Development Means in Empires

Discussion in 'General' started by Avatarix, Aug 15, 2016.

  1. Avatarix

    Avatarix Member

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    u
     
    Last edited: Oct 23, 2016
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  2. NekoBaron

    NekoBaron Member

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    Maybe devs could post their own topics and show what they're up to so people know what's being worked on/being considered too?
     
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  3. Paradox

    Paradox I am a gigantic asshole who loses people's hard wo

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  4. A-z-K

    A-z-K Member

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    Do we really expect a response from the volunteer devs everytime someone regurgitates a half cut idea thats probably been floating around in one form or another for years and years. I mean Tama has like 20 odd posts in the last week alone. Cut them some slack.

    You can probaly make a decent argument that more is being done now than for a long time. I mean just recently
    • GUI revamp after years of being told "we can't touch the GUI, it will explode and kill several young children, possibly also contiminating the ground water" (*citation needed)
    • Building placement condition text for Comms
    • Tip to players to stay away from ref nodes
    • A load of bug fixed
    • Plans to introduce new weapons
    • Plans for a new chassis
    Thats just a few and they are more or less the biggest / most fundamental changes the game has seen.
     
    Last edited: Aug 15, 2016
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  5. NekoBaron

    NekoBaron Member

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    I think we just want to see if all the devs give a damn at this point because it feels half hearted to me.
     
  6. A-z-K

    A-z-K Member

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    Feels anything but to me. I really dont think the devs need to spend their time answering everyones questions, etc. Hasn't this been brougth up time and time and time again and the answer was always just look at the tracker?

    And even if that isn't public I think there is plenty of feedback, I don't know why people even expect a response about suggestions. Sure its nice to have a discussion but if every suggestion was considered, refuted, blah blah blahy then theres gonna be no time for getting anything done.
    If you make a suggestion and it is possible and its well received and it gets implemented great, but you can't expect people to reply from the devs every time you make a forum post with their critique, though as it happens I think they do a decent enough job of saying exactly what is going on. I mean - just look at th erecent posts, it has recently been full of bug reports, version changelogs, etc.

    If you have no idea what the dev team is up to then 1: You are not reading & 2: So what.
     
  7. Paradox

    Paradox I am a gigantic asshole who loses people's hard wo

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    Azk, if they dont have time to implement suggestions then they should fucking tell us to stop suggesting stuff instead of not saying anything.
    Its frustrating as fuck right now. I rather have them tell us to fuck off than not tell us anything
     
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  8. flasche

    flasche Member Staff Member Moderator

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    or you can stop creating a drama about you feeling underappreciated
     
  9. Devourawr

    Devourawr Member

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    This thread pisses me off
     
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  10. NekoBaron

    NekoBaron Member

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    At least you update your hud topic post often so we know what you do and are trying to work on and answer to suggestions, Its the lack of general feedback/progress people are unhappy with.
     
  11. A-z-K

    A-z-K Member

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    Waaaa nobody likes my suggesssstio
     
  12. VulcanStorm

    VulcanStorm Developer Staff Member Moderator

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    So I guess I should post here...

    To dispel some of this cloud of confusion.

    @Avatarix I can guarantee that we read your suggestions, every one of them.

    You must(and I'm sure you do) understand that empires development is voluntary. Most of the dev team have full time jobs. And we all have lives outside the scope of empires.
    The only real time most of us have time to work on empires is on the weekends.

    So I'm sorry if the progress seems slow.

    As for transparency, we are trying to be transparent. See Tamas news dev log posting.

    We may not show our work until it's done... But I think the point is, that we try not to make promises we can't keep.


    As for community suggestions for new features, everything takes time. However anything that can be done in the scripts can be done quickly and tested.

    Consider the tank destroyer? What actually needs to be done... Well...
    1) make super high poly model
    2) make bones for the wheels
    2) bake normal maps and detail textures
    4) create a low poly model for in game
    3) edit the textures by hand
    4) export the model
    5) setup the materials
    6) convert the textures
    7) setup the physbox
    8) import it into the game as a model & fix any errors
    9) check the scaling
    10) rescale and repeat step 9 until done

    And that's before it even works in game. Let alone the coding time...
     
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  13. Avatarix

    Avatarix Member

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    your post pisses me off
    you are doing good job devo, keep it up
    Thank you for the checklist, are you going to update your thread with progress as devo or not?

    making drama in empires is so fun desu :3
     
  14. VulcanStorm

    VulcanStorm Developer Staff Member Moderator

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    Most of the stuff doesn't have anything visible to show. And there are times when I'm actually playing empires instead of developing it. I can do one or the other.
    (people complain about devs not playing the game and then complain about devs not doing anything...)

    I'll explain my lack of updates though.

    I haven't had much time over the past few weeks, been working full time in my summer break, away from home. I should have some time to work on it soon.

    I'm in the process of making the high poly model. Then I've got a do a BE one...
    (Also I'm quite new to serious modelling, so I'm learning a lot as I go)


    On the subject of suggestions... The reason we don't jump at every one and try and implement it is because often the community isn't behind it...

    If you really want something added. Then you need to get the majority of the community to agree with you.
    See the 9 page tank destroyer discussion thread with 15 unique votes in total.

    Also, I can't promise that the TD will actually make it into game... I'm just making a model, because we can't do anything for it without one.
     
  15. Donald Trump

    Donald Trump Member

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    *Sigh* Well, about that time to bitch again eh? While I have, in the past, complained about the developers I feel they DO do a pretty good job of keeping us updated and this is all just grade A bullshit.

    You guys are complaining to volunteers about them not posting what they are currently working on. The ONLY time I think you should be allowed to bitch to devs is if they have an opinion that strongly fucks up current gameplay (Tama's suggestion of Symmetric Warfare) or if you PAID them. Now seeing that this thread covers neither of these, it is absolutely pointless.

    These are volunteers. They can read the suggestions but why do they NEED to comment? Currently, from my understanding of the dev team, each person works on their own separate thing and picks up their own thing. So, in the case of the Tank Destroyer as mentioned by Vulcan, he was interested in working on it and was free to work on it meaning he could work on it. If your ideas are not commented on by a dev, it doesn't mean that they are good or shit, it just means no available developer can currently work on it. Vulcan commented on my Tank Destroyer idea saying he would work on it, that was pretty good for me.

    On top of this, it does seem that they DO communicate. Tama has kept us informed about his Linux build, Security has kept us up to date about his script changes, Vulcan has discussed the TD in two threads keeping us updated on the model AND what we would like to see for its weapon/armor, Varbles posted his work on all of the maps recently as well among others keeping us up to date. Hell, about a week ago they even made a thread about it where each dev posted their progress currently. It is completely idiotic to suggest that they aren't transparent.

    However, if you'd LIKE them to be even MORE transparent, then how about giving up your time to be a community manager that just keeps everyone up to date with long, detailed explanations about what each dev did. This would keep the community updated, take time away from you, and be a voice between the devs and the people... I guess.
     
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  16. Señor_Awesome

    Señor_Awesome Member

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    I would like to take this opportunity to petition for a dislike button.
     
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  17. Avatarix

    Avatarix Member

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    +1
    i just like to trigger people with various weeb slang words
     
    Last edited: Aug 16, 2016
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  18. McGyver

    McGyver Experimental Pedagogue

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    As Mootant once famously said: The suggestion forum exists so people don't spam the other topics with their retarded ideas.

    Dev time is better used for actually doing things than for presenting plans what they are about to do. Besides that, a game forum is such a pre-selected and biased source of feedback that I find it hard to believe any developer could get something useful out of it.
     
  19. Caelo

    Caelo Member

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    You have to treat it as some kind of perverse brainstorming session. Great to get ideas from, but it should not lead the path the team follows.
    Dismissing a community of users altogether is not the right attitude to take as a developer, ever. (But users are 'stupid' in a sense)
     
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  20. Avatarix

    Avatarix Member

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    hell, quoting mootant after all that time, even that trickster isn't dev anymore?
    this game will be in deep shit for a long time
     

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