Posted: Tue Jan 31, 2012 3:18 pm
I've been thinking lately about what could be improved about Alleg overall to revive the playerbase, and while obvious and very difficult things like Direct X 11 graphics might be a boon to our advertising, I think lots of little improvements to the interface and gameplay of conquest mode, however welcome, simply aren't going to make any difference to the survival of this game. The number one problem is that most people - even those who like the complexity and some-times tedium of simulation games - simply aren't willing to put up with Conquest's learning curve, or the problems of voob commanders, stacking, and long waits between games.
What we really need are faster, easier game modes that space sim fans can pick up quickly while learning Alleg's particular quirks. There are a lot of possibilities there, and I recall some discussion of them when an original Alleg dev posted here some time ago, but the one goal that actually seems in reach to me (assuming our hardworking devs can ever get R6 out the door) is fixing the deathmatch mode.
Obviously, core developers and map makers would need to assist on this, but they can't fix the biggest problems:
1. Spawn points are static and obvious.
2. You can retreat to spawn to restore your health.
3. You can sit inside an invincible base indefinitely.
4. Maps are boring and mostly empty, aside from bases that don't cause collision damage to friendlies.
#1 is annoying, and has long been (mostly) fixed in most FPS games.
Whether #2 is a real problem is debatable, but I don't think it improves the gameplay overall. On the other hand, it's no fun to run out of fuel or ammo, so either having random powerups show up or adding something like an automated (i.e. not player controlled) tractor beam to suck up dropped fuel and ammo would be an improvement. Actually, the tractor beam would be a pretty big improvement to conquest, now that I think about it. If you don't want to animate it, you could just cheat by using a double-radius collision sphere for interacting with dropped items.
3, 2, and 1 combined are what really makes deathmatch unplayable. There's just no incentive to keep the game going when you can cower and wait for your opponent to quit camping your spawn, then attack them when you're closer to your hull-repairing base than they are. That's not to say players should autospawn - Battlefield allows you unlimited time to pick a class and get back in the game after all, and it works well. However, the combination of spawn method, teamwork if applicable, points structure + time limit, and bonuses like ship upgrades or killbonus, should combine to incentivize continuous action.
#4 - maps being boring and empty might be the most time-consuming part to improve upon, and is less important than the above, so it could wait until a later update. Dense, violent asteroid fields are a well-known favorite. Small, easily-destroyable outposts to hide in could be fun. More complex structures you can fly through Descent-like would be hard to do and require new artwork, but would probably be popular if done well. A capture point that gives you a better ship or weapons if you sit in it long enough might be desirable on all maps.
Oh, and you just know the newbs want to tool around in capships, so finding a way to make a capship-only deathmatch map where they're actually fun to use would be a huge improvement.
What do you say, devs, could this be the focus for R7? I think something like this could drive an influx of new players from e.g. the Freespace 2 community, because as ancient as Alleg's lobby and server interfaces and netcode are, they're still better than any other space sim.
What we really need are faster, easier game modes that space sim fans can pick up quickly while learning Alleg's particular quirks. There are a lot of possibilities there, and I recall some discussion of them when an original Alleg dev posted here some time ago, but the one goal that actually seems in reach to me (assuming our hardworking devs can ever get R6 out the door) is fixing the deathmatch mode.
Obviously, core developers and map makers would need to assist on this, but they can't fix the biggest problems:
1. Spawn points are static and obvious.
2. You can retreat to spawn to restore your health.
3. You can sit inside an invincible base indefinitely.
4. Maps are boring and mostly empty, aside from bases that don't cause collision damage to friendlies.
#1 is annoying, and has long been (mostly) fixed in most FPS games.
Whether #2 is a real problem is debatable, but I don't think it improves the gameplay overall. On the other hand, it's no fun to run out of fuel or ammo, so either having random powerups show up or adding something like an automated (i.e. not player controlled) tractor beam to suck up dropped fuel and ammo would be an improvement. Actually, the tractor beam would be a pretty big improvement to conquest, now that I think about it. If you don't want to animate it, you could just cheat by using a double-radius collision sphere for interacting with dropped items.
3, 2, and 1 combined are what really makes deathmatch unplayable. There's just no incentive to keep the game going when you can cower and wait for your opponent to quit camping your spawn, then attack them when you're closer to your hull-repairing base than they are. That's not to say players should autospawn - Battlefield allows you unlimited time to pick a class and get back in the game after all, and it works well. However, the combination of spawn method, teamwork if applicable, points structure + time limit, and bonuses like ship upgrades or killbonus, should combine to incentivize continuous action.
#4 - maps being boring and empty might be the most time-consuming part to improve upon, and is less important than the above, so it could wait until a later update. Dense, violent asteroid fields are a well-known favorite. Small, easily-destroyable outposts to hide in could be fun. More complex structures you can fly through Descent-like would be hard to do and require new artwork, but would probably be popular if done well. A capture point that gives you a better ship or weapons if you sit in it long enough might be desirable on all maps.
Oh, and you just know the newbs want to tool around in capships, so finding a way to make a capship-only deathmatch map where they're actually fun to use would be a huge improvement.
What do you say, devs, could this be the focus for R7? I think something like this could drive an influx of new players from e.g. the Freespace 2 community, because as ancient as Alleg's lobby and server interfaces and netcode are, they're still better than any other space sim.