Ban AA

Ban AA

Various things about Spring that do not fit in any of the other forums listed below, including forum rules.

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Caydr
Omnidouche
Posts: 7179
Joined: 16 Oct 2004, 19:40

Ban AA

Post by Caydr »

Is it possible, or could it be made possible, to completely ban all playing of a certain mod for a period of time? Nobody is trying other mods, and that needs to change. If it was made impossible to play AA for a week or so, people would be forced to play something else and, most likely, find a different mod they enjoy just as much if not more.
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Machiosabre
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Joined: 25 Dec 2005, 22:56

Post by Machiosabre »

People do try out new mods though, but after a few games when the mod just released they just don't stick.

also, theoretically you could just not play spring for a week . :lol:
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Snipawolf
Posts: 4357
Joined: 12 Dec 2005, 01:49

Post by Snipawolf »

CayDr, its their choice...

Anyways, if one guy finds a mod thats pretty good (OMG its as good as AA! Omgz wtf bbq sawce!), he'll tell other people, then they host and it spreads...

Anyways, you shouldn't worry about it too much :wink:
Last edited by Snipawolf on 04 Sep 2006, 18:47, edited 1 time in total.
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Nemo
Spring 1944 Developer
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Joined: 30 Jan 2005, 19:44

Post by Nemo »

As much as I'd like to see other mods played, this isn't the way to do it. I'm sure you remember all the discussion of 'banning' speedmetal games for a little while. This is bad because all it will do is make people angry, and encourage them to find other ways to play spring, rather than through the 'official' server.

As many have said before, its not the job of the spring devs to play around with social engineering.

HOWEVER, you are right - something needs to be done to prod people towards trying new mods. The biggest issue is pretty much the lack of visibility - people are introduced to spring by a friend, who then says "get AA, its the most played mod", and then that person introduces another person and says "get AA, its the most played mod", on and on, spirling the number of AA players upwards. Or, a brand new person logs into Spring, and wants to play a game. 80% or more of the time, the only open games are AA, so that new person asks around and goes to get AA.

There are two directions to approach this from. One is 'grassroots', where basically fans of a smaller mod work to ensure that there is always a game of that mod around, so people looking to try something new can do so easily, rather than getting bored and playing AA instead. This has been used by the E&E folks with some moderate success - there are a good handful of regular E&E players now, and you can almost always find an E&E game if you want one.

This approach also includes introducing people to the game in #main, advertising the #channel for the mod, and generally doing their best to get people to try it.

The other direction is a top down, where some feature is implemented into the spring lobby that allows for 'advertisements' of a kind. Basically something akin to Steam, where the user is shown the latest mod/dev news as soon as they log in, accompanied by a pretty mod-created splash screen, and links to a download. This would almost promise that there would be an above average number of games of that mod that day, and so people would have an easier time finding a game, and giving it a shot.

There are a few other options, but these two seem to make the most sense in the context of the main Spring server and playerbase.
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Caydr
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Post by Caydr »

EE, nanoblobs, gundam, ff, and more have been basically killed by AA. I don't want all those wasted development hours on my shoulders anymore. Something's got to be done to encourage players to diversify.

And enough with all this "it's their choice" crap and calling me a fascist because I want to change the way people play. This sure as hell isn't a democracy and things aren't always ice cream and lollipops. Sometimes brute force is the only effective option.

Mechwars, a mod I'm really, REALLY looking forward to, is being developed by a good friend of mine, Archangel. Or he's one of the developers. I'm not too knowledgeable about the mod's organizational structure, sue me. All I know is that he's putting a lot of time and effort into it, and I don't want it to be for naught.

I think that what really needs to be done is some integration. Make a mod browser just like there's a map browser. Make installation and removal of mods all GUI-based and painless. Find a mod, download it, unzip it, AWW DAMMIT THE GAME'S ALREADY STARTED NOW I'M TURNING EMO!!!!
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Machiosabre
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Joined: 25 Dec 2005, 22:56

Post by Machiosabre »

What you could do, as the guy who uploads new version of AA, is put some other mods in the package(granted they're not to big) so new people will automatically get other mods when they get AA.
I think there were a few threads on that already now that I think of it.
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Caydr
Omnidouche
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Joined: 16 Oct 2004, 19:40

Post by Caydr »

Hmm... I don't want to bloat filesize if I can help it, but I could certainly give it a try.
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Min3mat
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Joined: 17 Nov 2004, 20:19

Post by Min3mat »

no splash screens
no advertisements
no anonying pain in the asses when i just want to play a game
no 'play this' and finding out its a imbalanced incomplete mod which really should have gone through beta testing. no more 'you must play other mods'
i'll play what i want when i damn well please thank you very much. And at the moment that is AA, maybe some NB with the new release and GEM. And if anyone gets aroudn to finishing one of those MILLIONS of ideas like that funny as hell lego one i'll give them a try.
Besides i think that was STILL need a larger playerbase!
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Decimator
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Joined: 24 Jul 2005, 04:15

Post by Decimator »

A simple mod browser would be wonderful. However, E&E is slowly becoming copyright free; therefore it will be possible to include it as the default mod.
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Nemo
Spring 1944 Developer
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Joined: 30 Jan 2005, 19:44

Post by Nemo »

Min3mat wrote:no splash screens
no advertisements
no anonying pain in the asses when i just want to play a game
no 'play this' and finding out its a imbalanced incomplete mod which really should have gone through beta testing. no more 'you must play other mods'
i'll play what i want when i damn well please thank you very much. And at the moment that is AA, maybe some NB with the new release and GEM. And if anyone gets aroudn to finishing one of those MILLIONS of ideas like that funny as hell lego one i'll give them a try.
Besides i think that was STILL need a larger playerbase!
Splash screens haven't seemed to bother the umpteen thousands of people who use Steam on a daily basis, have they?

I think that a single click through screen with mod and dev news shown on starting the lobby client (on by default, but able to be turned off) is the way to go.
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Quanto042
Basically OTA Developer
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Joined: 22 Feb 2006, 03:01

Post by Quanto042 »

I've preached bota til my face turned blue, but atm the only playing partner i have for it now is the ai


:cry:
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FizWizz
Posts: 1998
Joined: 17 Aug 2005, 11:42

Post by FizWizz »

Caydr, you can't ban AA on the servers, but perhaps you can arrange to remove all the download links to AA that are available and on your website (the AA downloads page to be exact) you can put a message to the effect of:
"Absolute Annihilation will be unavailable for download for the following 1-2 weeks, but you are welcome to go and try out some other quality mods for Spring such as:
(mod and modlinks)

(mod and modlinks)

(mod and modlinks)"


this will most likely lead to AA mod file 'piracy,' but there is really only so much you can do about it. Just my two cents, I hope it is helpful to you.
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Nemo
Spring 1944 Developer
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Joined: 30 Jan 2005, 19:44

Post by Nemo »

About 10 minutes after he removes all the links, someone will host it up on rapidshare, or their own server, or one of the thousands of free file hosting services available. I don't think that will help much - people will just give new guys the 'pirate' link, rather than the normal one.
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jcnossen
Former Engine Dev
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Joined: 05 Jun 2005, 19:13

Post by jcnossen »

I was thinking that single-player missions (if supported well with savegames and a decent menu), would stimulate other mods a lot.
People don't want to learn other mods online, but a single player mod is usually fun to test. (For me this is the case for HL[2] mods, but I suppose it would also be true for spring mods)

Which means that there is a solution, it's just not ready at this time. But it would be a lot better than restricting mods.
Egarwaen
Posts: 1207
Joined: 27 Feb 2006, 21:19

Post by Egarwaen »

Does the "official" client support auto-mod-downloading yet? You wouldn't even need a central server if it was done right. If not, that's one of the main reasons nothing else gets played. Most Spring players do not bother to read the forum or the site. They don't know what else is out there, or even that anything else is out there.

For evidence, just see all the "where's the new AA?" spam every time Caydr releases a new version. Even though there's always a bajillion download links on the site and forums, the vast majority of players don't even know where to look for them.

For mod creators that want to get the people that do want to try playing other mods, you should do the following:

1) Add a link to a page for your Mod to the Mods page of the Wiki.

2) On the page for your mod, include a download link near the top. Include the version number in the text of the download link.

3) Provide a basic unit guide/gameplay guide, so people know how your mod plays, what the basic strategies are, what units are available, what the units do, and how it's different from "normal TA" gameplay.
Last edited by Egarwaen on 04 Sep 2006, 20:42, edited 1 time in total.
Torrasque
Posts: 1022
Joined: 05 Oct 2004, 23:55

Post by Torrasque »

Restricting user is not a good idea ihmo. It only annoy them, and it's not really efficient.

The best solution for me would be :
1. If you join a game where you don't have the mod, it's autmatically installed.

2. Proposing in the client to try some mod, with a good website linked to it.
With screenshots, descritpion of units, how the game is supposed to be played, etc : make people want to try the mod.
(If course, you must be able to disable those advertisement )

3. As jcnossen said, some sinlge player campagne would help.
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KDR_11k
Game Developer
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Joined: 25 Jun 2006, 08:44

Post by KDR_11k »

How about simply adding a loading screen to AA that reads in large, friendly letters "Try other mods or I'll set you on fire!"?
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Caydr
Omnidouche
Posts: 7179
Joined: 16 Oct 2004, 19:40

Post by Caydr »

KDR_11k wrote:How about simply adding a loading screen to AA that reads in large, friendly letters "Try other mods or I'll set you on fire!"?
.... you know, it might be worth a shot.
Egarwaen
Posts: 1207
Joined: 27 Feb 2006, 21:19

Post by Egarwaen »

Or, even better, get other mod authors to do "ad" loading screens for their own mods and include those in AA.
Archangel of Death
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Joined: 28 Jan 2005, 18:15

Post by Archangel of Death »

Maybe we could find a particularly clever person to do some kind of mod news? A weekly (or bi-weekly) mod review post, covering the story, playstyle, and perhaps some general tactics that are special to this mod. Could also watch out for major mod releases, exciting new developments like the Star Wars super weapon pack or a large scale change to take advantage of a new spring feature as well as the mods first release. Do a monthly "Mod of the Month", which could either be just a special spotlight on a mod, or kind of a contest with the winner based on a set of criteria (which would have to be defined).

Like a PR guy for all the mods.
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