Sarah moved from current project, update no longer coming?

[Jason S]

No issues here. Let the managers decide where the effort needs to be - NPC AI, while bad at the moment, would not be my priority. There are more pressing issues I'm sure. I know SJA has a fan base but, honestly, you can't just start panning Frontier management without understanding what's going on behind the scenes. No-one here can really understand where the development effort is needed right now - and maybe someone with SJA's skills is just the person to fix... well... we can all speculate....

Well said, I agree +1 rep.

 

[Brett C]

They can read PM, I used to own a site. It is usually a simple SQL on a couple of tables.

Yes, that is possible - but let me be very clear cut about this.

Moderators of this forum cannot see private messages unless reported by a user. All administrators cannot see private messages unless reported by a user.

Who can view the SQL DB on this forum? Probably all of three people at the office, and they could care less what is contained within a person's private message (unless required to by law/investigation).



...But vbulletin has an AdminCP SQL query tool!! Yes, I'm aware of it - however, it's disabled for every person that has administrative access. It has never been enabled due to security.

 

[dayrth]

SJA has a lot of fans in this community (I am one of them), and I think we were all looking forward to the AI update, so this sudden change is bound to cause uproar. However, we don't have any facts yet. I think FD need to release a statement on this before the rumour mill gets out of hand.

I for one will miss SJA's presence on the forums.

 

[Lazerus Artificial]

Thargoids, yay!

If not Thargoids then tier 2 npcs. Yay!

Imagine the conversation:

'Sarah, we've been testing your AI and there's a problem'

'What? It is not tough enough? I can fix that if I just .....'

'No, no. We tested it against early builds of Thargoid ships and it kicked alien bottom.'

'Oh....'

'We need you to move to a secret project code named Operation Octagonal Mothership. Oh, and it comes with a Scarlet security lockdown which means that for the near future, you can't talk about anything. Not even what you ate for lunch'

'But I get to create kickass AI?'

'Oh, yes'

'What about my minions?'

'They've been told to cut it out with the evil kill training for a bit.'

'Oh...'

'But, look! Octagons with guns....'

ollie clark20.07.2015
Ooh such intrigue. Of course everyone thinks you're working on Thargoid AI now. ;-)

Sarah Avory20.07.2015
+ollie clark, nope.

Nope, no Thargoid
But...maybe she is working on DLC2 now? thats the "walking around thing", and i think it needs some evil minions

 

[tsh]

This is why we don't talk about work in public forums - its too easy for discussions to get out of hand particularly when only a fraction of the information is public.

I had my own work put on hold at the start of the week - increase the risk on something that is going well to 'fix' something that seems to be going off plan (in my case). 2 different projects, threads aligned on different deadlines, different commercial impact resulting from predictions of progress.

The more competent developers (particularly in larger organisations where there is more flexibility in the planning) are always at risk of diversion due to illness, failing plans or requirements changes - comes with the territory.

 

[Barking_Mad]

No issues here. Let the managers decide where the effort needs to be - NPC AI, while bad at the moment, would not be my priority. There are more pressing issues I'm sure. I know SJA has a fan base but, honestly, you can't just start panning Frontier management without understanding what's going on behind the scenes. No-one here can really understand where the development effort is needed right now - and maybe someone with SJA's skills is just the person to fix... well... we can all speculate....

^^This^^ It unfortunately happens regularly in the industry. Look at all the work that went into The Outsider and it didn't reach release. But again, that's not to say stuff wont be used or completed at a later stage. Without details it's pointless to speculate why/what/when/how.

 

[Jason S]

I am legally not alowed to talk about work outside of work. There are NDA's. So I do not.
Even without NDA's it is wise to keep the work details at work.

 

[Vingtetun]

Nope, no Thargoid
But...maybe she is working on DLC2 now? thats the "walking around thing", and i think it needs some evil minions

Actually. Putting two and two together and coming up with 10.

AI is banned in the ED universe
Official fiction may mention AI in it
AM SURE Galnet mentioned rogue AI
There are multiple 'other sentients' out there not just Thargoids
Therefore our next threat will be from killer AI.
SJA, as an AI programmer has been digitised and put into the game as bossAI.

Yay!

 

[Vandaahl]

This is why we don't talk about work in public forums - its too easy for discussions to get out of hand particularly when only a fraction of the information is public.

I had my own work put on hold at the start of the week - increase the risk on something that is going well to 'fix' something that seems to be going off plan (in my case). 2 different projects, threads aligned on different deadlines, different commercial impact resulting from predictions of progress.

The more competent developers (particularly in larger organisations where there is more flexibility in the planning) are always at risk of diversion due to illness, failing plans or requirements changes - comes with the territory.

This exactly! I never understood why the info about development was vented by development themselves in the first place. Usually you don't do that, because you want to prevent situations such as this one.

 

[Agony_Aunt]

I'd prefer the title left alone. Her tweets that she's since deleted state that the 2 months of work were 'for nothing'. So until things are clarified by FD, I'm going to go with what the person working on the update said.

B/S. No one would post a "2 months work wasted"-thing if it´s just "delayed". Come on.

SJA has a lot of fans in this community (I am one of them), and I think we were all looking forward to the AI update, so this sudden change is bound to cause uproar. However, we don't have any facts yet. I think FD need to release a statement on this before the rumour mill gets out of hand.

I for one will miss SJA's presence on the forums.

Its a problem when you have an vocal and active dev who is popular. They can be treated a bit like rockstars (there is even a term rockstar developer). So when they have to be reassigned for whatever reason (and if they are using agile methodologies this can happen at very short notice) it can cause upsets in the community.

Having now read the comments and the mention on G+ that she knew it was coming, my guess is that it happened earlier than she expected, didn't get a chance to finish her AI work, and this has upset her because she was heavily invested in it (as i think most devs would be).

I'd give good odds its now all hands on deck for what they are going to announce at gamescom, and once that is delivered, they might let the mistress of minions return to her AI work.

Pure conjecture, but there again, most of this thread is

 

[Darkphoenix]

Well, as far as I am concerned it isn't so much that SJA has been moved to another area of development (though I wish her tweaks to AI would have been implemented sooner rather than later).....it is the fact that she has been effectively silenced on posting on the forums at all that I find a bit much. Personally I would like more of the development team to actually took the time to post on the forums and interact with the fans of the game. Nothing saying they need or even should divulge information (although tidbits would be welcomed I am sure) but just to be more social and in a down to earth kind of way.

I am personally kind of tired of most of the development team being all mysterious......like Men in Black mysterious......seriously.

 

[MikeSnos]

Actually. Putting two and two together and coming up with 10.

AI is banned in the ED universe
Official fiction may mention AI in it
AM SURE Galnet mentioned rogue AI
There are multiple 'other sentients' out there not just Thargoids
Therefore our next threat will be from killer AI.
SJA, as an AI programmer has been digitised and put into the game as bossAI.

Yay!

He's right... I can verifiy it... I was at LaveCon too and the SJA that was there was a replicant.... Don't let people fool you!

 

[Lazerus Artificial]

Actually. Putting two and two together and coming up with 10.

AI is banned in the ED universe
Official fiction may mention AI in it
AM SURE Galnet mentioned rogue AI
There are multiple 'other sentients' out there not just Thargoids
Therefore our next threat will be from killer AI.
SJA, as an AI programmer has been digitised and put into the game as bossAI.

Yay!

Somehow i have some Xenon Flashbacks now...

 

[AnnuverScotinExile]

She knew about her reassignment *last* week. Just monday on G+ she said she will move on from her current position soon.

So let's stop "it's surprise" rumor treadmill.

Issue here is her indicating that it happened sooner that she expected, thus unfinished code.

Indeed, but this is a forum, on t'interweb, and folks love to add 2+2 and get to 347.

You don't even know it was sooner than expected (but it may have been). SJA clearly knew a few days ago that this was going to happen. And when it happened she was angry. Certainly it is plausible that it happened sooner than she expected. It is also plausible that it happened when expected, but she hoped for a few more days to finish stuff. Or various shades of grey in between. Whatever it was, we had an emotional overreaction, since removed, that triggered and even more emotional overreaction on here.

 

[Jason S]

Well, as far as I am concerned it isn't so much that SJA has been moved to another area of development (though I wish her tweaks to AI would have been implemented sooner rather than later).....it is the fact that she has been effectively silenced on posting on the forums at all that I find a bit much. Personally I would like more of the development team to actually took the time to post on the forums and interact with the fans of the game. Nothing saying they need or even should divulge information (although tidbits would be welcomed I am sure) but just to be more social and in a down to earth kind of way.

I am personally kind of tired of the whole development team being all mysterious......like Men in Black mysterious......seriously.

A developer mentions loads of good sounding stuff that due to business and resource issues gets delayed or abandoned then the community is very upset.
It is not hard to see FD's reasoning on it.

 

[{SAS}Stalker]

Mixed feelings really, gutted for Sarah that she hasn't got the chance to finish the project that she (and we ED players) considered to be hers. She clearly enjoyed the contact with us in the forum and the banter that went with it and vice-versa. She is a presence that regardless of Dev status will be sorely missed on the forums.

With regards being put on a different project, for her personally disappointing / frustrating in the short term but the reality of life in a design team is that this happens often, you are placed where input is needed as a priority. That might be this actual project or something completely different, Its the nature of the beast which might on the surface seem harsh but it does have its good side because you broaden your experience and get to work on something different.

We should though however follow her twitter account and chat with her on that, just not about ED.

 

[Morholt]

This Combat AI stuff was something I deemed interesting and valuable, as well as I find Sarah Jane Avory to be a great person and valuable asset to the team.

Frontier/Elite lost me quite after the messy and underwhelming PowerPlay, I have not quite go back into the game ever since.

I hope they get back on track, their "Arena" module to cater to the supposed prototypical XBOX gamer really leaves me cold. I rather wish for something more inspiring than that, like fixing and improving Powerplay mechanics that are quite boring and coming up with more inspiring future projects.

The Combat AI stuff was the only interesting thing I heard about lately, and they rather focus on something else. Oh well...!

 

[Soopyyy]

Perhaps FD are simply trying to avoid information leaks in the lead up to the convention?
I mean, even studio's like Bethesda have accidental leaks.

 

[Darkphoenix]

A developer mentions loads of good sounding stuff that due to business and resource issues gets delayed or abandoned then the community is very upset.
It is not hard to see FD's reasoning on it.

That's all fine and no issues with that.....like I said...not so much about game progress or plans or anything like that.....I am just talking about being sociable.

 

[lysan]

Indeed, but this is a forum, on t'interweb, and folks love to add 2+2 and get to 347.

You don't even know it was sooner than expected (but it may have been). SJA clearly knew a few days ago that this was going to happen. And when it happened she was angry. Certainly it is plausible that it happened sooner than she expected. It is also plausible that it happened when expected, but she hoped for a few more days to finish stuff. Or various shades of grey in between. Whatever it was, we had an emotional overreaction, since removed, that triggered and even more emotional overreaction on here.

Sure maybe there is an over reaction here, however there are somethings going on that I find strange.

1. The "angry" tweet (if you are in a professional business, you know that sometimes you have to do other tasks that you don't necessary agree with or like doing. This doesn't make you post tweets, with emotional content)
2. Some of her posts was deleted (that is really weird, as there was nothing that indicated anything wrong, other than she mentioned the upcoming upgrade of the AI, (maybe that was the mistake))

I was really looking forward to meet some true deadly AI's now we get the same lame AI none cares about.