A Plea to the Developers

[ZS/Horse]

I've noticed that fewer and fewer people are playing Assaultcube. I remember years ago there was at least two pages of active/full servers - and now there are only about 10-15 active.
I've asked about 200 people, who do not play now, the reasons why they stopped playing, and what it would take to get them playing again. Here are my results:
34 of the 200 said "less hackers"
79 of the 200 (the 34 discluded) said "less trolls/a-holes"
87 (the rest of them) said "Less stupid map requirements/no map reqs"
I know there's a lot of resistance on the dev's part to keep the map reqs, but a lot of older maps just don't work with 1.2 anymore. Altair has fixed a lot, Headshot City Reborn, Megatowers Rewind, Camper-Camper, and a few others. I can't make certain maps good because of the height and area restrictions. I can't make my own port of CoD4 maps (Killhouse, Broadcast, etc) because of size limits. Heck, we don't even have doors. The maps have to be glitched.

Here is a list of everybody in my contacts list in my GMail that I sent mail to. A few of them I never got a reply, so I've picked 200 randomly for my survey.

[deleted]

[Marti]

maybe add the nicknames instead of their actual mail adresses?

[Alien]

Your message doesn't work, try to tell your dentist he is doing it wrong. Mostly he isn't motivated by their patients. It is more about some concrete successful repair of tooth (with photo) or about money. The best impuls of motivation can be added from his colleagues. But the difference between the dentist and the AC developer is the dentist can lost the job and die hungry if he lost all his patients.

The alternative MS isn't the solution because the custom(made by players) maps need some official/match level and vice versa this official level really needs the custom level. The application of restriction is wasting time if you have already -X switch on your server which forbids voting all alternative maps. From the position of MS admin you can restrict servers with -X on and then restrict what they have in maprot. 5 years wasted implementing restrictions which haven't worked and messed coop mode. The implementing of restriction has one success and it is creating bubble of issue where everybody can say something and therefore form the community around.

[ZS/Horse]

Add theirnicknames? This has already taken over two months, between waiting for replies and then just creating the list and the survey. And that's why i used Pastebin.

Free database: I guess so. I made sure that everyone was okay with me posting their addresses. That's why there's only about 450 instead of 1000, I would have asked 1000 except I don't know that many AC players.

[BaDMonkey]

In my opinion its just the graphics, i mean think about it. Nowadays people can afford decent PCs to play games like CSGO etc, if you are a new person, looking for a free to play game and you come across assault cube, comparing to other FTP games out there AC just cant complete, nowadays there are less and less players playing AC because there are more and more players with decent PCs. I personally don't care about the graphics, but the majority of people out there do.

Our aim should not be to bring back old players, it should be to attract new players to play this game.

I have no idea who has the time or motivation to do that, but if you want to make the game more popular, that's how you are going to get it.

[BluffCreek]

In my opinion its just the graphics, i mean think about it. Nowadays people can afford decent PCs to play games like CSGO etc, if you are a new person, looking for a free to play game and you come across assault cube, comparing to other FTP games out there AC just cant complete, nowadays there are less and less players playing AC because there are more and more players with decent PCs. I personally don't care about the graphics, but the majority of people out there do.

Our aim should not be to bring back old players, it should be to attract new players to play this game.

I have no idea who has the time or motivation to do that, but if you want to make the game more popular, that's how you are going to get it.

"As with life itself, life can only go forwards, and changes happen over time."

My message with this is that AssaultCube gets boring, but new members come around, and they revive the game, and this happens again and again.

AssaultCube (as real life itself) only moves forward.

[Mousikos]

In my opinion its just the graphics, i mean think about it. Nowadays people can afford decent PCs to play games like CSGO etc, if you are a new person, looking for a free to play game and you come across assault cube, comparing to other FTP games out there AC just cant complete, nowadays there are less and less players playing AC because there are more and more players with decent PCs. I personally don't care about the graphics, but the majority of people out there do.

Our aim should not be to bring back old players, it should be to attract new players to play this game.

I have no idea who has the time or motivation to do that, but if you want to make the game more popular, that's how you are going to get it.

You do realize that's going to require a rewrite on an entirely different engine right?

[JMM]

AssaultCube (as real life itself) only moves forward.

That's a completely useless sentiment, though - sure, it moves forwards, but sometimes forwards is also downhill and off the cliff.

You don't want to go forwards on all roads you find yourself on.

[meanduck]

I think AC's niche market is people who want *realistic* and *stable* physics even if at the cost of graphics quality. In fact less flashiness (fog/blur etc) the better. So if to be advertised, these should be highlights.

Regarding map restrictions, devs are justifiably blamed. Specializing would always (unnecessarily) alienate some people. Also the number of maps that have become invalid as a result, Stupid.

[BaDMonkey]

You do realize that's going to require a rewrite on an entirely different engine right?

Yeah, that's why i said i doubt anyone has the time or motivation to do that, as for the engine i guess using the cube 2 engine would be the easiest way, but again it would still take a lot of effort.

I was just pointing out what i think would attract more people to the game.

[DogDancing]

I think AC's niche market is people who want *realistic* and *stable* physics

I actually always thought it was the opposite, maybe your being sarcastic.

Also the whole graphics thing is an obvious point, that's the reason why a lot of people play the game because a lot couldn't play other fps games. The whole ramp up of gfx and cube2 talk has been going on for about 7years now honestly probably longer ever since AC was in .93 people have been talking about cube2 "port".

The recent problem for me is the lack of development of the game, yes its still going on but there are no where near the amount of people contributing anymore. I remember when some of the core creators started to stop and move on, and fast after that other people stepped up and started contributing things to the project..that's simply not happening anymore.

[RaverZ]

I think AC's niche market is people who want *realistic* and *stable* physics

I actually always thought it was the opposite, maybe your being sarcastic.

Also the whole graphics thing is an obvious point, that's the reason why a lot of people play the game because a lot couldn't play other fps games. The whole ramp up of gfx and cube2 talk has been going on for about 7years now honestly probably longer ever since AC was in .93 people have been talking about cube2 "port".

The recent problem for me is the lack of development of the game, yes its still going on but there are no where near the amount of people contributing anymore. I remember when some of the core creators started to stop and move on, and fast after that other people stepped up and started contributing things to the project..that's simply not happening anymore.

jamz himself said that gemas were, are and would be seen as bad for the game because they were unrealistic and that the realistic approach of the game was what had to be priority number 1, because that was what first developers wanted.

True story.

[meanduck]

I think AC's niche market is people who want *realistic* and *stable* physics

I actually always thought it was the opposite, maybe your being sarcastic.

No I am not. May be I should have said simpler physics and look.

The recent problem for me is the lack of development of the game, yes its still going on but there are no where near the amount of people contributing anymore. I remember when some of the core creators started to stop and move on, and fast after that other people stepped up and started contributing things to the project..that's simply not happening anymore.

That might explain why people are leaving. But why is not AC getting new players ? Lack of advertisement IMO.

jamz himself said that gemas were, are and would be seen as bad for the game because they were unrealistic and that the realistic approach of the game was what had to be priority number 1, because that was what first developers wanted.

Action like these (unnecesserily) cost players. Generalize a game not specialize. They are playing GEMAS today but may be they will play d3 inters tomorrow.

[Marti]

'Edit reason: quico best ref'

Hmm im pretty sure RaverZ played for Fra A in acwc now

Inb4 edward again

[X-Ray_Dog]

Raverz is Paul.

[RaverZ]

Raverz is Paul.

[Flint]

Raverz is Paul.

Soaz????