A Potential Idea
urinalcake
Can't work a sound cardUnited States Join Date: 2002-11-08 Member: 7799Members
<div class="IPBDescription">To help out the future of UWE</div> EDIT: Short Version in next post, for those who don't want to read all this.
Okay, after seeing Flayra's latest post. A few things came to mind.
Yes, Charlie and/or the team's idea of considering making it so that people can preorder is great. But another idea arose.
Okay, so I think I can speak for most of the freeloading community (and some of the Connies too) when I say that we're all way too entirely pumped up for both NS:S and NS2.
.. And right now, UWE's main source of income seems to be from Connie Donations.
So why not combine the two and make a more complex donations program that is on the side of UWE, so the players don't have to do more work, it's just handled differently.
Plus, the players would benefit at the same time UWE would benefit.
Okay, this is all hypothetical of course.
As Flayra said in his latest post, NS2 is in it's earliest stages, and with my best guess, I'd say NS:S has only been tinkered and toyed with, only a few models brought over to see how cool it would look. <!--emo&::nerdy::--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/nerd-fix.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='nerd-fix.gif' /><!--endemo-->
But lets say theres a system out there that helps this development along on both sides of the table. A meter, of sorts. Seeing as how the community is pretty tight knit (not as it used to be though) this could potentially work and it could benefit us all.
Lets set it up this way:
Theres a meter, that goes up with every donation. It's kind of like donation meters you'll find anywhere, at the top of my head I can think of only one place, TrueNuff.com comics used to have it, I think.
The meter will go up in the dollar amount with every donation given.
But how would these donations work you ask?
If you're a Constelation Member:
You're donation would go directly to the meter, you would only benefit to seeing the meter go up. (This could potentially be worked on so that something more advanced happened, I don't know, Higher Constelation status?)
- If you're not a Constellation Member and donate < $20:
You do not become a Constellation member, but benefit by seeing the meter go up.
- If you're not a Constellation Member and donate $20:
You would become a Constellation member, and not see the meter go up. This could be changed, cause we would probably have no clue where the funds go. I don't know, Zunni's Heroin addiction? Or this could be made so that the meter goes up.
- If you're not a Constellation Member and donate > $20:
You become a Constellation Member and see the meter go up. To simplify it, maybe we would just get rid of the donation = $20 thing.
Anyways, heres the part that the players and I will like.
With every donation we give, thats more inspiration for the NS Team to work on NS:S and NS2. So why not do this: As soon as donations reach a certain amount $200, $450, $700, etc. A new piece of media will be released about NS:S or NS2, preferably NS:S because NS2 is probably in the outfield for right now. Say if the community reaches the $450 mark, then we get 2 new screenshots of ingame NS:S or something like that? I don't know, it could be determined by the team. 5 model renders, 3 nohud map shots, 1 ingame shot, whatever.
In ways, this could be farfetched, but I see it this way. If things are going to get more serious around here, then why not help by throwing out ideas. Just my 2 cents.
Okay, after seeing Flayra's latest post. A few things came to mind.
Yes, Charlie and/or the team's idea of considering making it so that people can preorder is great. But another idea arose.
Okay, so I think I can speak for most of the freeloading community (and some of the Connies too) when I say that we're all way too entirely pumped up for both NS:S and NS2.
.. And right now, UWE's main source of income seems to be from Connie Donations.
So why not combine the two and make a more complex donations program that is on the side of UWE, so the players don't have to do more work, it's just handled differently.
Plus, the players would benefit at the same time UWE would benefit.
Okay, this is all hypothetical of course.
As Flayra said in his latest post, NS2 is in it's earliest stages, and with my best guess, I'd say NS:S has only been tinkered and toyed with, only a few models brought over to see how cool it would look. <!--emo&::nerdy::--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/nerd-fix.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='nerd-fix.gif' /><!--endemo-->
But lets say theres a system out there that helps this development along on both sides of the table. A meter, of sorts. Seeing as how the community is pretty tight knit (not as it used to be though) this could potentially work and it could benefit us all.
Lets set it up this way:
Theres a meter, that goes up with every donation. It's kind of like donation meters you'll find anywhere, at the top of my head I can think of only one place, TrueNuff.com comics used to have it, I think.
The meter will go up in the dollar amount with every donation given.
But how would these donations work you ask?
If you're a Constelation Member:
You're donation would go directly to the meter, you would only benefit to seeing the meter go up. (This could potentially be worked on so that something more advanced happened, I don't know, Higher Constelation status?)
- If you're not a Constellation Member and donate < $20:
You do not become a Constellation member, but benefit by seeing the meter go up.
- If you're not a Constellation Member and donate $20:
You would become a Constellation member, and not see the meter go up. This could be changed, cause we would probably have no clue where the funds go. I don't know, Zunni's Heroin addiction? Or this could be made so that the meter goes up.
- If you're not a Constellation Member and donate > $20:
You become a Constellation Member and see the meter go up. To simplify it, maybe we would just get rid of the donation = $20 thing.
Anyways, heres the part that the players and I will like.
With every donation we give, thats more inspiration for the NS Team to work on NS:S and NS2. So why not do this: As soon as donations reach a certain amount $200, $450, $700, etc. A new piece of media will be released about NS:S or NS2, preferably NS:S because NS2 is probably in the outfield for right now. Say if the community reaches the $450 mark, then we get 2 new screenshots of ingame NS:S or something like that? I don't know, it could be determined by the team. 5 model renders, 3 nohud map shots, 1 ingame shot, whatever.
In ways, this could be farfetched, but I see it this way. If things are going to get more serious around here, then why not help by throwing out ideas. Just my 2 cents.
Comments
As well as Short Version:
Donation Meter, with every set level of money donated to UWE, UWE releases media of NS:S or NS2 to the public to inspire more donations.
Would be incorporated with Constellation program.
The only thing I can say is that with each money given, you get the satisfaction of:
A) Waiting for more media to be released of the game
B) Knowing it helps contribute to the development of the game.
But it would all depend on the person.
<a href='http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=donation' target='_blank'>http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=donation</a>
<!--emo&:)--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/smile-fix.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='smile-fix.gif' /><!--endemo-->
Anywhos, I know more people are reading this, any suggestions you guys?
A large part of development occurs with no external "stuff" to look at.
When a modeller creates a new model for a game, that can be released. But if that modeller doesn't have anything he's working on atm? Things get stale, meanwhile the coders may be implementing all sorts of neato features that can't be displayed externally because there is no way to show them, or the context isn't right.
However, assuming we move to NS:S I suspect the news will be flying fast and furious anyway because we would most likely be doing an initial port first so models, and different parts of existing gameplay that have been ported over can be explained in terms existing fans of NS will already understand
For example a news item might contain:
2 new images of the PG,
as well as text explaining that the code to operate a PG has been implemented
as well as the code for dropping and collecting res.
Since everyone knows what this already "looks like" it makes this sort of information sharing quite easy.
Same with the next level of development where we begin working with the new engine News posts that include : Implemented ragdoll physics for marines
would be common.
Currently, we cannot often cannot give individual pieces of information out because (for example) we tested at least a dozen different ways to handle the new cloaking and without the proper context or having a feeling of exactly what we are going to be using, it would confuse a large number of NS fans.