Katarn

I'm going to give this topic a bump for those who didn't get a chance to see this. I've seen it more than 10 times and I still laugh out loud...

The ghost of Mr Chicken was one of my favorite Don Knotts movies. If you haven't seen it I high recommend renting it.

Foshjedi, Quite a nice summary of my adventures. -Katarn

I thought you guys might like it. It's truly one of the funnyest things I've ever seen. Of course only a true gamer can appreciate the humor ;D

Here's a very funny link about gamers. http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=1329362959167995041 I showed this to my gf and she finally understood that I'm not the only gaming freak ;D -Katarn

Guess what? I bought a copy of Silent Hunter III!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Give me about a week to relearn the game and I'll have a few game with you online. I haven't played this serries since Silent Hunter I so I have some catching up to do. See you under the sea -Katarn

Check out the link for a surprise. Merry X-mass -Katarn

Merry Xmass Petroglyph! I'll buy everyone a dinner at Gaylords once you guys ship that baby! -Katarn

I don't think there is anything fundumentaly wrong with "trying to completely rehaul the game experience." It just much more difficult to start off with a complete revamp. While it's true we don't all know all of the limitations and possibilties there are many things that we do know or can be deduced. For example we know that planets have resouces and heroes have special abiltities that can probably be reworked in intresting ways. We also know that there is only one space and land enviroment for each planet. Knowing that... what if we thought it would be cool to created two space and two groud locations for each planet?? Multible fatctions could fight for control of those spaces. If desired we could change the resource allocation for each location. Player would recieved 1/8 of the resources for controling 1 of 4 locations, 1/4 for controling 1/2, 100% of the resources for controling 3/4 of the locations, double the resources and unlock a new hero for controling 4 of 4. We could reconfigure how heroes are unlocked, how powerful they are, how loyal they are,etc.. There are only two factions i nthe game! What if we created one or two new factions? Ok, these are not well thought out ideas but you get the idea. I think right after the game is released we are going to find out that there are exploits that needs fixing. Now either Petroglyph will fix those or someone will mod a rebalance. For the first months I think most people will want to play the core game with maybe some minor tweaks here and there. After that people will want to play the well balanced MP mods. Sometime around the third or fourth month people we be looking for that rehauled SP & MP experence. And maybe your right and it is best to think about those rehauls now due to the complications. It's just hard for ME to get MY head around a complete rehaul when we haven't spent much time thinking about minor rehauls & medium rehauls first. >Isn't the scale what separates the mini-mod from the total conversion (which most NMA ideas are anyways)? That is often true. As long as the assets needed for a total conversion can also be scaled back without leaving large holes in the design. I don't want to appear that I'm discouraging anyone from taking on a huge project if that's their passion. And if asked I'll do my best to give constructive feedback on any proposal. -Katarn

Many of you have submitted your game concepts for consideration and feedback from other NMA members. My difficulty in reviewing these concepts is that people tend to think of the overall concept first and then attempt to work it backwards to fit into the EAW structure. That process (while VERY common) is completely backwards from my way of thinking. The approach I like to take for devising game concepts is to start by considering what the game’s current structure is. What does it allow? What assets are available? How are the rules structured? What are its limitations? etc... This leads you to ask the next round of questions: What changes could easily be made which would enhance the gameplay? Are there basic rules that could be changed in new and interesting ways? Can the game flow, AI, timeline, resources, etc... be rebalanced to improve the structure that already exists? How can you use the existing models, textures, sfx, VO, etc... in new and interesting ways? Here is one basic ideas that would come out of this thought process. Use all of the existing structure, models, AI, etc.... and simply reverse the values for Imperials & Rebels. All of the heroes and units would stay on their respective sides. This mod would be called mirror-mirror. The Rebels are the evil oppressors and the Imperials are the good guys. The Rebels are rich and their ships are cheap to build. The people of the galaxy hate and fear Rebels the and their planets tend to rebel against them. Darth would be on the Imperial side but he'd now use the good force powers instead of his force crush. (Luke would use force crush) Anyway you get the idea. This is just a stupid idea that I had while typing this message after I considered the game's structure and what I could easly do within that structure. My point is I think we should start small by focusing our attention on these types of ideas first before designing the more ambitious ideas that may become very difficult to create and thier fun factor is unknown. We need to build up from smaller and more contained ideas. Once we have the basics mastered we can get a bit more ambitious with the designs. The simple little idea above would be: a) feasible to create and balance. b) would require very few new assets. c) would probably appeal to wide range of players d) it's always fun to take something that people already know and turn it upside down Not every idea has to go through this thought process from the start. But very quickly we'll need to come back down to earth and compare the concept against the feasibilty of implementing the idea into the EAW structure. -Katarn

I can reply to this debate. However, if I reply to this debate I'm going to fight him on all of the issues I disagree with but I'll also concede his valid points. I'll concede some points because for at least half of the issues he's right. (or at least partially correct) Much of the structure you have laid out for NMA is quite good but some of your structure could use some reworking. The warring I'm giving is that this would change some of the plans you had in mind. If you trust me to make the right decisions for NMA then I'll reply. If not then I'll stay quite and still quietly give my assistance on NMA when you guys need me. And of course part of my message would be laying out the mutual benefit and advantage of working together in such a structure. -Katarn

Greetings NMA members and future members, I thought I'd share a small bit of knowledge from a reliable source . One of the core questions that has come up a number of times is "how easy/difficult will it be to Mod EAW? Petroglyph and LEC have already said it will be very easy to mod but what exactly does that mean? The quick answer is that almost anyone will be able to easily mod some portion of the game. And more experienced modders will be able to change significant aspects of the game. The game is heavily data driven which means that for the most part you only need to change text/numerical values in a text based tables. And if LEC follows the pattern they did for Jedi Outcast and Jedi Academy they will allow the developer to release some of their development tools (unsupported of course) which will assist us further. I'm sure we'll hear more from LEC and Petroglyph about this topic in the near future. (hint-hint) Cheers -Katarn

Actually we are in agreement. All of my concerns go away if you... " Release the demo after your game goes gold but before it's in stores. That way you are using the final code and once people download & beat the demo it will be available in stores." This is a good idea becuase once the game is in final submission stage 99% of the team is sitting on their hands waiting to see if QA finds a bug. This is the prime time to work on the demo and at that stage it is polished, stable and most importantly it's fun to play! And the demo can come out a week or two before the game it hits the store shelves. I said a month or two becuase that work well with Jedi Outcast and people that bought the full product could install the demo as if it was a mod level. And we saw a significant increase in sales too!! btw: Three out of four games that you bought because of the demo were produced by me # Jedi Knight, Jedi Knight: Mysteries of the Sith, Shadows of the Empire. And all three had a demo after the game was done but before the game was released. That's really my main point and it looks like you agree with this approach. -Katarn

hehe. Yeah I logged on breifly from work. I didn't have time to post any messages tho. Sorry I don't have IM at work. But I did send you an invitation to join windows messenger. p.s. Releasing a demo for a PC product is seldom a good idea. Here's why: a) If it's a great demo then some people will think they have experenced all of the new & cool things and then assume that the full game will only be an extension of the demo. And they won't buy the game. b) The demo isn't very good or is not tuned well due to the fact that the game isn't finished. People will assume that the finish game will also be un polished. And they won't buy the game. c) The game will not run and is not compatible with the person computer or video card. Again this only happens because the game is not yet finished d) The person love the demo and they are ready to buy it. The problem is that game isn't being sold yet. The person goes into the store and ends up buying some other RTS. By the time the game is released they forget about it or think of it as an old game. e) A demo always takes time awaye from the real game. And the one month that it takes to make a demo could have been used to polish the real game f) It's far better to release a demo 1-2 months after the release of the full game. At this point all of the above concerns are gone. And you can release a polished demo with bonus material and new content that even people that purchased the game already can appreciate. -Katarn

> What this will mean for me ? It's not good thing. EA is truely an evil empire (and not in a good way) Why do you think those former Westwood guys formed Petroglyph in the first place and either quit or never joined the EA-LA after they shut down Westwood studios? I'm not speaking on their behalf because I know they wouldn't speak ill of anyone. But rather I'm just letting the facts speak for themselves. JediIgor is also correct about the lawsuits against EA for illeagle work practices. That said I do have some good friends that work at EA and when I spoke to them at the last GDC they said that EA was trying to change how they do business. But so far I'm not convinced that they have changed.... As for me I'd never ever ever work for them . Sorry for the gloomy news Cain. -Katarn

Ismael you post about as often as I Yeah sorry about the deleted message. (you're very obserbvant!) I was going to say happy thanksgiving to all of you but I realized that you guys probably don't celebrate that particular holliday. Anyway happy holdays! And I'm willing to help out and join and NMA. But as you guys can probably tell my avalible time is pretty limted these days. So I'll need to pick carefully what things I get involved with. I liked Cain's idea of have producers that would handle most of the day to days tasks. When we need to make the major decisions we can all get together and I'll help out anyway I can. And I'd be happy to look over the reports and give feedback. I'm going to repurchase Civ IV once they release that patch!! Damn sloppyFdevelopers releasing a game that buggy!! Shiping fairly clean games is one thing I'm pretty pround of. And judging by Petro's early code I think their final release is going to be fairly bug free too. Cheers -Katarn

Yeah I'm still working on the Drak game And also on another cool game that I really hope gets approved soon. It's in the pre development phase which means that if it's an original idea the publisher will often kill it because it's truely original and we'll have to start all over again It's a minor miricle that's they allowed EAW out of pre development since it's also original. I did buy Civ IV but I had to return it because it wouldn't run on my machine due to all of the bugs. And trust me when I say that my machine is kick ass and very compatible with 99% of the PC games out there. Haven't played Rise of Legends yet.... As for being the producer on NMA I'll have to think about that. While I'm honored that you want me for the postition it takes a lot time, effort and brain power to help run sometime like that. And I'm not sure I have my brain power to spare atm But you're also correct that I miss working on Star Wars! It's not bragging when I say that no one has worked on more Star Wars games than me and I like to think I worked on some of the best ones too. It was the most fun I've had in my life and I had the honor of working with some great and very tallented people on those projects. -Katarn

Thanx Ghostly, I doubt I'll be listed as the producer in the EAW credits but they might give me a "special thanks" credit

I'm working at Factor-5... -Katarn

> I'm interested to know how I can increase their productivity Give them specific and indivigual responsibities. If they haven'et started their test plan yet have them start on the sections that are ready for the test plan. People are more motivated when there is a stated purpose to the testing and if they feel like they own a particular section of the game. When I was a QA lead I use to assign parts of the game to each tester and then tell them " This is your part of the game. When anyone else is testing that part of the game you are the boss" It worked out great because I always had one person I could go to that would know everything about that portion of the game. And it gave them pride that they were trusted to own a section of the game. I also game them assignments like "Ok, Guys let's try to find out why the game is running so slow. tester #1 check the weapons and explosions, tester #2 check the enemy AI, tester #3 find out which level is running the fastest and slowest, tester #4 try different config settings, etc... -Katarn

I was a tester during my first three years at LucasArts and I've worked closely with QA for all of my 13 years in the game development so I think I can give you a few pointers. 1) A degree isn't "required". A degree's real value is to show a company that you have the ability to learn new things and that you finish what you start. If you don't have a degree you'll just have to work a bit harder convincing them that you have what it takes. 2) The most important skill for a tester is communication. Both written and verbal. After all what use is it to find problems if you can't communicate what the problem is 3) This leads to the second most important skill. The ability to analyze what is happening, why it's happening and what is not causing it to happen. Your job is to make it easy for the person responsible for fixing the problem to identify the root cause of the bug. Any problem discovered should be retested again and again until you can repeat the problem consistently. Then you need to eliminate one factor from the test to see if it still occurs. And then one more and then one more until you know exactly what circumstance caused the problem. 90% of all testers simply write up a bug without doing the research on what was really causing the problem. If you research the issue and make life easier for the programmers, & designers they will love you. And it's a good way to get a promotion. Trust me on this one. 4) You need to have good attention to details. 5) You need to be systematic in your testing approach. Meaning that no matter how bored you are, because you've been testing the same level for one month, you still have the ability to systematically test ever single component. Again most testers get bored and become sloppy in their testing procedures. Hope this helps -Katarn

Ok, I'm back for good now. My DSL connection went down for a week and my ISP provider refused to fix promptly it so I switched to cable modem. It took awhile but I'm back online now and much happier! Anyway my bride to be's name is Denise. Not sure if she'd want me posting her photo to this site but I'll ask. I'll try to get one with both me and her. Hey if you guys want to attend the wedding in April your more than welcome... Anyway I'll be here regularly to talk about EAW or anything else that we decide is worth discussing. Cain I miss our game development conversations. And Ismael I hope to see more of you as well...And of course it's always good to see Ghostly around and still going strong. talk to ya soon -Katarn

Hi guys! Sorry for the long silence. I've been swamped with work stuff and preparing for my April wedding. Things are going great with the two projects I'm working on. And it looks like we will be showing some new footage very soon. But that's unofficial and confidential at this point. Wish I could say more but you guys know that I can't... I did speak to Mike a few weeks ago and he said that the EAW development was progressing nicley and they were only fixing bugs and tuning the game at this stage. Talking to him really made me miss working on the project and with the Petro team. I enjoyed working with those guys and EAW was my baby! Oh well... I have no regrets about leaving LEC other than leaving the EAW team. -Katarn

Here's how the big three think of their company, business model and their console systems. Microsoft = Develops OS software first. Hardware second. Only develops games because they have to suport their consol system which supports their software. Realizes that building hardware is not the business of the future. The 360 plans reflect this change by focusing on the online component and the operating software to support it. In the future there will be one powerful system to run all consol games and Microsoft hopes to be the OS to run them. Sony= Makes hardware. TVs, phones, game consols, etc.. Their plans reflect the old school of thought. Hardware developer first, licensor second, software developer third. Build consoles and sell them at a loss but make the big $$$ by charging the licensing fees to third party developers. In 5-8 years Korea or Hong Kong will probably be selling uber gamming systems that will run all games and this business model will dry up. Nintendo= Has always thought of themselves as game developer first. They think of making hardware as a necessary evil necessary to run their games. They could care less if other developers develop for their systems. My two cents -Katarn

hehe. Now add to that list some Designing, Marketing, Budgeting, Finance, Sales, disturbution, Public relations, staffing, executive reports and managing all of the other producers/product managers and you've just described my job. Welcome to Production Cain! -Katarn