I had the most awesome LAN party ever last weekend. At work we have a yearly lan-party, and the turnout this year wasn't as high as we had hoped - at max there were 20 people. Last year, I tried to get people to play Empiresmod too, but there were numerous problems that resulted in only 4 players joining us. This year, those 4 players helped me to get everyone else in. I set up 4 usb-sticks with a simple copy-paste install, so that the Steam "download" is actually just verifying files - this makes it take about 5-15 minutes depending on the computer / usb-port. Another key to success was that there were several players who were eager to command, as they preferred RTS games anyway. I set up one expert RTS player who had never played Empriesmod before against one of the 4 who had player Empiresmod a few times before. The third key to success, I think, was that I did not play. Last year I was so busy playing with the 4 that I had no time to hand out the usb-stick, guide people into the game, and give the pile of instructions necessary to get each player to the point where they can actually point their gun at each other. So eventually, I was walking up and down the room with 12 players playing Empires, looking out for signs of confusion to help guide players. I was constantly walking to people who asked things like: "Hey, why doesn't the vehicle spawn work? >Well, you're on the VF ramp, you need to step forward into the VF. Yes, I know, we need to fix that UI." Anyway, the second day of the LAN-party, most of the participants knew the basics, like how to build a tank and build buildings. I was taken aback by the enthusiasm I encountered that day. I had planned to start an Empiresmod game at 3:00, but already at 20 everyone joined a server and we played until the end of the LAN party. So people really really loved the concept, that one of them is commanding their team and is key to their success. I heard quite often that players wanted more instructions from their commander, and I told them that this will come as he gains more experience. It might be nice if, next time, we bring in two really experienced commanders, so that they can see more of the advanced tactics I talked about, such as jeep / APC rushing, walling the comm, nadespamming etc. What I saw was that there is actually a lot of appeal for this game - it is not a niche game as many believe. I'm quite sure that it only seems a niche game because so few new players can get past the interface issues without ragequitting before the sweet spot. That said, the learning curve is high even outside of interface issues, and that can best be addressed by pushing the game to hardcore shooter / strategy gamers at LANparties. I hope all of you will experience the pure joy I felt last weekend by introducing Empires at LAN parties yourselves.
The biggest LAN party I have been to was four people, just enough for an RTS free for all. I'm so envious right now. That being said, it's amazing to hear that it was a resounding success. Did you invite any of them to the winter league?
I once wanted to do something like that, but never got around to it. As you say, Empires really isn't that niche, it has elements that appeal to a lot of people. I think a GUI tweak and a visual update for a lot of the maps, particles and textures will do a lot in bringing people back.
Nice. In 2010 I had a 20 man land party at my school with empires, because I ran monthly land parties on campus and added it to the gameslist. It didn't get voted up again however.
that's sick, my school has a club that host two a year and they can hardly be called LANs, it's just a bunch of people off in their corners playing league of legends.
The "looks" of the game is most probably the only one reason why I could never get most of my friends to play it. It screams "outdated". Its like a wall which covers the diamond. Empires LAN party MUST be fun. GJ if you handled the learning curve with so many people. IMO Empires somewhat needs a guide to get through the first few not so appealing "walls". Only the very persistent will last alone. The diamond is pretty deeply behind the walls :D --- Order of the walls: :D 1. Graphics 2. Interface 3. Learning curve 4. Community Just roughly, Iam sure I missed some
how do you even find the space to host 20 people most ive had is 4 players playing gta together. its pretty much split screen except we get our own screen
My last lan party with around 10 people was a complete failure, with some people absolutely refusing to play games they had not played before. So yeah, nice that you had fun. Empires is a great game, it just.. Needs a fresh start and a lot of PR to get going again.
Like others the biggest lan party I went to was 4 people, but it was still fun. That said, I'm not sure I could handle an empires lan game, the mic spam is so much and now I have to listen to that from people right next to me? Not even missile spam can be that bad.
Back in 2005 or whatever the year i actually was wondering if the vid is fake or not. Today, besides the obvious tells, you would not unscrew a fucking d-sub this fast, no way.
If you have someone that can explain stuff and help with all those weird details of Empires gameplay, then yes it is a great game. That is exactly the problem why Empires always failed once the community grew bigger than two servers, it just isn't designed for the roughness and stupidity of an anonymous internet world. You also need about 10 players minimum to get a game really going, that's another problem when people want to play it on LANs or seed servers.
Empires has always been a great game, but the GUI first and foremost turns a lot of people off - and it impacts more than you think. Vehicle creation is still hard and unintuitive, there's no actual hint for how to choose your spawn, selecting class is clunky, etc. Drop boxes are the actual bane of Empires existence lol. The commanding GUI is actually not terrible in comparison, except when you customise vehicles...since really that's the one time you want a drop down box for everything. Except vehicle loadout is actually really complicated. You can't just assign a group of weapons at a click, or tell it how much armour to include either. Don't get me wrong, it's cool to have more control over those things, but it means that as a comm and a newbie player, there isn't really a way to use non-advanced mode. If we had a version of the GUI where you specified 2 or 3 or 4 whatever layers of armour, and it applied that all around the vehicle, and if you could just assign a weapon to left click, and one to right click, it would be a lot better. The other big thing is...people don't really want to command on a public server. Besides getting cursed out for doing it wrong, there's not actually anything that lets you have a great impact on the game. You can do things crappily, sure, but the difference between a decent comm and a good comm isn't that measurable now. If you place the buildings in a timely fashion, do research (which you don't really need to manage now because it's free), and don't get ninja'd...that's basically all you need. Mass targets were ridiculous, and should never have become something people relied upon, but it was a way in which the comm could directly interact and influence the battlefield. We need something like that again, since now the comm is just divorced from what goes on in the battlefield. They really need an arsenal of comm powers.
Relaying information is still crucial and easier as a commander than as a footsoldier. Besides, you have single targetting, that's a lot of micro with a lot of potential impact.
yeah making comm and vehicle build menu more accessible would certainly help increasing the popularity of the mod ... ... if only it wouldnt be 2016 soon
What do you mean? Anyway, I agree with everything you've all said; and I see it as my mission to do everything I can to make Empires as popular as it was at its peak. Regarding making the comm more involved in the battlefield, I indeed rue the fact that research no longer costs res, as it made it much more tactical when to research and when not. People even complain these days when you already have all the good researches and then you want to jump in a tank and join in, when it's only 4v4 that's a pretty good advantage, but the rule these days is: never stop researching, cos it's free! I was thinking of the possibility of making an "airbase" or something that allows you to drop ammo & health remotely. This would give the comm another tactical weapon to employ. But already it is a pretty awesome advantage when you have a comm looking over your shoulder, placing walls & turrets & armories & barracks exactly when you need them. So I don't think it's vital to change anything in the core gameplay, in order to make Empires popular again. It's mostly marketing. On that note, I want to make sure empiresmod.com has a new post at least every two weeks, preferably with some advanced tutorials. For instance, if you have one engineer alive in the enemy base, have a tutorial video show exactly what the team must do to have everyone spawn there using squad refilling and reviving, then explain about ninja'ing the comm. It would great to have more good tutorials. During the LAN, one player tried a youtube tutorial, and found one by JustGoFly, but said "Die gast is niet te verstaan, man" -> So, the Dutch (generally very good at English) could not follow the fast English or his dialect or whatever. Anyway, more tutorials is always better. Explain EVERYTHING!
what does "gast" mean? i understand the rest, but in german "Gast" means visitor and that makes no sense in context. also i meant that the era of source is about to end - maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, but its forseeable.
