Discovery Gaming Community

What's the most hilarious thing that's ever been said in the dev chat?

I wish I had a good answer for this. There are enough jokes and banter that we've considered making a duplicate dev chat for spamming, but haven't gotten around to it yet. Over the years the people and themes of jokes have come and gone, so it's hard to recall any singular best. Echo, Durandal, and I used to make plenty of conspiracy/illuminati jokes in the story chat. When Blodo then Alley ran the dev team, a number of devs at the time were huge Game of Thrones fans (the chat picture is Tyrion to this day) and made numerous references. When the others voted for me, they started chanting "King in the North"

am i the nicest person you know?

That goes to a friend of mine inRL, sorry.

What in the developers opinion is the most vital aspect of a SRP? (You can respond in this text.)

Our chief aspect is feasibility ... feasibility and lore-compliance.

Lore-compliance and feasibility. Our two aspects are lore-compliance and feasibility ... and sufficient supporting roleplay.

Our three aspects are lore-compliance, feasibility, and sufficient supporting roleplay ... and an almost fanatical devotion to the special roleplay request regulations.

Our four -- no, amongst our aspects ... amongst our aspects are such elements as lore-compliance, feas -- I'll come in again.

What was the nature of your relationship with ? Did it have an impact on your appointment as the lead dev?

You can answer in my post, to keep the place tidier.

Alley and I go back a long way. We met in 2012 in the [LN], where she jokingly played David Hale's ( 's) younger sister (amongst other characters) and eventually made it to the HC. The other members of the Admiralty at the time soon then became inactive, leaving her as Vice Admiral the only one (out of five) active for the span of a few weeks. She enlisted the help of (Captain at the time) and myself (only a Lieutenant) thinking I was already mid-command and proven leadership. Okay. Eventually and returned to activity while the others, including Alley, left the faction. Sarah led for a year, then Justin for two and a half months, then me for seven, but I digress.

Fast forward a bit. I was made a full member of the dev team in spring 2015, about the time that (from my perspective as Echo's assistant) Blodo was ebbing into inactivity and Alley somehow found herself in charge. She did not seem to have wanted it. In mid November, she announced that she would be leaving and advised that we vote for the next lead developer. A few devs weren't around, but the rest unanimously voted for me, and Alley was content with the result. Since then we've chatted a bunch, gone through misunderstandings and arguments, and made jokes about the various goings-on. I've spoken to her far more than other previous lead developers such as Blodo and aerelm, and I never personally met Cannon or Igiss.

Disclaimer: due to the passage of time and also the limits of my perception from the events described, the accounts detailed above may not be wholly precise.

I have responded to all questions up until this post. I liked the directions that these went in and enjoyed rambling on (I figure that more details were better than less) in my replies. Please continue to ask away!

If my remarks were overly humorous when you intended upon receiving a more serious answer, please let me know and I'll revisit it. I enjoy some lightheartedness but seriousness is also important.

Thanks for answering. While I don't necessarily agree with system design choices from a level design-POV (as for example the avoidance of a cliché is a bad excuse to not reward players for exploration, either with content or at least a very nice view), it does explain a few decisions, like the Omicron Kappa merge.

I forgot to mention how system redesigns are handled. We usually approach systems with antiquated or awkward compositions and seek to reduce clutter, tedious travel, F2-and-forget travel, and inconvenient/annoying-to-reach bases. Sometimes lane systems must also be tweaked. Obvious symmetries are to be avoided, but there is an art in having traffic flows match or reflect in a hidden way.

What is your opinion on the amount of systems in general, what kind of systems would you anticipate to see more of, if any (like Blind Jump-only accessible systems, dungeon-like Deeper Omicrons, temporary accessible event systems, the purple nebula seen from the Taus in Vanilla, etc) and where do you see the need for a system removal/merge/addition?

Continuing off the previous comment, some of my personal favorite redesigns (both to work on, and to see in-game) are Omega-58 (4.88.6) Newcastle (4.89.1), Burgundy (4.89.1), Omicron Chi (4.89.1), Frankfurt (4.89.2), and Hiroshima (4.89.2). Omega-54 and OMega-55 will see some nice tweaks for 4.90.1 too, which I'm looking forward to.

To more directly answer this, I feel that the present number of systems are fine. We're considering cutting one, maybe adding another, but the bulk cuts stopped with 4.88. If any of the various personal projects to bring Freelancer to a new game engine are completed, and Discovery is brought over, we might seek to cut or merge half a dozen more systems during the platform switch.

As for blind jumps / events, we'll eventually finish "Uncharted" systems for each region that have unique qualities and dangers.

What is your version of background about the Omicron Kappa/Omicron-74 merge inRP? This question is very interesting to me as the Zoners are currently forced to deal with this, from-the-looks, makeshift solution for the sake of getting rid of the Omicron-74 system.

As with many former guard/excess systems, the merge of Omicron-74 into being a part of Kappa is one that has the unfortunate "retcon" label. Like Soledad from Omicron-81 being in Omicron-80 (Tau) and the LPI stuff from Illinois going into Colorado, they were just always there. Don't think of it as "getting rid of 74" since we effectively "got rid of Kappa" at the same time; the result of the merge just ended up using the name of the latter system (although 74 is still valid). It's a side-effect of the 4.88 system culls but done in a process meant to do as little harm as possible to existing player roleplay. Players and player groups need only adapt to the new surroundings.

Do you think Discovery is making good progress or do you look back missing features/content/gameplay/systems/nudes of older versions of the mod, as many people for example claim 4.85 was better.

Discovery has made great progress. I more often hear that if the population the server had from 2010-2013 had the dev team of 2014+, we might still have it, but "oh woe 4.85" will always remain due to rose tinted glasses.

In rough order: there are more features, thoroughly made content, faster large updates (3 updates/1 year instead of 1 update/1.5 years), better networked systems (you can dig up some old Sirius maps; compare to current), and Edison Trent's nudes are hotter than ever. We apologize for the persistent bugs with Juni. And personally, my favorite is still King.

What is your personal opinion on PoBs, Cloaks, Jump Drives and what kind of special equipment, if any, would you like to see added to the mod?

Radar Jammers. Basically low-quality cloaks that block your ship from the targets list and from being selected, but you're still visible to the naked eye.

What ship classes do you prefer to fly, and what are your favourite systems and what is your favourite planet?

Bombers (strictly anti-cap), freighters (sneaky/smuggler), VHFs (traditional), transports (esp. 'roided up Liners), LFs (for insane mine spamming fun; don't tell Justin), HFs (mostly because the UC VHF still isn't done; DO tell Justin), and occasionally SHFs (for lolz). My training in capital warships is sadly lacking, so I've barely flown any. I used to have three gunboats and I was okay in an anti-snub capacity.

My favorite systems are Provence, Burgundy, Tau-23, Omega-41, Coronado, and probably a few others. Planets? Nice for starters, but I've always liked Denver as well. Tomioka and Darlington are pretty cool as well.

Are you Spartacus?

I am Spartacus! I see you've been paying attention. Are you stalking me?

He'll be 101 soon though, which is neat.

What is your personal opinion on the Gallic War?

It gave Discovery a fifth House dynamic. There are only so many permutations of wars that Liberty, Kusari, Bretonia, and Rheinland could've had with each other before everyone got sick and tired of it far sooner. Now they're a bit exhausted of the GRN maybe, but that's okay, we have plans (bandit)

What kind of roleplay do you value the most, what are your favourites (as in genre, not who's doing the best)?

Roleplay with no foregone conclusion in mind at the start is my favorite and most valued "genre". In-character goals are fine, as long as the roleplay isn't a chore to only achieve it. Too many people abandon or get upset with roleplay if their dreams are challenged, but you're not just writing a story; you're playing a character who has an ongoing role to fulfill in it. Knowing how it's all going to end is a form of metagaming, and planning exactly how it will end is a form of powergaming.

As for themes, I like reading intrigue and Discovery™ (pardon le pun), because you (the reader) are trying to figure out things at the same time as the character(s). Incidentally, I'm a big fan of AKA 's works. When I'm writing, I like to write imperfect people. None of my characters are optimal for their roles. One has a huge problem with authority figures, another is outright dumb, one has a mean streak in them which hampers their movement.

Brief tangential leap into the philosophical ... For the PvPers out there who insist all PvP is RP, try RPing a character who is bad at PvP. It's an interesting twist to fly as someone who doesn't match your OOC personal skill at Freelancer combat. And if all your characters fly at your best, is it really roleplay, or technically a suspension of roleplay as you just fly as yourself?

How do you feel, as Lead Dev, about the 'frequent' changes within the Dev-Team, Admin-Team and Faction Leaders? Do you think Faction Leaders should have more or less influence? What do you expect from Player Factions and their leaders and what would you like to see less from them?

People come and go, sadly. I miss a lot of the people I used to work alongside in the lemon team and across the citrus divide in the limes and oranges. I'd try to name them all, but it'd be a long list and I'd forget someone then feel bad about it. As I commented on Laz's post, there's a tremendous amount of talent and knowledge that leaves when a good staff member does. And everyone knows about "the bad guys" who they're grateful to see leave, but it's not always as black and white as that.

Faction leaders having more or less influence? Both. Some don't make an effort to contribute ideas or advice for how their faction could grow when approached by the story devs. Some try to be controlling and demand to have to approve every tiny little change. Others try shooting themselves / their faction in the foot with artificial limitations or desires to go back to ye grande olde days when they had a huge guard system with lore breaking infocards and on and on ...

We've changed a lot of plans based on player input, and continue to do so. Ideally, group leaders, representative, and other lore-knowledgeable folks who we consult should keep an open mind to new things and be creative with solving problems. Show some proactivity in advancing your faction AND region. Don't be afraid to say no, yet don't be afraid to be told no. That's part of how I got started.

Do you think systems profit from having a large obstacle ( sun ) in the center of them for the sake of realism?

Navmaps are arbitrarily placed upon a system. They don't have to be heliocentric. That said, having obstacles between jump points and other objects of interest is a useful mechanic to have.

Do you think vanilla-asset only jump holes are a good or just a temporary makeshift solution?

You mean jump holes that are fighter/freighter only, or all-but-transports? In certain spots, they work very well, and they allow us to connect systems (such as Alaska to Omicron Sigma) in ways that simultaneously reinforce lore, benefit gameplay, and not hurt the economy.

How do you as Lead Dev see current server events, the small ones as well as the big ones?

They're great for activity. I propose lore-affecting and storyline-important event ideas to Sindroms a lot but he's a busy man, so they're often delayed.

I hope the questions are worded neutral enough, they are based on honest curiousity.

They're good questions.

Serious: What choice do you most regret making as a dev?

It's hard to say this without trial by forum. Not personally reviewing a certain amount of work that was done and put in just around when I became lead dev and getting my footing. It resulted in some consternation and confusion until it was fixed, and even still something occasionally crops up.

Non serious: kiss, marry, avoid, strangle - dev edition, who applies to what (^:

I was going to answer this, but that's too much blackmail in one go.

do you think one of the houses should be deleted ??

No.

do you think someone should eventually win the corsair-outcast war ?

If one side wins it will be through opportunism / survival, as the other is crushed by some foreign power. Which would first require that a foreign power have the ability to concentrate entirely on them, and the motivation to do so. So it's not likely.

hello,

I have a serious question to ask concerning a base.
I would want to change it system, membership and identification for a better placement offered by a big faction under the shape of a protectorate.

I spent hours and hours to maintain it, but according to change of sirius, the base is no more attractive for anybody, it is too much far from everything, on no commercial road, the other one bases than I had built to facilitate the supply was destroyed so much so that now I do not see more than this solution, to move the base.

i think, i can answer with different proofs, protectorate proof, time spent, etc etc

i don't like the idea to lose the base, i would prefer to see it a live for long time again. for now with my principal supplier since my fleet destruction + than 200 hours for the other chars i have to retrieve the screen i made 1 time in past.

i'm here for more détails if needed. i supply it since 4 or 5 years

thanks by advance, and thanks for your time

NoMe

You seem to be referring to a Player Owned Base. Moving, changing IFFs, and renaming of POBs is an Admin task. And to my knowledge, they only do so in special circumstances.

Will you continue to be a dev in the future?

Yes. Eventually my real life circumstances might require me to retire, but if that happens I will step down rather than suddenly vanish or rudely leave. By this I mean ensuring that my replacements have the ropes, and leaving one position (lead dev and story department head being separate) at a time.

How ya doin? :p

I am doing quite well. There is a big holiday in the States tomorrow. I am prepared to dress fancy and consume a ton of food because of it.