The Present and Future of Galaxy

Hi Galaxy – the players, current staff, former staff, and community. Thank you for your support over the past 3 years of Delta. Monday marked year #3 of Galaxy Delta. Galaxy would not have made it to here without you.

David, Godrevy, Starforce, Pata, Liam, Bri, Sean, Vxyl, Seaswimmer – thank you for your contributions. I enjoyed working with each of you and I understand the value of the effort you put in for this game.

Thank you Seaswimmer, Godrevy, Sean, and Starforce for remaining as Dev Advisors to provide input for me when you are available.

Thank you Manley, MRR, Dylan, gimmiejimy, Faded, Teen, and MadCat for continuing on with me. You have been overwhelmingly patient with me and I am grateful for your support.

Since I started college and since I started working full-time, my availability for Galaxy has been minimal. I'm sorry for failing to provide the work the game and community have needed. This can't be hand-waved away with "I'm too busy".

I decided to map out my time for this week to see where it has actually gone:

There will always be some overhead either in the morning before anything else or between the gaps for taking care of my health/hygiene and spending a few minutes in prayer and reading the Bible. After that, there isn't much time for hobbies like Galaxy.

It's a prioritization question. I have placed my friends and family above Galaxy and I will continue to do so. I have placed my church communities above Galaxy and I will continue to do so.

With that said, my schedule has been overwhelming and I'm making some changes. I opened up my Wednesday nights by ending my church commitment after this week. I've also recently scaled back Thursday nights by a couple of hours by not staying out until midnight with campus ministry.

Realistically, there has never been a better time for me to quit. I have no dev team relying on me. Very few people are playing the game. Roblox ruined the chat system. There's nobody to let down by quitting. I have a full-time job, college, and heavy church involvement. I have friends and family I love to spend time with.

I enjoy working on Galaxy. I think if I can stay out less late and start work earlier, and I'm very efficient with the gaps in my schedule, then I can have time for this hobby. It's not going to be full-time, but I think it can be enough to have fun working on it.

Sean noted some failed promises of mine. I said this statement was coming last week and I failed to write it. I said I can make time to work on the game for more than just last week, and I haven't. This isn't defensible and I apologize. I can understand why you don't want to work with me given my failure to meet my promises. Thank you for your work over the last decade and I wish you well.

I would like to look back on my "this week" promises for last week:

• "MVP of Missions and ship it" ✅ Released that night as promised.
• "Roll back datastores for the players who logged in since" ✅ Done on-time as promised.
• "MVP of Arcade and make the game immediately drop you into top Arcade server" ✅ Released on-time as promised.
• "Publish a public statement re. my inactivity, the roadmap, thanking staff who have left and stayed, the 320k I pocketed and am returning, condemnation of rc's disrespect of staff and players, and status on financial transparency, whether I'm successful by then or not" ❌ failed. This statement is a week late, and does not fully address the finances since I didn't get permission from rcouret.
• "Publish a statement to staff" ✅ On-time as promised.
• "Talk with Lightning and rc and get a Robux payout for X-2" ❓I reached out to Lightning to offer Robux, but he currently can't meet the requirements for paid models (meshes owned by the group) because he is "phonebound".

I also want to share about rcouret's disrespectful communications with the staff team. These are the most egregious examples I've seen:

I stand by my original statement, repeated below:

There is more that would be beneficial to share, especially regarding finances, but given my NDA, I don't think I'm allowed to share any confidential DMs with rcouret.

On May 11, 2023, I took 320k Robux from the modeler group and set that same amount aside to be used for the developers in the official group. It's arguable that they were "my" funds for being the primary developer in 2022, but I don't think that's fair. The 320k I set aside in the official group certainly aren't mine, so it's fair that rcouret took it on that end.

To rectify this, I have informed rcouret that I want my next 320k in profits to be stored permanently in the official group to be used as float so we can always afford individual commissions without having to wait for revenue to come in.

In the early stages of Delta when I was managing finances, the development team received a fixed number of Robux every month. Godrevy as Dev Director saved up each month (paying developers less than the total allotment) to bring the balance up to 500k for model commissions. When I allowed rcouret to take over the finances, he cashed out the 180k Godrevy had saved up as profit and switched to a model where commissions are paid out of profits each month.

What does Galaxy look like going forward? There are currently 152 tasks in my backlog, but I'm going to focus on the highest impact opportunities first. My immediate plans largely revolve around Arcade. I have several ideas that need feedback and prioritization:

• New method for rewards. Currently you get a few credits for each point you contribute to your team, and there needs to be some real reward. The main problem is preventing people from farming their alts for tons of credits. I'm thinking I could award credits for each point with some multiplier based on the number of people in the server and how long you've played.
• New modes for Arcade to vary the gameplay and make it interesting:
  • Planet Control: On an interval, award points to the team for each planet controlled.
  • Outpost Defense: Spawn many bases for each team. When all bases for a team are destroyed, that team loses.
  • Tug of War: Object that spawns in the center of the map can be moved toward your base by shooting it. When it reaches your base, you win.
  • Capture the Flag: Each team has a flag at their base. Steal the enemy flag and carry it through a series of points to score.
• Server events in Arcade:
  • Spawn some point of interest in space. Both teams rush to capture it to gain points, resulting in a large fleet battle with the full force of both teams.
  • Boss fights in Arcade. Both teams attempt to fight the boss while fighting each other. Award points based on how much damage was dealt to the boss.
  • Stat modifiers, similar to Halloween? Some kind of randomly shifting stat boost to make certain ships more relevant. Maybe it could even gradually switch from favoring one type of ship to another. Like slowly shift from boosting shield resistance to boosting hull resistance. At first, everyone would use ships like Judgement, then as the modifier evens out, switch to ships like Armageddon.
• "Gamemode Rules UI" with a button at the top of the screen to drop down some text explaining what Arcade is, how to score, what submode of Arcade you're playing, and how that mode works.

If you have any input for how I can make a larger positive impact in Arcade or implementation details on these ideas, please share in the "Arcade Feedback" thread.