How to make Soldat Beta versions successful?

[jerich]

Yeah, I don't think any of the mappers who made remakes intended to replace the old one. But as an experiment, the testers wanted to see the reaction of the community if it happened hypothetically. It probably worked out better to see everyone in panic mode voicing their opinions. If it was an announced beta test, I'm sure most people would be like,"it's just a beta, whatever, they will just revert it eventually." After compiling dozens of pages of opinions, hopefully they will know which remakes should stay and which originals should stay. And add better new maps and take out the ones that don't work for public/clan wars *cough* Freefall *cough*

[duz]

      


And now limited to 65 

[ds dude]

Who fucking cares, it's just a god damn game, so go fucking play it.

I do not understand you people at all. It's just a 2d computer game and you expect something huge to come from this. I honestly see this game as a good 1 hour time waster, nothing else.

[jerich]

Who f**king cares, it's just a god damn game, so go f**king play it.

I do not understand you people at all. It's just a 2d computer game and you expect something huge to come from this. I honestly see this game as a good 1 hour time waster, nothing else.

I don't see anything huge to come out of any game anyways. Games serve one purpose and it's a leisure activity. Sure, it could be a 1 hour time waster, but it's much better than a waste of time, which the community is trying to prevent.

You do not understand "us" people at all. If you want to understand why we still care, why don't you add those "1 hour kickback" session by how many years you been playing. According to your sig, its at least 3 years and I bet much more. Then add the times you sat at these forums, those 594 posts because of soldat and realize you are nothing more than a hypocrite.

[The Geologist]

We have a mapping forum.  The maps that are in game were up for comments for months prior to this. 

First of all, as I am sure you are more than aware only a very small percent of the community actually visit the mapping forum on here, so essentially no one outside of the soldat mappers really had a clue these maps existed, and I have seen any mention of replacing default maps in any other forum outside of the mapping forum before the beta was released.

Looking at the thread you are talking about (which took some searching to find), there is still no mention of actually replacing the defaults, in fact the closest it gets to that is:

It's not a promise, but I believe upcoming Soldat versions have use for remakes.

So essentially you are saying that in a forum, that most of the soldat forums community doesn't visit (let alone the actual entire soldat community), in a thread that said essentially nothing about the maps replacing the defaults (and lets face it, a huge amount of maps get churned out of the mapping forum and virtually none of them make it, so unless you put something saying this is actually going to end up in the game, no one cares), you expect the community to comment on something before they are even aware it will happen. right.

First off, I was talking about the maps themselves.  Not the decision to change anything for the beta, which I'm not a part of.  The maps were up for comment for months with their own topics.  Did I say anything about the change?  No.  Please don't put words in my mouth and presume what I'm saying, or what topics I'm talking about.

Second, the thread you're referencing didn't specifically mention making a change to the maps release because that topic had nothing to do with game changes.  It was a contest suggestion.  And people mapped for the contest. 

Third, I find it pretty perturbing that the community is so divided into it's little niche's that the "official" page is so neglected.  Really now, it's not any of the mappers fault no one decided to look things up here and comment on their work.  If people don't visit that's their problem.  Maps have been uploaded beyond this site as well.  Perhaps future considerations should include paying attention to what's going on with these forums as well, for an outlook on future development.

This is just a beta.  Changes can still be made.  Cripes.

[numgun]

This is the official forums for soldat through, right? I think some info on the changes for maps could be informed here too. I never visit those random mapping sites and I wouldn't give a crap about them at the moment. I only visit soldat forums since it should be discussing all about soldat and its development. I totally didnt expect the development talk rolled over to a mapping forum just like that.

Not to mention if the game is Beta stage, its the time when we NEED to whine about stuff we dont like because the next step form beta version is a final release. If we dont whine hard enough now, shit will carry over to the official release and then everyone will be wondering why'd no one mention it in the beta.

Please make a post with a poll on the news section in SF when regarding about public opinion on map change. It'd be much more visible there and more people would contribute their thoughts and votes.

[Suowarrior]

This is the official forums for soldat through, right? I think some info on the changes for maps could be informed here too. I never visit those random mapping sites and I wouldn't give a crap about them at the moment. I only visit soldat forums since it should be discussing all about soldat and its development. I totally didnt expect the development talk rolled over to a mapping forum just like that.

Not to mention if the game is Beta stage, its the time when we NEED to whine about stuff we dont like because the next step form beta version is a final release. If we dont whine hard enough now, s**t will carry over to the official release and then everyone will be wondering why'd no one mention it in the beta.

Please make a post with a poll on the news section in SF when regarding about public opinion on map change. It'd be much more visible there and more people would contribute their thoughts and votes.

At least when it comes to selecting default maps, there aren't any so called random mapping sites. Everything is centered into Soldat Forums Mapping section, the link into clan & other competive soldat world is #soldat.mapping irc channel.

And yes this period of beta is the time when you should argue for the things you don't agree. But bashing the whole "new" maplist won't have any effect. If you aren't so keen on any new map or remake, say even which new maps you could live with.

About poll, I'll take it into consideration.

[numgun]

If you aren't so keen on any new map or remake, say even which new maps you could live with.

I'd love to, wheres the right place to do this? I did like a few of the new maps, but some were just like a "kick to the nuts" horrible. I'll give a constructive feedback summary on the new maps and I could even suggest some changes for fixing the new and the old maps alike.

Compromises are cool.

[Snow]

Perhaps it's time to make a pros/cons list comparing maps with their remakes - that the whole community participates in. Then which ever is favored more: if default - it stays, if remake - it gets thoroughly tested before it is considered as part of the next official release.

Layout is the absolute number one factor above all else that should be scrutinized and tested.

Also, testing HAS to be done by players of every skill level, from newbie to pro. Pros know what a successful layout looks like and has to be. A newbie should still be able to enter the game and have some fun, despite the difficulty of the learning curve. A map that a pro can play in comfortably can still be too difficult for someone starting out in Soldat. We are trying to attract more players and increase Soldat's popularity. So that's a lot to consider for a successful map - especially one that makes the cut for being a default map.

And to add, perhaps we need lots of community involvement for any map considered for default status for every new release. Perhaps add a new section to the mapping forum, where maps can be suggested for default - for the next release. Dunno.

[messuh]

Isn't there a way you could redownload the old maps and add them to a server?

Yes there is, You can just go to soldat 1.5 maps folder, grab the maps you want to keep and put them in soldat 1.5.1 folder's map.
Pretty straight forward.

[ds dude]

Who f**king cares, it's just a god damn game, so go f**king play it.

I do not understand you people at all. It's just a 2d computer game and you expect something huge to come from this. I honestly see this game as a good 1 hour time waster, nothing else.

I don't see anything huge to come out of any game anyways. Games serve one purpose and it's a leisure activity. Sure, it could be a 1 hour time waster, but it's much better than a waste of time, which the community is trying to prevent.

You do not understand "us" people at all. If you want to understand why we still care, why don't you add those "1 hour kickback" session by how many years you been playing. According to your sig, its at least 3 years and I bet much more. Then add the times you sat at these forums, those 594 posts because of soldat and realize you are nothing more than a hypocrite.

I haven't played for 3 years. I've been on and off.

[Suowarrior]

And to add, perhaps we need lots of community involvement for any map considered for default status for every new release. Perhaps add a new section to the mapping forum, where maps can be suggested for default - for the next release. Dunno.

Thanks for the idea. The new section in opened into mapping forums. Check it out!

[jerich]

If soldat needs that trailer, the one I made a year ago has been getting views and positive comments. lol. Not the greatest video, but it does give newcomers interest.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a4H-YRQwd2o

[L[0ne]R]

If soldat needs that trailer, the one I made a year ago has been getting views and positive comments. lol. Not the greatest video, but it does give newcomers interest.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a4H-YRQwd2o

This is the best Soldat trailer out of all I've seen. It does need a bit of work, but as far as editing goes - it's great.
What I think needs to be changed is:
- The "vast weapon selection" part. New players probably won't care what specific guns there are. So instead of "Mp5", "m79", etc you should do something like "sub-machine guns, explosives, CHAINSAW, and other..."
- Game modes part. A similar problem. While the names are different - the action on the screen is pretty much the same - lots of soldiers shooting each other. Maybe you should focus on important things of each gamemode, like CTF - flags, rambomatch - rambo, deathmatch - lots of people shooting will do.
- Minor weird things like prone jetting (newbies won't get it), no-hit lag during the M79 part, selfkill at the end of the video.


But again, it's the most action-packed and nicely edited trailer out there.

[Dusty]

If soldat needs that trailer, the one I made a year ago has been getting views and positive comments. lol. Not the greatest video, but it does give newcomers interest.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a4H-YRQwd2o

--
But again, it's the most action-packed and nicely edited trailer out there.

It's too messy to be a good trailer. As far as I recall, someone has already mentioned it.

[Snow]

I commented on this a while ago - this is definitely going in the right direction, but to a newcomer I think the action looks too chaotic. Too much rotating and zooming. The outline and presentation of the trailer is otherwise good - it introduces the game, weapons and gamemodes. The only problem I find is that you don't get a clear overall shot of the game. You gotta have some screensize shots (unzoomed) where you can clearly see movement and battling. So if you had say a shot of the mid point of kampf, with one guy moving, a noob camping and you take on a couple of enemies with a bit of tactical movement. Not too many bullets whizzing around or to many players in a small area blasting the gibs out of eachother.. yeah, that is how Soldat can be, but to someone who's never seen the game before - absolutely confusing.

It is a good trailer otherwise, like I said. I'm not shooting it down. It does have to be polished though. One thing I would suggest is to look at trailers of platformer games or like old NES commercials. Those were tailored to show the action clearly and in an enticing way. Kirby's Adventure had a good commercial (Japanese one anyway), though it also had some hand-drawn animation in it too. If you look at the Metroid SNES commercial - yeah it too is a bit chaotic, but is organized, shows some cool stuff (but for a story - doesn't show too much spoilers). So if you do decide to polish up this trailer -  if work on some clear shots and a bit of pacing - could be an official trailer IMO.

[-Major-]

you can't use mods in an official game trailer.