339 replies to this topic

[the bigg]

Again, I'm just stating my opinion, not those of the team.

In my experience, recruiting \(near\|total\) newbies has never done anything good to a project: they almost always ended up disappearing, or lacking the skills to actually accomplish anything useful, and would just end up as a burden for the team (who would hand them out some jobs, only to later discover that they have to do them themselves). Also, unfortunately we have no open positions for non-techies.

As for Kaeloree (or whatever is her nick written like ), I don't believe that 'just another team member' would be a good idea right now. We had a recruiting drive last year, and ended up with a good share of modding gods & gurus; however, despite numbers and names of those who joined, little to nothing has been actually accomplished: what we really need is IMHO 'one or more key people already there find the time to finish their part', rather than 'enlarge the team, until all modding celebrities are on the team'.

That being said, we actually need a dedicated .d coder badly - as long as we don't end up with you getting carried over and dragged in idle mode by the rest of us, so, if you really insist and want to code pages upon pages of .d files, I'll forward your application to the mailing list
We'd also need other skill ranges (mainly AI and dialogue writing), but unfortunately we're after experience (both general modding experience, and experience with RtWP), rather than simple dedication, hence simple adding up numbers isn't going to be anywhere near enough

Edited by the bigg, 24 October 2006 - 06:55 AM.

[GeN1e]

we're after experience (..., and experience with RtWP)

Just a question - how can anyone who is not a member of your team be experienced with Return..? Or was there an open beta-testing (don't know since I've only recently found SHS)?

As for AI - though I haven't released any mod yet (but I'm making one), it seems to be easy for me (especially after my numeruois corrections of cheat scripts from mods like Tactics). If you need an example of my work - I can show one.

Edited by GeN1e, 24 October 2006 - 01:16 PM.

[the bigg]

we're after experience (..., and experience with RtWP)

Just a question - how can anyone who is not a member of your team be experienced with Return..? Or was there an open beta-testing (don't know since I've only recently found SHS)?

That was a ESL glitch - it should have sounded like "we need experience in bla_bla"

[Kaeloree]

the_bigg: I'll see if I can brush up on my WeiDU enough to get to the RtWP standard, then... I'll PM you if I find I can code dialogue that complicated.

[Quitch]

The only writing left to do for RtW is the final dialogue which ties in many of the variables which can be set during the course of the adventure. It's a large dialogue, not the biggest I hope, but still a substational piece of work.

We originally passed it on to someone else to do, but that fell through, so now I'll be writing it.

WeiDU coding will be an area help would be much appreciated in. I've written far more than has been coded for. Poor Littz got rathered burned out doing that.

The NPC will also likely be dropped from release, since it is almost dialogue free, only its kit is done. This was also handed to a third party, but I don't think anything has been done with it.

There's a fair amount of AI still to do, and quite a few bugs to quash. I'm hoping Xyx will finish his big piece, since there's no one in the community but him really capable of doing it. But there's a number of low level creatures in need of AI.

Like the_bigg says, we've had recruits before to try and put life into the heart of the project, but unfortunately they've either been a burden, never actually done what they were tasked to do, or were simply dragged to a standstill by the team, including me.

.d coding is the area we would most desperately need people, the "boss" had 32 000 words and I think the .d and .tra was split between three people. The last dialogue is (is looking to be) almost as big, but unfortunately it also requires in-depth knowledge of the mod to write, so it's really down to me, though hopefully someone else will code it as I haven't touched on WeiDU for years. The NPC needs a dedicated writing and coding team, that's not something the core team is ever going to finish at this point. We need someone to do AI.

I don't think I'd look to bring anyone into the fold until I'm actively on the project again. I know how the lack of output from others can drain your motivation.

Edited by Quitch, 25 October 2006 - 11:04 AM.

[Kaeloree]

I'm able to do some of the NPC, at least enough for a first release- I think it's a clever addition, and if it helps out I'd be happy to. I generally work best alone (or with one other commenting on the dialogue) so the standstill situation wouldn't really bother me all that much.

[the bigg]

Again, the NPC won't be part of the initial release of RtW, and will become available with a separate mod (or in RtW V2, or something), so help with the NPC isn't going to help us release any sooner, sorry.
Of course, if it was made in time for RtW V1 it'be great, but wholly unessential to the release of the actual RtW. Top priorities are stuff like "all main dialogue written and coded", "everybody has decent, non-stub AI" and (if the two top items are done) "the mod is playable without mayor bugs and/or other visible problems" and "all temporarily cut areas/ideas are written, coded and put back in". Further, we have already a team of 2 on NPC work (one being one of the modding gods), and we have received no feedback on anything they might have accomplished, so you'll also have to coordinate with them.
Also, at least to me, unregistered guests (or people otherwise almost totally unheard of) are just fishing for access to the beta to be able to play, rather than being actually interested in helping, and no amount of saying otherwise will change my opinion.,since I've already seen that happen enough times.
<now any moderator can ban me for insulting newbies>

@Kae.*: given the scope of the single jobs handed out, having viewable activity on the mailing list is a big help to productivity - both as a confirmation that the thing is moving ahead, rather than everybody has forgot about it, and in terms of "if I need task X done to finish task Y, I can expect to have X done in a matter of a week, rather than an year (or never)".

[Drugar]

Just wishing y'all a happy new year, and letting you know there's still a bunch of people eagerly awaiting this mother of all BG2 mods. Will this year be the year?

[Quitch]

Depends entirely on The Broken Hourglass.

[Cuv]

I have not given up on this project... but I am still not ready to tackle it again. I havent abandoned hope that it will be finished. In fact, I just re-installed it today to take a look and see where we left off. I had forgotten how big it was or just how many dang files there were.

Cuv

[Tassadar88]

Fingers, though a little stiff, still crossed

[Cuv]

Fingers, though a little stiff, still crossed

I understand, mine too B) I want to thank everyone for their patience and support.

[Tassadar88]

I wish I could provide more support than just- oh hell-silent support of crossed fingers

[Cuv]

I wish you could too Tassadar88 and David Mallonee, but sadly I wouldnt know where you could even begin without the rest of the team active. I have had nothing to do with any of the dialog in the mod since about V1.2.... and that was back in 2002. All of the areas are done, the creatures are done except for some small tweaks and some scripts needing glitch fixes. Animations and effects all done, spells done, area linkage done, story still not fully realized (but that was mentioned a few posts up about removed content).

Sadly, I must admit that it was I that bogged down the mod with too much content. While the rest of the team was working on their tasks... rather than bug-fixing as I went, I was brainstorming and building new content into the mod as ideas struck me. The ideas were good, so it wasn't too hard to convince the team that they were an important part of the whole story. But that is just it... the story is very big and kept getting bigger. I even wrote a backstory going back several generations and hundreds of years.

Anyway, when I get the chance and feel like really punishing myself for this... I will make a complete list of what can be done to release the mod fully playable, even if that means temporarily removing content and releasing it later as it is completed.

Cuv

[Chevalier]

I wish I could provide more support than just- oh hell-silent support of crossed fingers

Hunt the team down and put them in a room and force them to finish the mod?