DB and SD - FPS Success

(dommafia) #21

[QUOTE=acQu;432075]Mainly the custom content was keeping me playing W:ET (voice packs, map packs and occassionally some theme packs like e.g. christmas packs were always nice, bad was all the menu-rape stuff etc …).

I guess i know that servers playing the no-custom-content-card are also successful, but only to the new players. Older players can’t just play the 6 stock maps without any packs over and over again. Noone is that crazy :)[/QUOTE]

I must be crazy then, all these years later I still only play on qaw original maps server. With that said, et has had some of the best custom maps I’ve ever played in any game. Granted some of those maps I perceive as custom might have been from other games I didn’t play.

Some maps I really liked off the top of my head: supply depot, venice, warbell, caen, Braundorf, aldernest, dubrovnik, most rtcw remakes (xD) and there are a couple of others that I just can’t remember the name.

(Ruben0s) #22

If you start up W:ET you can see the problem of custom content. Clan owners will do everything to get the best spot in the server list, creating fake servers and ****. Or **** up the whole UI. The servers you actually see are almost all fake :+)

And since a short time we even got recommended servers. Well done dragonji. I would have done the same :stuck_out_tongue:

http://screenshot.xfire.com/s/127460992-4.jpg

(acQu) #23

[QUOTE=dommafia;432079]I must be crazy then, all these years later I still only play on qaw original maps server. With that said, et has had some of the best custom maps I’ve ever played in any game. Granted some of those maps I perceive as custom might have been from other games I didn’t play.

Some maps I really liked off the top of my head: supply depot, venice, warbell, caen, Braundorf, aldernest, dubrovnik, most rtcw remakes (xD) and there are a couple of others that I just can’t remember the name.[/QUOTE]

Then you were all no hardcore W:ET players :slight_smile: You all played games in between for a little change in the tapet, admit it :stuck_out_tongue: Well, i didn’t. I think i played W:ET non-stop everyday for like 1 year after i first discovered it. Guess after 1 year like that you can’t see goldrush anymore xD

(papa519) #24

id love to see a map with the same layout as supply depot. just dirtybomb’d out

(.Chris.) #25

[QUOTE=Ruben0s;432080]If you start up W:ET you can see the problem of custom content. Clan owners will do everything to get the best spot in the server list, creating fake servers and ****. Or **** up the whole UI. The servers you actually see are almost all fake :+)

And since a short time we even got recommended servers. Well done dragonji. I would have done the same :stuck_out_tongue:

http://screenshot.xfire.com/s/127460992-4.jpg[/QUOTE]

Indeed, however they are there because of how the engine deals with custom content not because there aren’t ranked servers in ET, if DB could readily identify a server running custom content without you needing to connect that would be awesome.

I would like to know which servers are clean and play the base game, using ranked servers as they were in ET:QW is a heavy handed approach to achieve this. I don’t know how servers are set up in unreal but how about the game checks the server config first and certain settings are checked to see if they fall within a specified range, then it checks for additional content loaded on the server, if the settings are within range (such as player count) and there are no extra packs the server gets to be filtered as a ‘vanilla’ server (name it whatever) in the server browser, however if the settings are out of range and packs are there it’s treated as a ‘custom’ server.

These checks can be tied into in game currency and/or XP, you would earn the normal amount on a vanilla server but either a reduced amount or none at all on a custom server.

(stealth6) #26

The custom content in W:ET was definitely a factor in it’s demise. Not the fact that it was there, but after a while the quality decreased. Or you’d download the same thing twice because they’d changed one jpg in the whole pack. Gets kind of tiresome.

Another factor was that most servers were either running a mod with doublejump, faster shooting, unlimited medpacks,… or etpro where the skill ceilling was getting pretty high (most matches boil down to who can spawncamp the most even on pubs)
There were a few normal servers with normal people, but they were either often empty or had trigger happy admins booting anybody above average.

But the thing that really killed it for me were hackers. Eventually there was just no way of telling the difference between a legit player and a hacker. Some people might say bs to this, but the advances in hacks make them completely undetectable for other players regardless of what you think. Just something simple like chams is a huge advantage and pretty much undetectable or an aimbot that only activates when you click and jumps to the closest target to your crosshair.

What I think DB should aim to be is TF2.

(Hundopercent) #27

[QUOTE=maxxxxlol;431945]Here is another interesting one.

Counter strike 1.6. Peak players today. 40,526

Counter strike source. Peak players today. 35,288

Counter strike GO. Peak players today. 26,958

See what happens when you change a good thing for no reason. (movement, shooting etc)

See what happens when you start with a good base and upgrade from there.

Dota 2 Peak players today. 269,649

I’m not saying et2 or qw2 or rtcw2, But a good base point is a good thing imo[/QUOTE]

I couldn’t agree more.

(tokamak) #28

If being 'hardcore" qualifies as soldiering on while 99% of the playerbase has drained because the game turned unplayable then yes, yes I’m not a hardcore W:ET player.

(Ashog) #29

I never had any problems with custom downloads in ET. Sure menu mods were irritating but it wasn’t hard to delete these packs, plus remember to never join that particular server any more. Regarding downloading often - so what? Today the speeds are fast enough so spending a couple of minutes downloading a day in order to play your favourite game can be easily coped with. You spend more time searching for porn a day, biatches! The custom maps and voicepacks was the stuff that made me play this game for more than 5 years.

I totally agree with Chris:

DB could readily identify a server running custom content without you needing to connect that would be awesome.

I would like to know which servers are clean and play the base game, using ranked servers as they were in ET:QW is a heavy handed approach to achieve this. I don’t know how servers are set up in unreal but how about the game checks the server config first and certain settings are checked to see if they fall within a specified range, then it checks for additional content loaded on the server, if the settings are within range (such as player count) and there are no extra packs the server gets to be filtered as a ‘vanilla’ server (name it whatever) in the server browser, however if the settings are out of range and packs are there it’s treated as a ‘custom’ server.

We absolutely need this!

These checks can be tied into in game currency and/or XP, you would earn the normal amount on a vanilla server but either a reduced amount or none at all on a custom server.

I am though unsure about this. Why splitting stats into vanilla and custom? In which way are the XP earned on custom maps worse than on stock? Just split XP stats by mods, not custom/stock maps. And as Chris said, splitting by mods can be achieved by preconnect checks (master server scans all available servers for type, then sends clients the info in form of a detailed serverbrowser). Then users decide themselves where they tend to play, according to their customized sorting in serverbrowser. Materserver counts user XP by the type of mod the user is connected to.

(INF3RN0) #30

@ Nail just wondering what the RTCW stats were. I know it’s not SD, but it was the inspiration.

(Anti) #31

Stats are handy, I’m very much into the whole ‘Moneyball’ sort of stuff myself, but if you want to prove something with stats you need to have a big sample, not a tiny one, and it needs to be relevant to the market now, not 10 years ago.

If we were following just the stats we should be making a MOBA or a multiplayer third person tank game :slight_smile: They rate highly and are hugely popular, the biggest ones being built from scratch with no previous titles. Or maybe we could look at CoD where their audience peaked around their forth or fifth title on PC before it started to decline at all.

It would be nice if we could make the perfect game just by ‘running the numbers’, it’d make life easier, but I don’t believe that’s ever worked before. The best examples I’ve seen of developing quality titles you find you need stats, you need competitor analysis, you need direct player feedback, guided player feedback and observation, to get a reasonable picture of what is likely to appeal to players.

(nailzor) #32

[QUOTE=Anti;432170]Stats are handy, I’m very much into the whole ‘Moneyball’ sort of stuff myself, but if you want to prove something with stats you need to have a big sample, not a tiny one, and it needs to be relevant to the market now, not 10 years ago.

If we were following just the stats we should be making a MOBA or a multiplayer third person tank game :slight_smile: They rate highly and are hugely popular, the biggest ones being built from scratch with no previous titles. Or maybe we could look at CoD where their audience peaked around their forth or fifth title on PC before it started to decline at all.

It would be nice if we could make the perfect game just by ‘running the numbers’, it’d make life easier, but I don’t believe that’s ever worked before. The best examples I’ve seen of developing quality titles you find you need stats, you need competitor analysis, you need direct player feedback, guided player feedback and observation, to get a reasonable picture of what is likely to appeal to players.[/QUOTE]

Definitely wish there was a larger sample size for what I was gathering, I grabbed PC FPS games from the list on SD then did some digging. If there was a cookie cutter algorithm to make a successful game I’d like to have that too.

Truthfully, I never really played any of the games reported on here. I dabbled in ET but it was not my cup of tea so I played Halo instead, played the demo of ET:QW and logged 20 hours of Brink.

My experience with all 3 is limited at best and not trying to be biased towards any one them regardless of age. Brink is nearing its 2 year anniversary this summer - so it was the most current in this regard.

Hopefully DB will be so successful that years down the road when multiple sequels and hand-held ports have been made - the Alpha community can sit back in their easy-chairs with a beverage of choice and say “Yup, I was there when the FIRST Dirty Bomb was released, back when we had to use a mouse and keyboard to play games, now you young kids have it easy controlling it with your minds!”

(Bloodbite) #33

anybody remember the peak era for W:ET? I remember it was ranked 2nd in Gamespy’s app in terms of daily online activity after Half-Life… and that included CS 1.6, Natural Selection, Team Fortress, etc.

That was before people started butchering the original maps with tunnels, extra doors and crap like that.

(.Chris.) #34

To be fair though, it was only goldrush that saw all the different versions as the source map was released with the editor. The backdoor script for battery was a nice change though.

(Bloodbite) #35

I don’t think we need sequels. It’d be nice to think that the game will last long enough that if it’s starting to look a bit dated, the whole thing could be updated by porting it into the eventual Unreal 5 engine… I don’t necessarily see that happening, but it’d be cool if this game builds up enough content that it proves you don’t need to follow the mindless culture of sequel’ing. I don’t like referencing World of Warcraft, but… they did get by on essentially the same engine for a long time before kinda beefing it up to include DX11 support… which I can’t imagine made that big a difference.

(Bloodbite) #36

Battery suffered once they started throwing extra spawn points closer to the guns, and in some of the other maps too. I can’t remember them all but I remember gradually not liking where things were going… how those custom mutilated maps along with the rise of XPsave heroes started to become the most populated pub servers.

(nailzor) #37

I actually do see the WoW reference as it is relevant in your context - definitely would be nice for the original release to launch into popularity then have content regularly pushed and updated, new maps, features, content etc.

(Bloodbite) #38

I just feel dirty mentioning WoW in the context of a ‘game’ when it’s really nothing more than the most awesome chat client to date. :rolleyes:

(tokamak) #39

In that I agree. ETQW raised the barrier to high for that. All I want is an official quality seal for servers so I can know I’m getting myself into a ‘clean’ game. Then whenever I feel like playing custom I just turn that filter off and go play custom.

(Donnovan) #40

Custom maps goal is not really try to archieve vannila.

SD bypass many ideas because among their goals there is a big one called bussines. With custom maps, we can, yes, try to create something vanilla like, but with much more freedon.

At general vanilla will be allways more truthfull. But if you like to create, custom maps is a fountain of pleasure.

If we don’t have people with the desire to create, there is no reason for custom maps, indeed. So if most people are like that, lets just leave then creating their never validated teoryes here at the forum. May be sometime they change their minds.