1. AC 1.3 or AC 2 ?
2. What new features would you like to be added on your chosen next release ?
3.
To conclude
Anyways, that's it for my wall of text, I hope you'll take the time to read it all, if you care enough :>
I'm out !
![[+]](/images/collapse_collapsed.png "[+]")
SpoilerWell, just like many people said, AC 2 would feel like a whole new change to AssaultCube which I don't think is necessary or will happen so I guess AC 1.3 sounds more reasonable since I believe it only needs a boost and some tweaks that could maybe save the game. Because yes, just like Persian's graphic shows, the game is dying slowly. Many of us called it about 2 years ago, and despite having more and more unhappy community members and more players saying they'd leave if there wasn't a change; nothing happened which led to this..
2. What new features would you like to be added on your chosen next release ?
- As many people, I believe the pause would be a great feature to add. Anyone denying it (looking at you stef) has probably never experienced what most requesters complain about and don't realise that it would be a really enjoyable feature to have.
- Half time switch as suggested by some players seems like a nice idea too, and would perhaps "solve" the unbalanced map issues. I think this is an idea to test, but I don't see many drawbacks to it.
- Being able to mod your own client. Ofc i don't mean cheating-wise, but being able to easily change skins, playermodels, pickups
- The idea was thrown around and I think it might a great improvement for AC but idk if it is possible (jamz plz?) : Separate the masterserver into 2 parts, an official one and a custom one. The first one would contain official map rotations with modes such as CTF,T/DM,T/OSOK,LSS,HTF and maybe allow some custom maps that are suited for those gamemodes (ex : Apollo maps, $n!p3r's maps). While the other one would be mainly for custom modes like GEMA, Zombie mode or other goofy maps like Twintowers, camper@camper which are maps that many players obviously enjoy playing on. Whether you like it or not, you can't deny that those servers are full most of the times which means that people actually have fun playing it. Also, most of the "accomplished" players now could confirm that we've almost all went through this TOSOK/LSS fun period when discovering the game, and eventually discovered more serious and "tactical" modes such as CTF,HTF,TDM etc...
- Remove all of the map restrictions. You've been trying too hard to remove the fun from the game. If people have fun playing goofy and crazy looking maps with tens pickups/m² then let them have their fun. It makes no sense to add restrictions to prevent people from having fun because it's not funny to you or because the game wasn't meant to be played like this.
Welp, the game has changed and developped, and if you can't accept that, you probably have nothing to do in the developping team.
To picture it with an example, it would be as if you were the mayor of your town and disliked blue color, and decided that from now on, you would prevent anyone from wearing blue because you hate the color and your town wasn't meant to have blue in it. (sounds pretty stupid uh?)
- Gameplay is fine as it is and I don't have much to say about it since it's what makes AC very special imo. But the weapon balance can be tweaked a little I think. The SMG is fine as it is, the sniper is a good weapon now, since a good sniper will manage to kill his opponent and take few damage providing he hits his sniper shot. Carbine is "OK" i guess, it's pretty strong if you have a good aim but risky since you will probably die to an automatic weapon user if you miss one shot. Shotgun I'm not sure, it's still a bad weapon to use in CTF 2v2s or 3v3s unless you're in a small map and know how to play the shotgun style (betting on splat, corner shots and close distance fights). AR is bad, pls bring back 1.1 Assault Rifle to make it even with the SMG power and I think we'd have a good balance.
- Official maps. Either remove some of it (cavern, scaffold, rattrap, stellar, venison..) or add a lot more to them (like i wrote before some of Apollos maps are great). I'm not really sure which is the best, but in one case remove maps that are unpopular and unplayed/unplayable (too small, too big, or too messy) OR add more "custom" maps that suit the official map style and are fun to play in official modes.
- After game stats are a good thing. I don't really care too much about my stats but I know many players do. Having a recap list of the things you did during the game (dmg dealt, flags stolen, # of pickups etc... pretty much anything that contributes to your score) would be great.
- Modes like TLSS, PF, TPF, TKTF, KTF should be added to the mod masterver. Those modes are rarely played and apparently not very fun to many people and it would make sense to put them as a option for custom servers. Also, maybe add Lucas's spawnpoint gamemode in the custom part for now, to try it and maybe make it official in a later version.
- An official ladder. Even though it might be hard to set up, it would be great if playing and trying to improve and play great was meaningful and if you could be rewarded for it in a ladder system.
- It's not really related to the next version but I wish there was more events organised from AC's official side. Atm it feels it's always external people who try to set up things and I wish there was more official tournaments organised by people who belong to the AC squad (which would most likely require to recruit more people into the AC team squad)
- Finally, I think having 2 years waiting before a release is a big no-no. It simply can't and shouldn't happen to a game and is what hurt AC a lot. A game needs to be active and changing in order to have its players keep interest in it. Unless the game is perfect, balanced and fun (which is hardly possible), there will always be things to change, add, fix or improve. It would make a lot more sense to have new versions or updates every few months or so, so that the game doesnt just stale for 2 years without a single change. (doesn't have to be major changes all the time, but knowing that the game is improving/changing is important in my eyes)
- Half time switch as suggested by some players seems like a nice idea too, and would perhaps "solve" the unbalanced map issues. I think this is an idea to test, but I don't see many drawbacks to it.
- Being able to mod your own client. Ofc i don't mean cheating-wise, but being able to easily change skins, playermodels, pickups
- The idea was thrown around and I think it might a great improvement for AC but idk if it is possible (jamz plz?) : Separate the masterserver into 2 parts, an official one and a custom one. The first one would contain official map rotations with modes such as CTF,T/DM,T/OSOK,LSS,HTF and maybe allow some custom maps that are suited for those gamemodes (ex : Apollo maps, $n!p3r's maps). While the other one would be mainly for custom modes like GEMA, Zombie mode or other goofy maps like Twintowers, camper@camper which are maps that many players obviously enjoy playing on. Whether you like it or not, you can't deny that those servers are full most of the times which means that people actually have fun playing it. Also, most of the "accomplished" players now could confirm that we've almost all went through this TOSOK/LSS fun period when discovering the game, and eventually discovered more serious and "tactical" modes such as CTF,HTF,TDM etc...
- Remove all of the map restrictions. You've been trying too hard to remove the fun from the game. If people have fun playing goofy and crazy looking maps with tens pickups/m² then let them have their fun. It makes no sense to add restrictions to prevent people from having fun because it's not funny to you or because the game wasn't meant to be played like this.
Welp, the game has changed and developped, and if you can't accept that, you probably have nothing to do in the developping team.
To picture it with an example, it would be as if you were the mayor of your town and disliked blue color, and decided that from now on, you would prevent anyone from wearing blue because you hate the color and your town wasn't meant to have blue in it. (sounds pretty stupid uh?)
- Gameplay is fine as it is and I don't have much to say about it since it's what makes AC very special imo. But the weapon balance can be tweaked a little I think. The SMG is fine as it is, the sniper is a good weapon now, since a good sniper will manage to kill his opponent and take few damage providing he hits his sniper shot. Carbine is "OK" i guess, it's pretty strong if you have a good aim but risky since you will probably die to an automatic weapon user if you miss one shot. Shotgun I'm not sure, it's still a bad weapon to use in CTF 2v2s or 3v3s unless you're in a small map and know how to play the shotgun style (betting on splat, corner shots and close distance fights). AR is bad, pls bring back 1.1 Assault Rifle to make it even with the SMG power and I think we'd have a good balance.
- Official maps. Either remove some of it (cavern, scaffold, rattrap, stellar, venison..) or add a lot more to them (like i wrote before some of Apollos maps are great). I'm not really sure which is the best, but in one case remove maps that are unpopular and unplayed/unplayable (too small, too big, or too messy) OR add more "custom" maps that suit the official map style and are fun to play in official modes.
- After game stats are a good thing. I don't really care too much about my stats but I know many players do. Having a recap list of the things you did during the game (dmg dealt, flags stolen, # of pickups etc... pretty much anything that contributes to your score) would be great.
- Modes like TLSS, PF, TPF, TKTF, KTF should be added to the mod masterver. Those modes are rarely played and apparently not very fun to many people and it would make sense to put them as a option for custom servers. Also, maybe add Lucas's spawnpoint gamemode in the custom part for now, to try it and maybe make it official in a later version.
- An official ladder. Even though it might be hard to set up, it would be great if playing and trying to improve and play great was meaningful and if you could be rewarded for it in a ladder system.
- It's not really related to the next version but I wish there was more events organised from AC's official side. Atm it feels it's always external people who try to set up things and I wish there was more official tournaments organised by people who belong to the AC squad (which would most likely require to recruit more people into the AC team squad)
- Finally, I think having 2 years waiting before a release is a big no-no. It simply can't and shouldn't happen to a game and is what hurt AC a lot. A game needs to be active and changing in order to have its players keep interest in it. Unless the game is perfect, balanced and fun (which is hardly possible), there will always be things to change, add, fix or improve. It would make a lot more sense to have new versions or updates every few months or so, so that the game doesnt just stale for 2 years without a single change. (doesn't have to be major changes all the time, but knowing that the game is improving/changing is important in my eyes)
3.
The developping team is a big problem and also one of the major reasons why this game has been dying. I've said it 2 years ago, and I'll say it again and again. A team with developpers from an open source game, who do not wish to receive help from a community who's willing to help is wrong. This community has (or had) everything, whether it's for scripts (Bukz, grenadier..), maps (Z3R0, Exoduss, Undead, yopa..), mods (Cleaner, X RAY DOG, Krayce), weapon testing (Waffles, Vanquish, xenon, Sanzo), coding (Lucas, Larry, TheNihilanth, Phantom, FelixTheGhost), events (Nightmare, Endgame,Music) . All those people are/were part of the community and would have brought AC a whole new life if the dev team had been more opened to changes and requests.
It seems as though some developpers are so attached to the old version of the game they played with that they don't want it to change. Which is, when you think about it, pretty contrary to the idea of being a developper where you're supposed to develop and make the game progress.
To quote makkE, one of the most important developed and elder of this game : "I guess my personality got a little in the way of this project in cases. I think I was emposing my personal understanding of FPS gaming and my pride too much on this project without seeing the reality of the player's perception of the game [...] This has let to some rather unpopular decisions made by me and the team [...] at the time, my stubborness prevented me from just letting things evolve naturally, and to listen to those who actually played the game on a daily basis also those who put a lot of dedication into it."
Looking at you stef & RandumKiwi, throwing bans or warnings to whoever argues against your opinion.
To any of the developpers, if you don't want the game to change, you should just quit, people are/were ready to replace you and join the team. The game doesn't need you, the community doesn't need people who are constantly bitching about new ideas and who can't have an open mind to things that are suggested. I'm not saying every idea suggested is brilliant and should be implemented, but many ideas were brought to the dev-team eyes and were ignored or rejected without any explanations (Larry's half time code and pause , Undead's iceroad rework, the weapon balance, removal of some official maps...)
As for the "pause issue" which seems to be the big thing in this thread, it shows again through stef why the game is not progressing and why it's dying. Despite 90% of the people in this thread calling it a great feature to have, he stills camps in his position and claims it won't make any good use and there are alternative ways. What about no? We don't want your alternative ways, we want a pause. Just give the players a pause command. It's been successful in many games and many people have pointed out why it is useful or why it's a pain in the arse not to have one.
If you're already arguing over minor things (we're talking about a /pause command where the code was already written and tested (?) by Larry) that have been acknowledge by many people and where there's almost no negative points; how is it going to be when we discuss way more complex and sensible topics like weapon balance, masterserver changes or development team management.
Finally, to stef : When was the last time you've played a game of Assault Cube? Was it a public game or an inter/2v2/3v3 in the main quality mode which is CTF ?
Because I feel like you have an approach and view of the game that's pretty outdated, and it's very necessary for a developper to keep up to date with the game he's leading the development of...
If the development team is renewed and enlarged, I believe less than 6 months would be required to implement most of the changes that were mentionned in this thread.
It seems as though some developpers are so attached to the old version of the game they played with that they don't want it to change. Which is, when you think about it, pretty contrary to the idea of being a developper where you're supposed to develop and make the game progress.
To quote makkE, one of the most important developed and elder of this game : "I guess my personality got a little in the way of this project in cases. I think I was emposing my personal understanding of FPS gaming and my pride too much on this project without seeing the reality of the player's perception of the game [...] This has let to some rather unpopular decisions made by me and the team [...] at the time, my stubborness prevented me from just letting things evolve naturally, and to listen to those who actually played the game on a daily basis also those who put a lot of dedication into it."
Looking at you stef & RandumKiwi, throwing bans or warnings to whoever argues against your opinion.
To any of the developpers, if you don't want the game to change, you should just quit, people are/were ready to replace you and join the team. The game doesn't need you, the community doesn't need people who are constantly bitching about new ideas and who can't have an open mind to things that are suggested. I'm not saying every idea suggested is brilliant and should be implemented, but many ideas were brought to the dev-team eyes and were ignored or rejected without any explanations (Larry's half time code and pause , Undead's iceroad rework, the weapon balance, removal of some official maps...)
As for the "pause issue" which seems to be the big thing in this thread, it shows again through stef why the game is not progressing and why it's dying. Despite 90% of the people in this thread calling it a great feature to have, he stills camps in his position and claims it won't make any good use and there are alternative ways. What about no? We don't want your alternative ways, we want a pause. Just give the players a pause command. It's been successful in many games and many people have pointed out why it is useful or why it's a pain in the arse not to have one.
If you're already arguing over minor things (we're talking about a /pause command where the code was already written and tested (?) by Larry) that have been acknowledge by many people and where there's almost no negative points; how is it going to be when we discuss way more complex and sensible topics like weapon balance, masterserver changes or development team management.
Finally, to stef : When was the last time you've played a game of Assault Cube? Was it a public game or an inter/2v2/3v3 in the main quality mode which is CTF ?
Because I feel like you have an approach and view of the game that's pretty outdated, and it's very necessary for a developper to keep up to date with the game he's leading the development of...
If the development team is renewed and enlarged, I believe less than 6 months would be required to implement most of the changes that were mentionned in this thread.
To conclude
I'm not really sure whether we can still save the game and get it back to where it was (popular, fun with a pretty big player base) since many community people have left.
The generation of players that were between 14-18 about 3 years ago are now all moving forward in life and most of us are at university or working which leads less room and time to dedicate yourself to the game. Despite the fact that this generation of players was ready to help and dedicate time for this game 2-3 years ago, their help wasnt taken in account. Now those people either left or don't have enough time, and we're being surprised that the dev-team is so limited in numbers....
The problem is that the 2nd generation of players who discovered this game during the past 2 years and are/were 14-15 years old did not bother to stay. Or very few of them stayed (xemi, Luck, al3rt, Luxima on the top of my head).
Because of that 2 years abyssal period where nothing happened and nothing changed, people did not see the point of staying in a game where there was few changes, and where their fun was constantly challenged and pushed away (fighting for GEMA and "unconventional" maps to be allowed).
I'm hoping this game will be able to kickback, because quite frankly, I'm attached to it, but I'm afraid it is too late...
The generation of players that were between 14-18 about 3 years ago are now all moving forward in life and most of us are at university or working which leads less room and time to dedicate yourself to the game. Despite the fact that this generation of players was ready to help and dedicate time for this game 2-3 years ago, their help wasnt taken in account. Now those people either left or don't have enough time, and we're being surprised that the dev-team is so limited in numbers....
The problem is that the 2nd generation of players who discovered this game during the past 2 years and are/were 14-15 years old did not bother to stay. Or very few of them stayed (xemi, Luck, al3rt, Luxima on the top of my head).
Because of that 2 years abyssal period where nothing happened and nothing changed, people did not see the point of staying in a game where there was few changes, and where their fun was constantly challenged and pushed away (fighting for GEMA and "unconventional" maps to be allowed).
I'm hoping this game will be able to kickback, because quite frankly, I'm attached to it, but I'm afraid it is too late...
Anyways, that's it for my wall of text, I hope you'll take the time to read it all, if you care enough :>
I'm out !