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Hi, I'm busy, so trying to make this brief (do I ever succeed at that?):
1) Capships will not be a panacea for anything. However, a number of people (including Lecter) have berated me in the past for not at least doing a minimal implementation so players can come up with their own uses for capships. That was always the biggest argument whenever I would say "but there's nothing to do with them yet". So, I am now attempting to support that "give it to the users" concept, along with giving us (the developers) a basic testbed of server-side issues, so we can deal with any problems that crop up when they're on a smaller scale, and hopefully accelerate the general timeline to broader and more interesting use of player caps.
2) There is a vision, and developer organization, but there is not enough time to go around. In the last year I've made a lot of choices to not do what I wanted to do (game development) and instead do what I believed was in the best interests of the company/game survival (business development). On the upside, the company is on track for what is by far our most financially successful quarter ever. All of which puts us on much better footing for getting back to game development, with better planning and less spastic direction-changes to drum up marketing and income.
3) There isn't a whole hell of a lot of work needed to make the game vastly better. Probably 6-9 months. A lot of it is more like fixing things that are there, or finding better/broader uses for existing mechanics, rather than developing all-encompassing New Stuff. I'm intimately aware of this fact, and made the conscious choice to do biz development (#2) instead of this game development, early last year. But, like I said, as a result of that choice our ability to come back to gameplay development (and do it the right way, without financial doom constantly hanging over our heads) is now vastly stronger. So, while the interim has been less-than-fun for all of us on the dev side, I'm currently ok with that decision.
Finally:
I don't blame people for being annoyed at how long things have taken. I won't bore you all with the behind-the-scenes drama from 2006-2010, or how Andy suddenly leaving catastrophically screwed us over, or my own screwups, or umpteen other challenges. Things are what they are, people can choose to have faith a little longer or not. The basic facts above are accurate, but whether an individual chooses to believe their respective issues/gameplay will be solved/improved in the timeframe desired is.. up to them. For what it's worth, I'm not a big fan of the delays either: I'm not even a game designer anymore.. I'm a sales-guy. I've been continually flying from place to place, selling "Vendetta Online" to big electronics companies to pre-install on their new devices; but I could just as well have been selling shoes, or widgets. So, I would really like to get back to designing and making games.
1) Capships will not be a panacea for anything. However, a number of people (including Lecter) have berated me in the past for not at least doing a minimal implementation so players can come up with their own uses for capships. That was always the biggest argument whenever I would say "but there's nothing to do with them yet". So, I am now attempting to support that "give it to the users" concept, along with giving us (the developers) a basic testbed of server-side issues, so we can deal with any problems that crop up when they're on a smaller scale, and hopefully accelerate the general timeline to broader and more interesting use of player caps.
2) There is a vision, and developer organization, but there is not enough time to go around. In the last year I've made a lot of choices to not do what I wanted to do (game development) and instead do what I believed was in the best interests of the company/game survival (business development). On the upside, the company is on track for what is by far our most financially successful quarter ever. All of which puts us on much better footing for getting back to game development, with better planning and less spastic direction-changes to drum up marketing and income.
3) There isn't a whole hell of a lot of work needed to make the game vastly better. Probably 6-9 months. A lot of it is more like fixing things that are there, or finding better/broader uses for existing mechanics, rather than developing all-encompassing New Stuff. I'm intimately aware of this fact, and made the conscious choice to do biz development (#2) instead of this game development, early last year. But, like I said, as a result of that choice our ability to come back to gameplay development (and do it the right way, without financial doom constantly hanging over our heads) is now vastly stronger. So, while the interim has been less-than-fun for all of us on the dev side, I'm currently ok with that decision.
Finally:
I don't blame people for being annoyed at how long things have taken. I won't bore you all with the behind-the-scenes drama from 2006-2010, or how Andy suddenly leaving catastrophically screwed us over, or my own screwups, or umpteen other challenges. Things are what they are, people can choose to have faith a little longer or not. The basic facts above are accurate, but whether an individual chooses to believe their respective issues/gameplay will be solved/improved in the timeframe desired is.. up to them. For what it's worth, I'm not a big fan of the delays either: I'm not even a game designer anymore.. I'm a sales-guy. I've been continually flying from place to place, selling "Vendetta Online" to big electronics companies to pre-install on their new devices; but I could just as well have been selling shoes, or widgets. So, I would really like to get back to designing and making games.
I understand Inc, but I also hope you understand why I no longer subscribe to VO. A lot has changed that kind of broke the game for me personally, but it did have to happen. The Universe redux in late alpha/closed beta was too much too soon, and it still is. People can say "So yoda, have you tried Border Skirmish?" but for me, it was too little too late.
I understand that in order for this game to survive, you guys have had to make certain choices that have slowed things down - development wise - but come on, CTC was one of my first loves in this new loonyverse, but yet it is still broken. Yeah, sure, it was added to try cover the old CTF in a hurry, but hell, some of us DID like it, just not the current (deli-borked) implementation. I know I know, I did always love the "get it out there and fix it later" idea you had, it just seems that the "get it fixed" bit never happens.
Anyway, glad to hear you had a good quarter, and hope this means there will be plenty of fresh meat around for me and people like me to scare off soon, heh.
I understand that in order for this game to survive, you guys have had to make certain choices that have slowed things down - development wise - but come on, CTC was one of my first loves in this new loonyverse, but yet it is still broken. Yeah, sure, it was added to try cover the old CTF in a hurry, but hell, some of us DID like it, just not the current (deli-borked) implementation. I know I know, I did always love the "get it out there and fix it later" idea you had, it just seems that the "get it fixed" bit never happens.
Anyway, glad to hear you had a good quarter, and hope this means there will be plenty of fresh meat around for me and people like me to scare off soon, heh.
yoda: yeah, I hear you. There's a lot of broken stuff that was left way too long, or not prioritized highly enough. And some of the areas that were more intentionally prioritized would have been pretty mystifying choices from the outside. Some were flat-out mistakes, but many had strange, convoluted realities behind them.
Anyway, we're here, life goes on, hopefully we'll make clearer progress in the coming months. We've lost a lot of players over the years, who weren't willing to wait, and I always understood/accepted their perspectives.
On the flipside, one of the things that has kept me around and running the company, even when things were really bad, was the intent to deliver on the original gameplay promises I made to the userbase back when we started out. I want to finish the thing I started, whether people are still around to see it or not. Call me excessively stubborn.
Anyway, we're here, life goes on, hopefully we'll make clearer progress in the coming months. We've lost a lot of players over the years, who weren't willing to wait, and I always understood/accepted their perspectives.
On the flipside, one of the things that has kept me around and running the company, even when things were really bad, was the intent to deliver on the original gameplay promises I made to the userbase back when we started out. I want to finish the thing I started, whether people are still around to see it or not. Call me excessively stubborn.
you're excessively stubborn!
but good thing you did stick around the genre itself is hanging from a few threads and VO is one of them ^_^
However I have been playing almost a year straight at this point and that has never ever ever happened in the over 8 years I have been around so clearly you are heading the right direction. I look forward to this year.
but good thing you did stick around the genre itself is hanging from a few threads and VO is one of them ^_^
However I have been playing almost a year straight at this point and that has never ever ever happened in the over 8 years I have been around so clearly you are heading the right direction. I look forward to this year.
@Waffles
I didn't come here to discuss really, just state my opinion.
So you are free to keep kicking my ass in this thread as long as you like, i don't care anymore. I have given up hope long ago (just about when i stopped subscribing VO).
I didn't come here to discuss really, just state my opinion.
So you are free to keep kicking my ass in this thread as long as you like, i don't care anymore. I have given up hope long ago (just about when i stopped subscribing VO).
You were around the game for only a few months before concluding that the devs never do anything. You are a shame to your statistics professor, if you had one. If you did not, then that explains some things.
On a completely unrelated note, I discovered Funyuns today. All is right with the world.
Roll on, Inc.
On a completely unrelated note, I discovered Funyuns today. All is right with the world.
Roll on, Inc.
I didn't come here to discuss really, just state my opinion.
That was always what I thought of you.
Roll on, Inc.
+1 :)
That was always what I thought of you.
Roll on, Inc.
+1 :)
Incarnate, if you weren't excessively stubborn VO would probably be dead by now. It's awesome to hear the company is actually sitting on a healthy(healthier?) margin and not suddenly about to go tits up.
Also, as a side note/thread hijack, turns out my sub(s) lapsed due to credit card funkiness a while ago. Is there any way I can totes lump sum the time it spent inactive to you guys? I didn't mean to, just a billing issue that slipped by.
Also, as a side note/thread hijack, turns out my sub(s) lapsed due to credit card funkiness a while ago. Is there any way I can totes lump sum the time it spent inactive to you guys? I didn't mean to, just a billing issue that slipped by.
Scuba: Well, that's awfully kind of you to offer. If you make a Customer Support ticket we can give you one of the PayPal accounts if you want. I know we have quite a few people who support us whether they play or not (which is something else that has kept me around), and as a result have helped us weather some serious downturns; but I still feel a bit odd about you sending us money for time you clearly didn't spend playing the game :). Still, it's up to you, and I appreciate the thought either way.
I also think this thread has probably about lived out its intended use, so I think I'll lock for now.
I also think this thread has probably about lived out its intended use, so I think I'll lock for now.