Revamping the Forum

Also, I'm not saying the time spent on this stuff isn't better spent on the Microbe Stage. I'm saying, like I just said before, that any time not spent on the Microbe Stage should not be discarded, because we have made tremendous gains in not-microbe stage, gains that we would have had to make later anyways. Any time we could have or can spend on the Microbe Stage is good, but that doesn't mean whenever we don't have contributions for the Microbe Stage we should ignore our contributions for the later stages. Also, coming up with ideas at the same time as programmers is not a good idea at all, because then the programmers have to sit and wait while the concept is being developed, instead of having as much concept ready as possible when the programmers reach that stage.

Let's take an example, the one I keep referencing, the Tech Editor (TE). The TE has taken this long to develop (and is still developing) because at first the general concept was created, but no one wanted to or could specify it. It was just assumed that the programmers could make an editor that would analyze anything the player made and figure out how it would work and all the other details. Then, for a long period, there was no work on the TE because this mentality persisted and because there were not really any new users enthusiastic enough in that field to take a hold of that concept and refine it. However, when I was continuing the Crash Course Economics thread, I realized we had to specify the TE further, since it was too vague for implementation and left us with too many questions about gameplay. By this point about 3 years had already passed. Ever since then users like Daniferrito, Tarpy, and I have been working on the concepts of Function Parts (an integral component of the TE) to figure out how the TE will work. We have already been working for about 1-2 months on it and have made much progress, but we still have a ways to go. Remember, we are all voluntary contributors and many of us are still in school or university. We have currently slowed down because of exams, but we should be picking up again soon.

But what you're saying is that none of this should have been done because the Microbe Stage was unfinished. I myself have little in the means of constructive contributions for the Microbe Stage, being more of a Strategy person myself. Several people who have helped develop the Strategy concepts have likewise been more interested in the Strategy part than the Microbe part. I don't think it would be efficient or fair to force them to remain silent until development reached a point that they liked. Why not let them develop the other stages of the game additionally? If we had waited until the Microbe, Multicellular, Aware, and Awakening Stages were complete, and the Society Stage was being worked on, before we started work on the concept for the Tech Editor, chances are I, and many of the other people who helped out, would no longer be here to develop the concept, or would have gotten fed up waiting and gone, or forgotten their ideas, or lost interest. Even if we were all around, the programmers would have to wait for us to develop the concepts over the months it has taken us and in the meantime be stuck not being able to do anything. It is SOO much better to have it done before, or at least as much as possible, so that when the coders are ready there is minimal conceptual work left in the way. When we have the capability to develop these concepts at any moment, we need to "strike while the iron is hot", instead of wait and lose most of the potential. Just a couple weeks ago, ExtraSolar dropped by and gave some amazing input into our Procedural Planet Generator concept and updated our wiki page on it. If we had told him to wait until however many years from now we would be at the space stage not only would we delay the programmers by making them wait for the concept to be done instead of having done it before, we also run the chance of not having ExtraSolar around anymore.