got some issues

[DrunknMunky Veteran]

Some is an understatement.

[HTF]

lol yeah i guess your right.

[Brad.]

Some is an understatement.

I really can't imagine how bad this is.

[Rookas]

I just think the entire weapon switching in SOCOM is a dud, sometimes it doesn't even register that you wanted to change weapon.

QFT, my solution is just don't throw grenades, or throw them far away towards enemy lines early in the match. Trying to switch to grenades while in the heat of battle is suicide. I've said this since Socom 1, there should be a grenade button.

[HTF]

I really can't imagine how bad this is.

i don't know it really isn't horrible or anything. its just server problems mainly, and for me at least, i haven't really had any problems, except for some lag. i guess other people are having worse problems. i love the game, maps ,ect. i don't think anyone would waste their money if they purchased this game. and slant 6 is working on the servers to correct them.

lol yeah only go for grenades if you got a bit of time or your toast

[Black Flash]

Just bought the game today and I thought it was pretty nice, but I have never seen so many horrible network problems in a game before. They better get things straightened out before people get put off by stuff like this. It's not enough to deter me or most people but it sure is annoying.

[Flash]

I've never tried Socom but seems like I won't be giving it a try until everything has been fixed

[AbandonedTrolley]

Sounds awful, thankfully I was never really too interested in the game. Feel sorry for those that were really awaiting this one :(

[Pheee]

So their servers can not handle more than 25,000 users at the same time? thats what I understand from that update. Meaning if they sold alot more, then you could just forget about the game really.

That is a bit poor.

[Black Flash]

One thing that I noticed is that the pictures and still images all look nasty but the game looks ten times better when your playing, whats up with that? Im guessing it has something to do with HDTV's masking the flaws or something.

[DirtyLarry Veteran]

One thing that I noticed is that the pictures and still images all look nasty but the game looks ten times better when your playing, whats up with that? Im guessing it has something to do with HDTV's masking the flaws or something.

I think it might actually just be the result of an honest developer showing real screens, and not using a dev kit to pump up the resolution and AA & AF so the game looks great but only runs at 2 Frames Per Second.

What I mean is a whole lot of games would not look that great when shown realistically paused.

[Black Flash]

Ahh I see, that makes sense. Guess you can't always trust screenshots. Btw is it just me or are the servers getting even more unstable? i think it's gonna get get worser as more people start buying the game.

[+Audioboxer Subscriber²]

For anyone in the UK/EU who is looking to get this (headset bundle)

http://www.videogamesplus.ca/product_info....oducts_id=14255

?29.30 and I think it comes to ?33 shipped.

People on the EU forums have done it, takes roughly 5-7 days if you're lucky to be delivered.

http://community.eu.playstation.com/playst...ard?board.id=68

Cheapest in the UK so far is play @ ?30 - http://www.play.com/Games/PlayStation3/4-/...on/Product.html

But you have to wait till the end of November it seems.

[+Audioboxer Subscriber²]

SOCOM: Confrontation patch due out later today

It has been confirmed that a SOCOM: Confrontation update will be available later today from 1200 GMT. The new v1.20 patch promises to fix issues related to the crashing of the game as well as many other reported faults with the game.

We are happy to announce that the SOCOM: Confrontation 1.20 Update will be released on Wednesday, October 29th, at 1200 GMT/UTC (8am EDT, 5am PDT, 1pm BST, 9pm JST).

The SOCOM: Confrontation 1.20 update addresses the following issues:

Fixed many issues which would cause the game to crash, hang, disconnect and exit to the PS3 XMB.

Fixed an issue which would cause large numbers of players in a high player count game to be simultaneously disconnected.

Fixed an issue which would cause players to be invincible.

Fixed a physics issue which would cause players to occasionally "warp" around on the map.

Fixed an issue where a "corrupt save data" message would be incorrectly displayed after updating the game.

Fixed some player model issues related to team swapping.

Client/server optimization.

Fixed an issue where the scope camera had an incorrect offset from the barrel of the gun while prone or leaning/peeking.

For players who have already downloaded and installed the 1.10 update, the 1.20 update is only ~50MB in size. For new players, the size is the 1.10 update plus the 1.20 update which is ~550MB.

The main purpose of this update is to address major stability and playability issues with the game. The stability of the game has been greatly improved with the 1.20 update. There are still a few low frequency issues which we are continuing to look into and will be addressed in a future update.

We are reading player feedback in the forums and will be making future changes to the game based on that feedback. Please keep the feedback coming.

Source: http://www.maxconsole.net/?mode=news&newsid=33171

[DirtyLarry Veteran]

Source: http://www.maxconsole.net/?mode=news&newsid=33171

Nice, good to hear, as I should have my Bluetooth Bundle by the end of the week. I might not even check the game out for months though, literally, as there is so much to play.

[+Audioboxer Subscriber²]

Seems like online has been "fixed" seeing as 1UP have updated their review to reflect

Well, the worst appears to be over. Since SOCOM: Confrontation went live a couple of weeks ago, many of the most problematic issues were improved, smoothed over, or wiped out altogether. Most importantly, players can now actually, uh, play. The widespread server overloads that plagued the launch, locking players out of accessing the network -- and, hence, any part of the game -- are now nonexistent, and the rampant player "warping" and shooting through walls eradicated.

And the most problematic bug is addressed, too: Scopes now show what you're actually aiming at (revolutionary concept, right?). Shooting over and around obstacles can still get a bit clunky, but knowing you can actually hit what you're looking at helps a great deal.

Read the rest - http://www.1up.com/do/reviewPage?cId=3170791&p=37 - B+

Looking forward to playing this now :)

[HTF]

ah, excellent news!! i've been waiting for this update.

[anthony]

So I'm giving this a bump because I have a big question for everyone who has this game.

Is it worth buying now after the patch?

I have a 15 dollar gift card at Best Buy so I was going to buy it for 45 and I was wondering if it was worth it.

[DirtyLarry Veteran]

So I'm giving this a bump because I have a big question for everyone who has this game.

Is it worth buying now after the patch?

I have a 15 dollar gift card at Best Buy so I was going to buy it for 45 and I was wondering if it was worth it.

I would say for the headset it is worth it alone, but I actually finally got both the headset in the game in the mail today, and I played for 90 minutes, and I had a great time doing so.

There are still issues, let me get that out right away. First off stat tracking does indeed still appear to be non existent. I also did definitely encounter problems finding a server initially. It was all of about 5 minutes, which was spent attempting to connect to servers and having no luck being told they were full or unavailable, then the first server I did connect to indeed reported the wrong settings in the Server Browser, but I then found another server and it was the right setting.

So the other 85 minutes I played the game on the same server, experienced almost no lag at all except once , and I thoroughly enjoyed doing playing.

Honestly, if they got their act together, this game would be among my Top 3 favorite online MP games, truly and sincerely. It is everything I like. Teamwork, Strategy, and one of the main reasons I was absolutely addicted to Counter Strike on the PC, really about being very precise and deliberate in the actions you make. I also got to see three new maps, and all of them were great to play on, and I really think people have been slamming this game unfairly for the visuals... I think it has a great look stylistically and considering it is all online, I really do think the visuals are very nice.

They still have a lot of work to be done, stats working is perhaps #1 on the list, but as of now, for me, the game is definitely in an enjoyably playable form. My actual plans are play it occasionally here and there over the next few months as my attention will definitely be on other releases (Resistance 2 and Gears Of War 2 being two of many others at the top of the list), but I will be going back to this game once the hype dies down from the other games, as it is really the type of game-play I can always personally enjoy playing. And I do look forward and hope it only gets better as time goes on.

One last comment, I really am very impressed with the maturity level overall of gamers I have encountered playing SOCOM. Yes, there is always going to be those one or two trash talkers, but truly overall I have to say the "community" I have dealt with so far of people playing SOCOM is among the cooler I have encountered online. I have to say for the most part everyone is cool and very much into the concept of teamwork, and that makes all the difference, especially in a game such as this one where a teamwork vibe is essential.

[DrunknMunky Veteran]

I slammed the game because it was an absolute mess and very little to do with the graphics or style. I can live with a crappy looking game if it's fun to play. Case in point, I spent all summer playing Battlefield and its far from having the best visuals.