Quote Originally Posted by Packetdancer View Post
Minor correction: we know that the client contains no code from 1.x—which isn't surprising, given that A Realm Reborn's client was done atop an entirely different game engine—though I stress "client" there because I strongly suspect there are lingering undead bits of 1.x in the server ecosystem, whether in terms of actual code or just in terms of architectural choices they inherited. So, sure, some of the glamour issues could have their roots in the shambling horrors that are left of the 1.x systems somewhere in the server room. It's even likely!

But even if the client contains no 1.x code and the server isn't the underlying problem with the glam system, ARR was created on a timeline where calling it merely "batshit insane" is deeply insufficient to convey just how nuts the development timeline they were stuck with was. They rebuilt an MMO, atop an entirely different game engine, in a breathtakingly bonkers short amount of time, and did so while making sure it would stick within the constraints of the PS3. And I would wager that the cost of that was paid to some extent in corners being cut in foundational systems on both the client and server side of things.

I say "foundational" because, like the foundation of a building, many, many, many other things get built atop that... and that's where non-1.x tech debt comes in, because if you want to untangle that code after things have been built on top of it, it's sort of like trying to change the foundation of a building after the building is already finished.

So: spaghetti code, yes, almost certainly. 1.x spaghetti code... maybe? But it could also easily be 2.0 spaghetti code at fault here.
Thank god someone talking about spaghetti code with an ounce of sense, thank you.

I get that people are tired of hearing about spaghetti code, but complaining about water being wet for years will not suddenly make water not wet.

People just don't realize how much ressources they would need to fix that, and just throwing devs at it won't help much. And it wouldn't be resolved even in one expansion's timeline.

Should SE try and do it anyway ? Probably yeah, they're clearly not putting enough funds into the game as is. But that's a long term trial, and even if they come up with a good enough fix to the code, they would then have to go over the reste of the whole game to make sure it doesn't break at any moment.

This stuff is clearly counterintuitive for an average player, but server stuff is just dark magic. Remember that back in Heavensward, a single error made the whole data center crash because players were fishing at a specific spot in the Hinterlands.