Coliseum Developer Notes: Jan. 29

[StormcloudCreations]

Just thought i'd start posting a daily Dev. Notes on here about Coliseum and other stuff, to get some good-spirited conversation going and keep all the people who read the forum informed about things in my little world.

The game:

Now that the craziness of the Last few days is behind me and the game is back on track, i'm starting to work toward releasing the 1.6 patch, which i'll try to get the music back in (assuming a more self-contained method for MP3 use I develop works ok), and fix a few more little bugs that decided to crawl out.

I'll probably be adding more enchantments and a few other little things too, but mainly I just want to get the game to a rock solid state, and then worry about adding major stuff. I appreciate everyone here staying cool and understanding; it really helped me not freak out too much.

The 1.6 patch should be ready in a few days, maybe a little longer; I want to make sure with testing that the patch is solid.

OT (MLB): C Ivan Rodriguez is probably going to sign with the Detroit Tigers in a few days. May I ask: why?? The prestige of being on a team destined for the cellar next year, and probably a few years to come? Gee, I wonder what his priority is?

OT (personal): I'm finally starting to lose the weight I put on during this project and get healthy. With my workout regimen of going to the gym every other day at least, protein bars, eating well (pretty to an Atkins type diet) and using SlimFast shakes as a meal substitute sometimes, i've lost 4 1/2 pounds the Last week or so, whoohoo! About 8 more to go.

[tromper]

If only more 'indie' developers and programers would be as communicative as you've been Derek. Thank you!!!! The fellow behind Starships Unlimited and the Stardock people (Galactic Civilizations) are other wonderful examples of this sort of attention to quality and customer satisfaction.

I've been holding off on going more than a season until things are squared away, as I don't want to lose my manager and his or *ahem* MY efforts. I don't sit around playing a few rounds while in a cubicle or anything (which is an appeal to many players no doubt), so it's important to me that the stable continuity is there when I spend three hours training and crossing my fingers. An idea: perhaps make it possible for a person to at least save a newly rolled manager permanently. I completely understand the save game stategy you've implemented with regard to prevention of replaying fights that went terribly wrong. Kudos there. But losing a manager is frustrating if a crash happens for some reason.

The Atkin's diet with excercise has worked for several people I know by the way, so keep it up. I empathize with the 'holy sh*t, I've been doing nothing but sitting on my butt in front of a monitor for six months, what happened?!' vibe.

Oh, another quick thing. Where did you come up with the various names that the gladiators have? I actually had a brief nightmare about Wepness Madcurse, an opponent that won two seasons straight (and killed three people in process, though none of my guys) prior to the first patch. I was almost glad the save games weren't compatible with the update. That bastard. heh heh

[old fat bald guy]

I concur with the kudos from Tromper. Played a season of 1.5 with the new patch tonight, and it's superb. (My man Steelhunger won the championship, so that might be influencing my opinion. BTW, only three of the nine opponents who began the season survived -- are you sure you toned down the mortality rate? )

Can't wait to see what you come up with next, Derek.