Why do you guys keep developing the game with no players playing the game?

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XbananakillerX
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Why do you guys keep developing the game with no players playing the game?

Post by XbananakillerX »

Just a question out of curiosity.

Is it a side project or do you guys hope in due time after some development to advertise the game?

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Gireen
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Re: Why do you guys keep developing the game with no players playing the game?

Post by Gireen »

both :grin:
besides we have a few regular players but its rare that many meet at the same time

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illwieckz
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Re: Why do you guys keep developing the game with no players playing the game?

Post by illwieckz »

Developing the game can be a game by itself. :grin:

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lamefun
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Re: Why do you guys keep developing the game with no players playing the game?

Post by lamefun »

Better question: if there's still development taking place, why is it not focused on actually retaining the some of the new players (50200 per month according to illwieckz), as opposed to new features such as parkour, grenades, or engine stuff?

Like making the game more accessible by introducing better default control scheme, removing non-discoverable gatekeeper mechanics (hello, floor head-CHEAT-bite), adding a cooperative game mode (humans vs bots), where both beginners and long-time pros could have fun together...

And maybe making the game actually fun to play with low player counts (1vs1, 2vs2), allowing the player base to grow gradually starting from a small number of players, just in case the advertising campaign that was supposed to happen after the Beta fails to attract enough players or never happens... and it never happened indeed...

I've been telling this for years, only to be ignored...

Sadly, it has now become clear that the developers don't care whether the game is actually being played, so let's just admit it:

There never was any hope for Unvanquished.

R.I.P.

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illwieckz
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Re: Why do you guys keep developing the game with no players playing the game?

Post by illwieckz »

I'll speak for myself: I only care to be alive. It means everything else is contingency. It means everything you may get is a gift. It also means you can only place hope on life, which is the only thing to put hope on.

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Gireen
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Re: Why do you guys keep developing the game with no players playing the game?

Post by Gireen »

I came only recently back from the dead so i cant talk much about the last years, but
i dont think the game is dead.

Here is a crude graphic of last weeks game activity from players online at the same time

https://i.imgur.com/HxA227b.png

Sure its not really alive eighter but thats not that big of a problem to solve i think.

@lamefun
I get parts of your critique but looking over your linked posts i also see some of your suggestions are already implemented like the bots that leave the team when a player joins to takes its place and vice versa. And others are in development like better controls

All in all i think the game improved in many ways since the last few years.

Since i think its futile to theorize here about what would or could improve the gameplay why dont just try it as a mod?

fear ma engrish :granger:

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illwieckz
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Re: Why do you guys keep developing the game with no players playing the game?

Post by illwieckz »

Thanks for nailing the thing @Gireen. The only way to fix gameplay is to experiment with it. The situation just uncovers our need for gameplay contributors and experimenters. There is no really other drama than the lack of contributors. I know Viech was the kind of guy experimenting on gameplay part but is currently not very available, then the stall of this topic.

I'm myself more a guy working on engine features, tools, dev environment and workflow. We don't all have the same skills or the same fluencies. So when something stalls, it's usually because this thing lacks some contributors.

From an outside point of view it can looks like people not wanting to do something, it just means the people who usually do those parts are not available or not there at that point. A team is not a group of identical people with wide homogenous and perfectly suited skills who just split the work effort, a team is a cooperation of unique people trying to fit their respective, unbalanced and inadequate skills together.

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cu-kai
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Re: Why do you guys keep developing the game with no players playing the game?

Post by cu-kai »

I'd certainly like to see more players on Unvanquished, though the problem is there are few people who actually play Tremulous who will even attempt to play Unvanquished. A lot of the people I talk to on Tremulous 1.1 (and I play 1.1 a lot still) are happy with Tremulous as it is, and hate gpp and "gpp-derived" gamemodes.

The other camp is the GrangerHub one and we won't even go there, but they are happy in their own little bubble of "1.3" and I very much doubt they will come here either.

I know I haven't posted here recently but I do still browse the forums regularly. This is just my input from the Tremulous side of things. I would very much like to get games going again on here, then we could invite other players online like @enneract and ams for feedback.

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jeremiahquellette
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Re: Why do you guys keep developing the game with no players playing the game?

Post by jeremiahquellette »

Hello, in my opinion, game development can be a part of this game also. I like how these guys work about their game. Yes, this game didn't have any big numbers, but it can give our guys a big game development experience, so I hope they will release a big project so we all can play with a big player community together in the future. If you need any financial help, I can take part in it on Kickstarter since I earn some money early from my csgo skins trade bot platform. Have good luck, gents!

[Edit: removed what looked like a spam link -- illwieckz]
Last edited by jeremiahquellette on Fri Jan 14, 2022 11:42 am UTC, edited 1 time in total.
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illwieckz
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Re: Why do you guys keep developing the game with no players playing the game?

Post by illwieckz »

You may have responded to a spammer… :grin:

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