Utopia Blog 29th July

[Lydias]

Please comment here on the Blog for this week!

[Fate1316]

first...........

So all we learn this week is.... nothing?

[Catwalk]

Roisin will be providing changes to the restart of WoL. These changes will announced on the forum.

This is the only comment that was made in response to massive questioning about this topic. Last age Roisin chose to implement random changes that weren't meant to be kept, as it was only a "short" round. Due to time pressure. Now we're under time pressure again due to poor planning, and we have yet another "short" round. I hope my concerns will be shamed by having a proper public feedback session about changes that are meant to propel the game forward rather than randomly stirring the pot, but not going to hold my breath. I also hope Roisin won't let her Genesis monarch dictate the changes again.

raiman: There was talk of inactives being tradeable, is that happening anytime soon?

That’s not planned for the first release of the new code.

Does this mean that there will be zero upgrades to the trading system? I think that's one of the things everybody had their noses up for, as the first version was poorly designed (and not subjected to public feedback before being implemented).

It certainly is easier not to be wrong if you say nothing at all. Hoewever, we’ve tried to keep the community as informed as possible and to be honest we doubt many people would have been happy about being kept in the dark about progress with the new code while there were few (if any) bugs being fixed in the old code.

I think you're missing the point completely, whether intentional or unintentional. We're quite happy that you're keeping us informed about the progress with the new code, to the best of your ability. And we understand that it's hard to make accurate estimates. What we do mind is you screwing around with the game to suit your own faulty time tables in the meantime. It would be perfectly possible to keep us informed about coding progress and simply keep Utopia running on the old code without resorting to "short" rounds and random changes that aren't intended to propel the game forward.

[VT2]

Is that your way of saying you're jealous that she's getting bossed around by someone who isn't you, catty?

[Fate1316]

This is the only comment that was made in response to massive questioning about this topic. Last age Roisin chose to implement random changes that weren't meant to be kept, as it was only a "short" round. Due to time pressure. Now we're under time pressure again due to poor planning, and we have yet another "short" round. I hope my concerns will be shamed by having a proper public feedback session about changes that are meant to propel the game forward rather than randomly stirring the pot, but not going to hold my breath. I also hope Roisin won't let her Genesis monarch dictate the changes again.

Also, shouldn't there be some sort of communication and planning between Roisin and B&S? I mean, shouldn't the upcoming age be used to set up for changes that will take place on the new code (assuming there actually will be some tweaks)?

[Kees]

Nah, jusr kick in some nice changes, when we go new code they stirr up again.

Avian Freaks FTW :D

[Catwalk]

Is that your way of saying you're jealous that she's getting bossed around by someone who isn't you, catty?

I explained this to you in another post. It was a struggle to get them to make changes at all, they were quite stubborn in insisting on doing no changes and assumed people would be okay with that. I didn't want to be given almost sole control over changes that first round, and I insisted that they make sure to be better prepared in future rounds. I'm very disappointed that didn't happen. I do think there's a difference between being unprepared the first time you're doing something and being unprepared the fourth time you're doing it. It was justified that OMAC didn't know how to handle round changes first round, I don't see it justified if they still don't know how to handle it.

I know you've missed me, but please keep the personal BS out of this thread. I'll go make a thread you can troll elsewhere.

[Dolgil]

From CW

What we do mind is you screwing around with the game to suit your own faulty time tables in the meantime. It would be perfectly possible to keep us informed about coding progress and simply keep Utopia running on the old code without resorting to "short" rounds and random changes that aren't intended to propel the game forward.

The best laid plans of mice and men often go astray. I doubt any of that was done on purpose.

Making a computer program is much like having a baby. It happens when it happens. It is moving forward and things have been better than a long age under the same rules. As for the changes in game play itself, we do have some forward changes. You are just too negative to see it.

1. There can be enough variety to support more than 6 races even if they share one thing in common with another.

2. Ditto for personalities.

3. The use of always on spells rather than just immunities.

4. Adding requested old races.

5. Testing another personality to replace freak.

[Palem]

I thought Sean and Brian were in complete control of Utopia and Roisin has moved on to 'other projects'...?

[VT2]

Obviously, things changed.
Are you surprised?

[Luth]

The short answer is that Genesis will end when we’re ready to move the new code into public beta. The Alpha testers have been making great strides finding bugs, and in the last ten days or so we’ve fixed the vast majority of them. We’ll be increasing the number of Alpha testers until we’ve used them all and the game is stable. We predict that this will take 2 - 2.5 weeks. Genesis will then be restarted on the new code and will be open to all.

omg, are you freaking kidding me??? promised 3-4 week age turning into a 20-21 week age? (most likely longer based on their track record) unbelievable. Just end Gen with WoL and keep it closed until the new code is ready.

*****

Katt: am I wrong about the loss of delete posts?

You’re right about that Katt. We lost the ability to delete individual posts in a thread. This wasn’t intentional, just a feature that accidentally got lost along the way. We’ll add it our to-do list.

I certainly hope this is added to your "to-do" list for the first release. you'll have a lot of people mutinying if you can't delete individual posts.

*****

Fundamentally the in-game forum has not changed very much. We’ve added new features - text formatting and a monarch censor button. The text formatting at least should be beneficial to users. We’ve accidentally dropped the post deletion feature, but we intend to add it back. Our attitude since the AR interview hasn’t changed at all. We’re happy to listen to suggestions and take advice on board. That doesn’t necessarily mean we’ll agree with that advice or indeed heed it. In this case the censor button is an additional feature - not something to be getting overly worked up about.

ok, so we should be able to. But you didn't answer my question of the functionality of the censor button? How is it going to work? we can go in and edit/censor anyone's posts as we see fit? delete their entire post (but obv leaving the "post" space there?) i still seriously dislike the use of the word "censor"... why not simply use edit? it has a much less negative connotation to it.

[tzar]

I seem to recall Roisin was going to move on, but only after Sean and Brian had done their stuff and got the new code up and running, not while they were doing it.

Just end Gen with WoL and keep it closed until the new code is ready.

I don't want to have a month without gen.

How is it going to work? we can go in and edit/censor anyone's posts as we see fit? delete their entire post (but obv leaving the "post" space there?)

I'm sure Bishop already answered this elsewhere, but I'll repeat it. You can't edit anyone else's posts, you can censor anyone's posts, the censor button just replaces their message with 'This message has been censored' and you have the option to uncensor the post, which brings back the original message.

[Palem]

Roisin will continue to look after the incumbent Delphi codebase until we finally replace it, at which point she’ll move on to other projects within Jolt.

Suppose you're right.

[Luth]

I seem to recall Roisin was going to move on, but only after Sean and Brian had done their stuff and got the new code up and running, not while they were doing it.


I don't want to have a month without gen.

I'm sure Bishop already answered this elsewhere, but I'll repeat it. You can't edit anyone else's posts, you can censor anyone's posts, the censor button just replaces their message with 'This message has been censored' and you have the option to uncensor the post, which brings back the original message.

1. We've had time without Gen before, why not now? We're gonna end up with a freaking 6 month age at this point, and it's just stupid.

2. If the censor button simply replaces their message, that's just stupid. I should have the ability to censor specific words if that's all that's wrong with the post. Sometimes a message may have completely legitimate and valid information in it, but if they've used inappropriate language, i might like to fix just the part that is offensive. not take out the whole post.

[tzar]

I like gen more than WoL, that's why I want to keep gen up. And I'm sure there would be some people who only play gen.

And luth, you basically want to be a forum moderator?