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Author Topic: Player base dropping, new features needed?  (Read 6252 times)

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Offline ArmyAntiCheat

Player base dropping, new features needed?
« on: Saturday, July 25, 2015, 14:26:18 PM »
I believe that the game player base is dropping not because it's spring but because the game has no changes inside game play and lack of features. I know that you guys are limited to coding as you have no source but updating frequently is important. At the moment all updates coming to the client which I believe is not needed at all. The devs should concentrate adding new game components because the game has nothing new to offer. The game uses the same gun's, same strategy and has nothing new for new players. The game becomes really boring after some time therefore I believe it doesn't attract new player. Other games coming out and beating this so badly and it will be that way but at least this game could move up a bit. You only guys rely on veterans in this game and when they leave who will play the game? Game changes needed and should be priority. A list should be made what can and cannot be added. I know Eliz spoke about AI, Im not sure where that went, it would be good to know if it's possible to add and if Eliz looked into it. I know Eliz is the only coder and we can only rely on him but the game will definitely die if it's not updated frequently.
« Last Edit: Saturday, July 25, 2015, 14:30:33 PM by ArmyAntiCheat »

Offline teddy_grizzly_bear

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Re: Player base dropping, new features needed?
« Reply #1 on: Saturday, July 25, 2015, 14:38:04 PM »
This is an old game. Nothing that we add to it will make it any newer. The engine and the core game would still be the same. In that sense we can never get on the same level as newer games.

You're right that the game could use a new feature or 2, but as you said we have very limited resources in this department.

And as for client releases, most of the recent ones were absolutely necessary for the game to continue working with Assist.

Most of the playerbase is veterans of AA. I doubt adding new stuff would make more new players join our game. It's still going to be an old game and there's just so many new games out there to choose from. Not to mention the fact that most of them will not even know this thing exists.

But all in all, a call for a "change" is not really worth much without clear ideas about what to change. I know you've posted ideas before (hell, you did pretty much the same time you posted this), though.

As far as a list of things that "could" or "coudn't" be done, we'd first need to start with a list of things that people would like to have in the game. This is no easy feat, however. Not everyone likes the same stuff and finding things that the majority would like to be changed is not that easy. Hell, most people prefer no change - look at all the people playing one map for thousands of hours for example. Humans are lazy that way.
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Offline Spanky

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Re: Player base dropping, new features needed?
« Reply #2 on: Saturday, July 25, 2015, 15:08:58 PM »
The bigger problem is limited developers. ELiZ is pretty much the only one that knows how Assist and critical game code actually works. The rest of us are utterly clueless. Then there's me & Killaman that know how to map, the others have pretty much disappeared. So, with so few of us that have the ability to work on the game, the biggest factor is time. We all have personal lives and without getting into much detail, our jobs suck up most of the time.

What we need is more developers but then comes the tricky question... who can we trust and how do we set things up to allow oversight of things being added to the game. Keeping the core content the same is key in this project. We don't want this game turning into an unrealistic zombie shooter. There's a fine balance between keeping the game the same and improving it.
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Offline Alex

Re: Player base dropping, new features needed?
« Reply #3 on: Saturday, July 25, 2015, 15:22:15 PM »
The bigger problem is limited developers. ELiZ is pretty much the only one that knows how Assist and critical game code actually works. The rest of us are utterly clueless. Then there's me & Killaman that know how to map, the others have pretty much disappeared. So, with so few of us that have the ability to work on the game, the biggest factor is time. We all have personal lives and without getting into much detail, our jobs suck up most of the time.

What we need is more developers but then comes the tricky question... who can we trust and how do we set things up to allow oversight of things being added to the game. Keeping the core content the same is key in this project. We don't want this game turning into an unrealistic zombie shooter. There's a fine balance between keeping the game the same and improving it.
I'd also like to add that it's also going to be difficult to find someone who actually wants to work on AA, a very old game with a very small playerbase. We don't make money, so this person would have to do it for his love of the game. That's not an easy sell.

Offline ArmyAntiCheat

Re: Player base dropping, new features needed?
« Reply #4 on: Saturday, July 25, 2015, 20:40:21 PM »
Maybe it's lack of advertisement? If maybe you did make an announcement that you looking for a coder or put it into assist client where people would see, it would be a faster process? I know it's hard to find a trusted and reliable person but I'm sure with right advertisement it can be done.

List of things that maybe could be added or voted as majority?

1. New reviving feature, something like AAPG. it can be basic and doesn't need to be fancy stuff.
2. New custom weapons added? Also including knife?
3. Objectives re-thinked and re added in making better teamwork. In hospital 2 objectives etc, 1 team  to rescue VIP and other to get a briefcase. for doing 1 objective you get less points that for doing both of them.
4. Improved sound, lessen the sound if possible in any way so people don't hear you across the map.
5. Adding female character soldier.
6. Possibility of perks?
7. Adding flag/bomb objective feature?
8. Adding custom in creating your own soldier or soldiers face?
9. Work on crusade mods to bring back fun servers fully tracked?
10. Swap teams after 6 rounds depends what is the total amount of rounds like in aapg.
11. Editing main maps with holidays, like july 4th maybe adding american flags or such at these kind of events.
12. Adding traps, mines, wired trap? :)
13. Adding voice sync like in aapg, using ts3 really lags for me and it would be really helpful to communicate with others.

and so on :)

This is something that eliz has worked on




Female character =
« Last Edit: Saturday, July 25, 2015, 20:56:17 PM by ArmyAntiCheat »

Offline -[unR]BENDAWICH

Re: Player base dropping, new features needed?
« Reply #5 on: Saturday, July 25, 2015, 20:48:42 PM »
I used to enjoy the ES2 maps where you could identify random bombs that where dotted around the map each round (kinda like what ArmyAntiCheat posted under number 7). It was something pretty minor but it did peak my interest for a bit. The swap teams one would be great. kinda like a forced swap rather than the current system where someone can decline.

This was the ES2 training, couldnt find a video of the urban assault online version.

Offline Spanky

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Re: Player base dropping, new features needed?
« Reply #6 on: Saturday, July 25, 2015, 21:42:58 PM »
1. New reviving feature, something like AAPG. it can be basic and doesn't need to be fancy stuff.
Possible, may take a while to get working right.

2. New custom weapons added? Also including knife?
Possible but highly unlikely unless it's from 2.8.5 or a copy-paste of another weapon. This takes animators and extensive 3D work, both of which we can't rely solely on ELiZ for, it would take up far too much of his precious time.

3. Objectives re-thinked and re added in making better teamwork. In hospital 2 objectives etc, 1 team  to rescue VIP and other to get a briefcase. for doing 1 objective you get less points that for doing both of them.
I want this, I really do. I would like to see my Battlefield-style objectives implemented in other maps. There was an issue however; the objective can only be taken by one person at a time. Someone else on your team can come in and prevent both of you from taking the objective. I recall that ELiZ looked into it and would have to make a sub-class objective actor with a couple variables changed. I don't know how much work that would take but again, ELiZ's plate is pretty full.

4. Improved sound, lessen the sound if possible in any way so people don't hear you across the map.
I'd like this too but it's not going to happen. We don't have the engine source and even if we did, we don't have coders knowledgeable enough in engine design to modify these kinds of things.

5. Adding female character soldier.
6. Possibility of perks?
8. Adding custom in creating your own soldier or soldiers face?
As shown in your videos below, I 100% agree. Would love to see these.

7. Adding flag/bomb objective feature?
That's pretty much what Mout McKenna is. I've often thought of more capture-the-flag maps. They would be fun, especially if the Battlefield-style objectives could be done. Multiple flags being taken in a radius. Theorhetically, we could do random spawns for players and objectives to really mix things up.

9. Work on crusade mods to bring back fun servers fully tracked?
Some of the mods could be implemented but they would have to be broken down and separated. We'll never fully track the Ultimate mod, there's far too much stat abuse and unrealistic gameplay with it. Some aspects though, are nice and can be tracked. 82nd Shad has rebuilt and improved the WeaponPicker mod. He may be interested in reworking some other mods to get them tracked or re-released.

10. Swap teams after 6 rounds depends what is the total amount of rounds like in aapg.
I see no reason why this couldn't be added, set as a server-side option for admins to enable.

11. Editing main maps with holidays, like july 4th maybe adding american flags or such at these kind of events.
This one is just a matter of time. Me & Killaman hardly have any time to edit maps as it is, we should focus on adding slots to existing maps, fixing things up and stuff like that. Holiday maps are fun but they're short-lived and take a decent amount of work.

12. Adding traps, mines, wired trap? :)
Could you elaborate?

13. Adding voice sync like in aapg, using ts3 really lags for me and it would be really helpful to communicate with others.
I doubt you'll get this. People will still prefer TS3 and it would take a massive amount of work to get VoIP in-game and working properly. Not really worth the time investment.


This is something that eliz has worked on




Female character =
^^ If we can get that, it would be sweet. I don't know about using the skins/attachments as perks but character customization could be fun. I suspect other things like headphones, turban, the PWNED target and others could be attached to a player with more work. Anything to increase the fun factor.
It's like shaving your pubes to make your junk look bigger.
Might look bigger, but it aint.....

Offline ArmyAntiCheat

Re: Player base dropping, new features needed?
« Reply #7 on: Saturday, July 25, 2015, 22:58:37 PM »
Possible, may take a while to get working right.
This feature to me would be really important, not because you would have another chance in the battlefield but the rounds would take longer, it would also improve medic's on the field such as making cover for the body they want to revive, it would make medic job harder and more realistic.
Possible but highly unlikely unless it's from 2.8.5 or a copy-paste of another weapon. This takes animators and extensive 3D work, both of which we can't rely solely on ELiZ for, it would take up far too much of his precious time.
Even if simple things were added like knife, trap mines or anything that is easy to make would improve game play by far. New things needed as this game uses the same weapons for a very long time.
I want this, I really do. I would like to see my Battlefield-style objectives implemented in other maps. There was an issue however; the objective can only be taken by one person at a time. Someone else on your team can come in and prevent both of you from taking the objective. I recall that ELiZ looked into it and would have to make a sub-class objective actor with a couple variables changed. I don't know how much work that would take but again, ELiZ's plate is pretty full.
I really liked your BF objective style on the bridge, it's something I want to see. Maybe it's even possible to make a leader slot? Or whoever should carry flag or something for extraction on the bridge so only one person would carry it, of course if his down, someone else could pick it up. Maybe the same VIP slot could be used but with full hp and different objective style or even renaming it. I would love to see new objectives, this is something I would be really keen to do. Team work should be improved :)
I'd like this too but it's not going to happen. We don't have the engine source and even if we did, we don't have coders knowledgeable enough in engine design to modify these kinds of things.
I hear you, this feature isn't priority anyway and isn't fair to many players I fear but if this cannot be done then I'm fine with it really.
As shown in your videos below, I 100% agree. Would love to see these.
As shown in the videos, eliz done a pretty good job there, even if this kind of feature is added the player base should be extremely growing. Even if eliz uses these one's he made for testing it would be cool, doesn't need to be perfect as we players could test it and tell eliz improvements he could make.
That's pretty much what Mout McKenna is. I've often thought of more capture-the-flag maps. They would be fun, especially if the Battlefield-style objectives could be done. Multiple flags being taken in a radius.
Would love to see it, came idea from aapg as these features are quite cool, requires teamwork and would be something new, new objectives always makes the game better.
Some of the mods could be implemented but they would have to be broken down and separated. We'll never fully track the Ultimate mod, there's far too much stat abuse and unrealistic gameplay with it. Some aspects though, are nice and can be tracked. 82nd Shad has rebuilt and improved the WeaponPicker mod. He may be interested in reworking some other mods to get them tracked or re-released.
Of course, I don't want all ultimate mods back, a lot of them are just abusive. Weapon picker could be brought back, as well as mutate nade.txt and something like these.
I see no reason why this couldn't be added, set as a server-side option for admins to enable.
This is definitely needed to be added, because players should feel how to play on both sides, players on aapg don't bitch about being swapped by force. Also cancel swap should be removed or locked within this option being enabled.
This one is just a matter of time. Me & Killaman hardly have any time to edit maps as it is, we should focus on adding slots to existing maps, fixing things up and stuff like that. Holiday maps are fun but they're short-lived and take a decent amount of work.
I understand but these kind of events would give more themed enjoyment :)
Could you elaborate?
If I want to set a wired trap and enemy trips on it, he would lose half of hp. If enemy steps on my mine, he blows up. It's an addition to the nade category and should also I guess go to the custom weapons. It would be a fun and realistic addition to have and would take less hard work than making implementing new guns.
I doubt you'll get this. People will still prefer TS3 and it would take a massive amount of work to get VoIP in-game and working properly. Not really worth the time investment.
I will never use ts3 because my game starts lagging, it's something i thought would be cool to have so I don't have to open any program, even if it was a simple VOIP but I understand if it's really not possible to invest time in this.
^^ If we can get that, it would be sweet. I don't know about using the skins/attachments as perks but character customization could be fun. I suspect other things like headphones, turban, the PWNED target and others could be attached to a player with more work. Anything to increase the fun factor.

Of course it would be great addition to the game, damn I would even play this game again. This is something that this game is missing and would efficiently improve player base. We will see what Eliz has to say, maybe he can tell us more about what could be worked on and what not. Thanks for your support guys, I'm happy that we try to keep this game alive with our ideas that come together.
« Last Edit: Saturday, July 25, 2015, 23:02:58 PM by ArmyAntiCheat »

Offline Spanky

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Re: Player base dropping, new features needed?
« Reply #8 on: Saturday, July 25, 2015, 23:40:45 PM »
If I want to set a wired trap and enemy trips on it, he would lose half of hp. If enemy steps on my mine, he blows up.
This is actually more doable than it sounds, it was included in AA up to version 2.3...


I imagine it would take the similar effort that was used to port the ACU outfits from 2.8.5.
It's like shaving your pubes to make your junk look bigger.
Might look bigger, but it aint.....

Offline ArmyAntiCheat

Re: Player base dropping, new features needed?
« Reply #9 on: Saturday, July 25, 2015, 23:47:08 PM »
This is actually more doable than it sounds, it was included in AA up to version 2.3...


I imagine it would take the similar effort that was used to port the ACU outfits from 2.8.5.

Thanks for showing a video. was actually looking for it, this is something I would like to see added and even if this was similar to the video shown.

Offline teddy_grizzly_bear

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Re: Player base dropping, new features needed?
« Reply #10 on: Sunday, July 26, 2015, 02:59:01 AM »
This is actually more doable than it sounds, it was included in AA up to version 2.3...


I imagine it would take the similar effort that was used to port the ACU outfits from 2.8.5.
Looks like a camper's heaven, though...
<image removed due to imgur stuff - probably for the best>

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Offline ELiZ

Re: Player base dropping, new features needed?
« Reply #11 on: Sunday, July 26, 2015, 03:43:37 AM »
This is actually more doable than it sounds, it was included in AA up to version 2.3...


I imagine it would take the similar effort that was used to port the ACU outfits from 2.8.5.

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Anti-personnel landmines are prohibited under the Convention on the Prohibition of the Use, Stockpiling, Production and Transfer of Anti-Personnel Mines and on Their Destruction (or Mine Ban Convention), adopted in 1997.

Offline ArmyAntiCheat

Re: Player base dropping, new features needed?
« Reply #12 on: Sunday, July 26, 2015, 03:51:43 AM »
So mines can't be added? What about other features eliz?

Offline ronski

Re: Player base dropping, new features needed?
« Reply #13 on: Sunday, July 26, 2015, 06:27:16 AM »
Lots of great ideas there! Especially forced side swap where you cant remain, but should it be after the set instead of some amount of rounds? Mines would have been nice improvement to prevent rushing.

Ps. Loved the remix of ppk resurection

Offline ArmyAntiCheat

Re: Player base dropping, new features needed?
« Reply #14 on: Sunday, July 26, 2015, 16:23:52 PM »
Thanks for support, hope admins considering any of these options to be added in the big update at some point. It should be a set, depends on how many rounds the game has.

 

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