English

I want to drop a few comments concerning some scolding and rumor mongering about the Forge, the way how development is done in Ryzom, and, in particular about the decision to do future content development using ARK and other tools under development or yet to be created.

First one thing: I have no insight into Winchgate internals, and never had. I had some contact, mainly over chat and email, with some Ryzom Core contributors (most not active anymore to my knowledge). So I do not claim in any way to be knowledgeable about development internals other than those publicly disclosed. I have read a bit through Ryzom Core code, but not to too deeply. I downloaded Ryzom Core stuff several times, but lacked the time to adapt it to a Fedora or OpenSuse environment.

What I do know a bit, is programming, programming in the C programming language in particular. I never did much C++, belonging to the older generation of procedural programmers I somewhat detest the so called object oriented paradigm, which is not mathematically formalizable (much, though not entirely, business babble. There is the evil saying "C++ is to C what lung cancer is to lung" :). Other OO languages are even worse).

It is highly injust, though, to spread the rumour that WG people were incompetent to implement further content in C++ and therefore created ARK/ARCC. There are good reasons not to continue content code creation in that programming language, and everybody familiar with C will easily understand that.

The C programming language is beautiful, compact, efficient, it allows programming close to the hardware in an abstract and portable style. That is why code like the Unix and Linux operating systems are written in C. C++ is fairly close to it, though it has some restrictions for good reason. In fact, programming in this kind of languages requires much experience, discipline, thorough code review, and even more careful testing. Even then, extremely nasty side effects and bugs may occur, and are very hard to find and to insulate.

That means, you need a fairly large and at best very experienced team of programmers, code reviewers, and testers, to implement projects using this family of programming languages. That is why more safe and more boring stuff was invented and introduced allowing more inept and careless people (hired with lower wages) to generate applications.

And that was no wrong move, to be honest, as it allowed to overcome the "software crisis" of these times (the 1980s). And higher level languages and tools are a good idea, too, as they are allowing people familiar with application requirements to formulate them in a way computers may understand and execute, without much programming experience. Also, it is a good idea to add content by scripting languages not requiring a coding, compilation, then testing cycle, instead allowing rapid prototyping and instant testing. That is what tools like ARK are for.

Moreover, those methods are insulating content from the running program. A faulty mission written in C++ and being part of the main loop of ryzom could be able to crash a whole process at least on client, at worst on server side. That's why it is wise to insulate added content from the running core (in fact this has been the case since long time, as far as I understood).

I read, with some amusement, Icus' mockings about ARK syntax (I did not perceive them as a destructive critique). Indeed it seems more clumsy to me than any C syntax (I think it is PHP, but could be wrong). But it is learnable even for non programmers. Everybody may write a mission or so using those formalisms without ever having undergone CS training or education.

Therefore, I would plead for seeing the new tools as a chance for everybody having the time and being interested to contribute to the further development of Ryzom. I kindly ask those who engaged in polemics against to check the opportunities and rethink their point of view.

Nicely said Daomei. +1

Although, I'm not sure it is correct to say,

'That is why more safe and more boring stuff was invented and introduced allowing more inept and careless people (hired with lower wages) to generate applications.'

I hope you didn't mean that those currently working on Ryzom are inept, (well, I am, lol), but, I think they are doing a wonderful job considering the game is open source now, and open for all to contribute. Some are very good coders, or content adders. Some contribute once in a while and some might not be good at all but are all talk but no substance, yes. (I'm talking about criticisers of the game or those who say they can code but do nothing about it, or didn't really know how though they say they do).

I believe the scope of adding content to Ryzom is beyond one person or even two or three. It needs a team of developers like when they began. They should be a paid team. They should constantly be adding 'Moduals' to expand the game according to the 'Ideas for Ryzom' comming from the players within the boundaries of the Lore.

I only wish David Cohen Corval would get back involved with the game, it sounded like he wanted to make it a fully
immersive game now according to his recent interview.

Occulus Rift is possible from what i understand reading stuff about Ryzom Core. with only 1, 2 or even 3 Devs not paid, who has the time to code this? not even volunteers do imho. I weep with tears over this. We all have to make a living so everyone has separate jobs. If this game is to become a super game, it needs a paid staff to add content. But i feel it has the potential!

This game has an excellent foundation no other game has. Imagine if you had such a team to keep adding to it. It would be the best game out there.

Ryzom does use Lua in addition to C and ARK.  Lua can produce some remarkably cryptic error messages.  :D

Kovabon --
The current version of F2P (extended trial period, not really F2P) gives us some population.  Reducing the levels would mean less population, not more subscribers (in general).  Most of the people who I know who have subscribed have done so well before hitting the 125 limit.  In the end we would miss out on a few people who cannot afford to subscribe and gain nothing.

Thanks, Deed. Placio, I do not know whether you did not realize it, but there were three events which influenced development in 2015 towards significant delays, and they have indeed been communicated.

1. The demise of the original paysafe option caught the Dev team off guard and demanded urgent action, as it endangered the economical existance of Ryzom. Loads of players were subbing using that payment scheme. The measures to be implemented absorbed considerable amounts of developers' resources.

2. The accession to Steam was a pleasant development, but not foreseen when the 2015 roadmap was designed. It also required and requires not few adaptations, and puts a lot of workload on the shoulders of both the volunteers, be they in Ryzom Core or Ryzom Forge project, and the Dev team.

3. During the course of development in the Forge the need arose to improve and extend the toolset including, but not limited to new converters from open source 3D design tools like blender into NeL's .shape file format.

Beneath that, the Forge has undergone a learning curve in which several steps prove to be more time consuming than expected, as it seems to me from conversations and lecture of Forge meeting protocols and transcripts.

There have been not few steps of progress, though. It may be not that important for some, but it looks as if the Ranger faction will be implemented by end 2015 or the first weeks of the new year. Also, not few objects and designs stemming from Forge development have been introduced and implemented.

As far as the communication was insufficient, feel free to propose ways to improve it. At least the announcement of Steam has been done in a large public assembly. The rest may have been communicated insufficiently for those not regularly following forums etc. But I feel it could all be found out.

Greetings and good game

Kovabon -- I have always been a paying player starting when there were no options and then continuing just in order to support the game.

I agree that we need to attract paid devs.  I think we can start with Kervala; after reading what he has been doing so far I'm good with his being the next paid dev.  (That is, if he doesn't like his day job better.)

However, the half-cap unlimited time extended trial / F2P option is not, in my opinion what is keeping people from subscribing.  As I said, I have heard of a few people who say they can't afford it, and I'm perfectly happy to have them around and playing.  A 125 level healer can be a great assist in a team. 

Most of the poeple I've seen who have said "Oh, I'll play until I'm totally mini-mastered, then I'll subscribe, end up doing so long before they are close...

In the end, we have to realize that Ryzom is a niche game.  We're never going to have millions of subscribers.  However, by going onto Steam we have a chance to collect a few thousand, and that would be enough.