696 replies to this topic

[Bilbo]

kotya, on 08 October 2013 - 01:10 PM, said:

I really gope all this will come SOON and WORKABLE!

Sorry for not being happy, but "StarCitizen" looks really faster and better as for it age and money!
I hope MWO will be good enough BEFORE "StarCitizen" comes out.

Otherwise - many will shift :-).
Consider this as Nosterdamus opinion :-)))

Plans are really good - wish they work out!

All of this will probably be out before you have anything more to do than walk around a hangar and look at the pretty ships you can't fly in SC.

[Appogee]

Good communication - thank you!

[HugoStiglitz]

Why not name "Skirmish Mode" "Solaris Mode" and then down the line add more stuff like an announcer and arena style maps for it?

[Appogee]

Vasces Diablo, on 08 October 2013 - 12:58 PM, said:

I'm guessing the plan was Merc/Faction/lone Wolf and they decided to now add the Loyalist aspect.

What's a Loyalist then...?

[Roadbeer]

Appogee, on 08 October 2013 - 01:18 PM, said:

What's a Loyalist then...?

PUG with a faction tag

[HugoStiglitz]

Macbrea, on 08 October 2013 - 01:12 PM, said:

In case anyone who doesn't understand programming is wondering this is what is called Agile Development. The normal process for working on an item would look as follows:

Let's take the following item: Inner Sphere Campaign Map

Given the above information it ends up looking like the following:

Design 1: We need a Campaign Map
Design 1: We will need loyalty section of screen
Design 1: We will need Planetary information
Design 1: We will need current Faction locations
Design 1: We will need ...... (about 50 other items)

Design 2:Create Short story in item like JIRA that says Create Mock-up of Screen (this gets assigned to UI specialist) Level of Effort: 8-16 hours
Design 2:After review of the Mock-up by the users, UI Specialist will need to go back in and tweak until business users are satisfied. (This is where having a UI specialist is very important on time to get right.) Level of Effort: 8 to 24 hours

Design 3: Break all 50+ items into parts that read as follows:

• As a Developer, I would like to create a map that allows the user to see current status of the Inner Sphere. (LoE: 8hrs)
  
• As a Developer, I would like to create a set of bars that shows the users current Loyalty levels with the Factions of the Inner Sphere. (LoE: 6hours)

Note: the Level of Effort is normally determined by the group of programmers as a whole, It is a rough estimate that the programmers will try to complete. Most programmers allocate 6 hours a day on programming. The closer you are to phase 1 the more time you get stuck in meetings. Meetings slow up programming for programmers.

Ready for Development: Well, this is were all stories are put into JIRA and prioritized. The programmers at this point as a group either work the queue for 2 weeks or their is a block allocated that they attempt to work for 2 weeks. The prioritizing happens normally by the Senior programmers and Managers.

In Development: Hey, the programmer has picked up the story and is working it. They will log work as they can and do the programming on that story. They have 2 weeks to get as many stories as possible done.

Ready for internal test: The programmer has finished the item and has put it on the test server. QA testers or other programmers will play with the item to see if it actually does what they want it to do. The programmer working on the project will fix any bugs or unexpected features.

Ready for internal test: Toss to test server see if the players break it. Fix any bugs.

So, what your seeing is the following:
1 week of planning
2 weeks of programming
1 week of internal testing
Tossed to Public Test Realm until is ready

Don't forget that they can also jump around that list a lot (internal test didn't go well, back to d3. Public test failed back to internal test or d3 to iron out the feature.)

[VitusFitzWoven]

Hey Brian, thank you very much for this information!

This helps a lot to hush our fears...

This "Word of Blake"-like blackouting of all informations regarding the development progress does no good...

Always remember: if people get no information, they will make up their own stories

Best regards and keep it coming,
Vitus

Edited by VitusFitzWoven, 08 October 2013 - 01:22 PM.

[Appogee]

Roadbeer, on 08 October 2013 - 01:19 PM, said:

PUG with a faction tag

Isn't the Faction lifestyle also a PUG with a faction tag?

[stjobe]

Redshift2k5, on 08 October 2013 - 12:40 PM, said:

the pp page doesn't say the flame pattern is exclusive to pp buyers, just that pp buyers get one for their regular-variant pp mechs.

It does use the word "exclusive":

Carrioncrows, on 08 October 2013 - 12:36 PM, said:

So the flame pattern is being released for all, it's just the Phoenix users are getting it for free on those select mechs.

Gregory Owen, on 08 October 2013 - 12:37 PM, said:

flame pattern isn't exclusive to phoenix package purchasers?

Nowhere in the OP does it say that the flame pattern is to be generally available. It only says it's going live.

...

Edit: Now, I must say this is what I want from a CDU. Facts, information, and sneak peeks into future content. Well done!

Edit 2: Since it came up again a few pages later, made the word "exclusive" a bit more visible.

Edited by stjobe, 08 October 2013 - 02:49 PM.

[M4NTiC0R3X]

[Lostdragon]

Thanks for the update, this type of communication is great.

[Apoc1138]

this is good, please more like these, like every month, with updates on all the items on the last one plus new things as they come up, or as they get prioritised above things that were supposedly nearly ready last month

[Wrenchfarm]

"Sadly, U.I 2.0 won't be ready in July liked we hoped. Definitely see it at launch though!"

"OK, U.I 2.0 Won't be ready for launch. We'll see it shortly after, don't worry!"

"U.I 2.0! Ready for tentative testing hopefully by the end of October!"

Stay the course PGI, stay the course.

[Scav3ng3r]

You know.... I am beginning to think you PGI guys actually listened to everyone at the Launch Party who pulled you guys aside, and said, NEED MOAR COMMUNICATION!!!

Cause I'm pretty sure that was like.... just about everyone XD

[Jman5]

Guys don't let the term "stakeholder" mislead you. He does not mean that there is some shadowy group of billionaires pulling the strings. He is using it in the more broad sense when talking about an organization where you have different people with a stake or role in a feature's development. So for example Alex Iglesias is a stakeholder when they bring him in to draw up some concept art.

But seriously Bryan, let's try to avoid using words like this that will be easily misinterpreted by the public at large. Especially when the misinterpretation will only inspire paranoia.

Edited by Jman5, 08 October 2013 - 02:24 PM.

[stjobe]

Stakeholder is a rather technical term in Agile development:

Quote

Who is a stakeholder?
A stakeholder is anyone outside your team who has a direct interest in the project’s outcome. A stakeholder is not a product owner, scrum master or developer, but they might be the person paying for the project, the project sponsor or someone working with the product’s customers.

- http://www.boostagil...nd-user-stories

So no, we are not stakeholders in the Agile sense of the word.

Edited by stjobe, 08 October 2013 - 01:36 PM.

[Aristotelis]

Crossfire and Sli support please??

[Blacke]

Communication is key. Please keep up the updates. Twice a month would preferable.

[Sir Roland MXIII]

Yet more proof as to why Bryan Ekman is the only one of the top 3 at PGI that I trust and respect.

Kudos Bryan, this CU is great, please keep on with this style of monthly post, sir!

[Horusv2]

Most of this features are in early development lol. What exactly where you doing the last Year?