Suggestion Procedure

Completed suggestions should be posted here. Note that replies from other forum members are disallowed in this subforum.


Moderators: Forum Moderators, Suggestion Moderators

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Irongron
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Suggestion Procedure

Post by Irongron » Thu Dec 06, 2018 12:24 am

As most of you have liekly noticed I've had a somewhat taxing day with suggestions, having decide to change how these are handled.

I'll give the key points first, for those of you not wanting to read a wall of text, and add a longer explanation below.

The New Suggestion Procedure

- Suggestions made by players will be left there for approximately one week, to allow for responses from development staff, and associated discussions that may crop up elsewhere on the forums.

- At the end of this 'week' I, the Technical Lead (Currently Morderon) or the Art Director (Currently Anatida) will flag the suggestion as either 'Approved (Pending)' or 'Rejected' and where possible give some insight/feedback on the reasons.

- Development staff will then be free (but NOT obliged) to work on anything that has been approved. If so they will be able to reply to the thread, and mark it as 'completed'


FOR PLAYERS:

- If you can, please do check if a suggestion has already been made before repeating it, I know this isn't easily possible, and don't expect you to read through hundreds of pages in order to be certain.

- If you have an idea that is especially detailed, or game-changing consider discussing it on the Feedback Section of the forums before asking us to review it. Feedback of fellow players can be invaluable, and will quickly help determine whether the idea is viable.

- If you have a suggestion rejected please don't be downhearted, even when something is declined it will still very often point us towards areas of concern.

- Remember that developers generally prefer not to work to order, and are more often motivated by working on their own chosen projects.

FOR DEVELOPMENT STAFF:

-Any coders currently on the team are free to pursue anything in the 'Approved Suggestion' section of the forums. There is zero obligation or expectation for you to do so - only if you find the suggestions raises your interest.

- If you can please find a moment to reply to suggestions if you have anything to add, it will make my final decision a lot easier if I can have your insight before making it.

- Many suggestions are area/world based, and as such can only be actioned by myself and a few others that have the appropriate level of access. If you don't currently have access to the necessary area files you can ignore any such suggestion.

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So now the longer ramble/explanation for those of you with an appetite for it!

Having made this decision I first wanted to get through a month of suggestions before making an announcement, its 1am for me now, and I began 12 hours ago...

And that's just a single month. We have 5000 suggestions sitting in that area.

While adopting this new approach will certainly take more of my time, the reason for this change is twofold; primarily because a great many suggestions simply get lost. I know I probably speak for many developers in saying that while I often read a suggestion and think to myself 'That would be nice', I also soon forget about it as I get on with current projects. Players can feel that their suggestion is ignored, or worse, rejected, and one can definitely feel uncomfortable about suggesting it a second time if there has been no response to the first.

The reason for our previous approach was sound, namely that development of Arelith is not something to be directed by the players, but rather based upon the creative direction adopted by myself and the development team - most of whom have their own specific areas and projects they would prefer to work on.

Even for members of the team getting a concrete approval for a change can involve a lot of back and forth, and lengthy discussion with fellow members. I believe that having an 'Approved Suggestion' area will offer them options for development without always needing to petition me on every detail, and that is my second reason for doing this.


Finally thanks to everyone for making these suggestions, while my life would certainly be easier with a little less of them, the feedback they contain really does allow us to pinpoint areas in need of attention. Hopefully we'll see a lot more clarity in future when it comes to how they have been received.

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Irongron
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Re: Suggestion Procedure

Post by Irongron » Fri Aug 09, 2019 6:51 pm

I have updated the above text in light of our migration to HAK content, and the unlocking of the suggestion board.

Due to the fact I expect many suggestions to now be made, Morderon will also now be able to approve reject suggestions, as will Anatida, our new 'Art Director'

Art Director is a new rank I have chosen, as we now have a fledgling team of digital artists working on Arelith, and she has shown herself to be a dedicated and personable member of our development staff, who has taken many months to help us prepare new tilesets, and learn the details of the processes involved.

In regard to suggestions to the Art Director will be tasked with reviewing all HAK suggestions pertaining to the inclusion of existing 'art' resources, such as character customisation options and tilesets. I expect many such suggestion to be made.

Please be advised though, that we have only just begun adding in our chosen HAKs, so I would NOT advise suggesting any tileset, pleaceable or creature HAKs at this time.

In regard to character customization options, I will making a post as to why this aspect of HAK addition has proved frustrating for us, and why it is unlikely that we'll see any such options added in the near future.

Even so, if anyone does want to browse available HAKs to include in their suggestions (including character customization options), feel free to browse the 'NWNVault' to do so https://neverwintervault.org/

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The GrumpyCat
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Re: Suggestion Procedure

Post by The GrumpyCat » Fri Feb 10, 2023 2:11 pm

I put this in the other thread, but as some people missed that...

The GrumpyCat wrote:
Sat Jan 14, 2023 8:45 pm

Each User may put ONE suggestion per week in the box. No more. This is to keep our workload managable.

This too shall pass.

(I now have a DM Discord (I hope) It's DM GrumpyCat#7185 but please keep in mind I'm very busy IRL so I can't promise how quick I'll get back to you.)

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