Ways to boost the player base and bring in new players

[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.