Spring RTS Engine

Split from viewtopic.php?f=10&t=34450 (Silentwings)

Low quality posts have lead to low quantity.

8611z wrote:Low quality posts have lead to low quantity.

Insightful and a prime example, touché

AF wrote:

8611z wrote:Low quality posts have lead to low quantity.

Insightful and a prime example, touché

haha very clever.
To put it short, in the game development subforums there are too many posts that are wrong. New people do not stay when they get incompetent answers to their questions.

8611z wrote:

AF wrote:

8611z wrote:Low quality posts have lead to low quantity.

Insightful and a prime example, touché

haha very clever.
To put it short, in the game development subforums there are too many posts that are wrong. New people do not stay when they get incompetent answers to their questions.

Then why you haven't fix it then? I know that you been here longer than me.

Because he is only interested in being a condescending person who ocassonaionally deigns to help and otherwise likes to take pot shots at those of us who actually step up and make stuff/help others he otherwise ignores.

User was warned for this post, Felony 1. (Silentwings)

There's a lot of work that can be done with the wiki and documentation that can help in this regard. We've been good at maintenance, but what we're maintaining is aimed at people already here, it's a little cryptic to new people. Sadly, a high level plan and approach to documentation is something nobody seems to have the time/bandwidth available for. Just to be clear, I'm not talking about beginner tutorials

AF wrote:There's a lot of work that can be done with the wiki and documentation that can help in this regard. We've been good at maintenance, but what we're maintaining is aimed at people already here, it's a little cryptic to new people. Sadly, a high level plan and approach to documentation is something nobody seems to have the time/bandwidth available for. Just to be clear, I'm not talking about beginner tutorials

Even though tutorials would be a good way to get people into spring, maybe even a video series like make your own RTS using the spring engine e.t.c... All these things require time, and sadly very little pay off exists for the person in question that spends hours and hours on these types of things.

So people dont do it really, its nothing to be ashamed of really. Even if you have a money incentive to do it(like a real life job), people suck at those types of things.

Its a really boring thing to do, but really necessary on the other hand.

sadly very little pay off exists for the person in question that spends hours and hours on these types of things

I guess it depends, I always thought of writing lua addons as much like solving crossword puzzles, logic/comprehension puzzles that don't get repetitive but don't need deep thinking either... I don't find it at all boring to do in odds and ends of spare time.

As one of its more regular users I rate our current wiki/docs/tutorials as very good. Just as you say, a situation where people actually have to read lots of stuff and then work hard to achieve things is not going to have mass appeal :p, but imo thats more a reflection on people than on us doing anything majorly wrong.

(And fwiw, I don't see any issue worth falling over about with the quality of replies in forum posts, either.)

AF wrote:-- Sadly, a high level plan and approach to documentation is something nobody seems to have the time/bandwidth available for. Just to be clear, I'm not talking about beginner tutorials --

I'm willing to do the grunt work (i.e. writing parts of it) if you can come up with a better system for it.
I think our current functions/Lua API is grossly under-documented, but there's little you can do besides writing ad-hoc tutorials. It is just not possible to write small examples/explanation of a given function without making the whole page huge.

Anyway, give suggestions what should be done and how.

Silentwings wrote:

sadly very little pay off exists for the person in question that spends hours and hours on these types of things

I guess it depends, I always thought of writing lua addons as much like solving crossword puzzles, logic/comprehension puzzles that don't get repetitive but don't need deep thinking either... I don't find it at all boring to do in odds and ends of spare time.

As one of its more regular users I rate our current wiki/docs/tutorials as very good. Just as you say, a situation where people actually have to read lots of stuff and then work hard to achieve things is not going to have mass appeal :p, but imo thats more a reflection on people than on us doing anything majorly wrong.

(And fwiw, I don't see any issue worth falling over about with the quality of replies in forum posts, either.)

True

gajop wrote: I'm willing to do the grunt work (i.e. writing parts of it) if you can come up with a better system for it.
I think our current functions/Lua API is grossly under-documented, but there's little you can do besides writing ad-hoc tutorials. It is just not possible to write small examples/explanation of a given function without making the whole page huge.

Anyway, give suggestions what should be done and how.

Right now the top level pages of the Wiki are giant glossaries of sorts. Great if you know what you want and you're drilling your way down, but terrible if you're new. I'd create calls to action at the top of each page for the common new stuff, like "I want to make a new game", no more than 2 or 3 at most. These then link off to an article that in very brief terms describes the super high level structure then provides you with a list of must read items in a recommended order.

That and I'd add a note to the lua docs explaining what Lua_SyncedCtrl or Lua_System are. They're not self explanatory and are frustrating when you're trying to find something and you're not sure which page you'll find it on, the sub headings just aren't enough.

A while ago I built a test site that attempted to index all these things, that was searchable and could be tagged, that would let you view things all at once, or grouped, or see an individual API on its own so that you could comment with code examples and important notes from people who used it PHP style. I can look into setting something up again if that would be useful?

Super Mario wrote:

8611z wrote:

AF wrote:

Code: Select all

8611z:
Low quality posts have lead to low quantity.

Insightful and a prime example, touché

haha very clever.
To put it short, in the game development subforums there are too many posts that are wrong. New people do not stay when they get incompetent answers to their questions.

Then why you haven't fix it then? I know that you been here longer than me.

Posting a bad answer only takes few seconds. Explaining why it is wrong takes longer.
I am done with people who do not accept links to documentation or to code or functional example or logical proofs as dispute-ending arguements.

There's a lot of work that can be done with the wiki and documentation that can help in this regard.

The number one improvement to wiki would be that people read it.

I tryied to compile all this drama , but the Stage Errors out.
Not one valid contribooty shake detected.
Newbs gonna learn drama without this torturial.

Also funny facts, those complaining abut the dieing community (by now zombie marching toward zombie-calypso world domination-community i guess) are actually those jumping on every newbs throats. Im not naming names here, im not blaming any person in particular, im just throwing alot of poison into the air and see what sticks, so i can play the victim and spice up my life with some strife.

Do not talk about your recent advances- post them here.
Right now. Evi-dance instead of rumouring.

Also funny facts, those complaining abut the dieing community (by now zombie marching toward zombie-calypso world domination-community i guess) are actually those jumping on every newbs throats.

As I see everything has turned out as they wanted, unsure why they complain now.
They complained about players posting on forum? No players on forum anymore.
They were offended by new people with new ideas? No new people in a while.
They told newbies not to expect help from community? Now they have trouble finding the help they relied on themself.
They wanted every game to be on its own? There you have it.

User was warned for this post & similar posts above, felony 2, and banned for 1 week. (Silentwings)

Use private messages for (thinly veiled references to) your private disputes.

Locked.