Friday with Means - June 3rd, 2011 - Thanks to a busy team
In the seven years I have worked on Anarchy Online I have never had time or opportunity to be bored. This week was no exception. That being said this week was more than fully occupied with lead-baloon type activities...not all sexy but important. I would like to thank the team for taking on the tasks nobody really wants...but ones that need to get done.
In no particular order,and with many horrible omissions:
1. Design and production of 10th anniversary T-shirts. Thank you Flaptoot for as always making the final product way better than we had imagined. Thank-you Famine and Kintaii for getting practical aspects of this done.
2. Addressing old ATI rendering issues to finalize the delayed next version that includes the "not shade" item changes. Thanks to the Cube and Flaptoot who spent an agonizing entire day working to prove this issue could NOT be fixed with the adjustment of materials and object positioning...I am very grateful for the thorough effort and creative solutions that were tried. Thank you again Macrosun for finding a workable solution despite a very thin chance of success. DX7 isn't fun for anyone.
3. Thank you Parsed for continuing your tireless efforts to get the engine done. It was amazing to see you and Macrosun emerge from the dark tunnel of the Visual Studio 2010 conversion only to steamroll right into the integration of the "final" version of the Conan engine. Now that sigificant changes are no longer going to be made to the engine we are working with I can't wait to see it come together. It made my month to see it running again today. We are lucky to have you.
4. Thank you Macrosun for the new "catch up to your target" mechanic. I love it. It looks awesome...and it doesn't even have an effect or an animation yet. Hailx10 Macrosun.
5. Thank you Genele for fighting with me for many combined hours this week to make sure we get the best possible system changes that we can. Thank you for pushing me away from the easy choices to make sure this is done right. This work would not be possible without your tireless efforts and passion for the game we all care about so much. I'm sorry it takes me so long to understand the big picture.
6. Thank you Mstrbstrd for the over 30 different revisions to the Battlestation to make it run smoother at all levels. I know working with meshes that large, done by someone else is not something any artist would want to do. I also understand it was not really an exciting break from adjusting hundreds of new heads. I am sorry that every head you retouch gets so much better that I can't let you stop. Thank you for not freaking out... yet.
7. Thank you Flaptoot for the work on the new vehicle for the Anniversary. I can't wait to see it when YOU feel it is done.
8. I hope Lindelu is enjoying a fantastic and well deserved Iceland vacation. If you are delayed due to the volcano...it is a good enough excuse. Thank you for the great work you have been doing with the new daily missions.
9. Thank you Kintaii for getting through a huge number of Anniversary items, while working very, very late trying to get the new Pandemonium experience complete and interesting. Thank you for making me laugh and bringing me up for air when I need it.
10. Thank you to the many members of the community that give us the reason and drive to fight as hard as we do every single day. From our biggest fans to our harshest critics your commitment to AO keeps us going. We appreciate your passion...and we share it.
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Kintaii Edit! Couple of quick things this week - First off, we wanted to mention the player-run London AO Gathering that will be going down on July 16th this year; there's already quite a few people expressing interest, and for those of you who can't make it to this year's gathering in Montreal we *might* even be able to arrange for a few party favours for those who make it. ;)
As Means said earlier the last few weeks have been really busy but we haven't forgotten about selecting the winners of our recent QQ Qontest! Each winner will receive a one-of-a-kind in-game shirt and one thousand Funcom points to spend as they please, so if you entered the contest you can check the link above to see if you're one of the lucky winners!
One last note, and kinda in the spirit of his post this week I just wanted to take a second and speak for myself, and I'd wager for everyone on the team as well, when I say thank you to *Means* for managing to do and help with all of the above and way, way more every single day. Yeah, yeah, I ain't gonna get mushy or start brown-nosing so there you go that's it go on get outta here. ;P
Also a hearty thanks to our German community managers Tarib & Waldgeist, who typically hustle hardcore to get these translated and up each week despite me and Means routinely getting the post to them at the absolute last minute. You guys rock. =D
Ok, seriously, that's it this time. ;) Have a great weekend everybody - See you back here next week. =)
