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Nice Newsletter, devs. It sounds like there are a lot of good opportunities coming up for VO with the various bundles and app stores. Congrats.
Also, have you thought about the newly announced Mac App Store? It looks like it could be another big opportunity. I know your update system might need to be modified for it, but it sounds like you may have done some of that already for the Intel AppUp Store. Plus, if you set VO up for the Mac App Store, moving over to the iPad would probably be fairly easy, especially given the touch interface work you've done already for Android.
Also, have you thought about the newly announced Mac App Store? It looks like it could be another big opportunity. I know your update system might need to be modified for it, but it sounds like you may have done some of that already for the Intel AppUp Store. Plus, if you set VO up for the Mac App Store, moving over to the iPad would probably be fairly easy, especially given the touch interface work you've done already for Android.
I think there are restrictions on iOS apps for no "downloaded code" so they can't really have VO on there. I don't know if that same restriction is on the new Mac App Store though.
The new Mac Store still requires you to push updates via the store, and all updates be *validated* as safe for the device before they will push it out. So yeah, I'm not so sure any of that work can be done by a small team like guild.
Or maybe I am underestimating them.
Or maybe I am underestimating them.
in regards to the software center on ubuntu linux, how will updates be handled? through ubuntu's update system (in that case, what happens when VO 1.9 comes out? Canonical states that only minor versions will be updated, so from 1.8.12 to 1.8.13 would be updated but not 1.8 to 1.9) or through your update system? in that case where will vendetta be installed? (in regards to getting root rights).
aside from that: cool :)
aside from that: cool :)
Destructor:
We have a pretty customized setup with Canonical, in order to make our patch system work with user permissions and not require root every time you patch. Basically, there will be a system-wide initial package install, which is then copied over to your home directory to create the actual utilized install in userspace. When you click on the system-wide icon, it checks to see if the userspace copy exists, and then executes that, which then runs the updater and patches normally.. all within userspace. If the home-directory install doesn't exist when you click the system-wide icon, it copies it over and creates it.
Periodically, we will also push out major updates to Canonical to update via their package system, and the updates will be installed in the system-wide location. These won't help existing users much, as they'll already have a completely up-to-date copy in their userspace home directory, but it will make patch-downloads shorter for new users. It also requires everyone to keep two copies of the game on disk, but fortunately VO is relatively small.
It's the best we could do to work with their "all apps must be system-wide" requirement, while still giving us our "VO must be userspace and self-patching" requirement. It's a far, far better solution than what we had to do with Intel.
Strat:
We are aware of the new Snow Leopard app store, and we're looking at it. The self-updating thing may be an issue. However, we may roll out a "demo-only" build, which basically allows playback of some recorded demos and then lets the user go through a single-player tutorial (and is not self-updating). After completion, it will prompt the user "would you like to play the real game?", and if they do.. we can either download the game outside of any app-store functionality and install it on the system ourselves, or (if that violates some sort of rule), simply point the user to the download webpage and let them do it themselves.
That would kind of split the difference in terms of letting us keep the self-updating aspect, while also putting some sort of "app" out there that shows off the game and gives people a little taste of what it's like.
But, that's just an idea, we haven't really moved forward on that yet. We are definitely not doing any more Intel-like solutions, where everyone is forced to re-download 200+MB for each update, and patch validation takes weeks. There were some other good things that came out of the Intel situation that made that worthwhile, but the presence in the store is pretty ugly.
[edit]: Also, the challenges of validation aren't really about our team-size, they're about the reality of MMO development, and the fact that emergency patches are occasionally needed to plug gameplay holes. Rob Pardo of Blizzard was asked at GDC what we keeping them from bringing WoW to the Xbox 360, and his answer was "Validation". The same reasons exist for them as they do for us. Our unpleasant compromise on Intel was simply that if a major issue occurred, we would do a protocol change, and Intel AppUp users would be left out in the cold until a new patch could be validated. Not the best for Intel users, but the best compromise available for the overall game.
We have a pretty customized setup with Canonical, in order to make our patch system work with user permissions and not require root every time you patch. Basically, there will be a system-wide initial package install, which is then copied over to your home directory to create the actual utilized install in userspace. When you click on the system-wide icon, it checks to see if the userspace copy exists, and then executes that, which then runs the updater and patches normally.. all within userspace. If the home-directory install doesn't exist when you click the system-wide icon, it copies it over and creates it.
Periodically, we will also push out major updates to Canonical to update via their package system, and the updates will be installed in the system-wide location. These won't help existing users much, as they'll already have a completely up-to-date copy in their userspace home directory, but it will make patch-downloads shorter for new users. It also requires everyone to keep two copies of the game on disk, but fortunately VO is relatively small.
It's the best we could do to work with their "all apps must be system-wide" requirement, while still giving us our "VO must be userspace and self-patching" requirement. It's a far, far better solution than what we had to do with Intel.
Strat:
We are aware of the new Snow Leopard app store, and we're looking at it. The self-updating thing may be an issue. However, we may roll out a "demo-only" build, which basically allows playback of some recorded demos and then lets the user go through a single-player tutorial (and is not self-updating). After completion, it will prompt the user "would you like to play the real game?", and if they do.. we can either download the game outside of any app-store functionality and install it on the system ourselves, or (if that violates some sort of rule), simply point the user to the download webpage and let them do it themselves.
That would kind of split the difference in terms of letting us keep the self-updating aspect, while also putting some sort of "app" out there that shows off the game and gives people a little taste of what it's like.
But, that's just an idea, we haven't really moved forward on that yet. We are definitely not doing any more Intel-like solutions, where everyone is forced to re-download 200+MB for each update, and patch validation takes weeks. There were some other good things that came out of the Intel situation that made that worthwhile, but the presence in the store is pretty ugly.
[edit]: Also, the challenges of validation aren't really about our team-size, they're about the reality of MMO development, and the fact that emergency patches are occasionally needed to plug gameplay holes. Rob Pardo of Blizzard was asked at GDC what we keeping them from bringing WoW to the Xbox 360, and his answer was "Validation". The same reasons exist for them as they do for us. Our unpleasant compromise on Intel was simply that if a major issue occurred, we would do a protocol change, and Intel AppUp users would be left out in the cold until a new patch could be validated. Not the best for Intel users, but the best compromise available for the overall game.
yay ubuntu
thanks for such a detailed reply @inc
so if I install it over the repository, I could savely delete the copy in root-space when I set the execution path of the link to my userland copy?
so if I install it over the repository, I could savely delete the copy in root-space when I set the execution path of the link to my userland copy?
Coincidentally, I just installed ubuntu on my spare partition...
Is the newsletter text up somewhere? I never received one...
I also thought that I didn't get one, but I did - it just landed in my spam folder instead. I'll copy-paste for you:
---------------------------------
Hello <name>, welcome to the eighth official Vendetta Online Newsletter!
*Upcoming Events*
10/24/2010 (Sun), 21:00 UTC - Nation War #227 in Sedina D2
10/24/2010 (Sun), 22:00 UTC - Ultimate Wingman Tournament in Sedina D2
11/06/2010 (Sat), 23:00 UTC - 6-year Anniversary Event, Developer-run.
Exact nature TBD, but we would particularly welcome any returning VO vets.
*Recent Changes*
It's been almost four months since the last newsletter, and we've been
very busy in that time. Unfortunately, due to confidentiality with some
of our partners, we've been unable to discuss many of our projects and
goals during that time. At this point, we have a few cool announcements.
- Gameplay Change Recap -
- All ships now use a single storm-exit point; this has apparently
revitalized the pirating-convoys-in-storms strategy, aside from making
things much easier for players defending convoys.
- Border Skirmish kills now give Weapon XP.
- The three Hives have been named Milanar, Prosus and Siepos, and each
has unique drops that are specific to the given Hive. Future changes
will include unique bot types for each hive, along with combat
strategies and other behaviours.
- The unique drops from the three Hives can be used in Manufacturing
missions located in the conquerable stations. The resulting items from
these manufacturing missions will then become critically important in
the assembly of an upcoming Big Feature.
- Frame limiter is now enabled by default at 120 frames per second.
This should help newer computers to run a bit cooler and use less power.
On mobile platforms, this is set even lower (40FPS on Android), to aid
battery life.
- Significantly enhanced detail of station textures, plus more
efficient use of texture memory.
- Three new turret types (Repair, Neutron Mk3, Rocket) may now be
manufactured from conquerable stations.
- All Valkyrie masses slightly increased, SVG turbo drain slightly reduced.
- Many new PCC missions and other features.
- Vendetta Online on Ubuntu Linux -
For the last few months we've been working with Canonical, the company
behind Ubuntu Linux, to be one of their featured products in the new
Software Center being rolled out as part of the Ubuntu 10.10 "Maverick
Meerkat" release. This Software Center will basically bring app-store
type functionality to Linux, something that could greatly help the
platform in gaining acceptance as a desktop OS, and allow easy access to
a variety of software that exists outside the open-source world (such as
commercial videogames).
Vendetta Online should appear in the new Software Center sometime next
week. We were intended to be a debut partner with the OS launch (on
10/10/10), but a few delays popped up here and there; those have now
been addressed and we're confident you'll see our title appear there in
the near future.
- The Recording System -
A couple of months ago we had some opportunities crop up as part of our
ongoing Android development. We needed to create a way to show off
realtime Vendetta Online gameplay, without requiring the user to create
an account, login, and the like. We wanted a user to be able to touch
the pre-installed Vendetta Online icon on their new Tegra tablet device,
and immediately get an idea of what kind of game it is. Towards this
end, we created the ability to record and playback events within the
game, using the game client itself.
The saved data from these recordings is relatively small, as we are
literally playing back the network traffic that occurred at the time of
the recording. Eventually, we would like to see people saving and
sharing recordings of their in-game experiences. We would also like to
expand the game to potentially include "video" footage for our in-game
News system; perhaps embedded playback of the last minute of a recent
Nation War, or a bounty hunter taking out a well-known pirate. There are
a lot of interesting applications for this development, and the size of
the data is small enough to make distribution over the internet a
relatively minor issue.
For the moment, the usage will be limited to the new "demo/tutorial"
mode, which is currently only featured on the not-yet-public
Android/Tegra build. As of this writing, it plays through a series of
pre-recorded scenes (battles, station flybys, etc). We're working on
expanding this to also include some friendly tutorials, where a user can
watch a simple playback of how to do a specific task, before taking the
mission that asks them to do it on their own. Finally, we'll be adding a
basic single-player tutorial system, so a user may learn to fly without
requiring the process of account setup.
All of this will then be back-ported to the PC versions and optimized
for usage there. We expect this to be a big win for new users just
starting out in the game. Eventually, we hope the recording/playback
architecture will prove to be useful everywhere in the game.
- Android and Tegra -
Our users have had to put up with a lot of small updates over the last
few months, many of which have been centered around a client that is not
public (Android), intended for devices which were not yet for sale
(Tegra). However, this is slowly starting to change. Early devices are
becoming available, and we hope to see many more appear over the coming
months.
As these early devices come into stores, we may launch an "open beta" of
Vendetta Online for Android. We've had it patching on the production
patch servers for some time now, and we're already distributing it to
OEM partners much as we do the other versions. There are still some
issues to be fixed, and a number of usability areas to polish with the
touchscreen interface (and I imagine we'll be polishing that forever),
but the game itself is fundamentally quite playable, especially on our
latest test devices.
So, if you feel absolutely compelled to buy an Android-based tablet or
netbook this holiday season, and you want to play Vendetta Online, be
sure to get one powered by NVIDIA Tegra. The other chips out there will
not run our game, as it stands; and while we may support them
eventually, it's not a priority for us right now.
- Intel AppUp Store -
Vendetta Online is now available in the Intel AppUp Store. This is good
exposure for the game, as this store will apparently be included on a
variety of upcoming Intel Atom based netbooks (such as a new one from Asus).
However, because Intel does not allow the distribution of self-updating
applications through the store, and has a lengthy validation process for
patches, we don't recommend that existing players use the version on the
store. The normal client download from our website, with our internal
patching system, makes for smaller downloads and a more up-to-date client.
Still, it's interesting and kind of cool:
http://www.appup.com/applications/applications-Vendetta%20Online
*Development Status and Upcoming Changes*
- The Shifting Tides of Development -
Our development during late summer and fall did not proceed according to
the plans that we stated in the last newsletter. Certain time-sensitive
opportunities came up, some of which are mentioned above, and we needed
to quickly take action to capitalize on them. These were good choices,
and in the best interests of the game and company. However, as a result,
we did not hit quite as many of our gameplay goals as we intended.
All that said, I expect to fill out the remainder of the year with a lot
of cool gameplay changes, which I'll now begin to describe..
- Drops, Manufacturing, and Big Stuff -
The launch of the Three Named Hives has created a lot of opportunities
for unique drops, which may then be assembled into interesting items
through various Manufacturing missions. Some of the items are odd and
unwieldy and have no known purpose, but this will all be revealed in time.
As we move forward, you can expect to see a lot more unique bots, drops,
and items which may be manufactured. A whole tree of intriguing
manufactured goods will arrive to compliment those already existing, and
eventually these items will be used to help assemble our first step into
a very long-awaited area of gameplay content.
- Targeting and NPC Behaviour -
I mentioned the process of polishing the game in my last newsletter, and
that is still a major goal of ours. One near-term aspect of this is the
system that NPC AI uses to determine who to attack, and when. We're
looking a pretty major re-design and implementation, with the goal of
improving situations like:
- NPCs that are properly limited by fog and asteroid occlusion.
- Queen defenders that respond properly to aggression.
- Border Skirmish battles that better distribute their forces.
- Hives that defend themselves in different ways.
..and so on.
While this may not have quite the appeal as some more obvious content
additions, the ramifications for making *everything* better cannot be
understated. While adding new gameplay is a good thing, much of what we
need is simply to make our existing gameplay.. better. More polished.
More accessible. More fun. This is the goal.
- Reworking the Early Game -
We intend to restructure the early game to emphasize involvement in
manufacturing using goods dropped from NPCs, as well as group play and
helping players find one another within the early levels. There will
also be a significant reduction in the amount of text that people have
to read, which has been an oft-heard complaint. The previously covered
"recording" system will have some impact on this, but mostly it's about
restructuring early gameplay goals, and replacing the post-tutorial
botting missions with something more fun that yields a more interesting
form of advancement, along with the ability to make Cool Stuff. All of
this restructuring of goals will eventually propagate upward into the
later levels, as we make more group-play and "help me find other people"
options available. The universe is a big place, and some people will
always want to explore alone (which is fine), but more options are
needed for those looking to find wingmen in the vast expanse of space.
- Factions and The Economy -
The faction standing redux and re-workings of the economy and universe
are still very much in the works. Yes, development has slowed over the
summer, but brought with it many unique new business opportunities to
grow the game and the userbase.
I would really, really like to see Vendetta Online 1.9 before the end of
this calendar year. The release of 1.9 will signify the "fixing" of our
best-known issues (Faction, FF, Economy, and some other things), and I
have not been willing to roll up to that version until those things happen.
It is my hope that Android development will be winding down a bit for us
in the coming weeks, and it is my intent to redouble my efforts to
address these most significant and longstanding gameplay issues before 2011.
Once 1.9 is in place, we will have a better foundation on which to build
2.0, which is all the *new* content. Technically, we've already added a
few things which were intended to be part of 2.0, such as the first
implementation of station conquest. However, one can expect the purpose
of these features to be drastically expanded, once we get some of our
gameplay-polish and other goals out of the way.
A side-effect of making this 1.9 goal happen in the near-term, will be
updating our development Trac to a point where we can make it public (To
new users unfamiliar with the Trac: this basically means exposing a
great deal more of our plans, milestones, and intended game design on a
publicly-accessible website. This has been planned for.. years).
- New Website, New Payment Types -
Our new Vendetta Online website is not yet released, but we are now
accepting Zeevex game cards as of this week. We expect the new website
to go online within the coming weeks, and we think you'll all agree it's
a big improvement over the current site. It sure looks a lot cooler.
- That's all for Now -
We have a lot to do for the game, and hopefully we'll be seeing a lot of
the work from this past year start to really come together in the near
term. VO on Android, VO on Ubuntu, VO on netbooks, VO on Ubuntu..
netbooks. VO for wristwatches! Well, no, not really (until they make
Tegra/Android watches with tiny projectors. Somewhere, someone is
probably developing that). Anyway, there's a lot going on, and it's
taken a great deal of energy and effort to make this all happen.
I know from the user perspective, a lot of you wonder "what the hell is
going on?!", especially when we've been silent for a few weeks, or are
continually pushing out weird, tiny Android updates every few days. All
I can do is thank you, our userbase, for your great patience and
constant support, especially during lengthy periods of silence and
seeming development-drought. We really need your support, and we could
never have made use of these opportunities, with their attached risks,
without your constancy.
I can also say with honestly that this has been the most intensely,
(exhaustingly) productive work year, for me, at least since 2004 when we
had to go from "alpha" to "box on shelf" in about 6 months. At this
point I want little more than to get back to core game development, and
I expect to be doing so in the near future. I think that will be a
welcome change for all of us.
*Keep in Touch*
As always, stay up to date with the latest in VO news via our many outlets -
Facebook:
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Vendetta-Online/112211466226
Twitter:
http://twitter.com/VendettaOnline
RSS/Atom of VO News:
http://www.vendetta-online.com/h/news.html
VO YouTube Channel:
http://www.youtube.com/user/Vendetta0nline
---------------------------------
Hello <name>, welcome to the eighth official Vendetta Online Newsletter!
*Upcoming Events*
10/24/2010 (Sun), 21:00 UTC - Nation War #227 in Sedina D2
10/24/2010 (Sun), 22:00 UTC - Ultimate Wingman Tournament in Sedina D2
11/06/2010 (Sat), 23:00 UTC - 6-year Anniversary Event, Developer-run.
Exact nature TBD, but we would particularly welcome any returning VO vets.
*Recent Changes*
It's been almost four months since the last newsletter, and we've been
very busy in that time. Unfortunately, due to confidentiality with some
of our partners, we've been unable to discuss many of our projects and
goals during that time. At this point, we have a few cool announcements.
- Gameplay Change Recap -
- All ships now use a single storm-exit point; this has apparently
revitalized the pirating-convoys-in-storms strategy, aside from making
things much easier for players defending convoys.
- Border Skirmish kills now give Weapon XP.
- The three Hives have been named Milanar, Prosus and Siepos, and each
has unique drops that are specific to the given Hive. Future changes
will include unique bot types for each hive, along with combat
strategies and other behaviours.
- The unique drops from the three Hives can be used in Manufacturing
missions located in the conquerable stations. The resulting items from
these manufacturing missions will then become critically important in
the assembly of an upcoming Big Feature.
- Frame limiter is now enabled by default at 120 frames per second.
This should help newer computers to run a bit cooler and use less power.
On mobile platforms, this is set even lower (40FPS on Android), to aid
battery life.
- Significantly enhanced detail of station textures, plus more
efficient use of texture memory.
- Three new turret types (Repair, Neutron Mk3, Rocket) may now be
manufactured from conquerable stations.
- All Valkyrie masses slightly increased, SVG turbo drain slightly reduced.
- Many new PCC missions and other features.
- Vendetta Online on Ubuntu Linux -
For the last few months we've been working with Canonical, the company
behind Ubuntu Linux, to be one of their featured products in the new
Software Center being rolled out as part of the Ubuntu 10.10 "Maverick
Meerkat" release. This Software Center will basically bring app-store
type functionality to Linux, something that could greatly help the
platform in gaining acceptance as a desktop OS, and allow easy access to
a variety of software that exists outside the open-source world (such as
commercial videogames).
Vendetta Online should appear in the new Software Center sometime next
week. We were intended to be a debut partner with the OS launch (on
10/10/10), but a few delays popped up here and there; those have now
been addressed and we're confident you'll see our title appear there in
the near future.
- The Recording System -
A couple of months ago we had some opportunities crop up as part of our
ongoing Android development. We needed to create a way to show off
realtime Vendetta Online gameplay, without requiring the user to create
an account, login, and the like. We wanted a user to be able to touch
the pre-installed Vendetta Online icon on their new Tegra tablet device,
and immediately get an idea of what kind of game it is. Towards this
end, we created the ability to record and playback events within the
game, using the game client itself.
The saved data from these recordings is relatively small, as we are
literally playing back the network traffic that occurred at the time of
the recording. Eventually, we would like to see people saving and
sharing recordings of their in-game experiences. We would also like to
expand the game to potentially include "video" footage for our in-game
News system; perhaps embedded playback of the last minute of a recent
Nation War, or a bounty hunter taking out a well-known pirate. There are
a lot of interesting applications for this development, and the size of
the data is small enough to make distribution over the internet a
relatively minor issue.
For the moment, the usage will be limited to the new "demo/tutorial"
mode, which is currently only featured on the not-yet-public
Android/Tegra build. As of this writing, it plays through a series of
pre-recorded scenes (battles, station flybys, etc). We're working on
expanding this to also include some friendly tutorials, where a user can
watch a simple playback of how to do a specific task, before taking the
mission that asks them to do it on their own. Finally, we'll be adding a
basic single-player tutorial system, so a user may learn to fly without
requiring the process of account setup.
All of this will then be back-ported to the PC versions and optimized
for usage there. We expect this to be a big win for new users just
starting out in the game. Eventually, we hope the recording/playback
architecture will prove to be useful everywhere in the game.
- Android and Tegra -
Our users have had to put up with a lot of small updates over the last
few months, many of which have been centered around a client that is not
public (Android), intended for devices which were not yet for sale
(Tegra). However, this is slowly starting to change. Early devices are
becoming available, and we hope to see many more appear over the coming
months.
As these early devices come into stores, we may launch an "open beta" of
Vendetta Online for Android. We've had it patching on the production
patch servers for some time now, and we're already distributing it to
OEM partners much as we do the other versions. There are still some
issues to be fixed, and a number of usability areas to polish with the
touchscreen interface (and I imagine we'll be polishing that forever),
but the game itself is fundamentally quite playable, especially on our
latest test devices.
So, if you feel absolutely compelled to buy an Android-based tablet or
netbook this holiday season, and you want to play Vendetta Online, be
sure to get one powered by NVIDIA Tegra. The other chips out there will
not run our game, as it stands; and while we may support them
eventually, it's not a priority for us right now.
- Intel AppUp Store -
Vendetta Online is now available in the Intel AppUp Store. This is good
exposure for the game, as this store will apparently be included on a
variety of upcoming Intel Atom based netbooks (such as a new one from Asus).
However, because Intel does not allow the distribution of self-updating
applications through the store, and has a lengthy validation process for
patches, we don't recommend that existing players use the version on the
store. The normal client download from our website, with our internal
patching system, makes for smaller downloads and a more up-to-date client.
Still, it's interesting and kind of cool:
http://www.appup.com/applications/applications-Vendetta%20Online
*Development Status and Upcoming Changes*
- The Shifting Tides of Development -
Our development during late summer and fall did not proceed according to
the plans that we stated in the last newsletter. Certain time-sensitive
opportunities came up, some of which are mentioned above, and we needed
to quickly take action to capitalize on them. These were good choices,
and in the best interests of the game and company. However, as a result,
we did not hit quite as many of our gameplay goals as we intended.
All that said, I expect to fill out the remainder of the year with a lot
of cool gameplay changes, which I'll now begin to describe..
- Drops, Manufacturing, and Big Stuff -
The launch of the Three Named Hives has created a lot of opportunities
for unique drops, which may then be assembled into interesting items
through various Manufacturing missions. Some of the items are odd and
unwieldy and have no known purpose, but this will all be revealed in time.
As we move forward, you can expect to see a lot more unique bots, drops,
and items which may be manufactured. A whole tree of intriguing
manufactured goods will arrive to compliment those already existing, and
eventually these items will be used to help assemble our first step into
a very long-awaited area of gameplay content.
- Targeting and NPC Behaviour -
I mentioned the process of polishing the game in my last newsletter, and
that is still a major goal of ours. One near-term aspect of this is the
system that NPC AI uses to determine who to attack, and when. We're
looking a pretty major re-design and implementation, with the goal of
improving situations like:
- NPCs that are properly limited by fog and asteroid occlusion.
- Queen defenders that respond properly to aggression.
- Border Skirmish battles that better distribute their forces.
- Hives that defend themselves in different ways.
..and so on.
While this may not have quite the appeal as some more obvious content
additions, the ramifications for making *everything* better cannot be
understated. While adding new gameplay is a good thing, much of what we
need is simply to make our existing gameplay.. better. More polished.
More accessible. More fun. This is the goal.
- Reworking the Early Game -
We intend to restructure the early game to emphasize involvement in
manufacturing using goods dropped from NPCs, as well as group play and
helping players find one another within the early levels. There will
also be a significant reduction in the amount of text that people have
to read, which has been an oft-heard complaint. The previously covered
"recording" system will have some impact on this, but mostly it's about
restructuring early gameplay goals, and replacing the post-tutorial
botting missions with something more fun that yields a more interesting
form of advancement, along with the ability to make Cool Stuff. All of
this restructuring of goals will eventually propagate upward into the
later levels, as we make more group-play and "help me find other people"
options available. The universe is a big place, and some people will
always want to explore alone (which is fine), but more options are
needed for those looking to find wingmen in the vast expanse of space.
- Factions and The Economy -
The faction standing redux and re-workings of the economy and universe
are still very much in the works. Yes, development has slowed over the
summer, but brought with it many unique new business opportunities to
grow the game and the userbase.
I would really, really like to see Vendetta Online 1.9 before the end of
this calendar year. The release of 1.9 will signify the "fixing" of our
best-known issues (Faction, FF, Economy, and some other things), and I
have not been willing to roll up to that version until those things happen.
It is my hope that Android development will be winding down a bit for us
in the coming weeks, and it is my intent to redouble my efforts to
address these most significant and longstanding gameplay issues before 2011.
Once 1.9 is in place, we will have a better foundation on which to build
2.0, which is all the *new* content. Technically, we've already added a
few things which were intended to be part of 2.0, such as the first
implementation of station conquest. However, one can expect the purpose
of these features to be drastically expanded, once we get some of our
gameplay-polish and other goals out of the way.
A side-effect of making this 1.9 goal happen in the near-term, will be
updating our development Trac to a point where we can make it public (To
new users unfamiliar with the Trac: this basically means exposing a
great deal more of our plans, milestones, and intended game design on a
publicly-accessible website. This has been planned for.. years).
- New Website, New Payment Types -
Our new Vendetta Online website is not yet released, but we are now
accepting Zeevex game cards as of this week. We expect the new website
to go online within the coming weeks, and we think you'll all agree it's
a big improvement over the current site. It sure looks a lot cooler.
- That's all for Now -
We have a lot to do for the game, and hopefully we'll be seeing a lot of
the work from this past year start to really come together in the near
term. VO on Android, VO on Ubuntu, VO on netbooks, VO on Ubuntu..
netbooks. VO for wristwatches! Well, no, not really (until they make
Tegra/Android watches with tiny projectors. Somewhere, someone is
probably developing that). Anyway, there's a lot going on, and it's
taken a great deal of energy and effort to make this all happen.
I know from the user perspective, a lot of you wonder "what the hell is
going on?!", especially when we've been silent for a few weeks, or are
continually pushing out weird, tiny Android updates every few days. All
I can do is thank you, our userbase, for your great patience and
constant support, especially during lengthy periods of silence and
seeming development-drought. We really need your support, and we could
never have made use of these opportunities, with their attached risks,
without your constancy.
I can also say with honestly that this has been the most intensely,
(exhaustingly) productive work year, for me, at least since 2004 when we
had to go from "alpha" to "box on shelf" in about 6 months. At this
point I want little more than to get back to core game development, and
I expect to be doing so in the near future. I think that will be a
welcome change for all of us.
*Keep in Touch*
As always, stay up to date with the latest in VO news via our many outlets -
Facebook:
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Vendetta-Online/112211466226
Twitter:
http://twitter.com/VendettaOnline
RSS/Atom of VO News:
http://www.vendetta-online.com/h/news.html
VO YouTube Channel:
http://www.youtube.com/user/Vendetta0nline
thank's for the newsletter copy, I couldn't find mine either(probably deleted it without thinking).
Lots of good news in that letter. Good news indeed
Lots of good news in that letter. Good news indeed
The recording thing sounds intriguing.
roguelazer, did you eventually receive it? Our maillog shows that it was received by your email server at 14:16 (CDT) Saturday. Others have had it get put into their trash automatically, so try checking there.
Yeah, I found it marked as spam. Dunno why you guys always get marked as spam by gmail.
aye same, oddly enough my mom got the email and it wasn't in the spam folder?!
I had to fish it out myself :/
I had to fish it out myself :/
still no new website...and nothing in the ubuntu software center...
*really curious about the new site*
*really curious about the new site*
aye same thing here.
I got the letter in my gmail just fine, no spam :D
It was marked as spam by my domain (ofborg.com) too, and when I asked my hosting company why it seems that sending emails as plain text is the problem. Also it was marked as spam by my (username)@hotmail.com account too, and so was a recent *billing* email, I have received emails from GS on both these email addresses in the past no problem.
I asked Microsoft why, and they said they do not know. Go figure, but the reply from my own host was simple:
Plain text emails with lots of hyperlinks trigger the spam filter, because usually lots of links are sent in HTML format. So I guess the answer is the opposite of 5 years ago when this would be acceptable to our filter.
So yeah, even yer email system is out of date, lol, how the Interwebs change.
I asked Microsoft why, and they said they do not know. Go figure, but the reply from my own host was simple:
Plain text emails with lots of hyperlinks trigger the spam filter, because usually lots of links are sent in HTML format. So I guess the answer is the opposite of 5 years ago when this would be acceptable to our filter.
So yeah, even yer email system is out of date, lol, how the Interwebs change.
still no new website...and nothing in the ubuntu software center...
I think it may be appearing in Software Center today. At least, Canonical told me something to that effect.
Plain text emails with lots of hyperlinks trigger the spam filter, because usually lots of links are sent in HTML format.
Guh. Ok, I guess we can start HTML-formatting then. That used to be a negative thing, for spam filters.
I also don't have DKIM implemented yet, which should help. But.. eh, too many projects, not enough time.
I think it may be appearing in Software Center today. At least, Canonical told me something to that effect.
Plain text emails with lots of hyperlinks trigger the spam filter, because usually lots of links are sent in HTML format.
Guh. Ok, I guess we can start HTML-formatting then. That used to be a negative thing, for spam filters.
I also don't have DKIM implemented yet, which should help. But.. eh, too many projects, not enough time.