Announcement

Collapse
No announcement yet.

DoCk> Interview

Collapse
X
 
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts

  • DoCk> Interview

    dont thinks this is a repost, good read its a bit old 2002 but still

    Participants: Fallen Angel, DoCk>
    Description: DoCk> Interview
    Created On: March 2002

    Fallen Angel: Hi Dock. Thanks for agreeing to interview with us. =) How, why, and when did
    you get involved with Subspace?

    DoCk>: I first came to Subspace during beta, but I never played seriously until 1999. I was
    introduced to Subspace by K2-KaHoS and TestTube, and I was formerly an op in an IRC channel.
    They dragged me in and after a while I was addicted, and stayed. I got moderator relatively
    quickly, under the recommendation of TestTube, way-back-when.


    Fallen Angel: You received a staff position in which zone? What was your name & the zones
    you flew.

    DoCk>: I started off as DoCkLyNeZ, and my first staff position was as a moderator in this
    zone, SSCU Trench Wars. The sysop at the time was The Ghost Ship. Before I came to Trench
    Wars I flew Alpha and Chaos.


    Fallen Angel: So you've been Trench Wars for how long? 5-6 years?

    DoCk>: You overestimate I have been in Trench Wars since late 1998... not really that
    long. I made Smod in February 1999, sysop in May 1999. =)


    Fallen Angel: What inspired you to start doing work for the Subspace/Continuum community?

    DoCk>: I just saw a void to be filled, I guess. The largest reason that I have stayed over
    the years, and the reason why I started out, was because I saw something that needed to be
    done, and did it.

    Well, I see it as a responsibility more than anything... at times Trench Wars became a
    burden and I left it to pursue academics or my girlfriend, but I have always returned when I
    saw Trench Wars need me again.


    Fallen Angel: What is the toughest job for you regarding your role in Subspace/Continuum and
    what is your most rewarding accomplishment? Being Co-sysop for this size zone must be quite
    a job.

    DoCk>: Actually most people have no idea how much I have helped mold and shape Trench Wars
    over the years, and that might be a good thing. Nobody really needs to know how much of this
    has been my work, because the real stars over the years are those who have contributed to
    the zone and helped make it the exceedingly popular zone it is today.


    Fallen Angel: Well I venture to say it wouldn't be the zone it is today without your work.

    DoCk>: The toughest job is trying to figure out what is good for the public, and not what is
    public demand. Sometimes decisions can be extremely unpopular but then grown to be accepted
    later on. This is a fact of life of being Sysop, and every little change or move, simply
    because of the size of this zone, causes a lot of heat to be turned on the zone's staff.


    Fallen Angel: I can only imagine..

    DoCk>: My most rewarding contribution to the zone is definitely our bot core. I started
    writing it because I wanted to test my skills as a programmer. It turned a dream of mine
    into reality. Sphonk is my co-writer, and wrote most of the hard parts of the bot that I am
    simply not ready to handle yet. He is a professional programmer, and taught me a lot about
    ways of creating larger applications.


    Fallen Angel: Yes I met about what 20 of your bot children. You appear to be a talented bot
    mechanic. Tell us about some of your bots.

    DoCk>: Well the bot core is written in Java, which is probably the best language for this
    task, because it is very extensible and modular, useful on any platform, and fast. This
    allows us to quickly develop new bots. The foundation to our bot core is very solid, and
    because it was designed to be expanded upon, we can now write whole bots in hours, and have
    them fully tested in days. This reduces the development time of bots significantly.

    Soon, other people will be able to write bots for the Trench Wars bot core, in Java. I am
    currently working on a Bot Development Kit (BDK) which will allow Java programmers to write
    their own bots.


    Fallen Angel: Can those bots can go into other zones?

    DoCk>: Actually, currently, our zone is the only zone equipped with a bot server, and since
    the core of the bot is not for public release, we *may* consider hosting bots in the future
    for other zones, but not until the core is ready for that. This may not happen for a long,
    long time. Since there are other bots and other cores available for other zones to use, this
    isn't really a priority.


    Fallen Angel: I'm pretty much a n00b when it comes to tinkering and building bots. So, do
    zones have their own bot cores?

    DoCk>: Not really, I think Trench Wars is the only zone with a bot core developed
    specifically to suit its needs. Other people have developed bot cores, though.


    Fallen Angel: I see. =) Well hopefully in the future you will be able to share some of your
    bots with the community. =)

    DoCk>: Yes, that's the way most bots work. Not ours, though, ours is quite a bit different.
    The problem with Java is it is too easily reverse engineered. Bot code is not definitely not
    for public consumption. However, the Bot Development Kit will allow other people to write
    bots to be run on our bot servers.


    Fallen Angel: Do you do any website work or mainly just bots for TW?

    DoCk>: I don't do any website work yet, I am currently learning JSP and servlets, and I am
    looking for a j2ee capable server (a co-located server would be sooo nice) that I can use
    for development and practice. But I don't have the money for one yet. I will eventually
    start making websites, even ones that integrate tightly with our bots, and websites for
    other purposes too.


    Fallen Angel: You are a huge asset to our community. I'm glad you are willing to share some
    of your accomplishments and goals with us. =)

    What are your opinions on the new client .37 and .38?

    DoCk>: Continuum will bring a new level of popularity and gameplay to this aging game, and
    will definitely assure our continued success. I fully intend for the Subspace community to
    continue and grow, and we definitely have PriitK to thank for it.

    I hope to talk to him sometime. I haven't seen him in a while, he is busy working on his
    out-of-subspace projects and real life (bread and butter) projects, and Continuum .38.


    Fallen Angel: Well Priitk has put a huge effort into the future of this game. I hope to
    interview him. =)

    It is thought that a good business man that spends so much time developing a game would sell
    it for $$$$$$ at some point.

    DoCk>: That's just a rumor, Continuum will never go pay.


    Fallen Angel: Can you tell us anything regarding .38?

    DoCk>: I'm using it right now. It looks the same. All I know is it has some more features
    that I don't know about, and it is less buggy for some people on some machines.


    Fallen Angel: Yes I hear complaints a lot regarding .37 closing in windowed mode.

    DoCk>: That doesn't occur on .38.


    Fallen Angel: Ahh, I know LOTS of people will be happy about that fix.

    DoCk>: Also, PriitK is not just a businessman, he is an avid supporter of free stuff. I
    believe PriitK helped write some of the underlying code to Kazaa. He likes free information
    and free games. He's cool, don't worry about Continuum ever going pay.

    We should be worried about PriitK though, he has lost literally tens of thousands of dollars
    of time he could have been spending on paying projects. He's always in high demand, and
    turns down most of his projects.


    Fallen Angel: What are your days like holding a sysop position?

    DoCk>: Most days as sysop are fairly mundane, I usually stay in my private arena working on
    homework, bots, or other such things. Trench Wars is a busy place, and when I am here I
    usually stay in the background answering staff questions, helping them handle various
    situations, and organizing long term positive development. Usually, however, I am doing
    homework, or working on bots, while I am doing this. Schoolwork takes up a LOT of my time,
    as I am taking several difficult classes this semester. My girlfriend takes up lots of my
    time too. The rest of the time goes to Trench Wars.


    Fallen Angel: When do you graduate?

    DoCk>: I graduate hopefully after Fall 2004 semester.

    It's interesting that most people think I'm never online, but I am. I'm just not in a public
    arena much. All they have to do is private message me or leave me a ?message and I'll get
    back to them fairly quickly. I don't go out in public on my regular nick all that often
    because I usually get inundated with players wanting to talk (or suck up) while I am trying
    to get real work done.
    Last edited by Bigyin; 10-31-2004, 09:40 PM.
    Cat: You'd never get a cat to be a servant. You ever see a cat return a stick? 'Hey man. You threw the stick, you go and get it yourself, I'm busy. If you wanted the stick so bad, why'd you throw it away in the first place?'

  • #2
    Fallen Angel: Give us your words of wisdom for the benefit of our younger members in the
    community that are interested in becoming staff and doing more for SS or their zones.

    DoCk>: The best way for someone to become involved is to help design new subarenas we can
    use. We have a network of games designers, and if you're good at graphics design, and have
    some good ideas, it may be a good idea to try your hand at games design.

    We're always looking for good, talented people to help us in the games design field. And the
    possibilities (because of our bots) are almost endless. We need dreamers and people with the
    will to back them up. This is how our subarenas will truly be successful, especially with
    the possibilities allowed to us by our bots and Continuum .37+.


    Fallen Angel: I know there are many many people that would like to contribute. It sounds
    like TW offers a lot of opportunities. =)

    DoCk>: It is important to note that Trench Wars staff is by invitation only. We prefer to
    accept submitted work on a no-strings-attached basis. If we like you we may hire you in the
    future. There are just too many people who want to be in staff, and because of this it
    becomes truly exasperating to be asked 20 times a day "can I be staff?". The answer is
    always "No, and that staff is by invitation only", when staff is always full. We like to
    choose who we want to be on staff, not the other way around.


    Fallen Angel: Where do you see the Subspace community in the future and What is the most
    important thing you would like to say about Subspace and the community at large?

    DoCk>: I see Subspace as always growing and evolving. It will always be 2D, but it is the
    gameplay and community that will keep this game together. Without the community that has
    been fostered here, and without all the friends we've made over the years this game would
    have died out years ago. I see the entire community as ever growing and ever improving. I
    hope I can organize some sort of promotion campaign for Subspace in general, to hopefully
    draw new blood into this game. We've grown tremendously over the last few years. Our record
    is well over 600 players on at once during league times. I know we can do much better than
    that, as our game improves in quality over the years.

    I know that I, for one, will probably not leave the game. The only things that would keep
    me away are my graduation from school, and getting a programming job somewhere. The other is
    marriage, which I know is in the future for my girlfriend and I. Each of these are years
    down the line.


    Fallen Angel: Well I'm pretty much in awe of your work and your goals. I think your work in
    the community is very understated. I'm happy I can give our community a better look at how
    much you contribute and good ways people can go about doing the same.

    DoCk>: Let me reiterate that I cannot possibly take credit for the way Trench Wars is today,
    it is all the staff members that have served with us over the years, it has been all the
    contributors, Sonera who donates the thousands of dollars required every month to satisfy
    our ever growing need for bandwidth. Especially notable are those who have at least given
    their participation in our community, and introduced our game to their friends.


    Fallen Angel: Thank you very much for sharing your work and your insights regarding
    Subspace/Continuum. =)

    DoCk>: No problem, was my pleasure.


    http://www.subspacedownloads.com/interviews/dock.txt
    Cat: You'd never get a cat to be a servant. You ever see a cat return a stick? 'Hey man. You threw the stick, you go and get it yourself, I'm busy. If you wanted the stick so bad, why'd you throw it away in the first place?'

    Comment


    • #3
      I remember seeing that when I was playing in Warzone. That was two years ago. I find it kind of funny when FA asks about the new .38

      Comment


      • #4
        Originally posted by Pan
        I remember seeing that when I was playing in Warzone. That was two years ago. I find it kind of funny when FA asks about the new .38
        What are your opinions on the new client .37 and .38?
        so i think .37 was just out too lol
        Cat: You'd never get a cat to be a servant. You ever see a cat return a stick? 'Hey man. You threw the stick, you go and get it yourself, I'm busy. If you wanted the stick so bad, why'd you throw it away in the first place?'

        Comment


        • #5
          Originally posted by Bigyin
          It is thought that a good business man that spends so much time developing a game would sell
          it for $$$$$$ at some point.

          DoCk>: That's just a rumor, Continuum will never go pay.
          Yay

          That was very interesting, especially the part about the thousands a month to keep the bandwith.

          Comment


          • #6
            Heh, I've read it already some months ago.
            There are more interesting interviews at the very bottom of http://www.ssdownloads.com/index.php?act=interview
            YOU ARE THE 1,000,000,000TH VISITOR IN MY SIG!
            Click here to receive your price!

            Comment


            • #7
              The one with mine go boom was funny, if I'm not mistaken.
              5: Da1andonly> !ban epinephrine
              5: RoboHelp> Are you nuts? You can't ban a staff member!
              5: Da1andonly> =((
              5: Epinephrine> !ban da1andonly
              5: RoboHelp> Staffer "da1andonly" has been banned for abuse.
              5: Epinephrine> oh shit

              Comment


              • #8
                lol i read bits of those interviews.
                thread killer

                Also who changed to pw to Squadless, how am I supposed to fly the banner of sucking at the game

                Comment


                • #9
                  nice to hear that cont/ss will never go p2p. I started this game free.. so i'd like to finish it free. And Ty Dock> for everything you've done.
                  Farm> jd = reason i had to buy new monitor

                  Comment


                  • #10
                    DoCk> is my hero. *Salutes DoCk> and others that have helped out with Trench Wars*

                    Comment


                    • #11
                      So, yeah this is true

                      I would give my right nut for DoCk> and the rest of the TW crew! Keep up the good work

                      Comment


                      • #12
                        LOL, sure you would. I'm sure no1 is that appreciative

                        Comment


                        • #13
                          Never red it before

                          cool
                          help: (how do i shot) (Public 0): how do i travel diagonally? i only have up, down, left and right keys.

                          4:PinkSTAR <ER>> ask DP he knows me inside and out

                          Comment


                          • #14
                            ...::nibbles on a cookie while reading the interview::...



                            :chair: oo this is funnie!! !!
                            >^________^<!

                            Comment


                            • #15
                              Originally posted by Twerp
                              DoCk> is my hero. *Salutes DoCk> and others that have helped out with Trench Wars*
                              :up:

                              Win95
                              "The mills of the gods grind late, but they grind fine."
                              -Unknown Greek poet

                              Comment

                              Working...
                              X