Project Community

[Soala]

Before having the official GDT forums set where everyone will be able to discuss projects and post ideas, I would like a very global opinion of what the community is looking for.

Really, even as a leader, I cannot always contribute all my time to projects, and I will not justify myself again, because we are all the same and we all got a life.

I cannot always be the one who gets the ideas either. I've tried a couple ideas on my own, but I can't think for a whole community.

YOU are able to tell me what you honestly think would be good for us all, and I am ready to accept any idea that seems acceptable and worth working on.
Don't take this as a joke, but really, I'm running out of ideas!

If you are able to think of something new, something nice enough and possible of course, then feel free to post whatever comes to your mind in this thread!

[Hiro]

a couple of new default tilesets that new server owners could choose from might be a nice idea

[xAndrewx]

Originally Posted by Hiro

a couple of new default tilesets that new server owners could choose from might be a nice idea

No, that's stupid. They're here to help, not design something for a server.


I'd suggest more playerworld starter packs, one for three different types of servers. Classic, Guns and Roleplay (are the main categories which all are different) would benefit new playerworlds alot.

More support from the GraalDT, sure they help but I don't see anyone being active or any projects that're being worked on? I ask for help on the IRC and always get a response (mainly from Inverness might I add). This is down on you, being the leader.

More activity on Graal, truth be told I've never seen anyone on Graal that uses their GraalDT developer tag? I'd also like to see playerworlds asking for more help (sounds strange, but I've never seen a GraalDT member work on a public server, could be due to the world not needing help).

Infact- help Zone.

[cbk1994]

For some reason I've seen more discussion about what the GDT should do than I've seen work done by the GDT. I don't recall anything done by the GDT in the nine months since its conception except some events and a starting pack.

Logically: you can't develop all of Graal's content by yourselves, so you should instead focus on educating developers so that they can produce better content. Making events for Unholy Nation is great, but can you sustainably produce all of the content for a server? This alone should lead you to the conclusion that instead of making content you need to be helping others learn to make it.

There are several ways to help developers:

• Scripting guides. Jer had an excellent one he is/was working on for beginning scripters. Guides also need to be made for specific features (SQLite, using databases, etc). Even a guide to making GUIs would be helpful (and very easy to do).
• Code releases/starting packs. The starting pack was a great idea but it could be even further enhanced. For example, there could be starting packs to "build" on the base one, such as one for modern servers that includes a gun script. The starting pack is also very lacking right now; things like tailors would be great additions.
• Scripting documentation. There are many pages on the wiki that are simply lists without any explanation; descriptions for each variable or function could be added in very little time.
• Levelling guides. Not as necessary as scripting guides for learning, but a guide on proper cliffing (though I think Crono did this?) would be very helpful. Even simple things like linking levels would be great.
• Level collabs. They help new levelers hone their skills. Different tilesets would also be helpful.
• Graphic guides. There are many of these on the internet that just need to be compiled, with some tips thrown in for Graal graphics.

It's nice that you're reaching out to the community (even in a forum post that seems like more of a defense than a request), but if this is all so cryptic to you maybe you're not the right person to lead the GDT. Just a thought.

[fowlplay4]

Originally Posted by cbk1994

detailed post

This is pretty much it in a nutshell, and helping the Gold servers as a side venture would be time well spent too.

Considering the GDT is being treated as a volunteer-based effort, the time should be spent on realistic projects instead of things like a new website (can't even get support.graalonline.com to redirect to anywhere meaningful, I have doubts they'll upload a new website over their current one).

[Rufus]

I'm unsure about the above ideas because I feel as though there is always a decline in the motivations of both the players and the developers around this time of the year. Such ideas seem more appropriate when things begin to kick up again, with the larger playercounts and when people are more interested. A lot of these suggestions are long term targets too, and while that's great to have, it kind of ignores that right now this is a diminishing team that people don't actually care about. In my opinion, something flashy and fun needs to happen. I guess I'll post my idea in a few.

[Rufus]

The Purpose (the tl;dr version of the post)

During this time of the year there just isn't much going on in Graal. School lets out, but our playercounts are still low, and for some reason development seems to grind to a halt. There are no special holidays to celebrate, but there is something we can do!

The 2010 Fifa World Cup begins on the 11th of June and continues for a month until the 11th of July. A lot of other MMO games will be celebrating this event, and there needs to be something to occupy the players during a time like this. That is why I'm proposing we have our very own global Graalian World Cup event, much in the spirit of the Graal Olympics. The best time to do the event would be during the middle of the actual World Cup (w/c 21/06/2010) spread out over 2 weeks, with one game every other day.

I wouldn't want this done unless it was done to a high standard. This is an opportunity to show just what is possible in a Graal event, similar to what Konidias and EOTB did with their Bomberman Event on Graal2001.

How It Would Play Out

We've currently got 8 servers on our serverlist, and while the activity on some of them may be questionable, the amount is perfect for a basic tournament. Each server would nominate 6 of their players for a team (the means of this is to be discussed) with additional reserves.

The event itself would play out similarly to the game 'Nintendo World Cup' for the Nintendo Entertainment System, as the simplicity of this game seems very appropriate for our environment. Here is an outline of some of the features:

• Players are only able to face two directions--left and right--and are able to strafe up and down without changing direction.
• The ball itself attaches to the player that has posession of it, and the only means of losing it is through being tackled by the other team, or kicking it away.
• When a player has the ball he or she has the option of either passing (a) or shooting (s) and without it, the player will simply be limited to tackling (s). In addition to these simple options, there would also be "super" tackling and "super" shooting, possibly by holding down the s key (again, needs to be discussed).
• The only soccer rules that would apply would be if the ball goes 'out of bounds' and everything else is fair game. Players are only able to be tackled once they have the ball however, as they are invulnerable to attacks without the ball.
• The NES game also has a feature where each player has.. welll.. HP I guess, and if they're tackled too much they end up fainting for a period of time, and this might also be suitable for Graal.
• We could go either way with the scoring by having a timer or being goal based, or it could have a merge of the two. Wouldn't want it to lose its momentum for people not taking part though, and when you're just watching a bunch of people play in an event for an hour it just becomes boring, even if you are supporting your home server.

At the end of each match a "post-match summary" would be displayed, showing the statistics of both each team and its individual players. Examples of these statistics would be the goals scored, assists given, balls stolen, and how long they had posession of the ball.

As opposed to hosting the event on each individual server, the Graal World Cup would be developed (and then released) as a completely fresh server. It would only appear on the main serverlist while an event was taking place, thanks to the help of the Playerworld Administration. While it won't be on the serverlist all of the time, it would still be open to players at all times, enabling players to play on their own or practice playing with their friends.

Further Expansions

Like what I had outlined for the Graal Olympics in 2008, there could be some kind of spectator participation (although when I read my idea from back then, it didn't sound as good as I thought at the time). World Cup related items could be sold on individual servers for gelats (or just regular server currencies, but there's nothing to spend spare gelats on these days) such as hats or quirky NPCs.

In addition to entertaining the players on PC Graal, the event could also be released as a Classic iPhone serverwide event. I talk to quite a few iPhone players and staff, and I think something like this really be a hit. Obviously there's only one iPhone server at the moment, so it might be better to do it with their local guilds system instead.

[MrName]

The GDT Team should be there to train new developers

[xAndrewx]

I think this is a great idea, maybe for guilds =D

[kia345]

Graal Olympics-esque pipedream

[Rufus]

Originally Posted by xAndrewx

I think this is a great idea, maybe for guilds =D

I think it could be a little hard to do with guilds as activity within them is pretty low. It would be easier to get teams out of the servers we have.

[Crono]

world cup soccer NES on graal has been my dream for years

doit

[Clockwork]

How about offering to help servers that need it? For example, Zone, Npulse Rebirth, Delteria Dev... I'd say gk but its sorta helpless.

[Inverness]

Originally Posted by fowlplay4

This is pretty much it in a nutshell, and helping the Gold servers as a side venture would be time well spent too.

Considering the GDT is being treated as a volunteer-based effort, the time should be spent on realistic projects instead of things like a new website (can't even get support.graalonline.com to redirect to anywhere meaningful, I have doubts they'll upload a new website over their current one).

I adamantly agree that a new website is a waste of time. That is quite far into the realm of crap that CJ needs to do itself.

Originally Posted by MrName

The GDT Team should be there to train new developers

Not all of us have the time or the interest in personally training new people. At most I would answer questions while a person learns on their own while reading some tutorial/documentation. The lack of documentation and consistency in GScript is a problem. Hell I just found out a few weeks ago that there were clientside constants for keycodes that Stefan added years ago.

Originally Posted by Clockwork

How about offering to help servers that need it? For example, Zone, Npulse Rebirth, Delteria Dev... I'd say gk but its sorta helpless.

I'm sure if they want our help they could come and ask for it.

[Dnegel]

I'd say teach Developers too, better having many good devs than a few good devs.