A genuine post such as this has a profound effect.Mike wrote: 1) Already made several attempts at this, there's no solution as of yet without running into noclipping problems (and abuse). I could probably come up with something but that may take a long time would delay any other development.
2) I understand this probably needs to be tweaked, but I'm unsure as to how much. If some kind of pointers could be given, that should help me in the right direction. For example, if you were to say the hit delay is correct when standing 3 squares away, but takes too long for anything further, then I can tweak it in that direction. But since I'm not all that knowledgeable about those finer details, I'll need some input on that. Youtube video's aren't quite clear to me on that point either.
3/4) Really tricky to get that right, due to the way everything is coded in the game. It really isn't that simple, but I hope I may be able to work something out. No promises.
It seems to me that a lot people have the idea that I have an infinite amount of time to work on an infinite amount of features and bugfixes. Spoiler alert: I don't. There's literally a hundred players with their own list of "FIX ALL THIS NOW BECAUSE THIS IS WHATS WRONG WITH PKHONOR". As I said, I have a limited amount of time and I need to prioritize. I can't do what seems out of reach at the time (such as following, 07 items/pets etc) and I need to work on features/bugfixes that have the best "value for PkHonor versus time required to implement" ratio. It may come as a surprise that both are incredibly hard to measure, because what the community votes as being "important" isn't always what brings most value to the server. Popular opinion is pretty much the only indicator we have, but it's flawed. As for the "time taken to implement", it is often hard to estimate. Let's not even start about what I personally want, because ever since construction, I've given up working on the things I want - now I'm just a code monkey trying to make the people happy by giving them what they want (I stopped enjoying PkHonor development at all over a year ago).
I know that for a lot of people, the solution seems clear: work on a particular feature and everything will be fine. It's never that simple. All I can say is, I try to do what's best for the server - and I'll be the first to admit I don't always succeed in that. Whether the community (or part of it) agrees with my decisions as far as prioritization goes is not entirely relevant, because nobody can make proper estimates on the value of a feature, nobody can properly estimate the time it'll take to do (even I often miss my estimates by a huge amount) and nobody but myself knows whether a feature is within my capabilities as a programmer. And of course, the community is divided over a a lot of decisions (such as summoning) and everyone has their own set of things they want in the game. It's incredibly hard to satisfy everyone, so I try to avoid controversial topics and try to work on those things that most people want.
People tend to say I'm a good programmer and expect me to work magic - I'm not, and I can't. I would even dare say Dylan is an overall better programmer than me. I'm just better than the average (read: uneducated) RSPS developer and have several years of RSPS programming experience to work with. That doesn't mean I can make everything happen just because I want it to
TL;DR: I appreciate the input you folks give me, but please go easy on the judgemental "you're not working on the right thing" comments. I'm really trying here.
One last thing: I know I don't talk as much about my personal life as I used to (explaining why certain updates are delayed due to IRL circumstances etc.), but I have deliberately chosen not to. The main reason is because now, more than ever, I need my personal life to be as far away from PkHonor as possible. Jagex (probably) wanting to sue me is one thing, people blackmailing me IRL to get an unban is another. I hope you folks understand. Just as long as you remember that I try really hard to keep on releasing updates on a regular basis.
People rag on you because, for the most part, you're this phantom figure... something that people cannot identify with.
Here, you've shown us that you're a person whose simply trying their best with what they have... and that's commendable.
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