I would like to share my Experience about the Version 4.86

[Cond0r]

People are not leaving because this mod version sucks. People are leaving because the developers have not released an update in over 3 months now, people are leaving because the constant lag has not been fixed for 3 months now, people are leaving because people stopped caring and existing problems aren't being solved.

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[17:23:05] Mini Me: pls
[17:23:06] Mini Me: gtfo

[Linkus]

People are not leaving because this mod version sucks. People are leaving because the developers have not released an update in over 3 months now, people are leaving because the constant lag has not been fixed for 3 months now, people are leaving because people stopped caring and existing problems aren't being solved.

We decided to just spite everyone and pretend to work for the next few months, then release nothing.

Folks, it's a voluntary project. If you have problems with the speed of development, learn how to do stuff and help us.



In terms of dropping population numbers - it's 2012.
Freelancer came out in 2003.
8 years is an extremely long time for a game.
As others have said, no one nowadays knows Freelancer exists, nor did many when the game came out anyway.

If folks are interested in increasing the popularity, we could do advertising.
Advertising does cost monies though.

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Facilitating the rise of robotics since 0 A.D.

[Cond0r]

We decided to just spite everyone and pretend to work for the next few months, then release nothing.

If you still had 3+ months of work to fully release the new mod (aka last update), then why did you say that everything was ready and that you just had to polish it?

If anything, you could have dropped whatever you are doing with the mod now (lol) and fixed these lags first, since they make the game unplayable half the time. Unless people actually playing your mod is not one of your priorities?

I'm sorry, but fixing problems like these doesn't take 3 months. You know that, I know that, the development teams of other mods that release a full mod update in 5 months (and don't get payed for it either) know that.

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[17:23:05] Mini Me: pls
[17:23:06] Mini Me: gtfo

[Linkus]

If you still had 3+ months of work to fully release the new mod (aka last update), then why did you say that everything was ready and that you just had to polish it?

If anything, you could have dropped whatever you are doing with the mod now (lol) and fixed these lags first, since they make the game unplayable half the time. Unless people actually playing your mod is not one of your priorities?

I'm sorry, but fixing problems like these doesn't take 3 months. You know that, I know that, the development teams of other mods that release a full mod update in 5 months (and don't get payed for it either) know that.

Update /=/ full mod release.
We're working on 4.87.

I have no idea what causes those lags.
Could be the use of new FLHook stuff.
In which case, only one person in the entire community can work on that and he's already doing so.

Other mods don't have 200 players online at once.
That's the cause of the lag, players.

I'm going to presume that as you know these problems don't take 3 months to fix, you know how to fix them, and thus will help us with the mod?

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Facilitating the rise of robotics since 0 A.D.

[Cond0r]

Update /=/ full mod release.
We're working on 4.87.

When 4.86 isn't fully released yet? Oh gosh, this is getting better and better.

I'm going to presume that as you know these problems don't take 3 months to fix, you know how to fix them, and thus will help us with the mod?

Why are you always using the same argument? I'm not a developer, I'm not the one that volunteered to do the job, you did. If you don't have the will or time to do it, why are you still doing it?

And how do I know it doesn't take 3 months? Since like I said, other development teams that consist of even less people release a full mod update in that time. A mod update that is 2 times bigger than our mod. Savvy?

Edit: If the players are the cause, why didn't it lag before? And FYI, there are almost never 200 players online. You seem to have missed that fact.

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[17:23:05] Mini Me: pls
[17:23:06] Mini Me: gtfo

[Linkus]

I'm declaring this to be the end of the beta and the start of the full release phase. There are still bugs, both known and unknown. Mobile docking has still not made it into the mod as sadly anticheat work and base enhancements have used up a fair bit of this update cycle.

Importantly there's a new installer available that should help people with non-English Freelancer installs more easily install the mod. I will be publishing this on moddb shortly.

The development team's focus is moving fully to work on 4.87. We have a very aggressive schedule and this will limit the number of changes in the 4.86 updates. I expect one or two 4.86 bug fix updates before the release of 4.87. The updates will focus on the introduction of mobile docking and this should be server side only.

When 4.86 isn't fully released yet? Oh gosh, this is getting better and better.
Why are you always using the same argument? I'm not a developer, I'm not the one that volunteered to do the job, you did. If you don't have the will or time to do it, why are you still doing it?

And how do I know it doesn't take 3 months? Since like I said, other development teams that consist of even less people release a full mod update in that time. A mod update that is 2 times bigger than our mod. Savvy?

Other mods are not Discovery.
The lag you are complaining about is not something other mods have to worry over at all as much, they don't have 200 players online at once all doing various things.
Please point towards a mod that is of similar size to Discovery that has at least 50+ players online on one server at all times and that has managed to release a full mod update inside 3 months.
Remember to check if the mod has the same features that Discovery has. Most importantly FLHook features.
Then remember they are most likely the cause of the lag etc.
Then remember there's only 1 dev who knows how to work with FLHook, out of about 6/7 people in the entire Freelancer community.
I can see how 3 months is a terribly long time in that context, it's not as if they are doing things that no one has ever done with the game before, or they are using 8 year old programs that were built for far far less.

Your attitude is pretty damn terrible to be honest and I don't usually comment on folks personalities on the forums.

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Facilitating the rise of robotics since 0 A.D.

[Cond0r]

Other mods are not Discovery.
The lag you are complaining about is not something other mods have to worry over at all as much, they don't have 200 players online at once all doing various things.
Please point towards a mod that is of similar size to Discovery that has at least 50+ players online on one server at all times and that has managed to release a full mod update inside 3 months.

Your attitude is pretty damn terrible to be honest and I don't usually comment on folks personalities on the forums.

Start of the full release phase.

Meaning there are still things to be fixed, which still aren't.

Disco also doesn't have 200 players online at once, almost never. You would know that if you actually played the game you're working on (oh wait). Disco had 197 players online every other evening in the past, it never lagged like this. Stop making excuses, you're just looking silly.

My attitude? Why? Because I pointed out that you fail to do stuff in time because you aren't interested, and then when people complain about it you ask them to do your job?

Who's attitude is terrible now buddy.

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[17:23:05] Mini Me: pls
[17:23:06] Mini Me: gtfo

[Linkus]

Meaning there are still things to be fixed, which still aren't.

Disco also doesn't have 200 players online at once, almost never. You would know that if you actually played the game you're working on (oh wait). Disco had 197 players online every other evening in the past, it never lagged like this. Stop making excuses, you're just looking silly.

My attitude? Why? Because I pointed out that you fail to do stuff in time because you aren't interested, and then when people complain about it you ask them to do your job?

Who's attitude is terrible now buddy.

Lag.
FLHook.
Base stuff etc.
All immensely related.
Only came about in the past few months.
Only 1 developer who can work on it.
He is doing so.
How is this hard to comprehend?

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Facilitating the rise of robotics since 0 A.D.

[Cond0r]

Lag.
FLHook.
Base stuff etc.
All immensely related.
Only came about in the past few months.
Only 1 developer who can work on it.
He is doing so.
How is this hard to comprehend?

If the rest of the development team can't do anything, then what the hell are you even doing there? You're trying to blame everything on one guy now, rofl. Pathetic.

"Past few months", yes, exactly.

What about techchart nerfs? They are finished, AD finished it before he left. They just need to be activated ingame, why weren't they? Oh I forgot, you aren't getting payed to do it.

Please. Sometimes I argue with my wall and it could come up with better excuses than that.

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[17:23:05] Mini Me: pls
[17:23:06] Mini Me: gtfo

[Linkus]

If the rest of the development team can't do anything, then what the hell are you even doing there? You're trying to blame everything on one guy now, rofl. Pathetic.

"Past few months", yes, exactly.

What about techchart nerfs? They are finished, AD finished it before he left. They just need to be activated ingame, why weren't they? Oh I forgot, you aren't getting payed to do it.

Please. Sometimes I argue with my wall and he could come up with better excuses than that.

You know those things you fly, ships?
Or the places they fly in, systems?
And what they shoot with, weapons?
Even the places they dock in, bases?

People have to design those, put them there, make sure they are all balanced, build an economy that stimulates activity, work on the mining mod and a dozen other pretty big things.

That's what the rest of the dev team does.
The same thing that every other mod does, the more conventional modding.

What actually really concerns me is your mental state.
You're scoffing at people working on something voluntarily for you to play and in return they get a mention in the credits and that's about it.
I'm not sure exactly how you think you're justified in the tirade of abuse being directed at the dev team.
We don't claim to be perfect and we do have our own interior problems, probably more so than other mod teams, we've said this over and over to everyone who asks.
The only real reason any of us work on the mod is for folks to enjoy it and appreciate our effort. If you don't want to do that, there really isn't much reason to work.

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Facilitating the rise of robotics since 0 A.D.