Goodbye to you all.....

[Amethyst]

I think the majority want a level playing field on the play server. I've witnessed a few exploits and it just imbalances the game. Tinkering with game mechanics, free loot - especially uber-items, credit shortcuts and xp exploits all serve to worsen the game experience for people doing it the correct way.

[Mimir[IS]]

I would like to have you all step back just a bit, call a “do over” and think about what is going on here. Obviously there are as many opinions on how or what should be done for the future of the EnB Emulator project as there are Devs.

This seems to happen about every eight months or so, decisions made and Devs lost due to differences in opinions. The last Dev exodus was due to the decision to not release the db, as I remember.

I think one person stepping up and taking charge is an absolute necessity at this stage to get the project to fruition. But can we really afford to lose Devs? Any Devs on the project?

I therefore suggest a forum, a Democratic or Parliamentary vote system be put into effect as soon as possible, so we don’t lose the brain trust that is so vital to this project.

Anyone who has been elevated in standing from player to Beta, Beta+, GM, Grand GM, Dev, etc. has been given that position for their abilities and their shown value to the project.

It seems that it would be easy to implement. The Big Kahuna, proposes a change, the EnB elite are given x amount of time to vote and or express their opinions of the proposed change. (via email?)

A healthy discussion could be had on the pros and cons of the proposed change.

Bottom line, even if someone lost their way of doing things in this situation, they would not likely think that he/she had had no say.

Something to think about?

Let’s not have a total melt down here.

[dcwestby]

At some areas, I agree with the last poster.

However, I was there around the time development started to take shape. One thing to me was really clear at that time. The main overall theme was To follow the original plan of the original developers as much as possible. This means that a great deal of stress was put on Being accurate with using screenshots of mission dialogs that anyone had to share. Also thru those screen shots, attempting to reconstruct the sectors as much as possible with the navmaps of the sectors.

But the two things I remember most about this redevelopment was Storyline and keeping the design feel of sector navs to whoever had the area sphere of influence.

It is only natural that people have different ideas. Sadly when we try to mesh those ideas into one cohesive plan, there can and will likely be friction.

Come on, remember the past during Live. We were all players then. Remember the frustrations we all had with EA and the devs back then. When things get rather lively and tempers are starting to rise, please step back, remember your time as a player on live in the time of EA.

Things have been progressing along smoothly and doing really well in terms of game progress and content, but that can only continue if we all work together on this. Devs and players alike. It is after all, the players job to give feedback to those volunteering their free time as devs, and we all need to keep that in mind.

The Goal must be constantly in all our minds. The Goal points toward the eventual point that earth and beyond is ready as a game again. There was a comment in the game last night about how this is essentially a second beta. In some respects, that is true, for this as we have it now is loads better then it was in Live, even with the bugs and anomalies that we players tolerate amazingly well.

Some view the position of a dev as being all powerful, I dont believe this is the case. Those who want to contribute to the game for the purpose of adding to the game based on what they know of the storyline and their ideas for such, More power to them as they should be assisting in the development of this game in some form.

Those who see the dev position as some sort of "god power control" should not be on the team. Please, if you are on the development team, then you should be working on the aspect of the game you were given to do, not trying to bully or control others. As an aside to that, I feel that we the players should report any sort of obvious abuse of power that they may see a dev of GM do. There is no need for us players to tolerate any sort of flagrant "unwarranted display of power", if you witness such a display, I think the Team should hear about it.

We need to be self policing on the game and on the forum. We need to keep in mind that the devs were once players like us and are doing this because of their own love for the game and the players dedication to this game. To that end, we must keep in mind that there are a billion different perspectives and views with those who do play this game, but we all should have a basic idea of what is bad.

Why did I write all this? Some of you may ask, its all in being observant of the things going on around you. This should be fun and enjoyable for both players and devs. Let's all sit back, relax, take a step back from the situation, and play the game that all of us are assisting in developing [when its online that is].

[Guest Seeker]

In any software development set up I've beeen involved with (professional, RL) ...

there is typically a staging or a development machine (or cluster) and the live/external-facing server for testing, and ultimately, the production or live server.

as a software developer in my organization, I have full power access to the deve server, limited access to the testing (mostly just to push content there) and view only access to the production server.

The development leads or branch manager authorizes and moves the successfully tested content from testing to live.

I haven't got much time to comment further on this right now - but this is being said from a practical standpoint as a developer, not with respesct tothe exact drama going on here.

Just some insight as to why permissions might be locked down for some folks.

[webtraveler]

While I am a player and not a dev, I have worked in IT previously and it is extremely important for devs to have a dev server(s) away from a player (i.e. Live/production) server. Coding and testing should be done away from the player server as the player server MUST remain stable for the entire community at all costs. A bad database command or program code update can take a server into ruins to the point that the only one that knows what happened sometimes doesnt even realize they did it. This sometimes will require a restore from backup, and during this time the servers are OFFLINE to the players, and for those non-IT peeps reading this that like to play, if devs have full control of the play server, a severe server crash due to a unintentional mistake would be a matter of when, not if.

Bring in Game Masters (GM). These usually are support staff that use pre-coded programs that are built by devs to fix code issues on the "player" server. These are executed/run by GMs to assist players with known issues, and if built right they can report data/code back to the dev team and run pretested error captures each time they are used. This allows devs to identify common issues and their frequency without being involved one on one constantly with players that may be reporting problems that do not exist. One of the GM duties is to filter these reportings to not waste a devs time. There will "always" be a few bugs in the game that require GM assistance as long as contining development of the code exists. As players we must understand this, as devs they attempt to minimize this.

EXTREME KUDOS to ALL the DEV and SUPPORT teams that are volunteering their own time to get this emulator working!!! This game is so awesome I nearly lost a marriage over it, which says a lot that I would want to play it that much. It was and still is that great of a game and yes my marriage is still intact . Let's all step back and sleep through these frustrations as every dev will want to do things a bit different, but must sometimes set aside their ideas to reach the common goal using pre-existing coding techniques. Understand that long term once the emulator is back to LIVE state, I am sure some devs will want to take it to the next step and expand/improve the existing code, but the focus now is to get the emulation completed, which must be the first step before it can be expanded. More power to every dev wanting to improve the game!!! From a player, I am all for it, just make sure the player server stays monitored, balanced, online, and performing for the reason it exists which is the entire community's entertainment (not just a dev/GM wanting to improve his/her or friends accounts, or creating spawns or anything else for their enjoyment/testing as the dev servers exist for that - this is an observation from the thread and if this happened it should be addressed for multiple reasons as discussed). As a player, I trust the team to do what is right, afterall if the emulator doesnt work, they all know there are numerous other options for the players available at the nearest download link/retail store. Professionals will work through the inevitable disagreements and deliver a product that works for everyone, including themselves.

Sorry for the length of the reply! The team will work through this, it is an internal matter that probably shouldn't be in a public forum, but since it is it is good that people can see what code development life can be like, even when the ultimate goal isn't for the end profits.

NOTE: Please feel free to remove this post if it is not representative of the gaming development community. My experience was not in gaming, and it will not hurt my feelings if this post is removed due to bad references. It was meant to assist the players who may not understand why/how this can occur since it is on public view.

[Shaddex]

After speaking with Afvet yesterday and having all the details explained to me I am now retracting my decision to leave the Dev team. (If they will still have me)

All the "Nags" that I had have been explained to me and I now fully understand the decisions that were and are to be made.

I will continue to work on the project that I have been assigned to and I agree that no one should have access to slash commands on the play server and this was not the issue that I had.

My issue was with communication.

Nuff Said..

Fly safe

out.

[Mimir[IS]]

After speaking with Afvet yesterday and having all the details explained to me I am now retracting my decision to leave the Dev team. (If they will still have me)

All the "Nags" that I had have been explained to me and I now fully understand the decisions that were and are to be made.

I will continue to work on the project that I have been assigned to and I agree that no one should have access to slash commands on the play server and this was not the issue that I had.

My issue was with communication.

Nuff Said..

Fly safe

out.

Whew!!!!!!

Glad you are staying.

[Numiah2]

k, ignore my previous post then.

Welcome back.

I hope we all learned a lesson from it and I sure hope that internal communications improve as they are quite teh bad obviously atm.

[dcwestby]

Well said Shaddex.

I fully agree that communication is the key, period.

If no one is fully understanding of something, then they should seek to have it spelled out so they can understand exactly what is happening.

Please, lets all strive to communicate more.

[Guest Dragonlady]

Happy to see you stay on board. I don't post often, but wanted you to know how much I appreciate the work everyone is doing. I have and will express that thanks in terms of donating what I can.

Again, glad to see you here.

[Ayami]

Man..it was on the RAZORS edge...

Anyway, glad to see the team coming together. Things being rectified and problems solved. We all need to work together, weather problems with the Emu or problems within ourselves. Glad it all worked out in the end.

[Orga]

The Goal must be constantly in all our minds. The Goal points toward the eventual point that earth and beyond is ready as a game again. There was a comment in the game last night about how this is essentially a second beta. In some respects, that is true, for this as we have it now is loads better then it was in Live, even with the bugs and anomalies that we players tolerate amazingly well.

To make this short, I agree with Both Ghent's&Mimir's previous post. As for Zethro's lol @ "bugs and anomalies that we players tolerate amazingly well." True the GMs and Devs may think the "feedback machine" whines a bit to much but until there in that "sphere of influence" no one can truly say there other wise.

Of course when I read that someone mentioned this happening prior to every 8 months or so. Seems to be more of an excuse to scream out for help because no one is learning from lessons of their history.

An analogy of this would be a friend snapping at his best friend for not listening to him the 1st time. The second time he snaps at his best friend, is because the best friend proved he could never listen to him the 1st time.

[posfordfan1220]

This means that a great deal of stress was put on Being accurate with using screenshots of mission dialogs that anyone had to share. Also thru those screen shots, attempting to reconstruct the sectors as much as possible with the navmaps of the sectors.

WOW! I didn't realize that much work went into re-creating the Live data. I had just assumed that an existing source was readily available somehow.

[Slayerman]

I suppose i can let you back on the team....

Glad you have reconsidered sir...

NOW GET BACK TO WORK !!!!!

LOL

[Pink]

After speaking with Afvet yesterday and having all the details explained to me I am now retracting my decision to leave the Dev team. (If they will still have me)

All the "Nags" that I had have been explained to me and I now fully understand the decisions that were and are to be made.

I will continue to work on the project that I have been assigned to and I agree that no one should have access to slash commands on the play server and this was not the issue that I had.

My issue was with communication.

Nuff Said..

Fly safe

out.

W0ot!!

[Guest Builder]

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