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Discussions Rules and Guidelines
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We do have an IRC. There is an integrated client built into the game (Help Button in the upper right hand corner > Chat). You can use the web client online: http://webchat.esper.net/?nick=GearCityOffline&channels=vent%2Cgearcity&prompt=0 Or you can point your own client to our channels. Channels: #gearcity and #vent on irc.esper.net
You can find me idling there most of the time. But as always, expect a few minute delay to get the first reply as I don't check the client constantly. :)
I will still be idling on Esper channels as well.
The move to Quakenet may or may not be permanent. This depends on the multiplayer lobbying systems I implement in future games. (Most likely AeroMogul will use it's own IRC daemon for in game chat.)
You guys are more than welcome to create a fan discord. I won't be idling there though.
Not sure what's difficult about clicking "Help" then "Chat" inside the game. Have you tried our IRC channel? The integrated version in the game is a hell of a lot simpler than Discord.
You wouldn't be able to talk to a developer on Discord. Why? Because I don't use Discord. I have been on the internet for 25 years. I find "Web Apps" like Discord atrocious. If you want to talk to me in a chat setting, you're more than welcome to send me a Steam Chat (which I can't avoid on this platform) or hop onto IRC. It's as easy as just clicking the link I gave above, or clicking "Help", "Chat" in the 64-bit build of the game.
No, they do worse. Which is how they make money.
https://discordapp.com/privacy
Welp, this is a game made for freaks, by a freak. As I said before, you're more than welcome to create an official-unofficial Discord. Although, as I mentioned, I won't be idling there and because of that, it probably wouldn't be worth the effort of implementing an Discord-IRC bridge for me to even pop-in occasionally via IRC.
Our integrated IRC chat is lovely Web 3.0 style that Discord users like. It's also quite easier to get started in, you just hit "Login" and your chatting right there with me. (Assuming I am online. The greeter bot will let you know.) So barrier of entry is completely moot. Technical knowhow is also moot. I also can't integrate Discord into the game and still sell it on Steam. So that's another point.
One shining example of a gaming Discord server done to perfection is the one for Out Of The Park Developments (creators of the Out Of The Park baseball and Franchise Hockey Manager games). They have set up the most perfectly balanced Discord server with everything a consumer/gamer could need - organized into specific channels within the server. The developers and community moderators are present a reasonable amount of time, but not 24/7. Nobody expects them to be waiting hand and foot. Fans are pretty respectful too and know that you can't just bother the CEO or development team whenever you want. The good thing is that the community itself can help each other out in real time. I have built friendships and grown close to fellow gamers just by interacting with them in this environment. You can share, archive and save just about anything on Discord, too. The instant screenshot sharing is one of my favorite things. Anyways, I'm beginning to ramble on at this point.
In closing, I just want to say that I think GearCity is a fantastic game. I'm starting a new save tonight and hope to play it more often now that I have a ton of time on my hands lol. Thank you for creating this wonderful game, Eric. You should give Discord a try sometime, it's not as bad as you think, I promise. ;)
The main thing is, our IRC is accessible in game. You just click "Help" and then "Chat". Bam, you're talking to me on IRC, in the game. We can't do that with Discord.
If there is ever a multiplayer version of GearCity or any of our future games, the lobbying code and in-game chat will be built on top of IRC, just like several other games and services do. People playing our games will be able to talk to each other, people not playing our games at the time will be able to talk to each other. All on the same system. You can't do that with Discord to my knowledge.
With IRC, I have full control over the stack if I run a server. You don't have control of anything on Discord, and your data is being stored for a future sale when the company goes bust. With IRC, I can integrate it into my products and run the in game and lobby chats systems. I can also access and moderate said in-game networks from any device made in the last 35 years. You can't do any of that with Discord.
In all likelihood the company will eventually have a Discord "server" (I guess they call it that). And that will include a GearCity channel. It may not be ran by me, but I will probably connect to it via IRC after it's all setup. But that all depends on what happens in the next few months.
Anyway, the future replacement for IRC is Matrix if the IRC protocol team is still slow to roll out v3 of the protocol. Of course they're both inter-connectable. Everything else is doomed to eventual failure. Some may take longer than others, but the 26 years I've been on the internet, non-foss chat protocols come and go.
Thanks for the kind words! I hope you enjoy the latest build. We should have another update at the end of the week. It fixes a few issues.
But talking in 2020 of IRC and Matrix is just really, really obsolete. All companies are using Discord for something, because it fits all needs, and mostly all people uses Discord actually.
Very true. I've never even used Discord in a browser come to think of it. I have the desktop app and the Android app lol.
These "apps" are written in electronjs, which is a framework running node.js on top of chromium rendering engine. It's nearly the same system as how we get html reports in the game. In short, every time you run the discord app, you're running a chromium web browser that is specifically tailored for the discord website.
I don't have an iPhone or Android device. I use a BlackBerry Passport. And in a couple of years when that kicks the bucket, I'll hopefully move to a PinePhone with keyboard running PostmarketOS or KDE Mobile (I forget the exact name they're calling it now days).
As for Windows, as I mentioned, I do not use Windows on the internet. In fact, I only use Windows to test GearCity. My baremetal Windows install is on it's own subdomain with very strict pf firewall settings which pretty much blocks everything but Steam, my servers, and Windows updates.
I do use Windows virtual machines to build GC, but these are not corrected to the internet for security purposes. One lone exception is when I upload to Steam. I do connect a windows VM to the net to do that.
Good for them. I use IRC. If you guys want a GearCity Discord, I give you my blessing. Create it. However, I won't be idling there. It doesn't work on my phone or FreeBSD machines. Even if it did, I would be rather peeved with the amount of resources it eats. The modern Steam is bad enough as it is (I only really have Steam for GC, I prefer gog). And I dropped Skype when they moved to electronjs.
That being said, if some stuff that is in the works goes down, there will probably be a discord, but it still won't be ran by me. And I will probably only bounce in via IRC gateway IF that option still works.
As for mention of Matrix. Not sure how it's obsolete when it's a new protocol (EDIT, only 1 year older than Discord), made specifically to address issues some folks have with IRC. In anycase, I am not implementing a Matrix yet, but it is a possibility to build on top of it in the future if we make a multiplayer game, because it's FOSS protocol.
The only reason we have chat at all is for future multiplayer systems and current integrated in-game chat.