Communication

[Gasboy]

Well, no one is forcing anyone to install anything. Discord does many things chat, voice isn't the only thing it does.

I've skimmed over this.

The reason the forums aren't getting as much attention (in fact, a bit neglected) as the streams, discord, smorg site etc is that I mainly make sure we're posting updates here, dev blogs, dev discussion etc. However, I'm no longer doing much community work anymore, it's limited to whenever I have the free time.

Unfortunately, that's probably not going to change any time soon. I expect to have less time to spend on SMD, the Discord and other areas of the community over the coming months.

I still think we should be posting at the very least, game updates, dev patches and such that schema has been posting on Discord. I'll talk to him about that. Discord isn't ideal for keeping a record of news.

StarMade Discord does not have voice chat, it's only text channels. It's a direct replacement of the old SMD text chat, basically the same functionality.

What about taking on a volunteer who can spend some time posting updates garnered from tidbits put out by the dev time in 1) Discord and 2) the Saturday streams to the news page on here?

 

[JumpSuit]

That requires me to install a voice chat program. No thanks. I would rather be out of the loop than have Discord installed.

Call me crazy, but we have a front page for news. Its over here: https://starmadedock.net/

If no one can be bothered to update it properly, that is a separate issue.

I like how you literally slap 'voice-chat' on any application that even uses the very thing. Even when Duke clearly states the Starmade Developer Discord is PURELY TEXT. Discord isn't just for voice, it has screensharing capabilities. which i find rather useful in a lot of peer-to-peer situations with friends. It has A Game quick launcher, ability to enhance streaming on twitch and interact with viewers. etc...
QUICK EDIT: To add on to GasBoy, he has the right idea. Export the discord news to the site automatically if I am getting this right. Makes the overall process more automated when Schema posts new builds on discord chat, DukeOfRealms even has what he calls 'DukeBot' which I'm sure he can adapt special commands and what-not :>

 

[JinM]

That requires me to install a voice chat program. No thanks. I would rather be out of the loop than have Discord installed.

Call me crazy, but we have a front page for news. Its over here: https://starmadedock.net/

If no one can be bothered to update it properly, that is a separate issue.

Oh yes, I forgot to mention and now I think about it after reading the post from Jumpsuit:

I don't use the Discord application, I just use it out of the browser. I don't like to install Discord too, because...well I don't know. Maybe I preffer the browser version for chat only stuff.

 

[Gasboy]

QUICK EDIT: To add on to GasBoy, he has the right idea. Export the discord news to the site automatically if I am getting this right. Makes the overall process more automated when Schema posts new builds on discord chat, DukeOfRealms even has what he calls 'DukeBot' which I'm sure he can adapt special commands and what-not :>

I am thinking of someone doing such a thing manually. I do not think that there is an automated way, yet, for a program to discern between actual news, and blather. So it'd have to be done by an actual human.

 

[Edymnion]

I like how you literally slap 'voice-chat' on any application that even uses the very thing. Even when Duke clearly states the Starmade Developer Discord is PURELY TEXT. Discord isn't just for voice, it has screensharing capabilities. which i find rather useful in a lot of peer-to-peer situations with friends. It has A Game quick launcher, ability to enhance streaming on twitch and interact with viewers. etc...

I like how you're missing the point.

I don't do Discord because I have tons of bad experiences with programs like it, to the point the well has been poisoned. I don't *CARE* what else it can do, I don't care how it gets used here. I don't care if it is a rational viewpoint at this point or not. I just do not use Discord, I do not WANT to use Discord, and I have actively made the decision that I would rather be out of the loop than have to use it.

 

[Ithirahad]

That requires me to install a voice chat program. No thanks. I would rather be out of the loop than have Discord installed.

Call me crazy, but we have a front page for news. Its over here: https://starmadedock.net/

If no one can be bothered to update it properly, that is a separate issue.

The majority of activity on Discord (not SM Discord server, but Discord as a platform) is text chat. Voice functionality exists for whatever server/community might need it, but it really is not mainly a VOIP client for most users. To each their own, though, I guess.

 

[Equilibrium21]

There is a browser edition of Discord...

 

[Skwidz]

I like how you're missing the point.

I don't do Discord because I have tons of bad experiences with programs like it, to the point the well has been poisoned. I don't *CARE* what else it can do, I don't care how it gets used here. I don't care if it is a rational viewpoint at this point or not. I just do not use Discord, I do not WANT to use Discord, and I have actively made the decision that I would rather be out of the loop than have to use it.

What kind of experiences? Things like moderation trouble or something as simple as running into an issue with settings/features?

 

[Gasboy]

You all are missing the point. Edymnion has emphatically stated that it's not up for discussion, and hounding them is not going to change anything. Better to step off than belabour the point.

 

[DeepspaceMechanic]

Slightly off topic, but I guess this piece of StarMade/Schine trivia could add something to our understanding of why this game's development is so slow and why the devs-players communication has been so sporadic lately.

So I seem to recall reading something form a fellow player, stated as if they knew for sure, that not only all the other devs work on this game part-time, as a relaxed side-gig, but even Schema... Fact?

Assumably, he has a day-job as a programmer, along other real-life responsibilities, and StarMade is more of a hobby / project of passion / labor of love of his, that happened to turn into something popular and profitable. The fact that a small company was made to be able to receive effectively voluntary donations for this endevour, with the hope of releasing it as a proper indie game is another story.

If *all* of the devs have other/more important things to do, that would put things in a different light... Or at least it should.

 

[MacThule]

Livestreams can be used to create a decent record if they are archived and thrown into a YouTube channel or the like after the fact. Discord definitely sucks for long-term recording of activity, and Reddit is only marginally better.

I feel like the forum format seems to be going out of fashion at this time (notwithstanding "social media" services like FB/T/IG/etc, which are basically complex forums with no subject, strict limits on text size, really poor options for looking back at older stuff, and lots and lots of cat pictures. Like... even more cats than traditional forums.).

 

[JumpSuit]

I am aware of the point Eddie was trying to make here. But people who think lowly of this kind of program really ought to realize what the potential is for such a thing. Voice OR NOT. As another use stated, there is a 'Browser' Version of Discord. although it is rather limiting than the client in a few ways. (of course). It would be interesting for Hammer and Chisel to add some long-term Forums Functionality built-in to discord for ease of creation and management within the Client.

 

[DukeofRealms]

but even Schema... Fact?

schema works on StarMade full-time. The rest of us work when we are able to.

devs-players communication has been so sporadic lately

Yes, the rest of us spend communicating with the community voluntarily. Often times we're busy elsewhere or spending the free time we do have on internal projects/tasks. schema is fairly active with his updates and discussions in the Discord. As I mentioned earlier in the thread, I do think this should also end up on the forum (or at the very least, smorg).

 

[Gasboy]

So what would people like to see, then, in the form of regular news updates? Obviously, the weekly livestreams should be saved and uploaded to the Starmade YouTube channel. Such a thing can be done with a few button clicks. What would take longer would be setting up a bunch of timestamp links to relevant info in the 'stream. The livestreams themselves do not have any fixed format, it may help to arrange a format for the livestreams and follow that as best as can be.

Would people want a digest version of the daily/weekly blurbs by the devs in the Discord channel?

Perhaps a digest for the Twitter chatter too?