NYjetsNY1 said:
lol alright, well right now odingalt is trying to fix the issues and bugs with the software and macro library. Once he does this he will have more time to make macros. He doesn't even need to make macros since us users are so good at it.
It may seem counterintuitive that our macro library relies so heavily on user contributions ("Hey I didn't pay $200 to have to make my own macros?") but that's actually exactly why we designed this new controller - so that users could make their own macros, without having to wait for me to release a new .HEX code every time a new glitch is discovered (like Javelin glitch last year). We were the first ones to have a USB rapidfire controller, and the first to have a custom driver maker for USB as well. But that custom driver maker still wasn't enough to satisfy the hungry customers
, as I was still having a hard time keeping up with customer requests for special glitches. And the other problem I discovered was my mod chip was starting to run out of memory! A lot of customers got frustrated with waiting for the special glitches and said "well I could code this faster than you can!". But I was (and still am) too afraid to release the Viking360 'legacy purple modchip' as an open source project, because all those other modshops out there will steal our work and profit from it...
So, we went out and built this macro controller, with the idea that rapidfire, fast reload, etc. are really nothing more than basic macros. And as many projects like it before, why not build a whole platform designed around collaboration? This way the customers aren't necessarily stuck waiting on me to build the glitches. So it's a positive AND a negative. If the community doesn't contribute, then you would only have the macros that I build, and I won't be able to keep up with demand, so we'd be back where we were when I hand-coded/hard-coded every single glitch 'one at a time'.
But if the community DOES contribute, then we'll have the most expansive library of glitches available anywhere!
Plus I was secretly hoping Viking might be able to tap into a new market that traditional rapidfire controllers were ignoring - the whole market of gamers who don't necessarily play FPS. The big problem with my macro controller project is I went way over my original budgets on the components and software to the tune of about $40/unit. My target release price for these bad boys was going to be $160-$170 range, not the $200+ price range! Unfortunately I just have to work through these 2,000 modchips that I have on the shelf and hope that the next batch (if we ever get to produce a second batch - we only have about 400 macro controller cusotmers) will be cheaper to produce. Based on our sales volume, we are still a mom n' pop shop.