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Starsector 0.97a is out! (02/02/24); New blog post: Simulator Enhancements (03/13/24)

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Author Topic: GIF Roundup  (Read 19992 times)

Alex

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Re: GIF Roundup
« Reply #75 on: April 20, 2020, 09:51:27 AM »

Appreciate you want to keep your secrets, I'd never suggest you should do otherwise.
However just a simple update such as a *rough* level or progress would be appreciated.

For example last month we might of been 18% complete on mainline story progression.
In the next update you might mention your *approximately* 29% complete.

That's kind of hard to say - we know the overall shape of the story, but how much it will get fleshed out where really depends. So let's just say: there will be a bunch of missions and story related stuff in the next release, and also it will by no means be the whole thing :)
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Ryan390

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Re: GIF Roundup
« Reply #76 on: April 23, 2020, 01:17:33 AM »

That's fine, thanks for that Alex.

W/R to SafariJohn's post:

Developing software is iterative

Correct, software should be iterative. From a commercial perspective, releasing early and often is usually the best way to get feedback quickly (QA)
To make your product iterative and not run at a glacial pace it requires you to slow down initially and plan and slice the work accordingly, constantly re-evaluating yourself as you go along.

By getting a full vertical slice of functionality through the door we can prove the infrastructure / deployments & CI pipeline is solid. Achieving this forces us to think about our ticket / story slicing in a way that each feature can be separately developed and released. We call it 'getting a bullet trace through the system'.
This approach usually lends itself a slower start, but doesn't have as much of a negative effect later down the line - (as you call it - the 'development hell')
Therefore in the long run you can maintain a more steady velocity. There shouldn't ever be a development hell, your process somewhere down the line has failed if you've gotten yourself into that situation.

What we're describing here is basically an agile approach vs a waterfall approach:
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1c/Agile-vs-iterative-flow.jpg
Notice each release on the left is much smaller, yet more frequent, if we're really talking about iterative software, this is how it's done.

With the gaming industry this isn't as easy to do, especially when your trying to not leak information about your product.
David Braben followed a similar agile approach to iterative software releasing, creating a full vertical slice of releasable game play pretty much right from the start.
He wasn't that bothered about keeping updates a secret and actually was very candid about upcoming releases. Yes, there ended up being plenty of bugs on day one, but they got ironed out pretty quickly in his defense.
Every release which came after was frequent / iterative and they never slowed down, he ended up finishing the 1.0 version of the game in no time at all.
Not everything has to be a big bang release, though it makes sense in some situations, such as releasing a big expansion pack for a game.

That's how many projects end up spending 90% of their time and effort on the "last 10%" of the work AKA Development Hell

That's because most projects you've been involved with probably are run in a waterfall fashion.
They start quick due to lack of initial planning / slicing, also develop initially fairly quick..
Then what usually happens is they slow down over time as things get more complex and the code base becomes more out of control.
https://ars.els-cdn.com/content/image/3-s2.0-B9780123815200000023-f02-01-9780123815200.jpg?_

Yes there will always be non functional requirements to consider, scope creep, un-expected technological barriers, Peoples illness / absences. Live issues you need to jump on, etc,etc But that's the same with all software usually.
The difference here is how you manage the stuff that is purely in your control.
If you're running a really big project over multiple teams, you kind of have to do this stuff or everything just grinds to a halt and cost will sky rocket.
However even for smaller products / individuals - the same principles above can be applied - It just happens on a smaller scale to bigger businesses.
« Last Edit: April 23, 2020, 02:45:02 AM by Ryan390 »
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Sharkfighter

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Re: GIF Roundup
« Reply #77 on: April 29, 2020, 09:43:49 PM »

Will it be possible to slap these weapons on a tempest and do drive by's with an ice flamethrower? I am also excited to see how the [redacted] ended up with these weapons.
« Last Edit: April 30, 2020, 11:03:33 AM by Sharkfighter »
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I tried modding and stayed up till 6 trying to add a fuel ship in the game just for the game to give me an error. I have a new respect for modders now.

Alex

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Re: GIF Roundup
« Reply #78 on: April 30, 2020, 09:12:47 AM »

:-X
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Tartiflette

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Re: GIF Roundup
« Reply #79 on: August 12, 2020, 02:28:38 PM »

On the pure technical side, will those new quests still use just the current rules.csv for the bulk of the work? Or will there be some more robust system to manage them? Just to know if it is worthwhile to start working on such framework within a mod without getting all that work invalidated in 6 month with the update.
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Alex

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Re: GIF Roundup
« Reply #80 on: August 12, 2020, 03:44:46 PM »

Hmm. I'd say the rules stuff is fine for interactions - especially if it doesn't try to do too much and sticks with making proper code do the heavy lifting - and what's more complicated for current missions is the coding of the intel items etc. The next blog post will touch on this (and hopefully clear some of this up), and if you want to follow up in that thread (once it's up, of course), I'll be happy to discuss that further.
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Ithiloneth

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Re: GIF Roundup
« Reply #81 on: April 22, 2021, 09:03:58 AM »

Sorry to post in an old thread, but before go mad from searching every corner of the sector; are any of these weapons available in the latest release? Tried looking through this thread for information but either I missed it or the information is not here  ???
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SCC

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Re: GIF Roundup
« Reply #82 on: April 22, 2021, 09:17:10 AM »

Yes, they are, but they are very uncommon.
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