Project 10 in 2010 - 1,000 players by the end of 2010

[Sefidel]

great so licho and peet get the troll awards? good job moderators.

[smoth]

peet isn't a moderator and is no longer required to behave himself as a moderator would. He is a regular poster just like the rest of us.

[Neddie]

Peet's heavy handed E&E play can only be described as handing heavy.

[Peet]

peet isn't a moderator and is no longer required to behave himself as a moderator would. He is a regular troll just like the rest of us.

Irrelevant question:

Has Peet ever played Spring? He sits in the lobby almost 24/7 but I've never ever seen him in a game.

Not in awhile. I just sit in the lobby and bitch and whine and make fun of people.

[hunterw]

mmmh ....

make a 3v3 skirmish giving yourself 2 bot allies playing against 3 bots, picking start positions for everyone

[el_matarife]

I downloaded the installer and installed.

Downloaded BA and a few mods and put them in the mods folder.

Run Spring.exe, select a mod, OH NO YOU HAVE NO MAPS!

I am told I need to run TASClient, not, you know, Spring.exe - which is the obvious choice.

So I download TASClient.

When I try to run TASClient.exe it crashes (during Initializing unitsync.dll). What's wrong?

Go for the new installer that includes Springlobby and use that.

Ok I do have SpringLobby.

I run SpringLobby.

I can click on Singleplayer.

I can choose a mod.

I can't choose a map.

I can't do anything.

Dave is right, this could be easier.

Yeah you need to download maps. The easiest way to do this is to make an account and connect to the server then right click a few games and hit "download map" -- the lobby will then download them with its built in torrent system.

KAIK makes the most fun AI bot opponent if you want to play single player.

Ok thanks.

I wasn't able to download any maps through the springdownloader bittorrent, it doesn't seem to work.

I was able to download some maps from http://spring-portal.com/index.php/docm ... ew/35-maps

I can now start single player games.

I select a map and a mod and add a bot and try to start and I get Fatal Error - Error binding socket : Unknown error

Don't play single player, it sucks. Play a real live game instead!!

I don't want to play single player. I just want to get this working at all.

Remember how I said leaving buggy version live was ABSOLUTELY POISONOUS to attracting new players? This is a chatlog that I anonymized of a person trying Spring. Imagine how many people see this and decide this Spring game must suck if it takes THREE PEOPLE to walk someone through installing it.

[Tobi]

Fixed the download page to make it clearer it's a barebones version, and you are advised to go to the website of the game you want to play and download the all-inclusive installer.

[zwzsg]

What about modders adding links to their complete installers to the download wiki page?

Oh I see you added 1944. I take that as a yes.

[Tobi]

Go ahead, it's a wiki after all.

[Tobi]

Or is this underscore bug still present maybe?

Cause no one answered I tested it myself, found it present, and got rid of it.

No excuse anymore for people with an underscore in their name to not edit the wiki

[very_bad_soldier]

Thanks Tobi! Suffered a long time from it. I would have answered but I didnt see your post.
The account "vbs" I created last week (for wiki-editing) can be deleted then I think.

[el_matarife]

Yeah you can delete my elmatarife PHPBB account I used solely for editing the Wiki too.

[MidKnight]

TUTORIALS

We need them.


Tutorials to:
how the lobby works
how to install spring and get a game running
basic mod/mapmaking
how to play different spring games well (not on th main spring site, ofc)
how to compile the engine correctly
tons of other things.

preferably with lots of pictures.

TUTORIALS require much less work for a potentially greater newb-friendliness gain than many other things.

[JohannesH]

Preferably installing shouldnt be something to need a tutorial in the first place though.

[Jazcash]

I can make a bunch of video and written tuts if you like.
I'll try and get some done asap.

[MidKnight]

Preferably installing shouldnt be something to need a tutorial in the first place though.

True, but a tough install with a tutorial is better than a tough install without a tutorial.

I can make a bunch of video and written tuts if you like.
I'll try and get some done asap.

Please do so!

[el_matarife]

Preferably installing shouldnt be something to need a tutorial in the first place though.

Exactly, I have no objections to tutorials, in fact I think Spring could use more documentation, but I haven't given up hope that it could be much easier for end users to get started.



Take a look at this one year graph of Spring users by rank. Notice how there's a ton of newbies but very few make it through to Beginner and Average rank? That either means either something is driving newbies off in droves, or most of those accounts are smurfs and thus new players very rarely even make it onto the lobby. The questions everyone should be asking are:
1. Why aren't people who download Spring making it onto the lobby?
2. After they make it onto the lobby why don't they stay?

Simplifying the installer would go a long way to fixing question number one, as well as that front end a few people are writing. I also think the installer needs a checkbox for "Display newbie guide when finished" that would open a browser and take them to either local or wiki documentation for newbies on the basic topics.

I'm open for suggestions on question two, all I have as ideas is a mentoring program and newbie matchmaking.

[Nonor]

I personnaly think we really need a single player mode, with campaign, to learn to play. This is how noobs will like the game, then become regular players...

[Licho]

You can start making it already..

[zwzsg]

But I have!