Soldat is dying, how to revive it?

[numgun]

Quite often noticed this and every real life friend I've shown Soldat to seem to be completely helpless and hopeless in the new game because soldat has virtually no tutorials ingame of any kind and you it basically throws you right into the meat grinder.

For a starting player with no previous experience, he'll shit his pants with bricks. Especially if he goes in an online server straight away. Heck, even the bots can overwhelm a newbie at the start.

What soldat is lacking is a "tutorial map/stage" that could be like a series of rooms involving in basic movement, some shooting ranges or even a simple default map where you start playing and a text based tutorial will tell you how stuff works and what to do next from weapon selection to moving and shooting and anything else like providing dummy bots to shoot at and at the end some normal AI bot to face against for 10 kills or so.

And most importantly: this tutorial must be accesible ANY TIME through the main menu and it must be very VISIBLE in the main menu. So the point is its not a one-time tut that just flashes and its gone, but something you can reference every now and then.

[miketh2005]

Quite often noticed this and every real life friend I've shown Soldat to seem to be completely helpless and hopeless in the new game because soldat has virtually no tutorials ingame of any kind and you it basically throws you right into the meat grinder.

For a starting player with no previous experience, he'll s**t his pants with bricks. Especially if he goes in an online server straight away. Heck, even the bots can overwhelm a newbie at the start.

What soldat is lacking is a "tutorial map/stage" that could be like a series of rooms involving in basic movement, some shooting ranges or even a simple default map where you start playing and a text based tutorial will tell you how stuff works and what to do next from weapon selection to moving and shooting and anything else like providing dummy bots to shoot at and at the end some normal AI bot to face against for 10 kills or so.

And most importantly: this tutorial must be accesible ANY TIME through the main menu and it must be very VISIBLE in the main menu. So the point is its not a one-time tut that just flashes and its gone, but something you can reference every now and then.

Very good idea. Also when a player first opens soldat a menu should pop up saying "Do you want to play the tutorial?" I guess someone can script a tutorial that is available here on the forums which server owners can put on their servers so newbies can just type /tut to view a tutorial. OR there can be a whole tutorial server. and when a player types /tut it will ask them if they want to join the tutorial server.

[jrgp]

Well, if people would just buy some damn cheap server hosting (49c/player), then they will be supporting soldat and helping it not to die. Click here to buy server hosting / more info.

How is renting servers from you supporting Soldat in any way whatsoever?

If you want to "support" Soldat, rent servers from U13 (as the money actually goes somewhere useful to Soldat as FLAB hosts all of the official sites) and go buy registrations for all your friends.

[numgun]

I'm thinking more along the lines of a "tutorial" tab within the menu that has some stuff you can activate a tutorial game and on that same tab it could give you some basic information or links like the soldat manual or tips and tricks like movement stuff -Major- just posted in general in his guide for gathers.

The more they have access to advanced things from the start like movement (bunny hopping, backflips, prone cancel, cannon ball ect.) or weapon related thing (bink, startup, interval clearing) the better they are ready to take on online players from the start by training in peace for how much they need to.

Then they would come out like ubërsoldiers from nowhere and provide good competion much sooner than they usually would because they have the knowledge to start with.

[Outcast]

Solution would be to wipe out the gathers, as those caused the decline of publics...While the gather scene is going strong the public scene isn't, and the public scene is what attracts new players. I think this calls for enesce to make the gather admins life hell!

[pavliko]

Solution would be to wipe out the gathers, as those caused the decline of publics...While the gather scene is going strong the public scene isn't, and the public scene is what attracts new players. I think this calls for enesce to make the gather admins life hell!

Fuck this solution..
You just need to remove the bugs in soldat so that it will be playable and new people will join (with the help of some advertising)

[miketh2005]

Well, if people would just buy some damn cheap server hosting (49c/player), then they will be supporting soldat and helping it not to die. Click here to buy server hosting / more info.

How is renting servers from you supporting Soldat in any way whatsoever?

If you want to "support" Soldat, rent servers from U13 (as the money actually goes somewhere useful to Soldat as FLAB hosts all of the official sites) and go buy registrations for all your friends.

Because more servers = more players who play soldat. XFactor servers are cheaper than U13, so it's for people who don't have the money and want to buy some servers. Also Cheaper servers = more servers. I for one have a spending limit each month. With the same amount of money I can buy 2 servers instead of one.

Also, I don't own XFactor servers, but I want them to stay in business so that I get a discount on my server bill.

 

[miketh2005]

I'm thinking more along the lines of a "tutorial" tab within the menu that has some stuff you can activate a tutorial game and on that same tab it could give you some basic information or links like the soldat manual or tips and tricks like movement stuff -Major- just posted in general in his guide for gathers.

The more they have access to advanced things from the start like movement (bunny hopping, backflips, prone cancel, cannon ball ect.) or weapon related thing (bink, startup, interval clearing) the better they are ready to take on online players from the start by training in peace for how much they need to.

Then they would come out like ubërsoldiers from nowhere and provide good competion much sooner than they usually would because they have the knowledge to start with.

Prone cancel? What's that?

[pavliko]

miketh2005: What will empty servers do when there wont be any players?
Less Players>Less Servers>No players at all.
More Servers+Less Players=Fail
Simple Soldat mathematics..

[miketh2005]

miketh2005: What will empty servers do when there wont be any players?
Less Players>Less Servers>No players at all.
More Servers+Less Players=Fail
Simple Soldat mathematics..

That doesn't make any sense. Less people will find soldat boring if there are always new and exciting servers to play in...

[pavliko]

That doesn't make any sense. Less people will find soldat boring if there are always new and exciting servers to play in...

This is the solution
http://forums.soldat.pl/index.php?topic=35280.msg430573#msg430573

[1ronclaw]

miketh2005: What will empty servers do when there wont be any players?
Less Players>Less Servers>No players at all.
More Servers+Less Players=Fail
Simple Soldat mathematics..

That doesn't make any sense. Less people will find soldat boring if there are always new and exciting servers to play in...

I disagree. There seem to be plenty of servers, but almost half of them are always empty. The focus should be on attracting and retaining new players through designing a better way for them to learn basic skills. Despite people telling new people to "learn the backflip" etc. I have yet to see any specific instructions on the various types of maneuvers, when they should be used, how to do them and so on. Simply having more servers will not revive the community without flesh blood to play on them.

[numgun]

I'm thinking more along the lines of a "tutorial" tab within the menu that has some stuff you can activate a tutorial game and on that same tab it could give you some basic information or links like the soldat manual or tips and tricks like movement stuff -Major- just posted in general in his guide for gathers.

The more they have access to advanced things from the start like movement (bunny hopping, backflips, prone cancel, cannon ball ect.) or weapon related thing (bink, startup, interval clearing) the better they are ready to take on online players from the start by training in peace for how much they need to.

Then they would come out like ubërsoldiers from nowhere and provide good competion much sooner than they usually would because they have the knowledge to start with.

Prone cancel? What's that?

New thing to me too, btw.

Its also called "prone gliding", while doing a superman (prone flying forward), you change weapons just before you hit the ground. This allows you to continue moving on without losing speed like you would usually do when landing in prone position, very useful.

[Kazuki]

How did this turn into War of the Servers?

What Soldat needs is fluidity and polish. It needs to be presentable. I love Soldat, but it's absolutely stuffed with bugs and error messages, not to mention the netcode. From start to finish, it's rare that you won't encounter something not quite right with the game.

[miketh2005]

I'm thinking more along the lines of a "tutorial" tab within the menu that has some stuff you can activate a tutorial game and on that same tab it could give you some basic information or links like the soldat manual or tips and tricks like movement stuff -Major- just posted in general in his guide for gathers.

The more they have access to advanced things from the start like movement (bunny hopping, backflips, prone cancel, cannon ball ect.) or weapon related thing (bink, startup, interval clearing) the better they are ready to take on online players from the start by training in peace for how much they need to.

Then they would come out like ubërsoldiers from nowhere and provide good competion much sooner than they usually would because they have the knowledge to start with.

Prone cancel? What's that?

New thing to me too, btw.

Its also called "prone gliding", while doing a superman (prone flying forward), you change weapons just before you hit the ground. This allows you to continue moving on without losing speed like you would usually do when landing in prone position, very useful.

Why not just get out of prone position before you hit the ground?



Half of the servers are empty because they are the same old same old. If people would host new and exciting scripts on servers, then it would keep people.

[p0ppin]

Servers, especially newer ones, often get what I like to call "empty server syndrome".  Someone will join, hang out for a few seconds, then leave because he/she doesn't want to wait for another player to wander in.  It's understandable, I do it all the time.  Perhaps something like a quickplay option in the lobby, sort of like a built-in gather for soldat would do the trick.  You'd select which gametype you want and the lobby will try to find an open server for you and anyone else who is requesting a quickplay at the time.  With all people playing soldat using it, games would probably fill up much quicker than they do in irc gathers.

Just an idea, feel free to shoot holes in it

[1ronclaw]

Servers, especially newer ones, often get what I like to call "empty server syndrome".  Someone will join, hang out for a few seconds, then leave because he/she doesn't want to wait for another player to wander in.  It's understandable, I do it all the time.  Perhaps something like a quickplay option in the lobby, sort of like a built-in gather for soldat would do the trick.  You'd select which gametype you want and the lobby will try to find an open server for you and anyone else who is requesting a quickplay at the time.  With all people playing soldat using it, games would probably fill up much quicker than they do in irc gathers.

Just an idea, feel free to shoot holes in it

I like it, maybe with a matchmaking thing where you can rate your skill level 1-10 and hopefully get another honest person at your skill level?

I also see what you're saying with the empty server thing. I hereby vow to spend 10 minutes a day (maybe more) in empty servers waiting for people. (It'll give me a chance to learn the maps better too.)

[miketh2005]

Servers, especially newer ones, often get what I like to call "empty server syndrome".  Someone will join, hang out for a few seconds, then leave because he/she doesn't want to wait for another player to wander in.  It's understandable, I do it all the time.  Perhaps something like a quickplay option in the lobby, sort of like a built-in gather for soldat would do the trick.  You'd select which gametype you want and the lobby will try to find an open server for you and anyone else who is requesting a quickplay at the time.  With all people playing soldat using it, games would probably fill up much quicker than they do in irc gathers.

Just an idea, feel free to shoot holes in it

Love the idea. Make another post about it in the suggestions forums and post the link here so I can F12.

[F4||3N]

I kinda quick-read through the last few posts, but I agree with one of the posts, what's the point of a flourishing competitive scene, when the real potential is in public servers.

Bugs are barely a problem. That's not the reason Soldat is dying. Sure there's some annoying bugs, but they're not nearly big enough to prevent new players from having a fun time.

Really, it comes down to the updates. If some decent features get implemented, with some new scripting options, more decent (filled) servers.

And maybe a tutorial mode would be good.

A script-campaign, like mission-mod, but with a Call of Duty depth to it, nothing that's gunna take 2 years to make, but something that's gunna show what Soldat is about.

Reasonably big makes, with certain objectives. Though that'll take a core change and a fair bit of new codes. But you don't have to edit Soldat, make it separate and incorporate it into Soldat!

[jrgp]

Well, if people would just buy some damn cheap server hosting (49c/player), then they will be supporting soldat and helping it not to die. Click here to buy server hosting / more info.

How is renting servers from you supporting Soldat in any way whatsoever?

If you want to "support" Soldat, rent servers from U13 (as the money actually goes somewhere useful to Soldat as FLAB hosts all of the official sites) and go buy registrations for all your friends.

Because more servers = more players who play soldat. XFactor servers are cheaper than U13, so it's for people who don't have the money and want to buy some servers. Also Cheaper servers = more servers. I for one have a spending limit each month. With the same amount of money I can buy 2 servers instead of one.

Also, I don't own XFactor servers, but I want them to stay in business so that I get a discount on my server bill.

 

I'm talking about where the money is going. And more servers does not mean more players, as most of the current servers are consistently empty.