Kal and Appocomaster

I would just like to observe the following thing about the suggestions forum:

Although there are alot of ideas expressed here and briefly debated, very few indeed actually get processed in any way, shape or form. Most of the ideas that are actually accepted are not particularly origional or interesting in terms of the game, infact quite a few could fall into the the tweaks or upgrades category, rather than an actual brand new suggestion. From my point of view there are two reasons to this; the first is that the coding capabilities of the PA team are quite limited. Not only are the vast majority of things pointed out/suggested not able to be coded into the game mid-round, but the PA team really has very limited coding resources. My second reason for this lack of effectiveness is this forum has the inherent disadvantage of growing these ideas in the way a forum does. The whole discussion process is amature, slow, generally undirected/pointless, and often ends in a loss.

If we were able to fully establish an IRC channel dedicated to discussing, developing and harnessing the vast amount of creative brainpower in the PA community, I think that we could ATLEAST eliminate the latter of these two setbacks. I also think that in due course the lack of coding resources will be filled by people well qualified.

With this i propose a public developement channel on irc.netgamers.org and also offer my time to help out in anyway possible.

In order to make this work correctly, i think it would be wise to have a volunteer team sitting on the irc chan 24/7 and the ideas that get through the initial stage of developement get logged into this forum by a moderator for more public critique and discussion. i heavily believe in strong moderation of the forums to remove useless comments and consistently update thread heads to keep up with the progress of discussions. The problem is that most ideas are killed by lack of attention in these forums, stupid/ignorant comments by the public, and just general slowness. I think a combination of an irc sieve and discussion channel with a well moderated forum would greatly increase the opportunity for ideas to florish and grow.

useful and progressive thoughts only please, not subjective comments.

[Kloopy]

Firstly, I'm upset that you think I'm not well qualified. I've just spent 3 years at University and have 5 years of industry experience. :-(

Secondly, you'll get alot of people complaining that they can't get on IRC or that IRC is just as biased as the forums and that an IRC channel is very hard to moderate during discussion with lots of people.

However, igore those synics, I'm on your side and would like to see this happen. I have to go to work but I just thought I'd give this my support before I left.

Kloopy

Kloops!! I in no way meant to put down what you do. For a one man team it is a very impressive output, one only has to look at the additional features of this coming round that you put together in a matter of weeks to realise that. I just think that you could do with some help in your area, unless you believe you are up to the task of course... accepting assistance is in no way demeaning

I agree there are some organisational technicalities to this which would need to be discussed. I also believe that any serious budding developer for PA can come on IRC or ask someone he knows to present it for him.

Thanks for replying so soon

[NRG-izer]

ur idea is good fingers....but i heard it before.. did not alch start something like that in #pa ?

i think if u want to setup a team like that.. then it should be in the #planetarion channel and no where else..

cose when ur new on irc.. when u find the way.. what would be the first channel u look in ?

#grannypants?

[NRG-izer]

ur favorite place aye ? :P

[Appocomaster]

There was a development team set up, but it sort of lost it's way.

I came up with an idea a week or so ago, but I wasn't sure how popular it would be. I was considering announcing it, but ended up packing for university.

Also, we're currently reworking the suggestions forum. We're actually waiting for a couple of little things to happen, but in the end we won't actually have the accept/ decline system as such.

Most 'brand new origional cool' ideas aren't approved either because they will change Planetarion more than we're willing to change it (and to be fair, in the next 2-3 rounds, we will change/are willing to change some things quite a lot), or because we're thinking of something similar anyway and don't want to say "yes, we're planning along these lines" because we're unable to say things without clones coding them in as fast as we do. If we come out with all the new ideas that we want Kloopy to code before round 16/17, and then 2 weeks later 3 clones suddenly change their code to that, where are we left? And don't say it doesn't happen, because tbh it does.

[Razgriz]

I would say discusing a new idea or development to the game in irc would be a good idea. Although i think you'd get alot of people in the channel at one time all trying to speak at once which dosn't give muh hope of actually getting anything real done.

Maybe what is required is to have an idea or development to the game first approved by the PAteam for disscusion in the channel and give it a time slot in which it is to be disscused.

[Appocomaster]

Originally Posted by Razgriz

I would say discusing a new idea or development to the game in irc would be a good idea. Although i think you'd get alot of people in the channel at one time all trying to speak at once which dosn't give muh hope of actually getting anything real done.

Maybe what is required is to have an idea or development to the game first approved by the PAteam for disscusion in the channel and give it a time slot in which it is to be disscused.

If you didn't just read the link I made in my previous post, I suddenly feel far more justified than ever in posting it!

[Razgriz]

Nope i didn't lol! I'll be sure to have a look now though

[Razgriz]

Well what do you know.... i've just said what you said in the link Appoco lol

[Kal]

there will be lots of targeteted forums discussions in the coming weeks.

[Shyne]

Originally Posted by The Master

I also believe that any serious budding developer for PA can come on IRC or ask someone he knows to present it for him.

Part of the problem there is that the game is coded in perl.

Were it converted to PHP as is a possibility support would greatly increase.

I'm sure many people including myself would be willing to help ,and have offered to help in the past.

There is a major trust issue however in giving someone game code.

[Appocomaster]

People have to sign contracts to work - basically saying they won't disclose any code / information they find out when they're coding for PA, and that PA owns any code they produce. And that you can't be working on other related projects (like ********) while you're working for PA, just incase ideas start to "migrate".

[standalone]

I sent emails to both Kal and Kloopy about a week ago, offered off-site coding help, haven't received a response anyway. Don't get me wrong and this is not bragging but I would like PA could use my experience on the market.

I am always open to code module or library from scratch for PA since supplying the main code to a stranger is crazy.

[Kal]

Originally Posted by standalone

I sent emails to both Kal and Kloopy about a week ago, offered off-site coding help, haven't received a response anyway. Don't get me wrong and this is not bragging but I would like PA could use my experience on the market.

I am always open to code module or library from scratch for PA since supplying the main code to a stranger is crazy.

I have received no email....

what address did u send it to? amnd was the subject something sensible so I could see it through the spam?

[standalone]

Sent from "[email protected]" with subject "Contribution", to [email protected] and [email protected]

Resending now..