ideas....

[Silentwings]

My two pence worth... I don't see a problem with autohosts but I think the bigger autohosts (in term of number of players) causes problems.

1) The games tend to take longer (maybe 45 mins is avereage 12v12 player game, whereas average 8v8 is only maybe 30 mins, do we have stats on this?).

2) There are less games playing at any one time. On a busy night there are maybe 40 people playing BA - this is 2 lots of 12v12 and 3 lots of 8v8. Spring players in general are lazy in that many people only will join a game if it's already got plenty of people in it. So compared to 8v8, the average length of time before the next game starts is >50% longer with two 12v12s going and >30% longer with one 12v12 going.

3) Less games means there is less segregation in terms of ability, so newbies have literally no option but to join in big games which they can't really play (and be shouted at)

4) Bigger games means more games fail because of trolls and failures to connect. Also there is the mob effect - much more satisfying to troll in a huge group of people, no fun in ruining a 4v4.

I'm not suggesting it would be a quick solution but putting the player limit per game back to 16 is very easy to code (or maybe down to 14) and (for as long as there are less than ~60 players in BA games at any one time) I think it makes spring a much more attractive game.

[knorke]

problem is known, there is baww about it all the time ie:
http://springrts.com/phpbb/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=25581
http://springrts.com/phpbb/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=25837
...
Where are your "ideas"?
Lowering upper player limit would just cause all kind of drama.

[Silentwings]

In neither of the threads you link to is there a discussion of my point.

The first link is about new players only, and I actually wanted to put my post into jj's thread. But (despite having played spring for 5 years) I hardly ever post on the forums and must have pressed a wrong button somewhere.

And "all kinds of drama" is not an argument. Sure, some people would complain. But I think not for long because an 8v8 still has most of the characteristics that I imagine these people like; players to hide behind, huge porc and t3, option to try wierd stuff without screwing a whole team over, etc.

[Forboding Angel]

If you've been here 5 years you have a short memory.

It took a long time to get the spring devs to open up games to more than 8 ppl at a time. Personally 10 people total would have been enough, but meh whatever.

[TradeMark]

4) Also there is the mob effect - much more satisfying to troll in a huge group of people, no fun in ruining a 4v4.

indeed

i've said it before, i say it again: make the >8 player games only for registered users (50Ôé¼ for registration, thats how much games cost these days... rite?).

[Silentwings]

If you've been here 5 years you have a short memory.

Neither of my posts said anything about what happened in the past. I know how long it took... with the benefit of hindsight we ought to be able to think of something better.

[11041]

4) Also there is the mob effect - much more satisfying to troll in a huge group of people, no fun in ruining a 4v4.

indeed

i've said it before, i say it again: make the >8 player games only for registered users (50Ôé¼ for registration, thats how much games cost these days... rite?).

you almost have me tempted to do someting like that
10 euro for registration, we provide a lobby for registered users.

Probably have to look at finding some moderators.

[TradeMark]

well, you cant do it alone... i mean nobody would join your lobby server if it costs 10Ôé¼ while theres a free one already with no limits

the main server should be done like this IMO, it would be totally legit too, no copyright issues etc... since we're not selling BA here.

i am sure it would generate enough money to actually run this place... and some extra to buy programmers... (lol) well, 50Ôé¼ was a bit exaggerated, but if it was 5Ôé¼, anyone would buy it. Over the years we've got over 200000 registered accounts, if even 1% of them bought the registered version with 5Ôé¼, we would have been able to run this show for 16 years with that money, assuming it costs 600Ôé¼/year?

[Cheesecan]

We already applied to Google summer of code, Google pay programmers out of their own wallet and we get a better game. Don't know how that worked out though.

I think there is no shortage of programmers here, if programmers wanted to make games for spring that is. I mean if I was making a game, I would be inclined to make contributions to the source code whenever I needed it.

[smoth]

Pay servers are fucking stupid that is a dumb idea I won't debate it either. Stupid idea lets move on

[TradeMark]

haha smoth hatin' just coz its my idea

[smoth]

Nope I think monetizing spring is a bad idea. I have always strongly felt that spring and her titles should be free

[TradeMark]

yeah, you felt... spring is not you

[Wombat]

the main server should be done like this IMO, it would be totally legit too, no copyright issues etc

how is it legit ? spring is open-source project so only donations are allowed, no ?

anyway, paying for second acc could be good idea ^^

[smoth]

Lol if spring went pay to join the server it would be funny when someone starts a free server.

[TradeMark]

Lol if spring went pay to join the server it would be funny when someone starts a free server.

i didnt say "pay to join" ... i said "more than 8 players in one room would need registered account"

also... who cares if they made own free server? they have to pay it too. And with our income we can offer people much more epic servers.

being afraid that "someone will make it free anyways!" is just silly.

how is it legit ? spring is open-source project so only donations are allowed, no ?

lol wuut... where does it say opensource projects cant cost money to the users? just because you can steal the source and compile, doesnt mean you can get good servers for free too, otherwise we wouldnt be paying 600Ôé¼/year...

[Wombat]

hmmm, ok should use 'and' instead of 'so'...

anyway, i still dont see how is it legit. its GNU GPL, it was released under this license, none of the current devs actually made this engine (ye i know its basicly totaly new creation since swedish pplz)

idea sounds bit odd for me

[TradeMark]

could you paste the part in GNU GPL where it says we cant sell parts of our services to the users?

also, the lobby server != spring game engine.

we are not taking the money for ourselves here... its only for the project and to pay the servers.

the 8pl limit is just the beginning... registered users would receive much more than that ofc. for example, you can host games with those autohosts (forgot whats it called, relayhost?)

it would be so easy to make people pay for this shit. so why not?

[Wombat]

i thought that GNU GPL automaticly means stuff is free.

also, the lobby server != spring game engine.

ah, now it makes bit more sense, but i still dont see how it could possibly work :'

it would be so easy to make people pay for this shit.

dont think so tbh ( i mean, they wouldnt want to)

EDIT - i just dont see how could forcing players to pay for spring work, if donations are barely sufficient. tbh i think spring could use more 'DONATE' buttons here and there. majority of players dont even know about this forum.

[PTSnoop]

GNU GPL does allow people to charge money (RHEL does this), as long as you release the code.

However, once you've released the code there's nothing stopping other people giving it away for free. I'm pretty sure that if the official server started charging for some features, someone would set up an unofficial free server, and most of the playerbase would change servers.