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Re: The State of Limit Theory Development, 2017 Edition!

#122
It turns out you guys were right. :) He started with CryEngine but switched to UE4. Regardless, he was only building small mission areas at a time. It may have been in space, but had nowhere near the scope of LT. For that reason I don't think saying "Well, Etsu made a space game with UE4" is a valid argument to use it for LT. :)
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Re: The State of Limit Theory Development, 2017 Edition!

#132
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*Slaps Josh* How dare you! How dare you presume to know what we want from you! We are here because we fell in love with you and your dream, not because you showed us pretty things. (though admittedly that helped. :monkey: )
Your 2 years of near complete radio silence cannot be forgiven easily, and certainly not with a "Hi, I'm still here. I've been working hard on a really hard problem, let me tell you just how hard it is". You have utterly failed to place as much in trust us as we have in you, and that hurts. You'd best remember that for the rest of your career.

I've always called you Wonderboy, I meant it, and still do. I only have a vague understanding regarding your technical narrative, but it sound to me like what you're really saying is that the FPLT is that you are a human being and the 3 lbs of fat in your skull has limitations that no programming language can overcome. Well of course it does, you're Wonderboy, not the god of code who writes reality from atop Mt. Olympus.

In the last year, I've increasingly come to believe that as brilliant as you are, you simply aren't brilliant enough to make your dream a reality by yourself. Your post suggests I'm unfortunately right. The Fundamental Problem of Limit Theory is ironically the Skullfat Limit, and there is only one sure way to overcome the Skullfat Limit, more Skullfat.

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Suggestion:

DWMagus is right, you need a think tank. You actually probably need more than that, you probably need production help. Luckily, you and your project has attracted many talented people that can and would help you to various degrees in various capacities, utilize them. You have also certainly met people almost to more skilled than you in your years who might be willing to help.

At the very least, you should make a space for brainstorming with others. This would be a secured space for trusted individuals (Who can be required to sign a NDA) where you can reveal your Intellectual Property to work out solutions to the issues you're facing. The first rule of good writing is "Show, don't Tell"; this would be a space where you can Show people what you're doing, what extremely specific problems you have and are currently facing, what you've tried, and how(not why) it didn't work. From what you said, this does not sound optional if you are going to release LT before the end of the decade. Additionally, this would also be a solution for communicating with the community, having someone give a general summary of what's going on in this development forum.

More radically, and perhaps only in the event the first doesn't work, is giving one or more people complete open access to everything; perhaps even every version and attempted solution you've tried from the very beginning. A dreaded prospect I'm sure, but if a finished LT means as much to you as I think it does, it would be worth it. If you have truly reached your Skullfat Limit, you have to add more Skullfat to at least some core aspects of the project and then you need to trust them to hold and feed and nurture your baby.

Would these people be paid? Would they receive a portion of the profits? Would they receive a single payment after release? Would they have guaranteed employment at your company? The details would be between you and them.

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Most of us still believe in you. ALL of us still want LT as soon as possible. Collectively we have put in thousands of hours thinking about and developing game mechanics that you likely never would/could have come up with. As you said, those sorts of things take an enormous amount of time and creativity. So many of those ideas were only possible because we broke the Skullfat Limit and hammered them out together. You've been banging your head at a problem for 2 Years without a solution. Yes, you've learned a lot in doing so; yes, you've made progress; yes, you may eventually figure it out on your own (Though several people think you'd practically deserve a Nobel prize for that). But you are a human being, prone to blindspots, typos, and other errors in thinking that can cost enormous amounts of time as you pursue dead ends.

You have accomplished so much, and you deserve ample praise for it. BUT, and I mean this in the most supportive sense, you are your own biggest obstacle to making LT a finished reality.

I wish you the very best, and hope you take my words to heart and fully embrace your community and all we can do for you.

Also, *Hugs Josh a full 5 minutes after it becomes awkward and he struggles to escape*
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Challenging your assumptions is good for your health, good for your business, and good for your future. Stay skeptical but never undervalue the importance of a new and unfamiliar perspective.
Imagination Fertilizer
Beauty may not save the world, but it's the only thing that can
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Re: The State of Limit Theory Development, 2017 Edition!

#133
Hyperion! Good to see you again!

While you phrase things more strongly than I would, it's no secret that I agree with the gist of what you said. Beyond the possible technical and PR benefits of offloading some non-programming support functions, I believe extending a bit of trust to a small number of people would lead to a healthier and happier Josh. I'm also confident there are skilled people who'd help out occasionally for free, so I don't consider cost an object.

That said, I would add that -- if I understand correctly -- searching for a technical solution to the scripting/performance conundrum is not purely a matter of brain wattage. It's not something that one or more people can merely think their way through. It just plain takes time to test, and rework, and retest. It's not an instant, "yep, tried new model, instantly works for everything!" kind of problem. It's a "well, adding this thing worked... adding this thing worked... adding this thing worked... uh-oh, that didn't work; how badly didn't it work; oh crap this just can't be forced to work, next idea" kind of problem.

You could maybe farm out some testing of alternative scripting systems (or, as I suggested elsewhere, change the feature list to change the scope of the problem). But, while I might be wrong, I don't believe Josh will ever feel that it's necessary to ask someone else to do any of the technical design work (which is the hard stuff). People are free to push Josh (politely, I hope) on that if they want; I won't because I don't think it's a realistic possibility.

What I believe is that a technical solution exists. Between advances in technology (e.g., new languages) and the ingenuity and persistence of a great programmer, I think this problem can be beaten, and I think Josh is capable of beating it. What I don't know is when that will happen (because testing takes time -- see above), or if he will be willing to share some of the non-technical burden in order to help him stay healthy and productive and to keep fans in the loop.

So I will hope for the best. And maybe gently nag once in a while. :) But that's just me.
Cornflakes_91 wrote:
Flatfingers wrote: Then some quality time with Mrs. Flatfingers was appropriate.
Things i didnt want to know.
I knew I could count on someone to take "quality time" in exactly the incorrect way. Thank you for justifying my faith. :P
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Re: The State of Limit Theory Development, 2017 Edition!

#134
It's great to hear back from you Josh and thank you for the very in-depth look at the last 2 years you have had.

I look forward to reading these new dev. logs of yours, the majority of which will likely go over my head as a non-programmner but I will read them thoroughly nonetheless.

Good luck with LT, hopefully you nail the FPLT and in the next year or two release a great game that will have been worth waiting for.

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