How to get more players now?

[momfreeek]

ESC brings up Spring's main menu (resign, save, give everything, quit). If you override this, where will it move?

to the new menu you implement for escape. Perhaps under an 'exit game' button.

[zwzsg]

No one knows F11? Maybe they should bring back the Eyes widget, which was supplied with Spring. Very annoying, but everyone knew from start that F11 existed.

Adding more annoying clutter to first time users is not "how to get more players now". Design a GUI that is simple when games starts, and where it's intuitive to find what you look for. Make an Apple product. Not a Linux product.

ESC brings up Spring's main menu (resign, save, give everything, quit). If you override this, where will it move? What would be a better key for game ending actions?

Well, I trust anyone ovveriding esc main menu to put the current ESC menu functionalities back in their own custom menu.

[Otherside]

seeing as the GUI wont be done for a while and this is a problem CA is suffering now.

The widget Culling should start now!!!!!.

[CarRepairer]

cars widgets sux

cars widgets sux

cars widgets sux

cars widgets sux

cars widgets sux

cars widgets sux

cars widgets sux

if the F11 list fails really badly maybe there can be an alternative list made with LUA ? . Which with a keystroke other than F11 brings out a complete list of the LUA with descriptions with a good scrollable menu which closes when you hit escape.

OH REALLY GOOD IDEA HEY GUESS WHAT GO PRESS ESC RIGHT NOW and please stop talking forever.

On a more serious note, no we're not going to have the widget list easily available because it doesn't ever need to be. Players will play CA not need to ever hear or read the word widget.

[Pxtl]

So, the takeaway from this whole thread is basically: yeah, we know, we're working on it.

I mean really, all this heat and noise over two things, really: removing the Overdrive and the LockCam widgets from default loadout, and enabling the little-red-X on the Nubtron as "always on" instead of rollover-only.

Everybody agrees that the default positioning of the widgets sucks, but they've been sitting in the middle of the screen for years. What happened?

[JohannesH]

On a more serious note, no we're not going to have the widget list easily available because it doesn't ever need to be. Players will play CA not need to ever hear or read the word widget.

They need it now at least, because of all the shit thats thrown at them. Maybe that will change sometime but even then they need it if they want to turn some of those on.

[Licho]

* crude menu hidden and bound to f12
* overdrive panel hidden, unfortunately replaced by still unpolished resource bars
* nubtron off by default
* camera lock off by default


in short: no more floating windows (i hope)

[zwzsg]

On a more serious note, no we're not going to have the widget list easily available because it doesn't ever need to be. Players will play CA not need to ever hear or read the word widget.

That's the right way of thinking!

* nubtron off by default

By the time people find how to activate the nubtron, it will be too late for them to learn anything from it. Just make it less invasive, make nubtron something that sit in a corner and can be easily ignored for instance.

[Pxtl]

I think the "X Always Visible" thing for the nubtron is the big improvement it needed... and yeah, not being in the middle of the screen would help.

I mean, I know widgets are movable, but it may not be obvious to a noob, so a more reasonable start position and an always-visible "x" would probably be enough for the nubtron.

[momfreeek]

Nubtron reminds me of Clippy. Maybe it does benefit nubs enough to be an overall positive thing, I dunno.. you ever get any feedback on it?

[ash2life]

i got my girlfriend to play a game of CA with me and she totaly freaked out when the game loaded and Nubtron and the Crudemenu aswell other stuff poped up all around the screen -

she nicknames Kbots as Kebab's - i found that funny

[CarRepairer]

I'd put the menu at the top by default, but for some reason spring puts resource bars up there so you can keep an eye on them while you're chatting, very useful when I'm discussing my push/pull with other people.

[Dotz]

you want to know how to get more players? resolve the issues that the people who troll against it complain about! mine for example.

you say its graphics related, but it works in single player. also: this is the only mod that doesn't work for me. alot of other anti-ca people hate it for a specific reason as well.

[Otherside]

Cars widgets always crop up in horrible places.

I still hold him mostly responsible for CA's downfall

if you read his developer page you can see he has contributed nothing of real value just a mass of widgets of which most people have them turned off.

crude menu
ceasefire panel
nubtron
etc etc

so yes i think hes an idiot who doesnt fully understand new players.

[luckywaldo7]

crude menu
ceasefire panel
nubtron

he has contributed nothing of real value

O_o

Those were three really good widgets imho. Ceasefire panel is great for ffa, crude menu is the future of ingame settings, and nubtron works well enough (it took me all of 4 seconds to mouse over and find the close option the first time it came up for me).

A big reason that CA doesn't get played is because it doesn't get played. As soon as we get about 8 people in a game then there is no holding back the flood of people who join. Most people just prefer huge team games which don't happen often enough in CA.

[Otherside]

seeing as alot of the oldplayers who contributed the vast majority of people in big multiplayer games have left or been less active. It was up to new people to fill the void.

The biggest complaint from new people is the widget clutter/mess at first start up.

So it is very much a problem and has something to do with the small playerbase atm.

[momfreeek]

but why did the old players leave?

Yes, you need to improve first impressions so new players aren't put off immediately but if you just ignore all the things the old players complain about, what makes you think these new players are going to stick around?

[Otherside]

the old players complained about the lack of playerbase so its very much related .

[Andrej]

Cant say for others but i quit playing CA after getting teamed up with CArRepairer in a game.
He was totally useless so i whined like a little girl and dgunned his winds
then got kicked by det. Feels good man.
Oh, i watched the replay and it turned out that except some initial building placement his whole game was played by some kind of AI widget script unless he claims he can issue multiple commands per frame.

I think Otherside-chan is on to something lol.

I still hold him mostly responsible for CA's downfall
so yes i think hes an idiot

I actually came back but someone had the great idea to make lurker springie admin. I dont think this one needs any comments but just in case..

Logging started on Sun Oct 26 17:21:47 2008
<Me> kicked for what?
<[SmuG]lurker> didn't you try to self-destruct?
<[SmuG]lurker> explain to me how those were your mexes?
<Me> selfdestruct cancelled at 1 second remaining
<Me> watch replay for confirmation
<Me> did you spectate from start?
<Me> my ally did not cap them
<Me> then i gave him the mex he requested and god called me an asshole like 5 seconds AFTER
<Me> gg i guess
<[SmuG]lurker> mexes are dirt cheap, should have given him all the mexes that he should have capped
<[SmuG]lurker> you were expanding north at the time
<[SmuG]lurker> for many many more
<Me> what would he build with them all his stuff got killed
<[SmuG]lurker> he had a lab
<Me> dgunned lab even i remember that one
<Me> so he did not
<[SmuG]lurker> he managed to build a new lab pretty fast
<[SmuG]lurker> then
<Me> i gave him the mex
<Me> then god called kick on me
<Me> then you gave the remaining mexes
<Me> then i started and cancelled a selfd
<[SmuG]lurker> remaining...
<Me> then i got kicked
<[SmuG]lurker> what, 3 mexes?
<[SmuG]lurker> as you claimed 8 more?
<[SmuG]lurker> how close did the self-d get?
<[SmuG]lurker> I was panicing
<Me> i think the 1 sec remaining message printed
<Me> have the timing down to frames you know 3years of selfd experience
<[SmuG]lurker> because the pause key wasn't working when I was entering a chat message
<Me> k so we file mantis report
<[SmuG]lurker> sorry about the kick; realize that other people see the self-d message
<[SmuG]lurker> and have no idea your intentions

Yeah if i wanted intricate 30 min dialogues, Q&A and/or character development sessions i would go play a JRPG not spring.

The Law says that as long as level of admin/dev assholery is nonzero
the probability of players leaving over time approaches 1.

Cant complain about it to the lobby mods because they ARE the lobby mods or at least BFF moddev forever <333 with some.

[Regret]

Cant say for others but i quit playing CA after getting teamed up with CArRepairer in a game.
He was totally useless so i whined like a little girl and dgunned his winds
then got kicked by det. Feels good man.
Oh, i watched the replay and it turned out that except some initial building placement his whole game was played by some kind of AI widget script unless he claims he can issue multiple commands per frame.

I think Otherside-chan is on to something lol.

I still hold him mostly responsible for CA's downfall
so yes i think hes an idiot

I actually came back but someone had the great idea to make lurker springie admin. I dont think this one needs any comments but just in case..

Logging started on Sun Oct 26 17:21:47 2008
<Me> kicked for what?
<[SmuG]lurker> didn't you try to self-destruct?
<[SmuG]lurker> explain to me how those were your mexes?
<Me> selfdestruct cancelled at 1 second remaining
<Me> watch replay for confirmation
<Me> did you spectate from start?
<Me> my ally did not cap them
<Me> then i gave him the mex he requested and god called me an asshole like 5 seconds AFTER
<Me> gg i guess
<[SmuG]lurker> mexes are dirt cheap, should have given him all the mexes that he should have capped
<[SmuG]lurker> you were expanding north at the time
<[SmuG]lurker> for many many more
<Me> what would he build with them all his stuff got killed
<[SmuG]lurker> he had a lab
<Me> dgunned lab even i remember that one
<Me> so he did not
<[SmuG]lurker> he managed to build a new lab pretty fast
<[SmuG]lurker> then
<Me> i gave him the mex
<Me> then god called kick on me
<Me> then you gave the remaining mexes
<Me> then i started and cancelled a selfd
<[SmuG]lurker> remaining...
<Me> then i got kicked
<[SmuG]lurker> what, 3 mexes?
<[SmuG]lurker> as you claimed 8 more?
<[SmuG]lurker> how close did the self-d get?
<[SmuG]lurker> I was panicing
<Me> i think the 1 sec remaining message printed
<Me> have the timing down to frames you know 3years of selfd experience
<[SmuG]lurker> because the pause key wasn't working when I was entering a chat message
<Me> k so we file mantis report
<[SmuG]lurker> sorry about the kick; realize that other people see the self-d message
<[SmuG]lurker> and have no idea your intentions

Yeah if i wanted intricate 30 min dialogues, Q&A and/or character development sessions i would go play a JRPG not spring.

The Law says that as long as level of admin/dev assholery is nonzero
the probability of players leaving over time approaches 1.

Cant complain about it to the lobby mods because they ARE the lobby mods or at least BFF moddev forever <333 with some.

Quoted for honest and epic truth.

Also inbeforedeletion.