DevHeaven Improvement Project

[.kju 3245]

Preface:

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In case you are unfamiliar with DevHeaven, this thread may give you some idea hopefully.

Short/mid term vision:

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We want to improve DevHeaven in the next couple of weeks and months with smaller to medium changes,

and long term possibly a completely revamped system tailored even better to our target audience - modders and their fan-base.

How To:

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One key element to this should be your, the users, feedback and ideas.

Please tell us your problems - with the website, with code sharing system, with communication and interaction.

Ask anything in regards to DevHeaven that is unclear to you.

Voice your desires, needs and wishes. What is bad, what is missing, what needs improvement?

It is vital to hear from all levels of expertise and sophistication. From computer noob to IT nerd.

Please share your thoughts with us!

Yours,

DevHeaven team

[Vigil Vindex 64]

I don't use DevHeaven, but I use Github and the features available there are something that could be emulated.

[VBS3 10]

It would be nice if you add external ballistics projectile: to wit

wind, vertical angles, temperature, pressure, and humidity.

just an idea

Edited September 10, 2013 by VBS3

[NeoArmageddon 958]

It would be nice if you add external ballistics projectile: to wit

wind, vertical angles, temperature, pressure, and humidity.

A.C.E. mod added an amendment to the wind, from the developers are waiting for more :)

I think you missed the point here. DevHeaven is not a mod, it's a webplatform for modder.

[gammadust 12]

@.kju

Is it implied that the current Arma 3 ticket system will be freezed upon release, and that DevHeaven will be back to serve that and other purposes?

[.kju 3245]

@ ssechaud

We use redmine as a base. Our experience is that modders are mostly not developers/IT guys and especially not the player/fans.

Quite a lot of them already find DevHeaven/Redmine too overwhelming, complicated and hard to use - thus one area we want to strongly improve over time.

We use github ourselves. It is great - however not the best for this user base.

In any case what (features) from gitub are you missing?

@ gammadust

BI decided to go for their own feedback system with A3 for various reasons.

While I believe this didn't pay off for them, but that's how it is.

BI said they will continue to use the FT post A3 release.

We are keeping the A2 and A3 CIT regardless for large number of quality tickets in there.

Does that answer your question?

[gammadust 12]

it does. "BI said they will continue to use the FT post A3 release." i missed that one

i was of course aware that DevHeaven was always there, but since Bohemia attention had gone mostly to A3 system, so went my feedback.

I haven't used DevHeaven sufficiently to have much to say of note, apart that it works, learned a lot there with direct dev input, and that it makes sense for side-by-side projects. Whish it a healthy comeback. :)

[firefly2442 6]

Being able to create your own projects and git repositories without having to create a ticket and poke you nice folks would be nice. I'm not sure what that would entail on the redmine side but...

[.kju 3245]

@ gammadust

DevHeaven provided the community issue tracker for Arma 2, OA and TKOH true.

However these are just a part of the initiative - the other key elements are project space for developers

to aid in development and to get more structured, aka useful feedback from fans and testers.

Two more elements are live chat for developers (Skype group chats) and some basic modding/development education in the DH wiki.

@ firefly2442

Two very good points and two major weaknesses of the process right now.

We hope to be able to improve these significantly one way or another. :)

[gammadust 12]

Being able to create your own projects and git repositories without having to create a ticket and poke you nice folks would be nice. I'm not sure what that would entail on the redmine side but...

+1 (the very reason i created my own blog* to host my stuff, i knew about the project hosting but after sign up - aka gamma there - i did not immediatly find a way to do it)

*for a hammer everything looks as nails

[cifordayzserver 119]

Is there a chance at integrating with Play With Six? It would very beneficial to have more synergy between production and publication.

In general I think stimulating the atmosphere for creation and facilitating the distribution of the content created would be a lot more incentive for devs to use Dev Heaven.

For example, if there was an "all in one" approach.

I really think that there is a perfect storm waiting to happen in regards to development and integration with social media.

Google+ is pretty close to being the crux of it all IMO. ability to share screens and co develop. as well as communicate to a community and share updates quickly.. and google drive for sharing/hosting manual DL files...

You guys get a development backend tied into that and THAT would be something amazing IMO.

Even if it's just adding some sort of basic "share" feature for updates and information or a devblog or something.

[PuFu 4600]

The inclussion of similar system to the (current defunct) armastack would appreciated, and would, in my books,go along the scope of devheaven

[mikero 79]

As a long term developer using the devheaven's set up it's almost all praise. It serves my needs precisely. To whit:

ability to create my own wiki pages for my projects

ability to easily provide downloadable files

ability to respond to technical issues / bug reports in my own ticket area

ability to have my own repository, to which, I can selectively add other people.

The navigation panels within mine, or anyone else's projects, are intuitive for both user and supplier.

There's nothing remarkable here, it is as it should be, but i'm more than satisfied with the 'service'

On the negative side I have a personal loathing for Git. But the difficulties it presents are under the covers and transparent to the users of my tools. I wish it were buried in a deep dark hole with a stake in it's heart and svn re-introduced as a far more appropriate tool for myneeds. Putting my cwr2 hat on 'we' had to move away from devheaven because of it. (Despite all the other huge benefits devheaven provided for us)

The only other sour note (or opinion) I have is a navigation system to find anything on devheaven is invisible to me. I sacrifice three chicken's feet and a goat before I attempt to locate any other 'project' other than my own. My opinion is the home page needs a rethink so that users can get to where they need to go.

[cifordayzserver 119]

Good Points from Mikero!

I am going to try to get a feel for Dev's current setup in the next week or so, see if I can offer any input.

The Features Mikero mentions make is sound VERY enticing.

Having dug around it a bit more since this thread was posted, I can say that I do encounter dead links fairly frequently, but not sure what can be done about that.

The modding Bible is FANTASTIC. https://dev-heaven.net/projects/cmb/wiki