One week with Soldat 1.7 - what's next?

[ginn]

If you know of any good remakes - tell us about them. If it really is good in every aspect - there should be no problems making it default.

You mean, if they're really, really, shit.

Ctf_Death is the worst remake I've ever seen. It made default.
Ctf_Division has an eye sore now, and somehow that too became default.

Ctf_Cruficix some fucking how made it into default.

If you make something shit, have everyone complain about it, you're guaranteed to get it into the game.

[Viral]

http://forums.soldat.pl/index.php?topic=44030.0

In the future if you feel like something is off with the map you can, for example, post it in the map's topic. It's hard to fix issues that you don't know about, ya know.. Or speaking your language - fix your monitor settings or go to the oculist, casue you are the only one with this problem I know, kek.

[Akinaro]

It's really clear what players want and what devs doing. Go to any server... And listen. Go to any other game forum or portal... And check what typical players need and want.

If you need to ask for that and you need to ask users to find good maps... It's clearly proof that you and others just waste time here, and its still nothing more than highschool weekend project and no one actually want to move this to current market.
Compared to any other game development it's chaotic and you can like that or not. It's just matter of looking at old and new posts and for all those years its still the same.
Game still have no idea of it want to be cartoonish like gostek. Realistic like sceneries or old crappy like huge polygon maps.


If you agree to make something for someone you doing 100% because your name is on it. You can spend here all your free time whining that you don't like my opinion and in this time you could make more stuff for game.
Because it's still simple 2d game. You work on small graphic you don't need to prepare models. You don't need to make textures for it. You don't need to prepare animations for every part.
For example kits graphic taking you almost 2 months... I seriously don't know what to say. 20min per day, from first alpha of 1.7 we should have most of it done. And its not matter of work or work for free, most of project like that work this way.

And of course Im gonna get warning for offtop so you decide if you want complain about me and run that entertaining train for me or focus on soldat. Or like Mokkun post funny image because he don't like ginn opinion

[Mokkun]

It's really clear what players want and what devs doing. Go to any server... And listen. Go to any other game forum or portal... And check what typical players need and want.

If you need to ask for that and you need to ask users to find good maps... It's clearly proof that you and others just waste time here, and its still nothing more than highschool weekend project and no one actually want to move this to current market.
Compared to any other game development it's chaotic and you can like that or not. It's just matter of looking at old and new posts and for all those years its still the same.
Game still have no idea of it want to be cartoonish like gostek. Realistic like sceneries or old crappy like huge polygon maps.


If you agree to make something for someone you doing 100% because your name is on it. You can spend here all your free time whining that you don't like my opinion and in this time you could make more stuff for game.
Because it's still simple 2d game. You work on small graphic you don't need to prepare models. You don't need to make textures for it. You don't need to prepare animations for every part.
For example kits graphic taking you almost 2 months... I seriously don't know what to say. 20min per day, from first alpha of 1.7 we should have most of it done. And its not matter of work or work for free, most of project like that work this way.

And of course Im gonna get warning for offtop so you decide if you want complain about me and run that entertaining train for me or focus on soldat. Or like Mokkun post funny image because he don't like ginn opinion

I just think that Soldat is not for anyone, it already had a small fanbase even when there was 600 active players at the same time because the game is "ugly" and its not "easy" to get in / user friendly, because it is all about skill, a player that played for 14 years will have the same advantages as a new player, and it can be hard for new players to get pwned over and over again before getting good and being able to do something.

I agree that there must be something to do about the very low number of players, but trying to make soldat a game for everyone is wrong and if you want to do that, it wont be soldat anymore.

I think that what you want Akinaro is another game.

[Akinaro]

Im not talking about game mechanic. So Im not asking about another game. Most of request and ideas you can find are about look and/or systems that would make game easier to use.
Automatic update download.
Uniform look of graphic.
Up to date look of map(you can make map that is still 90% like original but it just look better, so no one would complain about that you remove some polygon that was used to speed up or jump.
Public list of to-do so everyone would see what they should expect next or give feedback BEFORE you make something major.
Menu system based on boxes(graphic in eg. /menu folder) so everyone could make mod for it that would fit them.
Considering removing totally useless mods like rambomatch and replace it with more future proof climb mod that even without players is still playable(solo mod)
Cleaning a bit folder structure(because why kits graphic are in texture folder not in eg object-gfx)
Fixing Map tools to fit HD graphic.
Give map proper multitexturing instead of annoying and ugly texture stretching.
Considering some changes like paralax effect,
Putting shoozza chat mod
Thinking about proper advertising method that would keep up to date every info, becase if no one know soldat... no one gonna play it
etc etc

Those are really small things that would prepare game to new players.
Of course things like proper anti cheat system or preparing soldat for proper linux/mac port and fixing smaller bugs are priority.

But guess what? for past few years soldat was nothing more than small bugs fixing.... and we still have most of them mixed wit new ones.

You can spend another 10 years fixing them and you gonna still wonder why no one play soldat anymore, because its not that game is old, or have bugs that only old players see or difference between skills of new and old players. Trend to play indie 2D games is still there and Soldat never used that to shy like fricking star compared to other games.
its game that no matter when you can just enter and play and leave. No waiting quick and fun.

[CCalp]

It's such a shame what threads like this one are used for...

Why keep people seeing all the others' faults instead of their own ones?
Why keep people demanding others to work for them instead of doing the work themselves?
Why keep people complaining about things they dislike instead of using that time to fix them?

Why are people too narrow-minded to realize how selfish they are?
Why are people too proud to forgive and to say sorry?
Why are people too smug to put aside their own needs and instead cooperate?

Why can't people appreciate others' effort and be happy about it?
Why can't people accept criticism and feel enriched and beloved instead of denigrated?
Why can't people work together instead of putting obstacles in each other's way?



I'm sure this will fall on deaf ears just as any reasonable attitude in here...

PS: This video might be more suitable to give you some idea what I speak about :3

[Akinaro]

Why people dont see that we dont talk about fault but ideas that could be put in game, but some people rather stick to wining about other person, instead of topic they making.
Why people dont realize that only on this forum where LOOOOOOTS of people who do stuff, interfaces, maps, graphic, mockups. and No one cared about it, and now they gone.
Why people dont  look at those problems IN A BIT WIDER perspective than their own nose.
Why people dont take in the account reality of today gaming and what average player need instead of still thinking like its game for few friends from irc that play once per week on gather.

You think that Im the only one who think like that? Check old topic, I could probably find Loner or even Shoozza old post about similar ideas, and talking that something need to be done.

And you think that people didnt do stuff here? Most of users here did something, menu mockups, maps, interfaces?
So what? People like something, people use something, but all you can do is just wait for devs to even think about it, because they have source code/files of soldat. For all those 20000 years of soldat its always the same: "there are priorities" "Not now" "We cant now".
Soldat is probably only project that I saw in my life that have so much troubles with such simple features like making 1-2 longer animation or making auto-update system.



We can push that useless topic over and over for another years, Loner gonna write about my person because he dont like my opinion, Im gonna write that players spend 99% of time on map and this should be done long time a go, You can write about soldat and be sad about chaos there is, and Soldat for another years gonna be in the same situation but with bigger res textures.

But at least other users have fun reading it, I even came here just for entertaining.

[daaw]

Dudes! DUDES!
Why you cant just learn some delphi , brust into codding madness and fix eats. Jesus Christ! Hahaha

http://www.learndelphi.net/

[BKT]

Why ...

I managed to get some people who displayed this sort of behavior to actually 'answer' such question:

"Stop being serious."


This might not seem like an answer to such question at first. But if you thought about it at what this is implied, it answerd a lot of questions and gave insight into how these people think (or lack thereof...) of their fellow kind.

[Home]

1.7 is really a great and important update, it is cool to be able to play game modes like INF or even Rambo Match (lol) again. BUT yea there are still possibilities for major graphic updates. First priority should be the maps. They really look completely ugly and old. They are extremely blank. Only 1 texture, not a single dynamic engine in this game like dynamic light, shadows, moving flora, moving smoke, weather effects in the background or missiles in the background for TW maps, running waterfalls. Maybe most important in this regard: Background layers. So when you move along the map, the layer in the background moves more slowly than the one in the front. I hope you understand what I mean.

I am sure it is not easy to implement this and I don't expect to see this. But what I want to say is: Soldat is lacking many graphic features so we should use the ones we got as good as possible. Maps should have way more polys and more sceneries, replace the old bmps oder jpgs with nice pngs. Sceneries with hard edges and without any transparencies should not be a thing anymore.

There really are talented people here who can do great looking remakes and the devs should speak with those people to make clear they want this in the game and get the mappers motivated, tell them about the specific problems of the remakes that would need to be adressed. And: Please start doing remakes again. I loved to see what you could manage to make maps look like back then (even if it was ultra low resolution).

This games performance is so great that it runs on low-end laptops from the stone age. Please use the ressources you got.

[duz]

Decisions about maps were changed yesterday? Because RR was added in 1.7 What a shame.
CCalp, is hard to talk about WHAT IS NEXT if we are in this situation.

Bunch of people ready to colaborate but... Worth it? "What is next" is a question for devs, because we (the community) are always ready.
But one day you wont find a user to create things anymore and we are almost there.

Assuming that things have changed . Who is taking decisions about maps? A page with every team name would be cool.

[daaw]

I can think of Bistoufly/MrBungle as map guy and still Shoozza does final acceptance of map
..it seems so.

What about RatCave, current one looks like shit, (like acctualy pile of shit in 1.7.0, look at it, hah)
Is there any reason why we cant take this
http://tms.jrgp.org/2010/?map=1366
 and put as default , beside that it isnt HD ? Or we need VTT`s premission or smth?

Seems people have to directly reach out to other people whit some authority if want something to be update/replaced.

[Akinaro]

So we basically have one person who post images like those as inspiration in trello map section, and just probably like "big polygon" style maps.
And other person, MrBungle, that, quoting Shoozza: Work on map texturing LIKE THAT (fragment was postet by Shoozza in 1.7 Alpha2 topic.)

Mix technically is nice, because it should blend to soldat style and should keep his spirit keeping polygon style maps with realistic look.
But practically its chaos like always, and no one here know who doing what. As I said before if you accept to help in such project... you dong 100% what you can in your free time because your name is on it. If you taking this seriously you put that in your portfolio/cv and in next project, maybe bigger you have something to show, because next time you gonna make it for money, crappy money I can say, but still money.


But most important, if you tell me that even after almost 50days(starting from alpha2) you still dont have one HD map, that could seriously give more hype to 1.7 and boost people to make remakes again(they could help if they would get example and guidelines).... I again have no idea what to say about that...


Maybe Fryer could say that we should stop offtop rambling, because now even for me its just boring as hell, saying this over and over.
1.7 is nice jump with seriously nice work, but its nothing more than putting makeup on dying homeless man, that would rather need new start than this.

[L[0ne]R]

I managed to get some people who displayed this sort of behavior to actually 'answer' such question:

"Stop being serious."

You mean "stop taking him seriously"? Because it seems to be the only remaining option, something we all should've done long ago.

I can think of Bistoufly/MrBungle as map guy and still Shoozza does final acceptance of map
..it seems so.

What about RatCave, current one looks like shit, (like acctualy pile of shit in 1.7.0, look at it, hah)
Is there any reason why we cant take this
http://tms.jrgp.org/2010/?map=1366
 and put as default , beside that it isnt HD ? Or we need VTT`s premission or smth?

Seems people have to directly reach out to other people whit some authority if want something to be update/replaced.

daaw, I talked with Bungle about this. Don't know about permission yet, but the map itself needs bg sceneries replaced with bg polys, and other custom sceneries replaced with default HD ones (luckily there's only a few of them). The goal is to keep number of custom sceneries that need to be included with each new map to a minimum. Also the texture needs to be made HD and with a bit less contrast, to keep style more consistent with other maps. Most of this are minor tweaks which I can do once Bunker remake is finished. Then hopefully both maps can make it into 1.7.1.

EDIT: seems like no one can get in touch with VirtualTT, and his explicit permission is needed before the remake can be included. If anyone knows how to contact him - please let me, Bistoufly or any of the devs know. Or contact him yourself and link him to my comment. Thanks.

[Home]

Why can't there be custom sceneries? Usually it is: The more the better.

[Bistoufly]

I'm fine with custom sceneries.

- Make them optimized for 4K UHD (x2160)
- Use .png format
- Avoid aliasing
- Keep their size and number reasonable

[Name]

I'm fine with VTT's custom sceneries.. and my own of course. Flawless works.

[BKT]

You mean "stop taking him seriously"? Because it seems to be the only remaining option, something we all should've done long ago.

Although I believe that the people who say this didn't have that intention in mind, but indeed that's what the answer imply. 

[CottonTheMoth]

Time to clear some HDD space and get Nvidia Shadowplay up and running. I had a hell of a time with a friend this evening. We started on some inf maps against bots and had a hell of a time scoring, and suddenly other players started joining and we had 4 humans, then enough for a 3v3 so I kicked all of the bots and I unexpectedly had a serious game on my hands! Whenever I'm online and playing with at least a friend, I'm hopeful that we can get the ball rolling like that again.

I've done my best to spread the word, but 7 of my online friends just downright refuse to play because they say they're not going to play a web browser flash game...so I said screw em and turned my entire kitchen table into a big LAN party for me and three friends. We had a hell of a time too! Even had my best friend from Colorado logging on and playing with us. Next time I'll set up my GoPro and do a timelapse or something and combine it with my game footage. Shame I didn't follow through with my plans to do that, I'll get it set up before the next LAN night.


Two friends that came live in an apartment together and don't pay for internet (how) and only one has a windows desktop. My roommate also uses a Macbook so I had him running it off of my spare laptop. We had fun goofing off on a Hide and Seek/ctf map I'm working on.

So I have a thought on the community and these forums (not an idea thread, I know). Every time I visit I feel like everyone is unfortunately very splintered apart because of the vast array of subforums. Obviously it's needed to an extent, but I personally think that a consolidation wouldn't be out of order. There may be 10 users active and online but without checking all 30'ish subs it's hard to tell where the activity is. Sure I guess there's the "last post by" dates on the right, but I think some personality would be much appreciated.

Best example I can think of is facepunch forums:

I only mention this because at a glance the forum is a bit of a cluster, and lots of people tend to develop favorite subforums but the interface doesn't work for them in any way.
If I can be of service in creating some icons, let me know. I may go ahead and play around with some! Definitely more my speed than creating custom scripts lol.

[jrgp]

I just click "Active Topics" at the top. Tells you recent activity across all boards. Also I didn't know people had LAN parties for Soldat, as I've never been able to muster enough interest in the game IRL