Since salami was stupid enough to hire me back on staff

[Dierienow]

Lol why the fuck would you be proud to be a veteran in a topic/general conversation that makes anyone with any power over the game look corrupt/just bad. Like, good job? I tried telling people that the game would end up like this, and it's not that staff doesn't care, that they don't know, etc. They're actively suppressing the development and improvement of this game so that the same group of people can continue to pretend to be good at this game. They don't want competition - it will make their accomplishments fade away. They don't want to ban cheaters - they will end up banning themselves. They hold the reins of power but when you tell them to move they go, eh when I feel like it. Then they end up not moving at all because whoever is in charge doesn't KNOW what to do to make the game better. Really, do we need community voting (a decent solution to a problem that needn't exist) or do we need someone with a) the will and b) the ability to just choose the right thing to do for the zone?

Just look at staff.. "+1 veteran replies in this thread! XD" Do you really want to draw attention to the fact that under your, and Henry's, leadership this game is dying? That's why we're 'on his nuts'. Of course, to introduce a competitive situation to the game today, 20 years later, is probably pointless. This game is built upon the fact, much like real life, that whoever is the best at cheating the system wins. Games.. aren't supposed to be like that. They're supposed to be a relief from real life where the lack of fairness is all too apparent. Yet this game, with complete amateurs at the helm of something with true potential, is an exact replica of real life. You've got the guy who's 'done things' for the game but nobody can say what, you've got the guy who 10 years later is still FRESH off of that victor's high from whatever championship in this game that he or his team members managed to cheat their way into. You've got that one well-intentioned guy who's downfall is that everyone knows this and plays off of it, a sucker basically despite being at least 10x smarter than the rest of the group. It's cookie-cutter bullshit if anyone wants to take a look and see, yet you play it off like it couldn't POSSIBLY be staff's fault.

I mean, it's been so long that this has been happening that to change it now is pretty much pointless. It's SubSpace 2 or bust. You can't possibly imagine anything improving in this game with the current leadership, because they've had the time to change things and yet the game keeps declining. Luckily people like myself and the regular Pub crew are here every day to put in our time for no possible remuneration or thank you, so that you can even have a forum to post your "+1 veteran comment XD" because if not for Pub you wouldn't have anyone to lord your apparent status over.

This guy's (vys) IQ is so fucking astronomical I can already tell what his reply is. "I didn't even know people played pub LMFAO XD" Please just say it you one-trick sad. Prove that you don't give a single fuck about this game outside of your little clique and your reputation within said clique. Or don't, because something to that effect has been said enough times already for me to know that nothing on this game is changing with these Einstein's in control. I'm past the point of thinking these people are just incompetent. A clique with their own interests in mind has control over the competitive side of this game and it will be the game's downfall. 90% of people don't fucking play games where there is no level of competition, the competition that exists is restricted to a certain group (who can't even prove that they're technically competent at any time let alone today, and yet they still are in the group), cheating is allowed in those competitive games, and you can always appeal the result of those games you cheated in if you somehow lost. Nobody is going to spend their time to get good at the game to play in such a terrible competitive environment, which is exactly what you want I'm guessing. It's pretty clear this is the case when there hasn't been a single new competitive player in over a decade. Everyone who plays in twd or tsl or even pub for that matter is registered at least in '09. If you want proof that the zone is failing under your leadership, what more evidence do you need? Not a single new good player in 10 years, wow. Good thing we found all the good players 10 years ago so we can shut the doors behind us, right boys?

Veteran posts (not by who said it, by content) just went to 1.

[Dierienow]

Probability of getting owned in this thread just went to 1.

[Dreamwin]

I wish I could remember that one quote someone had in their signature. It was about making someone staff when 3 of the most unlikely person were sysop, dean of staff and something. I would like to present slightly modified version of it:
You know TW is dead when:
Jessup is the best remaining player in the zone
Henry Saari is sysop
Jessup is a member of staff

How do you expect the zone to be alive when the majority of the "active" population has nothing to play for? Instead of taking advantage of the positive momentum this zone had during TWDT (a lot of old vets coming back), people are too busy spending 2 months arguing about racism in pub.

+2 veterans replies to the thread

[Rab]

What do you propose?

[Vys]

This game would of died years and years ago, If it wasn't for people like Henry and other staff members over the years, who put countless hours into planning to keep this game rubning.

I've been inactive for a while due to having a new edition to my family, but I check in on here and our staff app. And all I see is staff members who put countless hours in this game, get shit talked on these forums by players who rely on this game to have a life.

[Dierienow]

I agree, actually. We should be thankful that someone cares enough to shepherd this game to its death, the eventual consequence of life. To preserve it is folly - as is to go to the doctors - because you are only preventing the inevitable. If there is a pain in your stomach, there is no need to investigate it further because you will die eventually. You should be thankful you experienced life at all, aren't you humble? Therefore going to the doctor is also disrespecting the life you've been given, not just pointless. To analyze this further is unnecessary, as you are now rearing a small human (this is from what I've gathered in your post, also PHRASING), whom you won't be taking for vaccinations and won't be educating (life can't be made any better or improved). Is this fair to say?

[Dierienow]

Since I have some free time (it's pretty much all free..) I'll go into detail about what I think are some of the games problems and suggestions for fixing them. I have said many of these before by the way.

The problems this game is facing can be put into many categories. Some are back-end, some are gameplay, some can be solved in the current paradigm, others require a shift in thinking. Some are general, multiple-solution problems and others are specific and easy to fix. The list is in no particular order, just going off the top of my head.

1. It's more beneficial to play poker/fruit machine than it is to actually play pub without festival.

2. Buying FC's.. just no. (IMO, can go into this further)

3. Pub arena is static, boring, and rarely changes except for holidays. We did pub flavor weekends, why not have map flavor weekends? Picked by someone who plays pub so that a terrible map isn't picked as often. It's good to have the same map 95% of the time, but without experimenting we might be missing out on some fun maps to play. Maybe it could be a once a month thing.

4. Punish people for breaking rules, who knows about chat, but at least police the game. Elim is ruined by teaming (rule never enforced), etc.

5. Record every competitive match.

6. Put competitive rules up for scrutiny before the league is launched. Let people criticize the rules first to end up with a more competitive environment later. This doesn't "give people more time" to game the rules unless you refuse to implement changes.

7. Open up the competition. Don't bar people who are interested to help or participate. This includes making sure people who signed up have a match to play.

8. Staff needs an honest commitment to helping the game. The fact that there aren't enough good replacements is a consequence of the environment staff has created.

9. Make polls available on the forums and/or in-game. Maybe people want a different pub map every weekend, you'll never know unless you poll it. Don't put to a poll, "should we replace Henry with wicket666?" stick to shit that people wouldn't care enough to manipulate.

10. There needs to be a guide/easier way to install this game. Currently you need 150 IQ to even install this game and enter the zone, it seems. Make a video tutorial on how to install the game and put it on the frontpage. Sounds like an awesome job for TW'S OFFICIAL CONTENT CREATOR.

12. Adopt an entirely different attitude when interacting with the players of this game who in 2018 are still putting time in, long after you've gotten yourself a life despite bragging constantly on a 2d spaceship forum.

13. Maybe decoys can be destroyable or something. If you shoot a decoy once w/ blue shot it dies, twice for yellow shot, 4 for red shot.

14. Stop making us spawn outside when more players join. Maybe have us spawn closer to base (along the front-side entrances, but not in the middle where the big + is.) Spawning outside takes away from the action.

15. This game needs love, technically. More than advertising (like I said it's almost impossible for people to install/enter the game people aren't smart), any money should go towards improving the game technically if possible. Whether it's Subspace 2, improving the game itself like Continuum did, whatever. The game engine is good and fine but the back-end, including connection, cheat detection/prevention, etc. must be pretty lackluster. I would bet anything that Subspace 2, with the same graphics but updated gameplay, connection, UI, multiple servers etc etc sold for $5 in the Steam store would blow up. It would be stupidly successful. This game is so casual and addicting and from what I've seen, completely unique. And yet so basic it could run in a browser, a phone, any computer, any console. You guys are such awesome programmers and yet you can't even make a slightly updated 2d spaceship game.. pathetic. Is this game even under adequate copyright protection? It's on Steam. And wouldn't the company who owns the IP be fucking STOKED to hear of a GOOD plan for making them money? And aren't some of you some bigshot Silicon Valley nerds? Let's pitch some fucking ideas, bros. Or just live on the 40 bitcoins or w/e they have, I don't care. I just want to play a nice updated version of this game with lots of ppl. I know it's possible.

As for Henry and others putting in time I'm not denying it. Maybe I'm asking a lot out of a free dead game that doesn't make money. I'm not really sure. It's why I push for SS2 anyways.. fixes a lot of the problems just by being a game you can sell and make updates for. But you can easily waste your time and make something people don't want to play.. success is created by having the correct vision so you need to make a game with the right people. My time/ideas are essentially free and I offer them freely to this game as far as my interest allows.. say what you want about the idea guys, I will always give the idea for what I want to play. I just don't know in the current game what is inherently -broken forever - and what is something that can be hacked/fixed/upgraded for low cost of time/effort. A new title would be a blank slate, offer monetary reward, could even receive investment etc. This is also infinite more time/effort than just letting the game die but the rewards could be greater if made properly.

I hope that someone is working on it because I guarantee it would be so popular and even world-changing. The next big genre for esports I'm calling it.

[Grasps]

This game would of died years and years ago, If it wasn't for people like Henry and other staff members over the years, who put countless hours into planning to keep this game rubning.

I've been inactive for a while due to having a new edition to my family, but I check in on here and our staff app. And all I see is staff members who put countless hours in this game, get shit talked on these forums by players who rely on this game to have a life.

I concur with this statement. People don't understand how much work is going on behind the scenes to keep this game on life support. Henry S has been monumental along with several other staffers in keeping this game alive and functioning. Proof is in the pudding folks, TWDT was a huge success this last season though while I remain firm in that I feel we missed the mark not having something setup immediately after to retain the vets who showed, it turned out great. Not only that, but the zone has undergone numerous changes to improve it's "QoL" from stat tracking after games, to bot commands for TWD, even here in these forums. Just look at these forums guys, they are a thousand times better than the old ones we've used for decades.

Too many are quick to discredit the hard working folks who comprise of TW's staff. Henry especially has taken a lot of unnecessary/unwarranted fire as of late. I am partly responsible for this, I won't lie but my intentions behind my outburst were of good intent, I never really hated Henry, I just wanted to have a voice being outside of staff to be heard and the bottom line was always to bring out the best of him, I've said it a couple of times publicly on my vids. And while my tactics for requesting changes weren't PC, they worked for the most part, nearly every complaint I had just 6 months back has been addressed in some form. Henry and them could of banned me from forums and this game if they wanted and if they were as bad as you folks like to insinuate, they would have.

I can't think of another person who can or is willing to give as much as Henry does for this game. He works nearly 7 days a week for us to find enjoyment, there is literally not one that I know who is more willing to devote that much of their life for us. It's very easy to sit on the sidelines and criticize when you have nothing to lose, it's a real challenge to make so many sacrifices in your real life and put in so much work knowing you'll most likely get far, far less less in return. Finding flaws is inherently easy, it was established thousands of years ago and is even written not to do in the 10 commandments because we all do it so well. Finding answers, finding solutions, is much harder to do, especially when everyone left in this game seems to be an expert on either how to fix it in someway or another whether it be leagues or pub chat. If it was as easy as most of you think, we wouldn't be having this discussion. A large part of the zones decline has absolutely nothing to do with staff and is commonly overlooked, people are getting old, they work for a living now, have kids, it's much different now folks.

To reply to this thread's OG subject, since clearly this topic got hijacked, Jessup probably deserved what happened to her and having made movies, sharing them with folks who clearly weren't trustworthy with the information was another oversight on her behalf, not Henry's or anyone elses. Jessup is no longer on staff, the matter was handled professionally and promptly. If Jessup wants to continue complaining about it, that is fine but it won't undo what's been done. I'd advise Jess that if she really cares and wants to better this zone, to behave like an adult and work on limiting such mistakes that got her here in the first place. Name calling and telling people to stop playing doesn't come across as sincere and certainly won't make getting back into staff any easier.

+1 g$$$$ response

-Ixa

[Vys]

I don't know the ins and outs on Jessups recruitment and axing, but scanning over the forums these past weeks, I guess she got recruited, banned someone wrongfully (she used to be all over every cheater call, especially if it involved one of her many trolls) and now she has been axed from staff?

So if a police officer who was kicked from the force and then re-hired charges a petty theft with murder, that would be ok?

Jessups sucks


I really don't have a clue who you are Dierienow, but the game has been on a slow death for a long time for now. When I log on and there's 130 people online: that means its active in this day and age. Back in the day, 130 people meant the server was down and it gave players the chance to log on the name vys^ and pretend to be a god

All what matters is that the staff you guys are gunning for are continuing to log on and keep this prehistoric game alive. Good job guys, keep it up.

[Grasps]

10. There needs to be a guide/easier way to install this game. Currently you need 150 IQ to even install this game and enter the zone, it seems. Make a video tutorial on how to install the game and put it on the frontpage. Sounds like an awesome job for TW'S OFFICIAL CONTENT CREATOR.

Forgot to add to my previous response that you can be looking forward to some updated tutorials soon. I had 2-4 planned out (might consolidate depending on time, goal is quick 2-4 minute vids so people spend less time watching, more time playing), just haven't got around to making them but basically will be;

the basics > the codes > mods and maps; installing and creating > tips and tricks for league play.

Basics will be account creation, finding TW, playing in Pub and all that jazz.

The codes will contain a brief overview of codes to memorize/write down in order to play this game ie. ?go 0 or ?go base, ?nopubchat, ?sound=#,?lines=#.

Mods/maps will contain how to use/create/install banners, as well as the SSDL/SSBE websites to install custom graphics/banners/sounds, where you can find and place all these goodies you want to install, how to make your own custom sounds/graphics (maybe) and how to create your own maps (again. maybe).

Lastly will be a short vid of the recommended settings to rock for league games, graphics that can help out like (aimers, bullets, bombs, ships, ect.), the concepts to success explained ie. teamwork being key, practicing ship control (using arena's like ?go balance or ?go racing), joining/playing/understanding playing with a squad and all the good tips we have access to over the years that are too many to list here that will be included to help new players get a head start (lots of wb/jav/basing guides to touch on just in these forums alone from oldies like rab/burnt).

Hope that helps.

-Ixa

Edit: Maybe I can get a vet like Ease, Vys, Attacks or Zid to hop on for the last vid to share their own tips for achieving success in this game too. Would love that $

[mtine]

LOL DED

[Dierienow]

Newbies don't need to know how to play the game like Ease they just need to be able to get on the game. Not that you shouldn't make those videos.. they could be useful.. but keep in mind the average person is utterly confused before they've even entered the game.. showing them chat commands, alternate graphics, etc. isn't necessary just to get in the game. So, not saying you shouldn't make what you want but you need to think what is the core problem.. all we need imo is a 4 min video, doesn't even need a voice over (when following a YT tutorial I find the text better personally.. though I am FUCKING autistic.) that shows the exact steps to get into the game. Oh there's a steam version you need to make two videos - no. Just put an annotation at the beginning saying "IF YOU INSTALLED THE STEAM VERSION, SKIP TO X:XX". Then put this video on the front page of trenchwars.org - as well as the rest of the tutorials you make but they should be less available, maybe available by link. But the main tutorial should be very easy to find. Because everybody can follow a youtube tutorial but the steps you need to take to get in the game are not clear at all and I think this is one of the greatest reasons this game lacks new players.

[Dierienow]

I'm just kidding lol obviously I'm wasting my time with these ideas especially about Subspace 2. None of these things will ever happen, you're all painfully retarded, and what we're witnessing is a bunch of elitist cunts letting this game die so that their egos can be satisfied. Nobody on this game cares about doing the right thing for the game only what is the right thing for themselves. It's always been like this though because as I said this game has a culture of being "like real life" (in the sense that everything is dirty and corrupt and greed and ego and cheating) which is a culture that staff permits by making the shittiest, dumbass fucking rules imaginable and then handling it terribly because it's just one person's word against another. You guys are incompetent as fuck and don't accept any form of critcism or suggestions, are egotistical and elitist, which makes anyone think that staff isn't incompetent but actively planning and carrying out the death of this game. Why? My only guess is because they are actually the ones who's lives are/were built around this game and the idea that they were any good at it (despite this being entirely untrue, there are good players vys isn't one of them) and they are so fragile that any fair contest terrifies them. If you disagree with this conclusion, please show me a single time where anyone gave a fuck about IMPROVING a situation. You say Henry's done a lot - great - what is preventing him or someone else from doing more? If the staff isn't willing to put a little bit of work into making this game better for all players, should they really be staff? Because let me tell you it's not that we're lacking ideas, people, etc. Maybe we lack GOOD people but then who's fault is that? This game has promoted a shady/cheater culture from the very start and what you're seeing today is a direct result of the values this zone emphasizes, do you disagree?

The question is rhetorical. Everyone here knows this game is dead not by natural causes but by staff and the values they stand for and have always stood for. I always thought it was a terrible idea to have the GUY IN CHARGE also playing in the match but what the fuck do I know? What an absolute shit of a game run by some of the slimiest human beings imaginable.

[Dierienow]

You guys are in charge of an active game that's 20 years old. People obviously care. Why do you operate on the presumption that this game is dead regardless of what you do? Doesn't the game's longevity and the fact that people are still debating the future of the game 20 years later prove that assumption wrong? There is no reason to think that way, you just want the game to die so you can be relieved of this facade you must put on to satisfy your ego that you're indeed, not just good at something, but the best (you're far from it buddy, whatever your interpretation of history. Also you have more jav titles than wb not sure if your brain processed that before you wrote your sig). This game serves a personal use in your life in that you get to stick your nose up at people. You said it yourself you're away from the game these days... so why are you staff? Because there's no suitable replacement you've driven off 99% of people who cared with your pessimistic, elitist attitude that puts the desires of you and your friends above the interests of the game. Please fuck off about who I am, I have barely seen you on this game except for the latest draft tournament where guess what - YOU FUCKING BLEW. You're living in the past it's 2018 this game is still here and people still care.. do something about it or let someone else it's as simple as that. Nobody gives a fuck about your interpretation of this game and whether or not its dead, since you clearly couldn't even make a signature that's truthful let alone anything that could possibly manifest itself in some shape or form in this game. You are trash pretending to be something you're not - maybe you were much better and if so I'm happy for you - but today is different. Adapt or die out that is the motto.

[zidane]

I like our staff members, they've done a good job for a while now and so has Ogron. it's not their faults people are getting old and busy, what games have lasted 20 years like this one? shoutout to everyone who's helped and I look forward to our next league