A few of you have noticed my lack of activity on the forum this week. That’s because we’ve been hard at work getting the Custom Ultima functionality completed. We’re proud to say that we’ve finished adding the functionality to Q and we’re currently in the late testing phase. If all goes well, the option will be added to the Q store by Tuesday.
Now – understand how much of an undertaking this is. We had to sit down with Q-Programmer (I was on the phone with him for 5 hours straight on Saturday) and develop a method for Q to automatically “Ultimatize” every module. We didn’t think it was going to be possible, but Q-Programmer pulled through once again. What this means is, you can select from EVERY module on the Q store (with a few technical limitations that we’ll get to in a minute) to build your module. The system handles all of the hard work behind the scenes. This means that we don’t have to make two versions of every module we create, which would slow down development.
@Fire and myself spent lots of time debating on how to handle adding cores and the such. We’ve ultimately decided not to punish those who listens to the official recommendations and those who simply want to experiment knowing the potential consequences. We’re not putting any restrictions on how you build the custom, only providing you with the official guidelines that we’ve created based off tons of data. If you want to ignore those guidelines, that’s on you. But, two things: One, there are NO refunds on the Q-store. You ignore the guidelines, you’re running the risk of building a custom that doesn’t work, and we will not issue a refund on that for any reason. Two, if you ignore the guidelines and come here complaining about the custom not working, you’re going to lose access to Q. Of course, you’re open to discuss your experiences – both negative and positive – but we’re not going to tolerate people ignoring our guidelines and then talking about how our technology doesn’t work, or is inferior to a competitors, etc.
That being said, here are the guidelines (and one hard rule):
The hard rule: You MUST have a minimum of three modules, maximum of six modules. This is not a pricing or marketing gimmick. Ultima subs are VERY complex and require a ridiculous amount of computing power. They tend to become very unstable after that amount. The three module lower limit is a necessity due to the way Ultima is scripted. Without giving too much away, think of it like a three piece puzzle.
Next up, if you want to add a core, ADD ONLY ONE. We’d prefer if you didn’t add cores at all, as Ultima was not built for that purpose. The technology was developed to solve the problem of “taking action” and addressing certain issues that you know is holding you back. If a custom Q is a sledge hammer, the Ultima is a handheld one. But, that being said, if you want to add them, you can.
With Ultima, focused is better. Don’t try to cram them with all the modules that couldn’t fit in your regular custom unless those modules have a unified theme. For example, running a wealth / empire building stack / custom and you’re planning on being a public figure (or running for office)? Build a custom with Manipulus, Dragon Tongue, Lion IV and Alpha of Alphas (off the top of my head, I’m sure some of you can beat that). Don’t build a title with a bunch of random modules that you just want to run. Focused is better.
Ultima will cost $149 in addition to the regular $99 build fee. Why? Ultima takes an incredible amount of computing power to create. Right now, Q can work on two or three subs at once. With Ultima, all other background tasks have to stop or the system crashes. Building the load balancer / scheduler was a nightmare, haha. We also can’t fully automate its creation yet – Q-Engineer will still have to monitor their creation, though it’s still easier for them to do so with the latest version of Q.
So yeah, lots of information to digest. Post questions and comments here.
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