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Rasbelin
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Tampere (Tammerfors), Finland
Nov 1999
time: 07:26
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This is an official statement regarding the Stella Polaris project's current status in general and on Apolyton.
During the last few weeks, it has become clear that all the prequisites for continuing the project aren't in place and thus, the work can't continue in any logical manner as there's people missing, little to no work done and little to no effort by many developers to do anything. I have also recently received several accusations, which I denounce as not appropriate and that they have a very bad timing.
The project started well, but the pace has dropped ever since several persons disappeared in the late autumn 2002 and especially as Blake disappeared for a period of over one month. Although the new web services did kick off, but Blake had already at the time disppeared again, and which now inevitably seems to be for good as no one has seen him since January. We have not been able to trace him back as his phone number has not been found or any address. One possibility would be to track him back at the university in Christchurch. However no initiative regarding that has been taken. It is also known that he was very stressed by his studies, so taking that in count and the fact the planning of the coding would have required a great deal of work, I get the equation that he mostly simply quit as too stressed by all the work. Thus much of the ideas, information and dedication was lost, despite I have been blamed for that, which is out of the context. This already preluded the start of an internal rotting of the project as it became unstable and no results were seen. The Alpha 1 version was supposed to be seen by last Christmas, but as Blake disappeared, so disappeared any chance of seeing Alpha 1 by Christmas. Recently the project was at the brink of a collapse as it was clearly visible that very little to nothing was going to happen, except for Vovan's UML diagram. Also Targon become frustrated about the situation as nothing was happening and that he didn't get much of any real work. The last thing he did was to resign from SPDT and to wish us a happy decay and merry tea party. Well, as Sjoerd put it too, it was out of the contents as Targon somewhat admited the day after, but still it marked that we were without any graphics or audio persons. Also Kurilka lost his interest several weeks ago, so both of our Russian friends departed and left an even greater vacuum. My last resort idea was to scale down on the size of the project and by that ease the preasure and the stress which would only harm it. However my second thought gave me the clear picture that there's not much to do as we are lacking people, but despite PR and recruiting efforts, little has been able to be done, the situation could only get worse (i.e. less people left). Also the level of interest had significantly dropped as the intensity of discussions had dropped over sometime and things weren't getting better. Also a hibernation would have been possible, but it's just like a nice way to say that it's dead (just like GGS). The decision to end the project's sufferings and to close the case was almost there, but it was finally fueled by Joeno's shameful comments about me and the project. The game was over and the project had reached it's end as there was not much to speak off as an active and lively project.
I'm very greatful to all colleagues from SPDT that we have at least proven that the concept of turn-based strategy gaming can still be developed and that we have used many months trying to get somewhere with the development of Stella Polaris. Thank you very much for being here and working as a team.  Those who have cowardly left the project without a word and not responded anymore should reconcider their attitude regarding such behavior. I also hope that Blake is still alive and doing well in his life, whatever he's doing. Maybe one day he returns again to Apolyton.
Frozzy, thanks for all your interest, help, support and co-operation, despite your visible work was little compared to some others, but you sure did lately have an impact on the team's spirit, despite the result never was a roaring success.
Vultur, thanks very much for all the awesome work on the Map Builder, despite it did have some weaknesses and it would have required support for sprites and OpenGL. You sure are that mafia guy. 
Chaos Theory, you wre often abit absent due to college studies, but you did seem to have plenty of knowledge. 
Vovan, what should I say to you then?  You should be handshaken in RL for your efforts to try to get the coding started and the UML work. However the project couldn't have continued with just your input as you may understand. Hopefully Clash of Civilizations will be something for you.
Ace, you're that active ferret who often used all his spare time for the project.  Maybe StP was your life, like NGE is for Kassiopeia. None the less you and Vovan are the persons who had a great attitude and dedication, but it would still have been impossible to continue with only your efforts. I hope we'll stay in touch.
Gateway, your The Exodus and the technology map ideas were brilliant, but they still didn't make the game. However I'm sure the ideas won't go lost with you. BTW, the cat smiley sure is your insignia.
Disparat, your work with the website was absolutely awasome and good.  However it's unfortunate that things went bad and the project failed, so that your work lost it's old value. I hope to see you again soon too, buddy.
DBTS, despite of your imparedness due to your affiliation with the Netherlands (), the work on the Gazette was great. Also many of your ideas were nice.
Michiel, your ideas and postings regarding the different concepts were all nice and added great value to the discussions.
Sjoerd, a voice inside my head screams "Yikes! Yeat another of those Dutch Marsians!", I have to underline your sensibility and your interesting views in the discussions. Hopefully we'll stay in touch.
Mark, your work with the project was indeed great as you shared your views and discussed much.
Closey is still away in Texas and Erix is in the Turkish army until June, so I will talk to them when they come back again, but they also had their roles in the project.
Ehmm... damn, almost forgot our Greek member in this axis of evil. 
Keygen, we haven't seen much of any visible work by you as you have been so busy, but I know that you were still very enthusiastic and keen to get to work.
Despite Targon already departed, I hope he will like Clash more as it apparently gives him the work he wants to have,
A few comments to several outsiders...
All those who were registered on Stella Polaris Forums are warmly thanked for the interest they showed.
Dan and Markos, despite you did help much with some publicity and the StP forum, you should understand that I'm a dissatisfied customer and feel ignored by you as you have failed to properly deliver The Column writings in a reasonable time, rather than releasing a redundant text in January that was written in early September. You should have concidered more seriously the offers of help with editing The Column feature. I'm also wondering what happened to the revised edition of the Alt.Civs guide which included StP and would have been useful for PR. And where are the Game Development Teams Civgroups I suggested and did the background work for, 4 months ago? I assume you're too busy creating DG Civgroups and some even more urgent RoN beta tester Civgroup. And Markos, don't come and say I'm rude. If someone is rude, then it's you as you seem to have put very little interest in these small things you have promised to do.  All this could have boosted our visibility on Apolyton. I even recall an affiliation agreement that we would be somehow visible here, but I assume it's not in your interest. Thanks to Solver for showing greater interest towards the project than any other staff member.
What now then?
The Stella Polaris website will be updated with an information page and the paperwork will be done (Disparat, your volunteer report will be filed later today). The StP e-mail accounts will work, but I will contact all holders as soon as I have reached an agreement about them. All material from SPF will be stored and I'm going to talk with Ace about it. As for the StP forum on ACS, it will remain open for now, but later closed and archived like the GGS forum. There are still many issues that need to be solved, but I'll keep all those involved updated as things are sorted out. I myself will move back to clan gaming as a part time Canadian and co-captain, and I assume some will continue with other projects, DGs, civing and their RL lives.
In the end StP turned up to be a "GGS II" and failure, but at least we had fun.
From ashes to ashes, from dust to dust.
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Joeno
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Well, I'm certainly not retracting things I've said earlier. And for those wondering, below is the exact contents of the post that got me taken from the development team, and which shows pretty well what was wrong with the management in my opinion:
Now, I've been thinking about how this project is proceeding, what is being done by whom, etc, and here are some of my thoughts on the situation.
Currently, the only thing people are doing is complaining because there is no code, there is nothing to see, etc. And of course, the coders are the ones to be blamed.
I would like to look, however, at some other people - the so-called management of the project, and how they are doing their job.
Frozzy, I haven't seen much of, so I doubt he's still that interested, and I don't have much to see. I am more worried about Rasbelin, who seems to be thinking this project is doomed, and wants to discontinue it. However, he is, as far as I can see, not doing one thing to save it - and he has done virtually nothing, except for changing the name, and organising all kinds of PR related things long before there even was anything to look at. Does this help us? No, I don't think so.
Also, there is a distinct lack of the people who will have to the most of the work (the coders) in the management. It's all nice, having graphics, sounds, text, and whatever more, but there is no use if there is no code. And that is what we should focus on.
The way the management has been dealing with the project suggests to me that they're not interested in even getting the code - I have heard no suggestions on who should do what, what can be started on, or even a single comment on the diagrams drawn in the Coders quarters, which, I believe, someone is improving, or going to improve.
Therefore, I would like to propose two things. First of all, on continuing the project - make the current UML diagram into code, together with the already done suggestions, or otherwise, get it (more or less) finished asap.
Second, a more radical suggestion. As I've made clear, I don't think the current management is able, nor willing, to continue the project, help it out, or in any way leading it. Therefore, I would like to suggest that a new management is chosen, who is more dedicated, even if it might mean we lose some of our current resources. Because to be honest, I don't think continuing our current course will help out at all.
After being told that Rasbey has done more, I already said that wasn't anything more than announcing, yet never finishing the GOD. Never something that might have stimulated the coders to do anything - nothing in the design of the game, even!
As I've said elsewhere, I'm pretty sure we can get further with this project, with a dedicated management - dedicated to finishing the project, rather than getting hundreds of people to post once or twice and then forget about it again. To be honest, if one person who has been wanting to close the project now takes advantage of his rights to do so, it's an unfair end.
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Joeno
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quote:
Originally posted by Rasbelin
The project is dead, Joeno. And as for you, you have been suspended as you well know, so stop poking the already dead project. |
And who are you to say the project is dead? There was activity. I'm willing to go on, and I have already seen someone else saying so. If there are people willing to continue with the project and working on it, the project is alive. You might not want to be involved, but that's a different thing. Other people can still continue working on it, and trying to finish the project. So why not do so? Or have you suddenly gained the right to forbidding people to do that in some way?
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Joeno
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And as I said, I had joined that team to work on the code later on, with minor things, not to build the engine from the ground up.
And want to know more I've done? Well, let me even go back from before you joined. I've helped in the early design discussions. I've done testing for older parts of the code. I've written the AI part for the never published GOD. I've written things.
I've never said I was interested in AI. I said I was willing to help out with Single Player development. That involved AI as well, apparently, as I later discovered. I made it clear from the beginning I couldn't code that, and that I could not be involved in discussions about that. And I had no plans? Well, no. It's hard to start on a plan when the main part of the game, the multi player part was not even permanent. And when we started seeing more on that, that SP Development post already wasn't mentioned for me anymore.
Let me ask you then - what have you done in designing the game? I haven't heard anything on that yet, nor seen it.
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Leland
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In all fairness, one should keep in mind the history of the project... when Rasbeling came aboard, it was Blake's project and the idea was the Blake, with his interest in design and coding, would drive the project whereas Rasbey's job description would be to take care of PR and other mundane tasks so that Blake and others can concentrate on the creative effort. However, later it seems that Blake got bogged down by studies and possibly the swarming of new ideas that didn't fit his vision for the game (I'm speculating based on my own feelings about GGS a few years back), and subsequently left the project, leaving the so called "management" to Rasbey. I think it's unfair to blame him for ruining the project when he was forced to take a job he wasn't qualified to do in the first place (not intending to be rude to anyone, just pointing out the fact that a volunteer project can't function without someone committed to coding/design taking charge).
I've been keeping an eye on the project ever since it moved to Apolyton, and a little bit before that. My impression is that the "management" structure was perhaps a bit top-heavy... all sorts of PR stunts and fancy titles and such created an image that this is a classy, professional project when it was in fact still taking the first baby steps. A lot of people seemed to take it for granted that the mythical "management" would tell them what to do as long as they signed up and jumped through the loops, and when this bubble bursted the people involved probably felt cheated. Okay, perhaps this was a misjudgment on Rasbey's part, to inflate the image of the project instead of keeping both feet on the ground, but I don't think that the disgruntled members of the team can blame him for the lack of content in the project.
But, I guess the really important issue is, what now? Will Stella Polaris rise in another form? The people and ideas still exist, so why not just start a new project from scratch (FreeAC, anyone)? Or import the ideas to some existing projects like Freeciv? Certainly you've at least learned a lesson of how not to run an volunteer open-source project, have you not?
Interestingly, Stella seemed to die exactly at the same point of development as GGS. GGS had UI demo and framework, Stella had the map editor. GGS had a few UML diagrams, so did Stella. The basic design choices were there in GGS, as they were in Stella. Both projects had people who were at least interested to see where things were going. And then, *bang*, full stop. It seems that this is the biggest hurdle of any project, to get the first cheapass product out the door so you can keep adding to it.
Thoughts?
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Joeno
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Alright then, seems like we're not getting anywhere with this, and that someone has already set their mine on leaving the project, without even attempting to let anyone else try. Let me just ask the others who do feel like continuing the project to contact me, or whoever else that thinks like they can run the project better than me (not something that's going to be that hard to do), so that we can at least try to get something done, because I know we can.
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Leland
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quote:
Originally posted by FrustratedPoet
Aaahh... so this is how the project has been run....
The reason for the failure is becoming more clear. |
Yup. But can you blame the lack of good management to a bad management? Without Rasbey the project would be just as dead, only less visibly so.
EDIT: Okay, upon reading the few posts above, I guess Rasbey's people skills could use some brushing up. Banning all criticism of the project is a baaad idea in terms of general atmosphere, and that drives potentially good people away. I know I'd much rather be member of a project with positive atmosphere even if it progresses slowly, than tense authoritarian atmosphere with fast progress. Which Stella didn't have anyway.
Last edited by Leland on 20-03-2003 at 23:06
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Joeno
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Well, there still was some activity, just, apparently, not enough.
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Leland
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quote:
Originally posted by Rasbelin
I'm simply peeved at Joeno who underevaluates my value for the project and all the work I have done. He hasn't even said thank you for anything I have done. What a *****. |
The point is that in my humble opinion when running a project like this, one just can't afford to be peeved at anyone (at least not in public). It's a "the drones need you, they look up to you" kind of deal. Well. Almost. But anyway, in an ideal world people should be able to work out their differences diplomatically.
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20-03-2003 20:24
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