Author Topic: Advice to HTC (Read 1015 times)

MANDOBLE · « **on:** April 12, 2002, 04:05:50 AM »

IMO, it is a risk for any software project to have it depending on a single programmer and a single modeler, mainly when the customer base has grown to a noticeable size.

beet1e · « **Reply #1 on:** April 12, 2002, 04:55:55 AM »

Indeed. Look what happened to Warbirds...

MadBirdCZ · « **Reply #2 on:** April 12, 2002, 06:27:57 AM »

Quote

Originally posted by beet1e
Indeed. Look what happened to Warbirds...

Yeah developer left the house (someone called HiTech If I remember right

) and from then WB went balistic...

Bluedog · « **Reply #3 on:** April 12, 2002, 06:48:23 AM »

Forgive me for saying this.....but it would seem to me that the single programmer and modeler got AH THIS far, in fact I would be so bold as to say that the small, tightnit team is one of the reasons it has been so successfull, one of the major reasons.
The size of the customer base has nothing whatsoever to do with it really, it doesnt matter if two people fly it or two thousand...each part of AH, each new plane, feature or whatever, takes the same amount of time to develop regardless.
All the size of the customer base influences is HTC's income figures.
More developers, programmer's artists etc just means more chiefs for the indians so to speak, hence more differing opinions, hence a SLOWER development cycle.

If something aint broken, why try to fix it?
IMHO, HTC are doing a fantastic job, and they have been for years, why would you want them to change the way they go about it?

~~Blue~~

AKSWulfe · « **Reply #4 on:** April 12, 2002, 07:57:54 AM »

2 modelers- Superfly and Natedog.

It doesn't matter either, with more customers they need to build more? Not at all, with more customers they just need to maintain the same track record they've been doing to date.
-SW

Pyro · « **Reply #5 on:** April 12, 2002, 08:11:53 AM »

Pretty hard to take advice from somebody on how many programmers we need when they are wrong about how many programmers we have.

MANDOBLE · « **Reply #6 on:** April 12, 2002, 08:12:45 AM »

What I mean with one modeler is just one flight model modeler (Pyro). The customer base is an important factor here. If I have a product that depends exclusively on me and a single customer is not the same as if there were thousands of customers, that makes me a much more critic node for much more people. Just imagine the Windows code depending on a single person.

IMO, two main programmers and two flight model experts may be a good team size for a product like AH, and that is not going to multiply exponentially the number of "bosses".

Of course, If I'm wrong about the number of programmers they have, then WTG for HTC. But with programmers I mean main programmers, that is, if one fails, the other is able to control all the application code and continue the develop without problems.

AKSWulfe · « **Reply #7 on:** April 12, 2002, 08:15:23 AM »

That makes absolutely no sense Mandoble.

With more customers, you do _NOT_ need more manpower. More people does not necessitate larger updates, especially when you get up to 6 planes in an update with many more features.

Il-2 has a team twice, or larger, the size of HTC.... yet they have turned out only 1 plane since it's release with "promises of more"... while 2 3rd party aircraft are on the way.
-SW

MANDOBLE · « **Reply #8 on:** April 12, 2002, 08:17:34 AM »

Wulfe, you simply dont understand. This is not a man power problem, this is a security problem to ensure the "life" of a product if one people fails due any cause. Lets suppose Pyro becomes budist and feel the need to live in the Tibet for 5 years.

Revvin · « **Reply #9 on:** April 12, 2002, 08:18:03 AM »

LOL Pyro, as to the rest of this thread, well HTC seem to be doing the job just fine and the updates are still being churned out.

Pyro · « **Reply #10 on:** April 12, 2002, 08:20:53 AM »

Yes you are very wrong about that. All you had to do was look at the credits to see. Instead, you just choose to criticize us and probably make somebody feel less good about their job by ignoring their existence and contributions and calling for someone to be hired to fill a job that is already occupied and well done. Thanks for the morale boost!

MANDOBLE · « **Reply #11 on:** April 12, 2002, 08:22:57 AM »

Ok, sorry then, this is my fault for not looking in the credits page. In any case my post doenst mean the work of the rest of the team is not appreciated.

But I had the feel that only Pyro was able to model a 109K, for example. And that only HiTech was able to code the behabiour of a stall, if this is not the case, sorry again, that is my fault.

AKSWulfe · « **Reply #12 on:** April 12, 2002, 08:26:06 AM »

Mandoble, apparently you are missing the point.

No matter what, there is no way you can hire someone and "teach" them your code. You can do it... sort of... but they'll still be sitting there going "Wtf does this do?"

Pyro and HT have been together for a long, long time now. AH is there practice, unless they got offered a substantial sum of money to leave AH (although maybe they won't after their last run-in with a large corporation) they probably won't go anywhere.

And what's the benefit on HTC's side if they hire a couple extras "just in case"? Absolutely none, they lose money on that... and have to teach someone their code.

It's not like teaching someone the design of a car, that's child's play compared to program code.

And in reply to you windows thing, Microsoft is huge.. They must have like a couple hundred people working on Windows... and they don't call it Winblows for nothing. The more hands you got in something, the messier it becomes.
-SW

Citabria · « **Reply #13 on:** April 12, 2002, 08:32:55 AM »

less is more.

MANDOBLE · « **Reply #14 on:** April 12, 2002, 08:34:21 AM »

Wulfe, I actually have several teams working in several telecontrol projects around the world, each one has a minimum of two lead programmers and less than that has been desmostrated to be very dangerous.