113 (edited by BlasterFreak 2008-01-27 12:17:59)

Re: Ranking. It's cool and all that but...

Ranks... Heh, for once i thought i was save from the virus that is "Oooh i got another picture!", with GC in the back of my head, i dont have anything good to say about ranking systems, it seems like a necessary evil you'll regret afterwards, and it's kind of sad too, if you have to consider using this just to attract players, which as TY has previously stated, are just people who come to play for numbers, not the game itself. I thought FS would stay save and have it's ideas and concepts based on pure gameplay in which you have no stats to worry about, and can just enjoy a careless fun game of SW. But i was wrong... Well, i'll just wait and see if i have spoken too soon....

And yes, we know not everyone likes ranking systems, but the fact is a large population of gamers like to earn something for their playtime.

I remember a time when games were purely about the gameplay itself and gaming on it's own was enough to have a great time, how did BF1942 become such a huge success with lots of following games without a ranking system? The new type of gaming that this game offered included ofcourse, but it was just a refreshing change from other sorts of games, it had nothing that came close to ranks other than the custom outsider stattrackers that were made and run by people who truly desired such a thing, though 1942 flourished anyhow, mods like the first Forgotten Hope are still being played, yeah...

FS has established itself as a refreshing worthy mod that combines the best of both worlds and should attract a whole gamer fanbase of the SW world, are we the only ones? Where the hell are all these people? Heck, even Zombie Panic for HL2 has 100x more players on a daily basis which involves nothing more than hunting people down or defending yourselves, it has survived longer than this mod in it's first stage, it seems to me that this mod has more of a problem reaching out to a wider audience, and if you need to include ranking to do just that (sad that the average gamer thinks this is more important), it raises an interesting question, is something else wrong? (Really, i myself enjoyed the days following FS' first release) I myself dont know what, but what i do know...

Gaming should be just that, relaxment and fun, not comparing your efforts with one another and staring with amazement at a picture, i mean badges.

This is just a personal opinion, i dont mean to stand in the way of progress, just a heads up from someone who has seen the previous GC mod and someone who has seen that mod being a unranked yet pretty successful game, it had it's bumps on the road, but it pulled through for years.

I'm more of hesitating to accept the idea, but if i can be convinced, i'll shut up about it. I wont speak of it again though. One post is enough, and i hate nagging. wink

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Re: Ranking. It's cool and all that but...

Well said, BF...Where have you been?

Anyways, you are right. I myself love the idea of a ranking system though, but I'm not in it just to get the most points. Its just fun to see yourself get some sort of prize that you earned. But...It could bring people who, as you said, play for numbers. I don't think that will be much of a problem, but still.

However, I do agree that this is not the big answer...Why did we lose people after the first month? What was it? I do think we need something....Something big, that just makes you want to play it, besides the mod itself. AND we need some real advertisement. Not alot of people know about this.

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115

Re: Ranking. It's cool and all that but...

I worked on advertisement a while back in december.  I posted on 12 websites that were related to 2142 mods and It didn't really work well.  The problem is that the player base for 2142 is very low because most of the mod makers and mod players stuck with BF2.

Re: Ranking. It's cool and all that but...

TIEpilot234 wrote:

However, I do agree that this is not the big answer...Why did we lose people after the first month? What was it? I do think we need something....Something big, that just makes you want to play it, besides the mod itself. AND we need some real advertisement. Not alot of people know about this.

The big answer is rather obvious.  The first release was rushed and thus produced the crashing error I believe we all saw.  There were over 16,000 downloads of the mod in the first week and though the hotfix came quickly to shape it up, a lot of people decided they wouldn't be coming back until they saw something new to make it worth their while.  The population will pick up a lot with what we're planning to release, don't you worry.

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Re: Ranking. It's cool and all that but...

Which brings me great joy. Once my PC's here, I can get ready for 1.2's big release... I think you guys should call it Release 2, you know. Sounds a lot more groundbreaking than "1.2", and thus will attract the folks who gave up and chose to wait.

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118 (edited by Luke SkyRaper 2008-01-28 02:00:44)

Re: Ranking. It's cool and all that but...

This lack of advertising is the solid truth.
But you cant have too big and expensive an ad campaign when you arent allowed to make any money off the game in the 1st place.
this is where freelancers and philantophists step in to fill the gaps.
I worked my pie off for over a month to perfect a streaming flash player just for FS.
Lots of peeps here helped tweek it and test it .
I think a streaming player linked to  1.2 videos ( when we can make them )  wouold be a powerful tool to spread the word cheaply .
The file itself is like 200 kilobytes or something ridiculously small like that.
Streams sample fraps videos in higher resolution than a  lot of people can play the game in .
Cant wait to film some 1.2 in high resolution .

www.coolanddry.net/FS_player.swf

"The victorious win the battle, then go out to fight ... while the defeated go out to fight, then try to win the battle.   -SunTzu
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119 (edited by Athlon 2008-01-28 14:32:16)

Re: Ranking. It's cool and all that but...

I've been playing First Strike for a little over a week and LOVE IT! I had heard there was a Star Wars Mod in the making for quite some time and when i actually looked for it i found it a little confusing that it was actually released (1.1) A lot of talk seems to be centered around 1.2 and its release date which threw me as to whether a working game was available. While i'm posting i would like to congratulate the mod team on a first class job, excellent work on producing a mod that , in my mind , is actually more fun to play than the original game! I've so far persuaded 4 of my clan mates to install the mod, and i know that the servers will fill as people discover it and try it. One little thing if any server owners read this, is it , or would it be possible to increase the round time to around 45 mins. As it is, as a game gets going it ends sad

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