Change priorities

[Tim]

Character changes being stuff like adding different character classes, changing skills, etc.

Item changes being things like adding/removing weapon stats, balancing weapon types, adding two-handed items, etc.

UI (User Interface) changes being things like notification of new messages/logs, indicator for someone online, new layout for pages, etc.

I know I'm getting a little ahead of myself here, but most of the changes going into V2 fit into one of these categories. The list of changes for V2 is getting pretty long (already as long as V1 I think, and there's a lot more complexity to some of them), and I don't want there to be too long a gap between the two version (probably 3-4 months ish. Game will likely get stale after that, if not before). Basically, I just want to know what order I should prioritize the changes, so if something gets pushed back to a later release, it can be the one that you guys feel is least needed.

Frankly, I can't decide.

[Hugh Longshanks]

A lot of it depends on speed.
Namely, if UI is going to be the easiest to implement, I'd favor doing that first.
But,
Assuming all the changes are equally difficult and time-consuming, I favor doing Character, UI, Item.

[Tim]

Well, I would say UI could be the easiest of the 3, depending on how gungho I get. Granted, one of the things on my mental list (not on the actual list) is to change everything (or at least most) from the GET method to the POST method. Without getting too technical (for those of you who don't know programming) its changing it so you won't see things in like names in the address bar anymore, which will eliminate a lot of loop holes that currently exist (though I've closed quite a few). Problem is that requires changing pretty much every link on the site, as well as probably adding javascript functions to make things easier on me.

Needless to say, that'll be a LOT of work, and it's for changes you (hopefully) won't even see, so it's not really on my radar right now. But if I feel ambitious and include that in the UI changes, it'll probably be the most work.

Character and Items, I'll put about equal, as I'm not sure which one will be more time consuming.

[secon]

Tough question.

I guess it somewhat depend on what changes will be made. I'm not sure if it's easier to create a skillset for different classes if the weapons are already done, or if it's better to create the weapons after the skills are all done. I guess with tweaking, either could work.

If you're balancing the items and skills together, that would probably make it easier than creating one thing for one version, and another for the next. So I'll vote Item, Character, UI.

[Hugh Longshanks]

Good point - whatever is the most basic should really be done first, so, as Secon said, if skills are what we base weapons on, then skills first, and vice versa.

[Jay alAvid]

I think fixing the bugs fro gostones.net will bring people in as is; but adding character class changes will make it different enough to be interesting. Then new toys can be introduced on -the-fly, and items as levels get higher..