DemO wrote:problems
Then let's fix them! The great thing about an open-source project and a community that is encouraged to add on to it is that we can fix problems like these.
-Lots more work for the user to set Spring up ready to play, compared to other games.
I'm sure someone here can make a user-friendly installer. Heck, if nobody does it, I'll make one in a couple of months when I have the ability to do so.
-Getting into a game that starts and finishes successfully can take much longer than many other games
I posted previously stating reasons why we should not have an auto-match feature. I've rethought the idea and think that it could add a lot to the user-friendliness of the game.
-Playerbase is small, tight knit and not friendly to newcomers
This is something that can only be fixed through grassroots community action.
EVERYONE who reads this post can help.
1) Next time you see a new player asking a question in #main, take some time to help him with whatever his issues are. For bonus points, do it personally, via PM - this is a much more helpful and inviting experience for the new player. It's like the difference between getting telephone tech support from "Susan" in Bangalore and having an experienced technician actually come to your house and demonstrate how to fix the problem.
2) We all need to realize that the community being welcoming and inviting to newcomers is a positive thing for all of us, and act accordingly. Being welcoming and inviting means much more than simply tolerating a one-stripe player on your team in a game. Try to keep hostile conversations out of #main; if you really must get into a flame war with someone, take it to PM or to a side channel. When a new player joins and insults are flying, it gives a bad first impression - and, unfortunately, a lasting one; if the newbie does stay, he will believe that the community here is hostile and act accordingly. It's a self-reinforcing cycle. Keep in mind that your friendly banter with others may be interpreted by someone not "in the know" as hostility.
3) When you see anything that seems unwelcoming, overly hostile, or annoying, take the offending individual aside in PM and
calmly and politely explain that what he is doing is not welcome in the Spring community, and ask him to stop and to change his approach. While I don't want to speak on behalf of the moderators, I hope that at least one moderator will step up and volunteer to do this on your behalf if you yourself are unable to or unsuccessful; the voice of a moderator may carry more weight than that of a simple player.
[NB. I'm not saying that I'm not guilty of any of these "sins". I have done not-so-nice things in the past; I've been involved in #main flamewars, I've trolled the forums, I've acted in such a way as to antagonize people. I recognize these errors, I'm sorry, and I don't want this thread to become the "what has Felix done that contradicts his post" thread.]
-No single-player campaign or tutorial readily packaged with Spring
Let's assemble a team to make both of these. Really. One person probably won't be able to make a single-player campaign and tutorial by himself, but I'm sure we have enough talent in the community to get a polished product out.
-Very steep learning curve unless you are tought by someone who already knows how to play (unlikely)
A tutorial would help; even though there are many different mods, there are common gameplay aspects to all of them. Expanding, capping metal spots, combat micromanagement, keeping the economy running and expanding, multitasking, and other things are present in nearly all mods; if the tutorial covers these areas well in the process of introducing the basic OTA-esque units in the most common mods, it will prepare players to play other mods.
Also, the lobby should come auto-configured to join #main and a #help channel, where experienced players who are willing to help out new players would be encouraged to idle and be available to answer any questions and provide assistance. #help would be a strictly moderated channel; any people engaging in non-help-related chatter, game advertisement, etc. would be cordially invited to move it to #main.
-Lobby interface is reasonably good functionality wise but not even remotely visually appealing (doesn't get newcomers in the mood - often discourages them in fact)
Very true. IMO an entirely new lobby is required, both client- and server-side. This new lobby should be designed with appearance and functionality both considered; the current lobby works well, but looks as if it was inspired by a 1995 IRC client.
1) The new lobby should get rid of the #channel syntax. This isn't IRC; "Main" or "General Chat" looks more inviting than "#main".
2) The new lobby client should expand its functionality; tools for new and experienced players should be integrated, including a map browser, a mod browser, a connection diagnostic and assistance function, integrated game settings changing, a channel browser, an easy way to create a new channel and invite people to it, and more that I'm sure will be thought of as we progress. Moderators should be invited to discuss what tools would be helpful to them.
3) I don't want to knock Betalord, as he's done a great job, but I really feel like the new lobby should be developed and maintained by people who are more active in the community.
4) Development should be done in C++ for greater consistency with the engine. This will allow more crossover between people who submit patches and develop for the engine and people who do so for the lobby, which I feel is great synergy.
-Problems hosting games for many people, and sometimes joining them (too lazy or dumb to fix them.)
I think that a Help channel and an integrated network diagnostic tool would help a lot. Providing a written walkthrough on how to open the necessary ports and the like would be good; though I'm sure we're all elite g4m3rz and can open and close ports with our eyes closed, we need to be welcoming to those who aren't so technically inclined. (Believe it or not, but I have no idea how to control ports on my new router.)
-Little to no advertising/marketing of Spring compared to commercial titles.
I believe Neddie was working on this. We can probably help him by continuing to make trailers and posting them on YouTube, by taking good screenshots that show of various unique features of the engine and posting them, and by personally advertising it to our friends and on other forums where an informational post on Spring would be welcome.
-Limited variety in maps and mods hosted.
This is sort of a "chicken and egg" problem and I won't get into it here.
0-Limited number of players from anywhere outside of europe/america to host for each other and play together
IMO this isn't too big of a problem; most of the online gaming population is in Europe and North America.
-Website in serious need of overhaul or updates.(being worked on I know)
-Player base is predominantly students who have less time for Spring for large segments of the year, and less activity during week days.
-No real diversification between highly skilled, skilled, average, noob and total newcomer players (rank really doesnt tell much and isn't a good measure - causes commotion and frustration for all of these players in team games)
Skill-based ranking has been hotly debated on several occasions, and I'm not going to touch it here. Personally I'm against it, but I can certainly see its benefits as well.
-Ladder/tournament support is there but not taken advantage of by the vast majority (should be - makes for better matched, more organized games and some friendly competition as a motivator)
Ladder and tourney play needs to be integrated into the new lobby. Ladder games would be organized by mod and would be created in a similar fashion as auto-match ones.
I have some ideas for implementation of tourney play, but don't want to get into technical discussion here.
-Segmented communities (i.e. asian community on different main server, many people play SP/Lan instead of internet play)
Unicode support definitely needs to be in the new lobby, as does a ping indicator. One of the Chinese players came here and said that they use their own lobby and server because the current one does not support Chinese characters. I've heard the same sorts of complaints about lack of extended character support from people from the Middle East, from Scandinavia, from Russia, etc.
= BAD NEWS FOR SPRING.
It's good news that we are equipped to do something about it.
I'd be willing to lead concept development for a new lobby. As some of you may know, I'm currently at a school for computer game development (Full Sail, Winter Park, FL). I'm only two months in. Starting next month, I begin learning C++; we completely learn the language in four months.* It should be relatively easy to study networking on my own once I have a handle on the structure, syntax, and programming methods of the language. We are strongly encouraged to start or participate in side projects on our own, and this would be a perfect one for me.
I feel like a new lobby, one designed for a broader user base and with both the current state of the community and the future in mind, would help to tackle a lot of our problems and would provide a framework by which we can move forward in making Spring more popular and more user-friendly.
Comments? If you guys feel like this is a good starting point for discussion, someone copypasta this post into a new thread so we can keep it somewhat organized.
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*NB. Classes are one month each; there are two classes per month; classes are typically 8 hours a day, 3 days a week, with 2 to 5 more hours of work outside of class depending on which class it is. Classes are difficult and move very quickly.
