Miner Wars Community Amping Up

Upcoming forum and community functionality changes and status report

Friday, March 05, 2010 6:31 PM

Hello Guys!

as always we have been very busy with the development of Miner Wars and the community management part. On a side-note before I start telling you of the changes: Marek has published a chapter in a book about game development called GPU Pro: Advanced Rendering Techniques. Here is the link: http://www.amazon.com/GPU-Pro-Advanced-Rendering-Techniques/dp/1568814720/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1266696252&sr=8-1 . The chapter speaks of destructible volumetric terrain that we use in our VRAGE for the development of Miner Wars. As you all know there are upcoming changes to the forums. We have already put up two new sections. These are called "spread the word" and "contributing models". These new sections are part of the first change to the community management model that we want to implement.
We are well aware that all of you guys are already doing something extra for the game and we really appreciate it. We have been thinking hard as to how we should make it all worthwhile to you.
You might wonder why the forum already does not have the functionality of the usual forums out there. There is a good answer to that. We want to fully implement the forums into the game. Your forum accounts will be fully linked to the ones you will be using in the game and the game will actively communicate a lot of functionality back to the website.
We also want to fully implement our future vision of making an Indie game development hub that I will speak of in the coming months.
This is why we are making the forums from scratch.

With the new forum changes we have decided to start a few new things:

1) Rank based on number of forum posts (nothing unusual)
2) Achievement medals

a) There will be three types of medals that you can gain in the community
b) Each medal will have 3 levels to it

c) Medal type: Model Contribution - you gain this by contributing models that will be used for the development of the game - the manual how to contribute your models is here: http://www.minerwars.com/ManualFor3DModelContributors.aspx

d) Medal type: Spreading the word - you gain this by submitting your communication, blogging, fansites of the game. Basically any type of communication with the outside world that will further increase the basic awareness of Miner Wars. We have also made a very basic affiliate program that will count every click-through that you will gain by submitting a link that is available on your forum profile. We will automatically display the number of click-throughs that your links will provide on the website. Its easy - just use the link on your forum profile under Affiliate URL. You can copy it anywhere on any forum or website.

e) Medal type: Idea Contribution - any idea that you have for the game mechanics might be implemented. Some of you have already submitted ideas that were seriously thinking of implementing in the game. You will soon be informed which ideas have already made it in the game. Only those that will be chosen will count as a medal award achievement.

f) Level 1 medal will grant you the medal itself on the forums and the ability to submit your own art that will be put on your ship. Basically you will be able to pimp your ride :).

g) Level 2 medal will grant you a free license of the game and all the goodies of level 1

h) Level 3 medal will grant you an exclusive access to the unreleased game content and a much deeper possibility to be a part of the development process itself. And of course the goodies of level 1 and 2.

i) Medal levels can only be aggregated and will be awarded step by step. Every user will first attain level 1 medal and so on....

j) Tomas "Darghan" Psenicka will be awarding the medals!! :) Maybe Marek will also have a small word in that :))

k) Exact numbers of how to reach a specific medal level will be mentioned in the news on monday.

l) Each specific area will have its own moderation and its own set of rules. These will be given to you by the end of the week.

3) Each user will have displayed next to his name a number of submitted posts
4) Our and Community manager posts will be highlited
5) Quoting posts
6) Official FAQ
7) File upload (will include a thumbnail on the forums)
8) Information as to who posted last in the thread (finally :))

Last but not least we have succesfully finished our work on these things:

1) Automatic updater of the game
2) Game installer
3) Networking code, especially game-logic on server side
4) Submitted the first fan-art into the game (test) http://www.minerwars.com/PicZoom.aspx?id=61

I have also been hard at work on the videos that have been promised. I have already captured and will upload a video of solar wind and physics of the game. I will be working on remastering the video over the weekend.

It has been a busy week and the next one will be the same :)

Tomas "Darghan" Psenicka