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[Grumbledook]

Are you kidding? I would build a real life fortress full of magma and hire a bunch of BDSM folk to dress as elves and keep them in cages.

That, only I'd also hire miners, masons, brewers etc. and gradually expand the fortress. Maybe hire some goblins for sieges....

LIVE THE DREAM!

[bobhayes]

My current software overlords, who hold me captive in a white, padded, and sound-proof code-monkey cage (complete with a window in the door so the zoo visitors can watch!), understand my true nature all too well.  They've used exactly that threat of adding "a couple more people just to 'help out'" to coerce me into finishing things faster than logical.  I won't say I hate them for it, because I want today's allotment of peanuts, but I also don't like being played like that.

You'll appreciate this. At an unnamed Mythical Software corporation, there was a developer who had a good reputation for making accurate projections of how long features would take to add. One year he took a sabbatical and was told to train people in time estimating, and he put a box outside his office that contained two six-sided dice and a sign reading "Project Time Estimator - Roll The Dice, That's How Many Weeks It Will Take". Management complained and his response was "this is how I've been doing it all along."

To the fellow who just can't believe that adding people slows things down: yes, that disbelief and "common sense" thinking is precisely why people keep trying to speed up projects by adding staff in midstream. It ALWAYS slows things down. This isn't my opinion; this is the finding of years of research into the (important) question "why do big software projects always take so !%!%ing long." Read "The Mythical Man-Month" that Cydonia referred to, or just look at this precis: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Mythical_Man-Month

[Ultimuh]

If I won enough money, I would buy out EA, get rid of the executives and introduce a 'no executive meddling' policy.

[Taricus]

If I won enough money, I would buy out EA, get rid of the executives and introduce a 'no executive meddling' policy.

Buy out all video game publishers and put that same policy in.

[Cydonian Monk]

You'll appreciate this. ... Management complained and his response was "this is how I've been doing it all along."

Indeed.  Thanks. 


To echo an above sentiment, I would certainly send a healthy donation to feed Scamps and his programming slave, but the core and spirit of the game is definitely Toady's [edit: and should stay with him until he decides otherwise].  (Though obviously spinning off some non-core develpment has it's benefits, such as the graphics engine.  Still adds management and communication overhead, and such activities must be used with restraint for a "professional hobby" such as DF lest it become more stress-work than hobby.)

[Sirdrake]

I would by a SUPER MEGA SUPER COMPUTER the ones they use at NASA and put my  population limit to 1000 and embark at a 20x20 embark plot

[Encased in burning magma]

You people overstimate the loto.

On programming projects: imagine a pregnant woman, creating a new being trough the wonder of live.
If you pile 8 women on her belly, the baby will not be out in a month (or maybe he will, but then quality will suffer).

[Sirdrake]

You people overstimate the loto.

On programming projects: imagine a pregnant woman, creating a new being trough the wonder of live.
If you pile 8 women on her belly, the baby will not be out in a month (or maybe he will, but then quality will suffer)

Thats not the point. It will give him extra resources for better programming and i still think my idea is awsome

[EvilFuzzy9]

People are a terrible resource: they have "needs" and "rights" and "feelings". They'll demand things like a roof over their head, health insurance, a salary... Better to stick with monkeys -- all they need is food, water, and space. They're easier to train and less likely to shit on your carpet.

[Bererez]

Yes. I'd ask him to set up a non-profit first, though, so I could get a nice tax break because I imagine that's something I'd give a shit about if I had money. Our lust for the blood of elves and kittens could feed Africa, you guys!

[bobhayes]

Thats not the point. It will give him extra resources for better programming and i still think my idea is awsome

Similarly, the arrival of 30 legendary cheesemakers makes your fort run more smoothly.

[Sirdrake]

Similarly, the arrival of 30 legendary cheesemakers makes your fort run more smoothly.

Then we will have 30 legendary cheese makers who can make masterpiece chedder

[fervor]

To the fellow who just can't believe that adding people slows things down: yes, that disbelief and "common sense" thinking is precisely why people keep trying to speed up projects by adding staff in midstream. It ALWAYS slows things down. This isn't my opinion; this is the finding of years of research into the (important) question "why do big software projects always take so !%!%ing long." Read "The Mythical Man-Month" that Cydonia referred to, or just look at this precis: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Mythical_Man-Month

That example doesn't apply to this situation at all.

DF has ONE person doing many, many different tasks and working at his own speed.  That is completely different from anything mentioned on that MMM wiki page.  Adding skilled people to this project is highly unlikely to cause these problems.

The wiki page says that the central theme of MMM is "adding manpower to a late software project makes it later".  Is that what we are talking about here?  I'm not.

In regards to big projects...ALL big projects start with a small team that grows.  ALL of them.  You don't hire 100-200 people and bring them in all at once when the project is in phase 1.  As the project grows, the team grows.  As the years go by, people come and go naturally with attrition or need.

Obviously, I don't disagree that problems mentioned in the MMM can occur.  They do and often.  But well managed projects do their best to minimize the impact.  Sometimes you just need more people.

[Sirdrake]

i would give Deon the money so he could fly over to were toady lives and live there and they make it together


Get ready For Dwarf Fortress Genesis Overloaded       

[fervor]

What? Heck no, I'd start my _OWN_ company to make games with my own team of artists and coders and then produce stuff to compete with the likes of toady and Notch.  >_>

One of these days I'll be able to quit my day job and work on stuff full time... one of these days...
(I'll probably be saying that when they bury me in the ground, I spend way too much time playing other people's games rather than working on my own stuff. :/)

Heh, this is much more likely if I won the lottery.

It's like that Red Sox pitcher who loves WoW and decided he wanted to make his own MMORPG.  Hmm...I wonder how that's working out.  Haven't heard much news lately.