Unvanquished Forum

Hay whats up with this game. I download the game from sourceforge and it says there's many people downloaded this game.
But every time I start up the game and click on any of the severs I never see any one playing. I have seen just 3 players on
the game site like 1 time and from then on never see anyone playing the game.
How do I find any players? What do i have to do to find some players?
And is there no players b/c what I read every one has to buy these buildings all the time? Or do I have to buy a building
to be able to see any players in any of the games servers? Or what do I need to do to see some players?

Reason 1: The developer say the game is still in alpha stage, and they didn't heavily advertise it yet. They'll probably begin advertising when graphics and maps are completed. Ask kharnov.

Reason 2: I see you have had problems launching the game (http://forums.unvanquished.net/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=1759) and you're not the only one: http://forums.unvanquished.net/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=1753. I think many potential players are lost because they can't even launch the game and give up because they aren't interested enough in it to register on forums and ask for help. This game is "open" source, and, sadly, the "open" source mentality takes away one's common sense.

There's "Non-official Training Server". It has a special training mode (where humans play against bots) you can play alone while waiting for other players to join.

Just check the servers / play training every so often and you'll probably find some players to play with.

There are also weekly scheduled development games every Sunday 20.00 UTC (London time), often played more than 12 players at a time.

needsomehelp wrote:

And is there no players b/c what I read every one has to buy these buildings all the time? Or do I have to buy a building
to be able to see any players in any of the games servers?

This has nothing to do with the lack of players. Building is an in-game mechanic, you can buy buildings to defend your base against the enemy for build points, which your team gets automatically over time, no real money is involved.

I think many potential players are lost because they can't even launch the game and give up because they aren't interested enough in it to register on forums and ask for help.

True

This game is "open" source, and, sadly, the "open" source mentality takes away one's common sense.

False

It's not about opensource-ness of the code, but about the completeness of the code: the updater is not yet usable.
GOTO Reason 1: the game is still in alpha stage.

@neeedsomehelp: As lamefun said, there is scheduled games each sunday 20:00 UTC¹

Since the game is in alpha stage, there is no many people, but there is players each day. The best way to get the opportunity to play with and against real players is to join the #unvanquished IRC channel on Freenode, a bot announces games when they occurs.

If you have not an IRC client you can connect to this chat room wia this web interface: https://webchat.freenode.net/ (and choose the channel #unvanquished )

But the better is the 20:00 UTC sunday appointment, it's time to play 8 vs 8 without bots for several hours.

¹ first time I read someone talking about “London Time”, I know the “Greenwich Mean Time” and the ”Coordinated Universal Time”, but the “London Time” is weird, there is nothing related to London here.

illwieckz wrote:

It's not about opensource-ness of the code, but about the completeness of the code: the updater is not yet usable.
GOTO Reason 1: the game is still in alpha stage.

Think some truth for once.

You're developing an online game, even as a hobby.

Why do you develop it?

For players to play it of course!

So you certainly want players to play it.

Common sense dictates that the first thing you want to do is to make an installer.

You don't want to embarrassingly lose players who can't even start the game.

But not if the game is "open" source.

"Open" source takes away developers' common sense.

So they optimize texture memory instead of actually making it possible for non-technical users to play the game.

It's how humans are hard-wired to be. Blame our evolutionary path.

Openness does not necessarily take away the common sense, in theory.

But in us, as we are, it certainly does.

That's why, for us humans, PROprietary software is the best option.

Maybe on some distant planet there are some intelligent species who can handle "open" source.

There might even be some species capable of handling full-blown communism.

But this is impossible for us.

Either you behave differently in real life or you're a good runner, lamefun.

You're developing an online game, even as a hobby.

If it's a hobby, you do first what you like to do, or what you know how to do.

You don't want to embarrassingly lose players who can't even start the game.

Convince players and growing a community is not the same hobby as developing a game. But an online game needs players, that's why the situation can sometimes be embarrassing. So you discover that those who have a hobby are human (the machines do not have a hobby), so they are not constrained, so that you cannot force them to do anything with your “purchasing power”.

Humans are not machines, humans are not slaves : It's how humans are hard-wired to be. Blame our evolutionary path.

Human can be useless, that's why they are awesome : when someone is useless, you can't buy him, you only can love him.

It's a shame, Unvanquished is not finished, is difficult to install, has a long learning curve, so what? Finish Unvanquished, write an installer, or teach newcomers. It's normal to have to teach newcommers. The only thing a man don't have to learn in his whole life is to yell.

I'm pretty sure this also applies to other genders but apart from that I would agree.