Soldat now and tomorrow

[Guile]

If I was MM then I would go for the second option.

Benefits:

1. MM will get a reasonable amount of money if some big gaming company wants to buy this game.
2. Most likely the bugs will be fixed + game itself will be develop [(more features and stuff like that) probably anti-cheat system too!]
3. Soldat will have more more players.

Cons

1. None I can think of.

[Shoozza]

You probably forgot about Monsoonix.
If it would work MM would still use it today for real ads.

Ads are mostly annoying. They can make the game less fun.
The goal is to see more people playing Soldat and more people buying it.
Ads seem to work against that.

They might work if they are not too annoying though.


On the other side selling game-licenses if the game is opensouce is still possible.
I already told MM how it could be done:
Just look at MySQL. It has a GPL and Commercial license.
People have to sign a CLA to get their code accepted.

The issue I see is with this idea is that MM doesn't work on Soldat at all.
Which means the community could fork Soldat and do stuff their own way.
And since everyone knows that the community has been unhappy with how the things went for some time now it's not a thing that couldn't happen.


The dev team idea doesn't have this risk.
So it's probably the best solution for now.
Still getting the game released under a opensource license, and hoping this could keep it alive, is the long term goal.


Selling the game to a company is IMHO equal to shutting everything down and deleting all files.
The company could do anything with Soldat... Who knows what their reason for buying the rights for the game is.
But their goal is probably not the happiness of the community.

[L[0ne]R]

1. MM will get a reasonable amount of money if some big gaming company wants to buy this game.

1) I don't see this happening because the game as it is now is in a horrible state. If somebody wanted to buy it - it would've probably been sold long ago.

2. Most likely the bugs will be fixed + game itself will be develop [(more features and stuff like that) probably anti-cheat system too!]

2) The game will develop, features will be added and the bugs will be fixed, yes. But there's absolutely no guarantee that it'll be the same game that we all love. Most companies care about getting as much money as they can. And if they decide that making Soldat to be "a game for everyone" will bring them more money - they'll do that. They won't care about more serious gamers like us.

3. Soldat will have more more players.

3) It might have more players, but not as many as Soldat used to have. If it becomes something as generic as Booster Trooper - players will quickly lose interest.

So it's not all as simple as you think.

Ads are mostly annoying. They can make the game less fun.
The goal is to see more people playing Soldat and more people buying it.
Ads seem to work against that.

It all depends on how they're implemented. Something that looks completely out of place or takes up half the screen is bad. But like I mentioned already, some games use in-game objects to display ads. Here are a few examples from Battlefield 2142 - the billboards that are placed on the maps display real ads:
Screeny 1
Screeny 2
I wouldn't mind seeing something like that in Soldat (never thought I'd say this, but in fact, I actually WANT to see those kinds of ads in Soldat maps).

[homerofgods]

Well, I felt sad ever since MM decided to abandon soldat for link-dead, that was pretty much the beginning of the end.
But, Just get a developer-team to get a STABILE, WORKING version and fix bugs. Then you can sell registrations, and continue to have small updates on soldat.
I think soldat-developents biggest mistakes have been to add so many new features before all the current buggs has been fixed.

MM  If you don't trust the developement-team the comunity put together, sell it.

[Meteorisch]

Maybe sell the game to steam. Steam always seems to update games, even the very old ones like Day of Defeat.

If thats not working then option 1 and 2 are both fine. Get a dev team with 1 leader. IMO Shoozza looks like that person and 2 great working guys under him. Also if Shoozza became that leader, he should pick those people working with him for the best communication.
I chose Shoozza because he's fully motivated and experienced to do this job and seems the right guy!.

Soldat might make it actually somewhere now this announcement has been made.
Make up your mind Michal.

[PQ]

If I was MM then I would go for the second option.

Benefits:

1. MM will get a reasonable amount of money if some big gaming company wants to buy this game.
2. Most likely the bugs will be fixed + game itself will be develop [(more features and stuff like that) probably anti-cheat system too!]
3. Soldat will have more more players.

Cons

1. None I can think of.

One major con is that nothing is done for free. So even IF you are registered you will get some cons to pay them as well.

[pavliko]

I'm more into the 1st option...
Others are just not logical enough for me...
I vote F12 for Shoozza..
Because as a "Soldatter" I can vote and I can trust Shoozza on this and no one can say anything againts it :3

Get a dev team with 1 leader. IMO Shoozza looks like that person and 2 great working guys under him. Also if Shoozza became that leader, he should pick those people working with him for the best communication.
I chose Shoozza because he's fully motivated and experienced to do this job and seems the right guy!.

Yeah, just like this guy said..

[demoniac93]

Maybe sell the game to steam. Steam always seems to update games, even the very old ones like Day of Defeat.

If thats not working then option 1 and 2 are both fine. Get a dev team with 1 leader. IMO Shoozza looks like that person and 2 great working guys under him. Also if Shoozza became that leader, he should pick those people working with him for the best communication.
I chose Shoozza because he's fully motivated and experienced to do this job and seems the right guy!.

Soldat might make it actually somewhere now this announcement has been made.
Make up your mind Michal.

Steam? Are you out of your mind?
Do you have any idea how much damage that would do to the Soldat community and the game itself?

[Corporal Dunn]

Do you have any idea how much damage that would do to the Soldat community and the game itself?

None. Valve corp is not one of these "Bobby Koticks" who dont give a bloody f**k about the community and game.

[L[0ne]R]

Do you have any idea how much damage that would do to the Soldat community and the game itself?

None. Valve corp is not one of these "Bobby Koticks" who dont give a bloody f**k about the community and game.

Well I'm not so sure - it's a big company after all, they are less likely to care about small communities like ours. Not to mention that not everyone wants to use the bloated Steam and play with bots when Steam servers are down.

But in any case, it's not Steam or Valve that updates games. They only update their own games, and other games on Steam they just sell.

-----------

P.S. I really hope we won't have to wait another several months for MM's decision..

[demoniac93]

Do you have any idea how much damage that would do to the Soldat community and the game itself?

None. Valve corp is not one of these "Bobby Koticks" who dont give a bloody f**k about the community and game.

Well I'm not so sure - it's a big company after all, they are less likely to care about small communities like ours. Not to mention that not everyone wants to use the bloated Steam and play with bots when Steam servers are down.

But in any case, it's not Steam or Valve that updates games. They only update their own games, and other games on Steam they just sell.

-----------

P.S. I really hope we won't have to wait another several months for MM's decision..

Indeed, pretty much read my mind there.
@Foxconn: Do you every get tired of this advertising crappy game clients bullshit?

[FliesLikeABrick]

Do you have any idea how much damage that would do to the Soldat community and the game itself?

None. Valve corp is not one of these "Bobby Koticks" who dont give a bloody f**k about the community and game.

Well I'm not so sure - it's a big company after all, they are less likely to care about small communities like ours. Not to mention that not everyone wants to use the bloated Steam and play with bots when Steam servers are down.

But in any case, it's not Steam or Valve that updates games. They only update their own games, and other games on Steam they just sell.

-----------

P.S. I really hope we won't have to wait another several months for MM's decision..

What loner said (emphasis mine)

[Corporal Dunn]

@Foxconn: Do you every get tired of this advertising crappy game clients bulls**t?

Nah, i turned adverts off.

[Meteorisch]

Maybe sell the game to steam. Steam always seems to update games, even the very old ones like Day of Defeat.

If thats not working then option 1 and 2 are both fine. Get a dev team with 1 leader. IMO Shoozza looks like that person and 2 great working guys under him. Also if Shoozza became that leader, he should pick those people working with him for the best communication.
I chose Shoozza because he's fully motivated and experienced to do this job and seems the right guy!.

Soldat might make it actually somewhere now this announcement has been made.
Make up your mind Michal.

Steam? Are you out of your mind?
Do you have any idea how much damage that would do to the Soldat community and the game itself?

I was just giving a suggestion.
And it would work if both option 1 and 3 are not going to be chosen.
If MM wants to make some money out of it and makes a deal with steam, he might get more then just 1 dollar per reg key. Actually he would make the reg money AND the game itself.

Not giving MM ideas, but if this is what he decides in the end, we can't do shit about it.
Ofcourse no one probably wants to see this happening, but thats not up to us ;[. EXCEPT if we actually find some motivated & interested developers.

[Michal Marcinkowski]

OK I'm glad we had this talk .

I'm currently biased with what FliesLikeABrick wrote:

I would choose something like this - not open sourcing it but not being super-selective on who can work on it.  There are a number of people in the community who are very capable developers.  I would say that community members who are known for being strong developers and trustworthy be given subversion access as long as they work together to accomplish the same goals.  That way then can then commit together.

We can try that and later on depending on the results decide to open-source it or not. I'll have a word with people interested in being a dev and let you know what's next.

[Dusty]

I hope that the competitive community will have the heaviest word on which direction the development should continue, just as it has with the WM.

But suggestions aside for now, I'm glad that something's happening. I'm sure the new developers will do fine.

[DragonSlayer]

Why would the competitive community have the heaviest word here? That makes absolutely no sense. The reason why competitive scene has more say as far as WM is concerned is because most experienced players are there and they have a deep understanding of the game's balance and also because many of the beta testers play in the competitive scene. However, that has absolutely nothing to do with this decision. The decision is MM's alone and if MM wants to hear what the community thinks, everyone should have an equal voice in this one.

Anyway, I also like the sound of FLAB's suggestion.

[Mighty]

I hope that the competitive community will have the heaviest word

Yea, I know, it's about knowing the game better etc., but still, this is about 2 things: fixing bugs (which requires the experienced community) and getting some new players, so both "teams" should be at least equal (and if I had to choose which one's voice should be more important, I'd go for the newcomers actually...)

[Guile]

I hope this won't take much more time because I can't wait much longer for 1.5.1

[Jazza]

The story of Michal Marcintollski

MM creates Soldat, rapid changes everywhere from listening to the community he is involved, releases a patch every few months.

MM banks up and drops the game and only using the community to promote work on a spiritual successor which no one is interested in, looks about as boring as the original prince of Persia.

Refuses to continue work on the game keeping him alive and fed... New people involved implement pointless game mechanics such as self-bink which no one wanted to try and make it "harder", it does the exact opposite and the game slows down so much in 1-3 years that people rely on nades over aiming. Loads of the vets leave and dev(s) keep adding pointless s**t insisting it's needed.

Puts the source code and entire game in the hands of the biggest c**thole and hacker who listens to no one.

MM drops BE without implementing any sort of thought out plan to provide an alternative anti-cheat. In between making his usual half-patch every 2 years Enesce realizes it's going to be too much work without it and jumps ship never fixing anything and only ever adding more problems to the bug cesspool and a giant white box, relying on other devs to hack the game to show them how to fix it. with no BE and a stagnating version the game declines.

After over a year of weapon balance beta testing and on a game that still feels like an alpha version after 8 years, MM basically tells us 1.5.1 isn't coming out. No chance of open source and no chance of selling it, he wants people to work on it for free or basically nothing while he rolls in money so he can work on a game that he's essentially making for our community yet everyone wanted him to fix the current game and problems around it.

PLEASE SOLDAT PLAYERS, PLEASE FIX MY GAME, PLEASE PAY MY BILLS, OH BTW GL WITH THE GAME BAI LOL!!!

Thank f**k i never payed this jewish polak ****** a cent Worst of all, never puts in dragonflies!

tl; dr
>MM's face when he makes link dead

Just a chip in from roo. Sums it up quiet nicely, that being, the opinion of most of the Australian community.