It's been another crazy year on the project. We launched Finalizer in December of 2021 and spent most of 2022 progressing the project along the 14.1
target while testing new ideas on Finalizer. Since launching Finalizer, over 15,400 unique accounts have logged in and played 6,256,854 hours. I
changed jobs, moved to a new state, bought a house, and continued to deal with the reality of the real-world economy and its impacts on all of us.
As if moving my life to a new state and a new home wasn't enough, our ISP told us we needed to move to new servers as they were shutting down the data
center our current servers were in on 11/30, and the new cost was 2.7x our current monthly rate. So I spent a couple of months testing various
providers and solutions, looking for something with the right price, reliability profile, and flexibility we needed. And instead of enjoying holidays
with my family I spent them moving our very complex environment to a new service provider. We moved with very few hiccups, but this was easily 120
hours of my life, or more I will never get back.
I am building more analytics pipelines to make it easier for us to focus on the impact changes we make have on the game in general with a specific
view towards the economy (credits and resources). I'm starting a series of posts based on the data we've gathered over the last year, see:
Use the
data Luke... Finalizer 1 Year In: Data Sources
I am happy to see the progress the project has made this year, and our dev team has grown. I've had the pleasure of mentoring new members and
empowering them to move faster (with plenty of backups and tools) to support our ever-forward goal of getting to 14.1, so we can call this project
done.
I'm still deciding if I will join the 1.0+ project. While I moved our services, I simplified our service setup to make it easier for someone else to
maintain all our services. I did this mainly with an eye to longevity for the project, but also selfishly, so I have the option to fade away, knowing
the project can still keep going from the foundation we all built over the many years... In general, staying motivated to work on this project is
challenging with the amount of negativity, personal attacks, and constant claims of corruption or whatever the "drama flavor" of the day is. Even
though we say it all the time, I don't think people understand what it's like to volunteer literally 100's of hours of your life and get nothing in
return while also being told you're a moron, aren't doing it right, are cheating or helping others cheat. It wears on a person's psyche; while 99.99%
of the community is playing a game, we're all working when we, too, could be playing this game or another or spending quality time with our family,
friends, or other things. This constant wear is what keeps me on the fence about the 1.0+ project, I'm not sure it's healthy for me to continue with
the project if things stay this toxic. Time will tell, but the Jury is out and deliberating. Keep that in mind the next time you post something on the
forums, discord, or in chat, we're people too on staff, and we have hearts and minds, and I hope we deserve a bit of your respect for the time we all
put in. However, be mindful that your post could be the one that breaks the camel's back and destroys the very thing you are so passionate about.
Soon(tm) is closer than ever, now we're seeing JTL come alive, and the final items in the dev backlog are getting shorter by the day thanks to Hakry
and others leading the charge down the last miles towards the 14.1 goal.
I'm excited to see where the project heads next; it'll be interesting to see the debates fly once 14.1 is "in the can."
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