My opinion on lack of spontaneous server activity

Discussion in 'Feedback' started by mrmeow, Mar 9, 2019.

  1. D.D.D. Destroyer

    D.D.D. Destroyer Member Staff Member Moderator

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    You shouldn't lock out the CV just in case someone who hasn't done the tutorial yet is in position to drive the CV out of danger and back to safety. Can you imagine the fallout if this happened?

    "Okay, CV is safe for now but you're the only one around so you gotta hop in and drive it back to base before more trouble arrives"
    "Uhhh, guys? The game is telling me I need to play some tutorial first, what do I do?"

    Locking the opt-in button is fair play, though.
     
  2. complete_

    complete_ lamer

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    always nice to get a complimet after signing in for the first time in awhile!

    the reason why glycen does not suck is because i edited it so that it works better for low population counts. not necessarily the layout, but the win conditions. the map WILL ALWAYS END

    the issue is the infantry maps, for being the go-to thing for low player counts, they are not fun to play at these player counts at all.
    district is IMPOSSIBLE to end. what is fun about joining a map as the only person or only other person and not being able to capture the middle flag? at least in commander maps you can mess around with base layouts.
    urban chaos is way too large for small counts you can run all around the maze-like layout and not run into the other guy in the server.

    district should not be the default seeding map at all. if 2 or 3 people want to fool around and shoot each other, they should build rackses opposite each other and do exact that. barring making a map for this purpose (i did make one that was secretly for this purpose *rip emp_railway* but never could figure out how to remove the lag)

    make canyon the default map. space to build and fool around as well as shoot in close quarters
     
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  3. Trent

    Trent Member

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    Maybe if there were real updates to the game, rather than just constant tweaks, then may server population would grow.
     
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  4. D.D.D. Destroyer

    D.D.D. Destroyer Member Staff Member Moderator

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    I'm gonna need you to provide the definition of a "real update" according to your understanding, just to be sure we don't have conflicting ones.
     
  5. Trent

    Trent Member

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    Like moving to the free Unreal Engine which gets constant updates, rather than the dead Source Engine since Valve seems to have basically gone out of the game making business. Having a stick of bamboo stopping a 60 ton vehicle is not cool anymore.
     
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  6. Lazybum

    Lazybum :D Staff Member Moderator

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    That's not an update, that's a ridiculous amount of work because you have to start fresh. Much more work then what this mod currently even gets.
     
  7. Sgt.Security

    Sgt.Security Member

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    It's like you are saying if we cure cancer we'd be famous.

    I mean, yes, you are right, but you are not considering the effort behind that.
     
    Last edited: Apr 2, 2019
  8. Trent

    Trent Member

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    "update

    verb

    :
    to bring up to date"

    Yeah, a gaming engine which saw its last update back in 2007 is not up to date.


    I am considering, but as I said making constant tweaks on a very old, outdated, and dead game engine is not going to bring in the players. It basically competeing agaisnt those Free to Play games such as World of Tanks and Armored Warfare which sees a lot of updates to the graphics and game engines.

    There was an update , what back in 2003 to move the game over to Source Engine? Why can it not be done again?

    Rumor has it the original developer is making an Empires 2 on the Unreal Engine, but I have not seen anything on it since I first heard about it.
     
  9. Not Kidpaler

    Not Kidpaler Member

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    SDK2013 was the last update.

    But anyway, because it would require too much work. Simple as that. A lot of core people needed to do it simply dont work on Empires. Namely, no artists.

    Duke was working on it, but he also partnered up with MrDie. And we havent heard anything from him in a LONG time.
     
  10. Trent

    Trent Member

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    Going from version 1.25 to 1.26 is hardly an update. That so-called "update" was just minor things tweaked (just like this game), such as changing the source code so it would be compatible with Visual Studio 2013. The physics and graphics capabilities still remain from 2003.
     
  11. mrmeow

    mrmeow Member

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    i know what trent is saying seems crazy, but you need to ask yourself: if i make a HUUUUUUGE update on the source engine and player counts increase by 200%!!! - that's what? 20 people- it doesn't matter. I think i agree with what he's saying. take the core gameplay and just put it on a new engine or else this glorious mod will die here, right now literally this month of april 2019.
    source empires is toast, what is your next move?


    also, complete_ is complete_ly correct and in agreement with my assessment of the server state. infantry maps suck ass.


    join me on the right side of history and abolish infantry maps.
     
  12. Lazybum

    Lazybum :D Staff Member Moderator

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    Technically there is a lot of nice changes when they updated to the 2013 engine, it's just none of it is really used. Its not as simple as enabling it either for a 500% more beautiful empires or for example for empires to take advantage of multicore features for improved performance.

    Source engine is limited in quite a few things but you can still make it look it super nice. Even neo Tokyo which came out like 10 years ago or something still looks decent today. But you can't see these improvements in current empires for the same reason it isn't being remade in new engine, you need a bunch of artists to make it look good and empires doesn't even have anyone atm. I've seen people port existing models into new engine and it they have better lighting sure, but the model itself kinda stickout from the rest of the stock assets that come with the engine .
     
  13. Not Kidpaler

    Not Kidpaler Member

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    Except it wasn't toast. January proved that.


    Also to go along, our version of source now has PBR like most modern games courtesy of Thexa. It was actually such a big change, lots of other mods for Portal 2, Half life 2 etc are now utilizing what Thexa wrote. So there have been great visual changes, and Source is actually on par with other engines. Apparently our version of source also utilizes multicore, just very inefficiently because it can take a long time to make it be efficient.

    The tools are there for us. The main limitation is map size, but if you make it much bigger than what we get now youd run into not seeing players at times which would be boring.
     
  14. Trent

    Trent Member

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    How about putting the game into Steam Workshop? Or putting the gane into out source? Put it on Github to attract people to work on it?
     
  15. Not Kidpaler

    Not Kidpaler Member

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    I don't want to be rude, but when was the last time you even opened Empires? This screams to me like you haven't opened it in at least a year because thats when Workshop support was finalized. It's been in the works since Thexa took over three years ago and it has over 100 submissions on it currently. Mainly these are old maps so they are preserved for future people.

    Also, It cant be open source due to all the various contributors over the years that have contributed without signing an agreement.
     
  16. Lazybum

    Lazybum :D Staff Member Moderator

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    I'm not sure how putting it on github would help with attracting people. I kinda doubt anyone would work on it unless they actually played the game, at which point they could just ask to help out. It isn't like you need a masters in comp sci to help out, most of the devs were either people who were doing it as a hobby like krenzo or college kids with some basic understanding of programming, stuff you could probably pick up in as little as 6 months if you actually did it every day. At least that's how it was, I dunno how their current application system works, before it was a simpleish programming question but it's probably a tad more then that now.
     
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