Is the foundry officially dead?

[Thorthoth]

Ye... I believe the community itself is what killed the foundry.

When people lose interest, it gets pretty dry. I don't see how you can blame admin for this. Do you want them to spend time making big, time consuming changes just to see that the community still doesn't give a...

If all of a sudden 100 people start posting in the foundry like crazy, for sure the admin would see that and want to be more involved...

Change starts with YOU my friend.

Yeah, I tend to agree. Not only that but even when it was active it could have been better but the "regulars" used to jump on / lynch anyone with outside opinions. I used to come to try providing feedback and eventually got the feeling I was wasting my time and wasn't welcome to the group so I stopped trying. Then the "in crowd" left and you got desert town

You do bring up an interesting point. I too found the Foundry people to be there own standoffish separate entity.... None of those names you see on the old maps seem to have stuck around. Perhaps they primarily considered themselves game designers and were less interested in playing and staying with CC than in making maps to add to their resumé.

[degaston]

...he tried implementing the map maker thing as well to try to drive activity to very little community response

What was the mapmaker thing?

viewtopic.php?f=127&t=221233

Was there any public notice of the MapStarter given anywhere except the foundry forum? (I tried to find out for myself, but it appears that the forum search is mostly broken - another sign of the site's overall decline?) There has not much of a foundry community for quite a while, so why should anyone be surprised that there was very little response to that?

[Dukasaur]

...he tried implementing the map maker thing as well to try to drive activity to very little community response

What was the mapmaker thing?

viewtopic.php?f=127&t=221233

Was there any public notice of the MapStarter given anywhere except the foundry forum? (I tried to find out for myself, but it appears that the forum search is mostly broken - another sign of the site's overall decline?) There has not much of a foundry community for quite a while, so why should anyone be surprised that there was very little response to that?

Yeah, it was headlined not once, but twice.

[degaston]

Ye... I believe the community itself is what killed the foundry.

When people lose interest, it gets pretty dry. I don't see how you can blame admin for this. Do you want them to spend time making big, time consuming changes just to see that the community still doesn't give a...

No, I'd rather see them make small, incremental changes that don't take much time, and announce them (and other foundry news) to the general population.

I disagree with those who think the community killed the foundry. Back when there was activity here, there were fairly regular updates to the mapmaking capabilities and/or play modes. The latest ones that I'm aware of - Transformations and Scenarios were poorly conceived and implemented, and didn't seem to generate much interest. There are many more basic capabilities that should have been implemented first, but these ideas have been ignored.

One example is Conditional Bombardments*. It should have been a trivial addition to the XML. In the suggestions thread about it, it was said to have been submitted for implementation almost 4 years ago. Where the hell is it? You can't blame the community for leaving when their requests have been ignored by the site for so long. People get tired of using the same tools over and over. Mapmakers asked for some minor upgrades, but instead got some overly complicated pet projects that didn't help anyone create any more maps.

Another issue is that many people say the site has too many maps already. I don't think it has too many maps any more than Amazon has too many products. The problem is the crappy map browser. There is no way to sort or filter the maps to find new ones that appeal to you, or an evaluation system so people can say what they do and don't like about a map. Your only choice is to page through all 253. If you had to do that to find something you wanted on Amazon, no one would go there either. This is also something that the community can do nothing about. Yes, I realize that this is a much bigger project, but where is the incentive for someone to make a new map, when it will only be thrown onto the pile with everything else, with no easy way for players to find it.

The real change has to start at the top. When the site shows that it wants more maps with something more than just lip service, maybe then the community will respond - or maybe it's already too late.

* Actually, the first thing that should be implemented is an XML versioning system to avoid breaking old maps when new features are added.

[riskllama]

Ye... I believe the community itself is what killed the foundry.

When people lose interest, it gets pretty dry. I don't see how you can blame admin for this. Do you want them to spend time making big, time consuming changes just to see that the community still doesn't give a...

No, I'd rather see them make small, incremental changes that don't take much time, and announce them (and other foundry news) to the general population.

I disagree with those who think the community killed the foundry. Back when there was activity here, there were fairly regular updates to the mapmaking capabilities and/or play modes. The latest ones that I'm aware of - Transformations and Scenarios were poorly conceived and implemented, and didn't seem to generate much interest. There are many more basic capabilities that should have been implemented first, but these ideas have been ignored.

One example is Conditional Bombardments*. It should have been a trivial addition to the XML. In the suggestions thread about it, it was said to have been submitted for implementation almost 4 years ago. Where the hell is it? You can't blame the community for leaving when their requests have been ignored by the site for so long. People get tired of using the same tools over and over. Mapmakers asked for some minor upgrades, but instead got some overly complicated pet projects that didn't help anyone create any more maps.

Another issue is that many people say the site has too many maps already. I don't think it has too many maps any more than Amazon has too many products. The problem is the crappy map browser. There is no way to sort or filter the maps to find new ones that appeal to you, or an evaluation system so people can say what they do and don't like about a map. Your only choice is to page through all 253. If you had to do that to find something you wanted on Amazon, no one would go there either. This is also something that the community can do nothing about. Yes, I realize that this is a much bigger project, but where is the incentive for someone to make a new map, when it will only be thrown onto the pile with everything else, with no easy way for players to find it.

The real change has to start at the top. When the site shows that it wants more maps with something more than just lip service, maybe then the community will respond - or maybe it's already too late.

* Actually, the first thing that should be implemented is an XML versioning system to avoid breaking old maps when new features are added.

yes. i have found many of BW's priorities to be "interesting" choices...

[degaston]

Transformations and Scenarios were poorly conceived and implemented, and didn't seem to generate much interest.

Meant to say Transformations and Dynamic Maps, since I was talking about mapmaking.

[thenobodies80]

It's been awhile, but i see the some things never change here. And it's so sad.

The foundry, the real one has died when I arrived here, I say it was the people.
The foundry, the one I lived with a great group and that i tried to run with all my forces and my time has died when Lack left.

What i found after that... was only people talking about something they didn't know and admin not listeining to the ones who have put in this place hours, hard work and tons of love.

Ian you're a hero....I have no idea how you can do this nowday.

But maybe I'm wrong.

[DoomYoshi]

Anyone COULD do it. This hypothetical 'anyone' could get answers to any coding questions with online searches.... but it is a lot of work. One has to really enjoy the process, not just the end result.
Of course the interminable committee process probably kills some of the enjoyment. Only the dullest maps are completely 'balanced'. The drop of a game will always matter. So just put out Beta map sooner and let everybody be beta testers. In fact, every time a player finishes a beta game they should be given the option to easily fill out a short survey and comment section. Heck, may we should do that for all maps.

Starting neutrals in every bonus so that nobody can drop a bonus did really ruin maps. So many maps are unplayable because of that.

I'm going to name and shame every map from Orient Express through Baltic States exclusive. Starting neutrals should only be used in maps that also have special gameplay. That means its been 7 years since we had a good standard map (unless someone can think of one that I've missed, most of the old photobucket images in the foundry don't work and the Maps page still doesn't show starting neutrals).

[HitRed]

I would like to continue with development of Pi-School and Elements. If the Foundry is on sabbatical/vacation it would be nice to know.

Thanks for any updates,

HitRed

viewtopic.php?f=10&t=223466

viewtopic.php?f=63&t=225933&view=unread#unread

[IcePack]

Ian is still around