SPD's New Direction

[Burnman Bedlam]

Greetings and Salutations all,

Not sure how many of you are aware of the new direction Chase plans to take SPD, so I thought I would bring it up here.

While posting about the new naval combat system that I have in development, one of the main concerns people brought to my attention with a new system is the potential loss of investment in their existing ships. Most people don't want to have to purchase new ships to use a new system, as the expense already incurred coupled with the expense of acquiring new vessels would be prohibitive for most.

Chase has decided to develop a new SPD system, which will not be compatible with his existing system let alone any other SPD compatible ships such as TSS.

This means that his future system will leave behind everyone who does not have the funds, or does not wish to expend the funds, for new ships just to stay current. He claims that providing updates to existing customers would be impossible, and I if I remember correctly (without checking the chat log) I believe he stated that the "weeks and months" it takes for him to script such a system justifies the need for repurchase.

I feel the need to point a couple of things out here.

1) It is absolutely possible, without doubt or question, to provide the ability to update existing SPD ships to the new system, regardless of what Chase says. It would mean a bit of work for him to script up a detection system so people can't just get the new system without having owned an SPD vessel, but it as 100% possible to provide such a system. I believe he will not do this for 2 reasons, he does not want to do the work and he wants us to give him lots of money.

2) It did not take him "weeks and months" to script his ships. Without getting too far into the specifics of Chase's combat system, it isn't that complex in its current form (compared to other systems), and could easily have been made by copy/pasting code from freebie scripts. As for the sailing aspect of his ships... you can thank Kanker Greenacre for those. Chase's ships are powered by slightly modified Flying Tako 2.1 scripts (open source). As for the actual ships themselves, I own three of his ships... and he didn't build any of them. The builders were bigreal Luik and Antonnio Balczo, and Chase's cannon barrels were made by Arundelain Dumart. He created the root prim, which is why he shows as the creator. If you use the "Inspect" option in the right-click pie menu, you can see who created each prim in an object.

I do not regret buying my SPD ships, and I have had a lot of fun sailing with them and engaging in combat with them. But to think that the amount of money I spent on my vessels, let alone all the money spent by everyone else, would be so insignificant to Chase that he would require repurchase to continue receiving updates for the SPD naval combat system is more than a little upsetting. I cannot help but feel more than a little cheated, spending nearly L$7000 on SPD ships & cannons simply to have them be rendered obsolete just a couple months later.

Chase's announcement of his "new direction" were made in the battle group chat for Beeks, and it occurred to me that many in Antiquity might not be in that group, which is why I post this here now. This information is current as of about a week ago, as I have been offline a bunch due to RL (have been moving) this past week. As far as I know, nothing has changed. I will post more information as I find it, feel free to do the same ;)

[Burnman Bedlam]

Just got chase's ridiculously long winded notecard. Will have to finish reading it later, as it's written like a bad novel. From what I read, the new system will be laggy (regardless of what he thinks), and won't be very script-limit friendly when LL enacts those nasty limits they are planning.

I am sure I will have more to say when I fight my way through all the sales pitch and read the rest of it.

[Burnman Bedlam]

[quote=Oma]Business can be dirty and cut throat. I wish SL could be different but that may not be a realistic dream.[/quote] (not sure if the bbcode style formating will work here... wish we could quite comments like forum posts. lol)

Business can be nasty in both real and Second Life. The difference here though, is the ability to act anonymously and without local, state, federal, or international regulation (depending on your activities). As long as you aren't violating copyright, handling child porn, running a casino, running a bank improperly, or committing actual theft, you can do just about anything you like in SL. That gives people who would normally follow the law the opportunity to do whatever they please and get away with most of it.

During the initial discussion in Beek chat about the the new SPD system a couple weeks ago, one of Chase's pals mentioned that people are trying to put Chase out of business. That actually made me laugh out loud, since this new system seems to be an attempt to shut his competition out of the market by making everything else incompatible. I see no reason why he should not be able to make a new system, but I demand honesty and integrity from those I do business with.

All I want is honesty and fair dealings. Had he been forthcoming from the start about his intentions, and not done this namby pamby dance about whether or not to provide updates to existing customers, he wouldn't be scrambling for damage control now.

[Burnman Bedlam]

Gaia, if the "myth" which you refer to is the claim that chase wasn't going to give out the new ship to existing customers, that wasn't a myth. He was very resistant to giving his new system away to anyone, regardless of purchase history.

His decision to give out his new ship to existing customers is damage control, nothing more. I will gladly take one to test it out and see how well it compares to his existing system, but based on what I've seen so far, I think it will be even more of a lag monster than his current ships.

[Oma Larnia]

Aye Scurvy, there's a lot of talent in Antiquity. I hope that everyone gets a fair chance to complete thier work and have a fair opportunity to sell and have these products used by the rest of us!

Now, as a former business owner I can tell you being cut throat and purposely driving people out of business is pretty dirty and disgusting business. I had it happen to me on my second business. I could not compete with the larger company that hoped to have the monopoly in the ISP business in town, while I was busy trying to save my arse by calling the owner to try and sell my business to him, he was having my wires cut and already sneaking in his servers next to mine in an area where I had previously been the only provider. So while he smiled and nodded to me pretending to talk pricing on my business, he already knew he had my business, and I got to go under in a flaming ball of cow turds. Business can be dirty and cut throat. I wish SL could be different but that may not be a realistic dream.

[Scurvy Ragu]

All for you to know...... There are two more people here that are building excellent shipsthat will surpass the greedy Chase monster... Burnam and Pegleg Yay to them both

[GaiaGirl Pearl]

I'm more than happy to test a new system and provide necessary feedback to designers - its better than having a system thrust upon us that hasn't gone through testing in battle conditions. I'm also happy that we have a designer who listens to the feedback and does make adjustments that are justifiably feasible. I'm especially happy that I can see some of my suggestions in the ships, as there was after I beta tested the original corsair xebec a year ago (he also modded the longships after that experience).

It seems that Chase has to including marketing to the repertoire of skills that he has to do in a manner to please everyone. Yes, I help Chase market his ships, as I have done in the past with an interview here: http://www.gaiagirl.com.au/pirate/speculaas.htm
& I also sell the SPD ships here: http://www.gaiagirl.com.au/shop/ships.html
I've also designed a webpage to sell the TSS ships but my host's server is currently unable to upload it.
I also market Lia Woodget's ships here: http://www.gaiagirl.com.au/shop/woodget.html and there are dozens of other people in SL that I help market their goods and I try in my own limited way to help the whole of SL.

And I agree with Bridget that there have been inaccurate statements about this new system and that's another reason why I'm going through the beta tests. As I said earlier, Chase is going to send out a notecard and I'm sure that many other concerns will be addressed, and myths dispelled.

I know that I'm going out on a limb here and presenting a side of the story which is not agreeing with a few of my friends - please don't take my comments personally and please wait and see Chase's notecard :)

[Bridget Jennings]

I am an engineer and I cannot operate without data. My time with the Beta last night already dispatched several misstatements that have appeared about this ship and more tests are needed to determine the feasibility of using this ship at all (sure as I am breathing someone from outside Anty will show up with a new SPD III ship at the Lagoon and ask to use it - if I am hosting I need to be prepared to tell that person yes or no and to provide a reason). As I mentioned in the other forum, the Grand Duke stated in March that the only battles the Admiral and Commodores can host in the Lagoon are to based on the SPD II weapons system (my editorial - since SPD III did not exist at the time). So for the time being this is moot as far as I am concerned until there is a new decree from the Senate or the Grand Duke.

[Oma Larnia]

I have not missed one point of his marketing strategy, nor the fact that he's using us beta testers to improve his scripts and find the bugs. However, I review all things I can get my hands on, I believe my various posts on combat systems, roleplay systems, trading systems have proven that I will test drive anything. It doesn't mean I will buy them, it doesn't mean I will recommend them to anyone. However, I will post my honest opinion on what I have tested. No one else has ever given me a TSS or any other brand ship to beta test, though I have noted that some people do get those as well. I came to roleplay, have very few instances of this, so until I get what I came here for, I'll continue to test things to keep myself entertained while I'm in SL. }:^>

[Oma Larnia]

I ain't had me gun out yet, but I am interested to see where this all leaves us. I agree he's been nothin' but civil with me an' provided some fun senarios at the Beek engagments. I know not how he treats anyone but myself since I can not step into anyone else's shoes. So hopefully I hear something soon cuz I ain't the most patient o' seabitches.

[GaiaGirl Pearl]

Hi - I had a long chat with Chase last night. I should say that I admire Chase and the work that he's done and I have a lot of time for him as he has been a true gentleman in the 18 months or so that I've known him.

I wouldn't wish the position that Chase has found himself in on anyone - having to deal with retail customers, upgrades, scripting, organising others who do their various inputs into the creations, etc. No-one in that position can be all things to all people and its painfully obvious that everyone has an opinion on the direction of sea battles, ship design, what SL should be or not, etc etc etc. Like a lot of people who work, whether for profit or not, they come up against criticism especially when doing something new, or something involving change.

Chase shared some important news with me and actually gave me permission to spread the word, but I know that he's going to send out a notecard to his customers soon ... so I'll let him make the announcement. I just ask that you hold yer fire until then.