AAO25.com
Assist => Feedback & Suggestions => Topic started by: Pipez0r on Sunday, June 07, 2015, 08:34:54 AM
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I just got some thoughts here, maybe it can give some ideas. Some of my thoughts could be too big things to change, I understand that maybe its not easy to change too big things because people are so used to some things, and it would cause some people to dislike the changes, because its never possible to make everyone happy.
But here:
I started playing AA in 2003, in version 1.7. After version 1.7 came 1.9, then 2.0 etc. Some patches were hoped and waited and expected, like 1.9. In 1.7 there was a hated bug, you could throw nades through doors by aiming in the middle of them.
I dont remember was it 1.9 or 2.0 when developers added ragdoll effect for bodies. It was also making people excited. Maybe in 1.9 medics came to the game and bleeding etc. Some people liked, some people disliked. I was neutral, it made things harder but more realistic.
Then 2.0 came, with SF training, SF weapons and some SF maps. I enjoyed it with many others very much. At that time AA was very popular. Between 1.7 - 2.0 I think AA was more popular than ever. So popular that there were many hacker clans, hackers and some hacker communities, because so many people played the game and hackers needed to develope their hacks also, to not get banned so easily. Hackers didnt kill this game at this point, even though there were many. Updates did.
I remember that one patch update, 2.1 or 2.2 or 2.3 something, that made constant crouching - standing more difficult, changed the frag grenades how far they can be thrown and how widely they cause damage etc etc.. In this point, the game started to die. Some people were happy: "not so quickly crouching people during close combat! No people jumping while reloading! Accuracy of weapons decreased when using no scope/sight!" but most were unhappy about those changes.
AA started to die, and after some update came much more hackers with admin messages and admin says, name changing and colored names, and hacked honor servers etc.
Assist keeps the game clean very well from cheaters. The thing is just that, that this game isnt popular. This is a small community that grows slowly if even at all. Maybe new players come sometimes, and some old ones come back, but same time inactivity grows so its actually +-0 for a while.
During most popular time, there were so many players that nearly all maps had many full servers, only some like FLS Assault, Swamp Raid and JRTC Farm Raid had only 1-2 full servers .
Nowadays I can play only 2 of my favorite maps, and even they are empty most of the time. Once a month maybe I can play another favorite map of mine, but it is limited also because people like only some maps. There used to be a clans for every map, plus those who played many maps.
I dont give direct ideas but these are my thoughts, and memories how things changed and when and maybe why.
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I don't really see a question nor a proposition here...
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Im sorry, I accidentially misclicked "post" before I was even nearly ready. I edited the post.
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Simplified: AA was very popular in certain version, after certain update it started to die slowly. Sometimes it got up a bit, then again dead. Of course US. Army was advertising the game very well, but that wasnt the only thing. Huge part of the popularity was gameplay, and when it changed, the amount of players decreased quickly.
And assist was difficult to find. I just got an idea, that if there would be some players still playing some earlier version of AA, and I started googling. I found a website that didnt work, and then this. I had to put effort to it in that way, that I had to know AA already. There were no game websites etc that would advertise this and make it possible to download also.
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Nice history of AA :)
But like Teddy said there's no real suggestions on your end. We know the game is dieing because there's only a few maps played daily. We know a lot of old players are not even aware this still exists and we know there are far "bterre" games out there.
Trust me admins have tried a lot of things to improve the playerbase
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It was version 2.3 where you still had high accuracy/low recoil unscoped (if you watch the CEM meter), after 2.3, you had a delay in jumping as well.
It was stupid, because in my opinion, it was easier to shoot hopping people, as I could just aim where they land, shoot, and kill, and they didnt fire any shots back in the air. Only people who could not aim well had problems with it.
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Nice thoughts.
I thought it looked as though it had been posted mid edit :)
You're right, Assist might be pretty hard to find. And there's a reason for that. In all honesty, what we're doing here (keeping this game alive) is not exactly legal. We don't own the game thus we shouldn't distribute it. And therefore it is extremely difficult to advertise for the game. I know some have tried - on MAC and linux community sites for example - however it has only had a limited success. We've also sent mass emails to old AA users (for whom we could find email information, which was a fraction of the players) and I don't think that made a significant change either.
I also miss all the good old times where I could play (almost) any map 24/7... It was good times. However, a game this old (version 1 came out almost 13 years ago), keeping a somewhat steady userbase is (in my opinion) an achievement in it's own. The only thing the game has over newer games, is it's unique gameplay. All the rest is unfortunately outdated. I mean the game can have a difficulty running on high end machines nowadays. Not because it's such a demanding game, but probably because it was built for much different machines.
So all in all, you're talking about history here. I wish there was something straightforward that could be done to increse our playerbase 10-fold, but I doubt there is such a thing. If you (or anyone for that matter) can come up with one, I assure you everyone here would be greatful.
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What I would do, would be downgrading to version 2.1 or 2.0 in some gameplay things, 2.0 more likely. I started to search with that version, and I think many would do so because its more logical search than 2.1, 2.3, 2.5, 2.8.5 etc. Other thing is that, what I remember so clearly, how people were raging on servers because of those huge changes to gameplay which were supposed to calm down whiners and to make it more realistic. I remember that so many people told that the game is ruined by devs and they are going to quit. I quit that time also, but had too much nostalgic feelings and this is my 2nd comeback.
But, of course theres a risk in downgrading. What if current players dont like it, and leave? Thats a big risk of course. Because we ppl are different, we like and dislike different things. I think that many might complain, some would be neutral and some happy, but it would be a good way to invite old schoolers back from aa3 and many other games :)
Oh and other thing. What I know from marketing, trying to please everyone never works. I mean, offering too many things. It goes actually against the goal. There are too many maps in aa. I like many maps and even if I dont like, I dont say it shouldnt be there but there are really too much maps. I mean now those aa3 and mAAp things whatever. It makes somehow confusion to see so many maps which are mostly unplayed and they arent even original for this game. Offering too many products doesnt work as well as being specialisized.
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The good advertising would be on steam, but I don't think they would agree with an offer even if assist had to pay some money towards it. Assist has limited access like Teddy said because they can't do much about the game play, they don't have full source of codes. But believe me or not your post made my day, nice post about the history of AA.
That would be a biggest risk to take and I don't think people would be up for it. Who knows, AA could have even less players than it is now, or maybe grow into bigger base, who knows.
I think AA has to find a good marketing source and do a big update, that could be a chance to bring folk back, even if it would probably mean downgrading it, never played those versions expect 2.3 a little but would like to see it come back with the same crusade mods being enabled and funny commands. If it's possible maybe a poll could go on assist for this, because nobody knows what effect it would have and what players think about this.
Good idea but I think AA needs a good hit in big update and in big advertisement, if nothing will be done it will stay like this, it's limited but worth of try.
Note: Remember guys when we advertised on linux, mac and window gaming forums and eliz released a new client, with sai and new stuff? me and spanky were counting numbers who played on the assist, it hit a little over 200, but it missed constant updates and something more to keep people liking the game.
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but it missed constant updates and something more to keep people liking the game.
There are constant updates. But players just don't know about it...
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There are constant updates. But players just don't know about it...
Why..?
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Why..?
Most of the time because they don't visit this site and there's usually no huge announcements for small updates.
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Teddy, my question was rhetorical - I know exactly why - but thanks for pointing publicly to the first two most important problems, which - frankly speaking - was never solved.
As for 'small updates': you can't do this indefinitely - people will understand.
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nice history, i really must cry a little bid, if i remember the old times. How you wanna advertise? Only with connections and Money.
The admins here do a really good job but they need the code. If they get the game code, i would spend money too. Play with the last guys here and enjoy some of the last playing maps.
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The admins here do a really good job but they need the code. If they get the game code, i would spend money too.
Well, if you knew something about Unreal Engine then you know how flexible this engine is. Having its source code has point only if you want to change / implement / rewrite its hard coded stuff like rendering, game mechanics etc. But to alter this game gameplay (better AI, vehicles even interaction ...) you can simply extend its base code.
There is many people whiling to help for free - you just need to find them.
... keep the money ...
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There is many people whiling to help for free - you just need to find them.
... keep the money ...
Ofcourse but they need to have the required skills and the motivation to work on such a "small" project
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Well, unreal engine IS very flexible and even simple enough to change.
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Well, unreal engine IS very flexible and even simple enough to change.
Well, it would be like changing a pizza you've ordered. Sure, you can add salt, pepper, hell even ham if you like, but the main part will still be the same.
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Port it, damn it.
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Well, it would be like changing a pizza you've ordered. Sure, you can add salt, pepper, hell even ham if you like, but the main part will still be the same.
Yep. I used to be part of aa community in the past when I was a nolifer, helped with anticheat things etc, and got to know some private hack coders who never released their hacks to public, and learned a thing or couple about unreal engine coding, rendering changes, server side and client side modifications. Nowadays I dont remember much but still remember pretty much that what is and what could maybe be possible to change.
Unreal engine is pretty much as flexible as you said :)
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How about staff staying with the rules they make.
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Ofcourse but they need to have the required skills and the motivation to work on such a "small" project
They have ... believe me, just ask. Biggest problem here is the trust ... Moreover, this community is not in position to negotiate - sometimes you need to take the risk.
In case to speed up the process, here is the quote from BU of the rules of recruitment - how to ask.
You have to convince those people that your mod team is worth joining and putting time and work in. You have to assume that the more experienced a mod maker is, the less receptive he or she will be for an unprofessional recruitment posting.
Some articles you should read before posting here:
Unreal Wiki: How to Recruit a Programmer (http://wiki.beyondunreal.com/wiki/How_To_Recruit_A_Programmer) (also covers general items on recruitment posts)
Unreal Wiki: Mod Startups (http://wiki.beyondunreal.com/wiki/Mychaeel/Mod_Startups) (a general view on recruiting people for a mod)
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So to get back to the topic:
- Have you tried to contact and come to an understanding with the original creators of AA. AA was always a free game so perhaps they are willing to give a free pass to keep this game alive. If so advertising would be a lot easier. I know there is an ('illegal') version of GTA San Andreas multiplayer which is huge. Rockstar doesn't really like it though (due to mods etc) but they did not shut it down.
- Have you tried to create a general fanbase using social media without advertising this site. By creating a general fanbase, people might start to search for a version of AA 2.5 which would lead them to this.
- Who of the players is active on other game forums? What you can do to advertise this game very subtile is by using AA 2.5 signatures / banners / avatars in those accounts. Most young players won't know what game it is and might start looking for it out of curiosity. And some older players might see it and think: "Good old times, I want to play it again".
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Trust me admins have tried a lot of things to improve the playerbase
100% true.
At one point they even installed Trojan in the assist client to hunt the cheaters, so that the playerbase can improve. No idea though if this succeeded.
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But to alter this game gameplay (better AI, vehicles even interaction ...) you can simply extend its base code.
Good idea. Now you can stand up and start writing the code.
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You so good in coding hacks maybe you wish to step in?