Re: NML 0.5.0 released 26th April 2020
Posted: 12 Jul 2020 15:28
For what it's worth, I think the development and maintenance of NML is one of the most important projects to happen during my relatively short time (<5 years) playing OpenTTD. The game is a stable base for expanded content for NewGRFs which extend the game dramatically from its original function, and NML opens up development of this content to a broad group of users (including me) who would otherwise be scared off by NFO and other less user-friendly development tools. There is no shortage of creativity or passion being applied to better this game, often by people with no software development experience.
The flip side of this democratization is that newer users with less experience may not understand or appreciate the chore of maintaining software and keeping users happy despite necessary changes. Some may perceive NewGRF development as easy and — without trying it themselves — make suggestions or demands of NewGRF creators without realizing how much time and effort it would take to implement their ideas, if they're even possible. Less common on TT-Forums, but something I regularly see on Reddit are suggestions to "pester the devs to add feature X." This is likely a behavior learned from commercial games where paid developers solicit more input from players.
OpenTTD is a free game. We don't "deserve" NML, trunk updates, patchpacks, FIRS Extreme or other NewGRFs, Wikis, or TT-Forums, because we have not paid for any of those things. They are created and maintained by people expecting nothing in return. Maintaining NML seems to be a thankless job, but we should all be thanking you and everyone else involved. Thank you.
The flip side of this democratization is that newer users with less experience may not understand or appreciate the chore of maintaining software and keeping users happy despite necessary changes. Some may perceive NewGRF development as easy and — without trying it themselves — make suggestions or demands of NewGRF creators without realizing how much time and effort it would take to implement their ideas, if they're even possible. Less common on TT-Forums, but something I regularly see on Reddit are suggestions to "pester the devs to add feature X." This is likely a behavior learned from commercial games where paid developers solicit more input from players.
OpenTTD is a free game. We don't "deserve" NML, trunk updates, patchpacks, FIRS Extreme or other NewGRFs, Wikis, or TT-Forums, because we have not paid for any of those things. They are created and maintained by people expecting nothing in return. Maintaining NML seems to be a thankless job, but we should all be thanking you and everyone else involved. Thank you.
