It's a paid artist outside of Zone. The biggest problem probably is that Zone went through 4 different managers during the time of the artist making the tileset. Each manager wanting something different.
|
That then means the project did not have a plan. It wouldn't have happened if there was a clear scope, which outlines exactly what's needed including look and feel with examples, plus an outline of deliverables by milestones.
If the scope changes, the contractor must be paid more for their time.
It's simply not fair to put an external contractor through that where they have to redo their work because the project manager changes and their opinion along with it.
The 4th manager should have received the work exactly scoped out by the 1st manager.
Basic, textbook project management failure.
I agree 100% but I think the tileset is the top priority because that's all anyone can do to help Zone right now. I don't think unixmad is investing coders in Zone to make the needed activities and improvements (Zone has so many bugs it's unbelievable). Coders have been on and off in Zone and a lot of the projects I have heard about them working on have never seen the light of day yet and to my knowledge were scrapped when the next manager of the long list of managers came in and took over.
Even issues that don't require professional coding aren't even addressed. Trading is a major issue. That was "addressed" recently but it was hardly enough. Zone's whole economy is garbage and it ranges from weapon prices to jobs to missions and events. None of it has been fixed, or even attempted to be fixed.
|
I understand your reasoning but then the top priority really is to find the resources that are currently missing to fix the biggest problems.
A new tileset won't fix those problems. It would suck for everybody to waste the effort like that.
The number one priority is to get the resources (I.E programmers, designers) to fix the problems you have identified. Small wins that do actually improve things will help build momentum towards tackling the bigger problems, as well as providing leverage to make a genuine and convincing business case for unixmad to make the investment.
The reason why unixmad isn't investing is because after all this time it isn't an investment worth making. After all, the tileset botch job is a clear example of why he shouldn't make further investment and rightfully so.
There's another thing: Zone is a business. An online game is a business. Unixmad is a businessman. He needs ROI and it don't look like he's got that after all this time.
The proportion of server upkeep for Zone is already a baseline monthly investment. There is no reason to invest more at this point. Anyone would have cut their losses by now
Key thing to remember is that unixmad is putting real money into this and if he's not getting real money out he ain't gonna wanna put more in!