Discovery Gaming Community

Warning - philosophical word vomit incoming.

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I've spent the past few weeks thinking about my position in Discovery. For better of worse I have been a monumentally influential figure both publicly and behind the scenes on both a factional and developmental level. And for the most part, when no outside input was required, I did nearly all of it myself. Effects, models, reskins, hardpointing, storyline input, the occasional system edit, diplomacy, krieg, writing, and perhaps most of all the exhausting but rewarding job of instilling esprit de corps within the ranks.

I'm nearly 24 now. Without too many details (those of you who need to know, know anyway), I've gotten off to a relatively late start in life. Since spring I have been busier than I have ever been, and in writing this I'm acknowledging my new role in Discovery as a whole. I no longer have the time, and most importantly the motivation, to operate in the manner that I once did. I come home from work and immediately crash, spend six straight hours chilling with my girlfriend, or hop on a game that doesn't require more work. I've thought about leaving, but that doesn't solve much of anything either - I gain free time, but also lose a large part of myself in the process. I've also constantly been working on something since I was 15. Unless I have personal projects here and there I go nuts, or fall into a pretty awful depression. With this in mind, there is only one clear and obvious answer remaining.

I'm going to have to crowdsource. I need people I can trust in places I don't trust anyone. I need help with everything ranging from secretarial duties on a faction based level ("Go respond to this comm, go initiate diplomacy with faction X, take folks raiding today, arrange event Y), to help with advanced developmental work. ("Go smoothgroup this model, makes these ini changes, make sure project Z gets done on time.")

The truth is that I'm a little bit of a control freak. I've lambasted a lot of important figures in Discovery both historical and present for doing the same thing (Zelot, Mjolnir, Teerin, and Alley all come to mind), but I'm just as guilty on that count. One trait I've always prided myself on is the ability to acknowledge my flaws, and right now the undeniable fact is that my decade long modus operandi is no longer tenable. If anyone reading this thinks they can help in any, and I do mean any way, post here and I'll do my best to get you set up with whatever needs doing. The only exception is people who I've turned away in the past. If I've done that, then there is a reason. I'm looking for fresh blood here, new names, not old.

If there's someone around who can do stuff, why not offload workload? I outsourced Nomad-related infocards to Foxglove cause he knows more about Nomads.
I guess you'd have to be more specific on what it is you need doing that you don't have time/motivation for.

I think a good step into the right direction would be to sort of publish a more up-to-date package of all modding tools. Like, Swallow's tool package is good, but getting the right 3dsmax 2008 version and all the plug-ins you showed in the dev-stream is pretty hard. If we could have linked it in the same way the Freelancer copy is linked, stuff would be more accessible for newcoming modders. Many are interested, many are instantly pulled back to the floor of reality when facing 5000 threads on Lancer's Reactor (when it's online) and the Starport, thousands of outdated tutorials that got killed by image hoster changes and destroyed formatting and outdated tools. The Dev-Streams are a good way to start it, and I thought about streaming some of my little projects as well, as people like told me they are very interested in modding, but I have not nearly as much experience as you or Treewyrm or other people have. All I can do is editing .ini, creating unique systems, retexture ships and starspheres and THN cutscenes.

I'll happily help with infocards. I've been offering for three years.

I would love to see cargo requirements of all equipment listed in its respective infocard. I would be happy to do that.

In general, just tell us what needs/could be done and we will see, whethr we are able to help with it. Im sure there is tons of stuff, that does not require years of experience to do.

(10-31-2017, 11:59 AM)Karst Wrote: [ -> ]I guess you'd have to be more specific on what it is you need doing that you don't have time/motivation for.

Everything. That's the problem. Literally everything is a part of my job description here to some extent aside from system dev (but I'm a good sys dev, remember? >_>)

teach me things and i can do things (ranging from hardpoints to ini editings, i already know about inis. Just need to learn proper modelling, hardpointing and systemdevving), somehow i manage to have alot of free time

I have lots of free time and I can do the basic "paperwork" (Ini editing and spreadsheet math stuff) I'd love also to help in the PvP aspect, as it is my passion. You know what they say about those who take their work with passion.

Just about everyone but Shooter and Sean (who messaged me on skype) missed the point sadly. I don't need idea guys, we don't need more thoughts on the table. I need people to help with work load, not add to it, and that's all more ideas do. We've got a well rounded balance team at the moment. As for infocards I'll communicate with Teerin on that to see if he'd be okay with having me crowdsource some less important stuff.

just make a thread with what you need done and let peoples volunteer for each task, its something that could be done in more areas since most of the staff must have the same issues(ie: real life, more so adulthood )