Official Announcement - Continuum is going on Steam

[mtine]

No homo.

[Jessup]

Steam

I think this Steam venture is a good idea guys. Push through with it and worry about any legal stuff as it comes. It is worth a shot. This game hasn't had us hooked for so many years for no reason. It is addictive as hell and really well balanced. The graphic issue is mute to me. Bells and whistle type graphic games ultimately are the same. You push a series of buttons to play. If anything the high graphic games cloud what is actually happening during game play. I think Continuum is primed and ready now as a package to market.

I agree with claushouse. It would be a good idea to work out a clear and concise tutorial / separate arenas for new players. When I began continuum, which was then subspace, there were training arenas with clear command controls written on the map that was easily seen. It even had decoy ships to shoot. I remember that really did help me to learn what was going on. Claus is right, we have to make it as simple and basic for new players to understand. This is so people won't get so annoyed they quit in frustration before learning how to control ships and do commands. Remember for the new player, command issues like changing arenas(esc a, ?go arena), , f1,f2,f7, name ticks for private messages , squad chats and ?help calls can and will easily overwhelm them. MAKE A MAP FOR NEW PLAYERS WITH COMMANDS WRITTEN ON THE MAP! We definitely don't want new players quitting because there is no info easily seen on what to do when they launch in the game for the first time. The first thing they should see when the game starts should have commands listed and web site links for more help tutorials.

I also like the idea of basic ship on ship arena that claus has mentioned. My idea I would like to submit is to have a newb pub arena where there is a 10 to 25 hour quota needed to graduate them into regular pubs. Like how we used to have it set in order to play elim. This way the newbs can fight each other and start to feel special which is pretty important in the beginning. I really feel for anyone just starting having to compete with all us nerds with years of experience. That alone is enough to frustrate someone and have them quit.

This is still the best idea I've heard to jump start this game again so I hope it is followed through with. It is really sad seeing the game slowly die Plus, I love you all but Jesus Christ, I need some new pilots to play with, the same old same old peeps is sooooo predictable :laugh If this does get on Steams Greenlight, staff also needs to be ready for the influx of help calls too. I'm more then willing to help in the ZH department if this happens.

[Shaddowknight]

I've made it a point that staff needs to be ready for this. We've done some expanding on our Staff Training team help assure that we will all be ready to go.
The only problem I have with a usage req for real pub is how annoying it makes it to be aliased. Also, at the start, there will be a lot of times when there would be no newbies in the tutorial arena to play against.

I agree we need to do something, but know that it is something we are working on. However, if anyone has any ideas or is willing to help with making newbie friendly maps or anything of the sort, it is always appreciated.

[Dezmond]

I'm more then willing to help in the ZH department if this happens.

Quoted, you can't go back now.

[kthx]

just add a !help warbird/jav/terr etc function to the bot that displays a permanent splash image on the top left of the screen about that certain ships controls and a brief summary of what the ship is good for.

warbird
arrows move
shift boosts
control shoots
f7 to attach to the terrier
Warbird is generally used to hunt the enemy terr in base but also has several leagues and arenas devoted to its play including twdd/twld dueling arenas, and wbduel.

then when you know the commands by heart you can type !remove to the bot to remove the splash image.

[D1st0rt]

you guys are so cute in this thread 8)

[Shaddowknight]

:tw-welcomebot!quickhelp

^ give it a try

(remove with :tw-welcomebot:!end)

just add a !help warbird/jav/terr etc function to the bot that displays a permanent splash image on the top left of the screen about that certain ships controls and a brief summary of what the ship is good for.

warbird
arrows move
shift boosts
control shoots
f7 to attach to the terrier
Warbird is generally used to hunt the enemy terr in base but also has several leagues and arenas devoted to its play including twdd/twld dueling arenas, and wbduel.

then when you know the commands by heart you can type !remove to the bot to remove the splash image.

[Jessup]

Quoted, you can't go back now.

LOL Dez. you vsing me? :P BTW ,I applied the other day for zh but I doubt you all need me atm since there are usually only 40 vets playing at any given time here that know already know every command by heart NEW BLOOD!!!!!!!! >> LET'S GET IT

[PrOnEsSim]

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfile.../?id=144913037

[Dral]

Not gonna lie, honestly thought this would never go anywhere. Even if it doesn't get greenlighted it's at least some level of advertising to people looking for games to play. Good for you guys.

[mtine]

MAKE A MAP FOR NEW PLAYERS WITH COMMANDS WRITTEN ON THE MAP!

Was done and rejected by TW Staff. What else is new?
Oh, almost forgot. Just read the comments on Steam about this game when I came across Fozz doing meow? Sure, we'll get a green light. (Lemme rephrase that: NOT)
And Dral is still the most missed and loved Staffer of all times. But since he is smart (unless most of today's TW Staffers - fis and lefty excluded), he left. MISS U BRO! KEEP IT REAL!

[SpaceHiker]

I've been watching this with great interest and am trying to do what I can to get some of the big questions answered. But as yet, no answers unfortunately. One of the people who might know about the legal issues is in the process of moving at the moment and is hard to get in touch with until he's settled in.

What I'm wondering about is: Would we be going into the free steam games, or would there be some type of cost?

By "a cost", I mean, either:

1. charging players
2. charging the "game owners" an annual fee to be on Steam or something similar.

Great video on the greenlight page by the way.

[Dezmond]

I've been watching this with great interest and am trying to do what I can to get some of the big questions answered. But as yet, no answers unfortunately. One of the people who might know about the legal issues is in the process of moving at the moment and is hard to get in touch with until he's settled in.

What I'm wondering about is: Would we be going into the free steam games, or would there be some type of cost?

By "a cost", I mean, either:

1. charging players
2. charging the "game owners" an annual fee to be on Steam or something similar.

Great video on the greenlight page by the way.

Kane and myself spoke to someone from Steam. We would be listed under the 'free community games' section. I'm on my phone at the moment so can't paste the exact text.

[Dezmond]

Kane and myself spoke to someone from Steam. We would be listed under the 'free community games' section. I'm on my phone at the moment so can't paste the exact text.

Can't edit my post --

You should go ahead and submit your game to Greenlight. It can be released as a free title.

Anna

[Ephemeral]

Is there going to be any way to empirically determine if this effort has paid off? Or is this going to be a ‘try it and then we all argue over what impact it had with none of us really knowing the facts’?
IF it is going to be done correctly there should be a publicly defined method to quantify the popularity/population of the game before it goes on Steam. Although this would be hard it is not impossible to do. Of course this quantification will need to continued to be monitored over time to determine if the Steam marketing impact is persistent.

I assume that Steam has some kind of metric that are made available but it would be stupid to rely only upon them (the question that needs to be answered is not ‘is Steam introducing new players to the game’ but rather ‘is SS adding new players faster than losing them’).

If resources can be spent on ‘pub bucks’ and other such nonsense than surely the database can support generating useful traffic/population metrics. For years these numbers have only been hinted at (at least publically), how about using this Steam initiative as a catalyst to finally develop some real metrics that can be used to understand player population trends?
eph