Isn’t Starfinder in maintenance mode, effectively shelved apart from bug fixes?

[japatterson]

This was a question and response I saw on FG Discord:

Question: Isn’t Starfinder in maintenance mode, effectively shelved apart from bug fixes?

Response: kinda-sorta, they want a new community developer to take ownership of it
or hire a new dev to support it and others (ala Superteddy), which is my personal opinion of what needs to be done.


How true is this? And if so what is the scope and consequences? Can we expect to see new releases, like The Galaxy Exploration Manual, anytime soon? Love FGU and I like most of what's going on with Starfinder but it sure would be nice to know the details of this as it could effectively cut off future resources for the game.

[Moon Wizard]

There are still DLC developers that are building out the various Starfinder adventures and books. However, the DLC developer who was working on the ruleset moved on; and we are maintaining the system until a new developer is interested. That said, @superteddy57 on our team did just push a whole set of updates to clean up a bunch of long-running Starfinder items as well as to add support for SOM changes that were never built. Going forward, any DLC books which require ruleset framework changes will need to have those changes provided by the DLC developer adapting the book.

All DLC development is driven by community developers building and submitting the products to us for inclusion in the store.

Regards,
JPG

[japatterson]

Props and Thank you to @superteddy57 for the recent updates. They have been really great. Heres to hoping we get newer releases like the Galaxy Exploration Manual.

[Dyark]

Did any person took charge of the Galaxy exploration Manual ?

[Ulric]

I love SmiteWorks and its products. I think supperteddy57 and several other community contributors have done a fantastic job keeping this ruleset alive. I have purchased a significant amount of Starfinder content for Fantasy Grounds and have a vested interest in the Starfinder ruleset success. I will say that I am trouble that SW is advertising the Starfinder ruleset on Youtube in a newly released sales video, but also also unable to provide proper support. I hope SW can find a solution soon that provides quality support for a premium ruleset. I don't want to have customers, some of whom are children, spending their money on these expensive supplements only for them to discover that SW is not actively developing the Starfinder ruleset.

[deer_buster]

Going forward, any DLC books which require ruleset framework changes will need to have those changes provided by the DLC developer adapting the book.

All DLC development is driven by community developers building and submitting the products to us for inclusion in the store.

Regards,
JPG

I'm guessing that this right here is going to massively delay any DLC that requires ruleset changes

[deer_buster]

And snaps for superteddy for the fantastic work he has done on the ruleset to-date...however, this is a CORE ruleset of Fantasy Grounds that was included in the price of purchase of the software. IMHO, the ruleset itself should be 100% supported by Smiteworks, and all changes to it required by DLC should be provided by Smiteworks.

[damned]

And snaps for superteddy for the fantastic work he has done on the ruleset to-date...however, this is a CORE ruleset of Fantasy Grounds that was included in the price of purchase of the software. IMHO, the ruleset itself should be 100% supported by Smiteworks, and all changes to it required by DLC should be provided by Smiteworks.

I love SmiteWorks and its products. I think supperteddy57 and several other community contributors have done a fantastic job keeping this ruleset alive. I have purchased a significant amount of Starfinder content for Fantasy Grounds and have a vested interest in the Starfinder ruleset success. I will say that I am trouble that SW is advertising the Starfinder ruleset on Youtube in a newly released sales video, but also also unable to provide proper support. I hope SW can find a solution soon that provides quality support for a premium ruleset. I don't want to have customers, some of whom are children, spending their money on these expensive supplements only for them to discover that SW is not actively developing the Starfinder ruleset.

You are not buying a promise of a future state of a product.
You are buying the product as it is today.
There is no implied promise to add more functionality to the product.
This is true of most things that we buy.

Numenera is also a free/core/included ruleset.
There is no promise to add functionality to it.

[Trenloe]

I get it guys, you want to have the best for the RPG system you've invested in and play with.

To put this in perspective - the D&D 5 E ruleset has essentially been in maintenance mode for a few years - the only significant "new" functionality that has been introduced is the Character Wizard. "Maintenance mode" doesn't mean that Smiteworks don't support their products. It doesn't mean that it stands still (see the comments about what has been done to Starfinder earlier in this thread).

Like I said, I get it - you want the best. But let's be realistic here. Starfinder has bug fixes and new functionality added. There are regular new product releases. There are regular ruleset updates (just look at the Tuesday release threads in the City Hall forum). Based off this, you do get "proper quality support" - weekly updates, regular product releases, developer engagement on the forums, a support channel to log issues. That would be classed as quality support for any software company.

Smiteworks don't have a full time developer for any of their rulesets - they simply can't afford to do that. Hence why they rely on external work-for-hire developers to take on rulesets. There are few of the rulesets that have currently active new-functionality developers - very few.

So, let's take a step back, take a deep breath. Startfinder on FG isn't going anywhere. It has probably the 3rd or 4th most active conversion stream of any of the FG rulesets. The ruleset code has active participation/updates from Smiteworks employees. The situation is not doom-and-gloom. Sure, it would be great to have an active external developer to add new functionality, keep in mind that a good one who sticks with it is incredibly hard to come by...

[deer_buster]

To put this in perspective - the D&D 5 E ruleset has essentially been in maintenance mode for a few years - the only significant "new" functionality that has been introduced is the Character Wizard. "Maintenance mode" doesn't mean that Smiteworks don't support their products. It doesn't mean that it stands still (see the comments about what has been done to Starfinder earlier in this thread).

How about to put it into perspective, 5E has not needed ruleset changes with any kind of frequency to make up for the fact that Wizards constantly adds content that requires ruleset changes, unlike Starfinder, which does....so to compare the two products is like comparing apples to green beans...