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Re: Recoloring Template : House of Nobles

Posted: Mon Apr 08, 2013 17:52
by Mattaiyah
Before I keep going with this, the colours that are wanted are Dark Gray for HN and White(ish) for the Empire? Because I don't really feel like restarting every time I make a template.

Oh, and here's a bonus : A quick version of a White card

Re: Recoloring Template : House of Nobles

Posted: Mon Apr 08, 2013 19:33
by Q_x
Hold a bit with the Empire, please (the colors look like a moonscape btw.).

The issue you're tackling is a bit deeper than just changing colors.

Our beloved one, the Great Architect of GDD, ORC and Everything is really scared when it comes to setting things in stone. I gave up producing and helping with the templates. After he changed what was said to be "ready" I gave up, cleaned up S.'s Inkscape templates and my Scribus files and described how to work with it. The issue is even deeper, as I'm afraid S. will revert to working with cards in Inkscape as soon as the team will release the software with the crucial set of features. Which in turn will make necessary to make adjustments or revisions in every card separately, will cause trouble collating the cards, introduce consistency problems etc.

But it's also an issue with all of us. No one makes any serious steps towards a release, we all got sidetracked. For now I think the problem is lack of playtesting, and this needs cards to be developed and plugins to be released. Since we have no software (FWIK Ravenchild has left the project without finishing his take on Cardscape), no one started working on plumbing our piping to have card creation organized in any way (and to get our old cards back in the first place).

As soon as we'll make a release, some things will finally be solidified, at least a bit. That' would be the moment to review our vicabulary and keep consistent ever after, for example. The way to go is to work on whatever WT/ORC needs to become released, not to tweak the templates. At least this is how I see our issues.

For me personally those conclusions were a bit shallow still. I wanted the development to be fun and easy, not tedious. Our benevolent one made things in a way, that everything became a struggle. Like one big bottleneck, or overambition. The template has bazilion of elements, the infrastructure needs logging into several pages, to test anything we need to make an appointment and waste half of a day simultaneously, mostly to move images on a virtual table, cause S. needs this kind of visual feedback (well, I don't), the tools are unhelpful, distracting and inefficient - just to mention ping.fm, which broadcasts our short messages into several places, none of which looks real, nor is regularly visited (like places maintained by humans for humans, cared for etc.). I want to give a positive example, not only criticize what S. has made, or to belittle his hard, great and fruity work. His work is the reason why I came here in the first place, keep that in mind.

I'm trying to develop man-hour crisis rule set to set some positive standards (or the lack of it), but, since it's man-hour crisis, I'm short on time. Anyway, creating cards and "turning on" the infrastructure - or rather describing how to deal with the lack of it, is of highest priority (later this week? I'll spam our mailinglist when I'll be past this stage). I'm planning not to use forums, wiki, anything but e-mail and esoteric online services like google docs. Quick, fun to make in totally asynchronous way, from drafting to testing (to releasing). Not to waste time, not to swamp or cripple people in any way.

This being said, if you feel tired, know you've made some excellent work already. Don't let yourself become exhausted. Seek for whatever gives you energy and stick with it. Frustration is the enemy here, and I feel like being honest (this includes telling people nasty stuff, like the above) is what makes projects like this healthy and smooth (or at least sort of).