Committee Topic: 3rd Party Request System / Issue Tracker

#1 For submitting code and advancing issues with clear solutions, I think the Github Issue tracker works well. For feature requests however, it's not working so well at the moment. Perhaps better moderation and getting more people interested in implementing needed features would help.

Having a voting system only makes sense if someone is eventually going to implement the highest voted features.

#2

Quote:Having a voting system only makes sense if someone is eventually going to implement the highest voted features.

Not sure I agree 100%. Having a voting system will help us understand the popularity of a feature which is one facet that the committee should consider (popularity != maintainability, performance, feasibility, etc). It's the committee's job to determine if the popular vote is the correct choice. Having a clear, well defined, understanding of what is popular will help the committee make better decisions (I believe).

#3 One thing that we learned from the CE is that the 'popular' requests ended up being game specific features. So I would hope that just because some sort of voting system pushes request X to the top of the list does not mean it would automatically be implemented... but it looks like Eric has already pointed that out.

#4 It's not a way of guaranteeing features, but a way to see what the community (or at least the ones engaged in voting) think is important to add to the engine.

#5 @Michael: What is/was CE ?

edit: Found it. Disregard.

#6 As Martin said in the meeting notes thread, I don't want to have to create any more accounts ;P. If we use a third-party issue tracker I for one would really appreciate if it could be integrated with GitHub's accounts, or the accounts here.

#7 Yeah, juggling accounts is no fun. It doesn't matter what sort of password management tools you use - you still have yet another account to remember in the first place. Integrate with an existing system if there is going to be a change.

#8 I don't mind if I need to setup another account for a third party solution or not. I just would like a formal way to voice feature requests and place to make our statement as to why the feature would be beneficial to all.

#9 We set it up on UserVoice. It is linked to your GG account, so you can login there with that and provide feedback/feature requests.

Here's the blog about it.

#10 before we start this isnt actually an attack, just a very personal opinion :p

1) If its not actually going to be a feature request but rather a wish list, then it should be clearly labeled as such

2) if pointless votes are going to be cast then it should be highlighted that they are pointless.

In the end i kind of agree with eric that a voting system shouldnt be used as a priority list or a guarantee, tho i do question the wisdom of hosting the pretense if this is the case.

My opinion has been noted in the past regarding the various OSs and my dislike for all things apple has also been a matter of record, but frankly OS X should be the 2nd most important platform as far as client compatability is concerned, there are more gamers with a mac than there are with linux desktops (this does not of course alter the necessity for a stable linux server) and as such shows how misguided the voting system actually is.

As for mikes comments about game specific features, as an RPG player and prospective developer its difficult to not ask for <insert fave genre here> features when we consantly see tutorials and features being added and hardcoded into the engine.

Jumping off track somewhat, but it seems that GG are asking for opinions i just dont think that the method they have added is particularly good for that.

edit:- if you want a list of features to add and things to fix and things to unbreak again, trawl through the T3D (private) forums posts, before they all get lost in OSS madness :)

#11 @Bloodknight - I think you are right, the feature request system is more about popularity of a feature. But that in itself is important to understand, it's just not necessarily an authoritative tool for decision making.

#12 Wow, this thread seems to be about nothing. Or, at best, it's about etymology. Just call the current voting system a "poll" and be done with it already.

It's quite clear that suggestions with a single vote on page 3 are not as important (in terms of user demand) as getting Torque ported to Linux. I'm also watching "terrain tools" climbing, too.

Taken as a gauge of what popular opinion is, it just makes sense for you guys to at least discuss these suggestions. They aren't genre specific either.

#13 I'm honestly not sure where all this negativity towards this came from all of a sudden. Did something happen in the Feature Requests between me leaving the office and checking the site just now? Is this all because the Linux request has a crap ton of votes and the Mac one isn't even half that?

@Dan
The point of this thread was to discuss the implementation of this system. It was a point that the committee wasn't in agreement on. These Committee Topics that we've been posing to the community are usually topics that either the committee is split on, validation of the consensus the committee came to, or we're just plain interested in what you guys think about something.

#14 @Scott - Negativity? I think you must be a bit sensitive mate, as I haven't seen any in this thread yet.

Also, I understood the point of this thread, I just haven't seen it go anywhere yet. I believe the consensus so far is to not treat the current system as a popularity contest where the "winner" gets implemented, but rather as a gauge for the steering committee to better decide where to go with discussion.

I've got 1 vote left (put 3 on terrain tools fyi) and I'm saving that bad boy for that special suggestion.

In short; I like the current system and realised at the start (as I'm sure most will) that a "high score" doesn't mean integration/implementation.

Edit: Hiding the number of votes the suggestions have will ensure nobody votes out of some misguided sense of solidarity. Just sayin'.

#15 Nah, I was extremely out of it yesterday, still not sure why. Not surprising that I misinterpreted Bloodknight's and some of your posts there. I'm calling fugue state on this one and will promptly go walk naked into a grocery.

#16 To be fair, i do tend to put my points out there, and often in a somewhat blunt/matter of fact fashion that has on occasion (ok frequently) been misinterpreted as perhaps more aggressive than it was originally intended.

My point however still stands, that you have years of collective feedback from paying customers comments on things from as far back as the 1.0 beta versions, replicators, IFLs, a multitude of things that were removed from the TGE feature list because they were too hard to add as DX features when OpenGL was benched (volumetric fog is the main one that springs to mind).

As for my comments about mac vs linux, this is supported by the number of 'desktop' computers in use out there in the userland, add to that the fact that while the linux OSs (yes plural) may be more advanced than OS X with regards gaming graphics the chances are that there are very few linux desktops that meet/beat the hardware specs of the macs.

last figures i saw shows mac users outnumbering linux users at a rate of 15:1, from and indie standpoint those aren't the kind of numbers that should be ignored :p

#17 @Scott/Walt - hahahaha..... That's cool. You probably look at these boards waaaay too much if you ask me. In my opinion, we could all use a bit of a break. With several teams working on various projects, you guys trying to manage the move to MIT and then having to deal with that, and then wankers like myself being sarcastic and expecting you to just "get it", it's going to take its toll I imagine.

Now I can't get that episode out of my head! :D