Showcasing spring to new users (feedback)

[Satirik]

you could make a nice flash video tutorial with http://www.debugmode.com/wink/download.php for the new players and the lobby could show it at the first start ...

[Hobo Joe]

you could make a nice flash video tutorial with http://www.debugmode.com/wink/download.php for the new players and the lobby could show it at the first start ...

While it's not a bad idea, people tend to ignore intro/tutorial videos.(Myself included.)

That's why things like this need to be integrated in in and unobtrusive, yet still helpful way.

[SinbadEV]

Personally I think effective single-player support built into spring.exe would be awesome (it's sorta there, you can load up a map mod and AI or start script in this way already)... meanwhile a simplemenu option in spring.exe that closes spring.exe and opens tasclient.exe would resolve this entire complaint.

[Vadi]

There's actually another lobby than TASclient. That even has single player support, right in it!

[Sertse]

I might as well speak the unspeakable. (I'm newb enough to get away with it!)

Why use TASClient?

It just seems the other clients have more functionality (At the very least, makes single player as prominent a role as multi-player, as it should be) and is complete and all; so why do we insist on making TASclient as default?

[SinbadEV]

There's actually another lobby than TASclient. That even has single player support, right in it!

I might as well speak the unspeakable. (I'm newb enough to get away with it!)

Why use TASClient?

It just seems the other clients have more functionality (Every least, makes Ssngle player as prominent a role as multi-player, as it should be) and are complete that all; so why do we insist on making TASclient as default?

True... I'd really like to know this...

If they are open source and a compatible license and are willing to work with the lead dev team to maintain standards and compatibility I fail to understand why we don't switch...

[koshi]

If they are open source and a compatible license and are willing to work with the lead dev team to maintain standards and compatibility

We are, we have and we do.


In case someone doesn't know, we're talking about SpringLobby here: http://trac.springlobby.info/wiki

[SwiftSpear]

From a spring dev's prespective, it's easier to sit on a current system then it is to continuously adopt new systems. So basically... we don't really actively go out trying to find ways to replace our working stuff. It's not that we're against change, we just don't have time for endless change. To seriously look at replacing the current lobby we'd need something significantly better, and something reasonably easy to switch over.

I haven't been in contact with anyone at springlobby... when I did try it I couldn't get it to work well (which was most likely my fault), basically... I just don't have any information to go on as to why we should switch right now. You can make the most powerful and brilliant lobby system in the world, but ultimately that's only half the battle. Spring development needs to see it and be convinced as well.

I like the idea of switching over to spring lobby from what I do know... just, at this point in time none of the political stuff has really been done yet.

[LordMatt]

I will consider adding springlobby as an option in the installer for next spring version, but not the default option at this time.

[SwiftSpear]

What's the current size of the testing population for spring lobby right now?

[koshi]

it's kinda hard to give numbers that aren't complete guesswork.
as a snapshot (11:15 gmt) : users in #springlobby 16, #main ~80
if my time permits it, we'll start collecting some more informational metrics around saturday.

Edit: we've had 92 downloads of the windows binary in the last 10 days (spread across 3 revisions) and 66 downloads of the dll package. downloads of the dd zip usually mean new users (or very old ones) since it changes very rarely ( two times in the last 6 months iirc)

[hrmph]

Having a map/game downloading system in the lobby would definitely help in keeping newbies around. It was bad enough when newbies had to navigate unknown files in order to find the files they need to play against other people for the first time; now people have to navigate several websites to find what they need.

The installer has come a long way in asking what games/maps the user wants to install.. Are the mods that it downloads always updated to the current version(s) ?

[SinbadEV]

Integration of CA Downloader style functionality in the Lobby (if it's springlobby)... make it so you can click on the map part of a hosted game and get the map or click on the mod part of a hosted game to get the mod... I can't speak for them but I doubt they would mind sharing their technology... I'm pretty sure the project is under a Public/Open Source License anyways.

[LordMatt]

The installer has come a long way in asking what games/maps the user wants to install.. Are the mods that it downloads always updated to the current version(s) ?

Provided that the authors send me an updated version, yes.

[BrainDamage]

Integration of CA Downloader style functionality in the Lobby (if it's springlobby)... make it so you can click on the map part of a hosted game and get the map or click on the mod part of a hosted game to get the mod... I can't speak for them but I doubt they would mind sharing their technology... I'm pretty sure the project is under a Public/Open Source License anyway.

i did finish that yesterday (actually i totally reimplemented it in C++, so now it's cross platform, i also some features like upnp/nat-pmp, lan peer discovering, peer exchange and dht), needs a graphical interface and testing

[Vadi]

http://popcon.ubuntu.com/by_inst, which is an optional (not enabled by default, you need to find the option an enable it in software sources) package popularity contest in Ubuntu shows that there are 642 installations of SpringLobby, and 126 actively use it. Compared to 555 of the spring engine and 95 actively using it, SL enjoys a 75% popularity. That's just for Ubuntu though, and not a complete number, just a minimum one.

[LordMatt]

i did finish that yesterday (actually i totally reimplemented it in C++, so now it's cross platform, i also some features like upnp/nat-pmp, lan peer discovering, peer exchange and dht), needs a graphical interface and testing

Quite simply, BrainDamage is the Man!

[Licho]

SpringLobby is going to use cadownloader system (own implementation, same server)

AFLobby is probably going to use CaDownloader directly

TasClient could use CaDownloader when its renamed

CaDownloader itself is currently being modified for linux compatibility.

So in some time all lobbies should have automatic map/mod download capabilities.

[smoth]

I am currently using spring lobby, My main gripe about it is that the games lists and chat are separate pages. I understand that this is in the plan to be fixed otherwise it works fine.

Features I know it doesn't have:
it doesn't store my colors
it doesn't give us a nice long list of thumbnailed maps
it doesn't currently have a refresh mod list option.

I like:
it's giant image of the map you have loaded.
You can see a minimap when you hover over a game
The devs are polite and open to suggestion.
it very much feels like an open project where people can contribute!

[Vadi]

Not arguing, but what do you mean no refresh mod option? tools - reload maps/mods does the trick.