Interim status: Things are moving slowly but surely
Hello,
I would like to make a short official announcement about the status of the Table Tennis Manager.
The update is slowly progressing in the background. Due to the faulty season change on server 2, the capacities of my programmer have been tied up again, which pushes the update back, but I still calculate in weeks not months.
My problem is that both programmers only take care of the Table Tennis Manager on the side and have a main job as well as a family, so that they cannot spare much time for the Table Tennis Manager. In addition, the new programmer is still in the "learning phase" of the very complex game.
Nevertheless, we have seen again during our last emergency assignments that the old programmer does not let me down and has intervened at short notice, both at the weekend and in the evening, when it was necessary. I'm very grateful to him for that, but I can't always count on it. That's why I want to integrate two small things before the update, which will enable me personally to intervene in emergencies as follows:
1. switch maintenance mode on and off
I would like to be able to activate the maintenance mode myself, which logs out all the players at the same time. This way I can avoid continuing to play on a stand that might have to be reset to a backup.
2. postpone game days
Through your reactions to the last problems I have become aware that you favour a suspension of the games until the problem is solved and that you are not angry. So far I have not been able to intervene in the game operation, but I am now having a possibility built in that I can postpone game days. This means that if the programmer is on holiday, sick or simply unavailable, I will at least be able to postpone the game until a programmer is available to fix the problem. Up to now, it was always the case that I sweated blood and water when something unforeseen occurred.
One more thing about player numbers:
The boost we got last year from the Corona crisis is over, however I am still happy with the player numbers. The reason for this is that I have reduced the advertising measures in the last six months for financial reasons, but the numbers have nevertheless remained fairly stable. Server 1 is slowly losing players, but that has always been the case if I don't take countermeasures. Then there's the summer slump. I am confident that I will quickly get the absolute player numbers up again with future actions, e.g. new translations, the planned conversion for Steam, new registration options (social logins) and more budget. The regular players are still very loyal.
Table Tennis Manager consists of only a 1-man operation who can't even program (me), but the game has been through many ups and downs and I'm convinced it still has a long and beautiful life ahead of it. I will continue to do my best and thank you for your understanding when there are problems.
Your Wulfman
