Flying Undead

[Senior Tactician]

I can't speak for support, or for your experience. Speaking for me, my steps would have been to email support and then if no response came reaching out to the experienced folks like Draugr and VBall to see if they've run into the same. Given that we are trying to grow the player base, airing grievances with support via the forum is not a step I would take. If we can get the base to where it could be, I would hope we would have someone more dedicated to this type of issue (and resolution). Until then, I will lean more heavily on the community.

Well sir in all honesty you are a better man than I.  When I buy something that doesn't work I get pissed.

[Ry Vor]

Yeah, we sometimes get requests to explain results to players.  There's no one here to do that, and, is there any other game you would ask of that?  If something happens in Axis & Allies you didn't expect, do you send an email to Milton Bradley and wait for a reply?  We could go back to those days of $7.50 a turn, and have someone do that, if that's what players want.

Nope, those questions are better sent through this forum.

Except that I had to reveal my plans to get the question answered.  And if Draugr is right, then the order entry program is incorrectly coded, which shouldnt be possible because I was told it was perfect.

"Perfect".  What else have you been told is perfect?

[Ry Vor]

I can't speak for support, or for your experience. Speaking for me, my steps would have been to email support and then if no response came reaching out to the experienced folks like Draugr and VBall to see if they've run into the same. Given that we are trying to grow the player base, airing grievances with support via the forum is not a step I would take. If we can get the base to where it could be, I would hope we would have someone more dedicated to this type of issue (and resolution). Until then, I will lean more heavily on the community.

Yeah, like that. OK, to be clear, we at support@alamaze.co are not explaining turn results, just so we are on the same page. Sorry if that smacks a bit, but I don't want any misunderstanding. There is NO GAME where you can ask the developers, et al, to explain stuff to you. Even this one. We have started a whole series of videos to do that for new players, but not for players to ask the designer to explain what had happened in turn 19 of game 5645. Just not going to happen, never promised, can't do it.

[Senior Tactician]

I had already gotten over this issue, you really want to continue this here?

[Senior Tactician]

You want to continue, OK, fine lets continue.  You're not characterizing the issue correctly at all. Your program is WRONG, the order entry program gives an ERROR where none should be.

Now, I highly suspected that the "error" was in fact an error only in the order entry program and Draugr has verified, and if no one answered my question, I was going to go ahead and fly my specters.  And since the order entry program is in error, everything would have been OK, other than a bit of nail-biting on my behalf.

However, if I was wrong and the order entry program Error was actually and error and my specters didn't fly, there would have been a whole different level of pissed going on.

By contacting support, I was giving You the opportunity to prevent that by clarifying that yes indeed the order entry program is NOT WORKING CORRECTLY.  OR by telling me, NO, wait don't fly those specters we have some programing to do.

But hey, as I see this information is of no value to you, I'll keep that in mind.

[Ry Vor]

You want to continue, OK, fine lets continue.  You're not characterizing the issue correctly at all. Your program is WRONG, the order entry program gives an ERROR where none should be.

Now, I highly suspected that the "error" was in fact an error only in the order entry program and Draugr has verified, and if no one answered my question, I was going to go ahead and fly my specters.  And since the order entry program is in error, everything would have been OK, other than a bit of nail-biting on my behalf.

However, if I was wrong and the order entry program Error was actually and error and my specters didn't fly, there would have been a whole different level of pissed going on.

By contacting support, I was giving You the opportunity to prevent that by clarifying that yes indeed the order entry program is NOT WORKING CORRECTLY.  OR by telling me, NO, wait don't fly those specters we have some programing to do.

But hey, as I see this information is of no value to you, I'll keep that in mind.

You are a tough one, Eric.  Perfection?  Hmm, we are not Microsoft, that at a trillion dollars, doesn't claim perfection in its software.  We have, sometimes, a couple guys making a go of it.  And mainly I hold it together by saying we are doing it for the players, not because anyone is making any money.  That's it for now.

[Senior Tactician]

You want to continue, OK, fine lets continue.  You're not characterizing the issue correctly at all. Your program is WRONG, the order entry program gives an ERROR where none should be.

Now, I highly suspected that the "error" was in fact an error only in the order entry program and Draugr has verified, and if no one answered my question, I was going to go ahead and fly my specters.  And since the order entry program is in error, everything would have been OK, other than a bit of nail-biting on my behalf.

However, if I was wrong and the order entry program Error was actually and error and my specters didn't fly, there would have been a whole different level of pissed going on.

By contacting support, I was giving You the opportunity to prevent that by clarifying that yes indeed the order entry program is NOT WORKING CORRECTLY.  OR by telling me, NO, wait don't fly those specters we have some programing to do.

But hey, as I see this information is of no value to you, I'll keep that in mind.

You are a tough one, Eric.  Perfection?  Hmm, we are not Microsoft, that at a trillion dollars, doesn't claim perfection in its software.  We have, sometimes, a couple guys making a go of it.  And mainly I hold it together by saying we are doing it for the players, not because anyone is making any money.  That's it for now.

Well, I'm sorry Rick, I don't have a job right now.  I sit here and play games all day.  I think about this stuff a lot, I've been planning to make Breks jaw drop to the floor for 15 turns now.  This little issue is an integral part of a 15 turn plan.  However, I agree to drop it.  I really need to get a job, talk about not making any money...

[Ry Vor]

You want to continue, OK, fine lets continue.  You're not characterizing the issue correctly at all. Your program is WRONG, the order entry program gives an ERROR where none should be.

Now, I highly suspected that the "error" was in fact an error only in the order entry program and Draugr has verified, and if no one answered my question, I was going to go ahead and fly my specters.  And since the order entry program is in error, everything would have been OK, other than a bit of nail-biting on my behalf.

However, if I was wrong and the order entry program Error was actually and error and my specters didn't fly, there would have been a whole different level of pissed going on.

By contacting support, I was giving You the opportunity to prevent that by clarifying that yes indeed the order entry program is NOT WORKING CORRECTLY.  OR by telling me, NO, wait don't fly those specters we have some programing to do.

But hey, as I see this information is of no value to you, I'll keep that in mind.

You are a tough one, Eric.  Perfection?  Hmm, we are not Microsoft, that at a trillion dollars, doesn't claim perfection in its software.  We have, sometimes, a couple guys making a go of it.  And mainly I hold it together by saying we are doing it for the players, not because anyone is making any money.  That's it for now.

Well, I'm sorry Rick, I don't have a job right now.  I sit here and play games all day.  I think about this stuff a lot, I've been planning to make Breks jaw drop to the floor for 15 turns now.  This little issue is an integral part of a 15 turn plan.  However, I agree to drop it.  I really need to get a job, talk about not making any money...

I apologize.  I was probably out of line.  I don't need players to be concerned with the finances or struggles in development. 

Hey, we still have the best multi-player fantasy setting game of deep strategy anywhere.  I can say that with conviction! 

I love bringing Alamaze forward, as we are now in 4th Cycle Maelstrom and looking to fix a few things, do more balancing.  The code, I have to defend.  I think Mike, and Fletch before, and even David Pitzel who I think hates my guts for no reason attributable to me, have been outstanding.  They take my wacky, half baked stuff into reality.  Sometimes its not exactly as I intended, but this is what happens when you write the symphony but don't play all the instruments.  They have all done well and without them, in current terms, meaning Mike, there would be no Alamaze.  No fun.  

But, I am proud of what Mike, as much as I, has done for Alamaze Maelstrom.  And I do feel we constantly move forward and keep things interesting.  Mike is his own person, he's no employee, etc.  He does what he does if he wants to do it. So I don't always get my way, either.  Nick, he may be a godsend, but so far he is running into what I always did: its much harder getting actual players than people that sign up.

I'm a little worried about Charles and his endevour, Suspense and Decision.   Seems to have fallen off the grid again.  

Ah, we need you, yes YOU, who are reading threads like this, to spark more players.  You know somebody.  Come on.  I'm just doing this for you, but I wouldn't mind paying Mike and Nick if we get players.  I mean, is there a better game than Alamaze?  If so, I might quit.

[unclemike]

Yep, just keep in mind that Rick is doing what he can with the limited resources that he has available to him (just him and me). I volunteer my time and don't get paid a programmer's salary for my effort. You don't see other PBM games with new features being released every year because they don't have the money for it. Alamaze is a step ahead of the rest in that regard due to volunteer work.

That being said, not all software is bug-free. Many programmers use highly regarded tools to track down problems before they occur. See my somewhat dated attachment of using NASA's validator for Java programs though there are other software development tools as well. If you can find someone who can program better than a NASA engineer and not get paid for it then let Rick know and you can replace me without an issue.

My primary focus whenever Rick requests a change to Alamaze is to ensure that the main Java program (that generates kingdom turns for every game) is operating at an optimal level. That's not as easy as it sounds when considering that the main program has something like 50 Java classes with the Combat class alone being around 11,000 lines of code.

And that's only one program out of ten software modules (poller, launcher, game engine, order entry website, etc.) that all have to work seamlessly together whenever a change is made to Alamaze. All of that development is done practically for free.

So if there is an issue with a turn result (or in this case the order entry program that doesn't detect something), just report it to Rick so that he can take a note of it. He'll prioritize the list of things to do for the upcoming year. He also has to contend with the fact that I'm not around all the time and only have a limited window to do things. I really only check on Alamaze over the weekends and a lot of times, I miss doing that due to being busy in real life.

If you find something amiss, just report it so Rick will know to take care of it.

[Senior Tactician]

I wish that made sense to me.  When I started college I was in computer science, but, being a lazy man, I refused to put the effort it would have taken for me to pass calculus, and programming was boring.  SO I made about the fourth worst decision of my life and majored in psychology.

I do appreciate the effort guys, I know things are slow now.  Honestly I'd pay more to play Alamaze (and I used to, $7.50 a turn like Rick said), I just don't have it.

You know, I do have a bunch of time on my hands... if you want someone to help filter your customer service emails, I could do that.  I do think customer service is important.  Just having someone answer an email is often enough, even if the answer is "I don't know."