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[Chthonic]

WHOA did Toady get a LOT in February.

Once again I am back to wondering what exactly Toady spends his money on... Knowing it is probably something boring like food and water.

Taxes

[Sunday]

Well, I think a lot of people wait up to donate until a new release—so  it makes sense there'd be a bigger donation after a 19 month period between releases than a 10 month period, even if the player base has expanded.

Anyway, if I were Toady, I'd sock away any extra cash, especially in more profitable months (like this one), and invest it, for insurance in case—in 5-10 years or whenever—donations start to drop off. If he saves up enough, he might be able to support himself for quite a while even if donations eventually start to taper off. Sort of an individual-Keynesian approach.

But I'm pretty risk averse, myself.

[Neonivek]

Don't forget Sunday that he also needs to replace his hardware eventually to better systems.

[codecx]

There's always a trickle of cash every month, I'm guessing by repeat donators.

From the numbers generated, its clear that the amount donated is equal to the effort put into the game.
People who get instant gratification and results = $

Now, if Toady decided to put off *new* features and arcs and instead focused on cleaning up the code and fixing that giant list of pre-existing bugs... I'd wager that he'd see 3-5k more per month, since those things actually effect us--the player.

[Untelligent]

There's always a trickle of cash every month, I'm guessing by repeat donators.

From the numbers generated, its clear that the amount donated is equal to the effort put into the game.
People who get instant gratification and results = $

Now, if Toady decided to put off *new* features and arcs and instead focused on cleaning up the code and fixing that giant list of pre-existing bugs... I'd wager that he'd see 3-5k more per month, since those things actually effect us--the player.

The current dev cycle involves alternating between lots of new features and lots of old bugfixes. There'll be one more (possibly two, but I doubt it) release cleaning up some of the problems introduced in 34.01 that'll take a week or two, and then he'll spend a month or two primarily working on the older bugs.


The reason for alternating between new features and old bugs is because both of them are important, and neither is more important than the other.

[PTTG??]

I'm getting really tired of people complaining about not getting their money's worth out of a free game. Go outside, take a few deep breaths, and then please don't type anything until you're feeling rational.

Now, cites: super awesome, or ultra awesome? I'd love to get some exported city world maps- I just wish I could embark to some of these places. Oh sure, it would probably break everything terribly, but I would love to get a large-view of a section of a city.

[Footkerchief]

Now, if Toady decided to put off *new* features and arcs and instead focused on cleaning up the code and fixing that giant list of pre-existing bugs... I'd wager that he'd see 3-5k more per month, since those things actually effect us--the player.

I'm all about bugfixes, but claims like this one are difficult to prove or disprove (even in hindsight) due to the many other factors that affect donations, such as seasonal stuff (e.g. the holiday season), the expanding player base, the fact that bug fixing cycles usually follow a major windfall month, etc.

[monk12]

I'm getting really tired of people complaining about not getting their money's worth out of a free game. Go outside, take a few deep breaths, and then please don't type anything until you're feeling rational.

Now, cites: super awesome, or ultra awesome? I'd love to get some exported city world maps- I just wish I could embark to some of these places. Oh sure, it would probably break everything terribly, but I would love to get a large-view of a section of a city.

Almost but not quite ultra awesome, and it will probably make that jump once I can ask for directions to find a freakin weaponsmith's shop    Although I have been playing adventure mode almost exclusively this release, and the sewer/dungeon quests are pretty fantastic. Mind, I haven't actually completed one since I get really lost and murdered by bandits, but Losing is as fun as ever.

[PTTG??]

That reminds me, I walked into one town as an adventurer, walked over a sewer grate, and a snakeman down below starts cursing me out about how he's killed a billion people and he's going to come up there and rip me a new set of orifices.

Of course, anyone familiar with city life is well used to this sort of thing, and so I keep walking and waiting. So I go shopping and realize I can brag about something. Apparently the snakeman drowned or something trying to climb up to the surface, so I got the credit for it. I end up being able to recruit more than half a dozen soldiers to join me purely from that.

They all pummeled me into paste when I accidentally maliciously attacked a priest of death in the fortress they were formerly guarding.

Man, I just realized I need to see if I can wipe out a city using a zombie horde. Now I just need to figure out how to make a zombie horde. Hmmmm... Can I recruit necromancers?

[monk12]

That's pretty awesome. Best I've done is randomly accuse a law-giver of being a night creature, and have him turn out to actually be a vampire. Since he was also a fully equipped former Ranger, he quickly shot me in the spine and I bled out before seeing whether my comrades overcame his tyranny. I don't think you can recruit necromancers, but you can totally read their tomes to learn how to raise zombies yourself. It's one of my longer term goals, once I can string together three quests running.

[Shinotsa]

Oh god the towers... it might be beneficial to turn OFF dodging before you try to break into one. A bruise or even a missing hand is better than deciding to dodge into fifteen hungry undead...
Funny enough my only semi-successful foray into the sewers ended with me and a lasher both prone and pushing each other. I eventually realized I could still throw arrows at him, so I did that until the stack of thirty was used up. We both bled to death a turn apart, I suppose after finally having found our equal.

Man I love this version. Can't wait to see if the dungeon master gets fixed to avoid all this mucking about in the raws every new version. Not like it's much work, but I think having an immigrated noble would finally cause me to make clothes and assign nobles finely dyed silk attire.

[Keldane]

Man, I just realized I need to see if I can wipe out a city using a zombie horde. Now I just need to figure out how to make a zombie horde. Hmmmm... Can I recruit necromancers?

I don't believe you can recruit necromancers, no; it seems to me that when they see an adventurer approaching their tower they assume he's there to steal their secrets, and so attempt to kill him before he can. That said, as has been pointed out, if you do steal their secrets you'll gain the ability to raise the dead yourself. You can also gain this ability by looking in Legends mode and finding a demon who's writing books on the subject while posing as a human deity. They won't be aggressive, and they'll leave the books lying around the fort they're in.

I can also say that it is a lot of fun to wipe out a city with an undead horde. I only did it to a small portion of the city, but the zombies were most efficient in doing so while I just stood back and laughed, reraising them if they fell. Since they have the [OPPOSED_TO_LIFE] tag, the zombies will kill villagers even if you don't want them to, and you won't be blamed for their actions.

[PTTG??]

What's the best way to go about assembling this horde of zombies? Of course, once you've reached a certain level of capital, your undead investments start getting self-sustaining- that is, with enough zombies, you can be sure of killing (and then raising) anyone, with average losses of less than one zombie per peasant killed.

The difficult part is when you're starting out as a small business, and need a loan of, oh, a few dozen corpses. Anyone know a good way to get started there?

[monk12]

As it happens, the aforementioned sewers are a lovely source of unused corpses for you to recycle for your various ends, or you could recruit a handful of companions and lead them to their grisly deaths on some quest or another. Getting them to flounder into a river full of carp is a great, low-risk strategy with potentially high long-term gains, especially if they manage to bag a carp or two in their escapade.

[rhesusmacabre]

Tombs are ideal for the first-time necromancer. They offer a low risk/large return on your investment; just make sure you raise the corpses before the mummy does. (I took my new army to a town to see what would happen...  so many dead ducks...  so many zombie ducks...)