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[mareck]

Is it just me or are there more people that are praying that toady lets adventure mode rot for a while and fixes the entire bug list. I mean, the bug list is getting longer than the features list at the moment.

[Psieye]

There are some people who would prefer that. There are others who definitely do want adventure mode fleshed out more.

[Girlinhat]

Toady has stated (rather bluntly in the recent Talk) that he focuses on Fortress OR Adventure, and pretty much leaves the other hanging.  He's now focusing on Fort and bugfixing and improving all the various trade things.

[mareck]

Toady has stated (rather bluntly in the recent Talk) that he focuses on Fortress OR Adventure, and pretty much leaves the other hanging.  He's now focusing on Fort and bugfixing and improving all the various trade things.

He should only go back to adding features and adventure mode when he has fixed the current list. That will make the game better for new players as i can present the game in its current state to anyone.

[Maninblack144]

There's bound to be at least one person not pleased with the direction of updates. Really not much Toady, or anyone else for that matter, can do about that.

[Girlinhat]

Army Arc is next, I think, which promises a LOT of stuff for Adventure and Fort alike.  Things like, large-scale battles the adventurer can take part in, dynamic political lines, and a general overhaul of the nobility system.

[UristMcDwarf]

Things like, large-scale battles the adventurer can take part in,

That means other races will get sites.

IMA COMIN AFTER YOU, GOBLINS

[Jurph]

He should only go back to adding features and adventure mode when he has fixed the current list. That will make the game better for new players as i can present the game in its current state to anyone.

<LEBOWSKI>
That's just like, your opinion, man.
</LEBOWSKI>

Do you think that your opinion of Toady's development priorities should hold any weight at all with him?  Do you donate?  Do you donate more than, say, $20/mo.?  It's a labor of love, and we all vote with our wallets.  I'm thrilled with the progress embodied in 31.19, so I'll keep the donations coming.  I'm okay with Toady choosing what comes next because, frankly, I manage a team of coders in the real world and I know that good devs know what's broken much better than the users.

I'm glad you're an ambassador for the game, and you may be bringing lots of new users and donations to Toady.  If so, awesome - gripe away. 

If you're not a donor, and you want a bug fixed particularly badly, then start a fund drive or bounty program for the bugs you want fixed.  If you want the metal scarcity bug to be fixed, for example, you could collect pledges in a forum post -- "I'll give $5 when I can determine whether I'll have iron on my map before embark."  When Toady posts a version that meets your requirement, you pay up even if that version contains other painful bugs. 

"But that won't make Toady listen!" you say... well, Toady can expect a certain level of donations per month regardless.  If he can estimate the time it would take to knock out a bug, and knows that he's been pledged a certain amount of cash for that bug, then he can figure out how to earn a raise, and whether the agony of debugging that particular glitch is worth the extra $5 / $50 / $500 that he's been pledged for the fix.  Once a bounty gets large enough, and especially if pledges prove to be reliable (say 75% of people actually send the money they pledged) then I bet you'll see Toady's priorities adjust to where the donor community wants them.

[Girlinhat]

You think that'd work?  You think we could influence Toady with enough cash?  Something tells me that if we got every user to pledge $100 if they get lazer vision in the next version, the best we'd get is darkness added, with dwarves able to see in darkness, and a hearty lol from the Toady One.

If this game were influenced purely by money, it would be.  As it is, it's a lovechild of a game, and I think that Toady will develop it however he sees fit, because it's his game and he can do that.

[Psieye]

As I said elsewhere months ago: we are spectators, watching an artist create his work of art over his lifetime. It's like seeing an artist paint a whole cathedral by himself every day when we pass by the building. Some days we stop in the streets to watch a while and maybe toss a coin into the donation box so he can continue his work. We can form opinions on what his latest few strokes did. But we are merely observers. We do not influence his grand scheme, merely point out little things like "a speck of dust landed over there".

[thegoatgod_pan]

I'm with Psieye, Dwarf Fortress is more than a game, it is an artistic experiment, an utopian project.  People complaining about bugs need to check out some mainstream games--even really really good games are bugged to gibberish (i'm looking at you "mass effect"), wheres dwarf fortress bugs are minor issues at best (as in: oh noes my marksdwarves aren't the killing machines my axedwarves are)

[Naros]

I'd love nothing more than having Toady work on bugs for the next six months straight, except for his enjoying working on DF to the fullest so he'll never ever give up on it.
And that involves adding features, which moves the huge project one step close to being completed.

I admit, development wise the new additions excite me.
But bug wise, I'm still playing 40D (sometimes) while I wait for a relatively bug-free release.

[Urist McBusDriver]

You think that'd work?  You think we could influence Toady with enough cash?  Something tells me that if we got every user to pledge $100 if they get lazer vision in the next version, the best we'd get is darkness added, with dwarves able to see in darkness, and a hearty lol from the Toady One.

If this game were influenced purely by money, it would be.  As it is, it's a lovechild of a game, and I think that Toady will develop it however he sees fit, because it's his game and he can do that.

But you cannot deny that the Universal Doctrine of the Free Market applies even here! SMITE THE HERETIC!

I joke. Although I was put off studying economics by the idea that it's more religion or philosophy than science.

[Jurph]

You think that'd work?  You think we could influence Toady with enough cash? 

Absolutely.  I just don't know what the correct value of "enough" is.  It might be something reasonable and achievable, like say fifty pledges of $20 each.  It might be some number in the tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of dollars.  But for some large value, we could influence Toady to change the priority of the development.

Whether this would change the spirit of the development effort or ruin the beauty of the emerging cathedral is another debate entirely.  Remember that he pays his expenses from the no-strings-attached donations already.

[AdirianSoan]

You think that'd work?  You think we could influence Toady with enough cash?  Something tells me that if we got every user to pledge $100 if they get lazer vision in the next version, the best we'd get is darkness added, with dwarves able to see in darkness, and a hearty lol from the Toady One.

If this game were influenced purely by money, it would be.  As it is, it's a lovechild of a game, and I think that Toady will develop it however he sees fit, because it's his game and he can do that.

But you cannot deny that the Universal Doctrine of the Free Market applies even here! SMITE THE HERETIC!

I joke. Although I was put off studying economics by the idea that it's more religion or philosophy than science.

- Hayek might argue it's the science of proving, step by step, inch by inch, exactly how little we actually know about economics.