In response to DarkView
DarkView wrote:
Im not saying its going to be a quick fix for all BYOND's problems and draw in all the master programmers, but a lot of BYONDers see $200 as a lot of money (They went nuts over 10 cents subscriptions).
Its not meant to be this big chance to make money off the game, its meant to be a motivator. A reward for working so hard.

I don't see how a parallel can be drawn from comparing ten cents to two hundred dollars. Micro-payments have been proven time and time again to not be cost effective on the Internet. Transactions cost money, even internal transactions like BYOND dimes are time consuming to manage.

A professional contracted programmer gets paid $40-$70 per hour. Yes I know were not talking about a real career/job, but the only person winning two hundred dollars would appeal to is someone without a even minimum wage job. Sure getting a few hundred bucks would be nice I just don't see it as a major motivation for someone to spend hundreds of hours making a good game.

Also a lot of them probably would stay if they thought BYOND was for kids, since all they have to do is beat some kids for some easy money.

Again, what's two hundred dollars to someone whose income is above poverty level? A bit of spending cash, but that's about it.

Darkview, I would say were all on the same side (including the DBZers). So please don't think I'm downing your contest idea. I do apologize for hijacking your thread, sometimes I go off on wild tangents. I'll do my best to let these posts get back on track and only reply if something relevant is added.
In response to DarkView
That has a very nice interface. It also gives me a great example to improve my wood-graphic making skills :D

A nice interface seems to make the game alot nicer. I wont be putting any laggier interfaces in, however, because the fact that BYOND uses regular objects to do any interface on-screen is quite annoying. They need a screen-pixel window format.
In response to Grei
What I meant with the 10 cent thing is that the money really motivated people to work, despite the fact you could mow a lawn and earn ten times as much.

Its not going to motivate a lot of people to make a good game, but Im guessing it will motivate people to continue making there good games.
Most BYOND projects die fast, even when the people know what they are doing. The money would just be a tool to motivate them to get organised, and keep there eyes on the prize.
In response to Grei
The thing about prize money is that it's EXTRA income. Besides, many people use BYOND in their spare time - I know I do - so they're in effect getting paid for their recreation time. =)
In response to Kunark
Kunark wrote:
With the statpanels thing, I seem to have a collusion with how big the map is and how nice bigger maps are. If I make it any bigger, people with lower resolutions wont be able to see anything nearly as well, and if I have the map smaller or the current size, with all the commands I often have, it would really crowed the map for the fact that only multitile HUD buttons look good (In my perspective). I guess I am hoping for a HUD update in BYOND 4.0.

Don't wait for that...just keep thinking about how the commands could be placed on the map productively. Towers of Brahma only takes up half a tile for the menu commands, for example, and pops up the commands for that menu when you click it.
In response to Deadron
Deadron wrote:
Don't wait for that...just keep thinking about how the commands could be placed on the map productively. Towers of Brahma only takes up half a tile for the menu commands, for example, and pops up the commands for that menu when you click it.

Better yet, it's all done using a library!
In response to Theodis
Theodis wrote:
Heck I'm quite sure LummoxJR would as well as maybe AirMapster, Deadron, and Gughunter.

I didn't say would, I said could.

Though I don't know the extent of thier knowledge I'm sure they would be quite capable of doing it. But this discution is quickly getting pointless as I doubt Dantom is planning on choosing thier successors just yet.

Heck, *I'm* quite capable of doing it. The only reason I'm not creating things in C++ is because it's a hell of a lot easier to create them in DM.
In response to Crispy
Crispy wrote:
Better yet, it's all done using a library!

Thanks for the pointer -- I'd forgotten about that, and will no doubt make use of it.
In response to Deadron
Ok. Poker was updated and now looks alot better, and uses a better interface :)

Is that better?
In response to Kunark
Do you want a new HTML page I made for the Help window? Its not too fancy since the graphics card is shot on my computer (thus I cant make any pretty pictures), but it beats black on white text.
E-mail me at xdarkviewx at hotmail if your interested.
In response to Kunark
Kunark wrote:
Ok. Poker was updated and now looks alot better, and uses a better interface :)

Is that better?

Much!

The new menus are much nicer and make it easier to play.

Things that could be improved over time:

- The first time I started the game I was getting oriented for a few seconds, when it skipped me and I was out of the game, with no way to restart it!

- It would be great to display the results (winner, etc) on the map, or in a browse window that you pop up. Browse windows can be made to look nice and are much easier to implement than on-map stuff.

- Your game would make another jump in professionalism by using regular fonts, as you can get with DmiFonts.

- Give computer players names or something! I was playing against multiple players called "Computer", so the message that "Computer wins" wasn't too meaningful...

- When I started there was a phantom "Admin" statpanel that later disappeared.

Nice work and I hope you'll just keep improving it from time to time.

(If you want to give us ideas for improving DragonSnot or Birdland, we're all ears!)
In response to Deadron

Things that could be improved over time:

- The first time I started the game I was getting oriented for a few seconds, when it skipped me and I was out of the game, with no way to restart it!

Youa re able to join more than once... If you get booted from the table you can simply rejoin and you will be in the next hand.


- It would be great to display the results (winner, etc) on the map, or in a browse window that you pop up. Browse windows can be made to look nice and are much easier to implement than on-map stuff.

Good idea.

- Your game would make another jump in professionalism by using regular fonts, as you can get with DmiFonts.

I actually was wanting to do this, but I'm not the best at making fonts so I just used shadowdarke's fonts. The fonts for the buttons however are supposed to look kind of old western, and are original.


- Give computer players names or something! I was playing against multiple players called "Computer", so the message that "Computer wins" wasn't too meaningful...

I could probably impliment Drugwars's 100+ name generater into it.


- When I started there was a phantom "Admin" statpanel that later disappeared.


I noticed this too... But I have no idea whatsoever what is causing it, I mean they don't have any verbs in the panel because it subtracts them from them (Only 3 appear and they are for my use or my hired admin's use.).


Nice work and I hope you'll just keep improving it from time to time.

(If you want to give us ideas for improving DragonSnot or Birdland, we're all ears!)

Hehe I really can't think of anything... I have played both from time to time but I just can't think of anything more you could put in there... They are very professional and great already :P

Thanks for the suggestions!
In response to Kunark
Heh, talking about the HUB and its appearence, the number of Fan-Games and Rip-Off fan games is atrocios, but some fan games are fun, and i agree totaly with Kunark, Unpublished should be dumped, and more miscelanios channles added, i find that the over use of DBZ actualy takes away other games players, they gte caught up in one game, than g2 a rip of that game cause it has 1 more race, or one more power, and over and over. Some Fangames are great, others are just cheesy people trying to get a name for themselves. Like my new Star Wars game, when i aks someone if they would like to try it, "No, DBZ, mind-control, must play, ooh! its anther command lets join it!" people should limit the use of other people ideas, but also, we need a more organized system, i left for about a year a while ago becuase DBZ WAS PLASTERED ALL OVER THE PLACE, if it wasnt DBZ game or a DBZ RIP, it was someone with a rip of some classic game. The system deffinitly needs this upgrade.
In response to Kunark
Kunark wrote:
- Your game would make another jump in professionalism by using regular fonts, as you can get with DmiFonts.

I actually was wanting to do this, but I'm not the best at making fonts so I just used shadowdarke's fonts. The fonts for the buttons however are supposed to look kind of old western, and are original.

The great thing about DmiFonts is that you get to use real fonts...just find some Western-looking professional font on your system (or get one) and you get to use it. No need to make any more fonts!
In response to Deadron
Well, I updated it again and made the fonts better looking, after looking at Arial and copying it... DMIFont's font is too small :P

Also with no trouble at all, I transfered the Drugwars name generator with the usual ~100 names and a few names that have to do with Poker.

I think you'll like "Jim Twoflush" :P
In response to Kunark
Kunark wrote:
- When I started there was a phantom "Admin" statpanel that later disappeared.
I noticed this too... But I have no idea whatsoever what is causing it, I mean they don't have any verbs in the panel because it subtracts them from them (Only 3 appear and they are for my use or my hired admin's use.).

Sounds like a small BYOND bug. Perhaps you could add the verbs when they're needed, rather than subtracting the verbs when they're not needed? That way the statpanel never has a chance to show up (hopefully).
In response to Kunark
Kunark wrote:
Well, I updated it again and made the fonts better looking, after looking at Arial and copying it... DMIFont's font is too small :P

The good news is that you can do any font and any font size you want with DmiFonts: There is a java app inside the directory you can run to output whatever fonts you have available on your machine. I typically do a bold 10 point Arial myself.

Lummox really outdid himself on that one.

Anyway, it's great to see you keep working to improve the game!
I don't know if I'd call the bounty of fangames, or the lack of large games, a problem of BYOND, but more big games would certainly be a help in drawing people, I think.

Every month or so, somebody should ask me, "How's Cerulea coming?

Z
In response to Zilal
Zilal wrote:
I don't know if I'd call the bounty of fangames, or the lack of large games, a problem of BYOND, but more big games would certainly be a help in drawing people, I think.

Every month or so, somebody should ask me, "How's Cerulea coming?

Some bigger games are in the works that are encouraging. Silk has one coming out soon which I'm sure will be a smash; Kunark has a team working on one, etc.

My biggest hope for the future of BYOND is people like Silk, Kunark, Crispy: people who come in with energy and just plain make games.

That's the way to do it!
In response to Deadron
Well, if i can get some work done on OpenRPG, that will really draw in a crowd.
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