How MD Evolves

[Chewett]

 

This makes me wonder how is development done behind the scene. I have to ask are there any written concepts, models, semantic maps, diagrams and so on? How is development organized, documented, performed, cooperated and communicated? It all seems so ad-hoc to me, no models means no ability to simulate tests, leading to live testing or just leaving stuff as they are until something breaks and quality of such outcome is not what it should be.

 

Concepts? Models? Plans? Ha!

 

How is development organised? - It isnt, not until recently.

 

During the early days, Mur had a number of core features he code and such. things like combat, messages and such. Features that were tested by the beta testers before you could register and play normally. This was planned and such.

 

Then before we had additional coders in the game Mur just worked on a general plan and moved forward with it. Sometimes items would be left, sometimes unfinished or broken, but he would work on something else. Little plans were written but Mur kept an idea of what he wanted to do. Over the past years Mur experienced a number of computer related issues and some plans that were made originally have been lost. In addition as Mur is spending less time in MD now, he has to rely on others to remind him of his plans, and has given others reign to create and move MD forward. He is consulted on general concept ideas, and then lets others implement the finer details.

 

Example: AUTUMN2050 has a general plan for how it is going to work however the finer details of where to place items and such have been left up to us. These plans are written down since Mur is working with a couple of us, and we demanded (yes, how rude of us!) that we need written plans of whats going to happen before we could work on it.

 

You need to remember that Mur is, first and foremost, a creative and not a programmer. He finds ways to express what he wants to do programatically and doesn't necessarily follow the normal procedures and design patterns. Much of codebase is archaic and not structured as well as it could be which then makes adding more code trickier.

 

When Rendril was let onto the team he did a lot of work rewriting the combat system so that it was easier to modify, he also wrote a lot of unit tests to ensure that its working correctly. However it was primarily a rebase of how the old code worked, meaning that while it was massively changed for the better it did not function too differently.

 

As I work on sections of the game I spend extra time converting older code to a newer and easier to manage format. Since January much of this has been in the form of database changes and optimisations. Boring stuff for you guys because you dont see a difference since "It looks the same" but massive changes under the hood. The idea is that making the database work better (aka like it should have been designed if it were planned and had not evolved) shouldn't change anything as far as you see.

 

Its not just that Mur is not an experienced programmer for he is very qualified now, Its that the game has evolved over 9+ years and some of the code back from the very start still exists. As an example, only until last year we had two different ways to log yourself out. One of them would work and one wouldnt. Both were used in the code and by pressing a different button it would fail to log you out properly. This is because the two pages were written at different times and the older one was not changed to use the new system and therefore broke.  This is common for older systems but since there was only one person working on it, he could keep in mind how everything worked.

 

This pattern of generally coding what people feel like and whatever you want still exists, but now whenever I and Dude2 work on code we have plans, document things and ensure that code is left in a better state than it originally started in. This does make things slower, but makes it easier to add things next time. Recently a "coder manual" was started by myself and provides some information to Dude2 and Murry to ensure that they know how to do things "right".

 

So, for anything old there are no plans, but anything new will have a lot more structure. We are aware of the issues but any software project has these, and are resolving to put measures in place to improve the situation.

 

Further Questions?

 

[Ary Endleg]

Omg so it really was all bad under the hood. I must add that you struggling to do the work in such development hostile environment is very admiring. I just don't know anybody who would even consider doing anything serious in such project situation.

Edited June 14, 2014 by Ary Endleg

[Muratus del Mur]

As chew said, you need to consider that this project started 9+ years ago, i was just starting to learn coding back then!..and the web technologies and standards changed massively since then too. There is no army of people coding here, its mostly one at a time, and each does it out of passion, no paid job or such.

 

I HAD to follow the concepts i had in mind, more than to care for clean code. I had a vision i wanted to follow, that was my priority, and as long as code worked to achieve it, it was fine for me.

 

AUTUMN2050 is the first major concept change in md, and even if its not seen as such yet (by the people involved in it), I strongly believe it is (will be)....sadly i am unable to do it alone. I lack the moral strength, and i need people to consult with in this..and i like to think i found them here. After A2050 will be in its first functional testing state, you will understand why md will not look the same after, but will keep its values regardless.

 

One thing you miss to see...is that in MD things are built upon, and ancient stuff still keeps a meaning and connects with future stuff, there is very little "total restructuring". Rendril "fixed" somethign that was about to die, the combat system, in such way that it can be extended, chew does that and more with other parts, but overall, here in MD we continue to build and grow , not scrap and rebuild.

 

The entire market is flooded by games that found a very profitable niche (travian style games), MD remains unique...even if "outdated" by the amazing graphics and effects of current games ...my purpose was never in that direction! There is NOTHING in md that will ever go "old" ..same way like BOOKS will never become obsolete in favor of movies..they will always keep their soubtle flavor, even when robots will read them for you :))

 

I was just thining, the background image dates over 11 years ago, and the border of the layout i still have as an actual paper with burnt edges i had to manually do and scan :)))) ..now of course it could be photoshopped easily, but back then, that was the best i could do, and is still fine.

 

 

I work (mostly) as a coder/designer in my daily life, and MD is the only place where i can say i have the satisfaction that everything built gives me the feeling it will last for decades... all other projects have such a limited lifetime compared to md, and this makes me put a lot of care and attention to how these things connect and interact, mostly for future uses.

 

Things i left "unfinished" i did so because my purpose was to let the feature be there present, MAYBE sometime in the future someone will use it. As soon as i put a mechanism in place, a concept, i moved on to other stuff, because creativity is what keeps me moving. There are hidden parts of md that still interconnect with other parts and could be used if needed. My mistake was to forget that nobody else could put them to good use exept me. Then Rendril came, and he focused on cleaning the armature of this "structure"..now Chewett fights to keep the gears of this mechanism running smooth and extend them.

 

But its not enough.

 

Thats why A2050 is so important, it will give players ways of doing this themselves. 

 

One single man, be it me, chew, ren, whoever, can best focus on one thing, not on thousand. Thats why delegation of responsabilities is important, otherwise people crush. Thats why Kings appeared, alliances, ..permanent roles..etc. But even that is not enough. We need a dynamic system that keeps a clear path open to anyone wishing to follow it, and then filter out those that fail, but reward those that don't.

 

The actual "problem" of md now is that society changed, and some BRUTAL filters i put back then, are something the entire world has tainted over the past few years. Patience is no longer a virtue, its look upon as a rarity... and many many more things. A2050 will still keep these filters but will shift them one step further, in such way that md will be more to the likeing of common game playing combies and yet still detect and collect those precious minds that once where attracted by md's filters from the start. 

 

MD is a filter of people, will always be, a place to clash minds and destinies, a training ground for your own mind... but its not for anyone... like martial arts

[Aeoshattr]

I'm going to sound really dumb, but is there a "Change Log" or something like "patch notes" for A25, where we can read more about what will change and how? 

Or will we have to discover ourselves, once A25 is implemented?

[Chewett]

I'm going to sound really dumb, but is there a "Change Log" or something like "patch notes" for A25, where we can read more about what will change and how? 

Or will we have to discover ourselves, once A25 is implemented?

 

No.

 

Its still being discussed, there is a large document for us implementing it but that might change and is top secret at the moment.

[Ackshan Bemunah]

[SIGSEGV]

Edited November 12, 2014 by Ackshan Bemunah