Administrative Affairs

[Anero]

I'd love to see unixmad upgrading the Era iPhone iOS server.
We're at a playercount of roughly 3300 players right now and a lot of players are experiencing lag spikes.
Era has a lot of potentional, I don't think that should be thrown away.

[Tim_Rocks]

Graal should be HTML5 capable.

[Draenin]

If Graal is still doing okay financially, (which it seems to be) I would really like to see some different programmers stepping in to continue driving the game forward.

People give this game crap all the time because it's mostly player-run, but that is always a double-edged sword because the game is only as good as we are at working on it. Every once in a while, we need support from programmers with access to the source code or the game's technology will remain where it is.

I've played this game for well over a decade by this point, and one of the things that has always brought me back is that it's essentially a 'Sandbox MMO' that quickly provides players with access to tools we can use to build online games quickly. But sometimes the updates we need have to come down from on high.

We could really use a hand or two at the wheel right now, just to make sure this game keeps going well in the foreseeable future.

[Minoc]

I don't think client updates are going to help.
PC Graal is virtually dead, and has no hope unless they move to a new business model (such as the Minecraft model).
I seriously have no idea why some people are still paying to develop their own servers, while there's almost a zero chance any of them will ever go public (the only new server in about a decade of the pay-to-develop system is Zodiac).

Also, censoring and patronizing the community of a community-based game (as is commonly done around here) is just detrimental.

[Draenin]

Originally Posted by Minoc

I don't think client updates are going to help.
PC Graal is virtually dead, and has no hope unless they move to a new business model (such as the Minecraft model).
I seriously have no idea why some people are still paying to develop their own servers, while there's almost a zero chance any of them will ever go public (the only new server in about a decade of the pay-to-develop system is Zodiac).

Graal needs to shift more toward using more scripted tools that allow for live and direct editing, which has started to happen already. Client updates will enable new capabilities and functions that cannot be scripted in through GS2 / GS3 yet, similar to the way Flash was added for the Games server, and GUI Windows were added, which enable things like custom skins and whatnot.

As for server models, I have suggested before that a microtransaction system similar to the shops most main servers use could probably be used to help players pay off rental fees if they are able to get people to buy Gelats. (And anything past that would be profit for the company.)

But all that aside, it's good to have someone in place who is able to work on such things and implement positive changes.

[Crono]

hi skyld

[-Ching]

ok lets get real. graal pc doesnt make money, igraal does. pc graal dead, igraal alive.

think thats everything sorted, lets go pub

[Cubical]

i have spent over $10,000 on gelats on iclassic. I only have 7 played hours

[fowlplay4]

Originally Posted by Cubical

i have spent over $10,000 on gelats on iclassic. I only have 7 played hours

i cri in my private jet evry time

[scriptless]

Originally Posted by Cubical

i have spent over $10,000 on gelats on iclassic. I only have 7 played hours

I spent $6,000 on NES games and i've only played a couple hundred hours Lucky for me that collection is worth a little more then double that now. So don't feel bad. I think I spent hundreds, to thousands on graal over my 10+ years.

Originally Posted by -Ching

ok lets get real. graal pc doesnt make money, igraal does. pc graal dead, igraal alive.

think thats everything sorted, lets go pub

Your right about mobile making more then pc.. They should have jumped on the bandwagon of micropayment on pc back in the day when people shelled out thousands and there were higher player counts on pc.


But..
Hasn't mobile servers also seen slightly decreased player counts? If graal really wants to bash RPG, in an Adventure game.. it's more then welcome to but thats how PC died everything went RPG/Dungeon based. I think most notably is GK with its 1 level dungeons that you just fight a few rounds then a boss or something.

Era for mobile tho is different then the already forced rpg play. The thing is tho that mobile servers get recognized more.. there much easier to find in the app store just randomly searching then it would ever be for PC Graal which has virtually no advertisement, endorsement's, or anything really that would advertise them. So you can look for yourself that the quality of the mobile servers, also is higher then there PC counterparts. Better quality makes people willing to stick around longer, face it the unique ip's that get to both pc and mobile.. mobile has a higher retention then pc because of it's quality. But still I refuse to play them because id prefer a pc environment, a server with less then 50-100 people idle in 1 single level o.O, and finally a keyboard.

[-Ching]

its ok if your 15. feels wrong when i play it

[Elk]

hi skyld

[Rob]

I can understand the frustration of being left in the dark when being part of such a small and loyal community. I'll try to share what I believe I can.

@Stefan: Stefan had his ups and downs. In terms of activity, he has no doubt felt publicly "better" among those who have helped to design Graal. On the other hand, if you were a coder, dealing with Stefan was like trying to break down a wall with your face.

Often, you'd report an issue ("Timevar does not update exactly every 5 seconds," "timevar2 is off by a random offset per server," "I can steal Graal passwords do you want me to tell you how?"), and his response would often be in the form of "No it's working correctly."

Perhaps Stefan no longer cared about Graal. Or it's possible that Stefan never cared about Graal per se, so much as he cared about just coding things for the fun of it. That would explain why, as many people in this thread have noted, he would change his mind about content creation on a yearly basis.

We've seen this a lot within the game as well, right? Scripters who would begin a new project and work HARD for the first few days. They'd do all the "fun" (interesting / challenging / learning) portions of a system. Then it came time to do the basic/boring stuff (make some long switch/case in an onActionServerside, create the GUI, balance the prices of the fish, or just document/release the project). All of a sudden, the project is dropped because something else is more interesting.

For why he's ACTUALLY gone, I don't know any of the specifics (and even if I did I'd likely be unable to speak about them), but what I can say is that it appeared to be legal in nature. I don't know what exactly happened, but I don't personally expect the return of "Uncle Stefan" any time soon.

@Stefan Replacements: It wouldn't be my place to reveal any details or be making any official announcements about this sort of topic. All I can really say is that Unixmad is aware of the issue and is working to resolve it.

@Who is Xor?: Xor is the Manager of iClassic and part of the global administration. Carlito is my boss. Xor is Carlito's boss.

[Eclipse]

As someone who played Graal on pc for 12+ years and hated the mobile platform, im sure if you could try to get them on PC they would enjoy the experience more than they do on their phone. PC servers need love too.

[Draenin]

Originally Posted by Rob

@Stefan Replacements: It wouldn't be my place to reveal any details or be making any official announcements about this sort of topic. All I can really say is that Unixmad is aware of the issue and is working to resolve it.

Well, please do keep us posted.