Devlog update (2017-06-09) Goodbye

[helloer]

Hello,

I have decided to step down as soldat developer and to leave game for good. The main reason is lack of activity from lead developer which resulted in very slow progress in development.

Initially I wanted to describe in this devlog current state of things and to point out what went wrong but to be honest it wouldn't change anything because falcon just doesn't care.

I really worked hard to deliver 1.8 as you can see below, those are git stats since I joined devteam.

Helloer 281 commits / 54306 insertions(+), 304948 deletions(-), -250642 net
Falcon 83 commits / 2092 insertions(+), 2453 deletions(-), -361 net
Oliver 56 commits / 1841 insertions(+), 1737 deletions(-), 104 net
Fryer 19 commits / 801 insertions(+), 637 deletions(-), 164 net
Shoozza 14 commits / 207 insertions(+), 66 deletions(-), 141 net
Urraka 12 commits / 1363 insertions(+), 1733 deletions(-), -370 net
Mighty 4 commits / 21 insertions(+), 13 deletions(-), 8 net

The last commit was on Mar 1 and I can now say confidently that development of the game is dead.

I would like to thank all my friends from Zabijaka, Rzal and KO servers, it was pleasure to play with you and I hope we will meet IRL one day.

Goodbye

[Akinaro]

Initially I wanted to describe in this devlog current state of things and to point out what went wrong but to be honest it wouldn't change anything because falcon just doesn't care.

Tell us something that we dont know -_-


As for you, I didnt liked your approach in some basic stuff in zabijaka, but as dev I think you where one on that person who new what was doing, didnt give a crap about useless stuff and was a dick in that good way(read: that person who do the job, not spend time whining that its free project and no one love you).


As many times I said that: Soldat after all those years is still toy for bunch of old dicks that threat Soldat as their private playground and as a platform for recall "good old days..."
it will be never proper game if devs will not threat it like that.

Because its a game. Its product for masses, not for bunch of old players that play it because its remind them "good old days".
And as any product, if you want it to exist on market, you need to modify it to fit new times and trends.
You need to work on it taking in to the account voice of all players new and old. And right now Soldat need new players, so it need to fit their needs, so no giving handjob for old players in gathers that get epilepsy whenever you mention word "change", but on pubilc servers... because guess what? everyone started from there.

Also overall background of Soldat licensing is big pile of unknown bullshit that need to be cleaned. Because for past years those small amount of money from registrations instead of going to advertising or helping game in any way... it went where? Not to soldat as we see...

If you really care about game and are sure that you will not manage to finish it, and MM will stop acting like kid that dont want to give up old toy that he didnt use AT ALL for past years: make it public, make it Opensource. Because most of us would rather have bunch of random games on Soldat platform rather than one dying grandpa. Even if code is spaghetti I can bet that in less than month someone with time will make better. 

If there would be clear situation of that, and there would be proper dev team, where few people would be responsible for advertising game and social media of game and their would use those few bucks for advertising game.
And also site and forum would have few ads, there would be paid addons especially for selected users of game and forum, game would have proper donation system that could be used for eg, getting proper programmers with experience that would work on game all the time.


Even if you would spend just few hours per week on it, by that time we waited we should have new version... but we dont have... Soldat devs live in some weird word, all other people, even single devs that work on their own private projects made from scratch can push their projects step by step, get support from fans that they need to fight for... but here... nope.

[machina]

Well, I had somewhat see that coming.

Also overall background of Soldat licensing is big pile of unknown bullshit that need to be cleaned. Because for past years those small amount of money from registrations instead of going to advertising or helping game in any way... it went where? Not to soldat as we see...

If at least devs were promised to get some money once 1.8 with some paid new features were added to Soldat, maybe things would be different. I mean, currently, the whole development is probably like "come, get the glory from developing this epic game you played as a kid but we can't pay you of course". It's obvious, you get tired and inproductive quickly. MM's plan for Soldat is probably like "let's keep it somewhat alive for no cost so the possibility for some registrations stay all time".

Funny fact: Since Shoozza's departure i.e. on June 14, 2016, MM actually posted on this forums once. It was a topic about someone else's game xD

If you really care about game and are sure that you will not manage to finish it, and MM will stop acting like kid that dont want to give up old toy that he didnt use AT ALL for past years: make it public, make it Opensource. Because most of us would rather have bunch of random games on Soldat platform rather than one dying grandpa. Even if code is spaghetti I can bet that in less than month someone with time will make better. 

I doubt this would be a month but with great possibility faster than having an unpaid dev team.

The sad part is that even if 1.8 is released, Soldat doesn't get necessirly any more popular due to the weak advertising.

I recently shifted my interests back to Blizzard titles and I'm okay with it.

Thank you for your work, helloer!

[jrgp]

Before you leave can you release the Linux and Mac builds? Even if they're still CLI only.

It'd be a shame to leave before your biggest legacy got released: cross platform client.

[Foln]

Only a few days ago, over here: http://www.sctfl.net/forums/index.php?topic=56417.msg278382#msg278382 you mentioned working on making Soldat Steam compatible. What happened to that? Does this mean the Steam-plan you mentioned in that post on the SCTFL forums is abandoned as well?

Former Soldat player here, started in like 2004-2005. Sad to see this as this seems to be the actual final death of Soldat now. And that on an official level.


All we can beg/hope for at this point is that you guys just make it open source. As it's been said before: If you care about this game, I don't see how it would be prefered to just leave it to die instead of giving it a possible rebirth by making it open source.

[Savage]

Ye, keep killing your game THD. Thx helloer and wish you good luck. I think it's time to leave...

[machina]

Ye, keep killing your game THD.

They don't even fucking have Soldat listed on their homepage so I'd be far from calling Soldat a THD's game.

[homerofgods]

Thank you for your work Helloer

[gor]

Sad to hear it,thank you for your help.

[Foln]

Ye, keep killing your game THD.

They don't even fucking have Soldat listed on their homepage so I'd be far from calling Soldat a THD's game.

It's just a random potential money-source for MM at this point. He doesn't care about this game anymore. Otherwise it would've been open source by now.

[jrgp]

Ye, keep killing your game THD.

They don't even fucking have Soldat listed on their homepage so I'd be far from calling Soldat a THD's game.

Helloer has done everything he can to distance Soldat from THD and shut out Shoozza.

Me and furai (employees of THD) host and maintain the official soldat sites and these aren't going away.

If helloer leaves it isn't the end of the world for soldat as the other devs are still there, and if not Shoozza isn't completely gone.

[Akinaro]

Helloer has done everything he can to distance Soldat from THD and shut out Shoozza.

Because what THD did to advertise or help Soldat, that being dead or just dying, still have potential and players?
Such simple things like posting game on damn main site is small step to advertise Soldat. But its look like THD dont care, so why we should care?

Even spending damn 15$ per few month on advertising in google ads or any other platform would be good. I spend 10$ per month to advertise few my small projects and it work somehow: I have small number of visits on sites and downloads, but its better than nothing. Soldat have actually better content and history to get even more attention than some crappy personal projects like mine.

If helloer leaves it isn't the end of the world for soldat as the other devs are still there, and if not Shoozza isn't completely gone.

Ok, so tell us where they are? Because we have better chance to see UFO than dev here... and Im talking about spending 1 damn minute to write simple post: Hey! Im alive, I work on really boring coding stuff like <instert here one or two things that you made for past week> Thanks! see you next time!
It is really hard to write something like that? Or its proof that they didnt to anything at all? we need to guess that?

[Blastoize2]

Finish it then leave.

[elMorvano]

54306 insertions(+)

Thats really nice result when the others dont even have 1/5 together of your work. Thats shame for the rest admins. Im not surprised you left it. Anyway Ive got big hope youll stay until 1.8 version. Imagine how big fame youll get if 1.8 will be a nicely version. Maybe we should make a project for collect money (there are special sites for do that) for this new version but firstly we had to see all plans for 1.8 version. Think about it, Im sure players wont leave it easily without help.

This developing shouldnt be only for free

[machina]

Finish it then leave.

If this is a solo task (as it appears to be due to the fact that none of the other devs happened to comment on this topic) then that's not so simple to just "finish it".

[Hubiq]

Ugh bad news. So version 1.8 will be the last version of this game?

[machina]

Ugh bad news. So version 1.8 will be the last version of this game?

More like 1.7.1 xD

Okay, I won't do jokes anymore. I'll try not to. 1.8 has just been postponed to undefined future.

[Blastoize2]

Before you leave can you release the Linux and Mac builds? Even if they're still CLI only.

It'd be a shame to leave before your biggest legacy got released: cross platform client.

Works on penguin under wine. Don't see how is this relevant.

Finish it then leave.

If this is a solo task (as it appears to be due to the fact that none of the other devs happened to comment on this topic) then that's not so simple to just "finish it".

It is simple. But how long will it take that's the question. Non developers can't really help other than just keep positive vibe towards completing 1.8. We'll se what the other devs say. If they say anything.

[jrgp]

Before you leave can you release the Linux and Mac builds? Even if they're still CLI only.

It'd be a shame to leave before your biggest legacy got released: cross platform client.

Works on penguin under wine. Don't see how is this relevant.

Under Linux, Wine support is extremely hit or miss. Some releases it works great, others Access Violations are common. I'd prefer a native release where I don't have to pray for the stars to aline properly for the game to be reliable.

Under Mac, with Wine/Darwine/others, I've never had any success with getting Soldat to work. This is disappointing as 90% of the time I'm using my mac instead of linux box.

As a fellow Linux user, wouldn't you prefer a native build for your OS that you know is going to work 100% of the time? This is the case with KAG and it's great.

[machina]

Finish it then leave.

If this is a solo task (as it appears to be due to the fact that none of the other devs happened to comment on this topic) then that's not so simple to just "finish it".

It is simple.

I didn't know you're so familiarized. If this is so "simple" then possibly you could finish it instead?

[Puure]

I got a 2GB folder of soldat graphics back at home on my computer (currently traveling).

[Savage]

I'm sure Akinaro is way more talented than 2GB, underestimated.

[daaw]

helloer sound completely reasonable to me, as far form my insight into devtem.. there are/was real inner problems, it's a sinking ship and it's very sensible to leave it.

[Puure]

Akinaro doesnt care anymore to do anything for this game and he's right. Imo he should be in dev map team, he is talendet and I agree with him on many issues.

[paintZoom]

where the popcorns at

[jrgp]

For a few good reasons... THD doesn't give shit about soldat, how you can explain waiting 6 months to setup CI for soldat and then just get reply "we won't do it"? What % of steam income will go to devteam? 0%?

It isn't that simple. You never told us clearly what your requirements were. We also told you that if you gave us the build commands we would have set up Soldat jobs on our existing linux/windows/mac CI we use for KAG, without needing to roll you a separate solution. And that offer still stands but you never followed up.

And during the time you asked, we were in the middle of migrating the entire THD stack to new servers, dealing with DDOS issues, refactoring the KAG API to fix random problems, and all that was taking up the majority of our time, which is why your [incomplete] asks fell through the cracks.

[Foln]

Ugh bad news. So version 1.8 will be the last version of this game?

More like 1.7.1 xD

Okay, I won't do jokes anymore. I'll try not to. 1.8 has just been postponed to undefined future.

Actually, I don't think so.
This looks like this is it for once and for all.

From what I understand none of the other developers but Helloer does care about Soldat anymore in any way. And even worse, they aren't even responding to messages anymore. So helloer is the only one left.
And Helloer obviously has no rights to just make the Soldat code open source. So yea... It will just die at this point.

My guess: This Forum will become more and more inactive and in 5 years or something around that timeframe it (as well as all of soldat.pl) will go down. Exactly the same happened to Selfkill.com back in the days and will probably happen to the SCTFL site next. After that soldat.pl and the master servers are the next. And then the game will be finally dead and there will be no way to revive it because of the greediness of MM not wanting to risk losing the potential 1-2 yearly registrations Soldat might get at this point and thus not making it open source.

10 years ago MM appeared like a great, down to earth guy who loved Soldat like nothing else, but reading about all the stuff that happened since then makes it really look like the opposite is the case.

[CrasheR]

It must not be the end, you devs worked hard to die on beach?
Are you Crazy guys?
Really? It have a solution, but it will need new ways to do this happen.
I suggest Crowfunding, or Open-Source, MM don't care anymore about our game,
It's more ours than his game,
I guess He does not even remember the game anymore and If we do a crowdfunding
 he will not even know.

If it bleeds we can kill it
 


I will not sit back and watch my SOLDAT be destroyed.

If those options it's not "possible"
I suggest to increase the Dev's team, something around: No-Limits for Dev's maybe it's the solution
Since we can not Open-Source we do a Closed-Open-Source. LOL It's not Ilegal
I'm diposed to join in Dev's team, I'm Animator/Modeler/Designer.
I can make beaultifull and working maps i'm Sure.
here we have veterans players who knows what Soldat need.

Please hear-me.
thx
RETURN THE FLAG!

[Furai]

So, I'm just posting out of respect for Helloer and all the Soldat developers who put their extra free time in the game we all love.
Thank you, Helloer, for all your hard work.

To address some of the mentioned issues. I'm not directly involved in any way with Soldat's development, but to my understanding Soldat was supposed to be released for free on the Steam platform, when it was ready to be released there. Some optional DLC just to support game devs might have been added, nothing was really certain.

I don't know if I want to actually write anything more here because I don't like the drama in this thread. In general, there are no wars between devs, they're just inactive. I'm not going to accuse anyone here, because I don't feel it's anyone's fault in particular. And I urge you to do the same.


EDIT: Apparently thread got deleted by helloer, no idea why. Restored it.

[Ussocom]

Y'all need to get your fucking shit together, it's sad seeing a game with such potential getting thrown away from shitty fucking devs.  How do you not see the potential of this game on steam? MM put fucking KAG on steam and that game was a piece of shit.  Everyone knows this is and will be MM's best game and only chance to make any decent money lol, lets face it his other game suck major cock.  Someone with half a brain should fucking buy this game and would easily make cash while THD and u other useless devs are sitting around crossing swords over stupid fucking shit.   Wake the fuck up

[Bonecrusher]

I think helloer might have been a little hot-headed and took on too much work which in return quickly fizzled out his enthusiasm. Please take into consideration I know absolutely nothin when it comes to coding. I might know helloer a bit better than all of you and I have to see he's always been a pretty straight shooter when it comes to job being well done.

Like someone else mentioned soldat has been in limbo for the past few years and that doesn't really suit the fast paced work helloer has put it. If other devs were really non-existant it became overwhemlingly annoying to him imo.

Anyway thanks a lot for your input - hope someone with such an amazing drive to do actually push soldat forward will take his place.

[duz]

@helloer
about steam n' other major steps...

Somehow I knew the other people involved (all these years) were doing bad practices for their own stupid reasons.
Thank you for the explanation.

[Blastoize2]

More than 10 people actively replying on this topic regardings Soldat future state.
Yes, it's a downer to see soldat go bye bye. What can we do to help it?
I like CrasheR's post because of he's mind state and positiveness towards Soldat game. All who wish to continue playing Soldat and making it happen should keep similar mind state to CrasheR's post. Soldat isn't dead you are.
First, let's identify the problem then let's try to have some simple solutions to that problem.
The developers have communication problems and they are not working, they let all things fall to helloer. What can we do about that? Let's try to contact them and see all work that helloer has done, and remind them that if they have CrasheR's attitude that they should work on the game, if not please resign so we can continue towards solutions. We have our small community we can all join forces and try to make things happen.

[Akinaro]

gaem comeing sooon

It can come even now, today, and Soldat it will be in the same spot as it is now because no one spend time to advertise it... because, wait for it... Advertising is HALF OF F### WORK, without it all you have is product that is know by you and few of your friends...

I got a 2GB folder of soldat graphics back at home on my computer (currently traveling).
Just like you, right? Big projects and lots of finished code on your computer. Oh yeah, totally.

Wait you want to tell us that all your work for Soldat, that should be prepared for 4k weight only 2GB? -_-
damn.... one of my project folder with only ONE logo for crappy android app weight 1GB.... nice....

Akinaro doesnt care anymore to do anything for this game and he's right. Imo he should be in dev map team, he is talendet and I agree with him on many issues.

True I dont care, and also I never though and wanted to be part of  Soldat devs in any way. Because of this mess they have, and what helloer mentioned. If people responsible for game have no F## clue what they do and how prepare game to sell/advertise... why I, or anyone else would need to care and spend time on work that would not be used because there is not even official plan/schedule...

Some people here can mention for another 15 years that soldat code is mess and its not ready for any big release... Its called bullshit. I cant call it using any other word, because on market there are thousands of games that work or look like crap covered with vomit, dont have any proper gameplay crash all the time and lack any functions beside micro-transactions and crap API that steam need you to have.... and guess what? They have proper advertising, players that play it all the time and no problem with such simple problems like guessing who the F is responsible for what, and who actually work/own game.

I'm not gonna air the laundry on public forums, but please stop portraying yourself as a victim of ebil dev team, it's getting irritating. Thanks.

Sorry but if devs cant clean their "laundry" in private, and for past years they kept players in deep hole of pants not saying anything. Someone need to discuss what is going on.

Because look at what we have here: For past months we all thought that devs work on soldat to make it "great again" to advertise it as reborn master of 2D action game... but it turn out that its all lie, no one give a crap, there is chaos in relations between all sites, and no one have basic idea what to if even they release game!
You seriously thought that after you finish 1.8 you post fancy big post here on forum, put it even on Steam! and Soldat will magically stand up and be noted by rest of the world? and in few weeks you thought that you see new players on servers? Seriously?

And you know best part? Soldat is in deep shi#t, there is chaos in dev team, Biggest servers, zabijaka are gone, there is barely 50 players, for past few days( I checked random servers and I didnt saw any new face).
And your bellowed owner MM dont give a fuck like didnt give for past years... So what that he is not working on game? He dont care to even comment what is going on with his own game that he dont want to let go, he is so proud of being creator of Soldat, he is actually known only because of it, and he dont even care to clean this mess.

If that would be my project, even after giving dev to others I would still keep an eye on it, and if I would see such chaos like we have here, I would just kick out everyone, because there is just no point of keeping people in this project that doesnt do what they promised.
Yeah, its free job, but when you took it you should know how much time you can spend on it, what you can do, and if you cant do it... say it loud and stop pretending that you do something. Simple as that...
MM probably know lots of people who would work with Soldat, I even know such people! there is always replacement if you look for it. or you can just INVEST in project, spend or gather by donation money, pay for professional dev team... and in less than few months I promise you that you will get shit done. + give some small cash(even damn 15-20$ per month) for advertising, put one person for PR and you have proper game...




Helloer just confirmed what I was saying for all that time, and if member of devs discuss it here, point those problems out, and instead of focusing on problem you cry that he put it in public forum... I have nothing to do here, I was that weirdo who say bad thing about Soldat devs, but now even devs say the same thing so i lost my job here xD

[Foln]

There is nothing else to say at this point other than: It needs a Steam release or its dead in 2-3 years.

[Illuminatus]

For the love of all polybugs, barretards and polish kurwas: Please get your shit together, watch these videos from 2004/2005, become all nostalgia and think of a solution to transport this sort of fun to 2017. I can't believe there is no market for this.

If you really halt development pleeeees at least remain status-quo (lobby, servers, etc.) to be able to enjoy the current version. I need my (bi)monthly fix of Soldat.

EDIT: Ok. Zabijaka's servers gone. All is lost.......

[Foln]

For the love of all polybugs, barretards and polish kurwas: Please get your shit together, watch these videos from 2004/2005, become all nostalgia and think of a solution to transport this sort of fun to 2017. I can't believe there is no market for this.

Holy shit that Project x movie took me back in time. It made its rounds literally through all parts of the international Soldat community back in the days. The video is still really impressive.

[machina]

EDIT: Apparently thread got deleted by helloer, no idea why. Restored it.

Thanks for that.

EDIT: Ok. Zabijaka's servers gone. All is lost.......

Not accordingly to this:

edit: Already found a host - will probably set 2 servers in the next few days. So stay tuned!

*let your cat lie on your keyboard to produce a lot of text (fancy snip)*

Mostly agree. Can't add much but...

...you can just INVEST in project, spend or gather by donation money, pay for professional dev team... and in less than few months I promise you that you will get shit done. + give some small cash(even damn 15-20$ per month) for advertising, put one person for PR and you have proper game...

I doubt yet MM (if you meant him) is going to spend a single penny for Soldat.

As for crowdfunding this also can come hard because we have a small society and we would have to hope for some random people to fund Soldat as well. Still, it's worth a try. If it suddenly works and there's money for paid development then we're good. If don't, well, nothing changed. We lost nearly nothing. Of course, preparing the crowdfunding request requires time (cool gfx, a video presenting the game, etc.).

Also, I dunno how many games were ever crowdfunded those were actually already existing for over a decade but now required a remake and improvements. People usually fund something because they want to have something completely new, something that they cannot get at the very moment because it is a concept - not a game you can download anytime for free.


It's been 5 days since this topic was posted and I would love to hear from other dev members or at least from the lead dev i.e. Falcon. I think there was enough of time to produce some statement. I don't join any teams in this "fight" but Falcon being quiet and not relating to this situation at all doesn't work for me.

[duz]

Lemme create a fast scheme for premium/pro accounts.

SCTFL 28 (2016) had 280 players + 200 players from other communities/casual/random.

480 paying 8$/mo = 3.840$
480 paying 40$/6mo = 19.200$ (3.200$/mo)
480 paying 70$/year = 33.600$ (2.800$/mo)

You can double the numbers using 2008/2010 numbers.
Premium/pro accounts adds an exclusive icon on scoreboard and all the customizations (yes, non-pro wouldn't be able to change a lot of things).
Done.

Better than ZERO for an amateur project.

[Foln]

Lemme create a fast scheme for premium/pro accounts.

SCTFL 28 (2016) had 280 players + 200 players from other communities/casual/random.

480 paying 8$/mo = 3.840$
480 paying 40$/6mo = 19.200$ (3.200$/mo)
480 paying 70$/year = 33.600$ (2.800$/mo)

You can double the numbers if using 2008/2010 numbers.
Premium/pro accounts adds an exclusive icon on scoreboard and all the customizations (yes, non-pro wouldn't be able to change a lot of things).
Done.

Better than ZERO for an amateur project.

Lol do you really believe people would pay monthly to play Soldat? I'm pretty sure not a single person would do that.

[Hubiq]

Premium accounts ROTFL  Do you think anyone will pay? This game is currently dead.

EDIT: Ok. Zabijaka's servers gone. All is lost.......

Are you serious? Recently activity on Zabijaka's servers (especially CTF and DM mode) has dropped to almost 0. So shutdown servers doesn't change anything.

[duz]

Not anymore
I'm just showing the stupidity of all these years.

[CrasheR]

Lemme create a fast scheme for premium/pro accounts.

SCTFL 28 (2016) had 280 players + 200 players from other communities/casual/random.

480 paying 8$/mo = 3.840$
480 paying 40$/6mo = 19.200$ (3.200$/mo)
480 paying 70$/year = 33.600$ (2.800$/mo)

You can double the numbers if using 2008/2010 numbers.
Premium/pro accounts adds an exclusive icon on scoreboard and all the customizations (yes, non-pro wouldn't be able to change a lot of things).
Done.

Better than ZERO for an amateur project.

Lol do you really believe people would pay monthly to play Soldat? I'm pretty sure not a single person would do that.

If we had some new features like 100 new Customizable features, if you won't pay will get only 10
and also you can create your own "clan logo", and if you want to register your clan in official ranked
 system you have to pay 20 dollars, but this rank will show the statistics about your clan in Competitive...
Man there is a lot of ways to make this happen, we only have to think and work together.

We have Also Patreon, i'm making a survey on brazilian soldat comunity in facebook about who would
pay monthly for devs and a lot of people are saying they would pay 5 dollars, others 15dollars...

It is all about who want to make this really happen.

come'on guys let's move on.

[daaw]

What if this was Falcon's plan all along and he just wants to get soldat open sourced?
Can't you see??

See MM would never want opensource because of business perspective there is no gain.
Ahh I know ..You should Patreon MM insted to do opensource.



Just don't forget for any income ..

minus Vat tax ~21%
minus Steam/Platform cut ~30%
minus MM cut ~30%
minus Local Tax - 15% - 40%
minus addition expense

and then split it to 3 devs..

[duz]

Yup, you're "right", there's a lot of taxes etc. But I'm using non-steam numbers/2016 numbers. Soldat could get 999x more attention on Steam, right?
This is just a POOR sketch. There's better practices and schemes for a business plan than my 2 minutes essay.

[Blastoize2]

Everyone on this topic, let's grab a bowl and each one of us let's put 5-10$ in the bowl and send it to helloer.

[gargarensi]

It's been a time since I last played Soldat and sorry for my sincere opinion, but Soldat is been dead for much more time, the owner doesn't care about the game, open source is the only way to revive this along with Steam, this game still have potential but with the lack of support from the owner we can't do anything to improve it.
Patreon would help but isn't the solution, with some polish and the right model to sell it like cosmetics the game could come up, but right now only time will tell...

[Tarfk]

I'm sending my condelences from Brazil. This gamed had a great potential but time was passing and the owners of it just didn't care so much. Anyway, the game isn't dated at all, it has its peculiar way of being in a very interesting form. I share my opinion with gargarensi, we both started playing it in 2007/2008 maybe and we had a great time. If this is the way things will end, rest in piece Soldat.

[Illuminatus]

Are you serious? Recently activity on Zabijaka's servers (especially CTF and DM mode) has dropped to almost 0. So shutdown servers doesn't change anything.

For the last years every single time I randomly opened Soldat to play some rounds again (usually every month) I have found those ctf-servers with at least 8 players.
Not sure what you are talking about. I don't believe I was just lucky. You need the right timing though: ~7pm-2am UTC+1

[daaw]

why did you are here..i know you are

 man.. im sure once in life i will lose my sanity.

i would like that.

[Dusty]

such a sad read

[Bonecrusher]

Are you serious? Recently activity on Zabijaka's servers (especially CTF and DM mode) has dropped to almost 0. So shutdown servers doesn't change anything.

For the last years every single time I randomly opened Soldat to play some rounds again (usually every month) I have found those ctf-servers with at least 8 players.
Not sure what you are talking about. I don't believe I was just lucky. You need the right timing though: ~7pm-2am UTC+1

Whenever i logged on arssse they were people playing even on such odd hours like 3am gmt+1

[machina]

480 paying 8$/mo = 3.840$
480 paying 40$/6mo = 19.200$ (3.200$/mo)
480 paying 70$/year = 33.600$ (2.800$/mo)

WoW costs like 13$/mo.
I paid only 20$ for OW.
HotS is for free.

I don't think Soldat currently can dictate such prizes as you assumed. It's ridiculous. This isn't Blizzard.

Are you serious? Recently activity on Zabijaka's servers (especially CTF and DM mode) has dropped to almost 0. So shutdown servers doesn't change anything.

This is bullshit. There used to be plenty of people playing.

[jrgp]

There is nothing else to say at this point other than: It needs a Steam release or its dead in 2-3 years.

People have been saying that for years. The game isn't dead. Just look at all of the posts in this topic!

[DutchFlame]

competitive alike this game is dead, as for publics no.

a few people will always hang around in publics as long as the servers are alive.

Aside from that, sad news.. I personally expected another fine release to boost the game.
Maybe it's best to let it rest for now. We've all had a good time. Lets move on.

[Foln]

There is nothing else to say at this point other than: It needs a Steam release or its dead in 2-3 years.

People have been saying that for years. The game isn't dead. Just look at all of the posts in this topic!

Zabijka servers have not been dead for years though.
They won't be the only servers to die.

[CheeSeMan.]

thanks for your help helloer in any sort of group work or project I know the frustration of when you are being more dedicated than your colleagues so I understand your decision even if I was hoping to see the game go on to steam after all this time.

But if I am honest I've given up and save a major update with an influx of players I don't think I will be coming back, everyone has quit & its just not the same anymore =(

peace out

[As de Espada]

thanks for all the investment helloer, I hope soldat will be popular again when something changes

[Raziel]

Maybe it's best to let it rest for now. We've all had a good time. Lets move on.

It is true.

At the beginning I apologize for my english. I am very sorry that the game almost died but let's be honest - for two years the players activity has drastically decreased. Currently there are 65 public servers but people play only on 4-5 servers. Other servers are empty all the time. There are no active leagues, players and clans. Do you remember the times of the soldat glory (2003-2008)? Those people are now 25-30 years old. Some have wives and children and no time for Soldat. Now generation of young people prefer advanced 3d games so Soldat has no future. I spent many years playing this game but it's over. This game deserves a rest.

Last thing: What about version 1.8.0 over which you worked? All efforts for nothing?

[ginn]

This is so sad, I really wished 1.8 would come out.

I didn't even know you had done this much for soldat, and you even put in some effort in helping me getting the things I needed to make a WM (which imo, and a fair few others, is really good). Possibly the saddest thing is that 1.7.1 (or whatever version we are on), left the WM in such a shitty state that it's unplayable, I haven't really been able to enjoy any matches for years because of it...

Oh well, good luck and have fun with whatever you decide to spend your new free time on.

[Hubiq]

850 servers in lobby. WTF? 

[NiCeShOoT|GuY]

Maybe after 8 years will MM make this game open-source.
Or maybe, helloer can team up with passionate dev to create a new game like soldat.
Put it on steam, override MM like Ray Kroc with McDonalds.
Just be sure to give MM royalty fees like 0.5%.

Don't waste ur passion on 2d shooting game! Soldat is just one of the 2d shooting games with proper physics.

[ginn]

Just be sure to give MM royalty fees like 0.5%.

If they make a new game, they really wouldn't need to pay any royalty fees. I doubt MM has filed for copyright on 2d shooters.

[NiCeShOoT|GuY]

I feel like there are a lot of waste on dev's talents, after all working with a dying dev team unorganised.
But ur passion should not end there, ur loyalty is with 2d shooter game, not just Soldat.
Below is a rough idea to continue the passion.

Stages:
1.Making a new scheme for a new 2d shooter, even if it is just a dream.
2.Team up with passionate people who loved Soldat type game. Layout a plan for new game, even if it's just a simple concept. Work with what is lacking in Soldat in modern day, meanwhile consist prominent traits of the Good old Soldat. So the new game would be an upgrade of old Soldat. Got to give up something old and bad though.
3.Get some passionate people who knows: Graphic design (min 2), physics engine programming (min 2), OpenGL (min 2), network programming (min 2). Don't restrict the size of dev team as long as they are IN.
4.Revise the game plan with them over and over. Start programming the core with the help of these people. Be sure to make the game simple at first so everyone in the team will be knew what to expect and motivated when expectation came true. Make sure everyone in the team love the game, if any extensive dev would need be done in the future.

If they make a new game, they really wouldn't need to pay any royalty fees. I doubt MM has filed for copyright on 2d shooters.

Yup right, even if MM doesn't have copyright I'll respect his creation.
Except a new game will still be 2d shooter with proper physics.

[jony001]

I'm sorry to hear you're leaving.

I can't say I'm a veteran player, nor so vocal on this forum (I've actually created an account after seeing this post) but I can say I've had a lot of fun with this game, so thank you for that!

Because I'm a game developer myself, I appreciate your contribution even more. It's not easy to please everyone, especially when you become a one-man-team.

Hopefully, something good will follow!

[jony001]

And for:

I feel like there are a lot of waste on dev's talents, after all working with a dying dev team unorganised.
But ur passion should not end there, ur loyalty is with 2d shooter game, not just Soldat.
Below is a rough idea to continue the passion.

Stages:
1.Making a new scheme for a new 2d shooter, even if it is just a dream.
2.Team up with passionate people who loved Soldat type game. Layout a plan for new game, even if it's just a simple concept. [..]

This shouldn't be a dream, of course. Actually is quite possible to have it.

I'm just wondering if the current users are playing this game just because it awakes some old memories and not exclusively because of the gameplay.

If it's just about the good old days, any effort invested in a new 2D shooter like Soldat it's useless.

[%%%%%%%]

I'm just wondering if the current users are playing this game just because it awakes some old memories and not exclusively because of the gameplay.

If it's just about the good old days, any effort invested in a new 2D shooter like Soldat it's useless.

Speaking for myself, it's because of the gameplay

[Furai]

Why not both?