DOL's Future

[mgX]

It has been a while since we could say things were moving in the right direction for DOL. After 1.7 came out, progress has gone from being very slow, to non existing.
Part of the reason is of course the huge changes DOL 2.0 has undergone, though motivation and support for DOL has gone down over time. The community has also suffered greatly from this. It hurts to see all this going on between servers and their people.

The fact is that the community is dissolving. A lot of the old devoted DOL people are disappearing. Etaew took up the job of developing on DOL 1.7 since no one else would, and without any clue on when 2.0 was ready to be used, it was a decision that has lead to quite a few advances so far, but as we all know, this effort will be futile if the developer activity remains low. The idea behind DOL 1.8 was to continue development of existing features which we could port to DOL 2.0 while it was under development while giving the community something to focus on, this has slowed down recently and if we want to avoid DOL dying, this is something we need to think about now and not later.

Etaew and I have been talking about what we should do about this, and the only solution that comes up, would be to get people active again. Fact is, there is no one who can take over for DOL. This is something that should have been done a while ago. If we compare us to other emulators, the same result pops up....We are both lost, and far behind. Compare it with RunUO or L2J...Emulators people seems to be addicted to, and with a huge player base. You might say, that DOL cant compare with their player base, and this is true. The answer to this question is obvious. DOL lacks both features and content. Things that we will have to join forces to accomplish.

So what are we going to do? Our idea is to reach out to those who has been involved in DOL in the past. To ask them what they think are our problems, and how we can improve, and move forward and to regain the momentum of the past, and to bring those people who use to be associated with DOL back.

We need to sit down all those interested and talk over what we want to do. We need to set goals, organize the work that needs to be done, and accomplish those goals. That's why me and Etaew were thinking about a meeting where we talk things over.

People that we are most eager to hear from are:

SmallHorse, Corillean, Blue, Duff, Alex, Holly, TheSchaf, Metty, Cisien, Gandulf, Tiv, Batlas, Noret, Biceps, Overdriven, Etaew, Echostorm, Ogre, LightBringer, Sp4m, Dre, Morchant, Malkavien, mgX, Tired, Pendragon, Kernel, Avi, mura, sirru, anthropomorphous, Cletus, Thorne23, Presto, Crystalin, Rivendel, Milcis, Rjover, MakoAngel, WolfMan, Akira, Shagz

These are of course not the only people we would like to talk to. If you are able to contribute with anything, your help will be very much appreciated. Some names are probably also missing from the list. Its just those we could think of.

The amount of work that needs to be done, is mind numbing... Quests, content, items, artis, mls, cls, mobs, special in game events, Making 2.0 fully functioning with the new DB layer. Cant say how important it is for us to sort this out. It is almost certainly the only shot at a DAoC emulator that we will ever see in the future.

Most importantly... We ask you to leave diffrences in the past, and focus at the task at hand....

Please post comments and thoughts as well as days and times which suit you for the upcoming meeting, and start preparing lists of items you would like to bring up, the meeting announcement for the date and time will be in one of our weekly news article, probably not this week, but next.



To make it clear, the discussion about what we are going to do is taken at the meeting. Only reply with comments, feelings and possible dates for the meeting.

[Etaew]

Thanks for posting this mgX, I don't have the patience to write long winded things, and you've covered the basic points we've discussed.

A meeting has been needed for a while, I remember one, in my 3 year history here, I've spoken with SmallHorse, and he says a meeting is needed too.

I have alot of opinions on the situation of DOL, but I won't express them here, I need to start creating my list of topics for the meeting. The structure for the meeting will be that I will ask everyone, if they would like to bring up some points beforehand, and then when the meeting starts, I will invite that person to speak, and then we can discuss it a little. I hope to come away with a list of suggestions, or even better, a list of steps we can take to reawaken DOL.

Regarding my times I am free, I'm an open book, every day, about 12PM GMT - 2 AM GMT, but for special occasions I can be anytime.

[Thorne23]

I'm currently limited in what I can offer as support,but I hope with given time that limitation will be broken ;P

Suitable times:

weekdays: 5pm gmt+1 till godknowswhen
saturdays are kinda a no-go for me
sundays: noon till godknowswhen gmt+1

[Batlas]

Mon-Fri = no for me.. I work in the morn, gym/whatever in the afternoon. The weekends vary(depending on the severity of my hangover!), but normally anytime between 12pm GMT - 5 and ~9/10(sometimes later if I dont go out)

[Holly]

Monday-Wednesday evening/nights are okay with me (in case I know at least 1-2 days before)... Other days are possible, but not so good for me

[mgX]

okay you can also post your thoughts / feelings towards this

[Dre]

Every day between 8pm and 10pm GMT+1, it's normally possible.

[Troglart]

I know i wasn't specified in the list but im trying to do my best to help.

I've started the framework of CLs as you can see in my posts, which I always seem to miss posting something and no one can compile.. lol.

And i've started my own pet system since as Batlas has so nicely put it, I dont have to use DOLs system, which i will release when done if needed (im not too far on it though, i've gotten Necros basically down, just need spells, same with Cabalists, Enchanters, and hunters and druid are done, they were easy!!!!!)

So, yea, i know im not the best coder, but I get by, and recently i've been getting by really well.

If im allowed ill try to join the meeting if the time is good, even for 10 mins if it comes to it

peace

[Malkavien]

I totaly agree with that.
I don't know why the situation is so difficult. Maybe because DAOC doesn't interest people anymore ?

Anyways, i'm working all the day. So maybe at evening or at the week end for the meeting.
Maybe not this week, i'v crashed my computer, my telephone and my adsl connexion (aie, all in 3 days) so, it may take some day to repear all this stuff.

[Batlas]

Its mainly b/c DOL hasnt much purpose, its just you do this you do that etc.. Ive stated this many times, but DOL should have started with getting classic stuff to work, then SI, then NF,ToA etc... Not worry about trying to get every feature in at once and hafta go back and fix it. Most other Emu's work in that mindset so I always wondered why DOL didnt. At least thats my opinion behind it.

[Etaew]

Save it for the discussion at the meeting keep this thread about the meeting, not the contents for it.

[heretoc]

no comment

[Etaew]

And why should a meeting exclude admins? they use our software?

[Crystalin]

I first thx u mgX for contacting me about this evolution.

I found a GF and i just restarted studies, so i can't work on dol atm...
but i can help for ideas and discutions. I worked very very few times with Malkavien and Sp4m on their servers but it's more for the launcher than the real server.

Tell me when u'll do the meeting and i'll try to join it

cya all

[Overdriven]

Will keep anything I have to say/comment to for the meeting.

I'm pretty much available when ever, but I'd need to know the exact date for this just incase my friends try to harass me:

(All times are GMT for me, by the way)

Monday: 11am-10pm
Sunday: All Day
Saturday: All day (usually)
Friday: Either 2pm onwards or from 2pm-3pm
Thursday: 11am-3pm

(My organisational skills own)