The Energon Pub

[Optimus_Prime007]

RoS you don't like sleep much do you?

[Archanubis]

RoS you don't like sleep much do you?

Something tells me that RoS is like Absolute and Name_Violation - sleep's both a foriegn word and concept.

[Naked Magnus]

RoS you don't like sleep much do you?

Something tells me that RoS is like Absolute and Name_Violation - sleep's both a foriegn word and concept.

LOL!

Here are my secrets:

1) I have an iPhone that allows me to get in one more mission before I fall asleep, one more mission when I wake up in the middle of the night to go pee, and one mission when I first wake up for the day. Squeezing in two or three extra missions this way really helps add up the XP over time, even if I lose those missions. If I go to the gym, I bring it with me and put my bots in missions between sets.

2) I have always had a strong suspicion that I am slightly OCD. I possess a few quirks that drive my wife nuts sometimes.

3) I sit in front of the computer most of the day. It is very easy to just tab over to my registry and send my bots on missions and arena bouts.

I am the CTO and interim CEO of a small software company. Right now we are developing software that will be used to help fight malaria in Africa. We have been working 60 to 80 hour weeks since February and have a major deliverable due at the end of the month. The project has been difficult at times and I have been going through various levels of burnout. However, in this economic climate I am just happy to have the work to pay my employees their salaries. During the day I have to do some project management and manage the business. In the evenings I don't have many distractions and write code into the night until I get too tired to continue. If I am on a productive coding streak, I don't stop. So yes, I do not sleep much.

Oh how I have fantasized about creating my own HMW game! It would be a ton of fun. But that idea will forever remain a fantasy, as it makes more economic sense for me to spend time developing our own software IP (cloud computing...here we come).

So, there you have it. Those are my secrets. Probably more information than you wanted.

-RoS

[Archanubis]

Well, there you go. Like I said, the guy doesn't know what sleep is.

I just forgot about the part where he was a 50yr old geek with no life.

[Naked Magnus]

Well, there you go. Like I said, the guy doesn't know what sleep is.

I just forgot about the part where he was a 50yr old geek with no life.

Geek? Most definitely. But 50? Dude, how did you come up with 50? Yes, I am old in the sense that I was in elementary school during the 80's and collected G1 toys when they were new and novel, but 50? Sheeesh...

[Absolute Zero]

RoS you don't like sleep much do you?

Something tells me that RoS is like Absolute and Name_Violation - sleep's both a foriegn word and concept.

I usually sleep 8hrs a night. Though last week I went 5, 6, and 4 hours of sleep on consecutive days, but those are offset by 10-12hr sleep shifts. It's just that I don't have a job, and HMW keeps me from being to depressed. Well, HMW and my 360.

[Optimus_Prime007]

RoS you don't like sleep much do you?

Something tells me that RoS is like Absolute and Name_Violation - sleep's both a foriegn word and concept.

I usually sleep 8hrs a night. Though last week I went 5, 6, and 4 hours of sleep on consecutive days, but those are offset by 10-12hr sleep shifts. It's just that I don't have a job, and HMW keeps me from being to depressed. Well, HMW and my 360.

360s are amazing, what games you play? when im not smashing cons im playing 360 pm me sometime we should play.

I'm in the military so when im not out working with vehicles i can play at work by throwing bots in when i can like RoS does. Obviously not as many times as him though!

[Absolute Zero]

RoS you don't like sleep much do you?

Something tells me that RoS is like Absolute and Name_Violation - sleep's both a foriegn word and concept.

I usually sleep 8hrs a night. Though last week I went 5, 6, and 4 hours of sleep on consecutive days, but those are offset by 10-12hr sleep shifts. It's just that I don't have a job, and HMW keeps me from being to depressed. Well, HMW and my 360.

360s are amazing, what games you play? when im not smashing cons im playing 360 pm me sometime we should play.

I'm in the military so when im not out working with vehicles i can play at work by throwing bots in when i can like RoS does. Obviously not as many times as him though!

Sadly, not a lot. I get bored to quickly of games. I got the ROTF game right now, and Left 4 Dead, Bully, Crackdown, Marvel Ultimate Alliance, Army of Two and Mercs 2 that can play online. And various RPGs. I should have Prototype tomorrow. Gamer tag is Dead in One.

[Name_Violation]

i'll sleep when i'm dead.

[Burn]

When people get into sprokitz's game playing habits then i'll be impressed.

I mean really, only a crazy man sets his alarm for every 30 mins and power naps between them when not at work sitting in front of his computer.

Oh and play 16-20 hours a day 7 days a week for three years. Honestly, you're all just a bunch of amateurs.

[Name_Violation]

i iwish i could say i didnt think about doing that...

but i'm dreading grinding to a halt, as there is nothing after level 4 unless RoS wants to make some 5s for a duel, but even then it'd be a month or 2 atleast.

i hope to see hmw2 before i can make my level 4s into 5s

[Naked Magnus]

i iwish i could say i didnt think about doing that...

but i'm dreading grinding to a halt, as there is nothing after level 4 unless RoS wants to make some 5s for a duel, but even then it'd be a month or 2 atleast.

i hope to see hmw2 before i can make my level 4s into 5s

I have a small handful of bots that can level up to L5 anytime. In the meantime, I have been directing their XP to very expensive upgrades for an L4 bot, like L10 strength.

I wish they would just change the L2-L4 missions to L2-L5 missions. It can't be that difficult of a change.

-RoS

[Burn]

I wish they would just change the L2-L4 missions to L2-L5 missions. It can't be that difficult of a change.

Don't you think we would if we could? We would have had the level spread fixed a long time ago otherwise!

How many times do Psychout and I have to say THERE ARE SECTIONS OF THE MOD PANEL BROKEN before people will get the message?

Followed by the NOTHING WILL BE FIXED BECAUSE HMW2 IS IN DEVELOPMENT message?

These are the exact reasons we are having contests like this. We're working with what we've got and trying to make the game as enjoyable as possible while it's in it's last stages of life.

[Name_Violation]

we know we know, we just wanna complain about it to bug you.

[Redimus]

Out of interest, is there *any* development as far as V2 is concerned? It's probably becuase Ive lost pacence with this place, but it feels like V2 is as big a pipe dream as ever to me right now.

[Burn]

Out of interest, is there *any* development as far as V2 is concerned? It's probably becuase Ive lost pacence with this place, but it feels like V2 is as big a pipe dream as ever to me right now.

If there was an update, it would have been posted. And for god's sakes Red, use a spell checker, you're starting to spell like an American!

[Optimus_Prime007]

Out of interest, is there *any* development as far as V2 is concerned? It's probably becuase Ive lost pacence with this place, but it feels like V2 is as big a pipe dream as ever to me right now.

If there was an update, it would have been posted. And for god's sakes Red, use a spell checker, you're starting to spell like an American!

Hey whats wrong with that?! We kicked your ass in WW2!!!! -- Supertroopers


Im just trying to get my team into the 1000s before this talk of HMW2 comes into the picture.

[Naked Magnus]

I wish they would just change the L2-L4 missions to L2-L5 missions. It can't be that difficult of a change.

Don't you think we would if we could? We would have had the level spread fixed a long time ago otherwise!

How many times do Psychout and I have to say THERE ARE SECTIONS OF THE MOD PANEL BROKEN before people will get the message?

Followed by the NOTHING WILL BE FIXED BECAUSE HMW2 IS IN DEVELOPMENT message?

These are the exact reasons we are having contests like this. We're working with what we've got and trying to make the game as enjoyable as possible while it's in it's last stages of life.

I understand and do appreciate the effort that is being made to create and maintain these tournaments. However, if HWM is architected correctly, this could be fixed with one SQL statement. Example:

UPDATE mission_profile
SET maxLevel = 5
WHERE maxLevel = 4

This is assuming HWM implements the "Single Choice Principle", by normalizing such information in one place.

It is too bad there isn't an adequate software lifecycle management process in place. Relying on just one programmer results in such delays as we see here. If HMW2 is ever going to be released, updated in a timely manner, or fixed in a timely manner (as there will certainly be bugs), then a new process needs to be adopted or else the HMW2 experience will suffer greatly.

Clearly the complexity has reached a point where more developers and a software development process are needed. This would necessitate a code repository, bug tracking, and unit tests. The current process (let's be honest), sucks. It is diminishing the experience for everybody.

Now, I hope you who are involved with the current process can be mature enough to acknowledge these shortcomings and not get offended. I realize I am getting off topic here, but I do believe you need to seriously reevaluate the current process and brainstorm how it can be changed for the better. Unless it is changed, we cannot expect the situation to improve even after HMW2 is released. I can't imagine there aren't enough knowledgeable PHP programmers in this bunch who have the skill set necessary to help. Considering the current economic climate, I am sure there are many who have extra time on their hands.

Now I expect a flame backlash to commence...

-RoS

[Evolution Prime]

Thing is that HMW has turned to a volunteer for its programming. I think Seibs likes what HMW does for his site, but doesn't want the headache of what it can cause. He has more imprtant parts to his site like the photo galleries and such. Omega Supreme volunteered to take over the programming HMW from a long line of other volunteers who work on it previously. OS may need some help programming HMW2 since it is totally done in his spare time. Yeah it would be nice if there were a dedicated team of progammers to work on things to fixs bug and other problems, but that realistically isn't going to happen since its all volunteer work. Heck I would volunteer but my electrical engineering degree only gave me a little bit of programming experience since I focused on the power generation and transmission side of things. You sound like the perfect person to vulunteer with your background, but it looks like your schedule, just like OS's, can be full as well. There are testers out there who, as far as I know, are still testing HMW2 looking for bugs. That doesn't help the fact that OS is the only programmer and the only one able to do the fixing.

[Optimus_Prime007]

I'm going to school for computer programming trying to start my 101s. so im no where near programming strength yet. maybe a few years from now i will be a programming wizard...but not now

[Absolute Zero]

I thought, about 6 months ago or so, OS said he was going to fix the mod panel?

[Redimus]

Volunteers with the time to spare has never been the problem RoS. Ryan's insistence that there will only ever be one programmer, however, has been a large part of the problem. Along with a few other things Im not gonna waste my time listing now.

And the structure of the current game has been widly reported as a f**king mess. So there's no chance of any simple fixes for it. Hence the need for V2. But as there's only one programmer and he has better things to do with his time, so that aint gonna happen soon. So we are stuck with V1, which is very flawed and in a worse state than it has been in for years, and cant be easily fixed. Which is why we need V2....

You see the problem?

[Chaoslock]

So, is there a chance we will see V2 in 2009? 2010? This century?

[Burn]

I wish they would just change the L2-L4 missions to L2-L5 missions. It can't be that difficult of a change.

Don't you think we would if we could? We would have had the level spread fixed a long time ago otherwise!

How many times do Psychout and I have to say THERE ARE SECTIONS OF THE MOD PANEL BROKEN before people will get the message?

Followed by the NOTHING WILL BE FIXED BECAUSE HMW2 IS IN DEVELOPMENT message?

These are the exact reasons we are having contests like this. We're working with what we've got and trying to make the game as enjoyable as possible while it's in it's last stages of life.

I understand and do appreciate the effort that is being made to create and maintain these tournaments. However, if HWM is architected correctly, this could be fixed with one SQL statement. Example:

UPDATE mission_profile
SET maxLevel = 5
WHERE maxLevel = 4

This is assuming HWM implements the "Single Choice Principle", by normalizing such information in one place.

It is too bad there isn't an adequate software lifecycle management process in place. Relying on just one programmer results in such delays as we see here. If HMW2 is ever going to be released, updated in a timely manner, or fixed in a timely manner (as there will certainly be bugs), then a new process needs to be adopted or else the HMW2 experience will suffer greatly.

Clearly the complexity has reached a point where more developers and a software development process are needed. This would necessitate a code repository, bug tracking, and unit tests. The current process (let's be honest), sucks. It is diminishing the experience for everybody.

Now, I hope you who are involved with the current process can be mature enough to acknowledge these shortcomings and not get offended. I realize I am getting off topic here, but I do believe you need to seriously reevaluate the current process and brainstorm how it can be changed for the better. Unless it is changed, we cannot expect the situation to improve even after HMW2 is released. I can't imagine there aren't enough knowledgeable PHP programmers in this bunch who have the skill set necessary to help. Considering the current economic climate, I am sure there are many who have extra time on their hands.

Now I expect a flame backlash to commence...

-RoS

Know why you get the backlash? Because you say stuff that's already well known but you say it like you're the first to think it.

This sort of thing has plagued the game for SIX YEARS. You're far from the first to point it out.

As others have stated, it was a decision made by higher-ups to only ever have one person working/coding HMW at a time and that's during their spare time.

Now I know what you're getting at, you've never said it directly but I can read between the lines, you have all this programming knowledge, you THINK you know what the game needs, you think you could fix HMW. I can guarantee you, if the job were given to you, you'd realise just how much of a monumental task it is.

If you could fix it, hey i'd love you to do it! But as a regular ol Moderator it's out of my (and Psychout's) hands.

Now enough of this talk about HMW2. Shut the hell up and go back to fighting ... errr ... in the game!

[Redimus]

Its more fun fighting here. For the first time in a long while the forum has far less bugs than the game....