#dev 1 speaks

...and by "the force" I guess I mean database queries (the things that call all this fabulous data you see before you) and by "weak" I mean optimization (some queries took tens of seconds - that is a lot for queries; they should be closer to .0002 seconds).

So with that explanation out of the way, you MAY have noticed that over the weekend (and late last week) the land of Get Ye Done experienced some extended downtime and registration troubles. This downtime is due to my less than optimal writing of queries, limitations set by our web host dictation limitation in resource use not broken down into the handy form of a graph and a bit of a surge of new users. Their powers combined: EVERYTHING DIED.

In the hurried effort of getting the site back up I did some blind fixes in between making dinner, trying to get some sleep, trying to hear back from our host on just WHAT was wrong and how I could fix it and also trying to get my day job done. All while working mostly blind and on (unsurprisingly) little sleep. I too could not access the site to ensure that my changes worked as they should, merely that they were in fact passably efficient. These things combined resulted in lots of confusion for many new users and old adventurers alike- some tasks and quests not showing, new adventurers finding themselves unable to log in immediately after registering while also having access to a strange quest log of no-one-in-particular's ownership.

I think I have repaired (or hidden in the case of some minor features) all the issues from this most recent downpour of problems. If you discover more please, please, please submit a bug report; I have enough things on my plate that while an issue may be obvious to you, I have apparently managed to miss it.

With that... collection of text (can you believe I don't write content?) out of the way I will continue to be cleaning up our site and making her run AS FAST AS POSSIBLE. Imagine it: the tourney ranking loading with haste! HASTE, I tell you!

I will also continue to try and get my butt geared for code-monkering out that new party system since you people want to see each other for some reason. WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU?! Nothing is wrong with you, you are awesome.

BACK TO WORK!

(From deep within the secret depths of her Code Sanctuary, Dev #1's voice echoes, booming out across the lands of GetYeDone...)

Here's what my to-do list for feature development looks like over the coming months.

It is my goal to have the following done in a roughly the stated order, by the dates specified. These are the features MANY people have said they want. I will attempt to get them done in as timely a manner as I can while still allowing myself to add and mend little things on the site and also maintain important things like sleep and a day job.

I don't PLAN to change around any of these dates but I'm gonna cover my butt here and note that they can in a terrible pinch be changed a bit.

JANUARY:

Finish the new party system. (As of press time, this is about 80% done.)

Behind-the-scenes work to make names with non-standard characters work better.

FEBRUARY:

Drag and drop sortable tasks/quests/odysseys.

MARCH:

Due dates for tasks, complete with optional email reminders.

Recurring tasks.

That's what's on the schedule as of right now. The following is a list of features that we plan to implement, but haven't been asked about as much. Want one of these features to happen sooner? Tell us! Submit a suggestion on the site, tweet us, email us, or drop us an ask. I'll listen and prioritize things accordingly. 

Achievements/Badges: Awards for achieving certain goals, like earning 100 points in a certain skill or completing five tasks in a single day.

In-Party Communication: A bulletin board/forum that party members can use to discuss... things. Possibly including a live-chat area.

In-party shared tasks/quests/odysseys. Allow others to see what you've been working on to better co-ordinate a project. Or hey, assign chores that your roomies can do for EXP! 

Item Incentives: Get goofy items you can keep and show off or sell for in-game money. Some items will do little things like give a tiny EXP boost, change the color of your Adventurer Name or even regurgitate random quotes when clicked on

Quest of the Day: A daily challenge to better your world and the people in it.

Optional Themes in case you get bored of the default one (High Fantasy)

50's SciFi Extravaganza

Post Apocalyptic Roller-Derby

Space Adventure

Sparkle Fairy Unicorn Princess

Steampunk

Superheroes

The Wild West

Urban Fantasy

(We're going to be doing a few of these "How I Use CA" posts: we hope that you find them useful!)

I'm a busy kid; I have more projects than I have time and it's easy to get lost in all I've got left to do.

I use Challenge Accepted mostly to keep track of what all I have to do— breaking it into quests and odysseys to keep work from overlapping with play and just making each part of every project that I take on a little closer to being bite-sized. I like fairly quick results: being able to reward myself a little at a time for a bigger arduous task makes me titter in delight and gives me a little more power to keep on truckin' against what, as a whole, might seem like a pretty insurmountable pile of crap to be completed.

Challenge Accepted also helps keep my sane: by being able to quantify my completed tasks I can appease my brain and it's less-than-human perception of what it is to be a contributing member of society. I can consider myself healthily productive at 20-25 normal tasks in 24 hours. This lets me sleep a little more than I otherwise would and also realize that maybe I need a few more points in game play today because that boss battle really took a lot out of me. Still being able to reward myself for 'off time' helps make me a little healthier mentally and more productive as a whole. That means a lot to me.  

From high atop the dizzying mountain upon which she performs her Codemonkery and Technomancy, Dev #1 (Danger Daisy) has asked that I pass along a message to all the good folk of GetYeDone, regarding her coding priorities.

Right now, Dev #1's priority list is as follows:

Squashing any and all bugs reported by users.

A better, more social party system.

Re-arrangeable tasks.

Regarding the last item in particular, she has requested input from YOU (yes, you) as to how you would like to be able to re-arrange/put in order the tasks in your Quest Log.

Click HERE to participate in the poll!

Let us know! There are over 500 of you now (!!!) and Challenge Accepted can only get better if y'all help us make it happen.