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Archived Boards => Machina Terra => The Archive => Archived Machina Terra Threads => Topic started by: Mongoose on September 18, 2008, 01:36:26 am

Title: Not that I'm normally the sort of person to prod...
Post by: Mongoose on September 18, 2008, 01:36:26 am
...but should we read anything into this being shunted into the archives?
Title: Re: Not that I'm normally the sort of person to prod...
Post by: Droid803 on September 18, 2008, 06:53:19 pm
Yeah...is it like... DEAD? :nervous:
Title: Re: Not that I'm normally the sort of person to prod...
Post by: Goober5000 on September 18, 2008, 09:34:52 pm
That depends entirely on its project members. :)
Title: Re: Not that I'm normally the sort of person to prod...
Post by: FUBAR-BDHR on September 18, 2008, 09:39:44 pm
So Styxx ferried over to the other side without a coin to get back then?
Title: Re: Not wot I'm normally th' sort o' person t' prod...
Post by: CSA-DarthVader on September 19, 2008, 06:27:04 am
This board has been fairly inactive for a long time, first real information(aka mystery photos) that has been posted lately was somewhere in the spring, or winter.  From what i have gotten from all the staff(becuase i asked like a D-Bag) is they are all busy with RL, which is cool, i can understand that, i just recently got married.
Its kinda those things like, Dont let it die, give it up for adoption before you take it down with you, kinda thing.

just curious, why the archive?
Title: Re: Not wot I'm normally th' sort o' person t' prod...
Post by: Mobius on September 19, 2008, 12:07:21 pm
Probably because of the evident inactivity...

There are active members like Snail and Cobra who're part of the MT team, asking them should make the issue clear.
Title: Re: Not wot I'm normally th' sort o' person t' prod...
Post by: Gloriano on September 19, 2008, 05:15:16 pm
MT is been quite inactive lately a long time but i still think we get it done at one time.
Title: Re: Not that I'm normally the sort of person to prod...
Post by: Mobius on September 20, 2008, 03:29:28 pm
You should solve your organization problems. Someone(:rolleyes:) said MT's Team organization is a total nightmare...you could start with that :nod:
Title: Re: Not that I'm normally the sort of person to prod...
Post by: CSA-DarthVader on September 20, 2008, 09:59:03 pm
It would be awesome if they could, Styxx has been gone since august 8th, no forum activity whatsover(check logs)
Title: Re: Not that I'm normally the sort of person to prod...
Post by: Droid803 on September 20, 2008, 10:40:35 pm
So, what is the standard procedure for dealing with MIA leaders?
Title: Re: Not that I'm normally the sort of person to prod...
Post by: Stormkeeper on September 20, 2008, 10:55:22 pm
So, what is the standard procedure for dealing with MIA leaders?
Tieing them up securely to a tree and surround them with hot, naked, sexy chicks.
Title: Re: Not that I'm normally the sort of person to prod...
Post by: Mobius on September 21, 2008, 04:15:07 am
Eh?

Just tell them if they have intention of completing the Mod. If their answer is negative form a new team or remove the mod.
Title: Re: Not that I'm normally the sort of person to prod...
Post by: Snail on September 21, 2008, 08:55:54 am
remove the mod.
Isn't archiving the mod enough?
Title: Re: Not that I'm normally the sort of person to prod...
Post by: Mobius on September 21, 2008, 09:03:33 am
Well, yeah...sorry...

But what do you think? You said nothing about the current status of MT...
Title: Re: Not that I'm normally the sort of person to prod...
Post by: ShadowGorrath on September 22, 2008, 12:54:54 am
Totally dead. The mod is dead, the team is dead. Everyone here is dead. Though if seriously, could I try to help get organised?
Title: Re: Not that I'm normally the sort of person to prod...
Post by: shiv on September 22, 2008, 08:41:49 am
If it's not going to be released the team might release things that are acomplished already... just suggestion similar to the thing that 158th did.
Title: Re: Not that I'm normally the sort of person to prod...
Post by: Mobius on September 22, 2008, 12:23:38 pm
The Administrators should do it...contact the members who're not MIA and ask them what to do with the stuff. The community would be a far better user of new features than a dead team.
Title: Re: Not that I'm normally the sort of person to prod...
Post by: ShadowGorrath on September 22, 2008, 12:52:33 pm
Or instaed of sitting there, not doing anything,  you could contact the survivors of MT and help them restore this mod before it falls into oblivion?

Where's Snail when you need him?
Title: Re: Not that I'm normally the sort of person to prod...
Post by: Mobius on September 22, 2008, 01:02:10 pm
Snail posted on this thread and Cobra should be arriving very soon...
Title: Re: Not that I'm normally the sort of person to prod...
Post by: Cobra on September 22, 2008, 01:10:23 pm
I posted.

My job in MT was to edit the first 8 or so missions since apparently someone decided that one character wasn't going to do this or that, **** like that. Did the first mission, then got swept up in my own project's second wind. Now I'm finishing up on some interface work for a project on the HLP forums... :nervous:

I'm thinking that MT was semi-dead.
Title: Re: Not that I'm normally the sort of person to prod...
Post by: ShadowGorrath on September 23, 2008, 01:46:30 am
I've offered help to get organised, and no comments? It seems you don't even want to work that out.
Title: Re: Not that I'm normally the sort of person to prod...
Post by: Stormkeeper on September 23, 2008, 01:52:03 am
I'd think that it'd be the mod leaders who would decide whether or not to help ... try PMing/e-mailing the mod leaders?
Title: Re: Not that I'm normally the sort of person to prod...
Post by: CSA-DarthVader on September 23, 2008, 06:39:47 am
Ive been trying to contact styxx for a very long time now(about a month) he just hasnt been online anywhere, E-mails might work, PM's are useless(unless tagged a "Youve got a private message" e-mail sent from the forums here)
I'm thinkin he will show up here soon, i dont think he just bailed on the project like that... if he did... how gay.
but yeah,i digest.  I hope this isnt the end of this mod, its been in the works for a way long ass time, shoot ive been here since the announcement of it, If Shadow really wants to take the reigns, we need to get all the materials together, and let him on board. If i had the neccessary skills i would try and help out, but i got way to frustrated with the fredding and never really learned anything about it.

Bottom line, i dont think anyone here wants this thing to go off the deep end.
Title: Re: Not that I'm normally the sort of person to prod...
Post by: Spicious on September 23, 2008, 07:20:41 am
I've offered help to get organised, and no comments? It seems you don't even want to work that out.
What can you really offer?
Title: Re: Not that I'm normally the sort of person to prod...
Post by: DarkShadow- on September 23, 2008, 10:49:41 am
Well, mission 15-19 are finished, except the parts that need additional files (e.g. background, voice). It's difficult to continue without the other stuff being finished, and I'm really starting to wonder where Styxx is...
Title: Re: Not that I'm normally the sort of person to prod...
Post by: Mobius on September 23, 2008, 11:20:01 am
[Styxx is in Brasil, right? j/k

The question was another: do you feel like completing the project even if Styxx comes back? Are you motivated and dedicated?/shadow]
Title: Re: Not that I'm normally the sort of person to prod...
Post by: ShadowGorrath on September 23, 2008, 11:35:59 am
I've offered help to get organised, and no comments? It seems you don't even want to work that out.
What can you really offer?

Depends on what you really need and what's the situation?
Title: Re: Not that I'm normally the sort of person to prod...
Post by: Droid803 on September 23, 2008, 05:25:55 pm
Well, first things first is figuring what still needs to be done...if you can't figure that out, its going nowhere...
Title: Re: Not that I'm normally the sort of person to prod...
Post by: Gloriano on September 24, 2008, 05:41:44 pm
Well, first things first is figuring what still needs to be done...if you can't figure that out, its going nowhere...

- Working on missions (most of them are at skeletal phase and needs to be worked out and get finished
- Models needed to be worked out a bit (Textures or making em to high poly etc)
-Cutscenes ( a quite few was planned
- More Sacrifices to Volcano god Sam


And stuff like that quite a lot actually need to be done to get this finished.
Title: Re: Not that I'm normally the sort of person to prod...
Post by: DarkShadow- on September 25, 2008, 04:38:19 am
- skyboxes and skybox textures
Title: Re: Not that I'm normally the sort of person to prod...
Post by: Mobius on September 25, 2008, 05:32:45 am
- Working on missions (most of them are at skeletal phase and needs to be worked out and get finished
- Models needed to be worked out a bit (Textures or making em to high poly etc)
-Cutscenes ( a quite few was planned
- More Sacrifices to Volcano god Sam

Ok for the models, but what about the missions and the cutscenes? They'd require tons of hours of work...are you considering the possibility of dividing the mod in parts and release them gradually?

Also, how are you going to solve the problems related to bad organisation within the team? That's a tough problem as well.
Title: Re: Not that I'm normally the sort of person to prod...
Post by: ShadowGorrath on September 25, 2008, 07:13:37 am
INFASA's organisation within the team is rather good, from what I know, right Mobius? Maybe you could give them some hints, or help fix those problems?

And maybe MT could actually release a demo first? That way it'd attract more attention, and possibly some more help as well. Plus, positive comments would improve morale and motivate you all, MT team, to continue work on MT. Possibly even suggestions/constructive-criticism that could help enrich the campaign.

Models... Well, seems that there are good modellers doing personal/freelance work over the mod forums. You just gotta take some time to look through there. If you can't get new HTL models, then just ask texture artists for help. At worst- there's the ModDb to look through and get some help.

As for the cutscenes. There are loads of people who can make cutscenes, considering that it is hard to make them there are still quite a lot.

Mainly, I would ask Mobius or someone else from INFA ( or other larger mod ) to help with organisation problems, and possibly release some sort of demo to attract bigger attention, as it will be benefitial for everyone, and would get you motivated.

P.S. Making skyboxes it's kid's play if you got TrueSpace or 3DS Max and stuff to convert the formats to POF.
Title: Re: Not that I'm normally the sort of person to prod...
Post by: Mobius on September 25, 2008, 02:16:20 pm
Well I've recently come up with the Labor Limae phase, basically what I consider the best way to organize a team(there could be better ways to do it around, I don't know how popular mods like BtRL and the FS Port are organized). Here's a little example(please note that grammar-checking might stand for anything concerning the texts, as it's pretty common to get the scripts ready even before FREDding the mission):


NOTES:

- The list is about all aspects of development.

- Check below for updates.

- A " *** " next to someone's nickname means that his task for that mission is nearly complete.



CAMPAIGN

Mission 1 -  "The Beginning"

FREDding assigned to: MEMBER 1***
Testing assigned to: MEMBER 2
Grammar-checking assigned to:

A few edits left. In need of grammar-checking.

FREDding: OK
Testing: IN PROGRESS
Grammar-checking: UNASSIGNED - URGENT


Mission 2 -  "The War Rages On"

The mission is yet to be FREDded. No one has been assigned to this mission

FREDding: TO DO - URGENT
Testing: TO DO
Grammar-checking: TO DO


Mission 3 -  "Stronghold Under Attack"

Current status of the mission is unknown. Please report it to the thread's creator.

FREDding: UNKNOWN
Testing: UNKNOWN
Grammar-checking: UNKNOWN


Mission 4 -  "Tremendous Casualties"

FREDding assigned to: MEMBER 3
Testing assigned to: MEMBER 3 - MEMBER 2
Grammar-checking assigned to: MEMBER 4***

Various bugs in the mission. The scripts are ready.

FREDding: IN PROGRESS - PRIORITY 1
Testing: IN PROGRESS - PRIORITY 1
Grammar-checking: OK


Mission 5 -  "Our World Is Gone"

FREDding assigned to: MEMBER 1***
Testing assigned to: MEMBER 2
Grammar-checking assigned to: MEMBER 4

FREDding complete but the mission hasn't been tested yet. The scripts should be checked as well.

FREDding: OK
Testing: IN PROGRESS - PRIORITY 1
Grammar-checking: PRIORITY 2


-----------------------------------------------------------------------------


<INSERT DATE>

STATUS CHANGE:
Scripts for m4 are ready.

MESSAGES:
Please inform the rest of the team if you find a copy of m3. With the recent <insert bad event here> Member X's version is lost. If you can't find it the mission should be redone from scratch.

-----

<INSERT DATE>

STATUS CHANGE:
New changes to the tables and the plot turned m4 into an old style, full of bugs mission. Its FREDding and testing status have been set to Priority 1.

ASSIGNMENTS:
m1 testing assigned to Member 2.

MESSAGES:
Nothing to report.


(and so on...)

MODELS

GTF Blackdragon

Current status of the mission is unknown. Please report it to the thread's creator.

Model: OK
Texturing: IN PROGRESS - PRIORITY 2
High-poly: UNASSIGNED - PRIORITY 1
In-game: UNKNOWN

(and so on...sorry for possible modelling inconsistencies, I'm not a modeller)

TEXTURES

(same setting as before, but specific for the case).


Similar schemes can be done for other aspects of development like "Cutscenes". Every section of the thread should have an UPDATE sub-section. The thread should be stickied and all members should be supposed to check it, report and/or volunteer for tasks.

The main purpose is to organize the team and focus on the priorities(red ---> purple ---> orange ---> blue, grey for unknown status). Everyone should know what the others are doing.
Title: Re: Not that I'm normally the sort of person to prod...
Post by: Cobra on September 25, 2008, 03:06:30 pm
We already had something like that, but it wasn't constantly updated. :P
Title: Re: Not that I'm normally the sort of person to prod...
Post by: Mobius on September 25, 2008, 03:19:27 pm
Updating it it's the most important thing. If it's going to remain outdated then it would be better to remove it because it gets everyone confused.
Title: Re: Not that I'm normally the sort of person to prod...
Post by: Spicious on September 25, 2008, 05:18:47 pm
That's why it was going to be moved to a wiki format.
Title: Re: Not that I'm normally the sort of person to prod...
Post by: Snail on September 26, 2008, 03:14:02 pm
That's why it was going to be moved to a wiki format.
But that never went anywhere unfortunately.

And maybe MT could actually release a demo first? That way it'd attract more attention, and possibly some more help as well. Plus, positive comments would improve morale and motivate you all, MT team, to continue work on MT. Possibly even suggestions/constructive-criticism that could help enrich the campaign.
What we do not need is more help. We have an unmanageably huge team (most of which are lurkers or people who don't even have an account on HLP) which are making things worse. More help is not going to help the project at this stage. What we need is a simple and easy organization system to get things sorted out. For example, right now half of our missions exist only on 1 person's hard drive because they were in attachments.
Title: Re: Not that I'm normally the sort of person to prod...
Post by: ShadowGorrath on September 26, 2008, 03:16:57 pm
Snail, really, can't you just organise like in INFA? Tell those people to register here, and to follow the organisation rules and all.
Title: Re: Not that I'm normally the sort of person to prod...
Post by: Mobius on September 26, 2008, 04:11:45 pm
Too many people in the MT team? It would be a good time to check who's available and who's still interested on MT. There probably are people with the MT badge who are not going to work anymore on MT. It happens(there are many INF SCP badges and no one except for Woomeister working on INFA's old brother).
Title: Re: Not that I'm normally the sort of person to prod...
Post by: Droid803 on September 26, 2008, 06:39:42 pm
Its also a good idea to kick out people who don't do anything/haven't done anything/won't do anything anymore...
Title: Re: Not that I'm normally the sort of person to prod...
Post by: Spicious on September 26, 2008, 08:37:15 pm
What we do not need is more help. We have an unmanageably huge team (most of which are lurkers or people who don't even have an account on HLP) which are making things worse. More help is not going to help the project at this stage. What we need is a simple and easy organization system to get things sorted out. For example, right now half of our missions exist only on 1 person's hard drive because they were in attachments.
Quite true, but some sort of version control (probably svn or mercurial) should work. Who doesn't have an account here?
Title: Re: Not that I'm normally the sort of person to prod...
Post by: Stormkeeper on September 26, 2008, 09:02:29 pm
Okay okay. So in order to get MT up and running again the major things to do so far are:

1) Pruning the team
2) Making sure everyone has svn
3) Creating an effect C3

Anything else I missed?
Title: Re: Not that I'm normally the sort of person to prod...
Post by: Getter Robo G on September 27, 2008, 04:12:21 am
1. get ONE person to Make decisions, also have a backup ready to step in, then a backup for the backup. Everyone knows the general "plan" for teh mod.

2.)A File Host like :http://www.4shared.com/login.jsp?sessionUnavailable=1
Keep it internal and you can make folders for all sections: models/maps, voices, missions ec t... Point is, any team member can access it and if one person goes away the files aren't lost (back them up!)

3.)Assign small bits and keep to deadlines, then update the status thingy MONTHLY.

Those sound liek solid suggestions.
Title: Re: Not that I'm normally the sort of person to prod...
Post by: Gloriano on September 27, 2008, 05:17:51 am
Quote
(most of which are lurkers or people who don't even have an account on HL

all them had or have a account, but most of them have vanished
Title: Re: Not that I'm normally the sort of person to prod...
Post by: Mobius on September 27, 2008, 08:36:19 am
Its also a good idea to kick out people who don't do anything/haven't done anything/won't do anything anymore...

That's what I said, but in a more polite way... :)
Title: Re: Not that I'm normally the sort of person to prod...
Post by: Snail on September 27, 2008, 12:24:19 pm
Snail, really, can't you just organise like in INFA? Tell those people to register here, and to follow the organisation rules and all.
Hey i wasn't the one who organized INFA, it was obviously Woo. In fact of all the project's I've joined Woo's organization is definitely the best. For instance, the Project downloads are in one, locked thread so it's easy to find the downloads, and almost all subsequent versions are released as patches (most of the other mods I'm on just tend to make you download the whole modpack again).

This is the kind of organization I think we need.
Title: Re: Not that I'm normally the sort of person to prod...
Post by: Stormkeeper on September 27, 2008, 09:13:00 pm
Maybe you could ask Woo to help organize it, then let you all go back to work.
Title: Re: Not that I'm normally the sort of person to prod...
Post by: Snail on September 28, 2008, 03:14:49 am
Maybe you could ask Woo to help organize it, then let you all go back to work.
That's not an option really, Woo's so busy right now he has hardly any time to get online, let alone join another project.
Title: Re: Not that I'm normally the sort of person to prod...
Post by: Mobius on September 28, 2008, 03:30:12 am
Hey i wasn't the one who organized INFA, it was obviously Woo. In fact of all the project's I've joined Woo's organization is definitely the best. For instance, the Project downloads are in one, locked thread so it's easy to find the downloads, and almost all subsequent versions are released as patches (most of the other mods I'm on just tend to make you download the whole modpack again).

This is the kind of organization I think we need.

Woomeister has a lot of experience in FS modding: he released two big mods(INFR1 and INFA), a patch for INFR1 to make it SCP compatible, is working on INFASA and INF SCP. He knows how to get the job done.

You can follow Snail's hint and put everything in one thread...
Title: Re: Not that I'm normally the sort of person to prod...
Post by: Snail on September 28, 2008, 03:33:40 am
You can follow Snail's hint and put everything in one thread...
And can we get like exception from the ninjas delete your attachments rule?
Title: Re: Not that I'm normally the sort of person to prod...
Post by: Mobius on September 28, 2008, 03:35:47 am
As Goober told me a few months ago it'd be better if you UL the stuff somewhere...attachment's aren't that reliable.
Title: Re: Not that I'm normally the sort of person to prod...
Post by: Spicious on September 28, 2008, 03:37:06 am
Hey i wasn't the one who organized INFA, it was obviously Woo. In fact of all the project's I've joined Woo's organization is definitely the best. For instance, the Project downloads are in one, locked thread so it's easy to find the downloads, and almost all subsequent versions are released as patches (most of the other mods I'm on just tend to make you download the whole modpack again).
That happens by default if you use some sort of version control.
Title: Re: Not that I'm normally the sort of person to prod...
Post by: Mobius on September 28, 2008, 04:09:28 am
I guess it'll be hard to group the multiple versions of the files and scrap unnecessary duplicates, Snail told me that they're spread on internal...
Title: Re: Not that I'm normally the sort of person to prod...
Post by: Stormkeeper on September 28, 2008, 06:39:07 am
Clarification: Gather the files from every one possible, then give it to someone with lots of time and you trust to get the job done, ask him to weed out the duplicates and upload to an svn.
Title: Re: Not that I'm normally the sort of person to prod...
Post by: Hellstryker on September 30, 2008, 09:53:18 am
TotT is pretty well organized, but then again it's still fairly "young" I'd help if I had time but...  :blah: I'd take gorrath up on his offer, honestly, and kick out the lurkers, and then say to yourself: What are we missing? If the answer is no one, proceed with the mod as planned. If the answer is a modeler, get a modeler, if the answer is a fredder, get a fredder, and so on and so fourth.