Spring RTS Engine

How about we make this a sticky. Gamereplays are after hiding the TA Spring replay forum in the Sup Com section where nobody's going to see it.

TA Spring Replays.

Theres an utterly pathetic selection of replays on there right now (hey, they're mostly mine). Lets see some submissions. The OTA website TADRS is a hell of alot more popular than the Spring equivalent, yet it has a 10th of the players.

I will apply to be a reviewer again after rating some more informally.

If we had a well organized site like TADRS more people would post replays I bet. Of course, this is easier said than done; and game replays does an alright job. The people at GR could atleast make it easier to find the spring section from their main page.

hrmph wrote:If we had a well organized site like TADRS more people would post replays I bet. Of course, this is easier said than done; and game replays does an alright job. The people at GR could atleast make it easier to find the spring section from their main page.

Well what do you know, I just happen to have a spring replay parsing script sitting right here on my computer... Im asking TAUniverse for some hosting as i type, so it might be up in a few days. It has lotsa cool features, like filling in all the game details automatically, and the ability to search by mod, map, and player. All I need to do is add in the ability to comment on the replays, and im done!

Well I'm a reviewer at TADRS and to be honest, I don't think its necessarily the best system. The thing is people don't really want reviews. You can go rating each player individually on stuff like building, unit control but when you do that you only give away the ending. And people get pissed So we generally don't give the players ratings anymore.

The same goes for too much analysis. People don't want to know the outcome before they watch the demo. I think this is where the GameReplays reviewers have fallen down so far. They go giving you a review describing all the minitae of the game, which isn't what people want to know. Not to mention that fact that it takes ages and the reviewers will soon get bored of doing it.

Really, the GameReplays system works very nicely. If a game is good then people are going to post replys, and it'll get noticed. If its shit then nobodies going to reply to the topic very much and it'll soon dissapear.

The idea behind the system being...
at GR you post a replay
a reviewer (LOL!) then says 'MYNE' or w/e in the topic
he goes on to review it with a detailed report, by now a load of BS chat and OT discussion means it won't be the post after the replay is posted
then he gives it a rating which is visible in the forum view
this allows players to filter through replays, further assisted by the ROTW which doesn't necessarily have to be brilliant as long as it is decent and entertaining
you don't have to read the review, but after you watch the game see if you agree with it and the players reading it helps them improve their play

Molloy wrote:People don't want to know the outcome before they watch the demo.

This is true! Every time I'm about to watch a replay and I find out the winner before hand it takes away most of the excitement from watching the game. Extreme come-backs are one thing that make TA replays so interesting.

That being said, I see a quality spring replay website in the future. Maelstrom's replay parsing script is great! A feature that when turned on prevents the user from seeing who won the replay is feasible/(necessary imo).

If it were possible to re-record the demo the reviewer could make his notes ingame, which would be much more useful IMO.

Well what I have set up isnt just a review site, its more of a replay database, and people can add reviews as comments if they so desire. But basically, it can be exactly like GameReplays, but not require registration to upload, has the auto parsing thing, and you can easily search through them.

I think min3:s reviews at gamereplays have been good and helpful, and it's been a joy to watch the replays. A good movie review doesn't reveal too much of the plot but still describes what the movie is like and what's good and what's bad... it's hard.

perhaps hide the review under a link?

That being said, I see a quality spring replay website in the future. Maelstrom's replay parsing script is great! A feature that when turned on prevents the user from seeing who won the replay is feasible/(necessary imo).

perhaps hide the review under a link?

You can at most see the top of a review, if you don't want to spoil the plot DONT
READ
IT
>.>
My advice is if you
haven't seen the game: see the number, if its above 3-4 its probably worth a watch (or if its ROTW)
then download the game
then watch the game
then read the review, see if you agree, and see if you can improve from any of the points. If you have a complaint take it up with the reviewer (but not aggresively >.>)

if you played in the game
read the review
watch the replay
learn/improve

>.>
>.>

free choice people. you do NOT have to read the review, but the number is definately a useful guideline

on another note we have no RRs active atm, im a SRR (senior replay reviewer) but i am swamped with work, maybe if i'm given a good replay (no one even posts them anymore >.>) i will try to give it a review, and try to make a ROTW.
ANYONE interested in being a RR
must be able to commit yourself to one replay every week almost every week
must be willing to put up with criticism from other RRs or players
must have a aquaintance with the mod
HAS to understand the economy!!!

you must review 2-3 replays and have a RR concur with your conclusions and ratings (in a discussion!) upon which you will be promoted and allowed to vote on a replays value (1-10)
also i have a system somewhere posted on GR, if anyone actually replies to me in a PM asking to be a RR i will dig up what i use as my scoring and hopefully the new RR will accept it or help me improve it

Min3mat's definition for the reviewer system does sound like a lot of work, though I'm sure someone will volenteer. You won't see me doing any of this stuff, I have way to much homework to do

I applied, back when I lacked a lot of Spring face time.

It's not hard just to incorporate a dropdown which would contain the name of the winner using javascript or something. Either that or just use CSS to make the text background the same as the fore-text colour and have the background colour drop away or the fore-text colour change on mouse over.

Not hard. They do it all the time on forums where people post spoilers. Surely some hardened php/html coders like yourselves would know how to do that?

This should also be mentioned
http://www.unknown-files.net/replays/

yeh were trying not to use GR for the league because its, well another site to sign up to

were combining the league/ladder signup with the replay website at http://www.unknown-files.net/replays/

(this will be moved to replays.spring-league.com soon but not yet)