http://www.unknown-files.net/index.php? ... &dlid=1780
I'm not tombom, btw.
Absolute Annihilation 2.23
Moderator: Moderators
Read page 3 of this topic.eagleeye812 wrote:Did this pack include a map file that the new version of Spring can't read?
From the thread about the map SparewoodFrom the homepage:Secondly, there are four maps in this .sd7 which all use the same tile file, so if you want Sparewood for example you have to download the entire .sd7 which includes all four maps, this might lead to some confusion with people who don't visit the maps forum but hopefully it won't be the end of the world.Also, due to improved checksumming, 7zip or zip archives can only contain a single map. This means certain maps have to be re-released in a seperate archive.
I feel that I am being blamed for the lack of popularity other mods have. I don't feel that this is fair.
Unfortunately, it is fair. AA has basically become microsoft. It's dominating everything to the point that nobody else has a chance. That was not my intention in creating it. I am willing to do anything to remedy this situation. I've tried promoting other mods, I've tried stopping development for long periods of time, I've tried forced bundling, I've tried purposefully making bad choices, I've tried discrediting myself. I don't make it a practice to go around starting flame wars. But nothing's helping. The stats page speaks for itself. I have tried everything I can think of, and it deeply hurts me to think that what I have created has caused others so much difficulty and grief. I cannot help but think of how it must feel to have so much work left unused and unappreciated, such as in the case of Gundam, EE, Nanoblobs, and so on. A friend of mine, Archangel, and his team have been putting a lot of work into a Battletech mod, and I don't want to see the same fate for his work.
I'm at the end of my rope, and I don't want to be blamed for everyone else's problems anymore. I'm going to make a patch for 2.2, addressing the problems that have been reported. Regardless of my feelings on the matter, I still have self-respect and I'm not going to leave the project in the state it's in now. Then I'm going to disappear for some months and hope that the situation resolves itself by some other means, because I have no more ideas.
Forget about the mod pack. Not even the people it stood to benefit want it. http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/ta-a ... p?download
Unfortunately, it is fair. AA has basically become microsoft. It's dominating everything to the point that nobody else has a chance. That was not my intention in creating it. I am willing to do anything to remedy this situation. I've tried promoting other mods, I've tried stopping development for long periods of time, I've tried forced bundling, I've tried purposefully making bad choices, I've tried discrediting myself. I don't make it a practice to go around starting flame wars. But nothing's helping. The stats page speaks for itself. I have tried everything I can think of, and it deeply hurts me to think that what I have created has caused others so much difficulty and grief. I cannot help but think of how it must feel to have so much work left unused and unappreciated, such as in the case of Gundam, EE, Nanoblobs, and so on. A friend of mine, Archangel, and his team have been putting a lot of work into a Battletech mod, and I don't want to see the same fate for his work.
I'm at the end of my rope, and I don't want to be blamed for everyone else's problems anymore. I'm going to make a patch for 2.2, addressing the problems that have been reported. Regardless of my feelings on the matter, I still have self-respect and I'm not going to leave the project in the state it's in now. Then I'm going to disappear for some months and hope that the situation resolves itself by some other means, because I have no more ideas.
Forget about the mod pack. Not even the people it stood to benefit want it. http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/ta-a ... p?download
It won't, Caydr. History has a lot of examples that stuff grows on people with time; see OTA, see Quake 3 and a recent flamewar in the community about switching from a 4-or-so year-old mod to a much more advanced one, with opponents of the switch arguing that 'if it survived for so long, it must be perfect.' Also see CS 1.6 vs CS:S, Starcraft vs Warcraft, etc.
AA has reached a certain critical mass and it's no longer under anyone's control. The only thing other mod authors can do is polish their mods to the fullest and _advertise_ them, players won't come to play them just because they're good. Host some tournaments, do a showcase match (bonus points for live voice commentary! even though that feature isn't in spring :) ), hope that people at least try the other games. You really can't do anything more.
BTW your bundling tactic kinda worked for me, I tried a game of EE with a friend and it was really fun, at least till sync errors after some fireworks caused by a medium laser tank shooting at a bot fab came and we had to stop.
AA has reached a certain critical mass and it's no longer under anyone's control. The only thing other mod authors can do is polish their mods to the fullest and _advertise_ them, players won't come to play them just because they're good. Host some tournaments, do a showcase match (bonus points for live voice commentary! even though that feature isn't in spring :) ), hope that people at least try the other games. You really can't do anything more.
BTW your bundling tactic kinda worked for me, I tried a game of EE with a friend and it was really fun, at least till sync errors after some fireworks caused by a medium laser tank shooting at a bot fab came and we had to stop.
I would be sorry to see you stop developement on AA. The fact of the matter is this: Theres a large core of people who play spring because they want to play TA 2 and a majority of these prefer your mod to XTA or any of the other OTA derivitives. Neither of these things are your fault, and those who blame you are just jealous.
In that patch, please revert lvl 1 radar back to the way it used to be (or at least not so much of a range decrease). I would also like to see bertha ships replaced, but that's less important.
In that patch, please revert lvl 1 radar back to the way it used to be (or at least not so much of a range decrease). I would also like to see bertha ships replaced, but that's less important.
There is nothing wrong with radar range, it was stupidly long range in 2.11, and now its fine and makes dragons eye's even more valuable.
So far the only real problems that have come up are these.
1. Annihilator Health bar is invisible
2. Flak and Mercury and some other weapon explosions are barely visible.
3. CORE COMMANDO, capture Kbot needs to uncloak to capture.
4. EMP cruise missle needs much reduced Impulse, if it can move golies across the map.... thats a bug.
5. A range ring for the Seismic sensor units Tracer/Nemesis
6. Some small adjustments in colors of beam weapons
p.s. Where are the LVL-2 Antiair Kbots ?
So far the only real problems that have come up are these.
1. Annihilator Health bar is invisible
2. Flak and Mercury and some other weapon explosions are barely visible.
3. CORE COMMANDO, capture Kbot needs to uncloak to capture.
4. EMP cruise missle needs much reduced Impulse, if it can move golies across the map.... thats a bug.
5. A range ring for the Seismic sensor units Tracer/Nemesis
6. Some small adjustments in colors of beam weapons
p.s. Where are the LVL-2 Antiair Kbots ?
Last edited by MR.D on 05 Oct 2006, 22:09, edited 1 time in total.
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Machiosabre
- Posts: 1474
- Joined: 25 Dec 2005, 22:56
Well whatever happens you and your mod rock Cadyr 
but yeah, AA is the counterstrike of spring, what we really need instead of not getting updates anymore is for some mod to be a day of defeat
edit: radar does so need to get its range back, dragons eyes were plenty useful
but yeah, AA is the counterstrike of spring, what we really need instead of not getting updates anymore is for some mod to be a day of defeat
edit: radar does so need to get its range back, dragons eyes were plenty useful
Last edited by Machiosabre on 05 Oct 2006, 21:22, edited 2 times in total.
You won't be able to make AA less popular. It's OTA-based, so you've automatically got a massive fanbase there that EE, Nanoblobs, and Battletech simply don't have and can't have. It's got gameplay that reminds people of one of the best RTS games ever, but manages to improve upon that game by fixing a number of drastic shortcomings. Totally original content will always have trouble competing against AA because of this. (Never mind that AA has a much lower learning curve) You've got a pre-built community.
The attitude of other mod authors doesn't help either. Simply putting a high-quality mod out there will not make people play it. They have to be willing to put in a lot of time and effort to promote their mods, make them attractive to people, teach those people to play them, show them the circumstances they play well in, etc. EE had serious problems when it was first released because it was made for play on larger maps, and many people tried it on smaller ones and had horrible gameplay experiences, and just never went back. And this still isn't documented anywhere. How many people try an EE 1v1 on an 8x8 or 12x12 map and never touch it again because there's nothing warning them that it handles maps differently than AA?
They (and you) also have to realize that the majority of "Spring players" right now aren't "Spring players". They're AA players. They're here for AA, and they aren't going to play anything that's really different from it. If they want more people to play their mods, they need to attract them from outside. They aren't going to be able to get "Spring players" to play their mods, but, for example, Archangel might be able to get "Battletech players" to play his if it faithfully recreates the feel of the boardgame. Centurion will definitely be able to get "Heavy Gear players" to play his Gear Commander mod if he gets it right. A good space combat mod could probably pull in more than a few "Homeworld players". Like you, they've got pre-built communities they can draw on.
Argh and Fang are trying to create more original games. That's awesome. But it makes their jobs much harder. They don't have these pre-existing communities to draw on. They've got to build their own communities, which is much, much more difficult. That's on top of convincing people to learn new gameplay, train themselves past the "OMG I'm a noob and I suck" stage again, etc. Bundling their mods with AA can help encourage people to try them, but not if it results in a 70 meg download! That's just going to create resentment.
So in short, screw the people that bitch because people like playing AA. Make it into the best mod you can, and let them compete on merit and talent.
The attitude of other mod authors doesn't help either. Simply putting a high-quality mod out there will not make people play it. They have to be willing to put in a lot of time and effort to promote their mods, make them attractive to people, teach those people to play them, show them the circumstances they play well in, etc. EE had serious problems when it was first released because it was made for play on larger maps, and many people tried it on smaller ones and had horrible gameplay experiences, and just never went back. And this still isn't documented anywhere. How many people try an EE 1v1 on an 8x8 or 12x12 map and never touch it again because there's nothing warning them that it handles maps differently than AA?
They (and you) also have to realize that the majority of "Spring players" right now aren't "Spring players". They're AA players. They're here for AA, and they aren't going to play anything that's really different from it. If they want more people to play their mods, they need to attract them from outside. They aren't going to be able to get "Spring players" to play their mods, but, for example, Archangel might be able to get "Battletech players" to play his if it faithfully recreates the feel of the boardgame. Centurion will definitely be able to get "Heavy Gear players" to play his Gear Commander mod if he gets it right. A good space combat mod could probably pull in more than a few "Homeworld players". Like you, they've got pre-built communities they can draw on.
Argh and Fang are trying to create more original games. That's awesome. But it makes their jobs much harder. They don't have these pre-existing communities to draw on. They've got to build their own communities, which is much, much more difficult. That's on top of convincing people to learn new gameplay, train themselves past the "OMG I'm a noob and I suck" stage again, etc. Bundling their mods with AA can help encourage people to try them, but not if it results in a 70 meg download! That's just going to create resentment.
So in short, screw the people that bitch because people like playing AA. Make it into the best mod you can, and let them compete on merit and talent.
Last edited by Egarwaen on 05 Oct 2006, 21:24, edited 2 times in total.
Yeah, personally I wouldn't care if there was 100megs of bundled mods with AA. I just don't see a need to include maps.Neuralize wrote:but it's the maps MAN, the MAPS.
Your mod bundling idea is great though, and it is working somewhat. I've already seen several people playing several other mods that normally wouldn't show up too often. (Nanoblobs)
Cadyr: Open source development is nearly perfect capitalism. Your mod has survived and dominated because it is the best, in the view of the majority of players. AA is not microsoft because (to my knowledge) you have not used unfair tactics to maintain your monopoly. It is a level ground, and if others come up with a mod that has greater balance and depth than yours than people will switch to it pretty quickly. I remember when XTA was the monopoly, and people switched because they didn't like it. No one is telling players they can't play other mods. The only barrier to entry is getting a critical mass so that you don't have to wait too long to find a game. And that only takes 50 or so people online at a time playing, which is NOTHING in the game industry. Especially as the community continues to grow, there will be more and more room for multiple mods. I like AA, and so do a lot of other people.
You keep making a good mod, and we'll keep playing it. When something better comes along, we'll play that instead.
PS. I support the nerfing of radar ranges. It is too easy to gather intel about the opponent. One should not be able to throw up a single radar tower and be done with it. The strategy / counterstrategy of putting up and taking out radar towers and other intel gathering units is part of what makes the game fun.
You keep making a good mod, and we'll keep playing it. When something better comes along, we'll play that instead.
PS. I support the nerfing of radar ranges. It is too easy to gather intel about the opponent. One should not be able to throw up a single radar tower and be done with it. The strategy / counterstrategy of putting up and taking out radar towers and other intel gathering units is part of what makes the game fun.
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Forboding Angel
- Evolution RTS Developer
- Posts: 14673
- Joined: 17 Nov 2005, 02:43
In 2.11 cons > nanos.Licho wrote:Are you joking or just ignorant? Nanotowers have best nano speed per metal, energy and build time than most const units except fark's and some kbots.Egarwaen wrote: Nano Towers simply weren't efficient. Better to con-spam.
They were a must when going vehicles or air.
