Opensourcing engine, volunteer based coding
Posted: 03 Oct 2017 23:03
I have little idea regarding further development of Genesis.
Disclaimer: I did LP mud long time ago, and never wiz'ed on Genesis (also have no clue how terribly awful your code base it, but I'm rather experienced programmer so I know what to expect ).
I know at some point, wizards were bound to domains, they were basically unable to code for other domains or even access that code.
Problem:
It seems there are many areas that are no longer maintained or otherwise abandoned.
Also mudlib and driver have less love than they would expect (If I remember comment from one of the wizards - "because everybody prefers to code new things")
Now there are two approaches I would propose.
1. Opensource game driver, mudlib and possibly something that doesn't have too much of your domain IP (I would say noobie island),
in a way that anyone can install it on their machine, write some stuff and test it
- Develop it openly or with some NDA signed, keep todo/feature list so everyone can contribute there
^^ That should fix/improve game mechanics, while not revealing too much of a domain stuff
For example thievery badly needs "love", but I guess you have no workpower to do it.
2. Give some options to fix things for people like me, that don't want to become full time wizards, but may want to fix / implement things from time to time at domain code.
Not sure what policy is there for wizards (i.e. are they permitted to play game at all?), but the point is, I'd love to contribute sometimes (can even dig in dead code), but
I have so many activities in RL life, that I can't do it fulltime. Also I do coding for money, so there are days/weeks where I just want to relax
Would it be second as a wizard, with limited access, or just sharing pieces of domain code under NDA (all that blocked areas) - I don't know.
Just to preempt suggestion about posting ideas / suggestions to the board - that's different thing.
I'm a programmer, not creative designer. I'm not even native English speaker, and I have no ability to do anything that requires larger chunks of creativity.
i.e. I can code emote, fix it, but probably I can't write it from scratch. I can improve "usability" of quests, but not invent new ones.
Even if single of that options would be possible - that'd be great.
Unless there no longer people like me around, then it obviously makes no sense to do exception for single person.
Disclaimer: I did LP mud long time ago, and never wiz'ed on Genesis (also have no clue how terribly awful your code base it, but I'm rather experienced programmer so I know what to expect ).
I know at some point, wizards were bound to domains, they were basically unable to code for other domains or even access that code.
Problem:
It seems there are many areas that are no longer maintained or otherwise abandoned.
Also mudlib and driver have less love than they would expect (If I remember comment from one of the wizards - "because everybody prefers to code new things")
Now there are two approaches I would propose.
1. Opensource game driver, mudlib and possibly something that doesn't have too much of your domain IP (I would say noobie island),
in a way that anyone can install it on their machine, write some stuff and test it
- Develop it openly or with some NDA signed, keep todo/feature list so everyone can contribute there
^^ That should fix/improve game mechanics, while not revealing too much of a domain stuff
For example thievery badly needs "love", but I guess you have no workpower to do it.
2. Give some options to fix things for people like me, that don't want to become full time wizards, but may want to fix / implement things from time to time at domain code.
Not sure what policy is there for wizards (i.e. are they permitted to play game at all?), but the point is, I'd love to contribute sometimes (can even dig in dead code), but
I have so many activities in RL life, that I can't do it fulltime. Also I do coding for money, so there are days/weeks where I just want to relax
Would it be second as a wizard, with limited access, or just sharing pieces of domain code under NDA (all that blocked areas) - I don't know.
Just to preempt suggestion about posting ideas / suggestions to the board - that's different thing.
I'm a programmer, not creative designer. I'm not even native English speaker, and I have no ability to do anything that requires larger chunks of creativity.
i.e. I can code emote, fix it, but probably I can't write it from scratch. I can improve "usability" of quests, but not invent new ones.
Even if single of that options would be possible - that'd be great.
Unless there no longer people like me around, then it obviously makes no sense to do exception for single person.