Spring RTS Engine

No one can deny that Spring's popularity is at an all time low. I understand that we are a long way from being able to download mods and maps online. But in the next version, we need the built in compatibilty to choose our mods the same as we choose our maps.
I really want to play SWTA, AA, EvOTA, and Gundam but I can never find anyone playing them. I think it's critical to get this functionality in ASAP. Something as simple as a mod folder, with subfolders within it each representing a mod, and each file in there is loaded instead of the one in the default Spring directory. Just something so that we can easily choose our mod. Please, the situation is critical!

That's a bit dramatic innit?

This is a beta of a rather obscure game. People who want to help are helping, the majority are sitting in the wings.
When things get done, the people will come.

I'd rather not rush things and have something far more functional.

lol dude I want to play!

Then wait untill it's fully playable, or better yet, help to make it fully playable.
Besides, who's keeping you from playing this version? There are several modswitchers already!

Not me, I'm happy to switch mods. But for fear of finding no one to play, no one else ever switches.

All time low?

It was JUST released. Crikey. Not only that, but it's still in very early beta. And if your not a programmer, please don't ask for a laundry list of functionality without knowing what you are asking.

Hundreds of hours of programming lie ahead for SY and others who help, like me an the amount of work I put in to the new map converter. 80+ hours went into that. Hours of MY time, unpaid, volunteered.

If there are any multi-millionairs out there who are willing to bankroll the effort, by all means, step up. I'd be happy to do this for a living.

-Buggi

WOW! 80 hours? That's phenomenal! But anyway, is a mod switcher that complex? I would have thought it to be as simple as 'load every file in the mod folder, and if it has the same one as one in the default folder, load the mod one instead'.

Or even just when about to load a file, if a file with same name exists in the folder of the selected mod, load that instead. And we don't exactly need a complex gui. I mean you could use the same code for the gui as was used for choosing maps, but instead of picking a sm2 file you pick a folder. Doesn't even need a picture.

I guess it entail other things, too, like the host not only sending the information regarding the map, but the mod too, but still, all that's needed is the name!

Improvements are coming, but it certainly won't be for a while. The only solution I can think of is for someone to pick up the C# client and add the features you mentioned. For me that would be a waste of time however, but for other people wishing to fix the current gameplay for a short while...it might be warranted. I don't think we will see a release of the newer client for at least a month or so. Expect a non-buggy release by the end of the summer tho.

Popularity? All time low? What is this, a Reality TV show?

I have NO trouble of finding some one's game. Then the usual events go as such...

1) I try to be entertaining, spouting whatever i think of
2) We decide to either team up, or FFA!
3) Game begins, I boast that I can defeat them all with 7 arms tied behind my back, and three eyes covered.
4) I get swamped by units that blot out the sky itself.
5) The competent players have a massive slug fest while i watch and eat popcorn!

Dude, last 3 times i have been on there have been one to two other people online, none of which have joined my games (and their hosting didn't work)

sounds like your just unlucky... ive seen at least 10 servers up at the one time. besides, i think id be alot happier with a smaller group of people that are committed to making this game better, than a shitload of n00bs who couldnt give a fuck. i myself have no coding or modelling skills, but these are both things that i am working on fixing so i can help support this wonderful game. if you are truly committed this is something you should also look into.

He got a point.
We are only about 10-20 players who play ofen, and about 10-30??? players who come and go. But spring has been relesed for what, a motnh now? I played if for 6 days and i love it offcourse. The only thing WE non programmers/3ddesingers/wizards can do is spread the word. Which havent been a big sucsees for me at this time

pfft, thinks of modern contemporary art, marketting, endless thoughts on the image, the media blitz in the planning...

oh wait every time we com anywhere near any sort of co-ordinated spreadthe message plan we get big flames that degenerate into masses of logos.

We can't and shouldn't spread this game yet. Until a user friendly Lobby Client is set up, and the game is "free", people won't play it. If you advertise it too much right now, people will try it once, and then give up. They will never try it again.

For now we must have patience, so that we can spread the word later. A massive advertising campaign does need to exist, but we need the right people to promote it. We can't have a bunch of people running around yelling "SPRINGGg111." That is where better project management comes into play. We really need committed artists and designers to join the team and start working on a unified marketing plan. We also need a lot better PR if this game is to be of any success outside of the TA world.

You see I made all those points and tried to do what you said and I just got flamed for it.

However when you think the time si right you knwo where to find me and I'd be happy to help giving that the SY's are satisfied that spring is in a state well enough to deserve mass marketting.

The things is that I prefer to play TA. The most important this is that TA plays much much better, and on my not so high end videocard the game looks crappier than TA itself with 1997 graphics.

Ace07 wrote:We can't and shouldn't spread this game yet. Until a user friendly Lobby Client is set up, and the game is "free", people won't play it. If you advertise it too much right now, people will try it once, and then give up. They will never try it again.

For now we must have patience, so that we can spread the word later. A massive advertising campaign does need to exist, but we need the right people to promote it. We can't have a bunch of people running around yelling "SPRINGGg111." That is where better project management comes into play. We really need committed artists and designers to join the team and start working on a unified marketing plan. We also need a lot better PR if this game is to be of any success outside of the TA world.

when the Team decides that spring can handle a wider audience, why dont you send an email to the UK PCGAMER magazine? The July ABC was 57,023 copies.

They have a section of about 10-13 pages dedicated to all sorts of mods, free games, online culture etc, so TA:S would be perfect for it. They might put it on the cover disc, as they did with a TA unit pack quite a few months back. They'll probably get exactly the right message across when it comes to the promotion side of things.

On the other hand, how many Moderators are there on these forums? you might need more for any large amount of publicity, when numerous idiots start signing in. And how hacker-proof is spring?

Spring's hacker-proof-ness is essentially zilch. It's open source, ANYONE can walk in and start coding. However ... just because somebody edits the code doesn't mean it'll work. I'm guessing that Spring itself, the engine, uses something akin to the unit-sync to verify client playability.

Oh, and ... going big with this right now is a bad idea. We're still using Cavedog material.

.

.. The game is still in the works ....

Right now ... You can play on-line ...

I just finished ... a game ... it was long .. but I WON
at the end ....



I figure in the coming weeks ... its going to get better ...


Looking forward to future releases .....

Expectations were too high, at least for the first release. Maybe eventually spring will be the best RTS ever, but it isn't at the moment. However, everyone expected it to be THE best RTS when it first came out, while it is still a work in progress. It's only played by noobs at the moment, if at all. So I don't think the damage is too great, and if it becomes what we all want it to be then surely it will be successful.