Graal 2001, GDT, and You

[benpoke103]

I'm sure a lot of you have been wondering for quite some time now multiple things about the Global Development Team, in regards to what exactly we do, what's going on, etc. The answers I have for everyone is this.

It's really hard to say what direction we are exactly going in. We currently have one project that is starting to enter the development phase which will demonstrate functionality of Graal's engine and help introduce new developers to the familiarity of Graal, as well as educate others with new concepts and possibilities that Graal has to offer. While this is what I feel a satisfactory project for now, I still think we could be doing better, obviously.

The real question I have for every one of you guys, the players, developers, managers, etc. is this: "What do you want from us?"

We will be continually updating the Graal Bible as well as work on Skyld's own independent GScript-based wiki as usual, providing support to those who need it, and work to the best of our abilities to satisfy you the best we can. However, we are limited by our team's own imagination, and we haven't gotten much feedback from the players, so it's really hard to say what else we can do. Aside from that, we have a major proposition for you, the players.

I'm interested to hear who still cares about Graal 2001. Skyld approached me earlier today, requesting the GDT to take over development of the project. Now, I know for a fact we can handle it, and would be a perfect task for us, working on an official server. If we were to accept this project, it would certainly put a hamper of what other kinds of support we could provide, since this would be a full-dedication project. But, there are different ways we could work around this.

I'm not going to decide if we should work on the project, YOU guys are. Simple as that.

This raises multiple options. Once we begin development, I don't see any signs of stopping, since this is something YOU guys want. This will also prove our worth to those who criticize the team to show you we are determined to give you what you want.

A couple of ideas that have been floating around include:

-Hiring individual developers to help the GDT with development
-Once development is complete, how should we set up managerial rights?
-Players volunteering to test for bugs, suggestions, improvements
-Perhaps a bi-weekly/monthly blog giving everyone updates on our development progress, keeping you informed

As I said earlier, we want to serve YOU. If you don't want us to continue 2001's development, I don't see it ever coming back. Do you guys still want it? If not, what do you want? If we don't get much feedback from this, then I feel the GDT will remain in it's current dormant-like state, until we think of new projects of our own to work on. As much as I'd love to jump right into 2001 and start developing, I can't do it with just HR alone. We have a team of talented developers who are just as anxious to work on something meaningful and fulfilling as much as we are.

TL;DR Version:

• Skyld offers GDT to Develop 2001
• We want what YOU want us to do
• Up to YOU what we do
• Provide feedback

We will be eagerly awaiting your responses.

-Ben

[Sky]

I fully support the GDT to develop graal2001 I'd even lend some of my own services if needed to the project.

[Brad]

Originally Posted by Sky

I fully support the GDT to develop graal2001 I'd even lend some of my own services if needed to the project.

100% agree with this. I used to be able to make levels, and wouldn't mind at all doing that. I also have pretty good knowledge of what people enjoyed on 2k1, and the things that were succesful and how they were executed. If 2k1 was going to be brought back I, along with ALOT of other people, would fully support all time being dedicated to it.

[Waltz5]

Originally Posted by Brad

100% agree with this. I used to be able to make levels, and wouldn't mind at all doing that. I also have pretty good knowledge of what people enjoyed on 2k1, and the things that were succesful and how they were executed. If 2k1 was going to be brought back I, along with ALOT of other people, would fully support all time being dedicated to it.

What he said.

I'd play.

[nullify]

Agreed with Sky. And I'm also willing to help out. Toss me a forum PM, Ben.

[benpoke103]

That's exactly the feedback I'd hope to see thus far.

[Sinkler]

I support the idea of working on Graal2001.

[cbk1994]

Rename it to the Graal Development Team, make it a guild, then call it a day. Nothing has been done yet that warrants the word "global", and focusing on G2k1 isn't going to make it any more valid.

I'd "support" the GDT working on G2k1 if I actually thought they'd stick to it. Pardon my skepticism, but your track record is hardly impressive.

If you actually think you can finish G2k1, go for it. You don't need our permission. Just remember that your work is going to do a lot more good on small projects you can finish rather than on a giant failed one.

[fowlplay4]

I want to see the "Iron Fist" that's going be required to get this done, and assignments.

[6Burning6Church6]

I dunno if its wise to dedicate all your time to a single server, especially if you will be doing all the work yourselves without having any management in place to take over once you are done.

My suggestion for what the GDT should focus on is servers that already have structured management (i.e. N-Pulse) but who are lacking in committed developers. If you were to put your efforts into one server you might as well just be called the Graal2001 staff. Though I know it isn't an easy task you took the job as GLOBAL development team, you should in turn do your best to help out all servers on Graal and not dedicate your entire efforts into just one server.

Your main priority should be to make sure that any server on the Classic tab is up to par with current standards set by the PWA. Yes this should be the job of management, however, as I already stated some servers are severely lacking committed developers to help them which is exactly where you should come in. You went onto N-Pulse and converted their text map to gmap format, but gave no explanation to them as to how to clean everything up to fit the gmap format. Although a simple explanation to their staff would be helpful, I do think you should go even further into it and actually physically help them sort out their live server.

Your second priority, after making sure Classic servers are up to par is to sort through the under construction servers, discuss with the PWA which servers seem to be the most promising and furthest along development-wise, and help put the fine touches and do some debugging on their systems. This would help more servers be completed, making more servers available to be put onto the Classic tab, and in turn giving players more of a choice of where they can play.

I know it isn't easy, and will be a ton of work for you non-payed volunteers, however, you volunteered to be part of the GDT not the G2k1 staff. While working on Delteria I would have killed for help from some of the Global Developers, however the only time I ever saw them was on Kingdoms, and they never responded to any of my pleas for help. I'm assuming N-Pulse, now in the same place Delteria was years ago, trying to maintain one server and develop another with very limited staff, feels the same kind of neglect I did when I was attempting to run the show with Delt.

If you feel that your time would be better spent dedicating all your time to one single server, building it up from nothing and then transferring managerial rights to somebody after you complete the work, then I guess go ahead, it won't change much for anybody other than the future 2k1 staff that will reap the benefits of your work, but I do feel that you should dedicate your time to fixing broken content on the Classic servers first, and helping close-to-completed Hosted servers second. Building an entire server should be the very last thing on your todo list as there are plenty of servers with well established management who are much closer to completion than 2k1 that could use your help much much more.

[Soala]

Originally Posted by 6Burning6Church6

While working on Delteria I would have killed for help from some of the Global Developers, however the only time I ever saw them was on Kingdoms, and they never responded to any of my pleas for help. I'm assuming N-Pulse, now in the same place Delteria was years ago, trying to maintain one server and develop another with very limited staff, feels the same kind of neglect I did when I was attempting to run the show with Delt.

I feel sorry if such thing happened, but it certainly didn't happen while I was in charge as I have no pm history with your account at all. Do you remember anything about the GDT member you've made your request at?

[6Burning6Church6]

Originally Posted by Soala

I feel sorry if such thing happened, but it certainly didn't happen while I was in charge as I have no pm history with your account at all. Do you remember anything about the GDT member you've made your request at?

I don't recognize your name one bit so I can tell you no, it did not happen while you were in charge, or at least I never encountered you during the time frame. It was quite a while ago (at least 3 years, if not more) so I can't really recall who was on the GDT during this time. I can tell you it was quite a while before Tig had joined up, I don't know Tig too well but I do know that he isn't the type of person who would treat me the way I was treated by the GDT back then. Like I said though, a lot of people have bad tastes in their mouths from previous experiences with the team being extremely rude and lazy and it would be a good idea to try and re-up your rep by going to current server managers and reintroducing the team as a new and capable group.

[Hiro]

so in the end you guys decided you might want to make/recreate a server, which i've said since the start was what you guys ought to be doing

it would have been a lot cooler, in my opinion, if you were making a new server instead of remaking an old one. but, regardless, i would support this idea in general - graal needs some new content, and you guys have a good chance to deliver

[alskdjfhg]

# We want what YOU want us to do
# Up to YOU what we do
# Provide feedback

I want YOU to give up while you're ahead!

[Matt]

I support this, but just hope not all concentration of the GDT goes into this, but also into handling server requests for help way better, by actually doing them. In other words, don't make it 100%top priority.