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If anyone was around on the piece of shit forums run by Slowbob+CoT a few years ago (before UBB) then you might remember me composing a thread named 'The Future of Trench Wars'.
That thread has been lost and it was a little inacurate but it was a nice thing to read, it made you think about what the future holds for this little 2d game.
I'm going to brainstorm for a minute and write down what I think the future will hold for the game.
Include your own input in a reply.
- Does anyone remember when it was a big thing to have 350+ users online at the same time. I remember when we hit 400 there was a bit of a stir and everyone was talking about it for very short while. Now we're peaking at 700+ (743 new record) on weekends and about 500/600 on week day nights. Trench Wars has for a long time been seen as the most popular zone in Subspace/Continuum (because new members can more or less learn easily and quickly) and I don't expect the population of the zone to decrease any time soon. In 2 years we will be looking at 1000 users online, that's my prediction at least.
- Leagues (TWL mainly) will continue to run strong, I forsee. Trench Wars League will however have to open up more spaces for new squads as there will be too many competant squads around that would not be offered a spot. Maybe the League will be separated into 2 divisions, one for the 16 top teams (in duelling, javelin and base.. and maybe spider) and maybe a Promotion/Relegation system could be used for the top squads in the lower ladder and the lesser squads in the elite division. Either way I'm sure TWL will run strong for many years and seasons to come.
Leagues would be a little different however. Maybe match results could be e-mailed to you directly after a game, or even SMS (txt) messaged to your mobile/cell phone.
- There will be a whole new era of elite squads in the future. Who knows what destiny has planned for us. It's likely that hardly any of the squads around today will make it to 2006, with exceptions to Paladen (KJW will never dissolve Paladen and GG to him, best captain in subspace).
We might even witness the rebirth of old squads such as -FINAL- or -PRO- (mkGENIUS for life, AHAHA). Maybe even Scrotal's Horde, WildFire, Zero Hour or the legendary Siege might get back together.
- As for Staff, there will be many changes. TWBots will be contantly upgraded with new modules. There will be a tournament bot by that time, a GameBot and a DuelBot (to handle the 1v1 league, more info later in the thread). Also, with TW's population constantly rising staff will expand allowing more potential staffers to get their ZH tag and work their way up. Staff will be very large in the future. But, I can't see into the future, so I have no idea who will be running the place. PriitK will still be around, helping keep the game alive as it's creator and demigod. 2dragons will be a Sysop, and Arilou Laylee'Lay will officially be known as sysop of TW. That is what I predict.
At one point last year we were planning to remove the ZH and ER tag and simply use moderators in TW because the Bot Revolution was occuring and it was thought that TW would no longer need event refs, only bot handlers to !load the correct event modules. This idea was never put into reality... but who knows what the future holds.
- 1v1 League. Me and 2dragons are planning to launch the first season of 1v1. If you are an old school pimp you will remember a league named TWEL (originally created by DoCk>, Dantax and Debasser). Debasser mysteriously vanished and the league never really got off the ground. The Second TWEL (approx. 1 year after) was created by Mefod (me) and 2dragons, and FieryFire was assigned LeagueOp also, because I wasnt on staff then and DoCk> didn't want a non-staffer running a league. Once again, the league went strong for 3 weeks then interest died.
This time will be different, bots will run the league in 1 arena, the website will be coded by staff and hosted on our servers. An automated bot will handle all games (DuelBot) and this time interest will not be lost, because the system will be organised.
Who knows, after the 1v1 League maybe you might see a 2v2 League, 3v3 or 4v4 which will allow TW to compete with DZ (Duelling Zone) to have the better duelling league system.
- Events. No doubt new events come to Trench Wars each month, I couldnt possibly name all the new ideas that are in store for everyone. But there will be a lot of crazy new events, that's for sure.
- Ownership. Currently PriitK and Mr. Ekted own the rights to Continuum and its code. But what if a company approached them, knowing that the numbers in TW are constantly getting higher and, without a major server death, would continue to just grow and grow. What if that company wanted to buy Continuum from them? Would they sell out? What would happen if they did sell? Would there be adverts everywhere? Pay2Play? Would we have to worship businessmen instead of PriitK. goddamn, who knows.
- New Ships/ Features? I doubt any will be added. Word on the streets is the software will soon allow the ?chatcreate, ?chatkick, ?chatowner, ?chatpassword, ?chatjoin. But who knows what commands will be added in the future, or what new features. Maybe an ingame MP3 player, more clocks by the radar for different timezones (to help stop people miss matches/scheduled events), advanced LVZ files including more animated tiles (probably already done), larger maps for extreme tournaments. (?go 4xtourny, haha).
- Server. With 1000 people on at any one time, lag will be destroying the sense of fun in the game. What would we do? Run 2 servers to host the game? (if possible). Money has never been a problem when it comes to servers, but now it is. What will happen when PriitK has blown all his money on the TW server each month.. will this game finally R.I.P?? :*(
Any more ideas what the future holds?
Reply
-Method (Marvel (Mefod))
That thread has been lost and it was a little inacurate but it was a nice thing to read, it made you think about what the future holds for this little 2d game.
I'm going to brainstorm for a minute and write down what I think the future will hold for the game.
Include your own input in a reply.
- Does anyone remember when it was a big thing to have 350+ users online at the same time. I remember when we hit 400 there was a bit of a stir and everyone was talking about it for very short while. Now we're peaking at 700+ (743 new record) on weekends and about 500/600 on week day nights. Trench Wars has for a long time been seen as the most popular zone in Subspace/Continuum (because new members can more or less learn easily and quickly) and I don't expect the population of the zone to decrease any time soon. In 2 years we will be looking at 1000 users online, that's my prediction at least.
- Leagues (TWL mainly) will continue to run strong, I forsee. Trench Wars League will however have to open up more spaces for new squads as there will be too many competant squads around that would not be offered a spot. Maybe the League will be separated into 2 divisions, one for the 16 top teams (in duelling, javelin and base.. and maybe spider) and maybe a Promotion/Relegation system could be used for the top squads in the lower ladder and the lesser squads in the elite division. Either way I'm sure TWL will run strong for many years and seasons to come.
Leagues would be a little different however. Maybe match results could be e-mailed to you directly after a game, or even SMS (txt) messaged to your mobile/cell phone.
- There will be a whole new era of elite squads in the future. Who knows what destiny has planned for us. It's likely that hardly any of the squads around today will make it to 2006, with exceptions to Paladen (KJW will never dissolve Paladen and GG to him, best captain in subspace).
We might even witness the rebirth of old squads such as -FINAL- or -PRO- (mkGENIUS for life, AHAHA). Maybe even Scrotal's Horde, WildFire, Zero Hour or the legendary Siege might get back together.
- As for Staff, there will be many changes. TWBots will be contantly upgraded with new modules. There will be a tournament bot by that time, a GameBot and a DuelBot (to handle the 1v1 league, more info later in the thread). Also, with TW's population constantly rising staff will expand allowing more potential staffers to get their ZH tag and work their way up. Staff will be very large in the future. But, I can't see into the future, so I have no idea who will be running the place. PriitK will still be around, helping keep the game alive as it's creator and demigod. 2dragons will be a Sysop, and Arilou Laylee'Lay will officially be known as sysop of TW. That is what I predict.
At one point last year we were planning to remove the ZH and ER tag and simply use moderators in TW because the Bot Revolution was occuring and it was thought that TW would no longer need event refs, only bot handlers to !load the correct event modules. This idea was never put into reality... but who knows what the future holds.
- 1v1 League. Me and 2dragons are planning to launch the first season of 1v1. If you are an old school pimp you will remember a league named TWEL (originally created by DoCk>, Dantax and Debasser). Debasser mysteriously vanished and the league never really got off the ground. The Second TWEL (approx. 1 year after) was created by Mefod (me) and 2dragons, and FieryFire was assigned LeagueOp also, because I wasnt on staff then and DoCk> didn't want a non-staffer running a league. Once again, the league went strong for 3 weeks then interest died.
This time will be different, bots will run the league in 1 arena, the website will be coded by staff and hosted on our servers. An automated bot will handle all games (DuelBot) and this time interest will not be lost, because the system will be organised.
Who knows, after the 1v1 League maybe you might see a 2v2 League, 3v3 or 4v4 which will allow TW to compete with DZ (Duelling Zone) to have the better duelling league system.
- Events. No doubt new events come to Trench Wars each month, I couldnt possibly name all the new ideas that are in store for everyone. But there will be a lot of crazy new events, that's for sure.
- Ownership. Currently PriitK and Mr. Ekted own the rights to Continuum and its code. But what if a company approached them, knowing that the numbers in TW are constantly getting higher and, without a major server death, would continue to just grow and grow. What if that company wanted to buy Continuum from them? Would they sell out? What would happen if they did sell? Would there be adverts everywhere? Pay2Play? Would we have to worship businessmen instead of PriitK. goddamn, who knows.
- New Ships/ Features? I doubt any will be added. Word on the streets is the software will soon allow the ?chatcreate, ?chatkick, ?chatowner, ?chatpassword, ?chatjoin. But who knows what commands will be added in the future, or what new features. Maybe an ingame MP3 player, more clocks by the radar for different timezones (to help stop people miss matches/scheduled events), advanced LVZ files including more animated tiles (probably already done), larger maps for extreme tournaments. (?go 4xtourny, haha).
- Server. With 1000 people on at any one time, lag will be destroying the sense of fun in the game. What would we do? Run 2 servers to host the game? (if possible). Money has never been a problem when it comes to servers, but now it is. What will happen when PriitK has blown all his money on the TW server each month.. will this game finally R.I.P?? :*(
Any more ideas what the future holds?
Reply
-Method (Marvel (Mefod))
I hope Continuum will stay as freeware. 
...and agreed gj KJW 
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