About suggestions
Posted: Fri Jul 01, 2011 2:54 am
I don't want to be a party-pooper, but I've been behind the curtain long enough now that I want to give you all a sense of why so few suggestions are implemented. It's not a lack of desire, but a matter of priorities and finite resources. There's way more to do than there is time for, and bugs take front seat ahead of suggestions, generally. Two things you can do to help bring some of the many great suggestions in this forum to fruition:
1) Keep bug reporting to bugs you want to see fixed more than these suggestions implemented. There are a lot of bug reports that require a lot of time to work through and don't really do much for the game. Time spent tackling those comes out of the hide of game suggestions ("enhancements"). [The mainline path for suggestions getting implemented is the bug-testing team writing up a detailed enhancement request - made easier if you or the supporters of your ideas can work out the details of your suggestion, but at present we hardly have time to consider enhancements, given the bug backlog.]
2) If you see an idea you like, say so, and say why. Breadth of support (read: enthusiasm) is what we look for in deciding what to implement. Well, that and also if it is a very good idea. Often Mask will just code an idea he really likes, on the spot, if the request is concise and it is clear what has to happen and that it will help a lot of players, not just a few.
Hope this is helpful to know, rather than demoralizing.
Why don't we have more help on the Code Team, you ask? Long story, but in the overly trite, not many are cut out for it, many of those can't resist temptation, and if we guess wrong it turns out we often lose a good player entirely, even if we would prefer to just send them back to the game port.
Disclaimer: We are 3.5 based so we will always look to SRD first, but we are not solely governed by it either. Mud vs PNP can and will dictate variances. Diverging from SRD does not make something a bug, nor guarantee all changes will be made to match it.
1) Keep bug reporting to bugs you want to see fixed more than these suggestions implemented. There are a lot of bug reports that require a lot of time to work through and don't really do much for the game. Time spent tackling those comes out of the hide of game suggestions ("enhancements"). [The mainline path for suggestions getting implemented is the bug-testing team writing up a detailed enhancement request - made easier if you or the supporters of your ideas can work out the details of your suggestion, but at present we hardly have time to consider enhancements, given the bug backlog.]
2) If you see an idea you like, say so, and say why. Breadth of support (read: enthusiasm) is what we look for in deciding what to implement. Well, that and also if it is a very good idea. Often Mask will just code an idea he really likes, on the spot, if the request is concise and it is clear what has to happen and that it will help a lot of players, not just a few.
Hope this is helpful to know, rather than demoralizing.
Why don't we have more help on the Code Team, you ask? Long story, but in the overly trite, not many are cut out for it, many of those can't resist temptation, and if we guess wrong it turns out we often lose a good player entirely, even if we would prefer to just send them back to the game port.
Disclaimer: We are 3.5 based so we will always look to SRD first, but we are not solely governed by it either. Mud vs PNP can and will dictate variances. Diverging from SRD does not make something a bug, nor guarantee all changes will be made to match it.