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Thread: Is there anything happening?

  1. #1
    Join Date
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    Default Is there anything happening?

    Probably this is not going to be a most popular thread, but I feel that someone has to start this.

    Crowdfunding campaign for Adom 1.2.0 was successfully completed over a year ago. Correct me if I'm wrong, but since beginning of this year/end of last one we haven't seen any real progress, and I'm not talking about fancy tiles and music for Adom. Don't get me wrong, tiles and music are great, but those are not core game features. Those are not the reasons why people love roguelike games, and why people love Adom.

    I love Adom, I've spend countless hours playing it. I used to be big fan of TB since late 90's and whenever I could, I supported him (see discussion in thread about Adom source code), but starting crowdfunding campaign not for brand new game - but just for update of currently existing game, and then not really doing anything for over 9 months after initial work it feels wrong. Just wrong. Not to mention that Adom II (aka JADE) has become dead again, despite of TB early statement that "Adom development will have little impact on Adom II" (or something like that).

    Sorry TB, but you just lost one core fan.

    Ps. Forgive me my poor english, it's not my native language.

  2. #2
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    You suck. 10 characters.

  3. #3
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    To be honest, yes I think the silence is getting awkward. That's the problem with crowdfunding.. the money is probably not enough for TB to stop working for half a year (or whatever time is needed), but it's more than enough to make fans disappointed if they don't see enough commitment.
    You steal a scroll labelled HITME. The orc hits you.

  4. #4
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    Haven't played the close releases, but just from reading about the developement, it's obvious that alot of work has been done on bug fixes and ballancing. In addition the implementation of sound and graphics is very likely alot of work, too... no matter if you think it's important or not and let's not forget about the new classes and races. I also read about quite some work that was done for the pen and paper game. I think, for a year of work next to their ordinary jobs, that's actually quite alot. So at least I don't share your disappointment at all.
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  5. #5
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    Yes I read about bug fixes, about sound and graphics, about pen and paper game. I was talking about Adom and it's core features, about gameplay. Sound and graphics are handled by Krzysztof Dycha and Oneiros Dieguez (and besides, no one ever played/liked/loved Adom for its graphics, right?), and pen and paper game is not related in any way with Adom 1.2.0 (it wasn't even target of crowdfunding campaign). Bugfixes are very nice, but again - this isn't really adding any content into game. Adom did not really got any new content since beginning of this year/end of last one. It seems (judging by Adom blog and facebook page) only thing that is actively worked on, are sound and graphics.

    It's not even about my money, I don't regret donating into crowdfunding campaign, as I think TB deserve to be rewarded for his work on Adom back from 1994, it's about his attitude - putting promises, some initial work and then long time of silence. Again and again.

    I don't want to sound mean and I don't want to insult anyone (especially Thomas) - I just wanted to state my opinion and my dissapointment.

  6. #6
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    For me it just doesn't matter very much how long it all takes. The current public version is already one of my alltime fave games, so I am in no hurry. For the further development I think that Thomas and the others should take as much time as they need, so we get the best possible results, whenever they are ready. To me it's a great feeling to know that they are working on it. Halve a year of silence followed by a great result is alot better than some quick shot every couple weeks... that's how most of the big companies do it these days and I don't like it at all.
    My band: http://messerschmitt-speed.com
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  7. #7
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    Quote Originally Posted by Universal View Post
    I love Adom, I've spend countless hours playing it. I used to be big fan of TB since late 90's and whenever I could, I supported him (see discussion in thread about Adom source code), but starting crowdfunding campaign not for brand new game - but just for update of currently existing game, and then not really doing anything for over 9 months after initial work it feels wrong. Just wrong.
    Quote Originally Posted by Thomas Biskup
    On a personal note the family-related health problems that distracted me during past couple of months hopefully get less distracting so that I hopefully finally will finish the initial version of the ADOM Lite RPG by the end of the month (including layout and stuff, just four months late :-P ) and will get it shipped before Christmas. At least I hope so. Even more important is that finishing it by the end of August finally will mean that I can focus once more on programming work for ADOM - something I very much look forward to.
    http://www.ancientdomainsofmystery.c...able.html#more

    Still, silence of the past couple of months and lack of anything game-related start to look omnious. Latest prereleases are stable and different enough from 1.1.1, but where is Creator?... Perhaps you could tweet him with link on this topic and ask him to answer or post updates.

  8. #8
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    Just to give a statement from my point of view:

    There is quite a bit happening but it's game-wise right now really happening mostly in the province of graphics, sound and minor bug fixes and adjustments. Jochen, Zeno, Krys and Oneirons have put an amazing amount of energy into that area and I am totally happy and in love with the results. If you would like to see more work in another area that's perfectly valid but we had to have some project plan and like any project that is very complex things can get a bit unorderly once unexpected complications arise.

    From my side there have been two unexpected complications:
    1. It takes me an eternity longer to write the god-damn ADOM Lite RPG compared to what I expected. And by now it has reached a state where it is draining my will to live, honestly. It must be done by October as otherwise I am going to run into tax-related funding issues and thus it must ship this year. But it has taken a lot more months than I ever expected. In retrospective it would have been much better to not collect the money for the RPG and waste time and energy writing it. Now that I have promised to do it I want it to be good enough - so there's one big issue. To finally get it finished I really decided to focus on nothing but writing it. So until it is finished I'm not going to write a single line of code for ADOM to not get distracted even more. Lesson #1: Never again would I promise rewards that are not directly related to the goal of a campaign.
    2. The second point is a personal issue. The first eight months of this year my mother has been having extremely serious health issues. She's 84 so that's not unexpected. But it has forced us to surrender her home (the old ADOM postcard address), move her to a are facility and get thousands of related things organized. This level has been totally unexpected even in January and from then on things declined dramatically. Putting extreme mental, emtional and time pressure on me. I am really blessed with my collaborators who have been moving many things forward in the most excellent manner even when I was not available.


    All this doesn't help to fulfill your wishes immediately but you can feel assured that ADOM is the only not-job-related priority I have these days and I'm doing everything to not get distracted. ADOM II is one victim of this. Yes, I would have liked things to be different, but (1) and (2) above were unplanned or unexpected.

    I just can ensure that once that god-damn ADOM Lite RPG finally is out of my way (and progress is finally becoming much better - end of October is yet another new date when I expect it to be finished) things will pick up again. Together with many other things which just need to get shipped (postcards, posters, etc.) as I want to do everything in one big batch.

    And yes, I probably should communicate better. You are absolutely right. Sorry for that.
    Thomas Biskup
    ADOM & Ultimate ADOM Maintainer
    https://www.adom.de - https://www.ultimate-adom.com

  9. #9
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    Quote Originally Posted by adom-admin View Post
    the god-damn ADOM Lite RPG
    Hah, oh dear, sounds like you are developing an unhealthy relationship with the RPG! It may be worth opening the process up a bit to see if the community can offer help. Sometimes fresh input can revitalise a difficult project. But if you say it must be done by the end of this month then that does rather restrict you...

    Sorry to hear about your mother's health problems. It's not easy finding a good care home and arranging the move, and that is understandably very draining.

    But it's good to know others are still chipping away in the background. Maybe some of them could provide updates now and then? Would be cool to see a blog post written by the others giving their view of the process, the challenges they face, what they're working on, etc.
    Platinum Edition ADOMer
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  10. #10
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    Jul 2012
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    Quote Originally Posted by adom-admin View Post
    [*]It takes me an eternity longer to write the god-damn ADOM Lite RPG compared to what I expected. And by now it has reached a state where it is draining my will to live, honestly.
    sorry but this kind of makes me laugh. Sounds like you are almost at the end though so godspeed.

    tbh the progress so far has more than acceptable. this time last year we were still using 1.1.1 that had barely been touched for years. Now we have new classes, new graphics, new items, new music and new races. Oh and about 5000 bugs are fixed.

    Sounds like by the end of the year we'll see some more "core" development which sounds fine to me. Seems once it gets going alot of stuff can happen quickly too.

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