Soldat's goals for the future

[Clawbug]

Single site or one-time exposure is not enough at all. What is needed is constant exposure and attention, otherwise the buzz will die off soon afterwards. To counter this, and to allow long-term exposure, the best way I can think of to manage this is to rely on the aforementioned local/country-specific communities. It is in their interests to keep the buzz about Soldat within their target group(e.g. in their country) in order to generate growth for themselves which in turn generates growth for Soldat too. Of course, actually creating such a local/country-specific community around Soldat is a big task, and there are only a handful of people with required skills, dedication and ability to invest resources - so this is not a viable strategy to rely on when thinking of Soldat's global exposure.

[Adam]

make another planned move

[eeneku]

I'd say the most obvious goal would be to get Soldat into Steam with affordable price (5 € at max) and with tryable demo. I know it's not possible at this time in the current form of Soldat, but it would be a fine goal to target at.

[Clawbug]

As the Greenlight thread suggests, MM has tried to get Soldat into Steam a few times with no success, this could change with the Greenlight community feature(see the thread). Frankly, I tihnk that to actually take the benefits of the huge potential of Steam-like distribution, Soldat would need to seem way more attractive to new players.

[Leo]

Soldat needs updates....updates and....updates. Hotfixes few hours after a release not 2 weeks later. New releases much more often and not every 2 years. Only a year back I was running 3 full 16 slots servers and they could be all full at same time. Now only one server is actually active during evening hours. Game is half/totally dead I am afraid.

[Clawbug]

Soldat needs updates....updates and....updates. Hotfixes few hours after a release not 2 weeks later. New releases much more often and not every 2 years. Only a year back I was running 3 full 16 slots servers and they could be all full at same time. Now only one server is actually active during evening hours. Game is half/totally dead I am afraid.

How do you believe active updates would bring in new players though? Soldat's player base has been shrinking ever since 2007.

[Leo]

It shows an interest from developer's side that everyone likes.

[Clawbug]

But that only helps to keep the current players playing. It won't attract new faces to the game. You see, there's heavy degrowth in Soldat, people quit the game and never come back. They don't even check the game. There are many reasons for it and many of them are inevitable and not related to the game itself(e.g. for me lack of activity/interest has been due to being busy with other stuff, work, hobbies, frieds, the list goes on). As such, constant stream of new players is essential for the survival of the game. In other words, just focusing on the game itself won't turn the degrowth to growth.

In short, it is the task of us, the community to ensure outreach and exposure for the game, while the developers work on the game itself and don't care about the rest. Without any publicity or exposure new players won't find their way into the game fast enough to fill the void generated by old players quitting, this results in less players, degrowth, and ineviable "death" of the game. Turning degrowth to growth is the key to revive the game.

[Prodigyx]

+ Anti-cheat
+ Updates
+ Advertisements in game websites, blogs, forums, etc
+ Attract new players in social networks

[Adam]

In short, it is the task of us, the community to ensure outreach and exposure for the game, while the developers work on the game itself and don't care about the rest. Without any publicity or exposure new players won't find their way into the game fast enough to fill the void generated by old players quitting, this results in less players, degrowth, and ineviable "death" of the game. Turning degrowth to growth is the key to revive the game.

amen

[Tinysmurf]

Either migrate compettive soldat players to publics, or make it more known about competitive soldat for the people in pubs. Advertise in Steam or other gaming locations. Fix lag, eats, hit registration that win games.

[Adam]

Either migrate competutive soldat players to publics

i always wanted to see the outcome of this

[Clawbug]

Either migrate compettive soldat players to publics, or make it more known about competitive soldat for the people in pubs. Advertise in Steam or other gaming locations. Fix lag, eats, hit registration that win games.

The problem is not the state of the competitive scene, it's doing fairly well because people there are much more dedicated for the game and stick to it no matter what. The problem is the huge decrease in casual public players and in general lack of new players coming to Soldat.

Lack of new players is a problem in competitive scene too, as amount of clans signing up for SCTFL have been on a steady decline season after season since 2007. So indeed, the amount of players in publics(or rather, the absolute amount of Soldat player) has an impact on the competitive scene aswell. If there's a way to go from degrowth to growth, even the competitive scene benefits, as such I'd like to see some more serious players putting some effort in voicing their views and opinions regarding th subject, and perhaps even doing something to promote Soldat.

[Ymies]

after playing the game for almost 10 years i can say that the main hook in soldat lies in its simplicity. games with better graphics are everywhere, people will play them if they feel so. the simplicity that soldat features isn't of course in no way a bad thing. this simplicity offers one of the greatest asset competitiveness-wise; it's quite easy and convenient to reach the top with all the gathers etc around.

then again, the game keeps losing its popularity as everyone knows. i don't think that it's the lack of content, i don't think that it's the fact that people are often so hostile toward each other. to me there has basically never been another problem except for the netcode, it's freaking frustrating and i can see it as a major demotivator. now, i have been told this multiple times that it's everything but an easy task to fix. it's just the only REAL problem i can think of. that, and some advertising would probably fix everything. afterall, soldat can't quite help being an indie game

[ExHunter]

I did a test with around 8 friends. They all didn't know Soldat:

I told them to try this game out, while a Lan-Party. They were like "wtf is this shit.". Their attitude changed immediately after they played 2-3 rounds of the game.

The problems, which they told me:
- At the first moment, the game looks like crap.
- It is hard to get into the game and get used to it's playstyle.
- Without my explanations (how to play, what to do, etc.) they would've been lost.

It already started with opening the game and find a server.

But afterwards:
- They enjoyed the simple graphics, they noticed that they make the game easier and gives it a special old school like touch.
- You gotta get into the game, it will make you addicted. Since you can improve you on any kind in the game. Whether it is running/shooting or whatever.


They also complained about the eats, bugs, etc. - but that wasn't the first step, since they cannot know about such things when they install the game. They also noticed it only after an amount of time. It may be also kind of a reason, but not only. It is just something in a competitive way annoying, which will lead MAINLY old/experienced players to leave the game. New players do not notice it that hard.

Which is needed to be done (may already said):
- More advertisements, spreading the game all over the internet.
- Tutorials how to play the game. Like learning to move, shoot, running properly. Beginners need a well structured tutorial. It may help alot. Like dividing them into difficulties, from easy to hard with always hints and something which leads you through the game.
- Beginner server's, which get recommended by the lobby - or is a filter option, which is pre-set on install.

ExHunter

[CheeSeMan.]

Before trying a community push for advertising or trying to get the game into Steam etc.. We need to at least wait for the next update where the Shoozza has said the quick updating/patching will be implemented? If for example the "campaign" is a success an influx of players could bring more bugs and if we want to be able to keep them then the Dev team will need to be able to release quick fixes.

The next update from the devlog really does look promising(fingers crossed) and I think it could be what we need to advance to the next goals stated here

[Adam]

just advertise the game on the new release

[homerofgods]

I feel much better reccomending games to my friends when ther's a new game or a game that will grow in popularity. Introducing them to a 'dying' game that I know is so full of bugs and laggs doesn't seam right.
I think soldat needs more then we can come up with. Something major has to happen, like MM returns or makes soldat 2. Only then could we get enough development to keep people interrested.

Imagine a live stand for soldat 2 where people from the forums has traveled far to take part in, waving with signs and huge banners 

[Clawbug]

What needs to be done is to get rid of the "Soldat is dying/dead" thought and simply make it not true by turning shrinkage to growth, the ways for this and the plans of execution are open though, and I'd personally love to see new ideas/suggestions or critical thinking towards what I've been suggesting(outreach through local/country-specific channels or creating local/country-specific Soldat communities for example, any publicity is good publicity, make people buzz about Soldat etc.).

I emphasize that whatever is to be done to remedy the situation and generate growth has to spawn off from organized effort of the community, not the developers. We, as a community are responsible for generating growth, possibly via outreaches and publicity for the game, while developers handle the technicalities and actually deliver improvements to the game.

[homerofgods]

So the question is, what can we do?
I only know how to post stuff on facebook, youtube, and I am frankly too old to know anyone who would play the game. Most of my friends work, have girlfriends and do other stuff. '
I don't know much about marketing, my best bet would be to join athenelive.com and somehow get his attention to soldat :p