And here I was just about to pester some folks, because I hadn't gotten any updates to share Hooray!

I'll keep this thread open and stickied until I can actually get in and confirm this with my own eyes.

Thanks for your patience everyone

Yes and no. Akella built our original 22 ships, but they functioned as an art contractor. They had no input on game design or development.

True, some companies moderate for criticism, which is just bad.

We've isolated most of the problems we've found on campuses to Packeteers flagging us as peer to peer traffic. As a result, we're working with a few IT departments and Packeteer to get our signature added which will fix the problem (we hope!) ... I hope this is done relatively soon!

We're talking about exposing a lot more than just static data, all around. The primary reason for making the static and dynamic content pull through the same set of simple APIs is just that -- simplicity and consistency.

That doesn't mean that we expect you to pull static data over and over again (indeed, one of the things the API documentation will tell you is the lifespan of each API call's data, so you can know how long you're expected to cache the information at your end), but grabbing that stuff will all follow a single, logical set of calls.

When devs send back submissions for more work, the reason is visible only to the person who submitted it. Not everyone enjoys public criticism, however helpful

Apologies for any confusion or frustration; with User Content being a multi-person operation, we can't guarantee a perfectly uniform decision process. But we try very hard!

Thanks for bringing this to the right forum, Rhaegar

I'm going to chime in with a couple brief points, since my time right now is limited:

* As I'm sure everyone has noticed, FLS puts a high premium on a quality visual experience. That's especially true when it comes to all forms of User Content, since we want it to enhance the game for as many people as possible -- without taking away from others' enjoyment at the same time.

* Within the guise of "historical appropriateness" (the phrase "historical accuracy" with regard to any sort of reproduction is a complete myth, as any serious historical reenactor would tell you), there's still extremely wide latitude for creativity.

* Everyone is entitled to their opinion, whether or not it fits what FLS is looking for in User Content submissions. It's quite easy to find people who think User Content should be much more restrictive than it is -- just as it's easy to find those who think it should be "anything goes" or nearly so. In the end, when it comes to processing User Content, it's the devs' call what goes into the game and what doesn't.

Everything we do in this regard is a compromise between these two fundamentally opposed desires, and compromises never make everyone happy. We'll keep trying and you're always welcome to provide your feedback in a calm, civil manner -- we do listen, whether or not we choose to act on each and every suggestion.

I've got a tactic that works every time! I'm not posting it until it stops working. Pirates aren't very smart.

i think that is a dirty fighting skill. I animated that and the reaction.

today's emote I am working on is /recoverfromparty

I'm moving this thread to the Flags and sails forum. You will find that people here can offer some very good advice on flag and sail designs

The comments section of a User Content item is there so that other users can give you their honest critique.

That doesn't mean that they are necessarily right (or that there even IS a right or wrong, outside the official guidelines), it just means that they have an opinion. We respect peoples rights to have opinions, and as long as people follow the community rules then we aren't going to penalize them for it.