Forum Tibia.pl - Zobacz pojedynczy post

Freesnake · 07-06-2004, 21:02

Steve of CIP, interviewed!
Report: Tibianews

Stephan Vogler, best known as Steve, is truly a One Man Army: CIP's Game Content Director, responsible for business relations and the one in charge for the graphical design of the client and homepage. Nevertheless, he still enjoys getting his hands dirty with any kind of programming work for the client or server.

We somehow managed to take him away of his oversized monitor to attend our questions

TibiaNews: Hiho Steve! Thanks for granting us this opportunity

Steve: You're welcome! I'm happy to give you and all readers of TibiaNews some insight into our work and plans for the future.

TibiaNews: Tibia has grow quite a bit ever since our last interview! We have dozens of brand new servers now... new CipSoft offices, new employees... and about 25 times more players! Those are some impressive figures... What are the next steps for the Company to achieve?
Steve: Yes, Tibia has grown a lot in the past years. We're working hard to let everyone join Tibia who wants to. Nevertheless there are still far more interested players than our servers have room for. Therefore we will start many new game worlds as well as increase the capacity of the old ones."To make things a little more interesting there will be some worlds with slightly different game-rules"
This of course needs an extended game map, stronger servers and a larger support team. To make things a little more interesting there will be some worlds with slightly different game-rules. Also we want to setup some servers at new locations to account for players who don't have a good connection to our German and American servers. At the same time we want to keep the game fresh and interesting for the existing community. With the map extension, we will introduce entirely new themes including new graphics, items and creatures. Last but not least our growing development team will also work on several new game features... So stay tuned!

TibiaNews: OK! What is coming in the next update? We heard pyramids

but what players demands are more-more-more hunting areas, new cities and houses... will we have all this?
Steve: Hell, yes!

The new large desert city Ankrahmun will have numerous flats and spacious houses. The egyptian flavoured architecture will give them a unique atmosphere. In the surrounding desert the scarab, a distant relative of the Tibian bug, nests in deep tunnel systems. They are known to get really nasty if you get too close to their larvae. Some fearless adventurers have even reported seeing some huge scarabs deep underground. Aside from these tales there are rumours of mysterious ruins that have long been buried by the sands of the desert. So polish your shovels and prepare for some exciting treasure hunts!

TibiaNews: And... it is in CipSoft plans to offer more frequent updates? Can we realistically expect it?

Steve: Actually there were updates every two or three months in the past. However most of them happened in the background, invisible to the players but nevertheless neccessary: security improvements, server optimizations, redesign of the banishment system, etc. But we hope to have more updates of the game content and features in the future. Since we're currently extending our development team I'm confident that things will get better.

TibiaNews: What important changes do you have planned for a future Tibia? Will we have, for example, our own boats and dozens of new skills like smithing or lumbing?

Steve: We haven't decided yet on any larger new feature updates because we are still very busy with the tasks mentioned above. But in the coming summer months we will have some hot discussions here at CipSoft about what to realize from the ever-growing wish list. After all, you have to be very careful when introducing new elements into the existing game.

TibiaNews: Talking about proposals... does CipSoft look at the Proposal Board? There are a number of excellent ideas there... will we see them implemented anytime?
Steve: We look at the proposal board from time to time. Even if we don't find the time to participate in the discussions, it is a good place to learn about the current needs and concerns of the players. As you said, there are many good ideas which we sometimes note down on the wish list for Tibia. Please understand that there are far more ideas than we will ever be able to implement. On the other hand I'd say that there has been no new feature in the past that hasn't been suggested in one or several threads on the proposal board.

TibiaNews: The whole "Ferumbras" incident caused a huge impact in Tibia History like nothing else. When will we have an Event Manager? Some other MMORPGs has them... is that in CipSoft schedule somehow?
Steve: At this time, we haven't planned any in-games events that are organized by CipSoft. They are very time-consuming to prepare and the invested work will pay off only once. Therefore we prefer to work on the game-content and the features which will improve the game for all times.

TibiaNews: For some time now, nobody can be Counsellor and it is known that CIP is hiring new Gamemasters... the good players will not have the chance to become Gamemasters anymore? How will Support work from the GM perspective?
Steve: Our gamemasters are doing a great job and we need them for a lot of reasons. Unfortunately they spend most of their time doing annoying little tasks that shouldn't be necessary in the first place or can be handled more efficiently by our support team."We keep an eye on the cheat utilities out there and take measures where required."
In the future CipSoft will take care of this daily business. Therefore we introduced the automatic banishment for excessive player-killing or the new namelock process. Another similar topic will be the suppression of spamming in the game. At the same time a small and flexible team of gamemasters will take care of all remaining more complicated cases. If new gamemasters are needed, they will be appointed with the usual caution and selected from the community of counsellors and tutors.

TibiaNews: What are CipSoft thoughts about Tibia cheats? We heard about the "Black Weekend", when more than a thousand accounts were banished for using cheats. Will we see such GM campaigns stomping our servers again?
Steve: If it's necessary. We won't hesitate to banish any players who violate the Tibia rules. That's why we keep an eye on the cheat utilities out there and take measures where required. Of course we will also fix many of the weaknesses that are currently misused by these utilities.

TibiaNews: Many people believe Tibia's main problem is the risk of getting hacked... How comes, all those hacks? How is Security handled by CipSoft?
Steve: Above all we give the player the possibility to protect themselves. With a little common sense your account will be safe. However unlike other online games Tibia has a high rate of free accounts that are often owned by young kids who make their first experiences with internet security issues in Tibia. Accordingly most "hacks" result from "borrowing" passwords, sharing email accounts, using weak passwords, installing dubious software from even more dubious websites, etc. If you're shocked now, you might want to read our security page on the official tibia website.

TibiaNews: When will we have the hardcore PvP server? Will it be called "Chaotica"?

Steve: Who told you!?

No seriously - in the past Guido, Stephan and I made up the names for the game worlds in lengthy discussions. Durin gave up on these meetings much earlier. With the increasing number of worlds, we wasted way too much time disputing about more or less daffy arguments for or against some names. Therefore we now switched to a CipSoft-wide democratic election of world names.

If everything works out well, the server will be launched early this summer.

TibiaNews: Thank you very much, Steve!

Steve: It was a pleasure! Keep up the good work at TibiaNews!

07-06-2004, 21:02	#1
Freesnake Użytkownik Forum Data dołączenia: 31 10 2003 Posty: 61	Wywiad z CIPami, trzeba przetłumaczyć! Steve of CIP, interviewed! Report: Tibianews Stephan Vogler, best known as Steve, is truly a One Man Army: CIP's Game Content Director, responsible for business relations and the one in charge for the graphical design of the client and homepage. Nevertheless, he still enjoys getting his hands dirty with any kind of programming work for the client or server. We somehow managed to take him away of his oversized monitor to attend our questions TibiaNews: Hiho Steve! Thanks for granting us this opportunity Steve: You're welcome! I'm happy to give you and all readers of TibiaNews some insight into our work and plans for the future. TibiaNews: Tibia has grow quite a bit ever since our last interview! We have dozens of brand new servers now... new CipSoft offices, new employees... and about 25 times more players! Those are some impressive figures... What are the next steps for the Company to achieve? Steve: Yes, Tibia has grown a lot in the past years. We're working hard to let everyone join Tibia who wants to. Nevertheless there are still far more interested players than our servers have room for. Therefore we will start many new game worlds as well as increase the capacity of the old ones."To make things a little more interesting there will be some worlds with slightly different game-rules" This of course needs an extended game map, stronger servers and a larger support team. To make things a little more interesting there will be some worlds with slightly different game-rules. Also we want to setup some servers at new locations to account for players who don't have a good connection to our German and American servers. At the same time we want to keep the game fresh and interesting for the existing community. With the map extension, we will introduce entirely new themes including new graphics, items and creatures. Last but not least our growing development team will also work on several new game features... So stay tuned! TibiaNews: OK! What is coming in the next update? We heard pyramids but what players demands are more-more-more hunting areas, new cities and houses... will we have all this? Steve: Hell, yes! The new large desert city Ankrahmun will have numerous flats and spacious houses. The egyptian flavoured architecture will give them a unique atmosphere. In the surrounding desert the scarab, a distant relative of the Tibian bug, nests in deep tunnel systems. They are known to get really nasty if you get too close to their larvae. Some fearless adventurers have even reported seeing some huge scarabs deep underground. Aside from these tales there are rumours of mysterious ruins that have long been buried by the sands of the desert. So polish your shovels and prepare for some exciting treasure hunts! TibiaNews: And... it is in CipSoft plans to offer more frequent updates? Can we realistically expect it? Steve: Actually there were updates every two or three months in the past. However most of them happened in the background, invisible to the players but nevertheless neccessary: security improvements, server optimizations, redesign of the banishment system, etc. But we hope to have more updates of the game content and features in the future. Since we're currently extending our development team I'm confident that things will get better. TibiaNews: What important changes do you have planned for a future Tibia? Will we have, for example, our own boats and dozens of new skills like smithing or lumbing? Steve: We haven't decided yet on any larger new feature updates because we are still very busy with the tasks mentioned above. But in the coming summer months we will have some hot discussions here at CipSoft about what to realize from the ever-growing wish list. After all, you have to be very careful when introducing new elements into the existing game. TibiaNews: Talking about proposals... does CipSoft look at the Proposal Board? There are a number of excellent ideas there... will we see them implemented anytime? Steve: We look at the proposal board from time to time. Even if we don't find the time to participate in the discussions, it is a good place to learn about the current needs and concerns of the players. As you said, there are many good ideas which we sometimes note down on the wish list for Tibia. Please understand that there are far more ideas than we will ever be able to implement. On the other hand I'd say that there has been no new feature in the past that hasn't been suggested in one or several threads on the proposal board. TibiaNews: The whole "Ferumbras" incident caused a huge impact in Tibia History like nothing else. When will we have an Event Manager? Some other MMORPGs has them... is that in CipSoft schedule somehow? Steve: At this time, we haven't planned any in-games events that are organized by CipSoft. They are very time-consuming to prepare and the invested work will pay off only once. Therefore we prefer to work on the game-content and the features which will improve the game for all times. TibiaNews: For some time now, nobody can be Counsellor and it is known that CIP is hiring new Gamemasters... the good players will not have the chance to become Gamemasters anymore? How will Support work from the GM perspective? Steve: Our gamemasters are doing a great job and we need them for a lot of reasons. Unfortunately they spend most of their time doing annoying little tasks that shouldn't be necessary in the first place or can be handled more efficiently by our support team."We keep an eye on the cheat utilities out there and take measures where required." In the future CipSoft will take care of this daily business. Therefore we introduced the automatic banishment for excessive player-killing or the new namelock process. Another similar topic will be the suppression of spamming in the game. At the same time a small and flexible team of gamemasters will take care of all remaining more complicated cases. If new gamemasters are needed, they will be appointed with the usual caution and selected from the community of counsellors and tutors. TibiaNews: What are CipSoft thoughts about Tibia cheats? We heard about the "Black Weekend", when more than a thousand accounts were banished for using cheats. Will we see such GM campaigns stomping our servers again? Steve: If it's necessary. We won't hesitate to banish any players who violate the Tibia rules. That's why we keep an eye on the cheat utilities out there and take measures where required. Of course we will also fix many of the weaknesses that are currently misused by these utilities. TibiaNews: Many people believe Tibia's main problem is the risk of getting hacked... How comes, all those hacks? How is Security handled by CipSoft? Steve: Above all we give the player the possibility to protect themselves. With a little common sense your account will be safe. However unlike other online games Tibia has a high rate of free accounts that are often owned by young kids who make their first experiences with internet security issues in Tibia. Accordingly most "hacks" result from "borrowing" passwords, sharing email accounts, using weak passwords, installing dubious software from even more dubious websites, etc. If you're shocked now, you might want to read our security page on the official tibia website. TibiaNews: When will we have the hardcore PvP server? Will it be called "Chaotica"? Steve: Who told you!? No seriously - in the past Guido, Stephan and I made up the names for the game worlds in lengthy discussions. Durin gave up on these meetings much earlier. With the increasing number of worlds, we wasted way too much time disputing about more or less daffy arguments for or against some names. Therefore we now switched to a CipSoft-wide democratic election of world names. If everything works out well, the server will be launched early this summer. TibiaNews: Thank you very much, Steve! Steve: It was a pleasure! Keep up the good work at TibiaNews!