next ___cast?
matrim1985
Join Date: 2008-07-05 Member: 64562Members
Join Date: 2008-07-05 Member: 64562Members
I was just wondering if you were going to have a cast this Friday. I would really like to hear about what you guys have thrown together since Video-cast #3. A few key things that i would really like to hear more about are what direction your going with the human look as well as a place to read about the background of the NS world and how its changing between NS and NS 2.
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Ok, wish listing priorities for the next podcast is it?<ul><li>I would like the community to be asked some questions. Doesn't matter what really. Good conversations are two-way.</li><li>I would like to hear what's going on with the office dynamics. Anything funny happened working together yet? Annoying things at the office (besides the heat)? Did you end up getting a window AC unit? Such things may seem trivial and uninteresting, but they connect you with your audience (which also lives in the real world) more than you may realize. It reminds everybody that we are all real people behind our virtual aliases and helps unite.</li><li>I would like to hear something about the D.I. as well, but more specifically in as far as what it means for the gorge. Will D.I. render the gorge obsolete? Why, or why not?</li><li>I would like to hear more about how the two primary rolls of the gorge, <i>healer & builder</i>, will be reinforced, or if they will be rolls for the gorge at all for that matter. Do you all see the gorge as more of a druid or a battle priest?</li><li>I would like to hear something about command hierarchy, ideally that it will be examined and given a fair try-out. Will the squad leader be more than something more than just name only?</li><li>I would like to hear more about how the marines ranged, determined combat style will be different from the aliens melee, agile hit&run combat style.</li><li>I would like to hear something about the nature vs. technology allegory. The Princess Mononoke vs. humans of Iron Town, the Fern Gully faeries vs. Hexxus and the logging machine, the Wolves vs. Darcia in Wolf's Rain, and many other famous works of literature exemplify how there are two sides to the story. Charlie has only every shown us the one side, the marine's side, of the story. Much like the xenomorph(s) in Alien and Aliens, the Kharaa are only shown in the original NS as to be mindless and hungering like the Flood of Halo, or Strogg of Quake. What if NS2 breaks with the traditional video game format of good marines vs. bad aliens and strives for something deeper, where not aliens are bad and not all marines are good. Want to stand out as a unique game people will want to buy? Do something unique then!</li><li>And lastly, if I can explain this well-enough, I would like to hear some official, vocalized commitment to a focus on teamwork in the gameplay of NS2. One can assume this is a priority from hearing about a focus on squads and the general celebration of teamplay in the original Natural-Selection mod; but that is an assumption, not a fact. Furthermore, it does nothing to explain the degree of the commitment -- that is to say, how much the team is committed. Granted it would be a bad idea to engrave too much in stone at this point, but right now there is far too little commitment with plenty of hearsay and speculation. Any explicit expression reinforcing the value of teamplay throughout NS2's design and how this fits in with the mission of "uniting the world through play" would be greatly appreciated!</li></ul>^^^ Feel free to comment on the above, but bear some respect to the fact that I put a great deal of care and meaning into writing that list.
I've been a real ###### this year, but I know where you live, and I'll greenhouse the hell out of your workshop if you don't give me what I want! ...please.
In addition to the x5 wish list, which is pretty solid, I will suggest something on behalf of my overly curious self.
I get the impression that a lot of the regulars are quite technically adebt. There's a whole bunch of us who knows a good deal about how the HL1 engine works, and some of us has at least a vague idea about what's on the inside of the source engine. I would like you guys to get technical. I would like Max to sit down for an hour and a half each afternoon and read the D.I. (or other such interesting) code out loud to anyone insane enough to listen. I would like you to unveil whatever information you can about how things actually work. You (Charlie) mentioned in the early D.I. video that the infestation was generated on top of the BSP tree. How does the infestation interact with props, which are not part of the BSP? How are you planning to let the D.I. interact with the precompiled lighting data? Does easy modding clash with closed source? Will only Lua code be available to us upon release? Are you going to fiddle with the physics engine to allow bunny-like hopping? Won't it be fairly easy to use the squad spawning code along with D.I. to get rid of dedicated hive locations? Do you want to? You mention clever bots on the about page, are they clever yet? Welding? How... ?
That being said, I consider Information about gameplay "top loot", so to speak. To use fewer words: I would like you guys to tell us how you think bits and pieces of this game is going to work. Work in purely technical terms, but in particular from a gameplay perspective.
I hear a lot of "we can't say" and "we don't know yet" on the podcasts. Do a "rumor-cast-of-ultra-uncertainty". Tell us what crazy ideas you're fiddling with, what you think of them and why they would be a pain to implement.
Please have stuff prepped.
As much as we love you guys being personal and thinking up answers on the spot, having random pauses or ums doesn't help the listening experience. Also, I too would enjoy more personal sharing. The trick is to not fill space with nonsensical "you had to be there to get the joke" moments.
Basically, keep the quality of information as tightly packed as possible. I'm not saying they've been bad, and I'd really hate for scripted podcasts, but just be aware.
Please have stuff prepped.
As much as we love you guys being personal and thinking up answers on the spot, having random pauses or ums doesn't help the listening experience. Also, I too would enjoy more personal sharing. The trick is to not fill space with nonsensical "you had to be there to get the joke" moments.
Basically, keep the quality of information as tightly packed as possible. I'm not saying they've been bad, and I'd really hate for scripted podcasts, but just be aware.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
I wrote this in another post, but I'll put it here, as well. I appreciate that some people would like more important info and less "ums". No one is more annoyed to hear my awkward pauses and meandering thoughts then I am. Believe me, we are capable of pure eloquence on occasion, as well as complete unintelligible nonsense. However, the more time we spend prepping these podcasts, editing them, and rerecording sections the less time we have to actually make the game. These are meant to be a casual, informal, and fast way of getting some, hopefully, interesting information out to you guys.
You all are just as human as the rest of us, of course. (in fact why not make that a recurring topic in the podcasts?) Don't worry so much about that. You think <i>I'm</i> the master of eloquence? HA! You should see how much I have to edit before I post, or how many typos Firefox catches. Look at my posts from a few years ago I'm almost incomprehensible at times. (probably still am lol)
If I may, I think you misunderstand the extent of what he's suggesting. Don't you all have a cork board up somewhere? Let anybody pin up or scribble something related to "for the next" podcast up there during the week, that way when Friday rolls around all y'all gotta do is pull it down and sit everybody in front of the mic. Still informal, still quick & easy, but with a rough resemblance of an outline of things you all wanted to mention or community questions you wanted to address.
I trust you all have a laser printer at the office there somewhere, yes? Print out a forum topic? Or better yet, have a .doc file template on the network storage where anybody can cut & paste some question you saw on the forums into and then just file->open->CTRL+P. It's the kind of thing you can do in a few seconds after grabbing a snack or taking a restroom break. That's no so bad right?
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Lets let the guys work. Patience is a virtue. When they have something to release, they'll release it.