iClassic Levels Team
 

I will start by saying this isn't another thread asking to be on a staff team. (Although that doesn't mean I would turn down an offer lol).

I have something that needs to be addressed. There is really is no organized levels team on the server and I think there is literally only two maybe a third I don't know. I think an official levels team should be established.

It has probably been thought of before and it might even be in the works. I'm not too sure on that. If not, I think a bigger levels team would/would have helped projects like Destiny go a bit faster with more than 2 levelers and developers who can Level.

People who are LATs atm:
Imprint
a "secret agent man" (I think?)

Let me know below why you think it should happen or why it can't happen etc.

I was under the impression that designing levels was not a huge demand, also that it isn't tremendously difficult, and that was why there isn't really a set 'team.' I seem to recall that Dusty has done level work in the past, from a comment regarding the random-wall cave level when the community had asked for additional pyrat levels way back when.

Notice that, while the GP, GFX, and general application notice is sent around from time to time, you never see a 'LAT is hiring' message.

Because they dont' have a set team like the others. Maybe not a huge demand but it would surely give others a chance to give it a go rather than being forced to do GP or GFX since I don't see Gani, Scripting, or SFX either.

Also, yes, it seems like Dusty does a lot of the level work, I mean take a look at the castle.

I'm not sure what you mean by them not having a set team. What will that do for them? iClassic also isn't a testing server so people can "give it a go", there are plenty of other servers for that. :P

I mean that the only opportunity for a job on Classic other than moderation and Graphics because the others are either not available or not presented to the public when there are openings. It would be good for the server to have a larger levels team like there is for other teams, or for most teams to be as large as GP and GFX.

Yes I know there are other servers for that but what if someone wants to experience working on an iServer and if they don't do GP or GFX they might not have a chance to do so.

This is what I don't get. What benefit would they get out of having a larger levels team?

work could potentially be done faster but still with good quality to have multiple people working on it especially towns and other new areas like that.

They wouldn't really be creating content, though, in the sense of new items. I don't think the main hindrance to content production is the time it takes to make the levels, it's the time it takes to script everything, which usually isn't the LATs job. So, nothing would really be released faster with 2 LATs or 12.

lat teams are as useful as a knitted condom

i havent been staff in a while

so thats why classic has been so good for a while

You need a Gs1 pro like me

ah.

right, because servers don't need levels or a gmap. I bet a dev server will get very far with only Developers making the gmap and levels.

What I meant was that leveling may be done faster which may slightly speed up the production because it doesn't take as long for the levels to complete, then there is only the scripting and GFX leftover.

If anything there should be a larger scripting team too since we never see announcements on hiring for that position

To be honest, I rather see only 3 great developers (Coco, Dusty and Fp4) than having different levels teams. I would say iclassic is the most successful server out of Era,Zone and Ol'west. Why should we have people who are practicing their skills on our server than having 3 people who are professional enough? Of course it would be better if we have more professional developers but, It's not easy to find a volunteer who is already good enough.

Here is my story. I had been wanting to be a leveler on an iServer. Ol'west, didn't hear anything back because I am new with the tileset therefore I suck at it. Zone, rather not have my eyes bleed out with what I would be working with. Era, if I had really had to I would but I am not a fan of modern. Now, Classic, I prefer the classic tileset and I would love to work there. To my surprise I figured out that wouldn't be able to happen because talking to a high staff would be the only option. Leveling is what I do and what I will always do there will be no other development skill for me other than leveling and if I want to work for classic I have to be a gp or gfx. Can't do gp because how am I supposed to punish rule breakers when I am not mature myself? GFX is a huge no because I can't draw or do pixel art for crap.

Working on Graal gets boring after a couple of months unless you're being paid irl, which would give you motivation. You're not really missing out on much. You get to play with a few tools and get known in the community but other than that, most gfx leave either in their first few days or their first few months. I have no clue why people glamourise being an admin so much. Classic does not need a levels team as they already have skilled developers who can create custom tiles, graphics and sprites for a level and put everything together themselves. Levels is by far the easiest skill set, anyone can pick it up and it only takes a couple of days to get the hand of it - perhaps learn something else?

The tools and powers don't fascinate me that much anymore. For me it would be fun and to level for the server and I wouldn't get bored like others. Sure being known in the community would be cool but being able to level for the server in the first place would be cooler.

it aint happening mate, also edited my original post

I honesty would imagine leveling to be one of the more fun parts of classic's developer's duties.

Scripting, gfx, and any other skill is out of the question for me. I do levels. I am not going to level for playerworlds while playerworlds gets treated bad and have no chance of getting on an iServer preferably classic. What am I supposed to do when Playerworlds is no longer and is only used to host the iServers?

All of the current developers are already good with levels I don't see a need for having more than 2/3 especially because most content doesn't require levels to be made.

I would rather our current developers be the ones who tackle this sort of stuff together, you don't need large teams for a pixel-based MMO where level design is simplistic and they have good chemistry and consistency when it comes to designing new content (Destiny, Castle, etc).

Hiring people with no other skill set or purpose other than levels would just be a waste because they would sit around a lot doing nothing, anyone wanting a developer position should practice in other fields of development and take the initiative to learn.


I don't understand this point, the gmap on Classic is already finished except for future expansions which our current developers are very capable of doing it them selves and with a better quality than most.

If you're not mature enough to be GP then you're not mature enough to be on the development team.

That's not really what I meant. I am mature for development teams and I would act mature for GP I would have troubles knowing what rules are what.

Well can we see some examples of your work with the Classic tileset?

Any experience? A portfolio?

You won't be accepted into the team, but if you truly wanted to join you should have all of the above already posted.

Classic is leagues above other servers because they don't just hire developers and recycle them non-stop.

Whatever. Just whatever. People can discourage me all they want. I don't care anymore. Just wanted to give back to the community and help but I guess even that simple wish isn't accepted. Wanted to be in on the "helping the server progress" thing but I guess I don't have the option to be on a non-existent levels team. Sorry for wanting to help.

Yes, I can get some in a bit.

maybe because it doesn't exist

It's unrealistic to expect to be thrown into a position like that from the start.

If you want to help apply as a GP, practice other development skills, and contribute that way.

Make some suggestion threads and get involved with the game discussion because that all helps and contributes even if you aren't the one implementing it.

Although the thread wasn't supposed to be about me it was an idea to establish one I still might as well share some work (although I do have a thread for that already, but the early work isn't as nice plus it doesn't use the classic tileset it used atlantis)

http://i.imgur.com/WuLj7Dd.jpg

I will post some later I guess.

Here have a free project sneak peak (this project is for fun)

http://i.imgur.com/21wOXp0.jpg

Keep at it and maybe someday they'll ask you to help them out.

But yeah right now it's pretty exclusive, iClassic development are pretty tight knit and the majority of the levelling work is for projects that not even the graphics team know much about.

So with that said, theres a huge trust factor involved in itself. There's also 'too many cooks spoil the broth'. And like someone else pointed out, I don't think its the speed of the LAT that determines the rate content is released, so whether there were 2 devs or a whole team the amount of content probably wouldn't change much.

If I were you I'd go learn another tileset and apply for another server, for the experience. A great leveller is someone who could pick up any tileset and use it, rather than just focus on one. Not saying this will get you a ticket to iClassic but it will defo teach you a lot about the other side of the fence.

Keep at it!

Just for you guys I'm sharing the version that doesn't have the intro or outro.

That other guy in the video (Bacon) Helped out but I started it and made most of the layout and he helped me make the cliffs the most and extra extra details that I missed.

Strive for greatness! If you keep improving and developing new skills, you'll eventually be better than the pile of dust itself. If anything, apply your skills in an environment that writes you checks, not free labor.

I'm 14 where could I get a leveling job that gives me checks, some kind of third party company that makes 2d zelda games/zelda based games?

Oh wait.

Except that what I'm thinking of doesn't give checks.

Keep on improving and developing new skills. There's people your age that's done extraordinary things so far. Don't let these old geezers discourage you

Hey at least I would get a bunch of gralats.

Sneak peek for part 2:

http://i.imgur.com/Y83U08Y.jpg

Why are you recreating the map pixel by pixel? Waste of time and shows no talent.

I'm sure there is ways to download the whole gmap or at least parts of it and run it offline seems like a colossal waste of time to clone it by hand.

Nor will you learn anything, take the style of how they did it and try to recreate something fresh.

Don't you mean tile by tile?

Just a fun project. It's made online anyways. It is fun for me so it is not a waste. I am kind of learning things actually.

*Sigh* Everything I do/make gets looked down upon and everyone acts like it is a bad thing rather than looking at it in a good way and at least realize that it is alright as long as I am having fun doing so. Oh well. Probably just going to be stuck working on playerworld servers.

Don't be a puss, it's just some criticism and if you wanna improve you're gonna have to learn to use it to get better.

And colin is kinda right, if you are ever going to want to be on a dev team like you said I wouldn't waste your time making something exactly like it's already been made. But like you said, if it's fun for you that is great, just don't expect to get better from it and you probably won't be able to use it in any portfolios

Fair enough.

This thread has been derailed it became about me and I started posting work outside of a thread I designed for work. :(