Spring RTS Engine

I've noticed that too, Alantai. In fact it took like 20 seconds to load this page. There should be a community pot we can donate to in order to support the webhosting, maybe get a better package. I understand we only get 10 mbps compared to many other hosts that will provide 100 mbps.

SwiftSpear wrote:...
Spring really doesn't need lunix compatibility.
...

«need»
Spring doesn't «need» any new features, doesn't «need» any more players, ... doesn't «need» any players at all, doesn't even «need» to exist. At least, in a sense of «need».
But, new features, more players, etc, etc, would all be nice. And a Linux port looks, to me, as the most valuable feature Spring could have right now and, the amount of possible new players and developers Spring could get, looks to me as the greatest increase i can think of with all possible paths to the future.

PauloMorfeo wrote:

SwiftSpear wrote:...
Spring really doesn't need lunix compatibility.
...

«need»
And a Linux port looks, to me, as the most valuable feature Spring could have right now and, the amount of possible new players and developers Spring could get, looks to me as the greatest increase i can think of with all possible paths to the future.

Hands down, no exceptions, I agree with that statement. I think that once the linux port is 'done' and the windows version is merged into the 'linux' tree, we are golden. The number of Zaphod-level programmers that will be interested in working on spring should go up by an order of magnitude. And so will the playerbase.

As far as I know, now the code bases are merged (Linux and Windows). There is of course still the problem of network synchronization and lobby (the linux one is not yet finished, but it's progressing)

Orbu wrote:

Decimator wrote:The real wave of players will come when we manage to allow the linux and windows players to play together. That should get us on the front page of slashdot. (and you guys know what that means)

You're aware that if Spring is slahsdoted these servers will be overloaded... here will be a complete chaos and for 2-3 days will be no site activities... You better prepare more bittorent seeds.

Spring has already been publicized in Slashdot twice in the past.
I thnk that Sprng in its current state is ature enough to stand large publicity.
Remember there was a time when there were only 10-15 players at a time on servers. Now, we get five to ten times more, which proves that the quality is here.

The quality is here for sure. I still wonder how many of the players are original TA fans. I would guess many of them are.

I recently showed the game to a friend of mine (usual windows player), and he felt very lost - (starting with the lobby, continuing with the weapons and units and finishing with some aspects of the interface). He was used to 'great' out of the box experience. That's why it maybe it would be a good idea until the game is a little bit more polished. After that new 3d game rts appears (don't remember the name - something with Commander) this issues will appear more often.

I'm not saying things should be done one way or another, just telling what I saw.

(my friend said he would maybe play it when some issues are resolved, but I doubt he will try it to soon unless I remind him :p)

@caydr: perhaps so, onyl I notice FU loads extremely slow for me while every other site save this one loads slowly aswell.

About the site, it currently runs on a dual P3-500mhz with a 10mbit connection. I currently pay around $35/month for 10mbit. It is possible to get 100mbit nowadays, but it is a bit expensive (around $100). I don't think the occasional slowness of the site is mainly due to the connection though. It only uses 10-20% of the bandwidth on average, and there is rarely any sustained peaks.

I think the problem is more the cpu power of the server, the apache process sometimes peaks at 100% cpu usage for short periods of time. Not sure when I will get around to upgrade it though.. So if anyone has a dual Xeon server lying around, feel free to send it over. :)

Yhea... @ work I have some systems ... unfortunatly I can't send those over.
Can't you move some stuff over to berlios or sf.net?

Btw a dual 500Mhz survived two slashdots..?

Hosting packages these days are extremely cheap, and could might help ease the load on fnord's server.

Then again, I've rarely had problems with the spring site. it loads as quickly as any other I visit, usually under 5 seconds.

I love this game and continue to work on content. It is my way of saying thanks. I hope my gundam mod will bring in a different audience and I am prodding other modders of TA to come to the spring side.

Neither Slashdot was front-page; both of them were exclusive to "Games" section. Judging by comment #s, the links in the Games section generally have about a third or a fourth (if even that) clicks of the frontpagers, meaning that the Spring site only received about a fourth of the traffic it would have had had there been a front-page slashdotting.

(of course, any mention on Slashdot is nothing to scoff at in terms of hits; it still must have brought thousands of users to the site)

The real danger, IMHO, is FU. That's where 100% of the content is, and should the complete Linux port get a front-page slashdotting, traffic spikes will be ridiculous, and could do a lot of Bad Things (tm) to the whole TA community in terms of services.


I have Ideas!

1) Crank up number of bittorrentable files everywhere

2) Find alternate hosting or mirrors for content, in addition to FU

3) Get more money to buy better servers and bandwidth (least likely and/or possible) through donations etc

4) Get sponsorship from an ISP or some hosting company that'll donate necessary bandwidth for the project in exchange for a link or banner ads or something



Just some thoughts assuming the worst/best

Spring currently has an active thread in the Games forum of SomethingAwful, and an active thread in Games and Technology on PennyArcade. I haven't seen many people from PA around but you have plenty of interested goons.

MANY interested goons.

Well that's because spring owns childern and thier mothers.

smoth wrote:I love this game and continue to work on content. It is my way of saying thanks. I hope my gundam mod will bring in a different audience and I am prodding other modders of TA to come to the spring side.

Hi Smoth - just played my first game of gundam and I've got to say it's awesome. Completely different gameplay. LOL I was so lost at the start I didn't find the metal mines until I didn't have enough metal left to build one. It was at that ponit that I noticed your "comm" doesn't have any metal income. Hilarious FFA on small divide with all four of us new to Gundam. Thanks for doing this - it's pretty fantastic already.

By the way, back on to the topic of this thread.... we had almost 200 people whilst I was logged on. It would be nice if the server kept records of number of users and the client showed a little graph =) Maybe I'll post a vote on it!

Thanks for all the fun

Munch

You mean something like:

http://taspring.clan-sy.com/stats/

?

More players could be worse. The good thing about getting bigger is the possibility of more rapid development, but the community is not what it used to be back when all the players knew eachother.

It's harder to maintain norms of sportsmanship and politenesss the more anonymous the experience becomes. I've had a nights when my opponents quit in every single Warcraft 3 game I played after an initial setback.

Linux users might be a better addition to the Spring community than more Windows users who are used to an anonymous gaming experience where community and civility don't matter.

Foe OfTheBee wrote:More players could be worse. The good thing about getting bigger is the possibility of more rapid development, but the community is not what it used to be back when all the players knew eachother.

It's harder to maintain norms of sportsmanship and politenesss the more anonymous the experience becomes. I've had a nights when my opponents quit in every single Warcraft 3 game I played after an initial setback.

Linux users might be a better addition to the Spring community than more Windows users who are used to an anonymous gaming experience where community and civility don't matter.

Yea, but Warcraft 3 is pretty standard "RTS formula" with the one who does this fastest wins. TASpring ain't like that... I doupt that the normal annoying the hell out of us 12 year old will find this partiulary intersting.

RTSC wrote: Games that take hours or weeks and present graded summaries (like say, Civilization) are far less likely to have vindictive kiddies with cheats, with the possible exception of roleplaying games, where the opportunities of hiding super-powerful hacked items amongst the thousands of trinkets and weapons is much easier to do.

I keep wondering when we're gonna get big enough to get Wanged (penny-arcade front page mention)... When do you think we should start a comunity wide like "tell everyone you know, put up posters, post on all forums" promotion...