Shattered Kingdoms

[Alshain edit: these posts split from the Player Count Reward topic]

My only question is, do you think [the reward scheme] will draw more players? From what I'm seeing from the afterlife thread, it seems we're losing players.

Instead of reward attempts for higher player numbers, how about hiring a new coder and get a breath of fresh air in this mud.

Err... unless you just hit up the donation button with some serious monetary love, I don't think you meant to type that particular word.

lol

No offense, I don't think he meant that word because historically there has been like less than a handful of people that have gazed upon the code at all, and like none who have had the kind of access that Xandy had at one point.

I don't think all the money in the world would remove the code base from D's iron grip, only if there was enough to pay him to do it full time

More important than getting a coder -- because, really, they're easily had in this day and age -- is having a coherent, rational project to task a coder with performing.

Coders are not like sprinkles you just dash on top of a situation. They're not medicine, they are not knights in shining armor. Coding is not just some dump truck you dump your dreams upon. In fact, bringing in more people to break the build can be a death knell for even a bustling enterprise.

Rather than soliciting donations, why not do some front-work, cook up a nice little document, and post an RFP?

If things are not in active development, do not try to hide behind the obstacles. You'll only create more work for yourself as the self-volunteered PR rep by replying in such a fashion.

I'm sure he didn't, but it highlights that getting more coders is not simply a financial issue. Another contributor I recall would be Bugtussle/Akein.



That could be a trust issue, or a capability issue. Personally I think the code has been the most stable in last few years that in ever has been - and by stable I mean little or no crashes even with major new features being regularly added. Most who crave code stability achieve it through change freeze, which isn't healthy.



I have no idea what access Xandrennus nor the changes he made - the hearsay sounds more exaggeration than truth anyway. I still think the two pillars of trust and capability are what would work for Dulrik. But then, you also need a coder that would be happy to be #2 in a team of two, with a big interest in SK and be very, very dependable.



Well, it's his baby, so I'm sure he wouldn't just give it away. But that doesn't mean he wouldn't let the right person contribute to making the MUD better; he continually invites players who have proven themselves to help build, contribute and, gradually, to rise in level and into positions of higher trust.

Even this little reward scheme we're stitching together has a much larger number of potential expansion points. At the low level it's currently very much a prototype, but there's every chance we'll make it part of the core code and enable the MUD itself to reach out beyond it's current boundaries.

When people talk about coders in this thread, I think they're getting this image.

When in reality, you're really dealing with these guys.

Being heavily involved in Project Management, you're preaching to the choir. An Open RFP for coding though would be a bit too ...open. I'd much rather see what people are able to achieve to bring in new players, first.

Case in point: no matter how many times we offer Ed's SK artwork to folks who wanted to build a banner image for SK (GIF or flash-based), I still haven't seen a finished version. The only finished ones we have are the early GIF ones I created - which I freely admit are very base at best.

The flyer was a good effort - hopefully that is being used to good effect. We could probably do with a wider variety of fliers more suitable for 2010 and beyond, too.

Those of us reading this thread, how many are project managers? Show of hands?


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My god, its worse than I thought.



Seriously, though, haters will always hate, Alshain. Don't worry about explaining stuff to people who already derail your threads to beg the questions. As for coding, it really isn't the coding that's the problem. It is that there is no sustained coding process -- at least, that I know of -- beyond "Oh, snap, look at what Gilgon's rolled," where Gilgon can be replaced with any appropriate example. That, to me, seems to be the main point Sklz is making, which holds true in light of your very correct clarifications, I think.

The way building and what not seem to be much more organic are signs that things aren't that bad, though.

All that being said, who knows, for all I know the coder could be doing tons of work. Said coder could stand to claim more laurels for it, though. The last time we know the code has been touched is about the last time I downloaded a new version of Dwarf Fortress.

QUOTE TORNADO!

Nah, I think two people had at least minor access to the code since Xandy, but AFAIK no one has had the complete and unfettered access Xandy had. A bit of speculation on the amount of access Xandrennus actually had, but the general story always was that when he was basically running the place in absentia for a time he had full access, not that he could actually code for [REDACTED].

The point I'm trying to make though is that it IS his baby, he doesn't really want other people mucking it up, and the standard case of trust building generally requires time as a builder,etc,etc, something that you're not going to get by paying 500$ to someone to write some code up from donations.

TLDR: Even with money, we couldn't realistically hire a coder to help the mud out much.