So I'm going off everything I know and have read, correct me if I'm wrong on anything.
A lot of people tend to be disappointed in Zuperman for all the bugs and issues with Elite. I'm not trying to talk about anyone in specific. This is directed towards the community as a whole. I know that not a huge amount of players know what it's really like to be zup. I'm gonna try and give everybody some perspective.
I'm not a programmer, I'll say that right now. The most I can do is draw a simple picture with JavaScript. But I know a lot of programmers and I know how a lot of it works. Anyone want to guess what kind of coding it takes to make a game like this? With rules, entities, systems, and linking user interface with terrain, websites, and servers? I don't know the exact number, but I can tell you it's probably not less than 10-12 THOUSAND lines of code. In a word document with 1 inch margins and 12 pt. font, thats the better part of a gigabyte in pages. Now in raw text with no format or margins it's less, but I thought I'd give you a number in easy things to understand. It very well may be HUNDREDS of thousands of lines of code, depending on the code language and some other factors. But bottom line. That is a metric crud ton of code to write.
Now when zup started this idea, and I challenge you to find the DF Elite Kickstarter page, he had a team. From what I've read, money got tight back if df1 and he had to lay off everyone else. He is the only employee of Echoboom Apps. That alone is sad. But without coworkers he has a massive amount of work every day. Trust me, its a full time job for sure.
Here's a big reason why he made the Throw me all those bugs thread. Whenever one lf those issues comes up, he's gotta spend so much time to fix each one. So every time Joaquin needs to figure out why some users are crashing, or why entities are jumping around, he has so scour that massive amount of code for the issue. Sometimes he knows where to look, and other things he doesn't. So a lot of things, the poor guy has to spend 8, 10, 12 HOURS looking and investigating to find the problem. And several more hours to fix it and send out the patches.
If I was him, I'd struggle with waking up day after day thinking, I have to do this and this and this to keep people playing today. But he has to do it. I might be motivated a bit by the fact that I've created something that hundreds of thousands of people are a part of. But I sense that he's a tiny bit of a perfectionist, as am I. And he's frustrated that he has to fix so many problems before he can focus on making his vision a reality. That's hard.
Zup also doesn't get paid much, despite what some may think. There are lots of expenses running a business. Just for dogfight elite, it takes the initial game purchases of THOUSANDS of users just to cover the cost of one years app market fees. And he has to devote time to his other apps and business affairs too. Plus, the guy also has a life to live, groceries to buy, meals to eat.
So trust me, Joaquin is certainly doing all he can to make this thing the best it can be. I get frustrated at the bugs too, but I play on with hope and trust in the vision for this game, because I know zup can make it happen one day.
Thanks for reading, I know that was long. Joaquin, have a Merry Christmas and I thank you for all you've done for us.