Soldat Forums: How long will it survive?

[The Bone Collector]

I was sitting here thinking about Soldat Forums tonight, and I was thinking about how currently it is hosted and partly ran by FliesLikeABrick. I was also thinking, What if Brick decides to move on to bigger things, or dissapears off the face of the earth.
Soldat Forums, and Soldat itself is in a very comfortable position at the moment, but with all the veterans leaving/moving on, The ranks are dissapearing. Not only are the veterans dissapearing, but those that have stood by Soldat, contributed to it staying alive, and keeping the community around to support it all are slowly moving on.
So... my questions are directed at the below people:

FliesLikeABrick: Will you eventually move on, and stop hosting the servers/forums that are currently under conrtol? Or will you stay untill the day Soldat dies (the day we all dread)?

Chakra: You've been around for yonks, old chap. What keeps you around? Will you eventually move on to better things... or continue to keep these forums interesting, and contributing to the development of Soldat?

EnEsCe: A Fellow Aussie. You've been will the development team for ages, no matter what people have said about you, and accused you of. Will you eventually move on, or are you sticking around forever?

All those beta-testers: Will you continue to keep Soldat playable, or bugger off to make other games bug-free/live your own lives?

Michal: The main man, the big shot. What kind of road are you hoping to take Soldat down? Will you eventually sell out, or release the source for the coding n00bs to make bigger/better/worse Soldat clones? I know your constantly working on new games, but will you eventually stop working on Soldat, in order to make more room for other things?

The current Soldat Veterans from the old days: What keeps you here? Why not move on to bigger fish, or move on to life (not saying that your all drooling nerds who don't get out)?


I myself stick around because this is my home. I've always felt welcome here, enjoyed the ramblings of some of the better posters here, the constant funnies that Chakra posts in the Sin Bin. I doubt I will leave the Soldat community unless big things happen in my life...

Feel free to discuss, but please... those I have questions for, could you at least give us a more descriptive answer than "yes" or "no".

(Appologies to those I didn't mention, but feel free to tell us why your here, and if you plan on sticking around)

[tehsnipah]

meh it'll probably survive till soldat gets boring (impossible) some people really come up with good topics and some come up wit supid topics that will make people talk more about it or just get pissed off and talk to him in fisting zone i bet. but seriously, soldat forums will survive for a long time

[The Bone Collector]

Thanks for your opinion tehsniper, but can I suggest a little... puncuation in your posts. its like reading a story without paragraphs and full stops.

[tehsnipah]

sorry, i had to go some where. so i had to log off fast. well, now im back on my laptop

[echo_trail]

hmm... I was around on the old forums as well, and I've been playing since 1.2.1.. I dunno if that qualifies me as a veteran, but i guess I've been around for a good period of time.

Anyway, I would love to say that what keeps me here is love of the game. It's not, sad as I am to say it. I still like it a lot, but I think it's changed too much over the years. Not in a matter of features, but the people playing in, and the atmosphere within. It's not as 'friendly' as it used to be.
No, what keeps me here is some of the people on the forums. I honestly think I've gotten a few really good mates here, such as Sethamundo, DePhille, kazuki and many more.. I love coming on here talking about various things, and even though i could just as easely do so on MSN or myspace, some how it just feels more appropoate doing it here on the good ol' forums.

also, even though the forums might be considered little but a shadow of it's former self, I still think there's a lot of awesome things going on around here. Sure there's a lot of crap, but to be honest, I think the good things outweight the bad. There's a lot of potential still, and I think a lot of the newcomers seem to be turning out okay.
It's sad that so many of the oldies are going away, but I think it's important to remember that new ones will arise if given the chance and maybe a little guidance.

Yes sirs, I still have faith in this place.

[The Bone Collector]

I also have faith in this place, and yes... your considered a veteran in my eyes... and I guess I'm a vet as well, I've been around since the old forums.

Thanks for your input echo.

[Rai-Dei]

I don't consider myself a vet as I was never in the CTF/Never posted in old forums. Been playing since 1.1.5, I started when I was only 11 so I hardly remember anything.  What keeps me here is: I still find soldat fun, I don't post much on the forums, but I never did. I just like to read them. I'll stay for awhile I guess, got nothing better to do.

[ElGato]

I have no choice but to stay, I always find myself comming back when I'm bored. I can't see anything happening to take up my life so much that I don't get bored now and then.

Also I think I should add, although the people you listed do infact play key roles here now it is possible that if they did move on they could be replaced, so to speak. Aside from Michal.... The only way I see soldat "dying" is if a better version is made with a new name or development stops completely and people slowly move on, but I would imagine that could take a long time.

[Bjarne Betjent]

[B@D] will be back soon, then everything is ok again..trust me

[The Bone Collector]

[B@D] will be back soon, then everything is ok again..trust me

What? What are you trying to say?

[El_Spec]

This may just be me, but Soldat is in a phase in which it is slowly changing style.  It used to be only MM made maps with default style and shading.  Now, Trenchwars and several other gamemodes are starting to become more popular and so is its way of maps.  I can see the maps change to using heavy GFX and high polygon counts.  With these new maps, it reduces the amount of players and prevents some from even running Soldat.  I feel Soldat is slowly being ruined. 

I'm at the point at which I'm about to retire from a long 4 years of intense fighting and rest in my long-waited grave.  I might still be on the forum every couple of weeks, but Soldat will no longer exist on my hard-drive.

[Bjarne Betjent]

Mabye forever?

[client]

[B@D] will be back soon, then everything is ok again..trust me

we have to play with [B@D] again bjarne.

[echo_trail]

This may just be me, but Soldat is in a phase in which it is slowly changing style.  It used to be only MM made maps with default style and shading.  Now, Trenchwars and several other gamemodes are starting to become more popular and so is its way of maps.  I can see the maps change to using heavy GFX and high polygon counts.  With these new maps, it reduces the amount of players and prevents some from even running Soldat.  I feel Soldat is slowly being ruined. 

I'm at the point at which I'm about to retire from a long 4 years of intense fighting and rest in my long-waited grave.  I might still be on the forum every couple of weeks, but Soldat will no longer exist on my hard-drive.

Mabye forever?

That's always impossible for a veteran to say. Some of us have been inactive for years, only to feel the sudden urge to play, and the love for the game reveal itself.

[O.R.I.O.N.]

Can't call myself a veteran by any means, and I haven't played Soldat in ages, mostly due to the fact that my XP-running computer is lacking a working battery. I guess the fact that I still hang around the forums says something.

Meh, I'll probably stay around for some time. Soldat still has potential, I'm not going to deny it, and I'd like to see where it goes, assuming it does keep moving along. Only time will tell. Or Michal. Either way.

[SDFilm]

hmm... I was around on the old forums as well, and I've been playing since 1.2.1.. I dunno if that qualifies me as a veteran, but i guess I've been around for a good period of time.

Anyway, I would love to say that what keeps me here is love of the game. It's not, sad as I am to say it. I still like it a lot, but I think it's changed too much over the years. Not in a matter of features, but the people playing in, and the atmosphere within. It's not as 'friendly' as it used to be. No, what keeps me here is some of the people on the forums. I honestly think I've gotten a few really good mates here, such as Sethamundo, DePhille, kazuki and many more.. I love coming on here talking about various things, and even though i could just as easely do so on MSN or myspace, some how it just feels more appropoate doing it here on the good ol' forums.

also, even though the forums might be considered little but a shadow of it's former self, I still think there's a lot of awesome things going on around here. Sure there's a lot of crap, but to be honest, I think the good things outweight the bad. There's a lot of potential still, and I think a lot of the newcomers seem to be turning out okay.
It's sad that so many of the oldies are going away, but I think it's important to remember that new ones will arise if given the chance and maybe a little guidance.

Yes sirs, I still have faith in this place.

I agree with pretty much everything echo_trail said there.

I wasn't in ye oldie oldie forums, but I was in the old forums (joined around November 2004, version 1.2.1). My hardcore Soldating days are long behind me, as I spend alot more time with collage, doing hobbies, and other more sociable stuff. But I always keep one foot in SForums as it's the only PC game that I've got involved in further than just playing, so it kinda feels like my e-home; a big e-home with lots of whiny trolling little brothers.

I liked the forums better before, but I don't think it's all going downhill. Maybe ye oldie oldie players (<1.5.0) have a higher tendency to whine about the old days because they remember when Soldat was even more cose-nit and arthousey than it is now. I do feel like that a bit, but not enough to leave in a blaze of nostalgia.

[Carlitos]

hmm... I was around on the old forums as well, and I've been playing since 1.2.1.. I dunno if that qualifies me as a veteran, but i guess I've been around for a good period of time.

The same here.

I come here when i can, to read the latest soldat news, read some funny topics etc...
But i do think most of the good people just left when the new forums came...some of them still posted a few topics but them, they were never seen again around here.

[sc00t3r]

 i agree with echo..soldat still has the same feel to me as it did back when...and ppl will go through a cycle of on and off with the game 2. the main reason for the change of atmosphere is all of these stuck up, ignorant, self-loving assholes that just love to put ppl down 4 whatever they can find wrong...bt soldat will never die...whether in a new version or a similar name...the only experience that will change is the communications with the players.

[EnEsCe]

EnEsCe: A Fellow Aussie. You've been with the development team for ages, no matter what people have said about you, and accused you of. Will you eventually move on, or are you sticking around forever?

Ill be around till the day Soldat dies. Or goes open source. Or I die.

[BondJamesBond]

This may just be me, but Soldat is in a phase in which it is slowly changing style.  It used to be only MM made maps with default style and shading.  Now, Trenchwars and several other gamemodes are starting to become more popular and so is its way of maps.  I can see the maps change to using heavy GFX and high polygon counts.  With these new maps, it reduces the amount of players and prevents some from even running Soldat.  I feel Soldat is slowly being ruined. 

Since the implementation of scripting, R/S, TW, and Hexer/RPG mods have rocketed - Which means more communities for Soldat in general.

More communities makes it easier for players to 'get involved', or contribute to Soldat. Which is good. Even if their contribution is a fail. It's still an ok thing... Right?

--

As for the classic style of gameplay, the good ol' blood and bullets days... The 10 second killing 3 second sitting days... Definitely not dying out. There are plenty of unknown servers lurking about that many of us 'veterans' (I'd like to think that I am one) tend to fear... Whether it be the lag or the nooby noobs who are notoriously known for inhabiting those servers.

But in the end. It all works out, right? Veterans who want to play classic have their options: Gathers, CWs, U13 and Fracs. And the noobs of course, get their noob servers! I'm not too fond of this segregation, but at least everyone's got some playing.

--

And maybe you weren't referring to gameplay at all. Since you're a mapper and you talked about MAPS, you probably meant the style of maps... I kinda went off on a tangent there. But I still I have something to say:

Standards change. Notice I didn't say increase, or improve, or anything. Just change. Yes, mapping has gotten a lot more complicated, maybe? But....

Let's look at modding, man they're pulling out some miracle stuff there. It used to be you downloaded  crappy GFX in a puny little zip file - and now we're downloading fancy self-extractors with mod-managers accompanied with bots and maps.

Servers have changed too. Look at many of the big, popular servers. Most of them have the !help or !admin commands at the least.

Even the fan art has set some new limits. In the old forums, a kill-kill-kill movie was embraced because anyone who put the time and effort in deserved it. Now you'd better know damn well what you're doing - putting the right effects with the right music and timing.

But if you want to change it, make the change! Since you're a pretty respected mapper, your ambitions won't be ignored.