Soup to Nuts: SW Mod and Group Organization

Hi everybody, and welcome to Organization Meeting #1. Here we will try to hammer out many of the details of this mod that haven’t actually been discussed, just assumed.

One thing that has been sorely lacking is a design document of some kind, even a small one. MajorTom has at least tried to document updates and changes to the mod as they occur, but what we’re missing is a document that lays out the foundation for what we’re trying to accomplish.

The way I see it, we’re suffering from two main problems:

• Lack of a collective focus on what this mod is for and what it should be able to do, caused by;
• A steadily increasing amount of participation and responsibility by group members without a clear idea of what they should be responsible for.

For example; when I first started working with MajorTom on this mod I was just supposed to supply ship models for what was essentially his mod. But as time passed, and the mod grew, I started to take on the role of “canon fact checker.” And slowly but surely my opinion on the mod structure seemed to take on more and more weight until I felt like what I said actually made a difference. Which is great, but here’s the problem; like Roi, I still don’t have the slightest idea of what this mod is actually going to be capable of. I’ve had a tremendously difficult time playing anything but bot-matches with it (due to OS incompatabilities), and I’ve never even tried MP before. I barely play SP! Mostly, I just play Instant Action while I work out the design of my own mod. So as you can see, I’ve taken on more responsibility by participating in discussions on how the mod should work without a clear indication of what is actually expected from it.

Roi mentioned he would like to see what game scenarios MajorTom plans to include so he can use his time wisely. I agree. But it needs to be more than that. I suggest making a thread to act as our working design document. This document will cover all aspects of gameplay, and by extension all aspects of necessary custom content (models, scripting, ect.). It will be a dynamic document that can be changed as we find out what works and what doesn’t. This way, everyone can always be on the same page regarding what the goal of a specific discussion is (all too often the goals of a particular discussion are elusive and make it difficult to agree on).

By nature the design document thread is dynamic and will need to be maintained, so now’s a good time to volunteer (or volunteer someone else ;)). It’s probably going to be quite a bit of work, and will require some basic game design knowledge. It doesn’t have to be massive, but it does have to be comprehensive. Believe it or not, I think I actually have the most free time of the group. So I volunteer, unless someone else wants to do it. I think this mod has already grown far beyond its original intentions (correct me if I’m wrong here MT), and is really turning into something amazing which, if the atari forums are any indication, is being highly anticipated. To prevent it from growing beyond our ability to cope with it I think a design document is critical. Does anyone have a different opinion?

Well, that about covers problem number one. Now, about number two; this isn’t so much a problem as it is a hindrance to productivity. First, I’d like to make a list of who is officially on the team and what skills or knowledge they have (technical or not, everything is important). Then I’d like to clearly illustrate in what capacity they contribute and what their main resonsibility is. This is mainly to help alleviate and distibute the workload.

Wow, I’m suddenly really tired. So, I’ll wrap it up here for the moment.

I’d like to use this thread to discuss all aspects of organization, so feel free to bring up additional points or questions.

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