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Small project committee for wiz

Posted: 24 Mar 2017 23:44
by Kwevin
I apologize in advance if this is unintelligible, but I believe wizards are quite busy doing many things, and don't have time for mini projects. Some things, players notice constantly, but are too small to be seriously looked at by most wizards. As a result, minor things that would assist in aesthetics are not often changed, and the seamlessness of the game and each room is a little rough, not what it could be. My idea was, if major wizards are so busy, working on big projects, why not have a group of wizards dedicated to sorting through all those bug reports, typo reports, defining new exa commands, making things more smooth?

Just my thoughts, but I think it could be cool and good for the overall game. Take it and run, I wanna see where this goes.

Re: Small project committee for wiz

Posted: 25 Mar 2017 02:25
by Cherek
Kwevin wrote:I apologize in advance if this is unintelligible, but I believe wizards are quite busy doing many things, and don't have time for mini projects. Some things, players notice constantly, but are too small to be seriously looked at by most wizards. As a result, minor things that would assist in aesthetics are not often changed, and the seamlessness of the game and each room is a little rough, not what it could be. My idea was, if major wizards are so busy, working on big projects, why not have a group of wizards dedicated to sorting through all those bug reports, typo reports, defining new exa commands, making things more smooth?

Just my thoughts, but I think it could be cool and good for the overall game. Take it and run, I wanna see where this goes.
Wizards work on what they want to work on, we don't hand out tasks and tell people what to do. Wizards come to me, or the liege in their domain, with ideas, and we say "Do it" or "Hmm, what if you did it like this instead" and then we work out a plan. Usually most projects are approved right away, otherwise we do some tweaks together, then work is started. Sometimes of course projects are denied too for various reason, but it's quite rare.

If someone wants to fix bugs and typos in an area, I say in 99% of the cases: "Do it, here's your access!". Those 1% is when a totally new, fresh off the street wizard with no coding experience wants to fix bugs. Which, of course, isn't a good idea since they'd likely create more bugs than fix them.:)

Gronkas is the current wizard we have who wizzed with a very specific goal of going through bugs and typo logs and fix them. So far he has gone through the entire Sparkle bug and typo log and fixed everything that could be found there.

Vyasa has also done a lot of bug-fixing and cosmetic improvements in Avenir lately.

Mirandus also loves fixing bugs and has done a lot of bug-fixing since he joined the AoP team, and later became AoP. I also fixed a bunch when I was AoP. And of course the active lieges fix things too. Arman for example has not "only" worked on SoHM and PoTs lately, but has also fixed minor stuff in Krynn too.

So... we do fix things. It's not something that is posted on boards though usually, so, no way for you to know that we do fix things. perhaps we could be better at sharing what we do with players?

I always tell those who fix bugs to mail the player or players reporting the bug, and thank them for the bug report and tell them it's now been fixed. I think it's good to let people who do bug and typo-reports know that we DO fix them sometimes. So it does not feel useless. So, it's NOT useless to report bugs and typos, but it can take some time before things are fixed. And sometimes it's never fixed because nobody wants to work on bugs in that particular area... but that's how it is in a volunteer-run game.

Re: Small project committee for wiz

Posted: 25 Mar 2017 02:50
by Emmiline Calaith
Cherek wrote: I always tell those who fix bugs to mail the player or players reporting the bug, and thank them for the bug report and tell them it's now been fixed. I think it's good to let people who do bug and typo-reports know that we DO fix them sometimes. So it does not feel useless. So, it's NOT useless to report bugs and typos, but it can take some time before things are fixed.
I can atest to this. The bugs and typos I've reported were always responded to in this manner. :)

Re: Small project committee for wiz

Posted: 25 Mar 2017 03:41
by Melarec
Cherek wrote:So... we do fix things. It's not something that is posted on boards though usually, so, no way for you to know that we do fix things. perhaps we could be better at sharing what we do with players?
Perhaps submit numbers to Gorboth so he can add it to his list of statistics?
X number of bugs fixed this month; Y number of typos corrected this month.
Would be interesting to see..

Re: Small project committee for wiz

Posted: 25 Mar 2017 10:35
by Vyasa
I read bug, idea, typo, and (hint, hint) praise reports every day. If there is something new, I'll mail the player who reported it saying that it's either being worked on or explaining that it isn't a bug (if it's a bug report). Point being that I give feedback to the reporter on their report to encourage them to do so and to let them know that such things are indeed being looked at. This I see like the mud version of 'reading the newspaper' before I head back to work on other things.

My scope is limited to the domain of Avenir, and you're welcome to mail me personally if you feel the aforementioned commands aren't fit to what you wish to communicate. .

The reason I don't post this on any boards of Avenir is because I like to think of it as an immersive domain, which would make some (not all) wizard reports be counterproductive. As to forums, I don't feel it's a safe environment to communicate.

So, in essence, please do feel invited to use the 'bug', 'idea', 'typo' or (hint, hint) 'praise' commands within the domain of Avenir or mail me in relation to rooms, quests, npcs, objects, weapons, armours, etc., or basically anything you'd either like to see, isn't written correctly, isn't working as intended, is somehow being handled improperly, or what could be done better. I'll make sure you receive a proper and honest feedback.

I'll itemize your issue, investigate it, make a decision, rank it, and either solve it immediately or let it linger over me like the dark shadow of a traumatizing experience that try as I might can't resolve, like that damned issue with the blanket which will be fixed as soon as the team is finished with a current project that has a higher priority due to time restraints. I'd estimate it will be fixed around the last week of April when priorities move from one ranked item to this one which is next in line.

Re: Small project committee for wiz

Posted: 25 Mar 2017 10:43
by Vyasa
Kwevin wrote:I apologize in advance if this is unintelligible, but I believe wizards are quite busy doing many things, and don't have time for mini projects. Some things, players notice constantly, but are too small to be seriously looked at by most wizards. As a result, minor things that would assist in aesthetics are not often changed, and the seamlessness of the game and each room is a little rough, not what it could be. My idea was, if major wizards are so busy, working on big projects, why not have a group of wizards dedicated to sorting through all those bug reports, typo reports, defining new exa commands, making things more smooth?

Just my thoughts, but I think it could be cool and good for the overall game. Take it and run, I wanna see where this goes.
To explain and for transparency's sake: the reason we don't have a team of wizards dedicated to such things is because of permission rights. Wizards are assigned to domains, and their capacities are usually restricted to this one except in the event of extraordinary cases of wizards who have earned the rights to perform cross domain development.

Like I explained in my post above: mine is Avenir. As much as I'd technically be able to solve a bug or fix a type in, say, Middle Earth, I can't do so because of:

1. Permissions
2. I know nothing of the lore.
3. It's the domain's wizards' (or the Liege's most likely) prerogative to handle such issues.

It isn't so easy, because even if you place a wizard in a neutral domain with rights to the whole mud, it still would be protocol to sync up with the domain's wizard before they commit any changes to the code which could unknowingly result in an affront to the lore, theme, feel, codestyle, or balance the domain has.

If you'd like to know precisely who to contact when it comes to a certain domain, or would like to see which wizards are in which domain and what they're working on, I'd recommend you visit the tower of realms in Sparkle and read the signs in each domain room. Some of it may not be up to date but at least you get a name to associate with the domain and know who your point of contact is.

Re: Small project committee for wiz

Posted: 26 Mar 2017 16:26
by Kwevin
Ah. This makes a lot of sense, guys. Thank you for responding. For me, it was just an idea that could possibly be done. Not knowing exactly how things work in the Land of the Wise, twas just a suggestion, of which I personally would be all ready to be the first. Since it's a bit more complicated than that, I guess it's not as easy it sounds. Thanks a bunch, Cherek, Vyasa, and all other wizards. You have all made a wonderful game.