Have the devs ever considered allowing players with programming experience to volunteer their services to the game? It seems like several players are very knowledgeable with game design. It'd be cool if certain game development goals were assigned to certain players or teams of players.

I know some people keep multiple accounts active to support the devs, so I don't think it's a far stretch to say people would be willing to volunteer their time and programming skills.

I think some players already get to try out certain game features first on the test server. This would be an extension of that. LeberMac's UI ideas got me thinking about how much players could help and add to the game. Maybe this has already happened, I'm not sure. It just seems like a good way speed up development and to better the game.

I think this has already been discussed, and the bottom line was something akin to this:

It's very difficult, or rather, it requires lots of time and manpower to train a new employee to code independently (which would be a must), both of which are in short supply.

Or at least that's how I understood what the situation was/is.

The codebase is enormous and very complicated (C++ with crazy abstraction layers for cross-platform-ness). Coders would need to test their changes on at least 5 platforms (Win32, linux x86, linux amd64, Apple ppc, Apple x86, with my bet being that the devs will add Win64 and Apple amd64 at some point in the next year or two). All code would need to be checked to make sure it conformed to quality standards by a "real" dev. In short, what toshiro said.

Roguelazer;

You know what? That just increased my respect for the Devs even more. That they are able to not just become proficient in, but MASTER a programming setup that complex, furnish regular updates, and debug at the rate they do is nothing short of absolutely astonishing.

Bear in mind that what I DON'T know about programming would fill a vasty library, so maybe there's less magic then there appears to be, but from where I sit, slackjawed, this is a miracle of rare device.

EDIT: Ah poot. More than a week after posting this I realize I left the word DON'T out of the above paragraph. I know NOTHING about programming, and I'm sorry my slip gave the impression that I do.

~D.
"Nigel"

lua doesnt care what CPU you are using or how many bits it has.

PS guild are working on 'mission builders' so players can build missions.

Most of the "core" game isn't written in lua, though, ananzi. And missioned doesn't work for much now, since it can't handle money, faction, xp, cargo, or custom NPCs.

(although you raise a valid point- those who are curious should probably know that the AI for npcs and such is written in LISP and the scripting for missions, UI, and probably lots of other annoying things that C++ would be overkill for are written in LUA. Oh yeah, and the updaters are all written in platform native languages...)

The devs, when they get time, could put programming information about the game on the site. This might have to be an option that only certain players see when they log in. Players could try some jobs like writing the AI for a bot, if they know the language. Someone might come up with a break through.

That's a fine line to tread. The devs haven't released their game as open source, and have in no way hinted that they want to do so. Revealing such information could be dangerous.

I agree with Nigel, I am also very impressed with what Guild Software has accomplished. My programming knowledge wouldn't fill a library but I do it professionally and know enough to be impressed.

We'll see what the community is allowed with the rumored LUA api, maybe that will be just what we need to satisfy our urge to contribute and customize :)

Coordinating this (training, task assignment and deadlines, QA-ing and auditing anything that actually gets completed and sent in) would be absolute hell. I'd say (a polite) "Hell no!" if I were in their place.