[Secrets] Developer Blog #1 - Secrets of the Future
Hi everyone,
Nice to meet you all. I'm Secrets. I've been the primary developer for other big-name GunZ servers in the past. You may have heard of my work before, and this server even uses my work in the form of the Capture the Flag mode!
First, a bit of my history:
I'm 22, a programmer, and one of the most relaxed people around.
I don't do much graphical design but instead I work on developing code for the other groups of people to work with and create art with. This means that while I lack graphically, all of the things I do will be mostly behind-the-scenes and systems related.
I believe in integrity and a commitment to a project first and foremost - everyone involved in my project needs to be as passionate as I am about creating the ultimate experience for my full potential to be realized.
Moving on...
So that's cool and all, what short term changes should I expect from you?
Short term changes? Well, the fun part about working on a new project means that I have to learn what everyone likes all over again.
Unfortunately, as much as I would like to make this easier on myself and pretend to know what you all want, I can't speak for the community.
However, I can present options much like the other developers and we can come to a conclusive solution with the entire community on what should be added!
But that didn't answer your question, did it? Well, that was leading up to this:
First, I've had a bunch of code that I have been working on quietly in my spare time. To start with my initiation to the community and what they should expect from someone new, they need to see what I can do for them and go from there.
So I present to you, the first thing I will be adding if the community wants it. It's a common favorite, and something I spent many hours (read: 3 hours) perfecting.
Late Join Quest
What is this?
It's an addition to Quest so you can join late to the quest room! Commonly known as 'intrusion' by MAIET, it allows you to join a room in progress. It's pretty cool, but one of the major problems that GunZ server have faced in the past is that they cannot join a quest room in progress even as a GM.
No more will that be an issue!
Magically, with the coding I have done, you will be able to set quest modes to be intruded on and they will route the proper information of all the NPCs in the room for that round to the joining player, as well as the round progress. Pretty cool, right?
How will it work mechanically?
Think of it like this: You're joining a TDM in progress. You have to wait until the next round to spawn. The same rules from TDM apply to quest rounds in this scenario; you can spectate the NPCs and the player fighting them until the next round.
The only difference between this and TDM spectator, is that you won't get quest experience unless you have spawned at the beginning of the round.
Sounds great! Or maybe it doesn't, you decide.
Do you think this idea is a good idea? Would you like to see it implemented in FGunZ? Post in this thread to voice your opinion.
Ok, that one feature sounds good. Anything else you are working on?
Certainly. A programmer's job is not just making mechanical changes, new gametypes, or something along the lines of something visible. I have gone through the source code and added a few memory leak fixes which will reduce the memory footprint of the application by 2+MB. While small, all these changes go very far when compared to the bigger picture of things. Your client's performance is important to us.
I also have some tools in the pipeline to make artists' jobs a bit more fun. More on that in a future blogpost.
I'd love to hear your opinions and reactions from reading this blog post. Post in this thread to voice your opinion.
I am glad to be here and hope we can build a great future together.
Until next time,
-Secrets
