+- Discovery Gaming Community (https://discoverygc.com/forums)
+-- Forum: Discovery Development (https://discoverygc.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?fid=7)
+--- Forum: Discovery Mod General Discussion (https://discoverygc.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?fid=37)
+--- Thread: Focus of Mod Development (/showthread.php?tid=83317)
Focus of Mod Development - Slainte - 07-06-2012
Back when i was faction lead at Gateway a Dev team member asked me " What would you like to see change for the storyline and mod for Gateway? "
I gave it some thought and discussed this in our skype channel with the other members and then replied.
The thoughts we returned where, in our eyes, not big but i dread to think of the work even a small faction like Gateway can stir up for the Dev team.
Now think about everyones mod changes, especially the big factions, and the amount of work, even in theory, the dev team and storyline team have to do!!
I have nothing but great admiration for Friday and his team in this task as, for sure, they wont be able to make everyone happy.
The Official Faction Leader Chat is just one small step in the teams efforts and should be applauded.
Focus of Mod Development - Govedo13 - 07-06-2012
Ironwastas is old and respected member of this community and he raised some valid points. However Friday is one of the better people around this community- everyone is biased and it is np.
Valid point is that Dev team in its current form have closed forum and all other members are somewhat excluded from the Development- there are tons of easy quick and dirty tasks that everyone that could use computer properly can do- such dirty tasks are in most cases time consuming and not funny so the devs just ignore them- however they are important:
Quote:http://discoverygc.com/forums/index.php?sh...0bases&st=0If you see it requires 5 min dev time to fix it- to add 5-6 bribes to the base npcs and to add the depots- it is easy task that is really rewarding because it would safe a lot of frustration for the players. You got the auto-updater- where is the problem to fix it in one minor update?
here is small example how to fix the freelancer rep by adding freelancer bribes on junker/zoner stations and 5-10 freelancer depots near the 2 freelancer bases- so you wont need to hunt stupid npcs all around Sirius loosing hours in order to get the damn IFF, not to mention that the Freelancer base in Koeln does not offer double freelancer bribe.
On the other hand why there is no clear and easy tutorial how to add ships in the mod- there are only requirements listed.
Ok after this being said-Devs should include in their work the willing and more experienced members that can mod- how?
Not by using Skype only but by opening their ticket system allowing normal members to do fixes for it- mind that the whole community can brainstorm better then just a bunch of people- if you concentrate your efforts in writing more step by step tutorials and controlling the quality of the work , if you take more direct feedback like AD made with the Rephack system everyone would be more happy and the Mod development would move forwards a lot faster.
Second example- all JumpDrives and Cloaks and all base produced Items need major rebalancing- instead of brainstorming alone how to fix them you could just make proper form that people can fill- without spam and personal remarks etc- after having 20-30 options so you could easy find out the best balanced solution.
So my idea is not to make the development more faster - it is impressively fast right now and unfinished/unbalanced/unsynchronized as result with many small but very annoying things:
1 Gbs are overpowered-simple primary turret rotation decrease and speed decrease could fix it- Primaries are better then Solaris and Cerberius- all 3 turrets types need rebalance to have pros and cons.
2 Bases are not killable without battleships- most factions does not posses such.
3 All jumpdrives are not balanced properly- one of the Surveys Infocard says that transports can use it but it is not possible, only battleships can jump alone etc..
4 Cloaks are not balanced properly- only battleships and transports could use them efficient and there is no counter to them, people abuse the CD tracking bug big time and the list goes on.
5 You added Docking Modules but you haven't added specified rule set about the- and it is very much needed.
I hope you get my point.
Focus of Mod Development - Garuda - 07-06-2012
Updating or Upgrading stations, NPCs and Bribes is easy.
Simple, just add or change some lines in the Files, a few ingame tests.
Needed time?
Maybe 30 Minutes.
Example 1:
A bit modified Braunschweig.
![[Image: Troll-2.jpg]](http://i969.photobucket.com/albums/ae172/Honky-Trolly/Troll-2.jpg)
Time: 1 Hour, plus infocard stuff.
Example 2:
Adding a Renzu Liner.
IND System.
http://i969.photobucket.com/albums/ae172/H...n/screen554.jpg
Time: 20 Minutes, only a few changes in the system config.
Quote:Especially considering 95% of the memberbase here doesn't want to do any work on the mod, nor takes any effort to teach themselves how to mod the game.
Not really easy, because the tutorials are stupid, not easy to understand and really huge with more "if or could." For Infocards, I searched two days for a proper tutorial and found finally one on Starport. Hidden between six hundred other threads.
My guess, the hardest part in modding something, is the balance and make the users and players happy.
Edit: I wish, I could face lift a few things. As an example, Braunschweig, Chester, Salisbury. Dunno, why the Libby navy got such a beautiful system and the others only a empty one with an Asteroid Field and one or two Planets.
Focus of Mod Development - Ironwatsas - 07-06-2012
For the case of bias; I may have been unclear in that I am not merely calling Friday 'biased', I am afraid he will try to actively impose things upon factions they do not want. As has been done in the past by others, and as both Friday and Zelot tried to do to one another (See: GMG/Kusari war and the pair's respective administration over Kusari). Are other members of the devteam biased? Yes. Absolutely. If Mjolnir were placed as storyline head I would be displeased as well.
Point is, I am not pleased with the admin team's decision and I will not pat people on the back for this.
The good thing, as Dab said, is if the Devteam is going on with smaller updates and quicker dev cycles, then this is excellent. Exactly what I believe is needed. Quick patches which add things like new ships, guns, or bugfixes one at a time would probably make it a whole lot simpler.
The main problem now is, who decides what content gets added, and how we as players get a say. Many of the discussions of such go through PMs or Skype chats between individuals, with no real discussion on what is planned to happen, and a good chunk of the server population is left in the dark until the updates hit. I believe that there should be some exposure to the nuts-and-bolts of what is to be.
What is to become of the NPC factions with no current official representation, how will this affect non-factionalized players or groups, how and why will certain ships and equipment points be moved. There needs to be more present forum representation on just what the devteam intends to do so players can make input.
Will some of the input be trolls? Of course. Pay no attention to them.
Focus of Mod Development - ProwlerPC - 07-06-2012
Don't mistake Friday for me.
I WAS THE ONE LEADING GMG| FRIDAY WASN'T EVEN IN MY COUNCIL AS I WARRED WITH KUSARI LIKE 3 TIMES AND HE WAS FURIOUS WITH ME.
Friday only now sits as Guild Master of GMG only AFTER I STEPPED DOWN.
also I'm an admin alongside Zelot.....conspiraceh?
DELETE - SnakThree - 07-06-2012
DELETE
Focus of Mod Development - Linkus - 07-06-2012
The community is left in the dark for good reason.
Other mods such as Freeworlds announce their development intentions etc and that's all well and fine, it's great for the community too.
Discovery is not Freeworlds though. Our community is vastly larger and thus has the potential to literally tear itself apart, as Freeworlds once did to itself.
The reason it happened to Freeworlds was a combination of things but disagreements on the future development of the mod was a key one and something that Discovery would be very susceptible to.
We already have dozen page long rage threads about changes after they happen, imagine how many would appear if folks knew what was happening before we did it?
If you have good ideas, post them.
Devs do appreciate the community's help and support, after all the mod is built for the community.
That said, you often won't get a dev posting yay or nay, or even saying their thoughts sometimes, as they don't have the final say most of the time, nor have the dev team decided on it or discussed the ideas.
Then there's also the fact that these threads can turn into massive things full of content to work through - a daunting task for anyone.
I echo what Dab and Echo have said.
Factions currently have been asked to put forward their thoughts/suggestions/plans for the storyline and they have a good month to do it.
Don't worry terribly about bias, we all have it.
Much like courage though, it's not the lack of fear that matters, it's the ability to deny it and carry on anyway.
Focus of Mod Development - Swallow - 07-06-2012
Who is model lead? - it is the only question currently worrying me.
Focus of Mod Development - HuggieSunrise - 07-07-2012
Also as friday has observed with a few of the omicron factions and gallia and kusari millitary.
The factions can work together to plan.. in fact i think working together to keep things freash and fun for each others sake goes a long way.
making devs aware of each other RP is our job as faction leads as well, cause honestly theres too many folks on for them to have thier eye on everyone.
Focus of Mod Development - Camtheman - 07-07-2012
Quote:Secondly, putting all of the storyline power in the hands of one man, a man who runs one house, several regionally concentric factions within said house, and whom I will continue to strongly suspect has bias and/or an agenda, creates a problem. Igiss was forgivable to do so as again, it was his mod, but he's gone now so it's time to think outside the box. A more open architecture and dynamic means of story development is needed.
Thirdly, faction and player activities should have more bearing on overall storyline. If a micro-update scheme is implemented, that would be a bit easier. The player-base system, and some of the new rule changes are steps in the right direction, but a broader ability for dynamic faction interaction with the world is needed. The current scheme tends to railroad some factions into unwanted situations, or in a few cases, invalidate their RP altogether.
Agree 100%
It's not really a player controlled mod, we're just acting out on a stage with a prewritten script.
Did you see what happened to Rhienland and Bretonia when they dared to deviate?
They each lost a station to their respective opposing forces.
I'd have kept going, personally, untill only 1 of our bases remained.
That'd only work for so long.
Not to mention the wholly fantastic flop of Gallia, and how nobody likes it nor inhabits its many systems and everyone only goes there to get commodities for their bases.
Quote:We already have dozen page long rage threads about changes after they happen, imagine how many would appear if folks knew what was happening before we did it?
Yes, there would be those.
Perhaps more, but there's always that lock button, you know.
Making changes without any community input increases the chance the changes will never be redacted.
Hence, Cruise drain.
Hence, model replacements.
It takes more work to continue censorship, than to end it.