Utopia Blog - August 26th, 2009

[Fagashlil]

Please use this thread to comment on the weeks Blog post

[Fate1316]

first........

[Luth]

>>>Palem: That said, it looks like things have progressed quite a bit, so could we get an estimation on when you’ll launch the beta?
Of course, we have our own schedule and a target-date but we’re not sharing - yet.<<<

of course not... why would we expect dates anytime soon when genesis has been going on only a mere 5+ months now? frankly, i'm pushing for the age to last until Christmas...

and wol, ofc, just finishing up the 3rd week of our "supposed" 6 week age?

unbelievable

(you weren't first fate, i was reading before posting)

[Fate1316]

I was reading too, and saw ur name on the bottom of the page Luth... so I had to post before I was finished reading ;)

[VT2]

www.nationstates.net

Frames, yet not frames.
I know your company's already bled him dry, so you might as well finish the vampiric rituals by stealing his layout.

[Luth]

After just logging into the Alpha for the first time, I have to agree with the lack of frames thing. the scrolling menu is quite annoying, and is much better in a static position.

[Sir Nasty]

No. Frames are a thing of the past. However, I know some of you like to have the menu remain still while the page content scrolls. There are other ways to achieve this without using frames. Frames won’t be coming back, but later I’ll look at allowing the menu to remain fixed while the page scrolls. This won’t take priority over fixing bugs or improving performance, so is very unlikely to happen before the Genesis release.

I am very happy to hear you will eventually make the menu 'fixed'
However it is done is fine, just so long as it stays still! :)

Btw, I like the new layout of the Alpha version MUCH better than the old version. I know that is not a priority now but it's a relief to see you are heading in the right direction.

[Palem]

I don't mind keeping things 'hush-hush', but like Luth has pointed out, Gen has been running for nearly 2 age lengths, and assuming WoL only lasts 6 weeks (which I know, is a HUGE assumption), the age is already half over.

I don't think it's very realistic anymore that WoL is going to end on time. You still need to clear up the last of the bugs, get performance up, open the full beta, fix the bugs that everyone finds there, let that run out for at least a week or two, and possibly do some additional fine-tuning.

That's a lot for 3 weeks. Care to comment? *set alarm for 1 week*

[allonons]

Ok I broke down and started an account ...my issue is the shortened protection time,24 hours and were out? That's not enough time to draft and train we'll be slaughtered !

Give us 5k solds and the money to train them asap! In order for us to compete some what!

It takes 22 clicks to build up our buildings and we will have no solds and no cash and no time to train anything ! Think people for god sakes think!



* The server is set to tick every 15 minutes, so things move along quite quickly.
* We've also dropped the protection period down to just 24 game days, so you'll only be in protection for 6 hours in total.


This is a farce!

After you give us the resources to do something in 24 clicks or 6 hours as you say ,reset the new provs and we'll build and train all at the same time otherwise this is a waste of our time!

I want 5k solds and 1.9 mil gc!

[Sir Nasty]

lol, you can go from 400 acres to 1500 acres in a matter of a few days as is..
You don't need more starting resources.

[allonons]

That's BS you got 4 kd's already established that will do nothing but feed on the new kd's coming out like this!

[DHaran]

allonons learn to use the edit button.

Resources and protection time is all relative, if it's the same for everyone, it doesn't matter. And it's only the alpha ffs, stfu.

[allonons]

It's not relative when 4 kingdoms are already established and built up you ying yang so kiss my lilly!

[Allanon KT]

Hurlin: Have you run alpha/beta tests on the new utopia from a mobile phone ?
We’re not yet at the stage where supporting mobile devices is our priority, however it definitely is something that we want to do long term. We’ve re-written Utopia using standards-compliant HTML and CSS. This should make it much easier for mobile devices to render the game pages.

This should be a major concern. A huge number of players have internet-capable mobile phones, in many cases purchased specifically for the ability to play utopia from them to allow greater access and availability. If you release the new code, and it proves to be incompatable with mobile phones, you are going to be pissing off a large portion of the game's population, and likely losing even more players due to them feeling you do not care about them. I think this is something you should review in your priorities

[Nuriho]

"Frames are a thing of the past. "

erm... what's wrong with frames?