*laughs*Okay...I take my reservations about this project back...there is a good chance it succeeds as it doesn't look like anything new at all...just some people pointing out things that are obvious anyway without the will to try anything new. So sorry...I have a lot of respect for most people in this group...but maybe that is what made me expect a bit more of you.
Better Graphics and more models? Okay, no idea here..it might draw some more people to PS. Still I would argue that this isn't one of the most important things to deal with now. PS just got a new part of Ojaveda...is it used that often?
Settings improvements mean more quests? So in the end nothing will change and the only way to get some infos about PS is doing boring quest? What about releasing even unfinished settings work for players to discuss? What about updating the mainpage? What about giving NPCs in general more knowledge about Yliakum?
Mechanic improvements? Ahm...isn't that the field with most progress in PS within the last two years anyway? So many new skills, recipes, combat improvements, mounts....and what for? The player count getting lower and lower?
Luckily at least the rest doesn't seem to get any votes (yet).
The PlaneShift project has always prided itself on being free and open source, open for anyone to contribute to. The reality is, however, that many players don’t really believe that it is. For a portion of the playerbase, the project seems closed to a large extent and not very open to community contributions.
So, what about this? You think the opinion of the playerbase will change by introducing even one more step between them and the PS team? Maybe I got the intentions wrong...but for me it sounded as if the Skunkwork team wanted to improve the communication between the players and the PS team...not only collect ideas and hand them over. What about some out-of-the-box thinking and suggesting some real changes to the PS team in order to make the development appear more open. What about suggestions allowing players to submit stuff they did for PS more easily? What about coming up with ideas how to make the whole developing process of PS more transparent and giving players a voice in it? For example it's really nice to see that weltall and RlyDontKnow take themselves more time lately and actually explain why some suggestions can't be done or won't be included very soon. But both can only talk about coding issues...every department of PS could do much more PR work like this. And sure...I hear it already...there isn't enough time and manpower for this. Great..and you think a lot more people will apply to the PS team with the current players attitude towards the team? There is really so much more that the Skunkwork team could do than just collecting ideas and hoping that one day the devs will look into them.
In the end it appears this initiative won't bring many people back to PS or attract new ones. Lot people left because the changed hardware requirement and I seriously doubt this team can convince the devs to remove the shader support again (and also don't think it would be a good idea at all). And a lot people left because the game turned more and more into a bad copy of some mainstream mmrpgs...and almost all options in this poll only suggest this should be carried even further. Does anyone really believe PS can compete with most free mmorpgs out there? People will download it, look at it for half an hour then go back to some other free-to-play game.
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