Resumption of Hostilities

[caravel]

Hello to all, it's been a while since there has been any news on this front. I expect that most of you consider the PoM to be dead and gone. I won't say I haven't thought about giving up on it a few times but I can tell you with 100% certainty that the project is still on and will be resumed soon.

The part of the project I have been thinking most about lately is not the work on the mod itself but the organisation of our efforts here. The main problem at the moment is that their is no real focus, no plan of action and many people working at cross purposes. This is why I feel that this needs to work in set stages if it is to resume and indeed bear any fruit. Previously it had been proceeding in a rather haphazard fashion with myself adding in scattered bits and pieces instead of focusing on one area.

A clear policy also needs to be set, that which we will not cover/represent and that which we will. Everything has a line which needs to be drawn. With regard to historical accuracy, we can improve it but it should not be the main focus of this mod, gameplay should always come first and foremost. 100% or near historical accuracy is going to be impossible but an atmosphere of some historicity is always a good thing.

With this in mind I feel that we can go on, but that it will need to be much more regulated. For example there needs to be one or more input threads for ideas and the discussion of these ideas. These ideas should then be either finalised or scrapped altogether. All other threads should be "action" threads for posting up information, code or bugs etc.

I say all of this because this kind of organisation and streamlining will make the mod an actual feasible project that I may actually find the time to work on and indeed finish.

I am open as ever to any ideas, suggestions, input on this. I am also more than happy to make this a true team effort and put a team together with members handling certain aspects exclusively.

Regards

Caravel

[Noir]

He he..

"Men! The battle is inevitable!... Now, grasp the sword, take up the shield, sharpen the spear and look to the enemy!"

YourLordandConqueror is making his Dark Age mod ATM i think, i was very busy for the last two months and was also barely posting and playing. This state of affairs will persevere for sometime more although i get more free time in my hands now.

And not to waste time with the first... hostility..

..there is definitely a certain liberty in the way activities are taken up and progress - nonetheless i think its up to you to lead the way.

What i mean is, you could pick a subject/work matter up, say new provinces on the map (or on a theater of the map) and stick to it or part of it till it is (even minimally) ready for inclusion and playing and feedback.

Say for instance that your Middle East, Anatolia and Spain was included in the mod (that was the last thing as far as i remember) since the last two months. Results would have taken care of themselves as you were taking your brake and upon return you would probably have had feedback relative to this.

Just an observation - i am perfectly aware that its an exhilarating task that takes one's best and becomes too much, even for a hobby

Many Thanks

Noir

[The Unknown Guy]

Right now I dont have a steady net connection, so most of my posts concern unilateral experiments and tweaking over and over. I expect this to change in three weeks or so, through.

[Martok]

Hey Caravel, good to see you back in action.

My computer woes are still ongoing (I'm trying to get the motherboard fixed/replaced now). While I'm fairly optimistic that it shouldn't be too much longer before I'm back up and running, by now I know better than to give a specific date as to when I think that'll happen -- it'll "be done when it's done", etc. I'm of course still more than happy to contribute what I in the forum here, but I'm unable to actually playtest the mod for the time being.

[caravel]

Hey Caravel, good to see you back in action.

My computer woes are still ongoing (I'm trying to get the motherboard fixed/replaced now). While I'm fairly optimistic that it shouldn't be too much longer before I'm back up and running, by now I know better than to give a specific date as to when I think that'll happen -- it'll "be done when it's done", etc. I'm of course still more than happy to contribute what I in the forum here, but I'm unable to actually playtest the mod for the time being.

Quite the epic tale of one computer's struggle against overwhelming odds, etc...

How long is it now? Six months?

[ULC]

Nice to see you again Caravel, for a while I thought we had dropped off the face of the earth (very bad... ). I may be working on DATW, but that doesn't mean I can't spare time for the Pocket Mod. Speaking of which, if any one of you wants to send some help my way, that would be most appreciated!

I may lose contact for a while though, as me and the phone company struggle over payment issues ( ). I really need to be a little more timely next time .

[caravel]

Good to see you all still around.

YLC, I would prefer that you weren't sidetracked from your own project by the resumption of the PoM. Feel free to borrow/utilise any ideas you pick up here as well as contributing your own. I wouldn't like the PoM to be the cause of your own mod foundering (like so many others).

I'm going to be doing some organising over the next few days with a view to setting out a plan of action, to avoid leaving any of you too much in the dark over this, the map looks likely to be the first stage for now. The map has been started and does need to be finished before we can proceed. As you have seen I have done a lot of work in the near eastern, north African and Anatolian regions. The next stage will be to work on similar areas in other parts of the map. Without historical map sources in order to add further province or redraw existing ones, this won't be possible. I am also open to map changes for game-play reasons as long as there is some historical basis of course. All of this needs to remained focused until completion. Going off on a tangent adding factions, units or features will result in having ten half finished tasks instead of at least one finished one. I will continue the map discussion at the map thread.

Those of you working on unit balancing that wish to contribute your work to this mod will need to post up actual code so that others can try it out. Simply posting something like "I increased their defence to 2 and decreased their attack by 1" doesn't really help any of us. The unit balancing will need it's own thread and should come much later, once the foundation of the whole thing has been lain. Unit balancing should be off the agenda for now, as we simply cannot hope to deal with all of this at one. Imagine we are building a house. I am busy digging a foundation while someone else has started work on the roof, and another person is arranging some flowers in the front room. Result? Double work, a huge mess, waste of time and resources and ultimately a disaster.

Also those of you playing an overly diverse and much evolved version of the PoM v1.6 need to be aware that you are not playing anything like what will be PoM v1.7 and very dissimilar to the v1.6 that others may still be playing. If this is to be a success we need to all work in unison. I have no problem with distributing testing versions to those of us involved, in order that we should all be working on the same thing, on the condition that they are not further redistributed. I will work on getting a pre release version (v1.6c) out to interested parties in the next week or so. If you need it drop me a PM ASAP to be added to the list.

Regards

Caravel

[Martok]

Sounds like a plan, Caravel. I admit that we seemed to have strayed off the main path a bit, despite the best of intentions -- and I'm as guilty of digressing as anyone. Much better to focus on completing one task at a time, before moving on to other aspects of the mod work.

[caravel]

This evening has been map evening. I have resumed work on it, having overcome my latest hardware problems and providing nothing else goes wrong with my PC then work will continue. Iberia is now about three quarters done and Greece is done apart from a few tweaks to castle and port positions that need doing.

Greece I'm still undecided upon as I've turned most of it into Thessaly, the western strip into Epirus, the southern point into Achea and also added Athens, corresponding to the Duchy. This still leaves Thessaly perhaps as too large a province, though it's still not as large a province as Greece was, of course.

Iberia is still a closed project, I'll reveal some more about that later. It has a different province layout and two new provinces.

[naut]

Excellent news.

[caravel]

Rythmic, long time no see. Whatever happened to BDTW?

[naut]

It got put on hold due to final exams and the frustratingly constant bugs.

[caravel]

Any bugs I can help with?