Friday with Means - November 26th, 2010 - Spreadsheet Assault
Thank you to everyone who has been patient with us this week and last as we have tried to smooth out some issues that have arisen from the replacement of the input system. It isn't quite there yet...but it is certainly getting closer. A change of this magnitude was always going to come in with a few growing pains...but gaining binding functionality for customization is definitely worth it as it had been a long time requested feature. So not perfect yet...but we aren't done with it yet.
Work on the professions nano documents has been going well but at this point I think it is important to say clearly that we are not going to complete and test this work before Christmas. We knew this wouldn't be an easy process and when we were estimating the time involved we didn't budget enough time for the feedback and adjustments that would be made as the process evolved. So while this won't be out when we hoped we feel the changes we are making based on the excellent feedback provided by the playerbase will be worth the wait. After today's Shade nano document and updated versions of ALL prevously released Nano documents there will be no documents for the next three weeks as vacation for some of the team here has been delayed and delayed...but really needs to be taken before the end of the year. Please note that some previously released professions have received small changes...while others have been changed significantly based on the feedback I mentioned earlier and due to the nature of the ongoing process.
Kintaii Edit!: Shade Nano Document Discussion Thread
Collected Balance Documentation (new nano changes up in here)
One little thing to mention here is that Vhab (despite his horrible trolling in the forums) has been with us for some time as a coding intern on Anarchy Online. While here he has helped us with more than a few little bugs (we ALL arrive with our own little list of things we want to fix), streamlined our export process from 3dMax to a new version to greatly speed up the work on the new bodies, and is currently working on moving the character selection aspect of the launcher in-game (not sure when that will be done as it is far from trivial...but it is something being worked on). It has been great to have a long standing member of the community here in the office and he seemed a natural choice for the temporary position as part of his schooling and we are very grateful for the time he has given us.
The engine work is progressing well and the tree and body work is getting done faster than I would have imagined. It is amazing the number of different "exceptions to the rule" cases we are finding in working in this area...so many lost little tidbits that is only used once and then never again seem to be discovered every day. We got the Pandemonium sky up and running and proper this week for the first time...I'm sure you can imagine how excited we all were...that is an amazing number of flying rocks!
Have a great weekend everyone!
