Blockland Development

[tony-0222]

I will start this post with a quote from Kompressor

"The Blockland community is a big part of what has made Blockland successful - we want your feedback."
-Shadows and Shaders vs Interiors and Terrain Topic

So, let's take a look at it and have an evaluation. Starting with the bad.

Why do you think Ephialtes quit?

Quote from Ephi "Honestly I expected game development to be taken a bit more seriously"

Quote from Ephi "I got bored of putting more effort into the game than the guys who make it"

Quote from Ephi "I offered to develop community features and services for free as an official part of Blockland but there wasn't much interest or follow-up on that."

Even when a dedicated and sophisticated member such as Ephialtes offers to create default game content, he gets turned down. Did I mention he was gonna do it FOR FREE?

Also, the "hats" that everybodys hoping for probably aren't happenening, considering it was over a year ago

No new content. Just fixes.

Quote from Kompressor "Interiors and terrain are killing forward progress in Blockland development"

^Uhh. What development? The only thing I really see are a few small fixes, and a brick-making tool that has already been out-done by another forum member. Oh, and the Environment. Do some math. That's 1 small thing a year

Quote from Kompressor "We can't afford to not put out updates for 18 months while we rewrite everything"

Oh, really? And what have you been doing for the past year and a half?

Working on a hatpack thats bigger than buying a copy of unity? 

Quote from Kompressor "Vehicle collision fixes - we want to fix this"

^Then what the forget are you waiting for? You said this stuff back in FEBUARY OF 2012

You know, when the Halloween bricks were released that one year I was pretty happy.

Should try some stuff like that.


Now, let's look at the good stuff (new stuff since v21, not counting minor fixes)

.BLB tool
Sports Items (Balls)
Bot Holes [Replaced Amade's bot events]
Brick and Ghost Limit increase

4 good things in 3 years
Tons of underrated bug fixes that were awesome
Also, the patch for BLHACK.dll don't count. That was a necessity.

I think I need help with this section.
Feel free to add stuff, I'll add to OP If it's worth adding.


Also, all of the minor bug fixes apply to this catagory.


And before you say something like "Is this a 'blockland is dying post?'", it isn't.
I love this game and many things about it, but I hate it when lackluster development derives new players from playing, current players from being motivated, or long-time well-known substantial figures to quit the game completely. *Glances at Ephis grave


Now, discuss your satisfaction of development. Vote in the poll too please.




a perfect example of developmental expansion can be found in this quote

The only updates I really would love are those that expand the game's limitations, even a little.
Something like increased amount of image slots would be a massive thing for developers but I'm not sure if it will ever be done.
Vehicle physics glitching into bricks is a massive issue as well, and it makes the karting gamemode virtually unplayable for me.
I would also love full .ifl support (the thing that players use for decals and faces), it seems to work perfectly and I even got it to work with my models but .ifl's are not even networked correctly if they're custom. This means we can't have custom models with decals/animated decals on them.

Please, someone! Give Badspot some coffee! c:

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[PurpleMetro]

i'd really like to see some of the annoying issues in blockland fixed, such as precipitation going through bricks, or the weird fog limit line, or even the small glitches with transparent bricks.

unfortunately some of these are engine issues which i don't think he's ever going to fix

[tony-0222]

i'd really like to see some of the annoying issues in blockland fixed, such as precipitation going through bricks, or the weird fog limit line, or even the small glitches with transparent bricks.

Yeah, and the precipitation thing was mentioned in the interior/terrain thread. kompressor said something about fixing it, but It never got done.

[K3k0m@n]

If anything, I want a new developer to rewrite the game, bringing back in interiors and terrrain with shadows at the same time, on a new, lag-free engine

[kobble]

I can never understand this attitude to development and update lust.
The updates we do get are small but they no longer are called version (V19, V20, etc), they are called revisions (e.g r1966).
I would prefer fixes over content personally, fewer things going wrong rather than more things that could go wrong, and the modding community is so incredibly active why do you want content from the developer.

I also feel the small changes and fixes get little recognition in the grand scheme of things, for example taking the most recent update, fixing crashes, coverage issues and blocking vulnerable code in some add-ons. That seems very broad for a small development team. I would count "minor fixes" on the good stuff list, as well as increased brickcount and ghost limit.

The small engine issues can be worked around or if not are bearable (e.g using zone bricks to block precipitation) and anyone who thinks an engine change would be for the best hasn't thought it through (e.g mod compatibility)

The sort of new players that won't play for lack of development were probably never going to play the game for long anyway and a stable game that doesn't change often supports mods. (Would the hat mod be so developed if there was one implemented? Could a large update upset well used mods?)

What really bugs me is that this behavior is spreading even to games with faster development (and a smaller community) Example

Since when was frequent large updates in a finished game an expectation?


Also that's the wrong use of derive. Unless it's typo and you mean drive.

[K3k0m@n]

I can never understand this attitude to development and update lust.

It's not bad that we're not getting frequent updates, but I don't think we can add too much amazing add-ons without it being either too laggy, too buggy or just plain non-functional. We have to rely on the creators of the game to add ways to get around these problems and allow us to produce better add-ons. I don't really care if things like treasure chests or teledoors are added, because even though they're really good things, they can easily be done with the add-on system. All we need is bugfixes, but at the same time, new ways to add more into the game, even if that means editing the engine itself. However, there also comes problems when things are added or changed, which causes problems in the engine and/or game. Then, more bugfixes have to be made, instead of new possibilities. I think that at this point a new engine must be put in, since torque is already struggling enough.
Not to mention the addition of shadows and shaders, literally pushing the engine to it's limits.

[kobble]

I haven't personally seen much non-connection based lag or many problems with shadows and shaders that aren't down to hardware limits. Either way, the idea of an engine change seems ridiculous, bearing in mind the dev team is small and know torque well. Changing engine would only create problems for modders, unless there is some way to perfectly translate one game code to another. Were it just an updated Torque, it's much more understandable, but people seem to have the idea of Unity. In a completely unfair comparison, the transition from Source 1 to Source 2 has only recently shown signs of maybe nearing completion, and that's with much vaster resources.

Also I cannot think of one example of a game changing engines that had a good modding community

[The Resonte!]

you forgot bot holes

[techware]

maps back, if they are best game in the universe.

[Tumbleweed]

Honestly Badspot doesn't need to add new add-on content like hats, because the community already has a few very well working hat mods. The community are the ones who supply the content, so I'm content with Badspot supplying us with bug fixes.

[Greek2me]

Why is it always the same people complaining?

[Captain Crow]

maps back, if they are best game in the universe.

That is what we need

[tony-0222]

Why is it always the same people complaining?

The forget? Please tell me you're joking

Find me 3 posts where I have a paragraph complaint or longer (not counting this thread ofc)

The sort of new players that won't play for lack of development were probably never going to play the game for long anyway and a stable game that doesn't change often supports mods. (Would the hat mod be so developed if there was one implemented? Could a large update upset well used mods?)

What really bugs me is that this behavior is spreading even to games with faster development 

Since when was frequent large updates in a finished game an expectation?

The hatmod would more-likely be even more developed if it was implimented in a proper way.

Added higher brickcount and ghosting to OP.

That post doesn't even list any relative information about the game really.
That's like If I made this thread and just said "[/title]".

Also, I don't expect large frequent updates, I just wish blockland received something more a little once in awhile.

Nothing like every 3 months or less. Talking like a 5-10 month stretch.

  Or, for example, waiting for vehicle physics to get fixed since the beginning of time.

I think that at this point a new engine must be put in, since torque is already struggling enough.
Not to mention the addition of shadows and shaders, literally pushing the engine to it's limits.

You and I can only dream

you forgot bot holes

Indeed I did.

I would be "content" (hey nice pun) with only bug fixes, if any game-changing bugs are fixed.

Such as: Green/Red Line Issue, Precipitation, Jeep Physics, wierd fog line, annoying issues with transparent bricks, etc.  Not to mention the teledoor infiniteloop glitch/issue

[tony-0222]

Double my toast

The community are the ones who supply the content

Until every add-on creator gets Ephi'd, right?

Quote from Ephi "I got bored of putting more effort into the game than the guys who make it"

Huh. Ephi'd. Has a nice ring to it.

[kobble]

That post doesn't even list any relative information about the game really.

Perhaps I should have been clearer. Sub Rosa is an early access game currently, and the post was one of a few about changing engine to something more mainstream, since the game is on a small, independent engine for a blocky style.
The point I was making is more to point out how stupid suggesting an engine change off hand is.

Such as: Green/Red Line Issue, Precipitation, Jeep Physics, wierd fog line, annoying issues with transparent bricks, etc.  Not to mention the teledoor infiniteloop glitch/issue

I would hardly call those game changing, barring vehicle physics, and even then there are ways around most of them. Regardless most of those seem to be deeper/fundamental issues in the game that might not be fixable quickly.

Also you have a very negative view of the community. Most modders and addon makers are content with the response they get from the community, I can't think of anyone else who left for that reason. Ephi seemed to think he deserved more I guess.