Open letter to the Developers

[techhead]

Dear Developers:
How is 1.2 going? I noticed tjw's hasn't updated in a month and a half, so I presume you got the balance changes down. Anything else need doing? There are plenty of people with the skills to help get it done if you ask around. A lot of people who contribute mods, maps, or models to the community would probably be delighted to help if you asked them, and might volunteer if an open call was asked for. I cannot speak on behalf of anyone, but I presume that someone would be willing to help. If I had any skills I thought would be useful, I would gladly apply myself. I would even donate money if I had the means.

A proud member of the Tremulous community,
Techhead

EDIT: P.S. You guys rock! Keep it up!

[Repentance]

i concur

[.f0rqu3]

EDIT: P.S. You guys are rock! Keep it up!

[mooseberry]

EDIT: P.S. You guys are rock! Keep it up!

[Raytray]

Heh, seeing how they havn't begun picking maps for the next release other then the thread. (pubically anyway)

I really hope 1.2 wasn't dropped.  D:

[Risujin]

I noticed tjw's hasn't updated in a month and a half, so I presume you got the balance changes down.

Kind of like my not updating Balance mod has the Xael II down (NOT). TJW and Norf are MIA and the balance changes are whack. (How long have we been waiting for the Dretches-cant-bite-buildings fix?)

There are plenty of people with the skills to help get it done if you ask around. A lot of people who contribute mods, maps, or models to the community would probably be delighted to help if you asked them, and might volunteer if an open call was asked for.

Timbo and friends apparently don't have time to herd around a throng of volunteers. There are patches, maps, textures, and huds floating around already. There is a kind of unofficial tasklist in the form of bugzilla. Submitting anything in there is not any guarantee it will ever get looked at. I have patches in there from 2-3 months ago that never saw the light of day.

[Warrior]

Open Source software with Closed Participation?

[techhead]

Heh, see my post for balance mod about that...
I didn't know TJW and Norf were both MIA, that makes things even more complicated...
They probably need to get someone to specifically look at volunteers applications so the working developers don't have to. Like a human resources officer. Any volunteers? (Irony intended)

[techhead]

I forgot to mention that I think that the "Dretchs can't attack buildings" was actually intended, probably because skilled dretches can shred the new turrets.

[Plague Bringer]

A nitpick about said turrets:

Do you really think humans should have a buildable at S1 that prepares them for base assaults at S3? I think the turrets should stay the same: S1 base defence. What needs tweaking is the Teslas, so that they can defend the base from S3 aliens.

Basically, a S1 human base can take a S3 assault easily, but falls victim to a raid of basilisks. Old turrets with new teslas would be better, IMO.

[temple]

I think most changes are ready to go live.

[Plague Bringer]

Dude, have you played 1.2?

Admittably, I haven't recently, but I assume the turrets haven't changed much.

+Goons were at AS2 last time I played. Tyrants were majorly nerfed in the health department, and you had to totally relearn them, making AS3 the useless stage.

[kevlarman]

I forgot to mention that I think that the "Dretchs can't attack buildings" was actually intended, probably because skilled dretches can shred the new turrets.

tjw made it so dretches can't attack any finished buildings on his server, but could attack all unfinished buildings, and by all, i mean all, just try building an egg in front of a dretch. the last part of that is obviously a bug.

[jit]

I really hope 1.2 wasn't dropped.  D:

don't even think like that         D:  D:

[sSopris]

I really hope 1.2 wasn't dropped.  D:

I sincerely doubt it but I've been wrong before.

[David]

Agree with A and C.

I doubt they have given up, but if they do, there are plenty of people around here would would be willing to pick up the torch.

I think the main thing the devs have to worry about is that it only takes a few months of inactivity before people start declaring projects dead.
The last thing we need is 6 different forks.

[Norfenstein]

I'd been busy with the end of the school year and now I'm waiting on internet connectivity while my house switches ISPs (Comcast sux). I apologize for things taking so long, but, well... Tremulous's development has always been slow like this (punctuated equilibrium and whatnot). For the record I'm not content with the balance, but then I may never be, so if things drag on too long we might have to consider just wrapping up everything else into an actual release. Reason I wanted 1.2 to be as good and complete as possible is, knowing us, 1.3 could take twice as long to come out, if any of the original devs even still want to work on it (Timbo's pretty much been taking a much deserved sabbatical since the standalone release, for example). And don't worry about Tremulous "dying" -- it's open source, so it won't as long as someone cares about it. And the devs still do, so don't worry about that either yet.

[Evlesoa]

so you're throwing trem out the window and hoping someone grabs on to it before it gets carried by the wind...

Thats dumb >.<'

[kevlarman]

please keep your spam to yourself, i don't want to have to clean this topic out a second time.

[David]

Evlesoa: did you even read his post?

[player1]

@Norf: Thanks for the update. It's good to know Tremulous is still going strong.

[mooseberry]

I agree with everything techhead said.  

[.f0rqu3]

Agree with A and C.

I doubt they have given up, but if they do, there are plenty of people around here would would be willing to pick up the torch.

I think the main thing the devs have to worry about is that it only takes a few months of inactivity before people start declaring projects dead.
The last thing we need is 6 different forks.

who summoned me

[techhead]

Part of this is that no-one knows what goes on inside the developers' inner circle. We have no way of knowing if they are on a brief vacation or working their collective butts off. If one of them is busy with other affairs or otherwise dormant, we can't tell the difference. TJW's server, along with Tremradio, was one of the few windows we had into the dev's workings. When TJW stopped updating, many of us assumed he was finally satisfied with the circus of changes he was running. When he disappeared, no-one knew.

[DASPRiD]

As you can read in the topic of my IRC channel, I'm still busy with the house moving. Currently I'm waiting for my internet connection, but this can take two or three more weeks. But you can be sure, that you will get up-to-date information after I am back.

At the moment I'm only able to watch the forums while I'm at work, so please don't wonder when I won't answer to your PMs or IRC queries as quick as you are used to.

All in all, you can be sure, that Tremulous is still alive and won't die in the near future. For my part, I'm still working on Delta Labs, and maybe it will make it's way into 1.2.

[Taiyo.uk]

I'm still working on Delta Labs, and maybe it will make it's way into 1.2.

<3

[mana]

Thanks for the livesign DASPRiD .

Uhm if i were to sum up the thread as it is now: confusion
Would be nice if you guys that are complaining here about "closed participation" had replyed on this now old thread http://tremulous.net/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=4861

All-in-all i think its more than OK for the devs to choose the direction, patches, balance changes. But it would be more kind if those decisions where made in the open, ya know?

greets
Mana

[Lava Croft]

The first good 6 years of Tremulous' life, you would be hard pressed to find someone who even bothered about it. Over a year into the standalone release, and people already start wondering if 1.2 ever releases...

Take it from Norfenstein, Tremulous development's biggest virtue is patience. But, as we all know, this patience is well worth it.

[mana]

Patience is good
Ignorance (on both sides) isn't
Progress beats both

[David]

You know what makes me sick?
The fact that no devs check the forums ever any more.
But I'm not pissed at the devs, I'm pissed at you lot*
You chased them off there own forums.  And then, being too retarded to realise the ramifications of what you have done, you complain.

To the devs:
This is your forums.  You started it, you run it, it exists for YOU.  Reclaim your your rightful positions as leaders of the community, and clean this mess up.  Ban a few lot of spammers, tell people the rules, and the forums will be back to what they were meant to be.
You have been chased out by a bunch of kids, and its akin to leaving home because a salesman called and you didn't want to tell him to leave.


I have before seen many Open Source projects go down the pan when the 'community' have kicked the devs out.  I don't want the same to happen to tremulous.

Just my opinion.

*Are a few exceptions, you know who you are.