XTA future

XTA future

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scifi
Posts: 848
Joined: 10 May 2009, 12:27

XTA future

Post by scifi »

ok so whats to become of XTA

Popularity has decreased as so the number of games, whats to become of this mod

Some people say , that a fast fix to dgun live and scout wrecks would do well to the mod.

1┬║Maybe noruas release a fast fix to these two situations, or allow someone else to do it???

2┬║What is the future, i mean is that new engine release going to change that mutch, if its just some bug fixes they could be done now.

3┬║Since prety mutch everyone stoped playing xta, the bug fixes wouldnt even mater tbh.

4┬║ Also whats to change???? rather than dgun live and wrecks???

Myself i liked xta, even felt like doing something for it but tbh this mod is just dead, if nothing apears before the new engine release...........

Not like Basic, me, shift, babbles, hermuld, maybe pintle make up a playerbase, even most of these dont play.

I can fix the above but this isnt what xta needs, it needs more, it needs grafical updates, some gameplay changes spetialy sea e.t.c...
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Gota
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Joined: 11 Jan 2008, 16:55

Re: XTA future

Post by Gota »

I know Deadnight warrior has been doing stuff and so has raar.
If Noruas doesn't want to work on it any more than decide what are the popular demands for change and i am sure we can work something out and release a "bugfix" version.
babbles
Posts: 564
Joined: 22 Jul 2008, 02:30

Re: XTA future

Post by babbles »

As far as I can tell, the playerbase is me, shift, deadnight, braindamage and the odd new player. and duckomen....

Deadnight has made an XTA 9.62 or something, with graphical updates/removal or error spam/adding of lua. Braindamage made a no-dgun-and-live version.

imo, XTA should have a new devoloper/team to try get it going again. Starting with the removal of D-gun and live and a release with all the updates that deadnight added.
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manolo_
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Re: XTA future

Post by manolo_ »

dont forget 2-3 cows, but who wants to do it?
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Gota
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Re: XTA future

Post by Gota »

manolo_ wrote:dont forget 2-3 cows, but who wants to do it?
I think you should.
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scifi
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Re: XTA future

Post by scifi »

ive been playing 1v1s with hermuld and 3 way ffas with manolo as well, had some games with floris also.

I dont mind contributing, if deadnigth and raar wish to contribute we could form up a team.
Only if theres a team of more than 1 person ill gladly join. :wink:

what about tribulex, (havent seen him in ages)
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oksnoop2
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Joined: 29 Aug 2009, 20:12

Re: XTA future

Post by oksnoop2 »

I think he was banned.
malric
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Joined: 30 Dec 2005, 22:22

Re: XTA future

Post by malric »

In fact I have played lately with more people than those listed in this thread... Maybe is the summer vacation that causes partially low number of games ? For some days of the week (and strange hours) there is no other game open except BA...
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hoijui
Former Engine Dev
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Joined: 22 Sep 2007, 09:51

Re: XTA future

Post by hoijui »

maybe create a Git/SVN repo, and have a "build-bot", which would just pack it all up into an sd7, or publish through rapid.
with that, it would probably be less of a hurdle to do a change on XTA.
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FaerieWithBoots
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Joined: 17 Jun 2009, 13:21

Re: XTA future

Post by FaerieWithBoots »

I am here, just been busy lately (and playing some starcraft)
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Gota
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Joined: 11 Jan 2008, 16:55

Re: XTA future

Post by Gota »

FaerieWithBoots wrote:playing starcraft
That's a bannable offense.
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Sucky_Lord
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Joined: 22 Aug 2008, 16:29

Re: XTA future

Post by Sucky_Lord »

The ingame chat needs to be beautified, at the moment its kinda hard to read what people write, let alone know when they write something!

I think the main thing that deters people from xta is that theyre always fighting the pro players. If youre a noob and you start a game for the first time, yet you get pwned every time you play for the first 3-4 years, youre not going to stick around. I guess the way to solve this is to introduce a large number of new players at one time, and then keep recruiting.

Though there's no point in recruiting at the moment until the bugs are fixed and it looks and feels better
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AF
AI Developer
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Joined: 14 Sep 2004, 11:32

Re: XTA future

Post by AF »

  • XTA is a tactical game, it is twice as tactical as XTA 2 years ago, and in 2 years time it will be twice as tactical again. The reason for this is that the counterweight to pro tactician aka the pro strategecian, is being selected against, and they have generally moved away.
  • Stubbornness
    If I complain that the much loved Strategic elements of XTA are gone, Im told to piss off to BOTA or BA.
    If a new user comes along, theyre met with an unfriendly UI. When asking about widgets, they're told to STFU, anyone can install their own widgets themselves, leave it alone
  • There is no interest in playing at any level other than max skill. I played Pro level years ago, and whenever I attempt to reinsert myself, Im massacred, under the pretense that I'm a good player, despite 2 years of repeated failures.
    Now Im experienced in general, Im a developer, what must a noob think when presented with this? No wonder the conversion rate is so apalling. Dont throw up the one or two examples either, they pale in comparison to even EvoRTS, nevermind CA and BA.
  • Inability to learn
    Why have the uber Pro XTA players that are no more gone?
  • Perpetual excuses.
    So after the summer holiday downturn where everybodies having their summer break, theres the start of the school year, then theres the xmas holidays, then more school, wait what exactly is the time of the year when we dont have some kind of downturn? Shouldnt summer break be an upturn?!?!
XTA is a dieing game, and in order to save it, its userbase encouraged the very things that were killing it, despite us all knowing better in the beginning when the problem was known. I expect most of you to refute my points, but it won't make any difference because all you have to do is look at the hard stats.

My points are not opinion. They are not figures either. They are experience. I said them because they happened to me, and I saw it happening to others. I am not the only ex XTA player who has raised them, and they have never been addressed.


I leave you with the following problem:

XTA selects heavily against people who cannot micro and do fast tactical movements, yet there is a whole class of people who could play XTA very well, who would enjoy it, yet cannot because XTA has been setup thanks to the player styles of a small number of players to be horrifically merciless against this one weakness. Development of XTA has focused on their strengths, not XTAs weaknesses. There is no longer an overall balance.

So how do you preserve the current mechanic while allowing for the various other mechanics which have been sidelined and become unfavoured? Marching your commander up aggressively isn't the only way to win games, you shouldnt need your commander to win, even though you can use it solely to win.
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Jazcash
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Re: XTA future

Post by Jazcash »

AF wrote: XTA is a dieing game
I hate to be a party pooper but I cannot let such vulgarities past my eyeballs without them widening in disgust. It was all going to well until I spotted this piece of disgraceful haddock.

Oh and I don't like XTA because it is too slow. I like fast paced games.
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JohannesH
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Re: XTA future

Post by JohannesH »

AF wrote:
  • XTA is a tactical game, it is twice as tactical as XTA 2 years ago, and in 2 years time it will be twice as tactical again. The reason for this is that the counterweight to pro tactician aka the pro strategecian, is being selected against, and they have generally moved away.
Eh, you mean people actually know how to play this game better, while you are still bad? If someone can't micro to save their lives, and always loses to that, chances are they have bad strategies and macromanagement as well, not just bad micro.

Learn the basics first, before that you can't really formulate good strategies. And anyone can learn them with a bit of effort to the level where they can survive vs your ordinary XTA player decently.
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AF
AI Developer
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Re: XTA future

Post by AF »

hah I used to be very good at XTA, and played every night for months, I had a good reputation, heck I founded the #xta channel, and I modelled the fusion reactors and wrote the odd lua gadget. Im not a noob that got pissed that he never figured out the game. I've won my fair share of XTA battles against people like barto or pintle in their hayday, I made XTA NTais speciality back in the day and stood ground for years.

Ive been here 5 years and Im intricately tied to just about every project in this forum or have been at some point, so dont dismiss me as a noob who just arrived and got pissed off
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knorke
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Re: XTA future

Post by knorke »

XTA selects heavily against people who cannot micro and do fast tactical movements, yet there is a whole class of people who could play XTA very well, who would enjoy it, yet cannot because XTA has been setup thanks to the player styles of a small number of players to be horrifically merciless against this one weakness. Development of XTA has focused on their strengths, not XTAs weaknesses. There is no longer an overall balance.
Well there might be games where a noob loses to 1 microed weasel that destroys all the winds.
But in ie starcraft you can also lose to a handfull of rush units in the first minutes if, as terran player, you do not know to make a wallin (close ramp to base with depots+barrack) So maybe new players should try starting with an lasertower. Its usually not a good idea but if it helps to survive longer than 5 minutes, why not? On a map with 3 start mex it is probally ok. Or play other maps where the startbase is very compact ie cooper hill. Other maps (icy run) are not as noobfriendly.

And in teamgames newbs can just sit back and relax as in BA. Actually that should be easier in xta as units die slower.
Now Im experienced in general, Im a developer, what must a noob think when presented with this? No wonder the conversion rate is so apalling. Dont throw up the one or two examples either, they pale in comparison to even EvoRTS, nevermind CA and BA.
Haha but actually in CA every player is a CA dev or modeller ;)
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JohannesH
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Re: XTA future

Post by JohannesH »

Sorry but you sound like you don't just want to learn to play a better style than the one worked back in the days... If you're really good strategist, make builds that don't rely on micro as much! Or just learn to micro better - I don't see why you couldn't, ask for advice if you can't figure out how to by yourself.

I will agree that XTA scouts are ridiculously good and it hurts the game a bit, but they're quite easy to micro by anyone as far as I see.

But in any RTS fast thinking good multitaskers do well. I don't see a way around it really...
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AF
AI Developer
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Re: XTA future

Post by AF »

Why are you pinning this on me and my own skills? The longstanding issue here is that the barrier to entry for XTA is stupendously high, and the barrier to BA is much lower. The easiest way of procuring TA is BA, and the shift to reach XTA standards to have anything but humiliating defeat is too high.

This is why we had the problem in the first place back all those years ago, and it has only gotten worse. Right now XTA is reaching a dead end, it is now a niche game for a minority of players, and it has entrenched itself in that situation.

I don't like how your all painting me as an inflexible person who will play XTA as it was when Noize was in charge or some other ancient era, who refuses to bow to change. These days when I have ventured into an XTA game I have gone to great lengths to point out Im rusty and I need to learn, and everytime it has been completely ignored, either by being paired up with a noob on the grounds Im good, I got nice shiny rank, Itll balance out, followed by a massacre, or Im treated as anyone else and its another massacre.

I don't enjoy indiscriminate loss after loss after loss, so I don't play, and I get called an arse hole for it, and when I try to join and spec so I can look at what people do and learn, Im heckled for not unspeccing, so I leave and join a BA game rather than put up with it.
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Neddie
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Re: XTA future

Post by Neddie »

I played more XTA this year than I did in the the prior two. I do agree that it is increasingly tactical, rather than operational, but I don't see this as a cause for the seeming decline in players. Otherwise, carry on.
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