Imperial Winter - where things stand, and how you can help.

[Warlord Zsinj]

I'm still here, I'm just trying to work part time and study full time as well as settle into a new city. Not easy (its been 6 weeks and I'm still on an inflatable mattress...) Haven't forgotten about IW either - I still manage to pop my head into the IW IRC channel most days

[knorke]

I think what everybody wanted to read is more along this:

I still manage to pop my head into the IW game files most days

[Warlord Zsinj]

Yer, 'cept I never did all that much of that even at the height of work
I was the artist and designer, so I did much of the art (along with lynx who did heaps) and then fiddled with text values - much of the lua and other important stuff that needs to be done is beyond me

[Pressure Line]

My bad I was thinking of new Zealand when I posted that..

I kid, i kid, <3 you kiwis.

It's spelt 'shear' here in NZ too smoth

[phas]

REALEASE THE FRAKING STUFF!!! for god's sake

[smoth]

It isn't like you guys would play it. You would play for a few days and go back to dsd

[SirArtturi]

Non sequitur: I would go back to play duck!

Anyway the point here is that this aint one-man project and it's unjust to let all hard work go to waste just because project leader don't have time for it anymore. Pass the lead for somebody else or release it as beta and let the community to complete it!

And regardless smoth argument, there is eager people waiting to play the game that has been hyped so much.

[PicassoCT]

which just means one thing ba- does something better, it does what the masses demand, it also has a nostalgia bonus (i wonder if the old-school crowd will accept the brand new TA of Behe).

Srsly, enough of this whining on ever changing players. If they return to BA it just means they liked something polished for a aeons more. Its like koreans going back for starcraft1 . The Graphics are horrible, but the gameplaycore is intact.

[smoth]

And regardless smoth argument, there is eager people waiting to play the game that has been hyped so much.

I have seen it many times over the years. with I think it was the 1.2 gundam release. People loved it and played for like 2 weeks rather vigorously then suddenly they just stopped.

I have seen groups of 10+ players play for weeks then disappear to never be seen again.

I don't think a release is in order but I do think they should make the svn public for those who will seek and find it. That way it has the air of an underground project that all the cool kids play.

[smoth]

Srsly, enough of this whining on ever changing players. If they return to BA it just means they liked something polished for a aeons more. Its like koreans going back for starcraft1 . The Graphics are horrible, but the gameplaycore is intact.

They go back to ba because they come on and there isn't a not-ba game on that moment. but there are a few dsd games going so they join that. This is old discussion, why are you revisiting it?

People come on 6 or so times and see no open games and never log on again. OR they get pulled into the pit of ba.

For gundam's last group I had a bunch of nice guys from HK but they didn't all speak english so I could not teach them how to play and all my documentation/ui is english so that was a big barrier for them I suspect.

[PicassoCT]

How about a weekendwatch? Everybody takes a shift, and we play only watchcontributors mods? So if you spend 3hours on the weekendwatch, playing with others (not alone) whatever weekendwatchmod is demanded, the no-game going on shit should be solveable. Only need timetables then and enough watchmen..

[smoth]

If I was there starting and hosting people played and when I left they stopped. I can't do that, I need that time for development.

[knorke]

This is old discussion, why are you revisiting it?

tells others to stop ba discussion.
continues himself.
Anyway, baww never gets old because there are always new olol wait wait have you heard this one yet:
people stick to ba because its magnetic.

[luckywaldo7]

Gundam is waaay more niche than Star Wars though. Everyone is a Star Wars fan. Probably half of everyone who ever connects to the internet would be pumped to order wookies or storm troopers around and kill stuff.

Even myself, I stayed for CA, but I originally started playing Spring/BA so I could get well-known enough to get into the IW beta.

[smoth]

China is most of the world's population. asia likes gundam more than starwars from what I can tell.

There are other starwars rts games etc.

there are reasons why warlord was trying to get more polish before a major release and I agree with them. I just don't see why he cannot do an under the radar release.

[luckywaldo7]

China is most of the world's population.

Ah, well that explains the huge number of spring chinese players.

[knorke]

China is most of the world's population. asia likes gundam more than starwars from what I can tell.

doesnt really matter, if english language supposedly was a barrier then that is no market for spring.
Spring is basically 100% english.

[SirArtturi]

And regardless smoth argument, there is eager people waiting to play the game that has been hyped so much.

I have seen it many times over the years. with I think it was the 1.2 gundam release. People loved it and played for like 2 weeks rather vigorously then suddenly they just stopped.

I'm just trying to make your otherwise striking argument irrelevant (regardless) to the actual fact, that there is people who want to try/play it - thats only what matters, not all the possible consequences which follows. Whats the point making a game that people can't try? Let's give it a shot!

[smoth]

Gundam is waaay more niche than Star Wars though. Everyone is a Star Wars fan. Probably half of everyone who ever connects to the internet would be pumped to order wookies or storm troopers around and kill stuff.

Even myself, I stayed for CA, but I originally started playing Spring/BA so I could get well-known enough to get into the IW beta.

China is most of the world's population.

Ah, well that explains the huge number of spring chinese players.

I'll try and reexplain, maybe I didn't give enough details.

Starwars already has many successful better, complete rts games. They have a saturated market for the target audience in almost all genres of games. They have professional voice acting, animation and easier gameplay to understand. You talk about a large group of players but the competition for SW:IW is huge and very well established. There is no market to break into. The rest of the world has their fix already.

my point with grts is there IS not gundam rts. None. It has a largely asian fanbase that is why I say it has a potential to be huge. While you may see it as niche it is a very close minded view:

Gundam is pretty huge and has a huge potential for market.

however as knorke said, spring is 100% english(not that I want to change that, I cannot read say mandarin) and we have no way to really support other languages even in our ui beyond pictures instead of text. Which does HURT US a lot in asia. of course translations etc would need to be done and even pidgin or romanji will not be readable to all japanese/chinese.

Anyway, I still stand by my point. starwars:IW isn't as "niche" as gundam but it sure as hell has already been done many times over.

[knorke]

based on http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_St ... ideo_games

Starwars already has many successful better, complete rts games.

1) Galactic Battlegrounds from 2002
2) Star Wars: Empire at War from 2006
So two games and both are rather old...
I doubt any of them is still played online or even works online still, unlike IW.

They have a saturated market for the target audience in almost all genres of games.

Not sure. Saturated would be something like currently happens with (esp. ww2) fps or sport games. (every year a new Fifa from EA etc)
Maybe it was saturated in 1980-2000 but today certainly is not.