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[Aavak]

It is a real shame that this has happened, and despite not knowing the fellow personally, I do hope that Ethen is healthy and that nothing like a car accident has happened.

As Fniff has mentioned though, if it were a case of a serious accident, his family would likely have been contacted (even abroad), and I've known more than a few people (artists, specifically, but coding is an equally creative endeavour in many ways) who found it very difficult to deal with the sudden reality of their work being put on show. It's one thing to have pipe-dreams, but the sudden "Whoa... so this thing is real, then?" moment can be quite oppressive and scary.

Of the two situations, an accident that has rendered him unable to contact people, or just an anxiety attack or something equally non-life-threatening, I hope it's the latter!

Regardless though, three cheers for Galen for stepping in, and for everyone involved in the Kickstarter for thinking to plan ahead to make sure there were people ready to step in. I know I'd have been blind sided by something like this, as I would more than likely not have even considered the almost comically cliché 'he just disappeared!' scenario as something that could actually happen lol.

[GlyphGryph]

I'm very used to not being able to count on people. Having a backup for a key link in the process is a sensible course of action.

I too am assuming/hoping he just freaked out and bailed. I don't wish him any ill will. It does make things harder, but thankfully we can move forward without him.

[Xantalos]

Kickstarter's going good at least - only 1200 bucks or do to go with 20 days left.

[Mookzen]

Respectable progress is being made, splendid.

[GlyphGryph]

New update has been posted for those who want to check it out. Mostly announce Sean taking over as the programmer, but also includes a sneak peek of the poster/wallpaper artwork Jordy is providing for us.

[i2amroy]

Only another $1000 to go! Woot!

[CognitiveDissonance]

Hey, the progress is looking great! I wonder how much over it will go, as KS projects usually get a lot more once they are full, and when the deadline starts looming.

[GalenEvil]

Z-Level support is going to be fun. With it will probably come some save-breaking changes to how the map system is serialized. Something that will need to be discussed is the maximum and minimum heights to allow in the world. That seems like something to get pushed into an option that gets set in stone during world generation.

The World/Mod Manager will be pretty interesting too, but should be functionally similar to how DF manages multiple worlds.

Note: This is all based on an initial check and some brainstorming. None of it has been set in stone and is subject to wild changes until fully discussed and agreed upon.

[The Scout]

Use DF's adventure mode's method. It's not the nicest way, but it works.
And the Upper Forum people would adapt very well. 

[SalmonGod]

Just want to say that Cataclysm has come a long way since Whales abandoned the project.  Not a knock against Whales.  Just saying that everyone who has worked on it since has been doing a great job.

[tootboot]

I've heard the code's a mess, do you guys plan on doing any refactoring during the allotted kickstarter time?

[GalenEvil]

Use DF's adventure mode's method. It's not the nicest way, but it works.
And the Upper Forum people would adapt very well. 

I think so too. Will discuss it with the other devs so we can come up with a roadmap on the UI and world structure should be implemented. The implementation itself, once I get the levels unified, should be pretty straightforward. Another thing that will need to be discussed is how tall the world should be. I'm thinking probably 24 z-levels total with the ground level somewhere between levels 4 and 8 depending on how deep and how tall buildings are and if the player can dig down to make hollows and mini cave systems under buildings. Likely will stuff it into an option for during world-gen once I get to the worldbuilder and mods section of the promises.

I've heard the code's a mess, do you guys plan on doing any refactoring during the allotted kickstarter time?

Yeah, the code is a bit/lot of a mess. To keep things tidy and easy to review we have been working through it piecemeal whenever we make major changes to the code. I do plan to use some free time to refactor and tidy up some of the code, though another dev may take up the reins on that one if they get the impulse to do so before I am finished with KS promises.

[azmodean]

I've heard the code's a mess, do you guys plan on doing any refactoring during the allotted kickstarter time?

It does get criticised a lot, but I think a lot of it is undeserved.  Whales never planned for it to be a community project from what I can tell, so some things that are sorely missed aren't present, probably because he didn't feel he needed them.  Really I'm quite thankfull for the condition of a lot of the code, with the exception of the major modules of game<->map<->player<->inventory, most of the modules are fairly well abstracted from each other, but they don't get noticed that much because they're quietly doing their jobs and don't get modified much if at all.

We have continually been refactoring things as we modify them, and will continue to do so, though the large features do present opportunities to do some larger-scale cleanups.

[GlyphGryph]

There are many bad parts, but much if it is actually okay. The biggest problem, of course, is that we're continuously asking more and more from it that wasn't planned for in advance.

Some of it is actually really terrible, but much of the terrible wasn't written by whales either (and in every case the terrible code is still significantly better than not having it at all).

[CognitiveDissonance]

24Z sounds reasonable, actually. Unlike Dwarf Fortress, we will not be digging into magma seas or building enormous Armok statues. This would account for basements, caves and more. The only concern is if you eventually decide to implement radio towers (See: Farcry 3), or skyscrapers. Shouldn't be a problem with current focus on small cities, but that could change.