Utopia Developers’ Update 12th August
Wednesday again already, latest from Brian and Sean below. Feedback on the forums as usual :)
Hi All,
We scaled up the Alpha testing last Wednesday by inviting 50 more volunteers into the game. As expected, the new testers found new bugs and we’ve been working for the week on resolving these. The bugs are becoming less and less severe, which is an indication that the fundamentals of the game are in good shape. The bug count is down in the 20s now, and falling quite quickly. We want to get the bug count to about 10 before inviting in more testers. This should be either tomorrow or Friday, at which point we might even invite in all remaining Alpha testers.
Questions from last week:
Ezzerland: and btw, I believe you meant the new code will replace the old code. Not the old code will replace the new code. Unless that was a subtle hint :p
Oops, yes, that’s right. new code replaces old code… gotta remember that :-)
Luth: My next question is if it’s only supposed to be a 6 week age (which would put it at September 16th or thereabouts), why does the front page show October?
It says September now…
Luth: And when are you planning on releasing the beta onto genesis?
Genesis restart will be on the new code, so not until the new code is ready. I’m not going to give you a date, but Alpha testing is going well.
Dolgil: question for the Two Amigos developing this thing, are you going to take more of a hand in age restart when putting on the new code?
Si Señor! Once we’re on the new code, Sean and I will be in charge of age restart and we intend to make it a smooth and predictable process. We’ll also be in charge of age changes, for which we’ll seek community input and come up with ideas of our own.
Dolgil: You have stated that you have found some weird things in the formulas and that things seem to have gone askew over time. As those things are more about game play than bugs, could you describe those things without giving away the formulas involved. There may be obscure reason for such things. An open discussion would help to ferret out if any such reasons do in fact exist.
It looks like you’ve been reading back over old blog posts :-) Yes, we came across a few weird formulae during the re-write. We’ve marked these in the code and will come back to them after this release. Then, we may ask for input on regarding particular formulae in order to figure out of they’re sensible. If we unintentionally change something important, we’ll fix it once it’s pointed out.
Ezzerland: Would you consider using a monotype script (font) to make the depth of ascii themes more feasible for the general entertainment of kingdoms utopia wide?
You mean you want to be able to have your kingdom name render in a monotype font so you can do some nice ascii art with it? If so it sounds like a plausible suggestion that we could consider in the context of customising the kingdom page with banners, crests and alliance affiliations.
Hurlin: Questions re Origins of Undead, future use of Undead personality, and on bringing back Faeries and Avians.
Believe me, I’m really looking forward to thinking about bringing in new races and reviving old ones. The main reason for rewriting the game was so that we would be able to make these kinds of changes. The rewrite has to be done first, then we can enjoy the fruits of our labour by introducing fun changes age after age.
Thanks for reading,
Brian