I propose that a topic focusing on math gets created separate from development discussion.
Math is such an essential skill in game programming. You’re bound to end up working with math if you plan on pursuing game programming. With math being such a vast and confusing topic at times, not everybody is particularly good at it. I feel like the importance of math within programming is great enough that it deserves a section separate from development discussion.
The purpose of this topic would be to teach vital concepts of math used in game programming, teaching how to solve certain scenarios, and getting help with any of your math troubles. This way math related programming skills can have a dedicated section which helps organization and serves as a good reference topic.
As far as structuring of the topic, that’s up for the roblox devs to decide as obviously tutorials. tutorial request, and help topics should be separated for organization purposes.
I suppose that would be more reasonable. I didn’t necessarily think it would need its own dedicated topic, but as long as it has a section just for math-related topics.
A section like this would clutter it up really quickly with questions about math topics not specific to ROBLOX development. It’d be better suited as its own sub-forum to reduce clutter and make it easier to find topics.
I don’t think we get enough math questions to justify a subforum. I went in Development Discussion and went through the most recent five pages (100 topics, ~1.5 weeks). Only about a handful of them were specifically math questions.
If you’re on this forum, you probably know at least the basics of math. For the few times when something more complicated comes up, it’ll be something that can go in Development Discussion, which is suitable because the question will probably be rooted in a specific application for the game you’re developing.
I think you’re being overly-preemptive. There’s not an abundance of math topics that would necessitate a math forum, and ones not related to roblox would fit right in in the lounge.
I think it would be cool if there were several sub forums to development discussion
Such as
Game Design Discussion (Talk about current trends, best monetization practices, express creative ideas, see if an idea is well liked by others in the developer community) Development Help (For all questions relating to Roblox game development, and scripting help) Algorithms and Mathematics (Talk about math formulas, different algorithms for your games, exp or point systems, and what math concepts are helpful in game development) Development Tips and Habits (Talk about habits you’ve gotten into when developing. Talk about plugins used to build, scripting tips and shortcuts. Basically the lounge of dev discussion)
I usually read the forum checking recent topics since I’m not too picky with what I want to see here most of the time. But I think it would be cool if there were sub forums. They don’t have to be these sub forums, they’re just the first few I could think of, as being really helpful.
[quote] I think it would be cool if there were several sub forums to development discussion
Such as
Game Design Discussion (Talk about current trends, best monetization practices, express creative ideas, see if an idea is well liked by others in the developer community) Development Help (For all questions relating to Roblox game development, and scripting help) Algorithms and Mathematics (Talk about math formulas, different algorithms for your games, exp or point systems, and what math concepts are helpful in game development) Development Tips and Habits (Talk about habits you’ve gotten into when developing. Talk about plugins used to build, scripting tips and shortcuts. Basically the lounge of dev discussion)
I usually read the forum checking recent topics since I’m not too picky with what I want to see here most of the time. But I think it would be cool if there were sub forums. They don’t have to be these sub forums, they’re just the first few I could think of, as being really helpful. [/quote]
This is more of the direction I was going for. It doesn’t matter if there isn’t currently a huge amount of math questions. There’s still quite a bit. But having one topic clutters everything. Splitting it up into different categories helps people find more specific threads and keeps things more organized. Math still has a high importance in programming and can get very complicated. I’m sure many people would be more inclined to tackle on math heavy projects with an easy to find resource for solving problems. You can apply a similar situation if we had the topics that TheAmazeMan suggested.
A bazillion? Not quite. Maybe like 4-5 at most. The main thing is that everything is being cluttered into development discussion. If we split things up into sub-topics, this will add more organization in where topics are posted. This helps users more easily find threads of a certain subject whether it be an attempt to help people or an attempt to just use threads as a resource for learning. Like if we had a math section, it would make finding threads about math a lot easier. I would be pretty much browsing those threads all day because they are bound to contain some great learning material. And anybody who specializes in math can easily go into the math topic to help which is easier than the clutter of dev discussion. Sure, we could keep everything in development discussion, but having sub-topics would be more beneficial.
The ability to tag topics would perhaps be better. Everything would still go in Development Discussion but could be tagged with keywords like ‘Math’, ‘Algorithms’, ‘Gameplay’, etc.
The main reason I think we don’t need new subforums is because of the relatively low volume of topics. Adding a way to filter the topics you want to see would allow everything to go in one convenient place, and it also allows for overlap (such as a question that is partly math, part something else).
[quote] The ability to tag topics would perhaps be better. Everything would still go in Development Discussion but could be tagged with keywords like ‘Math’, ‘Algorithms’, ‘Gameplay’, etc.
The main reason I think we don’t need new subforums is because of the relatively low volume of topics. Adding a way to filter the topics you want to see would allow everything to go in one convenient place, and it also allows for overlap (such as a question that is partly math, part something else). [/quote]
Hmm…a tagging system could also work. As long as I am able to filter for certain topics with ease then I’m up for it.
Applied mathematics in computer programming is a subject of interest in its own right and does demand a degree of attention. However the level of mathematical interest at RBXDev is rather modest. As someone with some amount of expertise in the topic, I would be pleased to see a math section, but I can only wonder if it would really be a fruitful endeavor.
In any case, I think sparker22 makes a good point about the Development Discussion forum. The page is essentially a mishmosh of barely interrelated topics pertaining to game development. If RBXDev was created to support the developer community’s needs, then more should be done to facilitate special interests. A tagging system is an excellent idea in this respect.
It’s not about how crowded or fast-moving a topic is. It’s about organizing topics in a way that it makes finding more specific topics than just “development” in a easier way. Otherwise like what Suremark said, “it’s just a mishmosh of barely interrelated topics pertaining to game development.”
Which a subtopic was my original idea, but a tagging system that was suggested above would work pretty well.
I thought the entire purpose of a search system was to help people find related posts. Can’t you search for what you’re looking for instead of having everyone post under a very specific subforum which will eventually get crowded itself?
Not necessarily. Because the search system I would say is only good for looking up very very specific threads since the search system searches for “keywords.” Not very useful if you want to be able to find lets say all threads on “game design” in which many threads could be talking about game design and not even mention the word itself. Same thing with math. Right now what was suggested earlier, a tagging system would be much easier. That way people can tag threads with “Game Design” or “Math” to get much better filter results.
Using the Search feature sounds like a lazy alternative to me. A tagging system, if successful, would play an active role in encouraging expression of particular interests, which as far as I’m concerned is what RBXDev is about–promoting developer interests.
RBXDev currently is just a hub for devs to get together and chat, which is nice and all, and we do also enjoy more direct communication with ROBLOX staff. But is that all this website is here for? I personally would say the community has grown enough for us to explore more specific subforums. Game development is an industry requiring a broad range of individuals with different skills–not only mathematics, but graphic design, creative design, engineering, marketing skills… Hell, I bet finance is a big part of it too, now that ROBLOX offers real money.