Mentioning basemod + x indicates one important relative benchmark, defined by the availability of key resources that are necessary to complete a mod. I've heard basemod, I've heard ABR. It is true that some building can occur before these are available. So, what exactly are the resources that must be available before a mod could be completed?
It is also quite true that building in the NWN2 toolset takes a great deal of time, and we do not know exactly how much effort will be necessary before a playable mod can be ready. Let me also perhaps suggest a time measure based not on the availability of key resources, but based on the availability of the first completed mod. When the first mod is available for live, we know that's the earliest a mod could reasonably be expected to be ready. Would such a benchmark be useful? If so, the question would have to be asked what if that first ready mod is an 'expansion' vs. on of the ones approved (as of now) to be the first batch of live mods.
How long to wait for...?
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fluffmonster
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I think fluff has a good idea here, instead of picking an arbitrary number right now, we can say when a server is live ready the rest have 2,3 6, whatever months to be completed.
I'd like to suggest that once a server is approved for live, the rest have 2 or 3 months to finish. If after that time the server is not complete, my suggestion is that admin take the HDM or available team into an Irc meeting and discuss the progress of the server. They could be on a kind of probation where every couple weeks they would have to report on their progress or be swapped out for one of the expansion servers.
Now if an expansion server were to be ready for live before all of the other servers, then I would simply suggest the same thing occurs, the countdown begins on all the other servers. The only difference being that the expansion server, though ready for live, would not be automatically granted live status. It would be up the the reigning admin to make a decision to allow them live or hold them back to allow the 1st rounders their chance.
For me, if an expansion server is ready first, it is unreasonable to hold back playable content from the community for longer than a span of a month or two at tops.
I'd like to suggest that once a server is approved for live, the rest have 2 or 3 months to finish. If after that time the server is not complete, my suggestion is that admin take the HDM or available team into an Irc meeting and discuss the progress of the server. They could be on a kind of probation where every couple weeks they would have to report on their progress or be swapped out for one of the expansion servers.
Now if an expansion server were to be ready for live before all of the other servers, then I would simply suggest the same thing occurs, the countdown begins on all the other servers. The only difference being that the expansion server, though ready for live, would not be automatically granted live status. It would be up the the reigning admin to make a decision to allow them live or hold them back to allow the 1st rounders their chance.
For me, if an expansion server is ready first, it is unreasonable to hold back playable content from the community for longer than a span of a month or two at tops.
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I hate to see us make a firm decision this early. We already did that when approving the first round of servers before the game was even out, or we even new how large of regions could be built... My opinion is to wait and see, perhaps revisit this topic monthly until we feel we can make an educated decision. Right now I feel like it is too much guess work.
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ç i p h é r
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I think it probably makes sense for servers to go up on an "as ready" basis, as long as they meet some minimum criteria that we're all aware of. That gives every team a benchmark to at least aim for in terms of readiness.
Slot allocation may have been premature in retrospect - proposal approvals should have been enough - although I'm sure a guarantee is something builders were/are looking for. Holding back servers to satisfy an allocation scheme just sounds like a case of the tail wagging the dog, especially since there's no guarantee in reverse; That is, having a playable server by a set date. It's clearly in the best interests of the project to put up servers as they are ready. And it stands to reason that the sooner we get players in the door, the sooner we can achieve the critical playing mass some want as a requirement to expand. It's also quite likely that we'll achieve a staggered release schedule naturally on this "as ready" basis, which will give players the feeling of ongoing, periodic expansion, and which may very well eliminate the need for gating releases.
I'm not really particular to be honest, but I'm probably in the minority. We could of course assume the best in people and deal with the problems as they arise, which will undoubtedly mean requesting live server teams to voluntarily relegate to "expansion" status. DMA judgement would of course serve as the final arbitration in that scenario.
Just my candid thoughts on the matter.
Slot allocation may have been premature in retrospect - proposal approvals should have been enough - although I'm sure a guarantee is something builders were/are looking for. Holding back servers to satisfy an allocation scheme just sounds like a case of the tail wagging the dog, especially since there's no guarantee in reverse; That is, having a playable server by a set date. It's clearly in the best interests of the project to put up servers as they are ready. And it stands to reason that the sooner we get players in the door, the sooner we can achieve the critical playing mass some want as a requirement to expand. It's also quite likely that we'll achieve a staggered release schedule naturally on this "as ready" basis, which will give players the feeling of ongoing, periodic expansion, and which may very well eliminate the need for gating releases.
I'm not really particular to be honest, but I'm probably in the minority. We could of course assume the best in people and deal with the problems as they arise, which will undoubtedly mean requesting live server teams to voluntarily relegate to "expansion" status. DMA judgement would of course serve as the final arbitration in that scenario.
Just my candid thoughts on the matter.
