I'm sorry to cause you all any trouble here. I understand the desire to have the update as soon as possible and I appreciate it when people are helpful and try to answer questions on the thread for others. I have answered the idea of building a team for the mod's main development before in the thread earlier, but that was a while ago so it bears going over my perspective again.
Collaborating with a team has it's own challenges and time sinks. And while it can, if used effectively, decrease production time. It can also increase the amount time needed to complete a project depending on how it is used. Training new members and getting them to write like you do, to think like you do when coding, and then getting yourself to do the same as them so that you can work seamlessly together takes time. And certain tasks can't be shared. And those that can aren't actually what takes me the longest time anyway.
The basic coding is generally a simple process and I often improve upon Saddog's coding as I process through the mod. Then there is the benefit that I don't have to storyboard my changes or create a detailed layout for my team as I go, which would take more time as I do it on my own. I just need to take my own notes, which I don't have to spend time to clarify or coordinate other's schedules with to make sure they've made it to a certain point so others can continue with their work. Now granted, this particular issue would be more pressing when I had more time to work on the mod and I was moving forward at a much faster pace.
The main issues right now is time. Before in the mod's life-cycle I had hours each day to work on the mod so I could bust out an update much much faster. Right now, in addition to my work and personal obligations which had reduced time to work on the mod to a few hours a week at best, the pandemic and my new responsibilities with that have reduced that even further. Some weeks I have had no time to work on the mod at all. This isn't complaining mind you. It is what it is, and others have had a very difficult time during this crisis so I'm grateful I have my health and I'm grateful I have my hobby, working on the mod. Which is the other part of this. I do this for fun. As a way to relax and let some frustration and stress out from my life and I create something interesting and fun for myself and hopefully others will enjoy it as well.
But this is just as much for me as it is for you all. So I'm not looking to just push out a mod as fast as I can and just be done with it. I enjoy the process and I want to work on it and be creative with it. With the coding, with the writing (my favorite part, which can be challenging because I try to keep The Tyrant feel and work with those constraints but also bring something new to the mod), with the renders I make myself when I can, and with creating new scenes from the amazing Fan-Art on the forum (which is a fun exercise in it's own right). So you see that's not something I can easily just pass on to someone else to do, or would even want to. And if I did, then the mod would become something else, it would feel different because it would be created differently. Which wouldn't necessarily be bad or good, just different. But it wouldn't be the SAZ MOD then, It would be something else.
So in short, for right now I don't plan on building a team for the main development for the mod at this time. I know there are pros and cons to that decision and varied opinions of course, but I hope you will respect my wishes in that regard. That being said. I do have collaborators and contributors that have helped me greatly with the mod that I would feel horrible not mentioning right now.
Lady Aspen has been working on her own version of a remix of sorts of the SAZ MOD that has full animations and a number of other features such as story changes and expansions of her own. I believe her plan is to release this after the full release of the game and the corresponding mod version, so more on this later from her when she's ready to reveal more. But she's also contributed a ton to the thread by sharing links to downloads for the main game when needed and helping to answer questions.
spot1000 provided me with some great animations for my first animation pack that I added to the game and I'm grateful for the generosity spot1000 has shown the mod by sharing them with us.
Knight2416 is basically my testing team. When I use testers for an update for the mod, Knight2416 is who I reach out to, as well as a select group of people I know IRL. He's also helped out a ton on the thread with answering questions when he can and helping out in general and is much appreciated.
I'd also like to thank the talented Fan-Art creators whose art I've used in the mod. Some have given me direct permission but asked not to be named and others I haven't reached out to directly, so thanks for being cool about it anyway!
I do have an update on the mod's progress for you all as well, so I'll write that up after this.
There are a few considerations that need to be taken into account. There are only a couple images in each sequence, so they would need to be short scenes. There is a watermark on each image so they would need to be prepared first (not a big deal, but still something to be taken into account). And of course, time, so it would be a while before they were added.
