Forum's activity

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The White Wizard
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Forum's activity

Post by The White Wizard »

Is it still active, or is it dead since it looks like so?
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E-102 Gamma
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Re: Forum's activity

Post by E-102 Gamma »

This part of the forums used to be more active, but I wouldn't call it dead yet.
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Hesterax
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Re: Forum's activity

Post by Hesterax »

Are you asking about this specific forum or the forums in general?
Overall I would call it pretty much alive, I estimate that there are around five new posts a day.
Holocaust and Genocide, both linked to Mass Slaughter.
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Rman Virgil
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Re: Forum's activity

Post by Rman Virgil »

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The overwhelming majority of vital contributors who also post, are absent. What is left is a clear paucity of quantity and substance.

You can skip visiting for a couple weeks and catch-up in 5 minutes on stuff that, here and there, is of some substance but, the preponderance, is wishful hot air, hugely vain (& in vain) attempts at funny (to be kind) or some pretence of valuable info offered which qualifies more as disinformation or just plain BS.

Would that all be characterized by the phrase "generative vitality" of the forums ?

Are there icebergs in hell ? Do flying pigs hunt eagles ? Does beating a dead horse into the ground win thoroughbred races ? :hmm:

It is what it is. Trying to force the flower on an ice floe, or make a silk purse out of a sow's ear, is a fool's errand.

Those who make a tangible diff will arise from absentia after a spell, of thier own accord, in concert with thier wellbeing, vision, time and energy - fostered elsewhere, assuredly, but still inclined to make an investment here.
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Berg
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Re: Forum's activity

Post by Berg »

Sifting through the rubbish has stopped a lot of folks even looking.
The lengths of some post that have no content is depressing hence forum is ignored.
The White Wizard
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Re: Forum's activity

Post by The White Wizard »

Hesterax wrote:Are you asking about this specific forum or the forums in general?
Overall I would call it pretty much alive, I estimate that there are around five new posts a day.
Asking in general.

A few days ago I was planning to start coding an AI for WZ, but I changed my mind since no compilers seem to work on my PC since a while and I can't be bothered to fix it. So I thought I'd just make some maps, but FlaME doesn't work properly (tiles not loading) and I couldn't find the original WZ map editor.

And that's why I'm here, asking for forums' activity to see if it's worth staying here.
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Rman Virgil
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Re: Forum's activity

Post by Rman Virgil »

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You will certainly get help with resolving probs if you post threads describing them in this bb:

viewforum.php?f=5

As for constructive feedback on any work you may do, there is a small contingent that will offer it beyond - "That looks interesting (or awesome). I'll have a look and get back to you." (And this latter, more ubiquitous group, never do.)

Basically, you have to have a burning desire to do something, and see it through, because that very process is personally rewarding, in and of itself, and any expectations on the backend should be kept minimalist, if at all. It's like the meaning of the expression "art for art's sake", in many ways, I believe.
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ClockWork
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Re: Forum's activity

Post by ClockWork »

I think that in a way this forum is a lot like the game it's self. There lacks the research facility for us to groom our skills to create, and make with help upon which the desires they want. At most, people have to do a search to find the right stuff in order to achieve a 3D model, or to pursue other means of this project.

Something like this I want to be in the past.

This lacking of a central area that can point in the right direction both seamlessly and conveniently is what really lacks here today. A person with the desires to create art here may find that it is hard to begin doing so, but those that know how to find it easy, as they know the ropes. If, we had the more experienced have a thread that describes in short, simple ways with links to achieve what we want today, then I think things would go like a locomotive train in the smoothest of sands.
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Re: Forum's activity

Post by Jorzi »

Personally, my lack of activity correlates to intensity of studies, but I see what you mean, clockwork.

Even though the game has made progress, the modders and artists still have to be a bit like pioneers. You have to learn the quirks of unpolished tools and the nature of the file formats in order to be truly creative. I have personally tried to get interested people started in the art deparment by giving advice through pm, but even with a mentor it's still a bumpy ride. Alpha93 and cnceo can confirm this, since they are examples of motivated people who have actually went all the way.

The fact that it is like this is, of course, nobody's fault and a natural part of the world of open source, but it's still a huge area of potential growth. Once we get the content creation pipelines estabilished, the barrier for non-technical creative people can be significantly lowered.

Our current main examples of promising software are the map editor FlaME and the model import/export tool WMIT.
For a while, the development of FlaME stagnated, but now I'm putting a great amount of hope in the new project, called SharpFlame.
WMIT is also a bit in a state of stagnation, with no official builds provided.
Maybe I'm just too used to it, but with some minor bugfixing, I think it could be made the official tool with precompiled builds provided.
Of course also here would be room for further development, like graphical placing of connectors etc.
ImageImage
-insert deep philosophical statement here-
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Rman Virgil
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Re: Forum's activity

Post by Rman Virgil »

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I think you both have raised valid specifics pointing in the direction of constructively evolving greater participation. If you will, making the light at the end of the tunnel a wide open, compelling, vista and not a head on collision with another locomotive. ;) Afterall, I do believe this old gal we call WZ has much vital life left in her and, in fact, has yet to see her greatest days as a singular RTS. :3
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Hesterax
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Re: Forum's activity

Post by Hesterax »

Rman Virgil wrote:.

I think you both have raised valid specifics pointing in the direction of constructively evolving greater participation. If you will, making the light at the end of the tunnel a wide open, compelling, vista and not a head on collision with another locomotive. ;) Afterall, I do believe this old gal we call WZ has much vital life left in her and, in fact, has yet to see her greatest days as a singular RTS. :3
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Image
A lot of LIFE. :D

PS: Image may be a bit large so part of it is cut off. :wink:
Holocaust and Genocide, both linked to Mass Slaughter.
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Rman Virgil
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Re: Forum's activity

Post by Rman Virgil »

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FYI - If you upload your img as a .jpg attachment to your post instead of a remote hosting img tag, it won't be cropped. :3

When I say "much vital life left in her" I have something very specific in mind that relates to a component of Pumpkin's original GP design that wasn't fully realized for various reasons back in the retail days, but will be possible down the road. This component has a connection to the classic Sci Fi novel "Ender's Game" from the 1980's (and the sequence is beautifully realized in the 2013 movie which I can now point to as a spectacular illustration of the yet to be fully realized GPM in question that my piddly words over the years have failed to adequately convey). The full development of this GPM would also reverse the 15 year trend of pallid MP statistics compared to Campaign and Skirmish popularity. It is also were WZ's promise of greatness to be fullfilled still resides, I'm sure. :hmm:

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