End of 2009 status update

[darkgod]

Hullo all!

Well it has been a bit over one month since I started now, and I get a feeling this will work.
In this end of 2009 I am quite happy of what T4 and TE4 are becoming.

I have just implemented quite a few armours, potions, weapons and talents.
I made a system to easily handle stealth, invisibility and telepathy and implemented invis.
I am still debating how to implement identification.

For a while I had no access to an opengl capable computer so instead I made a site to host the future TE4, ToME and modules (you can preview it at http://te4.org/ obviously this is kept a secret until release, as for the domain change, I was sick of t-o-m-e.net the - are really overkill :/ ).

Happy new year to you all!

PS: Think I should make an announcement to the public now ?

[IckyThingBane]

Happy new year to you too

Exciting times for ToME! Personally, I think that if you're satisfied that you're going to be able to get this done, then this seems like the ideal time to make an announcement. I don't see any point in delaying, as it will only encourage the community to drift away.

[Shoob]

Well it does seem strange to jump to t4 without having released t3 yet... (but I dont really care either way)

methinks that t3 is farther along, but has more baggage and progress is going slower. t4 is behind but it doesnt have the same coding problems that t3 is encountering which is stalling the release so development is going faster. race time?

the thing about this site is that t-o-m-e.net is numero uno... that if you look up tome this is what you get (the main site that is). so you would have to do some work to get the search engines to like the other site... but that is just my opinion. Also what would happen with this place (t-o-m-e.net)? would it be taken down or kept up... there are still t2 and t3 out there and they arent quite t4 (maybe like lil brudders (with t3 being a step-brother)

[darkgod]

ToME will be hosted on tome.te4.org, I dont see why older verions would not belong there too.
As for search engines, it's just a matter of putting a 301 redirect on an old site to transfer them there easily.
Done it for my work several times

As for T3, the game module will never be finished, but the engine will thanks to nerdanel and other great people.
That's not really a problem

[Xandor Tik'Roth]

My own personal opinion is that you should wait a few more days to make the announcement. This does, after all, seem to be the perfect gift for the New Year.

Of course, this is all going to be determined by you. I would only make the announcement if you're feeling confident that you're not going to give up halfway through. A lot of people were disheartened when we left the forums for an extended period. And, of course, having the forums hacked while we were away wasn't a very good situation and it almost destroyed us.

It seems like you're very motivated and interested by T4, so I think we'll be fine.

[Shoob]

I went there and I tested out some of the links... right now the windows dl link doesnt work... but that doesnt matter yet (just make sure it does before you announce it, eh hmmmmmm...

oh yeah... forums...

you going to put them up there, no? or what will happen with them? will we start over or is there a way to copy (maybe from the backup) from here over there?

and will it just be for ToME and not tomeNET as they have their own forums now? I presume there will at least be a link there from there.

[Xandor Tik'Roth]

I'll be taking down the TomeNET forums any day now and putting a link it their place.

you going to put them up there, no? or what will happen with them? will we start over or is there a way to copy (maybe from the backup) from here over there?

Um... what?

[Shoob]

^ me wondering if the forums would move to the te4 site, and if they do if they would start fresh or if there would be a way to transfer data.

(sorry, but I have fun with strange wordings)

[darkgod]

Obviously we will keep the forum you worked all so hard for

Yes the links are not working because there is nothing released yet

[Xandor Tik'Roth]

So the forums are staying here then, correct?

[darkgod]

Yes we dont want top start from scratch do we ?

[madmonk]

Happy new year, everyone!

Congrats on the T4 development, DG, and I will apologise in advance for asking but I have questions and it involves all of this:

1) What happens to T2.3?

It is the only version with a playable ToME module. Do we continue to maintain it. retire it from maintenance but leave it available for download, retire it completely (so now download available...)

Personally I think we should retire it and leave it available for download. Other people's opinion may differ.

2) What happens to T3?

We are very close to beta release, and I am really pleased with all the work that people have done on it. A T4 announcement might kill alll development on it...

Is this a good thing?

3) T4 Announcment

Obviously an announcement of some sort will have to take place, but it becomes a question of timing, if the announcement takes place before T3 is in beta, we run the risk of killing T3...

We could wait until after T3 is in beta... The drawback here is how long will that take?

OK, if we wait till T3 is in beta, we get a big splash for T3, and lots of interest... We then announce T4 which might well cause a huge amount of excitement and get coders who are able and willing to help crawling out of the woodwork to assist.

Is this the best way to go?

Sorry to be a bit of a damp squib...

[darkgod]

1) What happens to T2.3?

It is the only version with a playable ToME module. Do we continue to maintain it. retire it from maintenance but leave it available for download, retire it completely (so now download available...)

Personally I think we should retire it and leave it available for download. Other people's opinion may differ.

We should not retire it. It exists, it works, it has been ironed-out. It probably needs 0 work to continue its life.

3) T4 Announcment

Obviously an announcement of some sort will have to take place, but it becomes a question of timing, if the announcement takes place before T3 is in beta, we run the risk of killing T3...

We could wait until after T3 is in beta... The drawback here is how long will that take?

OK, if we wait till T3 is in beta, we get a big splash for T3, and lots of interest... We then announce T4 which might well cause a huge amount of excitement and get coders who are able and willing to help crawling out of the woodwork to assist.

Is this the best way to go?

Sorry to be a bit of a damp squib...

I suspect you are right, it'll be probably much better to announce T3 beta without a ToME module, let people get exited and follow that with a T4 game module.

Well then, my T3 friends, how much time do I have before you deam T3 beta-worthy ?

PS: Before that I'll start releasing internal builds for debug/test to people here.

[madmonk]

Well then, my T3 friends, how much time do I have before you deam T3 beta-worthy ?

The only major issue we have is getting Randarts working... Nerdanel hs been bashing her head against this and run in to an immense puzzle. I have posted a thread trying to encourage coders to look at it with very little takeup.

It's the major hurdle we have to surmount before T3 goes beta. Timeline uncertain, but if we can get everyone looking at it, then perhaps we can solve it and thus gain the main prize... the T4 announcement!

[darkgod]

Is a randart generator really necessary ?