Subspace - Continuum has been Greenlit on Steam!

[Jessup]

Magi .. the old subspace DID have a practice zone. When I started we had a training arena you had to finish before moving on to pubs. We also had multiple pubs with smaller numbers of players which made it more tolerable for a newb. This game uses typed command codes too which as Ricko said is not the norm for games these days. Also the old subspace DID have time limits set in order to play elim and it worked well and made elim thrive because players had to work to get in there which made the anticipation exciting for them.

I think we also should have a set time limit to graduate into the standard pubs If we are going to be swarmed all at once with 100's of new players (which I'm not sure will really happen.. but if we are we REALLY need to be prepared). The welcomebot system was pretty good, we still use that right? and along with the pub tutorial setting that was made..those two together should cover most of our needs. Perhaps we could also release a youtube video where someone explains the basics and have a link new players can go to watch on the steam page of when they first enter and welcome bot says hello to them. A "how to" video can be very effective to teach people.

I'm not suggesting we impose the old 30 hour limit to enter normal pubs like we did with old elim but.. maybe an hour or two would at least get them flying and shooting amongst other complete new players. Have that pub occupied by zh's and some er's to make things flow smoothly and get them into the command and chat process and ship control that this game requires you to be proficient at.

The real debate I see is what to do with pub. The current system of one pub isn't going to work if we have 300 people in there. Limits would have to be set on population in them and once again create multiple pub arenas with player limits. The store also needs to be curtailed in my opinion. We really have no idea what will happen when it is launched but we can logically deduce there is going to be a much larger influx of players showing up. I hope Trench Wars is highlighted as a good option on the steam page to begin with. Of all the zones for new players, ours is the easiest to start with.. and I believe the hardest to master but.. lol that's just my bias since I love this zone best. Having the steam page clearly explaining what is going with multiple zones within one framework is important and a high priority too.

[Jerome Scuggs]

We will try and answer any question there might be, but there is still a lot to figure out, goes for all of us. All zone sysops have been informed, as well as SSC staff and we've reached out to former and current developers and possible copyright owners, etc.
Please understand that we need to take every precaution we can and investigate every tiniest bit of information as in terms of what 's needed for us to successfully launch the game on Steam. This should and always will be a joint effort of players, staff and zones, because we're launching the game on Steam, not just our zone. We need all other zones to be active and prepare, because this will show our game as more complete and a better variety of gameplay that we can offer to the crowd. We will not set a date or timeframe yet, to avoid having to dissapoint people and because we simply still have a lot of work to do. But imho, the biggest step was actually getting Greenlit on Steam, in which we have now succeeded. So yes, be proud of our little group of survivors and stay positive because this can be a huge thing for all of us in the near future.

Have y'all contacted PriitK yet?

[roxxkatt]

1) having a tutorial arena up is critical

2) no idea if the tw asss zone is still up, but it would be wise and prudent to have a bouncerbot in pub bouncing new players to the asss zone, on the sole premise that a tutorial arena can be set up and be far more interactive and capable there, not limited to targeted objons and ai bots for target practice, and then on demand or upon completion can be bounced back to tw pub

3) ive introduced a bunch of people to the game, and a recurring chain of events is:
new player enters zone, new player tries to get used to inertial movement, new player tries to learn inertial weapons, new player goes 0-100+ (yes literally a few times with different people in different zones), new player gets bored of dying and quits

4) no idea if tw distension is still running, but having a mmorpg aspect present in the game can help capture and hold more new players in addition to normal pub activities

5) if its not and wont be hosted, no idea if the link to the distension zone is still up or was sabotaged by lefty, but that is still an option as well

6) new ERs will need to be found, and a better option might be that we should reach out to old ERs and get them hosting events, a large part of TWs decay is directly caused by events no longer being hosted

7) if there is a large and obvious influx of new players, it will be very important to create a dev team with the sole objective of resuming work on a new client + biller, which can include resuming work on already available open source clients/billers

8) it might be in the best interest of the game to revise the rules to get rid of shitbags similar to tower or whoever is around these days

[roxxkatt]

additionally, part of the steam greenlight process is that once a game has been lit, they are contacted by steam to begin to add code to the software, which includes steam auth, ingame chat, steam server list, and other features, and this can not be done unless a new client is being worked on

and the game will never be free of priits stranglehold until a new client is online

[roxxkatt]

and since i cant seem to find the edit button anymore ill just make more posts


another thing is that the current client has a 4mb file limit, and takes 20 mins to dl 8mb, so thats another thing that needs to be addressed
because new players are used to games these days without load times

[roxxkatt]

also dont forget that a new client opens up other platforms such as android, linux, and ios

[kyler]

prepare for massive weasel influx

[Dreamwin]

6) new ERs will need to be found, and a better option might be that we should reach out to old ERs and get them hosting events, a large part of TWs decay is directly caused by events no longer being hosted

I will volunteer to come back when this hits greenlit. Assuming theres not ridiculous quota. Forcing staffers to host dont achieve anything but bad events.
TBH, I'm stunned by the general level of <ER>'s nowadays. (No offence to any of u and this obv doesnt mean every1)
The simplest events are hosted wrong and constantly some command errors are been made. I mean I was bad when I was in staff but I sure was better than most nowadays.

Anyway, huge thing this steam greenlit, gj community!

[parson]

I honestly think distention type of pub would be the best for players overall, because lets face it, most people get bored of pub rather quickly, but when distention was first hosted, it was having a huge amount of players actively trying to upgrade their ship, and get score bonuses for their team. Then somewhere along the line dsitention was brought down, (don't know the reason) then several years later it was brought back, and once again was doing pretty well, but upper staff had started making restrictions on when it was going to be running. That's just where I'm coming from but overall the best solution would be to just start communicating with every single new player that joins, and get them active in twd. The results show the most in that respect, because geio, tj, and I have recruited 20 players in just the past week alone, and now several pubbers are actively playing twd games.

[parson]

Edit: So I mean two possible really good solutions to greab new players attention here.

1. The tried and true way of grabbing new players from pub onto twd squads.

2. Start hosting distention, to bring a variety of rpg gamers into the mix.

[Fork]

Pub should be made more exciting... You can keep the exact same gameplay as we know it (for the older players) but little things like unpredictable rewards after a match is completed can add more interest. I know everyone is sick of me saying this but having a jackpot that everyone can see should create tons of interest (as long as its made correct and stuff added to prevent hopping last minute). Would you be tempted to join a game that just gives you the same boring rewards after each game or the game where you have no idea how much you could get... You notice the jackpot reaching a high score and it should tempt hardcore spectators to jump in. Staff aren't keen on experimenting\ trialing stuff to see the ideas potential but pub is really lacking excitement so why not add new stuff and get feedback? If we're going to get new players- at least tweak things to maximise the fun.

[2pac]

money should go into the steam client now

[Jerome Scuggs]

you know what we should do?

contact PriitK. have y'all reached him yet?

[Turban]

we are working on it, jerome. at least based on what i know.

[Jerome Scuggs]

we are working on it, jerome. at least based on what i know.

turns out one of my middle/high school buddies is married to a finn and living in estonia, so i have a sleeper agent in Tallinn if we need to do a lil extraordinary rendition