Poll for ideas to implement

[locusts]

Simple idea: every couple of months (or whatever period of time the powers that be feel is suitable), a poll goes up asking people for which recent idea they would like to see added into the game. The ideas would have to be well received and also require a fair amount of work by the coders. It should also be made clear that these polls are not a guarantee an idea will make it into the game, but simply a way to gauge which ideas are popular.

[Roomba]

I'm not really sure what this would change. Whether an idea is well-received or not is generally fairly self-evident, and if there's no guarantee that it'll be implemented regardless, then it's up to whether the coders like it enough to spend their time working on it, which is pretty much how things are now.

[Mageziya]

I suppose the most to come out of this would be measuring what the community wants coders to work on the most. Problem is that SS13 is a volunteer driven game, coding literally comes down to how coders feel about personally implementing the subject. I feel like organizing and forcing projects like this could lead to some unfun things in the community.

[Ed Venture]

Yeah this wont change anything

[ZeWaka]

I suppose the most to come out of this would be measuring what the community wants coders to work on the most. Problem is that SS13 is a volunteer driven game, coding literally comes down to how coders feel about personally implementing the subject. I feel like organizing and forcing projects like this could lead to some unfun things in the community.

this exactly

[babayetu83]

i think this could work if the poll was operated by the coders themselves

[Vitatroll]

Outside of bugfixes or balancing acts I'm not sure coders really care how popular an idea is. If it's something simple yeah they'll throw it together, but otherwise it's whether or not the idea has them hooked. I mean I wouldn't code some huge pain in the ass that I didn't even like. I'd rather work a few extra hours to buy more games that I'll never play.

It's like Mageziya said, (basically) you're not selling your ideas to other players - you're selling them to coders.

[Sundance]

Yeah, as critical as I am of the the Idea Graveyard, I don't think forcing coders to commit to projects is a particularly healthy or good notion.

You could say that coders could make polls themselves for the community, but that doesn't really make much sense either as it also forces their hand (hey remember when you said you were doing X!?!?) and could result in a bit of a downer if what could actually be a great idea in practice is downvoted to oblivion.

Still, a bit of transparency wouldn't go amiss. I'd prefer if the "patch" forum was instead rejigged into a "workshop" where instead of someone pitching a fully implemented idea (which are often fairly straightforward), someone could pitch an idea with a bit of coding or a bit of spriting, and allow people to critique on balancing it. This could include admin coders too, say if they're missing resources or are unsure of implementation.  This would encourage collaboration, which I think is vital for the community.

[Cirrial]

I have to say that I'm personally not sure exactly where I'd post a thread of something I'd worked on a prototype for, but want to get feedback and discussion on before submitting it as a patch.

I mean I guess I could just make a thread as though I was discussing a crazy new idea that only existed as a thought but I dunno a workshop thingy would be neat

[Superlagg]

This would probably work better aimed at us. We could use it to figure out which ideas we think are the most coolest, and then from there build upon it and refine the idea into something even more cooler.

Even better than a simple vote would be one of those suggest-help-and-hurt rank-vote things, where we could add entries to a list and then add or subtract points to determine their ranking of how much we want the idea expanded upon.

As for a patch/code workshop, I like it! Not only would it lead to more ideas being worked on, but it might also encourage more of us to try out coding.

[misto]

open a ss13 coding patreon and only the paying patreons are allowd to vote >:3 get that $$$ boyz

[Cirrial]

I know it's not a serious suggestion, but that still gives me a headache thinking of all the horrible legal and organisational issues that'd be caused trying to set up a Patreon for Goonstation. Ow. Ow.

[Ed Venture]

Still, a bit of transparency wouldn't go amiss.

Been suggesting this for years.

[ZeWaka]

open a ss13 coding patreon and only the paying patreons are allowd to vote >:3 get that $$$ boyz

I know it's not a serious suggestion, but that still gives me a headache thinking of all the horrible legal and organisational issues that'd be caused trying to set up a Patreon for Goonstation. Ow. Ow.

Still, a bit of transparency wouldn't go amiss.

Been suggesting this for years.

this is extremely rambly because i'm tired but I want to say something about this subject
i cant believe i need to say this but some of you are crazy: what i rambled on below is not the opinion of the staff, its mine so don't pull shit

Patreon with rewards could get funky fast. As in, the corrupt f2p model that plagues other games and kills them in their tracks, ruins communities, etc.
Pay $5 and you get a 10 antag tokens every month!!!!
Pay $15 and you get INFINITE ANTAG TOKENS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Pay $50 and you get to SPAWN IN INFINITE FREE ITEMS!!!!!!!!!!!!
Pay $100 and you get ADMIN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

not to mention all the funds from the patreon would go towards the server costs for sure, as paying coders would be a nightmare in sooo many ways

If there were to be rewards of some sort as I would imagine people would want, they would either have to be 100% cosmetic (even then, popularity contest, cliques, don't get me started: "oh, you don't have the RobotSuit9000 Amethyst skin? what a pubbie" or not even in-game rewards. I definitely don't want to become a game where you have to pay to even do anything, or affect the community. Sure, maybe a patreon or someone could attempt to bring attention to an idea, but at the end of the day everyone is a volunteer who just wants to make the game a better place for everyone to play in.

there are a lot of cool stuff what would be neat, like a proper issue tracker that ties in with what code (because searching bugs on the forum is hard, and remembering to resolve them is effort), a nicer more streamlined ideas and suggestions forum with more polls and stuff, and a completely tricked out patches forum with all the stuff that would be make it perfect.

However, we don't have all those things right now so I guess we just gotta make do with what we have. Speaking of what we have, you can donate currently to Rick via contacting him on IRC, or contacting Wire on IRC as well or donating through his gofundme! I give my thanks to every single person who has ever donated towards the server.

edit: oh also i like the idea of coding workshops and i would love to help teach people the basics and stuff, but remember you can always hop on #imcoder on synirc and ask questions about coding in byond. i should really make a guide on getting git and sublime or something set up....

edit2: fukin internet, cut out when i submitted this edit. anyways i treat the patches forum right now as a place for finished patches to be submitted and maybe last minute comments, but i think there would definitely be room for a subforum with discussion of coding, how to code, patch discussion, things like that

[Ed Venture]

I don't know why I was quoted in your post Zewaka. My post had nothing to do with donations or rewards.


EDIT:My idea of Transparency is coders just making threads on things they plan to add and asking our feedback on it before it's put in the game so players don't get outrage over a change and jump the coder for it. Like that whole pay to be cloned fiasco