Forums! The Musical

There's not much to see here yet, but we'll do our best to keep this thread updated as and when things change.

Gobberwart - Task 1: Create a Beta Progress forum thread. Check!

Hey, it's progress. It counts!

Stay tuned for updates.

UPDATE:

We've created a test server and established an official group of testers who will be responsible for making sure that what you see is 100% perfect by the time you see it. Really. If it's not, blame them

The game's login page, and associated pages (eg. "Create Account", "Forgot Password" etc.) have all been updated to use the new theme created by Elusis. It's been tested, and I'll be putting it into the live server during tonight's intermission.

Extensive planning documents have been created, outlining the things that need to be done, and timelines for when they need to be done by. They're quite depressingly large, but manageable.

ElljaeT has been speaking to several people about content-writing, and has received a few really good submissions. Our hope is that those people will be able to help with getting new zones/opponents/nombats/items out there for you all to play with, while the rest of us get on with the complexities of the game's underlying mechanics.

Several critical issues related to those mechanics have been discussed in depth and some points of contention have been (or are on the verge of being) resolved. These are small but important issues that need to be resolved before we can make any meaningful progress, and are currently our number one priority.

So far, so good, and we're on track. Just thought you'd like to know.

sounds like a very good plan Gobb

God's speed, Gobberwart.

...and all who sail in her.

Awesome work to the person who redesigned the Home Page, I absolutely love it!

This forum thread doesn't in any way show the amount of work going on behind the scenes right now, so I thought maybe a quick update was in order. Just in case you thought we weren't working or something.

I've just finished a fairly large chunk of very important game infrastructure code related to character classes and skills, and I'm in the process of testing the hell out of it at the moment. I can't reveal too much except to say that, in the development environment, the game has both character classes and skills, and they seem to be working pretty well.

Over the next week or so, I'm hoping to get the rest of the major infrastructure code completed, so that it becomes possible for us to release the code into the test environment and let that special group of people tell us what we got wrong before we release it into the wild. Hopefully, not too much will need reworking.

At this stage, we're still (just) on target for June 30. Our goal is to have the beta release candidate in place early in June for live play testing and final bugfixes in preparation for final beta. To achieve this will take a lot of hard work from several people, and there's not much room for error, but we'll do our best and I'm still relatviely confident.

As soon as anything changes, I'll let you know. In the meantime, rest assured that there IS a lot of work being done. Our silence/absence just means we're really really busy, not that we've lost interest.

Ok, this isn't *quite* an announcement, but it's a long-overdue update.

In short, it's currently looking unlikely that we're going to get to Beta by June 30. Yeah, who didn't expect that, right? I know.

Over the past few weeks, the entire dev team has had real life issues cropping up all over the place that are going out of their way to prevent us having the time we need to get things completed. I'm not going into detail, but suffice it to say that illness plays a not-insignificant part in it along with other things. If you need to know, feel free to talk to us in chat

Anyway, we're still TRYING to get there, and we'll do everything physically possible to make it happen, but be ready for the possibility that it might take longer than we hoped, or that it might happen on time but not include everything we'd planned to include.

More details to come as soon as there are any.

This just means that the Beta party will be even more awesome.

No kidding. I'm going to go crazy. Crazier. Yeah, that.

Party like it's 1999! Woo! Yeah! By which I mean I'll roll the site back to dialup speed and make it only work on Netscape 4. YEEEEEHAH!

UPDATE: For those who've been watching over the last couple of months, you may have noticed that I haven't been online as often as I usually am, and you may be wondering why. I'll try and keep this brief. Over the past few weeks, I've been getting migraines on average every three days. Now, by "migraines" I don't mean "bad headaches", I mean full-blown migraines that are causing me some serious problems, including preventing me spending any serious amounts of time in front of a computer screen. I've been seeing a doctor on a regular basis, taking all kinds of different coloured pills, and have just now gotten back from having my brain CT-scanned. You know, to see if maybe I have something exciting, like a brain tumour.

*GASP*

Yeah, I'll leave it there, except to say that I'm practicing my Arnold Schwarzenegger impersonation for when I get the results back and "IT'S NOT A TUMOUR!"

Aaaanyway, the fact is that this has had a HUGE impact on Beta progress (funnily enough, some of the meds I'm on are "beta-blocker" - ironic, no?) and there's no way known we're going to make it by June 30. In fact, at this point I can't make ANY guarantees on anything, except to say that Paradox development remains a VERY high priority for me, and I'll do everything I can to get Beta out there as soon as possible.

In the meantime, please try to enjoy whatever you can out of the game, and feel free to talk to me when you see me if you want to know more.

Once again, thanks everyone for your support.

Gobb, we're all happy enough to be a part of your little mind-world that I'm sure I speak for everyone when I say that both your health and the quality of the release are certainly priority over the implementation date. good luck with the not-a-tumour (maybe an in-game item someday?) and I will remain, as always, in a state of relaxed anticipation.

-jB

First off, we have full confidence that the Beta release will be an epic win full of cupcakes. But you need to take care of yourself first; Beta will happen when it happens--don't force it. Just ask your mom.

Secondly, I think just for the sake of us Alpha players' e-peen, new accounts after Beta's release should start at a random low 5-digit number (like 12,468 but not exactly at 10,000). This way, years down the road when player numbers hit 6 or even 7 digits, the 4 digit players that are still around can say "Yeah. I remember when Legion was the last guy you had to beat to reset and the Artery Hardeners weren't nerfed." Or something like that. And TimberlakeGoatLover245 (#846211) says "Holy Gazebo!! Your player number only has 4 DIGITS! I wanna cyber you right now!!" and then you both go the /cyber channel and... well, I don't need to go into the details with you, pervert, but it probably involves a chat effect that makes sucking noises in you computer speakers and a new account option labeled "Third Hand." Oh, and that "Virgin: Yes" line on your profile? Kiss it good-bye. I'm sure the vibrating mouse "joke" will be a reality by then, too. Have fun. Sickos.

What the hell kind of game are you trying to make, Gobb!?

We need to recruit Jup for something!! Just gotta have a piece of his warp

I merely repeat the mantra of others..... and I wish I could give Gobb my hed.......

He wouldnt get much done, but at least it wouldnt hurt..............

Well, for those who want to know, I've got my results back and it's not a tumour! Which is great news. What the scan DID show, however, is that I have a "low cerebellum", meaning that the base of my brain comes down lower than it's supposed to. Yeah, who would've thought I'd have an abnormal brain, right?

So what does that *actually* mean? Well, it may or may not be related to the migraines, but even if it is... well, too bad for me because there's nothing that can be safely be done about it anyway. So basically, my doctor's increased my meds again, and plans to keep doing so until (in his words) "either it works or side-effects start occurring."

Wish me luck

Beta-blockers, not-a-tumor, low cerebellum. These all sound like potential items/effects that could be implemented in the Paradox University Medical Department.
See this post for more info.

Also, I wish you the best of luck with your medication and condition. My wife gets migraines all the time from a cyst in her sinus, so I have an idea of what you're going through. Hopefully the eventual published side effects won't end up including "becoming an asshat" because we'd never notice. Seriously, though. Get well soon.

Someone took a boomerang to the head as a child? sheesh. So basicly migraines for life and meds for life till medical science makes a breakthrough in a field they aren't even working in? This brings back that "DUH!" that rings in your ears ever so elegantly. I'll sleep better knowing your life isn't in danger now. Best of luck managing the condition. :mrgreen:

glad your semi ok Gobb... migraines suck I had them for like 6 months after my accident almost daily so I feel for you bro.... have you thought of giving up smoking... I know the response but it might help...... hope they go away soon

So you still have the migraines?

Yes, mate, I still have the migraines, and I probably will have them for a very, very long time, possible for the rest of my life but who knows, sometimes these things just resolve themselves over time. In the meantime, it's about learning how to manage them effectively through a combination of medication and lifestyle. At this stage, I'll be happy if I can get through a week without having one. Currently I'm on five days and counting, while trying my best to avoid things that I think *might* be triggering them (eg. excessive computer use).

Luck Mate.

Hi. I was just wondering if there is an expected date or a date you wanted to finish beta by. I don't mean to bug

As soon as I have a date, I'll publish it. Right now... how long is a piece of string?