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Dentril's New Moon August 2018

Discussion in 'Announcements' started by Mistri, Aug 1, 2018.

Dentril's New Moon August 2018
  1. Mistri Network Lead

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    1,695,816xp
    Letter from the Co-Lead
    by Navarr

    We have just completed the first third of the 2nd quarter! Let's review our goal.

    As you may or may not recall from the last letter, our goal this quarter is Community Interaction. I am pleased to say that with the return of the Annihilation sandbox, our staff has done an enormous job of increasing community interaction and fun events.

    I actually went through the difficult work of tracking these events for you, and this month we had:
    • 1 Gold Rush event
    • 4 SMASH events
    • 1 Network Q&A Session (you can view that here)
    • and 33 Annihilation Sandbox events
    Let me tell you - the Anni team does not screw around when it comes to community interaction. In addition to what happened this path month, we're looking to bring back the Summer Festival again this month. You should expect a limited availability pet, some extra XP and some general fun - so keep some time on your calendar cleared away between the 24th and 26th of August!

    I mentioned in the last letter that there were two big pieces of our roadmap we're targeting for this quarter: 1.12.2 and a Gold Rush alpha. In that vein, I'm happy to announce that we now support Minecraft 1.12.2! In regards to Gold Rush, we may not be releasing an Alpha in the method we originally planned. We've been discussing it and we're not sure a limited alpha is the best way to get the sort of testing information we want. Your best bet for information on Gold Rush is to watch our Twitter account, here on the forums, and subscribe to our mailing list if you haven't already.

    That is all I have to say this month. Please let us know how we're doing in regards to our Community Interaction goal in the comments, and how you think we're doing maintaining our improvements to transparency. I'm working hard to keep this ship sailing folks, and I need you to let me know if any leaks are popping up in the hull :wink:

    Until next time - Thank you for flying Shotbow.

    [IMG]

    Hello! This is Mistri and welcome to this month's edition of Dentril's New Moon!

    Updates
    Network Updates
    Quite a few things have happened to the network as a whole this month, including:
    • We added support for 1.12.2 clients to connect
    • We have once again opened up the ability for the community to report bugs at https://shotbow.net/forum/p/bugs/
    • Weekly scheduled maintenance has moved from 7AM US CT to 7PM US CT on Mondays
    • All shotbow.net users now have the ability to view recent activity and history on the wiki
    Discord Updates
    This month on the Discord, we cleaned up a few categories and the organization of our channels.

    In addition, Chat Bot also got a new command called !forums. You can use it by doing one of the following:
    • Use it in a gamemode-specific channel to get a direct link to the gamemode specific forum
    • Use it in any non-gamemode-specific channel to get a direct link to our general forums
    • Use it with an optional argument (e.g. !forums anni) to get a gamemode-specific forum in any channel
    We hope you find this command helpful for your day-to-day chatting in our Discord. If you haven't joined yet, be sure to join here!

    MineZ Updates
    Something is coming... but all we can say for now is that work is being continued on the Second Part of the Origins Update.

    Statistics
    SMASH Rankings
    The 2018 Summer season is in session, so rack up that ELO quickly before it's over! The current standings are:
    • 1st - Acstes (1156)
    • 2nd - Ingavar (1133)
    • 3rd - _BrightDarkness_ (1127)
    Mine Theft Auto
    MTA Leaderboards for July 2018
    Combat:
    • 1st - VenomousChewy KDR: 178:1 (178.0)
    • 2nd - Famicoro KDR: 671:7 (95.86)
    • 3rd - nabe4975 KDR: 68:1 (68.0)
    Arrests:
    • 1st - Sitnown Arrests: 119.0
    • 2nd - The556 Arrests: 88.0
    • 3rd - CraftPik Arrests: 86.0
    Experience Gained:
    • 1st - Shorp Experience gained: 55276.0
    • 2nd - MESLEG Experience gained: 50865.0
    • 3rd - Famicoro Experience gained: 23138.0
    Minigames Won:
    • 1st - Viral333 Minigames won: 118.0
    • 2nd - KillerBrezel Minigames won: 86.0
    • 3rd - iyami_ Minigames won: 56.0
    Network in General
    Staff updates:
    • Dange joined the SMASH Mini Admin Team
    Other statistics:
    • A total of 89,830,696 XP was earned by players this month
    • There were 4,010 players banned in the last month
    • This month we achieved a peak playercount of 673 on July 7

    What can I do?
    Play on Shotbow, invite your friends, and invite their friends! Make friends and invite them to Shotbow! Spread the word about our amazing games, and in return we'll work as hard as we can to make your experience the best it can possibly be. :)

    Developer Corner
    By Navarr

    DocCodeSharp
    Doc has continued his work on MineZ and around the network in general. On the network side - we launched support for 1.12.2 this month which was in part a huge effort from Doc. Thanks! In particular news with MineZ, it was revealed that some pretty interesting work has gone into improving the combat system, with many early testers saying that they enjoy it a lot more than the currently live one. Doc has been working hard on this project for a while now, and he hopes to be able to get a public testing server up in the nearish future.

    Robertthegoat
    Robert has continued his work on Gold Rush, as well as effort being put into potential future games on the network. Such efforts are still a good ways away from realization, and unfortunately that's really all we can say about them due to that fact.

    Jeroenhero
    Jeroen spent a good portion of the month working with and exploring customization of Mob AI. Custom Mob AI has huge implications for possibilities in games such as Slaughter, Gold Rush, and When in Rogue - so efforts made here will have huge effects on our games for months to come.

    Navarr
    Navarr (myself!) worked on a few small improvements to the network as well, working with Doc to bring back Bug Submissions and moving the scheduled maintenance period to a less interrupting time period - and working with IvanDoomy to bring the ability to view recent activity and wiki history to all potential wiki editors.

    Expanding Team
    In addition to those reports, we've been talking with potential Jr. Developers. While nothing is 100% yet, I do know we have at least one good candidate we're hopeful to bring on in the next few weeks.

    Are you interested in a volunteer development position at Shotbow? Contact DocCodeSharp (on Discord or the forums) with a development history (such as jobs or other projects) and an example of a Spigot plugin you've built. Our goal with the latter is to see how you code, what you know, and how you use that knowledge - so heavy use of the Spigot/Bukkit APIs is encouraged for such a sample.

    With that, I bid you farewell. I'm your host, Mistri. Please let us know what you think about the New Moon in the comments. Thanks for flying Shotbow!

  2. Monster_Bug Platinum

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  3. FadingGeneral Platinum

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    Community Interaction is looking good; maybe you can improve it this month by hosting some MineZ events?
    Superbob1000 likes this.
  4. Navarr Councilor

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    Thanks! I'll ask around and see if there's a reason we're not - and if not, try to encourage some more of them.

    I think one of the big things was that the MineZ Build Team typically did most of the MineZ Events - and they're all very busy with Origins.

    Still, I will be looking into it. Thanks for the feedback :)
  5. LegendaryAlex Platinum

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    449,178xp
    Excellent.
    Mistri likes this.
  6. Fanaticss Regular Member

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    Gold Rush is still alpha since 2015...
    HungerHealer likes this.
  7. Murgatron Retired Staff

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    it is important to stress that whilst Gold Rush started many years ago the project has not been in continuous development.
  8. SpaceWarp Emerald

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    118,168xp

    Here let me rephrase that

    "Gold rush has been in development throughout this period because shotbow was getting that Anni cash, and saw no reason to waste resources on goldrush, now that the network has taken the Anni train to the end we must scramble to create a new gamemode to keep us alive"

    "Development on Gold Rush was started many years ago and to ensure the gamemode is everything it can be has taken many years to develop."

    Sure it might not have been in continuous development but players have been pitching ideas and staff have been working on various parts of the gamemode over this period. You don't always have to try to defend your mistimed decisions. You sure as hell aren't building a perfect Rome. (directed at murg)

    (On another note, good update this month I definitely feel shotbow is slowly starting to move in the right direction and hope that it picks up more speed and players over the next few months)
    Maashg and Goliac like this.
  9. Mistri Network Lead

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    Lazertester started working on the project towards the end of his time at Shotbow. It was pretty close to complete, actually, but then the 1.9 update came around — so it required a complete recode. Then, he left, so we were left at literally square 1 (we had no code). The 1.9 update was all about getting out our current games as fast as possible, so we didn't work on Gold Rush at all. In the end, now that we've settled after the 1.9 update, we've been working on it for the past year or so, which is why it's taken so long. I say this only because I don't think your statement is exactly informed.
    DutchSurvivor likes this.
  10. SpaceWarp Emerald

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    Clarified who my comment was directed at, sorry I thought I had already included that.
    You cannot deny that shotbow is now attempting to create gold rush that anni has died and the network desperately needs a lifeline.
    Also, my statement isn't exactly informed because you don't share any fucking details with us, it's always "oh we have to protect our games in development"
    news flash everyone else has games that actually keep players so why would they bother stealing your half-finished games?

    (Sidenote Doc and the coding team have done a great job on goldrush and the projects these past months, again my problem is with the "front" office staff and their unwillingness to adapt)
  11. Navarr Councilor

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    I'm unsure what you're talking about. We've talked at great length about the features available in Gold Rush, shown off how it plays in videos, and have had several test sessions with other players. We're not really hiding anything about what we're hoping to do with Gold Rush.

    What we don't like to do is announce potential features still in early stages of planning or development because they're often treated as promises when they're very fluid and susceptible to a lot of change.
    Mistri and DutchSurvivor like this.
  12. DutchSurvivor Obsidian

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    726,831xp
    Hey Space,

    Regarding the few messages you wrote above, if possible, I would like to ask you the following questions to get a better understanding of where you are coming from:

    What are you aiming to achieve with the rephrases/questions above?

    Likewise for the banter and mockery that has been placed on certain discord servers, don't get me wrong, you're not the only one doing that - you just happen to be the person whom I’m responding to -. However, nothing is being achieved by it. All that happens is, that the ones that care for Shotbow, and put countless hours into it. Get hurt by it…

    Again with this quotation:

    “(Sidenote Doc and the coding team have done a great job on goldrush and the projects these past months, again my problem is with the "front" office staff and their unwillingness to adapt)”

    You leave it up to them to do something about it, something that’s been bothering you a while hence you’ve been making these statements. Why not advice something yourself? Ask them why your suggestion / ‘plan C’ isn’t an option to think about?

    People are missing old friends/the old days - all kinds of reasons (x1) - and are not having an enjoyable time anymore. For those reasons (x1), they can't leave and someway want to improve Shotbow...? Or have a more enjoyable time...? And instead of coming with suggestions, options, ideas etc. They start mocking the very few that have been caring all that time. Why?

    Hypothetically:
    • What's the point of them telling the public that Shotbow is slowly dying and they're doing their best to keep the place running, but aren't very sure either of what to do?
    I've nothing against you, just wondering what's going on.

    If you want to talk about the above in a PM or PC, feel free to contact me (if that be the case, I'll delete the above).

    Hope to hear from you soon!


    Dutch


    PS: Swearing nor giving an option/solution of what you think could solve this issue is not going to help anyone.
  13. SpaceWarp Emerald

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    You always hide the development timeline.
    If you're showing a game off and can play a workable version of it, is it really in early stages of planning and development?
  14. SpaceWarp Emerald

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    118,168xp

    Since this is in a public place, I feel comfortable sitting down and saying that if you want to help me put together a list of suggestions and put it into a word document over the next couple of weeks, I'd love to do that (along with anyone else who is interested).
  15. Navarr Councilor

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    We don't hide it - it is something we do not have.

    What we have are goals - public and private. We make public ones like "We hope to have some alpha form of Gold Rush available this summer" (which we have changed now) and private ones where we're striving for a specific week or quarter, but we think it's a stretch and don't want to get people's hopes up.

    We feel like it's better to say "We are working on this and don't know when it will be done" then "We're targeting date x" and then when we get to date X have to push it to another date. This is particularly bad for us as we don't have a deterministic amount of development hours available to us (volunteer development force).

    So if you don't get an external goal for something, it's because I've decided that the goal is at a decent risk of being missed, and would rather not create a broken promise to our playerbase.

    I'm happy to be open about what development status is like in a game, but it's not really something I want to straight up announce. This makes communication about it difficult and better suited for Q&A sessions.
    SpaceWarp, DutchSurvivor and Mistri like this.
  16. SpaceWarp Emerald

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    Thank you for clarifying that, I apologize to you that I had my details wrong.
  17. connor564 Platinum

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    tfw dutch is more active on forums than in DMs
    SpaceWarp and ItzKaspian like this.
  18. Navarr Councilor

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    As long as you're kind and respectful I'm happy to try to answer basically any question to the best of my abilities.

    Last quarter was a goal of increasing transparency after all.

    The difficult part of this role is figuring out what should and shouldn't be said in order to control player expectation and excitement.

    I will get it wrong a lot. I'm a senior software engineer. I am not remotely qualified for this role lol

    Sent from my Pixel XL using Tapatalk
    DutchSurvivor and Mistri like this.
  19. SpaceWarp Emerald

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    No I owe you an apology, I've been getting more and more confrontational on these posts as it goes on and I'm not helping anyone.
    DutchSurvivor likes this.
  20. DutchSurvivor Obsidian

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    726,831xp


    Please apply as Jr. dev :)

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