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Official Roadmap - New Server

Official

Hortik

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Hi all,

Hi Sheriff.


Happy New Year to this beautifull community!

Blue, blue, blue, that's the color I would like to see popping op more and more on this first post!

See you soon on the battlefield!
 

legionbuck

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Roadmaps are nice...as long as everything works = better ! Keep up the progress !
 

Shepherd

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Hey all, first time I've stopped in here in months... or is it years? Sorry to read that things are in disarray, but I'm glad there's still a desire to get the house in order. Best of luck to you, Sheriff.
 

NewSheriffInTown

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Hey all, first time I've stopped in here in months... or is it years? Sorry to read that things are in disarray, but I'm glad there's still a desire to get the house in order. Best of luck to you, Sheriff.

Months have turned in to years recently!

Yeah, the end of Flash was hard, but the good news is that we got an awesome new forum, a functioning game (albeit with a few less features), some funding through kickstarter, and a plan going forward. So really, it's only going to get better from here on in!
 

MNatt

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3 months on - where do we stand on the Road Map?

Be nice to know any news.
 

clarkenfeld

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I still think the internet is basically witchcraft. How can I click a button here and someone's armies get blitzed the other side of the world? Bonkers.
 

NewSheriffInTown

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3 months on - where do we stand on the Road Map?

Be nice to know any news.

Hey,

So I have changed a couple 'starting/in progress/completed' labels on the first post, but essentially you are correct, there hasn't been an update in about a month, so here the current situation...

As I write this, literally, we are interviewing an IT company who we want to contract to do the work. Though things are never as easy as one would hope.

When it comes to hiring computer programmers, or IT companies, then usually you will come across one of these scenarios.

First, there is an abundance of affordable IT specialist who have great resumes. Nearly all of them are located in either India or Pakistan. We have hired from this pool of freelancers in the past, and with the exception of maybe 1 or 2 people over the last few years, we are nearly always disappointed with the quality of their work. It's safe to say that a vast majority of these freelancers have no idea what they are doing, and whatever they claim that they can do on their resume, is just made up. Generally speaking, the amount of time it takes to sift though all the profiles trying to find the one guy or girl that actually took a computer course, is a full time job in itself.

The second group of freelancers are actual professionals. These people are generally in the US, Europe, and some in Russia. I'm sure any of them would be able to get the job done without much thought or effort. However, they easily ask for $100 or more per hour on their profile page. This would drain our funds in about 2 weeks. Assuming they would even take on the job in the first place. Most of them are hired by fortune 500 companies, or other well funded startups. So unfortunately, they are well beyond our reach.

So that leaves us with the third group, Goldilocks. These are generally talented individuals and companies who have the skills, and are still affordable. A lot of them seem to be located in the Ukraine, or other similar regions scattered around the globe. And they are exactly who we are talking to right now. After discussing the project with this Ukrainian company, they surprised us by proposing a very different approach then we were expecting. And by 'proposing', I mean 'insisting'... Nevertheless, I'm not sure if something was lost in translation, or if they are just trying to drum up some extra work for themselves. So it looks like they might not be the perfect fit. However, it has helped us reexamine the approach we need to take to rebuild the site, both in the short and longer term.

In any event, if we don't come to a mutual agreement with this particular Ukrainian company in the next few days, then we will just move to the next company on the list, and hopefully we will find a group of IT specialists who understand our specific situation, know exactly what needs done, and who can do it for an affordable price.

So that's the update! Stay tunes as things unfold....
 

once

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thanks for the detailed update sheriff. i dont know the first thing about IT so i just cross my fingers for now. & maybe i wont miss the next kickstarter.
 

MNatt

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Thanks for the info. I know exactly what you're saying re freelancers. When I've hired people for web-related stuff I've had the same issue (I use Upwork - it's pretty good I find) with groups 1 and 2. When I post jobs on there now I always specify which countries I want applicants from - it seems terrible I know, but otherwise you just end up with 100s of applications from people that you aren't ever going to consider. And I always say I've not got much money - as that helps filter out group 2!.

I've had some good experiences hiring freelancers just out of University - they don't tend to charge as much and are keen to show what they can do. I wonder if there's any way to contact students on Games Design courses at colleges and unis?

Ukraine!!! Poor sods might be getting a bit distracted in a minute.
 

NewSheriffInTown

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So here is another update....

As you might have guessed, our I.T. group the Ukraine fell through. It obviously wasn't the right time for either of us to start a project together. Though I do hope they all make it though the current situation safely.

Nevertheless, we did manage to secure what seems like a very good company from India. We hired them yesterday to start working on our frontend interface. We won't see results for a while still, but the initial talks seemed very promising, and I have high hopes that they might be the ones to get it done.

We are also in talks with an individual from India to work on our backend (including the game engine). Marcos will have a video chat with him later today/tomorrow and we'll see how that goes. He seems quite capable from our initial impressions, but also a bit on the expensive side. Hopefully we can agree on a reasonable price-per-task rate, and then we can start checking off our 'todo' list a lot faster.

And even though I haven't posted, we have still been plowing though things. The first page post has a few more blue "completed" boxes for those who are keeping track.
 

MNatt

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Thanks for the update. It's like roots growing underground. At the moment what's going on is all invisible to us ordinary punters, but I'm sure we're all looking forward to seeing the first green shoots of recovery coming through
 

Hortik

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Blue starts to be a common color on the first post.
Good job, lets have it all Blue soon and blitz blitz blitz blitz...
 

MNatt

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Couple of months on -- what's the state of play on the Roadmap?
 

NewSheriffInTown

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Just in time.... Here's the update...

We essentially have 3 groups working on MajCom.

The First group is an Indian Tech Agency, who are rebuilding the frontend UI. Basically whatever you see on your computer screen is the frontend UI.

The Second group is a guy named Tarang. He is working on the backend game engine. You will not "see" the result of his work, except maybe in better loading times, less glitches, and smoother overall gameplay.

The Third group is Marcos. He is the glue that is orchestrating the other two teams, and giving them the directions and tasks to do.

A couple months ago everything was rolling forward quite productively, until the first week of June when Marcos got hit with Covid. He was out for a few weeks, and that essentially halted any work the other two groups were doing.

I was away visiting my mom for a month, and only flew back home a couple weeks ago.

On Saturday, (3 days ago), Marcos and I had our first catch up since he recovered from Covid, and since I got back home. We basic reviewed everything that still needs to be done in both the short term, and the longer term. And we also discussed how to avoid the entire process from stopping again if something happens to him (Marcos). Like if he gets hit by a bus or something like that. Because basically, we can't have him, or any other one person, be so essential that the progress stops if they suddenly disappear.

Nevertheless, this is the result of our discussions:

Firstly, the Indian Agency: They are working on the frontend UI, and have been focused on rewriting the /BETA/ pages, and anything that falls under that URL. For the most part, they are essentially done. They only have to connect the signup and login links on the dogtag with the database, and then the /BETA/ pages are done. This only requires Marcos to create one more API for them, so they are waiting on that, but once he gets that to them, then they are done.

This brings us to the next stage with Indian agency. We will have 2 things that they need to do.

First they need to develop a way for us to take all the work they just finished, and deploy it on a testing server so we can check it out. Then we will need to deploy again on the live site once we determine that everything works as expected. Hopefully the Indian agency will have someone on their team with the skills to do that, otherwise we will have to find and hire someone new to create a deployment system, but I don't see that as too much of a hurdle since our other guy named Andrew already did most the work. Anyway, once it's done, we should have a smooth way of deploying updates.

Secondly, we are going allow the Indian agency to create their own APIs, so when they start working on the other pages, like the Scoreboard page, Tournament page, Clan page, Profile Page, etc... then they won't need to rely on Marcos creating APIs for them, and they can just get everything done themselves, without delay.

Secondly, Tarang: He is working on the backend, he is very skilled, but he is still learning how the whole game system fits together. We have a roadmap, as you know, and a whole list of tasks to do. Tarang has access to that list, and he has been working through that list, but he still depends on Marcos to explain each task and guide him though it.

The goal here is to get Tarang fully set up with a dev environment so he can see how the whole site works, and for Marcos to write down more details and a better description for each task, because right now, a lot of the tasks only have a number and a title, but no real description of what they're all about.

So if we can get Tarang with a dev environment, and we can get Marcos to finish writing a better description for each task, then Tarang can be fully independent too.

With both teams working independently, and not relying on Marcos, then holdups which happened last month are much less likely to happen again.

That was the summary of Saturday's conversation. The last month was not as productive as I was hoping, but we are definitely back on track with a clear plan. If we can successfully get through these short term goals I just mentioned above, then the long term plans will be a lot easier and faster to implement.

Hope that makes sense and answers any questions!
 

Redstorm

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(y)
 

MNatt

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Marcos - he most be protected! Perhaps some sort of bio-secure bubble, ringed with barbed-wire.
 

SgtPatton

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Progress is good. Thanks for the updates.
 
Last edited:

masterjskye

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Glad to hear progress is being made!
 

SgtPatton

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Yeah - I've been tweaking my strategies as well.

I used to think that I didn't care about points -- and I still think that I care less than others (maybe most). I've always approached this as a game and not so much a competition.

But since points have been taken off the table, I find I play better -- perhaps less conservatively. When I realized that, I leaned into it, playing way more aggressively that normal just to see what happens.

One of the big things I've noticed is that I haven't had any games last longer than a month or so. In the old game, I had one going for like 18 months or something. (Although I no longer play anything except Escalate, so that is at least part of it...)

Another thing I noticed (just realizing now) is that I haven't run into any abusive/unsporting situations. So -- for me, anyway -- there has been a positive effect of not having points (if there is indeed a connection). I get way more upset with people purposefully ruining the game for everyone than losing that game.

That being said, it's sometimes a bummer when I *do* win big multi-player games -- it's like, "Look at all those points I didn't get!" lol

Looking forward to all the improvements, but still having fun until then. I'll come back a leaner, meaner Matilda...

-MTH
I agree MTH, I'd like to see a 'no points' option for game setup [wish list].
 
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