Post by Lap on Apr 14, 2009 10:44:13 GMT -5
List of Questions
- I see errors for a lot of the models. What's wrong?
- Where can I download WM:RTS?
- When will this mod be released?
- Why don't you release the mod now?
- What's taking so long?
- How can I help make the release faster?
- I'd like to donate something to the mod. How do I do that?
I see errors for a lot of the models. What's wrong?
You need PHX3. You can download it from the SVN or at glua.net.
Where can I download WM:RTS?[/size]
WM:RTS is not currently available for download. Any downloads you find are either extremely old, buggy, and do not contain even half the features you might hear about, or you are confusing WM:RTS with the original WarMelons by MegaJohnny. I do not support any of these versions and will not help you, so don't ask for help with those versions.
It WILL be available for public download in the future.
When will this mod be released?
I can give dates, but it's always a when it's done kind of thing. I always hope it's within a month, but I've been hoping that for months. It's not a lack of development. Updates are usually every few days. It's mostly that adding/changing things faster than they can be polished up for release. Scroll down to find out how you can help speed up the release!
Why don't you release the mod now?
I'm in a similar dilemma as a developer named Toady One who is making Dwarf Fortress. I am developing a free product with every intention of keeping free and I want as many people to play it as possible, but I don't want to go fully open source on it just yet. Many of my reasons are the same as his:
If I don't do it right, someone will do it poorly: There are a lot of features the community has asked for that I want to get finished before release. If I don't finish them someone else will and odds are they will do them poorly. I want to do them right. If you disagree with how I do them then by all means you can change it, but I'd rather not see a dozen script kiddies releasing terribly done popular requests
Bugs: There are still bugs and crashes. It's hard enough trying to find and fix bugs when I have 100% full control and debugging tools for a server. If the mod were released now I'd have to find out which reports are from servers that are simply configured wrong and which were legit before I even started to try and replicate the bug.
Incomplete documentation: Setting up and administering a WM:RTS server is one of the most complicated server setups the average user is likely to do. Until I get the documentation fully finished most users would just end up frustrated and give up. I already have written pages upon pages, but it's still unacceptable.
Poorly admined/setup servers confuse players: Going along with the above issue I do not have the time to deal with the troubleshooting I know would come from people poorly setting up their servers. If enough servers get setup poorly it can give players the wrong impression that the whole gamemode sucks.
User unfriendly: Even with documentation a lot of things are just not user friendly enough yet. Yes, my server works fine for the most part, but the code is often a mess and anyone else would have a nightmare fixing things as of now. Although, I can blame a lot of this on incomplete documentation, some things are just not intuitive enough and I'm working on that.
Community Gives Little Faith: All of these issues are exacerbated by the general immaturity of the GMOD community, which is by far the youngest and inexperienced crowd I've seen outside of console gaming services.
What's taking so long?
Complexity: WM:RTS is quite frankly the most complicated gamemode out there for GMOD. Much of this is because WM:RTS is one of the very few mods that uses the sandbox gamemode as a base. This means that WM:RTS is one of the easiest gamemodes to add on to and it gives the players tons of options. Unfortunately, this also means hundreds of lines of code that exist simply to restrict some of the endless freedoms that sandbox gives. There is way more under the hood than meets the eye.
CPU & Bandwidth Optimization: WM:RTS stretches the limits of the source engine and GMOD. It calculates far more then even Left4Dead, but on a worse version of the engine. The average match has a little more than one hundred entities thinking, moving and firing. Doing things an easy laggy way might take me five minutes. Doing it the proper way can take hours or days in some situations. Even saving a few bytes of bandwidth or saving some CPU cycles can make a big difference considering how often data is being sent and calculations made.
Game Balance: No other gamemode, let alone game I have ever seen has to worry as hard about balance problems. WM:RTS is one of the few competitive GMOD gamemodes, and part of the even rarer RTS style gamemodes. I can't just implement something and hope it's not abused like I could with singleplayer and co-op gamemodes. Add in the freedom of players making their own bases contraptions out of props and I'm left with the hardest game balance situation ever. I spend immense amounts of time viewing raw data and observing matches. I have observed the most part of over five hundred matches and spent hours analyzing the stats from them.
Addon Support & Customization: It's one thing to make a mod for people to play and enjoy. It's another thing to make that same mod as easy as possible for users to change to their liking. WM:RTS has always been designed with customization in mind. From implementing an easy to use in-game editor, to trying to make servers have full control of every essential variable, to supporting custom melons, WM:RTS has gone above and beyond in supporting player customization.
Small Development Team: I've also been doing this project almost entirely by myself since September. I still do 99% of all the coding and it's only been in the last couple of months that there has been significant help (and this is usually in terms of models, textures, and maps, which still need to have me implemented). I'm also a full time medical student. Life's a bitch.
How can I help make the release faster?
Submitting bug reports is the number one thing you can do to help. Trying to track down all the bugs solo is the main reason for release getting pushed back. This is especially true of crash reports. Tell me what was going on during the crash, any units that were just being built, was something being duped, was something firing, etc.
The server gets at least 80 hours of playtime each day and crashes 3-6 times a day yet I recieve one crash report or less a week.
I also always need help with maps, models, textures, manual/strategy guide writing, and promotional materials (movies, banners, etc.). If are skilled enough with the English language I would love to have you help write help topics for the in game encyclopedia.
I'd like to donate something to the mod. How do I do that?
If you have any models, textures, servers, webhosting or whatever that you'd like to donate to the mod simply contact me at l_a_p@hotmail.com. If you would like to make a monetary contribution you can do so by sending it by paypal to the above email.
I would like to remind you that if you are donating you will never receive any special perks that give you an advantage over others. Your units won't be better or cheaper or anything like that. You may get custom textures, ability to use server reserved slots, maybe a special hat, or anything else that doesn't effect actual gameplay.
I do not do this for money, but I always appreciate the encouragement and knowing that people want me to keep developing.