AC-Inter

[ikljo]

AC-Inter and the acinter bot have been serving AssaultCube and it's players for over 2 years now. Over that period of time we have been expanding and updating daily to help bring inter/clan match requests directly to you, whenever and wherever you may be!

That included the acinter bot IRC service that notified over 30 IRC channels of match requests and games that were organized by either clans or individuals. We averaged over 330 requests a month during the peak of competition after the closure of Hi-Skills. At one point we even had to create another acinter bot named, "acinter1" just to accommodate for the overflow in demand.

We also provided a service where our website would also host a list of the most recent requests, streamed live to our website. There was also a full list of all private match servers and their connects plus a link to join the servers directly from your browser. We maintained an up to date list of most popular servers on IRC through our acinter bot and were viewable through the use of the $servers command.

AC-Inter also took inter/clan match organization to the next level when we hosted our own servers with the ability to send match requests directly from inside the server to IRC to notify others.

The AC-Inter staff have worked hard to provide the best service and experience possible to it’s users and are glad to have been serving AssaultCube for over 2 years now. We have been fighting to maintain some competition in this game in hopes to hold onto many of the great players who helped shape and maintain a competitive scene and skill level in the game.

AC-Inter has worked along side many other events and projects in Assaultcube as well. One of them being the ACWC and many of its matches. AC-Inter advertised many of the live match times. We also worked along side #ACTV in advertising live gameplay and tournament streamings, sharing match info and links to Gibstick's and SBK's streaming channels.

But, over the past 6 months, there has been a drastic decline in the competitive nature of AssaultCube which could be based on a number of factors. Our own info alone shows us that there has been a 90% decline in the amount of match requests since last year. There was a 76% loss of active channels who shared the use of the acinter bot. This was mostly due to clan inactivity, resulting in the closure of many clans and channels. The daily active users have decreased to less than 10% of its numbers from a year ago.

At this time, AC-Inter is currently weighing its options. With the decrease in numbers, active users, active channels and feedback, it has been decided that the future of AC-Inter will rest in the hands of the community.

I have released a poll asking to simply select your opinion of whether or not AC-Inter and it's staff should continue hosting the acinter bot, or has AC finally lost the demand it once had for such a feature as the acinter bot and are we just wasting our time hosting the bot?

Your feedback is sincerely important to us. If you support this project, please leave some feedback or a comment or even a suggestion to improve the project.

Will we share the same fate as Hi-Skills? Your opinion can make a difference!

[Joe Smith]

I think you should keep it up and even if ac is less competitive its not your fault, the fault has to do with other factors. you should keep it even if it doesn't get used as much as it once did, and one day (if) ac is more active then people might just start using it again.

[Vermi]

In game inter feature?, clickity clackity ur in a lobby with other willing participants, ranking system could also be implemented, who wouldn't use this? it would increase interactiveness between noobs and pros ultimately helping the community grow.

what AC needs is some fresh ideas...... Like this!

[DrauL]

I love that video so much :D

[pweaks]

I'm still waiting for that pickup bot. ;__;

[Orynge]

What Vermi said.
I don't think that AC-Inter should die when a fresh idea could make all the difference.

In fact, the pro-mod that has been talked about recently could work with this.

[Mr.OpTic]

Agree with everything said.

Also, that 2 years went bloody fast.

[ikljo]

I'm still waiting for that pickup bot. ;__;

Part of this feature has been implemented already. The ability to add or remove yourself to a list of available players for a match has been released awhile a go. It has not been publicly announced because it is still being further developed to complete the pickup bot feature but it has been delayed due to the decline in use of the bot.

In future updates there will be the ability send out a request for a 2v2 or 3v3 match where you can either select from a list of available servers or have the bot choose one randomly from its list. If you choose to have a 3v3 match, as soon as you make the request it will add you to the list of available players for the game. As others want to join, they can add themselves or remove themselves to the list as well with the $add or $remove command. Once the bot has successfully collected enough players to fill a 3v3 match. It will randomly shuffle the list and output 2 separate teams of players (RVSF and CLA). It will then send the players on both teams a predetermined server connect from the initial requester or a randomly selected server from the bot's list. It will also randomly select which team will pick a map and mode first.

Also, any suggestions of features or improvements will be gladly accepted. AC-Inter is there for the use of AssaultCube's players, therefore without the use or feedback or constructive criticism from it's players, the AC-Inter team can not update or improve it's service to better serve it's users.



How could a ranking system be implemented? What could it rank? How would it be useful? I'm interest in your suggestion Vermi, can you please elaborate?

...the pro-mod that has been talked about recently could work with this

What could be implemented to our service to make it more compatible to this pro-mod idea suggested on the forum?



If you really support this project or if you voted "No" in hopes that the things will eventually change for the better. Please leave some feedback of any possible improvements or suggestions. Anyone who makes any suggestions for viable improvements of present features or future updates will be credited on our webpage for their suggestion or if you would like to dedicate your time to improving our service, you can become a member of our staff by pming me.

Your opinions can make a difference!

[Edward]

I do not use IRC sorry but I do not think it can work again. There are not many clans in AC clan and most of them don't play clan matches/are inactive.

This week end I spent more time asking people for clan matches than playing :/
I am used to the "no ty" answer since too long now.

[Vermi]

i was talking about a command in the official release something like u type /inter and a menu pops up allowing you to select whether u want 2v2 or 3v3 then it lets u vote for a map, whichever gets most votes is played, maybe even a irc like feature in game to allow easy communication, then after ample players have selected a map it automatically moves u all to a server. I'll get cas to look at coding something like this when he gets back from holidays, right now it's just an idea

[Flames]

The game is dead , so it is useless.

[Orynge]

OH! And I don't know if it's what Vermi was suggesting, but a server that acts like a lobby is a pretty good idea.
The period for competitive AC is usually before and throughout ACWC.

[lucky]

This game is only dead because of all of us. The competitiveness that we want to see is gone because we don't bother to stay and keep this game competitive. All of the new people who are playing this game will eventually become the "community" of their time. Remember, we all used to be them at one point in time. A lot of people need to stop their constant bitching and whining.

*Massive 2 cents has been released.*

[Fate]

The game is dead , so it is useless.

lol.

Ontopic: +1 on what Vermi said. Some sort of in-game implementation to set up inters/matches would be awesome.

And I voted "No" for the poll. IMO, it is only the "higher" competitive scene (oNe, MyS, LC, etc) is what I would call "dead" with a lot of such players being somewhat inactive.
The rest of the game is still alive.

[Edward]

IMO, it is only the "higher" competitive scene (oNe, MyS, LC, etc) is what I would call "dead" with a lot of such players being somewhat inactive.
The rest of the game is still alive.

comon give devs a chance!!! ctf douze, map restrictions, no separate serverlist etc. they do everything they can to boost ac's popularity !!!

A lot of people need to stop their constant bitching and whining.

don't give up dude it is not over :/ join the resistance ! even if we cant do anything at least we try not to make it too easy for them when they destroy our (my) hopes.

[Waffles]

oNe is still very active, don't know what you're on about. Lucky is right as well. The competitive scene has turned into a vacuum of sorts. With rC rarely playing against us (minus a few players). Eventually the new players that decide to stick around will rise to fill the void. In that time, having an active game with an in-game matchmaking system would help retain current players and encourage newer players to interact with the existing player base. If everyone bitches about the game, but does nothing to help it (playing and encouraging new players, giving reasonable feedback to the devs) then little to no progress will be made. If you all actually do love the game, you'd realize this and be part of the solution and not the problem.

With regards to ac inter, currently it is the only viable matchmaking system. I'd encourage ikljo and crew to increase (rather than decrease) i's scope. Branch out into new platforms. Maybe teamspeak or mumble compatibility, and an attempt to send queries across servers in the game. It might be a massive pain and take time, but collaboration with devs and players might be effective. Also, encouraging competition could also mean providing some kind of ELO (or other) way of ranking players based on games. I don't know how all of this would be implemented, and it'd take time, but no work that you all have done should go to waste just because of fickle players opinions.

[Bukz]

comon give devs a chance!!! ctf douze, map restrictions, no separate serverlist etc. they do everything they can to boost ac's popularity !!!

Christ you're like a broken record...

@ikljo, activity will pick up again especially during the spring/summer months, there are always new players trying the game, don't give up on it just yet. :) Especially since a new version is coming and hopefully there will be a half-time that clans can use for matches that make them a lot more fair.

[Cemer]

release of new version will make the community alive again

and the only reason the game is dead is because the people playing it seem dead; they never want to play

[Krayce]

Nope, the game is dead after the new version of AC, not more...

[Xenon]

The competitive side of AC is only dead because teams will idle on a t
eamspeak and only want to play inters and such. oNe is
a team has only about 6 members active, but if them players are actually active like we are their is no
issue. The game's dying because teams don't want to play other teams because they fear loss or just want to be pricks. The game is active when cups are run but no-one ever wants to run any. We have a cup planned for 1.2 and of course the world cup but that only means the games active for a few months, then dies again.
It's why the competitive scene comes down to the players, not anyone else.
Written on phone, soz 4 any fails

[ikljo]

In response to Waffles' suggestion about having acinter integrated into teamspeak as a client is a thought that has already been worked on a month or 2 ago. Yet I was unable to decide what would be an appropriate approach, should it just relay a message the same as it does on irc or would it be appropriate to have acinter speak with a computer generated voice? How exactly would I relay the message?

Secondly, I used to host a server that was capable of relaying requests from in game to irc but it was rarely used and was a little harder to moderate. If someone has a suggestion on how I could query other servers and relay requests without having todistribute modified server code I would be very interested in exploring that possibility. I know I can query servers to recieve info but is it possible to send back info such as a message? Without modifying source code and creating an rcon feature in the server source?

Is there other methods that I can explore outside of the existing and already suggested ideas where I can inform more players who are non irc or teamspeak users, or a player on a modified server?

[Joe Smith]

offtopic: game isnt dead, but i feel the clan matches have gone down, but my opinion is that since we found out the game is defective ( hit-reg) there no point in playing a match due to the fact that it doesnt really show whos batter, no telling how many hit-misses there have been. I rarely play due to that fact.

ONtopic: ikljo are you going to share the "client" you brought to gdm and i? or is that something you want to wait on for a later date?

[ikljo]

ONtopic: ikljo are you going to share the "client" you brought to gdm and i? or is that something you want to wait on for a later date?

That client was only a discussion about an idea of a client to create. Which has not even been coded yet. It is still in the thought process. I'm not too sure if it will ever be released but it is one of the projects on my to do list for future projects.

[Flames]

The game's dying because teams don't want to play other teams because they fear loss or just want to be pricks.

Dude,that is so wrong.

[Edward]

personally I prefer to play against brazilians with 200-300 ping than against xenon with 400 ping. I tried to play with 350-400 and it is not possible. Ping does not lie. And visit our forum, we post everything that's why we have so many losses :p

[Vermi]

personally I prefer to play against brazilians with 200-300 ping than against xenon with 400 ping. I tried to play with 350-400 and it is not possible. Ping does not lie. And visit our forum, we post everything that's why we have so many losses :p

hatemongering... nice, you really don't have to post all losses man we can just assume you'd never beat a decent line-up, the great ping debate has been had a million times, all good players will agree that finding a server with mutual pings is crucial..... playing with 400 ping is a piece of piss, any decent player knows pj is far more important.