In my opinion, anything story related should be kept at most to teases and little snitches designed to increase excitement but reveal very little.
Perhaps shots of new systems could be posted, but their locations and names and any major features shouldn't be revealed until people discover them (Discovery *is* the mod name right?)
Ships its a bit harder to talk about, but in general my main frustration is that there is no list (that I can find) of currently submitted, accepted, but not implemented ships.
(a list of ships the devs really really want made (if any) might be useful too)
Such lists would be useful to me so that I don't go make, for example, a Decurion replacement and find out that someone else already has (this almost happened to me).
So; hype marketing and co-ordination of development = good
Spoilers = baaaad.
But the final word belongs to Igiss and I'm quite content to let things fall out as he wishes. :)
If the story...steps on us.
That's incredibly frustrating.
That's really all I've to say. If the story steps on anyone's rp, out of the blue, there's a new year and a new mod and suddenly your faction, which could have gone either way, and everyone, or just you, were rping it in one direction....
Well, honestly, I'd love it if someone would come out and tell me before I put time into writing a story that becomes an alternate history.
I am sorry Linkus, but speaking as a system designer working on an evolving system, community feedback, although helpful, would be counter productive. When designing a system, the system designer has an obligation to tell a story within the system. Our role is something akin to that of a storyteller or DnD dungeon master.
Its our job to create conflict, interest and appeal to a system. Sometimes this requires subtle shifts in the what are considered to be long time norms. All it takes is the outrage of one player to cause a storm that can halt progress. Complete transparency can also kill the entire "discovering" aspect.
Rest assured that all major system changes and plot elements require the rubber stamp of igiss. It takes a long time to make a system and it would take twice as long if I had to debate every element I am working with.
Not complete transparancy, that would ruin a lot of the fun.
But small things like screenshots of parts of a system, things like that.
If someone has an issue with what a system is turning out like, they can raise it elsewhere. The Freeworlds team seem to be doing grand with all that.
Take for instance, a progress update.
A small thing that lets both a developer judge his progress and lets people know how advanced things are coming along.
It also actively encourages people to take up modding too.
I've designed ships, stations, systems and factions. I know that if someone complained about them, as long as the majority is happy then I'm happy. I've seen it happen in my ship threads and well, I just get on with it.
Honestly, a list of Officially Included Ships and Systems would be fantastic for a start.
A few screenshots of upcoming systems or ships would also be great.
They don't ruin the 'Discovery' of it all since well, you end up roleplaying characters who might have been those ships for years anyway.
Discovery should be more about exploration and finding new unique things in systems, like in Coronado (A system you made Nexus). I was overjoyed to find that gate in there and felt a proper sense of achievement and wonder.
So please, just some small things even to hint at new features and a list of included ships/systems.
That's not very much to ask.
One reason I don't think they give us progress reports is because when you give a community a deadline for the completion of something they want... it has this way of... how shall I put it?
Turning people into rabid "I CAN HAZ NAO!!!!!"-ers
and that causes even more problems when development is delayed (development will always be delayed, its part of making a mod.)
As someone who has modded in other communities for other games once upon a time, I can say that a developer can incur no greater curse, no greater bane upon his existence, than to tell the community at large when he estimates he will be done with something.
sympathizing with this, and also enjoying the surprise of a surprise release, I can say I would much rather the devs not give us direct or concrete progress reports.
I received of similar compliments about that system. Most of it wouldn't have been possible if I was talking about everything. Imagine the forum storm that would have happened if I had said that I was putting in a freelancer owned and operated base, and that I was giving the IMG a moon.
I released a teaser thread on barrier gate in flood, and the Admins had to make it go poof for that exact reason. We really do have to play our cards close to our chests.
![[Image: sig.png]](http://i585.photobucket.com/albums/ss293/freelancergeek/Chrs/RYager/sig.png)
