Bench, your killing me.

[alterintel]

Bench your killing me. I am metaphorically dying of anticipation. What with these recent postings in
Crew: Stations, Bonuses, Specialties, Experience & Expense:

I hadn't considered the crew experience on the duty station they're assigned to resulting in the bonuses they give improving, makes them a lot more valuable. I wonder if you could make the crew join your faction when you took over a ship through a boarding party.

Interesting.

And
Crew Teleporter :

We've been playing around with seeing how this idea integrates with other ideas we've had recently. I think there's a potential for a good balance between this and some of the other ideas that help make this not too OP, but we're still discussing whether or not we'll even have something like teleporters. So watch this space I guess.

And then you tweet this:

Just busted out another 6,000 word planning doc on factions, races, NPC interaction and more epic features

All I have to say is, There had better be another Dev Blog in the near future!
I can't wait to see what you guys come up with next

Thanks

 

[Bench]

Lol, we have planning docs on a fair few features of the game actually, I just don't usually mention that we actually have them. People just tend to assume we don't for some reason

 

[Megacrafter127]

Lol, we have planning docs on a fair few features of the game actually, I just don't usually mention that we actually have them. People just tend to assume we don't for some reason

Why should one assume you to have docs on something one doesn't know exists?

 

[Winterhome]

hypehypehypehypehypehypehypehypehypehype


yes, I know this will likely take another year or so to get in

 

[Bench]

Why should one assume you to have docs on something one doesn't know exists?

I've spoken a lot about how we have a lot of features planned, it's not too far a step for people to logically go; well I know they have stuff planned so they've probably done a lot of thinking on it and have that outlined somewhere to refer back on.

 

[Control]

I've spoken a lot about how we have a lot of features planned, it's not too far a step for people to logically go; well I know they have stuff planned so they've probably done a lot of thinking on it and have that outlined somewhere to refer back on.

So would making some of those things public for mass discussion be... valuable.. or.. just a clusterfuck?
I mean, I know WE would enjoy reading them :D
[DOUBLEPOST=1442269716,1442269664][/DOUBLEPOST]the docs.. i mean

 

[Bench]

So would making some of those things public for mass discussion be... valuable.. or.. just a clusterfuck?
I mean, I know WE would enjoy reading them :D
[DOUBLEPOST=1442269716,1442269664][/DOUBLEPOST]the docs.. i mean

At some point some might be shared but probably not until the feature is actually implemented.
For discussions you'd be surprised how many of the suggestions on these forums happen to be discussed at the same time as we were starting to discuss them in the dev team. So players end up having more input than they probably realise. Some features though might not be confirmed until we actually start working on them, so we don't want to say anything too early.

 

[Gristle]

Are the design docs prepared when an idea reaches a certain probability of being worked on? Are they a formal document with things like resource time, game tick utilization,etc. or are the more informal like a list of ideas and features?

 

[Bench]

Are the design docs prepared when an idea reaches a certain probability of being worked on? Are they a formal document with things like resource time, game tick utilization,etc. or are the more informal like a list of ideas and features?

They're generally put together when a couple in the team have been talking about a particular idea or feature. From those discussions its then put together as a conceptual document for the feature. The doc then outline what the feature aims to bring to the game, how a player first engages with the feature, if it requires building then how is constructed etc, it usually details how this new feature integrates with existing systems and features already in the game, then goes into usage engaging in the purpose that it aims to achieve, then more often than not looks at things like logic integration or lists configs that would be adjustable in files like server config file, finally it concludes with anticipated issues or bugs or exploits and ways that they could be resolved. That's how most of the concept docs for features go, and from that it goes back to the team to discuss and be adjusted etc. It keeps everyone on the same page regarding the objectives for that particular feature and from there if it's decided we'll go ahead and add it in the teams can take from there what they need to.

For example, we knew shipyards were coming up and we sort of had a couple things we wanted to add into it. From there the concept doc was written that outlined everything mentioned above, so before any code was written we could look at everything from menu items and layout of the rings, to ways to resolve things like docking etc. More often than not we include two-stages in each build, one that gets the basic mechanics in and most of the gameplay, and the second having some polish that integrates with features that are planned but not yet implemented yet. Shipyards was interesting as we had written the doc, and discussed through everything with the team and then I went on holidays. By the time I had returned back home shipyards had been released. While I wasn't able to converse with any of the team regarding my part in its development, because we had worked on the document prior, I was able to just let everyone run with it knowing that the doc was there if they needed to check something that they would had otherwise talked to me about personally.

 

[Control]

Bet you didn't expect us to be so dang interested in these docs :P
WE WANT TO KNOW ALL THE THINGS BENCH!

 

[Bench]

Bet you didn't expect us to be so dang interested in these docs :p
WE WANT TO KNOW ALL THE THINGS BENCH!

Lol

 

[kiraen]

Bookmarking this for future reference and link posting.
I figure if we (the players) can put our suggestions through this process and write the doc for the devs, we could save some time for everyone.

 

[ephla442]

I'm lactating with excitement! That's right LACTATING! It's a medical condition!

 

[Yrjosmiel]

ALL ABOARD

 

[Spazinout]

Question is will this planning include some better faction controls like more ranks, access management, etc.

 

[Winterhome]

Bookmarking this for future reference and link posting.
I figure if we (the players) can put our suggestions through this process and write the doc for the devs, we could save some time for everyone.

WaffulMann's dual-axis turret suggestion comes to mind. I'm pretty sure that thread is almost single-handedly responsible for the amazing rail system we have now.

 

[jayman38]

I'm lactating with excitement! That's right LACTATING! It's a medical condition!

 

[Bench]

Question is will this planning include some better faction controls like more ranks, access management, etc.

Will now, boo ya. *drops mic*

 

[StormWing0]

Maybe this'll encourage people to hop onto the dev server more and help. :P Speaking of I got to finish up my frigate there so I can help.

 

[Spazinout]

Will now, boo ya. *drops mic*

Sucka emcees, they call him siyah, bench droppin feats., like it's on fiyah.