Forums » General

I made a newspost

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Feb 20, 2009 zamzx zik link
Myth, it's not too bad. I'd encourage you to try if you meet the requirements
Feb 20, 2009 Whistler link
Seems like you would need the oomph to participate in the PCC.
Feb 20, 2009 Dr. Lecter link
The 500 words is a limit, not a goal, Myth.
Feb 20, 2009 Phaserlight link
The essay is the easy part. Once you start learning the editor you'll discover the true meaning of "oomph."
Feb 20, 2009 Person link
IMHO the editor is extremely intuitive and easy to learn!
Feb 20, 2009 blacknet link
Whistler, Something the 'oomph' that is needed in the PCC can not be presented in an essay.
Feb 20, 2009 incarnate link
Something the words that Moda uses that I do not comprehend.
Feb 20, 2009 blacknet link
Just saying that many skills are not apparent in essays
Feb 20, 2009 Whistler link
The skill of paying attention to detail can be measured from an essay, or even from a sentence. ;)

On a more serious note, the ability to communicate well is important to the PCC. That's a big reason why the essay exists.
Feb 23, 2009 vardonx link
I liked the news post, good short term information and long range goal information -- keep 'em coming like that!
Feb 23, 2009 smittens link
ZING. Nice whistler
Feb 24, 2009 bojansplash link
A week has passed since that newspost.
Just one more week till we get New Faction System and FF redux, right?
Not going to happen.... again.
Oh boy, I am so gullible, he got me again.
Feb 24, 2009 Snax_28 link
Wow, talk about jumping the gun Boj. Considering how long you've been around a bit more tact/patience might be a better route? They may be overly optimistic on their release dates most of the time, but they haven't even run out of time on this one?!

Edit: And a week hasn't even passed! They could release this radar thing today and still come in under the wire.
Feb 24, 2009 incarnate link
Er? I said one to two weeks, and I just posted that on Weds. Some of it did make it in quickly (Mac gamma change, more trade routes on Fri). If PayPal isn't released before next weds, I'll be.. irritated. BS/Radar/FF stuff is moving along, I was going to make a post later in the week with an update on where that was, and what will be in on Fri; assuming there aren't too many bitter, angsty people who wish to dissuade that. I think things are going ok, so far. Like I said in the post, I'm kind of the weakest link, right now, since I have to design/manage both projects, but.. doing my best.

I'm trying to get back to posting weekly-ish news updates about development. There's always going to be some degree of inaccuracy in what I say, unforeseen stuff happens. But it's still our goals, and we meet a lot of them.

People have been asking me to post schedule/deadline stuff for awhile now, and one of the reasons why I've avoided it is the angst over milestones we miss. It often isn't stuff we can control, people get sick, they have family problems, cars break down, random acts of god.. and that's not even getting into development problems, like "as soon as we tested <new feature X> it crashed! We don't know why!", and then we get bogged down in debugging. So, I ended up avoiding posting any kind of timeframe information, so as to not annoy people. But, then everything comes off as "Soon(tm)", which isn't really true either, and people get depressed over that.

Anyway, just trying to stay in touch more, I hope that's ok with.. most of you.

[EDIT] - Also, I wrote: Next topic will be Radar, and you will hopefully see something appearing in a patch by next week sometime. That does not imply a patch for Radar on Weds. We don't do releases on Wednesdays. It also doesn't imply FF would be ready immediately. But it does illustrate our trajectory and general goals/timeline. Even if the timeline stretches a little here or there, the priorities remain the same.

I'll probably do another post Weds or Thurs with more about what's coming in on Fri, and what's going to happen next week. Since hopefully by then I'll.. know more. Already it looks like Radar is unlikely by this week, but some other related stuff (like dropping FF in a single sector) will happen, and Radar will potentially be next week. Big deal.
Feb 24, 2009 roguelazer link
Yeah, Incarnate, I think we can handle that... Although you probably shouldn't feel particularly beholden to us.. :P
Feb 24, 2009 bojansplash link
@Gavan& Weak Link
It was just a small poke. :D
Weak Link knows i do that from time to time but, I am mostly harmless... and gullible... and I do come back because I love VO. :)
Feb 24, 2009 Dr. Lecter link
Are you going to let us know what your plan is with radar? We've discussed it all over the map, but obviously what was discussed is pretty unimportant.

Or is radar just code for "dots will have different colors than they do now, in a manner somehow tied to faction redux"?
Feb 24, 2009 Phaserlight link
Why don't you wait and see, Lec?
Feb 24, 2009 Dr. Lecter link
This isn't Christmas morning, birthday presents, or new missions/trade routes.

Surprises aren't good, funny, or cute. They're entirely unnecessary and annoying.
Feb 24, 2009 incarnate link
I don't know the specifics on the radar yet, I'm trying to finish up the BS design while Ray is working on the single-sector-without-FF thing.

However, the broad strokes are less "Radar" and more of "HUD info". See the section "Friend / Foe Identification and HUD changes" here. Better indication of who is good, bad, and "uncertain", and better display of Who You Shouldn't Shoot (unless you really really want to). Mostly related to showing people who team-kill and informing people about shooting friendly targets.

Some aspects (display of "team killers") will not even be useful until FF is down, but the point is to get it all there in advance. We may do a "slow rollout" type thing, where we increase the amount of FF-attack-permitted space and see how it works, rather than simply changing it across the galaxy at once.