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Mortal Online Support

Author Replies
kb7096 Friday 15 February 2013 at 18:04
kb7096Anonymous

Hi guys, 

Have been running PlayOnMac for quite some time now with a variety of programs- more to the point: I was wondering if there would be any chance of the team maybe looking into creating a support package to install Mortal Online on Mac. It's a relatively unknown (rapidly-expanding) MMO that may be worth looking into for the future.

Thanks for reading
petch Friday 15 February 2013 at 19:22
petch

Hi kb7096,

I'm just a contributor here, and I can't talk for the PlayOnLinux/PlayOnMac "team" (if such thing is clearly defined), but I've been seeing several requests in the forums or on IRC to write install script for "this very popular program" or "that very cool other", so I'd like to share by personal stance on that.

Writing such script is just the beginning of the effort, one has to think about the maintenance, because sooner or later the script will have to be adjusted, be it because the program changed (and we know this happens often enough for self-updating online games), or because PlayOnLinux changes, etc.
This is why I think twice before writing an install script for something, I always ask myself whether I'll be able to also take care of the updates (The main exception is the script for Call of Duty Modern Warfare 3, but that's because I had a knife under my throat at the time :D)
Anyway, that's usually why I reject such demand if I have not even a remote interest in the program being supported. Other more objective reasons can be the impossibility to test the program myself, like too high requirements for my hardware (I do not have any "gamer" hardware), need for a subscription, things like that.

I think you would be much better served by someone that's ideally also a player of this game, that knows the community around the game, will be quickly aware of recent issues and how to reproduce them, etc, etc. Remember reproducing a problem is the first necessary step to solve it.
Writing install scripts is not difficult to anyone that has already programmed a bit (really, not much is required for programs of 30 lines top), in a large enough community I'm sure someone with the required skills can be found. Even better if you can find some stunts doubles in case (s)he becomes busy with something else, whatever.

I'm personally ready to give them some help on writing POL/POM scripts, at least as much as my free time permits (I can't guarantee I'll have enough time forever, but right now I think I can manage it).

That was my piece of advice, if you don't see anyone taking the bait of writing a script for you, think about recruiting someone in your own community to take the job!

Regards,
Pierre.