Joined: 26 Apr 2003 Location: Somewhere in Germany
Posted: Tue Feb 15, 2011 7:25 pm Post subject:
Ares in need of active support
Subject description: Otherwise it might die
Ares, the popular project adding hundreds of fixes and new features to the YR engine, is in urgent need for motivated, active testers, promo/PR staff and more.
Without these, the project will end after Ares 0.2 is finished, which would be a huge hit to the RA2/YR modding community, as Ares has quite a few useful features in the pipeline still waiting to be implemented.
This is what Nighthawk wrote over at renegadeprojects.com:
Nighthawk wrote:
Greetings, everyone.
As you no doubt read last month, Ares is dancing on the precipice of discontinuity.
I don't normally make news posts, but times are calling for it. Simply put, without support from the community, there will be neither enough manpower to muscle out a release of Ares in a reasonable timescale, nor a reason to even continue developing it.
After all, why spend hours coding, testing and debugging a product if no-one's going to use it.
Therefore, this post is a Kitchener-esque call requesting applicants for the following positions on the Ares team.
Documentation Maintainer:
Basically, you'll have to update, append to and correct the manual.
You should be able to write in clear and readable English, as the manual will be read by any user of Ares, and it needs to be understandable.
You should have an idea of what HTML is, since the manual is an HTML document. Help on this can be given, however.
You should also be active both on the forums and on the IRC channel, as the manual will need updated quite often.
Promo Material Creator:
Basically, you're the people who make screenshots, videos, creative crop circles, anything needed to spread the existence of Ares to the masses.
Knowledge of image editing would be an obvious necessity, and preferably you'd know how to create and edit videos.
Constant activity is not as pertinent a requirement here as it is for documentation maintenance. However, when it comes close to a release time, we will expect you to be able to turn out material quickly and on time.
Expect to be issued with deadlines, and we will in turn expect you to meet them. However, you can take pride in having your work on show around the community to advertise Ares.
Project Ambassador:
Public Relations. PR. Whatever you want to call it. You'll be the people who drum up support for Ares among the general proletariat.
This will involve posting news on community sites, creating the odd teaser topic for a modding forum, and generally spreading information and answering inquiries on Ares on sites around the community.
You should ideally be friendly people who can communicate well with random members of the community. To this end, a good command of English is preferred, as almost all major community sites operate in English.
You will work with the Promo Material Creators to help devise interesting news posts for display around the community.
Basically, Ares needs support and attention. You will be the people who will go forth and bring it.
User Support Agent:
Not everyone is a brilliant modder. Some need a little bit of help to get going. That's where you come in.
User Support Agents should have a good working knowledge of the latest stuff in Ares - after all, how can you give advice on a product without knowing how to use it yourself?
Basically answer any member queries about how to accomplish something in Ares, how to get it installed, how to make mods compatible with it, etcetera.
Again, a friendly and approachable persona is preferred. Being able to communicate well is also recommended.
Active Testers:
We've had an endemic problem with testers throughout Ares' lifetime - they simply can't be bothered.
Out of the many testers currently on the roster, only a minutely small fraction of those do any regular testing. This will change - inactive testers will be culled, and we will be looking for replacements.
Do not think of this as easy access to Ares. You will be working with potentially unstable beta versions - not the best thing to base a mod on.
Your holding of the "tester" title is entirely dependent on your activity. If you behave like our many previous testers, i.e. appear for a week, test some issues you have interest in, then bugger off and don't show up again, we will fire you. Simple as.
As an active tester, you will be expected to be active. Additionally, you will be required to test all and any issues to their fullest and to the best of your ability. Don't just stick a couple of values in rulesmd and observe the result - push those values to their limits, observe the effects, make sure we've got our theories correct.
Modding experience is a necessity, and preferably you've used Ares before.
Keeping a frequent presence on our IRC channel is recommended.
Ares development will halt if we do not have a quorum of active testers.
Do not apply to be an Active Tester if you will not be able to live up to the title. We will not look back if we have to cut you loose.
I know I'm hardly selling these positions, but I'm not going to hide the facts from you.
And in a similar vein, without these people, Ares 0.2 will be the final release of Ares.
If you're interested, send me a PM with some information about who you are, what you're applying for, and why you'd be good for the role.
We may be in need of people, but that doesn't mean we're opening the floodgates - applications will be strictly vetted: if we don't think you're suited for the job, we're not going to give you it.
The existence of a 0.3 version is entirely dependent on whether anyone steps up to the plate.
The ball is in your court.
Nighthawk.
Ares Project Manager.
So head over HERE and make sure Ares stays alive! QUICK_EDIT
I wish I had time, honestly. Ares is what people wanted to remove the limitations of the C&C engine and fix westwood's ztype ups. It's pretty sad that RA2 modding wasn't revived and brought into what should be its golden era. _________________ Victory! QUICK_EDIT
Yes, i would love to help its progress, but for now i don't fell i would help it at all with what i'm currently doing, but i think we need some "new blood", having an community as PPM with its 120 users and around 1300 guests per day could be better, as many of thoses guests could have potential and for sure would help ares alive.
PS: i also failed at my first time trying running ares and launchbase and all. QUICK_EDIT
The project will not die, and to be honest anyways, it needs to be put out in the open more.
A page at Moddb would not hurt it, posts on other community websites showcasing it. Denying such would be the worst thing for this project.
They actually have a page on ModDB iirc.
Also, times like this call for every modder out there to step up. I honestly wish I could serve, I have no skill that would help at all :l _________________ Please, I DON'T read the signature rules of the forum. QUICK_EDIT
Joined: 24 May 2004 Location: Flanders (Be) Posts:300000001
Posted: Wed Feb 16, 2011 11:29 am Post subject:
Well I got my own little hacking/upgrading project going on...
Personally I don't really understand their attitude in this. I've been working on 1.06 as a hobby, over several years. Sure sometimes I stop working on it for a few months, only to pick up again and add some more cool stuff or fixes. And I do 99% of my testing myself, unless it involves multiplayer stuff.
People just take the whole thing too seriously imo. _________________ QUICK_EDIT
Joined: 26 Apr 2003 Location: Somewhere in Germany
Posted: Wed Feb 16, 2011 12:02 pm Post subject:
Nyerguds wrote:
Well I got my own little hacking/upgrading project going on...
Personally I don't really understand their attitude in this. I've been working on 1.06 as a hobby, over several years. Sure sometimes I stop working on it for a few months, only to pick up again and add some more cool stuff or fixes. And I do 99% of my testing myself, unless it involves multiplayer stuff.
People just take the whole thing too seriously imo.
I kinda agree about the 'taking things too seriously aspect' to some degree, but the sheer amount and complexity of requested features for Ares is on a completely different level, so it's understandable that they don't want to test it themselves.
I've spent quite some time testing just a couple of features, and it's rather tedious work at times. QUICK_EDIT
I agree with Nyer but the reception toward Ares was bizarre. For years people wanted something like Rock Patch that... didn't suck and have VK quality support behind it. It comes... and RA2 modding is dead? I could agree Ares came too late for RA2, but its strange that no-one jumped ship from TS to RA2 with all of these features and support. There is a clear-cut, 100% better engine available with Ares, and it isn't even the favorite. _________________ Victory! QUICK_EDIT
I think I might have a go here. Come on people, sign up, much progress has been done already if you ask me! Why stop here! They need people with modding experience! Last edited by Pepzi on Wed Feb 16, 2011 3:26 pm; edited 1 time in total QUICK_EDIT
Joined: 26 Apr 2003 Location: Somewhere in Germany
Posted: Wed Feb 16, 2011 3:23 pm Post subject:
Volgin wrote:
I agree with Nyer but the reception toward Ares was bizarre. For years people wanted something like Rock Patch that... didn't suck and have VK quality support behind it. It comes... and RA2 modding is dead? I could agree Ares came too late for RA2, but its strange that no-one jumped ship from TS to RA2 with all of these features and support. There is a clear-cut, 100% better engine available with Ares, and it isn't even the favorite.
IMO the main problem is that something like the "community support ranking" would have been needed MUCH earlier.
Ares has dozens of features that only a couple - like 1-5, in some cases even 0 - people ever used or will be using, while many features that are/were truly desired by a larger number of modders are still not implemented.
Also, the switch to smaller, more frequent releases should have happened with 0.2, not after. I'm sure this is also a reason why public interest appears so low, if nothing visible happens for over a year, people simply forget about it and move on, thinking it is already dead or progressing too slow for their needs (the latter might actually be sort of true).
This caused overall faith and interest in Ares to fade, I think.
I'd really like to see Ares survive (at least until my personal "most wanted" features have been implemented ), but I have too little free time atm and one of those "sick of anything modding-related"-phases on top of that, so posting these news was all I could do about it for now. QUICK_EDIT
Ares is active though the only people I see working are DCoder, Ren, Alex, Graion Dilach, Nighthawk, Martiall and most of the Ares testers. I think it would be awesome to be part of them. _________________ Ponies are not awesome. Kill all bronies with fire. QUICK_EDIT
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Ares in need of active support
), but I have too little free time atm and one of those "sick of anything modding-related"-phases on top of that, so posting these news was all I could do about it for now.
