Posted by Maus on 04/06
Yeah, I know asking for an ETA is verboten, but I don't suppose you
could tell us what still remains to be done? I mean, are there any
major hurdles left or does it just need to be coded and debugged. I'm
not asking for a time frame, I'm just curious what's left to do.
Maus.
From: Ton
Monday, April 05, 12:54PM
I think the problem with something like this is, the more you do, the
more you find things that have to be done along with it. I'd guess
that is why the time estimates over the years have always been wrong.
Of course I am speculating, but I think even if were were told what
was left to do, there would probably be lots of things popping up
that had to be done as well, that wasn't realized beforehand.
Then again, I could be way off.
From: LadyAce
Tuesday, April 06, 09:27AM
I'll try to summarize what we've said in the past -- believe me,
we're as anxious, if not more, for them to be done!
There are a few projects and steps which still need to be taken
care of. The major step right now is builder-affecting changes --
there was a small lag time between housing being finished and
housing areas being written -- and that lag will be even greater
for trees, so the coding department is trying to finish all the
changes which will affect builders, first -- so that builders can
work on their end, while the coders work on theirs.
Another major project which you'll hear us talk about is making
the code ready, organizing, and reorganizing -- with a big project,
worked on by stacks of people over a long period of time, things
can get pretty cluttered, despite all efforts to the contrary.
Remembering what's done, understanding how it was done, etc. can
take up a fair amount of energy.
We've been slowed down some by the recent bugs and crashing problems,
but I'm not sure by how much. The date we've discussed is "not by
February, but hopefully near to it" -- and thus it is admittedly
a long way off.
It's frustrating to wait, but this also means that the mud is
(hopefully) entering a period of relative stability -- none of
us want to put major work into some aspect of the code which is
going to be majorly re-worked a few months down the line. I think
the general goal is to continue to have the game fun and playable,
and try not to get too bogged down or too distracted by anything
other than the worst problems.
At any rate, there's my feel on where we stand -- doesn't cancel
anything Kaige or Ea might say :)
-LA
From: LadyAce
Tuesday, April 06, 10:51AM
The status of changing spam eq over to gradual...
I am not sure if it's coded, it may be, but the plan (as far as
I know) is to leave it as it is until trees come in and skills are
wiped. Imagine how frustrating it'd be if we rendered the skills
you rely on to be 'competitive' even more difficult to access than
what you already pay for in rent. Gradual stat changes will be
much much less painful when non-spamming combinations are more
flexible, and that's part of what trees will mean.
-LA
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