Well... he officially ditched us.

[nosejj]

Whether he 'ditched' or not doesn't matter.
What does matter is when will Soldat be in Steam?


MM Responding my email request for the same question:
Hi Rotem,
Honestly I think nobody would want a 10 year old game on Steam - even though its the best game in the world! That's how it works sadly.
That said we can put it on Greenlight, just for the sake of some attention. I'll talk with Shoozza when would be the best time to do it.


I don't think this will hurt anyone... vice versa.

[14th_account]

Bringing Soldat to Steam isn't impossible, it just requires us to step up the game's quality. And by that I mean mainly updating our outdated graphical framework - adding proper high resolution support and improving performance and reliability, especially on newer versions of Windows.

Unfortunately most of us devs aren't really aces when it comes to graphics. We'd love to have the dev team grow further so we can work faster on it.

[CheeSeMan.]

Can't really hate MM for concentrating on other things, he made a great game and then moved on... its what happens with most games guys. No point raging or whining :E we have a motivated DEV team and even if they may not have all the time in the world to work on Soldat we should focus on supporting them and helping them improve the game. If the DEVs are looking for help with graphics then I think Shoozza should post some announcement for it?

Look at this postively, people reading the KAG description may decide to try Soldat before buying KAG and then get hooked on the best game ever !

[jrgp]

Bringing Soldat to Steam isn't impossible, it just requires us to step up the game's quality. And by that I mean mainly updating our outdated graphical framework - adding proper high resolution support and improving performance and reliability, especially on newer versions of Windows.

Unfortunately most of us devs aren't really aces when it comes to graphics. We'd love to have the dev team grow further so we can work faster on it.

Are the changes really needed though? I see all the old ID Software Doom and Keen games on Steam using dosbox.

[L[0ne]R]

Bringing Soldat to Steam isn't impossible, it just requires us to step up the game's quality. And by that I mean mainly updating our outdated graphical framework - adding proper high resolution support and improving performance and reliability, especially on newer versions of Windows.

Unfortunately most of us devs aren't really aces when it comes to graphics. We'd love to have the dev team grow further so we can work faster on it.

Are the changes really needed though? I see all the old ID Software Doom and Keen games on Steam using dosbox.

Soldat is in an odd spot where it's not famous enough, not old enough, and doesn't really have an interesting, unique and consistent art style. Keen and Doom get away with it because they're pure retro classics that set standards for many games that followed. Soldat is just a "kinda old" 2D indie shooter that played awesome, but never really looked or sounded like anything special and just wasn't as famous as Doom or Keen. Soldat is simply not in a position where it can get away with being ugly by pretending to be retro, it'll just get drowned by thousands of other free indie games that are far more attractive.

[jrgp]

Soldat is simply not in a position where it can get away with being ugly by pretending to be retro, it'll just get drowned by thousands of other free indie games that are far more attractive.

Why not just ditch all the default-ish style maps for the Steam release, and just package it with all of the really really attractive maps by people like VirtualTT and Zakath and numerous others, where the maps use transparent PNGs and multi-textures and look essentially like works of art. Same goes with better/smoother graphics for the weapon mod and interfaces.

Everyone always rags on how bad Soldat looks but it's just because we've been clinging to ancient maps and sprites/interfaces that don't look like they were designed with eyecandy in mind.

Give all of the maps and modable graphics a revamp and it will look modern, and people won't even realize it's the same game.

Don't get me wrong; inf_Moonshine/inf_Rise/ctf_Kampf (before devteam remake)/ctf_Dropdown (original) etc were some of my best friends growing up and my eyes would tear seeing them not be a part of maintstream soldat, but if it's in the benefit of fame and being on steam it's worth it.

[TheOne]

Honestly I think nobody would want a 10 year old game on Steam - even though its the best game in the world! That's how it works sadly.

Just poining out they recently put Age of Empires II on Steam, which is 13 years old now. I wouldn't compare the two games though..

[CheeSeMan.]

Soldat is simply not in a position where it can get away with being ugly by pretending to be retro, it'll just get drowned by thousands of other free indie games that are far more attractive.

Why not just ditch all the default-ish style maps for the Steam release, and just package it with all of the really really attractive maps by people like VirtualTT and Zakath and numerous others, where the maps use transparent PNGs and multi-textures and look essentially like works of art. Same goes with better/smoother graphics for the weapon mod and interfaces.

Everyone always rags on how bad Soldat looks but it's just because we've been clinging to ancient maps and sprites/interfaces that don't look like they were designed with eyecandy in mind.

Give all of the maps and modable graphics a revamp and it will look modern, and people won't even realize it's the same game.

Don't get me wrong; inf_Moonshine/inf_Rise/ctf_Kampf (before devteam remake)/ctf_Dropdown (original) etc were some of my best friends growing up and my eyes would tear seeing them not be a part of maintstream soldat, but if it's in the benefit of fame and being on steam it's worth it.

Yes, I think with a team of experienced modders/mappers you could revamp the gfx pretty well without any major code changes needed. Unfortunately the days of full soldat mods being posted every day or two seem to be long gone, but maybe if the DEVs posted some competition to mod soldat? And for the diehard default fans they can just mod it back...

[NamelessWolf]

Honestly I think nobody would want a 10 year old game on Steam - even though its the best game in the world! That's how it works sadly.

Just poining out they recently put Age of Empires II on Steam, which is 13 years old now. I wouldn't compare the two games though..

Soldat was better..

[Monsteri]

If we were to redo the graphics and whatnot, it shouldn't be just called Soldat.
Soldat: Reborn or something smiliar would be cool, and sound more attractive to old players who quit some time ago.

- ALL official maps should be redone. Implement TW as an official gamemode, without the need of text commands. Same goes for LS.
- Scrap/merge some unpopular/smiliar gamemodes.
- Proper support of .gif, .apng and multitexture.
- The sprite sizes should be at least 6x bigger and more detailed - so we can have crisp graphics in large resolutions.
- More consistent art direction, I'd go for a mix of comical/gritty. All sprites need to be redone of course.
- Menus should be redone, and external settings scrapped.
- Weird fps drops and screen tearing even with VSync on should be fixed.

Overall, it'd be a helluva lot of work and probably require more people than what we have on the dev team, but it would be worth it.
Maybe we could even get MM excited and hop on the development before he makes his top-down jeep no bullshit game or whatever it was.

[homerofgods]

If we could get more devs we could do a lot more. I'm not worried about the direction we're evolving, the devs are doing all the right things, but the speed of the process could and should be faster.

[L[0ne]R]

Soldat is simply not in a position where it can get away with being ugly by pretending to be retro, it'll just get drowned by thousands of other free indie games that are far more attractive.

Why not just ditch all the default-ish style maps for the Steam release, and just package it with all of the really really attractive maps by people like VirtualTT and Zakath and numerous others, where the maps use transparent PNGs and multi-textures and look essentially like works of art. Same goes with better/smoother graphics for the weapon mod and interfaces.

Everyone always rags on how bad Soldat looks but it's just because we've been clinging to ancient maps and sprites/interfaces that don't look like they were designed with eyecandy in mind.

Give all of the maps and modable graphics a revamp and it will look modern, and people won't even realize it's the same game.

Don't get me wrong; inf_Moonshine/inf_Rise/ctf_Kampf (before devteam remake)/ctf_Dropdown (original) etc were some of my best friends growing up and my eyes would tear seeing them not be a part of maintstream soldat, but if it's in the benefit of fame and being on steam it's worth it.

Well, improving/remaking maps is also quite a bit of work. It would certainly help to relax the default map requirements (like the no-png & no-transparent-polygons requirement), but there's still a lot more than just maps that need improvement. HD sprite support, HD sceneries, map format, polybug fixes, redesigning all the interface is also no small task.

Also if Soldat can properly re-made with some major improvements like new graphical effects and gameplay features - it might even get attention from youtubers and gaming sites. If Soldat is re-released merely as slightly better-looking old Soldat - it might not get enough attention to get enough new people to try it.

[Fireman]

Can't really hate MM for concentrating on other things, he made a great game and then moved on... its what happens with most games guys. No point raging or whining :E we have a motivated DEV team and even if they may not have all the time in the world to work on Soldat we should focus on supporting them and helping them improve the game. If the DEVs are looking for help with graphics then I think Shoozza should post some announcement for it?

Look at this postively, people reading the KAG description may decide to try Soldat before buying KAG and then get hooked on the best game ever !

I understand and agree with what you are saying, but how are they going to get hooked if there are barely any servers?

For example people only seem to play Snipe and Slice, the US ctf server barely fills up sometime.

They cannot get a good dose of how soldat really is, if there isn't one to take

I remember when there was too many choices to choose from, I couldn't pick which mode I wanted to play...but now there's almost very few to zero choices.

[SpiltCoffee]

Bringing Soldat to Steam isn't impossible, it just requires us to step up the game's quality. And by that I mean mainly updating our outdated graphical framework - adding proper high resolution support and improving performance and reliability, especially on newer versions of Windows.

Unfortunately most of us devs aren't really aces when it comes to graphics. We'd love to have the dev team grow further so we can work faster on it.

If we could get more devs we could do a lot more. I'm not worried about the direction we're evolving, the devs are doing all the right things, but the speed of the process could and should be faster.

Wow, it's been a long time since I opened a tab to this place. Nostalgia everywhere, holy crap.

I was just going to lurk the forums while I wait for things to compile here at work, but these posts have piqued my interest.

I feel I may be the kind of guy you peeps are looking for, perhaps? I did have some aspiration to maybe develop on Soldat one day, but my programming skills didn't mature enough before I decided to move on to, er, other games.

Correct me if I am mistaken, but Soldat is written in Delphi, correct? That just so happens to also be the programming language that I write with every day at my place of work.

I'd be happy to discuss perhaps devoting some time to the game's codebase if you guys want another keyboard warrior.

[DarkCrusade]

Vote SpiltCoffee for developer!

+1

[zakath]

Bringing Soldat to Steam isn't impossible, it just requires us to step up the game's quality. And by that I mean mainly updating our outdated graphical framework - adding proper high resolution support and improving performance and reliability, especially on newer versions of Windows.

Unfortunately most of us devs aren't really aces when it comes to graphics. We'd love to have the dev team grow further so we can work faster on it.

If we could get more devs we could do a lot more. I'm not worried about the direction we're evolving, the devs are doing all the right things, but the speed of the process could and should be faster.

Wow, it's been a long time since I opened a tab to this place. Nostalgia everywhere, holy crap.

I was just going to lurk the forums while I wait for things to compile here at work, but these posts have piqued my interest.

I feel I may be the kind of guy you peeps are looking for, perhaps? I did have some aspiration to maybe develop on Soldat one day, but my programming skills didn't mature enough before I decided to move on to, er, other games.

Correct me if I am mistaken, but Soldat is written in Delphi, correct? That just so happens to also be the programming language that I write with every day at my place of work.

I'd be happy to discuss perhaps devoting some time to the game's codebase if you guys want another keyboard warrior.

You code in delphi all day? I feel for ya being stuck in such an awful language

[SpiltCoffee]

You code in delphi all day? I feel for ya being stuck in such an awful language

I might have stockholm syndrome, but it's not so bad once you get used to the syntax. I love the language's implementation of sets, too. I use them where possible at work.
Also, prior to working at my current company, I'd used Pascal on and off for about 4 or 5 years or something, so Delphi wasn't that hard to grasp or work with, either.

[14th_account]

I didn't expect anyone to pick up on my offer so quickly. Apparently we should have just tried asking for more devs years ago.

[SpiltCoffee]

I didn't expect anyone to pick up on my offer so quickly. Apparently we should have just tried asking for more devs years ago.

True, that probably could have done the trick.

[homerofgods]

SpiltCoffee <3

Soldat.devs @Quakenet

I'm soooo looking forward to see you in action