Ways to boost the player base and bring in new players

[BatCat]

I just recently got back into Soldat after playing it many years ago and the online community is a bit... Barren at best. This might be a long shot, but what ways could we implement that would help bring in new players? I saw a few people saying it should be on Steam, but I think it should be a F2P as it is now, with the option of registering for more options. Perhaps some people could also post on Reddit or other online forums to help bring more attention to it?

[homerofgods]

The discussion has been going on already and the plan seam to be to wait for the big 1.8 update and see if soldat is ready for more promotion after that.

[CCalp]

Hi BatCat,
thank you for your input and your enthusiasm. We have had many people talking about that issue, but only a very few actually doing something. However, there are many things everyone could do on his own - according to his or her skills. For example: posting on forums and social networks of your choice, producing and releasing media material (e.g. movies or graphical manipulations), helping with the creation of PR material for the official facebook page etc. As inspiration, I suggest you to read this post (especially below "Now it's your turn!").
As you can see, right now it's more like guerilla marketing - as homerofgods mentioned, internally the Soldat team has decided to wait for 1.8 until we get into serious promotion again.

[Name]

I demand a definition of "guerilla" as it is often mistaken for people fighting behind enemy lines primarily against the major power in an area. There can however be slight disagreements with the one (or the ones) in charge and it can lead to militias being formed who are roughly on the same side as the authorities. Such occurances are more common and tend to gain strength when the leaders of a certein movement are making compromises with the enemy (or the enemies) but they can still occur at any given time or place and under any possible circumstance. Are such occurances included in your definition of guerillas?

[CCalp]

I demand a definition of "guerilla" [...]

You seem to be quite well informed about the meaning of the word "guerilla". The term "guerilla marketing", however, is used in PR and refers to an advertisement strategy, read more on wikipedia.

Edit: To answer your latter question, I don't expect such occurrences in this case.

[Name]

Allright then, to exemplify I quite like Coca Cola's guerilla marketing.

[CCalp]

Allright then, to exemplify I quite like Coca Cola's guerilla marketing.

Hey man, I already got what you're up to after I had read your last post. As much as I would love to chat about politics, corporatocracy and other deficiencies of human's work on earth, this is totally not the right place for that.
Please note that any further off topic posts will be deleted. 

[ginn]

We can't get new players to the game.
There's no reason for them to pick this game over all the AAA and good indie games.

The learning curve for soldat is pretty steep too, so even if you do find people to try it out, they'll quit due to the learning curve.
The new generation of "players/gamers" aren't like they were 10 years ago. They don't like to face challanges when they play their games, or really need to improve their skills, even the hardcore players are playing casual games.

[duz]

We can't get new players to the game.
There's no reason for them to pick this game over all the AAA and good indie games.

The learning curve for soldat is pretty steep too, so even if you do find people to try it out, they'll quit due to the learning curve.
The new generation of "players/gamers" aren't like they were 10 years ago. They don't like to face challanges when they play their games, or really need to improve their skills, even the hardcore players are playing casual games.

I guess you're a bit wrong.
You can't start an strategy for the "new" Soldat with these new games in your mind. Like you said, this not gonna work by the learning curve etc.

In my opinion, all the work starts with what you haven't done all these years.
Make a strategy, put the community in the middle of the proccess, let us know what is going on and leave somethings behind, this is NEEDED.

1. First of all, the game needs new menus. New players gonna face this shit first. Plus: Alignments for all the texts and interface things.
2. Remove Teammatch (my fav gamemode w/e), Rambomatch, Pointmatch and Infiltration. Yes, this is a hard thing to do, but we are in 2016, if you don't wanna touch the classic things, you won't save the game. The reason for deleting these modes is simple: You can't work with everything, everytime. Don't forget that when we talk about gamemodes, we talk about maps, balancing, ways to keep the mode alive etc.
3. Focus on CTF and the competitive mode. A matchmaking system? I don't know. Lobbies like asian FPSs? Maybe. But stop using IRC. Nobody uses IRC nowadays, IRC automatically kills the growth of the competitive scene. You have to be so curious, addicted etc to be part of this IRC community, like ginn said the new players are lazy as fuck. You can at least copy QuakeLive scheme. Here's the idea: When you join a server with 5 other players, you have to press F3 to be ready then the server randomize the teams (you can add a vote option to not randomize the teams) and you choose between BO1, BO3 or BO5. Then after a countdown the map starts. Doing this you eliminate the need of irc for gathers and you gonna see some servers with players waiting to start a new match.
4. Improve the website. I'm sure that there's some guys here with good and simple ideas. You could also create a section for tutorials teaching the movements, with clean and high quality videos.
5. You can also follow some Quake Champions ideas. They are trying to adapt that kind of game for the new audience. Chars, more blood, immersive sounds.
6. Premium accounts. You need this. Remove this registration with unlimited time, start new plans. 3 months, 6 months, a year.
7. Stop unnoticeable adjustments, like the hit reg, movement etc. A lot of time/effort for a little impact. These things are far from what the game really needs.

[Name]

My ideas about guerillas would mostly apply to other things but when it comes to Soldat my suggestion is simply to let the game work. That is my suggestion.

[BKT]

the online community is a bit... Barren at best.

I find it interesting you use the more abstracts term 'community' and not 'players'.

Too many people are chating about the game and too few are actually playing it. It's sad, really... 

[Seth Gecko]

If you do a Google search for "list of hacked ip cams", you actually get this thread as the first hit.

We now just have to think of a way to lure these people into Soldat... hm... brb!

[machina]

If you do a Google search for "list of hacked ip cams", you actually get this thread as the first hit.

We now just have to think of a way to lure these people into Soldat... hm... brb!

Next topic should be named "boobs hot chick polishgirl ..."

Or we could make use of this as well:
https://www.google.com/trends/hottrends
http://www.siegemedia.com/seo/most-popular-keywords

[cute_battlebunny]

It would be cool if there were a match lobby yes so you can wait until 3v3 players are available and then start the game. In all honesty I used to like the servers
that allowed up to 16 players on a map but now with my aged eyes and brain there's just too much stuff going on so I would really like to be able to play more 3v3 matches.

Soldat was a niche-game for as long as I can remember but currently there are about 70 servers with 75 players most of the time and it used to be a couple hundred of players online.

I agree with that IRC is out-dated for pretty much anybody who didn't grow up with it.

The learning curve is pretty steep yes. Having achieved ESL niveau once soldat was still available there (maybe getting Soldat back to something like ESL would help, I don't know?) we used to empty public servers because the skill difference was so huge that basically everybody left at least on the deathmatch servers. The servers with citrus stats were more awesome and actually the only servers where decently skilled players were online. But I mean that applies to pretty much every game.
I have never really played 3D shooters and if I do I suck so hard it's not fun to play.

Have you considered crowdfunding (gives you both money and publicity).

[Name]

Allright then, to exemplify I quite like Coca Cola's guerilla marketing.

Hey man, I already got what you're up to after I had read your last post. As much as I would love to chat about politics, corporatocracy and other deficiencies of human's work on earth, this is totally not the right place for that.
Please note that any further off topic posts will be deleted.

You are insinuating towards the wrong alternative and I am not in need to be discrete about this. Just because they bulldozed an entire park where I put my sticker up doesn't mean I never posted it. In case you need further advice: They do appear elsewhere..

[BKT]

we used to empty public servers because the skill difference was so huge that basically everybody left at least on the deathmatch servers.

Did any of you ever sincerely try to play in a way* that it will be less likely for them to leave?



* Do not ask me what this mean; you guy should know... Unless you're all a dick. 

[utkesmer]

Right now the best way to increase newbie number is redesigning the client menu, its current appearance makes people think that this game was last updated 15 years ago and has no future, and is not worth the time spent to learn and master. New players care about that a lot these days.

Developers should stop wasting time on idealizing weapon balance over and over again, they should focus on this instead. There is already a good template published.

[machina]

Right now the best way to increase newbie number is redesigning the client menu, its current appearance makes people think that this game was last updated 15 years ago and has no future, and is not worth the time spent to learn and master. New players care about that a lot these days.

Well, we got 4K game with 480p UI

[utkesmer]

Well, we got 4K game with 480p UI

The resolution doesn't mean anything. Menu looks awful and old. And it's not just looks, most of it is useless, people only use Join Game and Player tabs, others are useless.

Something like this must be done: https://forums.soldat.pl/index.php?topic=44128.0

[Petterkowski]

thank you for bringing this up again because Sipar's gui is gold and kind of makes you wanna play it.

[L[0ne]R]

Is Sipar even active anywhere? I think we need to start doing some serious work on the GUI, and so far his concepts are the most convincing both in terms of design and navigation. It would be very helpful if we could get him back on board.

[Bistoufly]

Yep.
Sipar's concept looks like it was made by a professional.
There has been many cool designs posted here. But so far none that give that vibe of professionalism.

[Moroes]

Well I guess its up to devs to decide. It's pointless to ask him to do a gui b4 asking the devs about the details and implementation.
He's a talented dude and we could even crowdfund such a great thing as new gui. Well, if it ever happens...
He still comes to the forums but he is probably not as active as in the 1.7 hyped era. You could always easily contact him tho, searching his nick in forums gives you everything you need and even more .

[Sipar]

thanks for contacting me Petterkowski
im not a professional product designer
my point of view

"Nice visual" is just small part of good/enjoyable user experience.
The game designer should, besides menu ui redesign, clean the whole game from balast and unclear stuff, set main art/feel/amosphere idea, and quickly test, draw, illustrate, and repeat and test and repeat.
The game designer should think raw, and little crazy - like MM or Sigvatr (author of muslim massacre) was.

Soldat is still recognizable brand that can create certain emotions,
i think we need to derive from Soldat's origin wild energies and magnify/amplify some of these "fuck this is the Soldat i remember" features and translate them a little to today trends.
rough, metal, not-nice, pixel-non-smooth, predator, rambo (vietnam war?), quotes, piss, chainsaw, berserker, bullet hell, humilation

i believe; hype: on

[daaw]

See what Sipar is trying to say is - yes dev team can use my gui concept in soldat as they see fit.

Ways to boost the player base and bring in new players

Ways to boost the development progress and bring in new features?

[Sipar]

Sorry, my post could be unclear. I may sound like an buzz-word fool, its ok.

The way "bring new features" is false. Soldat is already bloated with unclear stuff (since Enesce's development), please make radical cuts instead, and be more straightforward. Stop thinking in programming mode, think in emotions you want to create in new players.
Go back, think about primary Soldat features, strenghten them, make them even more Soldat. I mean, find what makes Soldat the Soldat and express it with gfx and sfx and writing. Make it clear. Dont compare with other games or ride the trends too much. Make it clear for new players, let them wanna experience it , and dont bother them with 8 gamemodes or smooth graphics (my gui concepts are wrong then), i'd even cut some of the weapons and rethink controls if you want console players to play it.

Ill try to be more concrete, just quick brainstorm, may sound trivial:
Quotes, use them on loading screen / main screen. Pay narator to create some rambo like voiceover on game startup, cheesy (8-bitized) rambo voice: "Welcome to hell soldier" with vietnam war like music on bg.
Pixel gfx. Yes it is quite overused, but in Soldat's case it fits and i dont see using it as a wrong turn.
Humilation. Visualise the last player in the end of DM match explode, or make the top player piss on him in quick cutscreen.
Talk. Talk to player like "Welcome Soldier, there are this and this servers available.". "FM Minimi. Good for massacring predators.".
Maps. Cut unclear and abstract maps (some of current makes me really depressed and are good metaphor for current Soldat state), or make them more themed.
...



Ps. Dont be afraid to steal/sample from old games (hello KAG and Trenchrun), Soldat already steals the atmosphere from movies, dont reinvent the wheel.

//[14:57] <Sipar> Later this september, I'll work on some artworks that will explain better, or try find artist who may help us with making Soldat more pleasurable for today's players.

[darDar]

Yep, cut down soldat to it's initial roots so that it can excel where it's good. Erase some of the gamemodes, clean up the map list and that'll already be a big improvement to make it a better game.

[jrgp]

I think it'd be great to actually get feedback from newer players to find out what they don't like.

[L[0ne]R]

I think it'd be great to actually get feedback from newer players to find out what they don't like.

This is where I feel Steam Early Access could be very useful.

[machina]

Erase some of the gamemodes

You didn't mean to erase them entirely I hope. Rather decrese their visibility. Besides, Soldat different game modes were played on publics quite often back in Soldat's best years. Only the lack of players made them "die" what is going to change for sure if we get new people to play.