progress:

[Joysong]

iam not asking how far or when will it be finished, but jus:t is there any weekly progress.

my advice is make a progress subject:

plus points 4 the modders:

- no annoying whining when will it be released or that kind of bullshaga
- people give great comment and give respect for keaping them up to date
- more people get intressted in the mod. cause the forum is more updated

plus points 4 the lovers:

- do know when to expect the mod global so not precise
- give valuation to the modders
- check the forum more offten but only for good reason no whining

chears,
joysong

[DARK LORD]

fully agree!!!!

[Joysong]

thanx DL people if you argree 2 let it know so the modderrs will think about it!!!

[delra]

Third Age: Total War progress thread

I wanted something like this for EB a while back but they didn't agree.

[speedyvm]

iam not asking how far or when will it be finished, but jus:t is there any weekly progress.
my advice is make a progress subject:
plus points 4 the modders:
- no annoying whining when will it be released or that kind of bullshaga
- people give great comment and give respect for keaping them up to date
- more people get intressted in the mod. cause the forum is more updated
plus points 4 the lovers:
- do know when to expect the mod global so not precise
- give valuation to the modders
- check the forum more offten but only for good reason no whining

chears,
joysong

Third Age: Total War progress thread

I wanted something like this for EB a while back but they didn't agree.

This is art what guys (from EB team) are doing, not science!

[Joysong]

Third Age: Total War progress thread

I wanted something like this for EB a while back but they didn't agree.

well i dont understand why not. everybody would appreciate this very much. and for the modders this relaxt the annoying questions. plus the forum gets more people

[delra]

It's hard to get anything about the level of completion of this mod. I once asked if it's closer to 20% or to 80% of completion and noone could tell either.

So... don't bother.

[Ludens]

The difference is that the Third Age developers presumably already know exactly what they want to have in their mod. Either that, or their thread is mostly guesswork. The EB team is probably still concepting units and features, and will most likely continue to do so even after the first version is released. Hence they have no clear end-point (in terms of units and features included: the end-goal of EB is clear enough) and therefore cannot calculate progress.

I also doubt such a thread will stop questions about EB's progress. More likely, people will simply use it as an opportunity to ask for a potential release date. Unfortunately, the team can only guess that since 1) they don't know how much they still have to do, 2) they are a volunteer project, so the amount of manhours put in varies a lot and cannot be predicted, and 3) when pushing the engine to the limit, unexpected bugs and exceptions occur, which can throw the entire development scheme off (like happened twice during the development of EB1). In the past, the team have refused to give release dates since these were invariably treated as promises by overenthusiastic fans. A progress thread will only encourage such fans to start calculate the release date, with similar results.

Lastly, the team likes to spring surprises on their fans. Not always nice surprises, it must be said.

[delra]

Third Age thread is not guesswork. I saw this numbers grow slowly and steadily over past few months.

There's a different team there though, they are all hardcore M2TW modders, especially their leader, and they seem to have known for a while now what they want to include in their first release.

Their mod isn't as epic as EB2 but it's pretty impressive anyway with brand new map, factions with new units and animations (like catapults used by trolls to throw gigantic stones or those huge elephants from Harad), traits system and even building system (most M2TW mods don't touch buildings much, this one is a complete rework).

Can the effort be compared between those two, EB and TA? I don't know. Maybe. But maybe it's harder to create a Nomad unit only few historians even know existed than to create a giant elephant everyone could see in a movie. So I guess EB is harder than TA.

Also, when you say they like to *spring* surprises on the fans, is this a subtle suggestion that the first version of EB2 (Gaza thing) will be here soon?

[Shadowwalker]

Also, when you say they like to *spring* surprises on the fans, is this a subtle suggestion that the first version of EB2 (Gaza thing) will be here soon?

I assume that's exactly the kind of question they want to avoid by not having a progress thread...

[delra]

Ludens isn't one of them though so we can harass him as much as we want. :-)

[Antiochos VII Sidetes]

...Ludens isn't an EB member? This is extremely surprising to me.

[Shadowwalker]

No, he isn't. Mr. Cursed, you can confirm this by checking the last threads in the EB forum over at the .org ... or just check your PM's.

@delra:
Since I don't want to be known as the harassinator I will not join you in your quest.
Honestly - why should we harass someone who tries to help?

[MarcusAureliusAntoninus]

There are two major problems with saying what percentage of EBII is done. First off, I'm not sure where 100% is. At what level of completion will a beta be released, if ever? At what point would someone say it is complete? Most EB members would agree that EB1 was never complete. EB1 is probably currently at about 90% or something. Secondly, the EB team members generally work in their own area of the mod and no one person knows how complete other sections are. There have been many times when I thought no work was done in an area and then someone submitted a finished product.

[eddy_purpus]

There are two major problems with saying what percentage of EBII is done. First off, I'm not sure where 100% is. At what level of completion will a beta be released, if ever? At what point would someone say it is complete? Most EB members would agree that EB1 was never complete. EB1 is probably currently at about 90% or something. Secondly, the EB team members generally work in their own area of the mod and no one person knows how complete other sections are. There have been many times when I thought no work was done in an area and then someone submitted a finished product.

Just tell them in an indirect way of saying how much has been done..
like , " we have done some heavy work and its at least " %" percentage done"

[Joysong]

[/There are two major problems with saying what percentage of EBII is done. First off, I'm not sure where 100% is. At what level of completion will a beta be released, if ever? At what point would someone say it is complete? Most EB members would agree that EB1 was never complete. EB1 is probably currently at about 90% or something. Secondly, the EB team members generally work in their own area of the mod and no one person knows how complete other sections are. There have been many times when I thought no work was done in an area and then someone submitted a finished product.

yea but problem 1:

the progress precentage would be based on a first public release so when you come op with stuff for the fans an users. like version 1

problem 2:

well you are a mod team (am i right?) Just keap in touch with eachother, and keap eachother up with what kind of work has been done (monthly). still good comminucation makes the work 50% easyr nomatter what kind of work has to be done.

and to solve: make a mod leader just one 1 person who leads the mod progress.
cominucation.

tip:
get for example 1 Gmail account with a password given to the modders. there to post the work has been done en glue it together then you see some results

[Ludens]

Ludens isn't one of them though so we can harass him as much as we want. :-)

Joy. However, I have no more idea about the release of the Gaza campaign than you.

problem 2:

well you are a mod team (am i right?) Just keap in touch with eachother, and keap eachother up with what kind of work has been done (monthly). still good comminucation makes the work 50% easyr nomatter what kind of work has to be done.

and to solve: make a mod leader just one 1 person who leads the mod progress.
cominucation.

tip:
get for example 1 Gmail account with a password given to the modders. there to post the work has been done en glue it together then you see some results

The team has got entire set of forums for themselves over at the .Org. The problem is not that they haven't got a central collection point. The problem is that there is too much going on at a single time.

[delra]

Maybe they could start dev blogs or something. Many companies lately do that, for example Egosoft or Paradox.

[MarcusAureliusAntoninus]

All these suggestions would be more work and most team members wouldn't have the time or desire to check in and report what they've done.

The EB team is somewhat weird. We don't have a real leader or hierarchy. It is more of a true democracy. Nobody tells others to do things and nobody keeps track of what everyone is doing. There are those that lead the way and get people to do their work, though. Like Telekelos used to do and Foot now does. The system works from the inside but looks like chaos from the outside.

[Ludens]

The EB team is somewhat weird. We don't have a real leader or hierarchy. It is more of a true democracy. Nobody tells others to do things and nobody keeps track of what everyone is doing. There are those that lead the way and get people to do their work, though. Like Telekelos used to do and Foot now does. The system works from the inside but looks like chaos from the outside.

You have no build coordinator? Strange.