The same player on official and experimantal server?

[tak]

Originally Posted by niclam

Well,

Having another server off limits was on our minds but due to budget constraints and that sometimes we really need the users help in testing new stuff, we decided against it.

Also, please keep in mind that the game will continue to be free even after gold (but will have premium content as well) and the Linux version will continue to exist.

And whenever we are on features at the time of launch (we might be missing a thing or two), it will be the beginning, not the end...

Regards

The features you mention lead me to a thing that crossed my mind quite a few times and that could give Regnum another edge over the competition. You have attracted me (and a lot of others, there is a huge thread about it on the forums as well) to Regnum at first because of the native linux client. The linux community is known for the spirit of working together on projects and lending time and energy to become a part of them.
You should IMO use the people you have attracted to help with features of the game, be it with translation (there is a thread about this here, too) or for
example with modeling contests, something where you say: Use these tools, these are the design parameters, create monsters/effects/good looking textures/whatever, there are loads of tasks that could be given to people that would lend the developers time to focus on the basic game engine stuff. I for one would be delighted to have a part in the game,
lend my time and energy for a cause like this.
I do of course not know the legal ramifications, but would not have a problem with restrictive licensing if necessary, or giving up copyright of designed stuff to ngd. I think others would not mind, either. Use the community, Luke

[niclam]

It's an interesting point what you just said tak.
We have thought a couple of times about having a volunteers programme, that would allow people from outside NGD to participate into the game's development.

The main problems were also what you mentioned: legal issues and copyrights. If we are going to do this, there is no way we can pay the people back, so the licensing would be restrictive as it usually is on this kind of matters.
And last but not least, we need to have somebody on the team as the lead volunteer manager, that can organize and communicate with everyone to check for progress. There are a lot of procedures involved into the content pipeline that makes it difficult to add new stuff without having to worry about things like consistency, testing & QA, balance, etc.

Anyway, Im sure there are plenty of people willing to participate and we will surely have them on the credits so they can show off that on their CV's.
So, maybe after launch where we can hire more personnel, we could approach this.

Regards

[tak]

Originally Posted by niclam

It's an interesting point what you just said tak.
We have thought a couple of times about having a volunteers programme, that would allow people from outside NGD to participate into the game's development.

The main problems were also what you mentioned: legal issues and copyrights. If we are going to do this, there is no way we can pay the people back, so the licensing would be restrictive as it usually is on this kind of matters.

Yes, it is too bad that legal issues make it hard to implement such exciting possibilities. I hope you will find the money to have a lawyer set up a legal waiver that makes it clear that by participating in development you agree to waive your owner rights, agree to not use content that belongs to other people etc etc. The payment is rather unproblematic IMO, for example for me it would be enough to see "my" monster or to be able to say " i designed this" (maybe a bit of Ximerin would be nice of course ) others might naturally agree or disagree.

Originally Posted by niclam

And last but not least, we need to have somebody on the team as the lead volunteer manager, that can organize and communicate with everyone to check for progress. There are a lot of procedures involved into the content pipeline that makes it difficult to add new stuff without having to worry about things like consistency, testing & QA, balance, etc.

Yes, the additional strain of sifting through (hopefully) lots of user generated content, most of it unusable, and commiting it to the regular process without having someone close by to ask about the details would have an impact on workload. I think it would be worth it overall, though.

Originally Posted by niclam

Anyway, Im sure there are plenty of people willing to participate and we will surely have them on the credits so they can show off that on their CV's.
So, maybe after launch where we can hire more personnel, we could approach this.

It would really really be great to be able to do that. Having the perspective to be able to do that, at least after launch is something that makes me happy.
I hope you find the man-time, money and consensus of your team to do it, the sooner the better of course. I put my money where my mouth is and tell you that you only need to contact me, i would be excited to have the possibility to participate in your project. I know others who are qualified who feel the same way.