Wake up call

[Ariel Azia]

Hi all!

This project has been in the works for a really long time. I think the basic plot is fine and it is a worthy effort, and I would really hate to see it go to waste. I came up with what I think are the causes for the stalling this last year.

We need a new bossman/director in charge of the project. Someone who will enforce some deadlines. There was a lot of effort put into the code here. This guy should have a final say as far as plot/game mechanics (after a reasonable time for discussion) First order of business is to go through a year of emails and re-write the plot development doc. This is the most time consuming job for this game so we need someone who can really commit and have the skills.

We also need a lead programmer, preferably someone with experience
in team leading. we need someone to break down assignment into manageable modular parts. lead programmer should set the style
for the code in general, maybe even write interfaces and such.

We need at least one QA guy (not the same guy)

We seemed to be in very capable hands in for art and graphics, so we can focus on other aspects for now.

I myself can continue with story/dialog writing bits.I would love to settle on a dialog file format (there was a lot of discussion of this at some point) and for someone to explain to me how to format
or build a small tool for create dialog files.

I am a relatively late comer to the game so I want to here what the originals have to say

Ariel

[Mark McGill-Smith]

I've been here throughout, however I don't really do much other than sound, voices & music, which requires most of the game to be finalized.  I'm happy to take on a few menial tasks but I am busy with several other projects also.

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[Gergely Sinkó]

The project indeed entered a phase when the mindset we had so far for development doesn't improve our situation. Writing is a huge and complex task and it definitely needs editorial authority to keep check on story development. I don't believe deadlines could possibly be enforced on the net, but I do believe that if anyone wants to take part in a work like this, the minimum expectation is that they also take part in necessary conversations -- no matter how much "tired" they get spending a little time with it -- and leave their work open for examination and scrutiny. Of course that means whoever plays supervising and decision-making role must be active on at least a day-to-day basis, show a willingness to be present in the same conversations writers are required to participate in, and also not fearful of being critical in favor of bogus human relationship.

Our documents need to be improved for the sake of making them better assist writing, voice-acting and music composition. I've been working on the wiki in the last few days, thinking about ways to provide more solid clues for writers. In the future I may put some markers into the text about how a piece of information may be delivered in dialogue, and may write a list of topic sections that puts writing tasks in structure.

I'm also suggesting that when it comes to dialogue writing, work on online documents accessible by every member. Not only for keeping our work open for scrutiny as mentioned, but also because Star Control 2 dialogues had a highly diverse vocabulary and high command of the english language, one that our group can emulate only by helping each other compose sentences, and maintain logic better.

@Mark: Can you access the file stack on Google Code? The new captain screens could serve you as visual aids for making new music for them.

@Programmers: we had lots of changes implemented in Project 6014 last year, so if you don't feel like taking part in writing for P6014, there's still the task to apply those improvements in UQM-HD.

[Joris van de Donk]

Hi all,

As you might have realized, I haven't been very active lately. This is partially due to my lack of time (no longer a student; doing a fulltime job now), and partially due to lack of interest. I've expressed an interest in story development and such things in the past, but I eventually I realized that working on something like that with other people takes bucketloads of time and willingness, both of which I just don't have. As such, I've decided to spend my time on my own projects, rather than Project 6014. I'll still be doing the occasional tool thing, and I'll continue maintaining/releasing Linux builds, but I think that's it as far as my involvement with the project goes.

-Joris

[Damon Czanik]

I'm still around, I'd love the help of the programmers to finally get Ur-Quan Masters HD done. I just need the bug fixes in melee made in 6014 ported over. Most of the art is done. We could release the beta before December. The big hold up, is the programming and I struggle with C code. I'm more of a Python, PHP, guy.

We've got the art pretty well handled. Gergely is a machine. We just need writers and a project coordinator. I rather hate the idea of it, it's not a fun job. It's a huge amount of time. But I really want to see this project back on track.  Just let me push out UQM-HD first.  If I can get past the HD melee bugs, I guarantee you I'll get us 6014 finished within 12 months.  Gergely, are you okay with this idea? We've had our differences, but we both desperately want this project to succeed.

[Dan Trivates]

Sorry I've been gone for so long. I was originally brought onboard for
writing/editing. I got completely confused over some debates on where
the storyline should go, and I whilst I was around, I believe I made
the Chmmr dialogue more believably from a robot-like race and you guys
liked what I did with them.

One thing I've experienced in collaborative writing is that the
multi-body problem really causes conflicts. When you have two authors
in a room together, trying to write one story, you potentially get
five stories. How many authors do we have on the story?

[Gergely Sinkó]

Damon, what if I take a larger part of P6014 on me? Aside of graphics -- which is unimportant now -- I have the time and necessary activity I can put into coordinating the story/puzzle aspect of the game, mailing with creative folks, writing guidelines, filling up story gaps, making P6014 less like a pile of ideas and more like a game. Having some power in this field I can push P6014 forward day by day, so when programmers come by they have lots more stuff to work with.

[Damon Czanik]

You always say you don't want people to be nice and just say how it is.

Your people skills suck.
You have a tendency to drive people away.
You are unwilling to compromise.
You are argumentative.
You are unwilling to do the things required that you don't like.
You want to do all the art, craft the story and lead the team. No.
This is not your game. You need us all. Whether you like it or not we are a team.

But we need someone to drive the story forward . Let's see if you are up to the challenge. Get the Foon Foon and their fat masters' done. This is really less than two weeks of work. Can you get us a rough draft before the end of the year running inside the game & using the new format?

On Nov 22, 2012 9:43 AM, "Gergely Sinkó" <kwayne...@gmail.com> wrote:

Damon, what if I take a larger part of P6014 on me? Aside of graphics -- which is unimportant now -- I have the time and necessary activity I can put into coordinating the story/puzzle aspect of the game, mailing with creative folks, writing guidelines, filling up story gaps, making P6014 less like a pile of ideas and more like a game. Having some power in this field I can push P6014 forward day by day, so when programmers come by they have lots more stuff to work with.

--

[Gergely Sinkó]

I'm not sure if I can. My plan was to push the story wherever I can. That may or may not give us a complete Baul or Foon-Foon dialogue to a specific deadline (I don't know where you get your estimates from), but that's progress none the less. Right now the Faz, Spathi, Xen-Weyi dialogues are more promising, because I got Ariel's assistance there. It seems he reacts to my nonexistent "people skills" well, since he kindly helped me fill some gaps in these stories and intends to give us dialogue text. As it turned out he wasn't participating much this year because there was no directorial aid and story descriptions lacked sufficient instructions. Would the Baul-FF dialogues be really important to be incorporated into the game, I'd invite Luke to do that job, because his writing style kinda suit the Foon-Foon as I see right now, but before I do that I need some more input on both races. They still feel like artificial additions to me. What we mostly need is the raw text, it doesn't seem to matter if it's in a coded context, so I'd say whoever writes should focus on the text first, and don't bother with learning the dialogue language yet. As a secondary task, ones who know the language may try to put these raw texts into code.

If there's something you're right about, it is that I can't do this alone. I need people. What I don't need is people wasting time pointing out my vices -- true or not --, putting up unnecessary challenges and making long term promises no man with a realistic mind can take seriously.

2012/11/22 Damon Czanik <dcz...@gmail.com>