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fluffyfreak
(@fluffyfreak)
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Recently, as in the last 3 years, I've been thinking about who plays our game, what specifications their machine has, what OS, how long they play, where/when they die ad-infinitum...

 

So I've started to integrate an example using their REST API for the GameAnalytics.com service.

 

Obviously this will need several things:

 

  • discussion - is this something we want to do?
  • agreement - user must agree and be able to opt-out / opt-in as they choose.
  • anonymity - I don't actually care who is playing the game, just how many, how and on what etc.
  • Linux & Mac ports - I'm only writing the Windows version right now - help would be appreciated when the code is more final.
  • More developer control over the GA account so I'm not a single point of failure & so others can mine the data.

The reason I want to know all this stuff is because currently I'm doing things like the OpenGL 3.x work and later on the BGFX port without knowing how many users it will impact. 

We don't even know how many people actually play Pioneer! Or in what countries, or what languages!

 

Recently there was the post by K-Hideyoshi where it turns out that we might have hundreds of Chinese players... did anyone know we had hundreds of people IN TOTAL playing Pioneer? I had no clue.

 

So what do people think? 

What concerns would people have?

Is it a good idea?

Etc...

 

Andy


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fluffyfreak
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32 views and no opinions?


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Jalaris
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32 views and no opinions?

Well, I thought it was a great idea. I can't see any harm in data collection to help guide development, in fact, I only see benefit. I just didn't post because I thought my input wouldn't be that useful.


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Vuzz
 Vuzz
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Well, I thought it was a great idea. I can't see any harm in data collection to help guide development, in fact, I only see benefit. I just didn't post because I thought my input wouldn't be that useful.

+1


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fluffyfreak
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I added a poll to make it even simpler 🙂

 

 

Well, I thought it was a great idea. I can't see any harm in data collection to help guide development, in fact, I only see benefit. I just didn't post because I thought my input wouldn't be that useful.

That's good to know, there's been a lot of pushback on the other forum.


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Geraldine
(@geraldine)
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Voted, because it helps give direction to the project. And here is another idea Fluffy, why not tabulate the most requested new features or bug fixes between the dev forum and possibly other places (like here) and create a poll. That might help direct the Pioneer community and push along the game as each goal is attained. I do realise just how much superb work actually is done on the builds with my monthly uploads to Mod DB but there is no harm in highlighting the progress too and getting more folk involved.


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 Anonymous
Joined: 54 years ago
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Personally, I trust pioneer devs completely 🙂

But for most users, I think that the more the game is transparent regarding wich informations will be sent, the more they'll accept to opt-in.


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fluffyfreak
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4:1 so far, not bad. With an estimated 4k to 5k users though it's kinda clear why the forums are a weak way of getting feedback from our actual players though!

 

1/1000th of the users actually give feedback / information!

 

@Geraldine the reason we don't do that more actively is that we're not short of ideas or suggestions, just on time and resources to get things done. So if we created something like that then it makes working on Pioneer into more of a job or responsibility for those who do contribute and we end up not working on the things that interest us personally. As we've found out, to the cost of several developers, that leads to really quick burnout and then they quit.

 

Andy


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Geraldine
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A fair point Andy , but I was rather thinking of a roadmap of progress. Of course those involved with the project should be free to do as much or as little as they wish, but pinning something up that could be seen as desirable by many might just encourage someone out there to have a go at it. The main point I am aiming at is getting more and more folk involved. This in itself is desirable because it takes some of the onus off those like yourself who regularly add work to the project. The last thing I'd want to see is someone feeling burned out, or worse, sickened by it. I've seen this sort of thing happen in other games and this is why I say to all the Pioneer devs, that if you are starting to feel like that, please for the love of Newton take a break. Go do something else or nothing even then (hopefully) once your rested, come back refreshed. Pioneer is an ongoing thang. As long as people are interested in it then it will always be there. Personally I dread the day that Pioneer will ever be viewed as finished! Just watching it develop from those early Tom builds has been a great experience. Long may it continue!


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Styggron
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So long as we can turn them off / on with a menu option and anonymous of course, I see no problem. It's just I play offline quite a lot so I would not want it to keep trying to access online hence a opt in option as my humble suggestion.  


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impaktor
(@impaktor)
Pioneer Moderator
Joined: 7 years ago
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If off by default a way to get the player to submit stats is to have an upload/sync option where they can send in stats like:

  • total hours played
  • kill count
  • reputation
  • pilot name

together with the system specs and other stuff that might be of interest.


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IronHound
(@ironhound)
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I wouldn't agree to it, but I don't play Pioneer so my opinion probably doesn't mean much. 😛

 

(I'm currently waiting until the game at least matches Fe2 features. Couldn't care less about eye candy and flying around looking at planets. I much prefer gameplay.)

 

That being said, I wouldn't want any sort of software that lets you see things like that. Maybe its the wannabe criminal inside of me, but information is power. If I had access to a bunch of user data, and if I knew a bit of coding, you can be darn sure I would slip a virus in that saves your password every time you check your bank balance on its website. Obviously you would never do that, but its like leaving the keys in your car and going inside for a few hours. Where I live, you can't do that. Your car WILL get stolen. I'm not agreeing to ANY sort of data gathering program within a game.

 

Just felt like explaining why I put that 1 NO vote up there. 🙂 Best of luck with Pioneer! I hope to come back one day.


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impaktor
(@impaktor)
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its like leaving the keys in your car and going inside for a few hours

The key point here (no pun intended) is that the other devs are sitting in the car watching your key. It's open source, so a virus has no where to hide.

I feel for both sides. If devs know how many player's are being kicked in the butt by upgrading from OpenGL 2 to OpenGL 3, that would be very useful. At the same time, people want privacy, and a FOSS project like Pioneer should respect that.
 

I'm currently waiting until the game at least matches Fe2 features

I think Pioneer is pretty close to FE2 except military missions, and a litle balancing. Or did you mean somthing else?

Best way to see it gtting there is to join the development effort. I think anyone can pickup lua and write mission modules. No previous programming experience needed. Just enthusiasm.


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IronHound
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I think Pioneer is pretty close to FE2 except military missions, and a litle balancing. Or did you mean somthing else?

 

Really? I had no idea. Last I played the BBS was empty, the ships weren't finalized, and the elite counter didn't work, and trading was utterly borked. I prefer to be a space trucker to a space explorer, so years ago when I last played it didn't appeal to me. I'm going to have to give the game another shot!

 

Back on topic. Whats to stop the individual developer from adding to the API? The API itself may be open source, but once he adds it to the game, I don't see how other people could double check it. (Granted my knowledge of API's and such is limited. 😛 )


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Marcel
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Yes, Pioneer's come a long way since then. It's still far from finished, but quite playable. If you want to play it as a game, try walterar's Scout Plus. He's done some fantastic .lua scripting that you might want to peruse. It really makes the game come alive.

http://spacesimcentral.com/ssc/topic/3229-new-game-mod-pioneer-scout/page-28#entry56517


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impaktor
(@impaktor)
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Back on topic. Whats to stop the individual developer from adding to the API? The API itself may be open source, but once he adds it to the game, I don't see how other people could double check it.

 

The entire source code is open (here) for anyone to read. Granted, it's of the order of a hundred thousand lines of code, so doing it all at once is more than anyone can do (unless you know what you're searching for), but I trust the current code, and I review / glance at any new code being submitted.

As for trading, that is probably the same as last time you played, but we/I have plans to make it more profitable.

There are loads of missions on the BBS, and new ones that did not exist in FE2, but it depends on the station.


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fluffyfreak
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Back on topic. Whats to stop the individual developer from adding to the API? The API itself may be open source, but once he adds it to the game, I don't see how other people could double check it. (Granted my knowledge of API's and such is limited. 😛 )

 

Well you can't just commit straight to Pioneer unless you've been given permission, and even if there were an evil rouge developer on the core team all of the code itself is open source and the usual route is to go through code review so that others can see what you're doing.

Anyone that abused their direct commit access to sneak in bad code would lose their priveleges to do so pretty damned quickly.

 

If you're worried about that sort of thing though then perhaps downloading and running games people have built from the internet isn't that safe an option in itself anyway.

 

This process is about as open and honest as it is possible to get, you can always download the code, follow the instructions, build the game and then compare what you've built to what you've downloaded. We could not be more open than that.

 

I abandoned this idea a while ago anyway, even though everyone eventually agreed it would probably be fine.


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IronHound
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Well don't let me stop you! It could be useful for development. I just have horror stories from another game that tried something similar, but to do so it downloaded a file onto your computer.

 

Not a big deal right?

 

Wrong. My anti-virus programs and anti-malware software went ballistic. I could not figure out what the issue was until I googled the file. Because it was sending signals back to the dev, the firewall and other security was not pleased. 😛 Obviously that may not happen here, but I still shudder to think of the hours I spent figuring that thing out.

 

In Pioneer's case it could be incredibly valuable, I'd hate to think I kept you from getting useful information. 🙁


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