In the dark

[Callidus]

Don’t you think?

It's been a while now since any sort of update, now i know the MTA teams policy with people asking for updates, it seems it's a 'when we feel its ready' type of attitude or a surprise for when it comes. Now I’m all for that, its good when you get an update and it's all a big surprise for when the day comes but like most mods for games, they tell you the problems that arouse or the current 'thing' they are working on.

Point of my post?

I would just like a little bit of confirmation on what you guys are doing, It's been a while since we have heard anything. I know you guys are working, and this post will not speed anything up in the slightest but this is simply a request. I don't see no harm in telling the public what your currently working on (even if we don't understand half of it) it's interesting too now what you guys are doing. No need to spoil any surprises you might not want us to know. But can you please keep the community a bit more updated?

Even if it is the slightest of updates. It helps a bit with moral.

Cheers

[Si|ent]

You seem to have missed the news post a few days ago that revealed a lot of previously unknown information, and the later forum posts and replies by us in regards to it that revealed and expanded a little more.

[TechniK.EXE]

It takes like 10 seconds to press PrintScreen and paste it into Paint. Why can't you just do that?

[Callidus]

You seem to have missed the news post a few days ago that revealed a lot of previously unknown information, and the later forum posts and replies by us in regards to it that revealed and expanded a little more.

I may have done so, And I’m sure I’m not the only one. Could you guys not use the front page for updates every few weeks? Not asking for some in depth article, just a bit of brief progress Info.

Cheers

Edited June 7, 2005 by Guest

[s0beit]

You seem to have missed the news post a few days ago that revealed a lot of previously unknown information, and the later forum posts and replies by us in regards to it that revealed and expanded a little more.

bump, it was little to no information.

saw a dodo flying and some debug commands that wont be in the final release.

[Mike]

I think he's referring to the MTA:SA info posted, although I can't see much new information on there. Just confirming MTA for San Andreas and going over info from Blue.

[Si|ent]

TechniK.EXE, do you have the right thread?

I guess you missed the posts too sobeat

Some fairly major reveals are on the site mike, perhaps you caught some hints of them on irc and had hoped for or expected them, or perhaps you paid scant attention or didnt view the page at all, I certainly don't pay any attention to other modifications sites so that would make sense but for the majority it is fresh information.

[TechniK.EXE]

I never come on the forums, I just check the mtablue.info and the mtavc.com page every week.

[DominionSpy]

Some fairly major reveals are on the site mike, perhaps you caught some hints of them on irc and had hoped for or expected them, or perhaps you paid scant attention or didnt view the page at all, I certainly don't pay any attention to other modifications sites so that would make sense but for the majority it is fresh information.

Okay, lets go through the information:

We will be developing Multi Theft Auto for San Andreas.

All releases for San Andreas will be built upon the "Blue" platform.

Will MTA:Blue also be applied for GTA SA when it comes out?

we intend to

It was pretty much a given that you would try to do an MTA:SA and that it would be built on Blue.

Initially, we will be releasing a game mode with very basic synchronization enabled and will continue by releasing small but frequent updates. This will enable users to have more input into our development and will allow us to experiment with ideas and implement new features much more quickly.

The SDK will not be available immediately upon the release of MTA:SA. We will release it as soon as it is stable and contains a broad and diverse enough functionality to support most modifications

This may be new information, but it's not saying much. What is "basic sychronisation"? What do you call "small" or "fequent"? It's just another way of saying "we will be working on it".

All Official MTA:SA game modes will be developed with the same technology that will eventually be released to the community in the form of the SDK.

We will be opening a developer’s site as we approach release of the SDK, providing a central area where developers can discuss modifications and exchange code. We will be paying close attention to any additional features third-party developers may require and will do as much as we can to implement them.

We'll be working with some addon developers to work out how we can streamline the process of creating a modification for blue.

With the blue addons you should be able to do pretty much whatever you want, within reason. If you can't do it, we'll do our best to implement it after we release.

Once again, not really new information. The fact that there will be a separate site instead of just a separate section of this forum is not really of consequence.

It's great that this information has been clarified and put in one place, but essentially Mike is correct.

[MrJax]

Yeah they are right, although it is freeware, and you put alot of time in, and most people would rather you be working on it even more than giving updates all the time...it wouldn't be a bad thing to make a small update every week or fortnight, it would certainly keep it a bit more active around here, and stop everyone from asking questions and getin shot down with "no asking for release dates" or "bugger off and wait for blue".

[Si|ent]

So initially you want news posts, any news posts about anythign no matter how minor, yet when we make some major announcements they are ripped to pieces and theres complaints that they don't contain enough information.

See the hypocracy?

[Callidus]

Yeah they are right, although it is freeware, and you put alot of time in, and most people would rather you be working on it even more than giving updates all the time...it wouldn't be a bad thing to make a small update every week or fortnight, it would certainly keep it a bit more active around here, and stop everyone from asking questions and getin shot down with "no asking for release dates" or "bugger off and wait for blue".

Exactly, i think half of the 'when is blue getting released?' and asking silly questions is from the lack of updates, we all know you guys are working on this, and i really don't see a problem with small updates every so often, but you have to understand that even from a long time player (myself) this so called 'kept in the dark' is even wearing itself on me now, just leaves a bad impression on MTA.

Keeping the community's moral up by telling them your progress and explaining your tasks will surely pay off. Remember you guys make the game, but it's us that will make your game a success.

[[UVA]BuLLiT]

i dont understand y ppl cant just wait the MTA developers r using their free time 2 make a multi player 4 god sakes, its up 2 them how much updates they done, so keep shtum and if u stop making pointless threads like this maybe they can get on with their work

[Callidus]

So initially you want news posts, any news posts about anythign no matter how minor, yet when we make some major announcements they are ripped to pieces and theres complaints that they don't contain enough information.

See the hypocracy?

Not exactly, basicly an update every fortnight or so, about your current task's and problems.

''yet when we make some major announcements they are ripped to pieces and theres complaints that they don't contain enough information.''

That has only been brought by your team by your current update policy, you see when we wait for 2 months and an update comes out that does not impress the majority, that will create tension. Where as if you keep the community updated more often, i can guarantee you will see less of the complaints.

This isn’t a guessing game, i have been with many mods who have proved this.

[Callidus]

i dont understand y ppl cant just wait the MTA developers r using their free time 2 make a multi player 4 god sakes, its up 2 them how much updates they done, so keep shtum and if u stop making pointless threads like this maybe they can get on with their work

You can't understand? I'll tell you then. I am waiting patiently for the game, I'm not a one to ask for release dates or whatnot. But this is a new point exactly, there has been a lack of updates and as a player I'm only trying to help this game.

Look up 'pointless' in the dictionary next time and tell me if my thread fall's into that category, and while your there check most or your spelling too.

[Si|ent]

To an extent we agree with you. Of course what ever we do there will be a large number of people complaining it isn't correct; not enough news, not enough content in the news, not enough progress, not enough new features, too many new features. Frankly if posting news was as simple a task as posting a reply on the forum then perhaps it would happen more often.

Currently, with the rapid approach of the first MTA built upon the new core there are lots of changes in the works to go with it, the aforementioned mod developers portal, a new site back and front end and policies regarding it, along with some necessary internal reorganisation within the Team itself that is ongoing, and more. 'Empty' news posts have been discussed and rejected by us, bloggs have been discussed, both individual and Team.

Basically the release of the first Next Generation MTA won't only mark a turning point in the client/server, but the entire 'Organisation' of MTA itself.

[orappa]

Currently, with the rapid approach of the first MTA built upon the new core there are lots of changes in the works to go with it, the aforementioned mod developers portal, a new site back and front end and policies regarding it, along with some necessary internal reorganisation within the Team itself that is ongoing, and more. 'Empty' news posts have been discussed and rejected by us, bloggs have been discussed, both individual and Team.

Basically the release of the first Next Generation MTA won't only mark a turning point in the client/server, but the entire 'Organisation' of MTA itself.

Ah, that answers so many questions. Thanks Bump.

[Callidus]

To an extent we agree with you. Of course what ever we do there will be a large number of people complaining it isn't correct; not enough news, not enough content in the news, not enough progress, not enough new features, too many new features. Frankly if posting news was as simple a task as posting a reply on the forum then perhaps it would happen more often.

Currently, with the rapid approach of the first MTA built upon the new core there are lots of changes in the works to go with it, the aforementioned mod developers portal, a new site back and front end and policies regarding it, along with some necessary internal reorganisation within the Team itself that is ongoing, and more. 'Empty' news posts have been discussed and rejected by us, bloggs have been discussed, both individual and Team.

Basically the release of the first Next Generation MTA won't only mark a turning point in the client/server, but the entire 'Organisation' of MTA itself.

Ok cheers Bump.

[[UVA]BuLLiT]

wots rong wit my spelling

[[FMJ]chode]

I think there is one solid piece of information which i think people are dieing to know yet it is just not talked about and is the one key bit missing from every news post. This is the realese date. For all we know it could be realsed from anwhere from next week to 2 years and i think this is what is getting to people. I know you are not gonna give us the exact date, and im sure this is impossible to tell at this current time, but any sort of indication to when this will come out would be great. It could be a "start of august" or " somewhere in the summer" or "near the beggining of winter" even "during 2005" will do me

The current progress bar, which i guess is there to help us work out when it will be out, is quite useless as it is so inconsistent with its progress. I know there are reasons for this but we don't know the reasons and hence cannot work out what it has done to the progress of the mod.

[l2ebel]

even "during 2005" will do me

ok, in 05

[slush]

We can see your concerns, as I'm sure you're all very interested in what we've been doing. Rest assured however that we are working very hard to create the new release. To give you a hint at it's progress, many things have just gone through a final rewrite. Code gets outdated with time. It's a hard tasking keeping that code consistent with future needs. We've finally reached a point with blue where those needs can be met in a very simple fashion.

Many of you ask why we can't do a simple print screen to show you what we've been working on. The reason why we aren't doing this is because 90% of blue is in the backend. The frontend consists of features which you've seen (although they have drastically changed), and surprises that we want to keep for release.

-Derek

[orappa]

I think there is one solid piece of information which i think people are dieing to know yet it is just not talked about and is the one key bit missing from every news post. This is the realese date. For all we know it could be realsed from anwhere from next week to 2 years and i think this is what is getting to people. I know you are not gonna give us the exact date, and im sure this is impossible to tell at this current time, but any sort of indication to when this will come out would be great. It could be a "start of august" or " somewhere in the summer" or "near the beggining of winter" even "during 2005" will do me

Bump did use the term "rapid approach" which would imply a release sooner rather than later.

[DominionSpy]

So initially you want news posts, any news posts about anythign no matter how minor, yet when we make some major announcements they are ripped to pieces and theres complaints that they don't contain enough information.

See the hypocracy?

Don't get me wrong - I think it's very good that you've officially released this information, I was just backing up Mike's comment which you contested.

How many updates have been made about the "future MTAs built upon the Blue core"?

Three

1. The Blue teaser which confirmed its existence and name.

2. A detailed page on the features we could expect from Blue.

3. The announcement of MTA:SA built upon Blue.

Some while ago I created a thread which talked about the communication between the MTA team and the community, which I believe helped to stimulate the approach in 0.5.5. This was great and I hope to see the fruits of this collaboration at some point.

Now the community has asked for any updates no matter how minor, yet I feel that the message is again not getting through. I don't think that the community wants to necessarily be told about new features, but rather updates about progress, such as "Addon interface: we have finished working on functions relating to vehicles" or in the future "SA Game Interface: we're working on the marker and arrow functions", you get what I mean.

Any way, thanks for the update, it was interesting.

[slush]

That is a sort of blogging scenario.

We may actually incorporate blogs into these forums. However, a final decision has not yet been made (as to how it will be done.. if on these forums at all).

You could expect those types of things in blog entries by the individual programmers.

-Derek