XTA...

[babbles]

I doubt anyone who plays XTA (does that group of people still exist?) will read this/reply but whatever...

http://pastebin.com/6ikRvqbC

any thoughts?

[Gota]

ehh...DUUUH?
the reason nobody does this is cause nobody is payed to do it and nobody wants to market xta for free....

A few points.
All the marketing in the world wont help you if people cant actually start the game.
XTA needs:
an ok looking wepage(even a single page would do) with some pictures and embedded youtube videos of xta games.
a feature list and a link to an installer that installs spring plus latest xta plus a few maps with it(prefferably with alobby with filters turned on to xta by default.
Than after you got that and there is a place where you can forward people you can start hyping it anywhere from facebook to youtube to twitter to making blogs and lists of free open source games where xta is ranked #1 and it all links to the webpage you made...

for better results imo first start the page stating the game will be released soon and add a forum page where a community can slowly gather and after a while post a link with the installer and announce the game is out.


Of course before all that you need to find the person who is actually willing to do it all :)

[babbles]

All the marketing in the world wont help you if people cant actually start the game.

that's pretty much what I said

[Jools]

<Hero> but 99999999 other rts games could say the same thing

That's why you have to relate it to original Total Annihilation imo, it's still one of the best RTS games of its time and has a good name. Everybody who likes RTS games knows that game, but very few know of spring. I don't agree it's a shrinking market.

Same reason Star Wars the prequels were successful, they wouldn't have been with another name.

[Deadnight Warrior]

XTA needs:
an ok looking wepage(even a single page would do) with some pictures and embedded youtube videos of xta games.
a feature list and a link to an installer that installs spring plus latest xta plus a few maps with it(prefferably with alobby with filters turned on to xta by default.

Strangly BA has none of those and is still the most popular Spring mod by far.
The only thing we need is ~50 autohosts hosting XTA and new players will see a flood of XTA games being hosted and join one that has players.
When I started playing Spring on-line for the first time I wanted to play XTA as it was the only mod I've played, up till that time. But when I saw that 90% of battlerooms where hosting BA and that there wasn't a XTA game going on, I switched to BA.
That's probably how most people would react when joining Spring server for the first time.

Unless autohosts policies change this is probably the most important reason for BA popularity (second one being that anyone that gets hooked to BA, starts up it's own autohost hosting BA, clans in particular)

Other problems is that new players seem to tend to 5v5+ games and most XTA players don't like such crowded games.

If we compare Spring games and TA to other commercial RTS games, you'll nottice how TA derivates are much slower paced and require much higher system resources. That's why TA succumbed to StarCraft and that's why SupCom never gained as much popularity as Warcraft 3 or any newer C&C game.

Speeding up the mod is actually ridiculously easy, we just have to set default unit speed to 1.3x and buildpower to 1.5 (in mod options), and the problem of slow game pace is resolved.

[Gota]

increasing unit speeds and build power is not at all enough.you'll just completely destroy balance.
If you want ot make a "modern" ta like rts game youll have to change XTA a lot.

[BrainDamage]

Speeding up the mod is actually ridiculously easy, we just have to set default unit speed to 1.3x and buildpower to 1.5 (in mod options), and the problem of slow game pace is resolved.

neither, set instead game speed to 1.5, then all game mechanics will remain the same

[Johannes]

Just increasing game speed has some drawback though, it's unintuitive that the ingame clock shows speeded up time. And resource buildings would produce their listed amount in 2/3 second instead of 1, which is a bit weird too.

But ofc changing just unit speeds and buildpowers will be totally game-changing, you'll have to adjust reload times, acceleration/brakerates, turnrates, turret turnrates, projectile speeds, opening times, probably something else too... If you want to keep the game same just faster, but without the issue with just uping gamespeed.

And what do you mean by TA derivatives being slower paced than other RTS, in what sense? BA or CA especially seem pretty fast to me, while WC3 is damn slow. But pace can mean a lot of things to diffrent people so I digress...
And if you look at other Spring games you've got Evo for example, that's just ridiculous with its nearinstant buildspeeds...

[AF]

XTA gameplay became incredibly punishing for those without veteran skills, few had the patience to persist, and most didnt bother and were never known about as a result. A game by veterans for veterans.

Once the changes being made started to alienate people such as myself IK and other classic XTA players the end was nigh. The XTA player base while still strong had lost critical mass and was doomed unless things changed. Of course the very presence of a strong player base, despite its small size and sub critical population, prevented that change from occurring.

Back in the days of big battles on small supreme commander with barto and mong every evening when we were in the golden age of XTA, things were different. Sure a well placed commander with a small task force could wreak havoc, but it wasn't the only tactic being used, and it was always the most effective. These days that aspect of the game has overtaken the rest to a significant degree.

The XTA of today is a different beast, and its not the one players remember, why else do we constantly look back at broken XTA versions like 0.66SE with such a warm glow?

[babbles]

so, basically

It was all good till babbles came and Noruas was mod

[1v0ry_k1ng]

well no, because your playstyle was a just byproduct of the changes, and noruas was mod during 9.3/9.2 where XTA was still on the rise...

XTA was good until the commander got buffed/morph got added.

[Gota]

but noo,whe whe whe we like morph.

[raaar]

I never saw the old XTA.

But if it got "screwed" over the last years (?) it seems it's not just his fault. The community is also to blame.

Noruas must have had some sort of support from the xta community to keep the changes...

[1v0ry_k1ng]

noruas was poor at maintaing balance but he did good artwork.. prior to 9.3/9.2 he was working alongside knox, who were very conservative on the subject of balance. afterward, he mostly did his own thing.

[Jools]

but noo,whe whe whe we like morph.

Yes we do. I don't really think the balance is bad with xta, only the dgun and live need to be fixed.

[pintle]

Yes we do. I don't really think the balance is bad with xta, only the dgun and live need to be fixed.

Do we? Who exactly is we? Everybody who played 1v1 a lot (that I am aware of at least) agreed that it ruined the game.

Even outside of 1v1, compushing has been made way way too easy. Its gone from optional and risky to mandatory and boring.

[AF]

Finally someone said it

Noruas was fine at balancing, you shouldn't diss him. The problem was that he aimed to please and listened to peoples views on balance far too much, his capacity to say no wasn't strong enough

[d-gun]

so how do we go about restoring the glory days?

[Wombat]

morhped com + dt + llt + con = bg or combomb and uber rage.

make first morph to require even tiny bit of exp and game should be far more enjoyable i think

[BrainDamage]

make first morph to require even tiny bit of exp and game should be far more enjoyable i think

it does already since 1-2 months