NI needs to urgently solve the basic and most asked question: "What do I do with all the crystals and animal parts?" The problem is that development and design of a few hundred linked blueprints and items takes a lot of time, ressources and balancing. Here is my quick and dirty idea of how to put all the current planet-specific materials to use at once. It is an *interim solution* that will immediately close the circle and make the NI experience more satisfying because it gives the impression of NI being a finished product. Create two event areas (point and click) Ask MA to clone the event box and create a slightly modified NI-version (a few phone calls/emails) Set one event box to accept all NI crystals as payment Set one event box to accept all NI animal parts as payment (Now the hard part ;) ) Design a lighthouse and a meat grinding machine RPG-strory-wise the lighthouse uses crystals to produce a light beam/uplink/transmitter signal that will also attract animals like island sharks. The meat grinder (C&C Yuri's Revenche style) will serve as a manger for say drakes. So this will match or at least not interfere with the elysian story. No balancing issues at all. Minimal effort needed. The dev team can shortly return to create crafted items intended to stimulate the local economy. In the mean time you can promote events on the new areas (keywords: social network, press coverage, investors), the islanders have somthing new to discover (keywords: fun, community) and we can finally tell new arrivals that their items are good for something (keyword: convincing). Win-win. What's your opinion?
I think they should just focus on getting a economy implimented, a year on and still nothing, the crystals came near first release, so must have been a plan.
I haven't thrown so much as a monkey tail on the tt, saving it for whenever. All the crystals are sorted by color and alphabetically. So pretty!
The problem is bigger than they want to let on..... look at the items we are talking about. they all have detailed information as to what they are, and what they are used for. Do not be fooled.... there was a plan.... or why would the items exist? quite simply you need to break down the situation.... a designer/coder was working on the project, may have left for one reason or another.... and there may not have been a intellectual property clause, allowing them to walk away with their hard work. <easy choice> <that was the first guess of the 3 MP programmers I know> but now its a patchwork of peoples coding that may not mesh, and nobody knows what to do with it. <kinda like if you were to cut a fiber optic main line in 1/2, and have to I.D. each wire 1x1.... big mess> I have seen this problem alot with games..... CIV 5 was the latest to have the problem of NO MP programmers, and NI is following the same road.... the simple fixes, band-aids, and new shortcuts are the tell tale signs of a good MP programming staff... by the record of the staff here, most work has to be contracted out <the delay> and the small fixes are just not economically viable..... so popping up under a TP, or having a town with a floating river <it is strange to be hunting Grey Papoo "underwater">..... the most of us realize this.... like the look and feel of NI.... and appreciate the non Calypso attitude of most of the players.... the draw to NI is slowing, new players are not arriving to stay, and this needs to change fast.... and the easy fix must entail those silly items, with the goofy names, that are polluting our inventories. <I still like the idea of paving roads with the 500 or so papoo eyes i have... but that would cause lag>
Same thing happened with Rocktropia, it took nine months before any of the generic loot had any use. Maybe it was released there with a plan, maybe with just a rough idea, I don't know. Considering that NeverDie Studios made both planets, I kind of expect the same thing. Except in NextIslands case NDS is not the owner, and it was always the plan that development get turned over to a NI team after launch. I think that transition period screwed NI for a bit. And maybe NDS just had a rough idea of what they thought these crystals and animal parts would be good for. The NI team now has to figure out what to do with them. And that is not easy, I tried to design blueprints that used NI loot, it's hard to do. There is a thread around here somehwere I started posting those bp designs but I abandoned that project. In my opinion the crystals and animal parts need to be scraped. Removed from loot, maybe never to come back. Start over, make blueprints first, get them approved by MA, then add the materials they need. It's much more easy to design a blueprint when the materials don't exist, then you can make the materials and have there item infor, TT value, and rarity mach up.
MP programmer = multiplayer programmer..... single player games are easy...... its when mass amounts of people are interacting with each other in the same environment, that makes any game difficult... so there is a difference in the skills of coders from game type to type....
oh, I see. I didn't know such a distincion was made. I asked an engineer about that. he said: "if that's the case, then 'MP programmers' are regular programmers and the rest are hack wannbes".
hehe good one red, it takes a special programmer to deal with a big MP game like this.... tons of things going on in the background, and a "quick fix" for one problem may adversely effect another program... think of it as overlays on a Blueprint <not a EU one :P > there are problems that can occur that Linear games would not face.... a good programmer knows if they can hack, or if they have no business working on a project. <most wont admit it> it is a very detailed, very tough job to fix someone else's mess... much easier to start over... < that's why we have the new crystal center, instead of the papoo that were very problematic there> But anyways, 1 head and 3 lackeys can do the job needed in about 1 month from assessment.... problem is that's a lot of PED ;) ... so hiring the job out is what they do now.... quite apparent with the progress soo far... there needs to be a patch worthy staff so the issues keeping the players away can be fixed... we still pop up under tp's...... no other planet.. just NI.... progress would be nice.... but most are not waiting... as there is no quick fix... and the ultimate sin, NO COMMUNICATION 8( I kinda thought the stockholders of Entropia "the players" would be better taken care of... <brushes off the mushrooms, and walks back into the light>
I suppose that hiring out a job is acceptable, providing one keeps tight control over the work. in my experience, people tend to like to slack-off if they can get away with it. so, the lead really has to understand all the nuances of what is trying to be achieved and not leave it to those being contractred.
