| 06:02.48 | *** join/#bzflag-chat L4m3r (~l4m3r@bzflag/developer/L4m3r) |
| 06:40.11 | *** join/#bzflag-chat BulletCatcher (~bc@bzflag/developer/BulletCatcher) |
| 14:19.15 | *** join/#bzflag-chat Godson2 (5654358e@gateway/web/freenode/ip.86.84.53.142) |
| 14:19.43 | Godson2 | BZFlag is dying |
| 14:31.37 | *** mode/#bzflag-chat [+o blast007] by ChanServ |
| 14:31.43 | blast007 | dying? |
| 14:34.14 | Godson2 | there's only 30 active players during peak hours |
| 14:34.50 | Godson2 | used to be 100 or more |
| 14:34.55 | blast007 | yep |
| 14:36.30 | blast007 | lots of other free games we're competing with now |
| 14:37.53 | Godson2 | Could be, or it could be that people are not finding the game anymore since there's essentially no marketing |
| 14:39.29 | blast007 | yeah, I'm sure it's the lack of marketing that is the real issue, not the unintutive interface and the learning curve |
| 14:40.30 | Godson2 | There is a learning curve, but it's also easy to jump into and leave |
| 14:41.10 | blast007 | we have hundreds of downloads a week of the game on Windows alone |
| 14:41.19 | blast007 | http://sourceforge.net/projects/bzflag/files/bzflag%20win32/stats/timeline |
| 14:41.49 | blast007 | so the issue isn't people not finding the game.. it's keeping them interested |
| 14:43.38 | Godson2 | Why wouldn't they keep being interested? The game has almost limitless variatiion mostly due to the fact that the players are human |
| 14:44.08 | blast007 | they start the game and are presented with a mouse cursor, but can't click on anything |
| 14:44.12 | Godson2 | I've been playing BZFlag for over a decade |
| 14:44.23 | blast007 | they join the top server on the list and have no idea how to play and get killed repeatedly |
| 14:44.43 | Godson2 | Doesn't that happen to everyone? |
| 14:44.58 | blast007 | they unknowningly join a team game and shoot a tank that is the same color as them and get yelled at |
| 14:45.08 | Godson2 | You and I probably had the same experience |
| 14:45.23 | blast007 | the game was simplier when we started |
| 14:45.43 | Godson2 | There you have it |
| 14:46.07 | blast007 | doesn't mean we have to go back to that level of simplicity, but we do need to teach the players how to play |
| 14:46.30 | blast007 | a tutorial mode, better interface, etc |
| 14:47.19 | Godson2 | Maybe the UI should show different maps according to skill level |
| 14:47.57 | Godson2 | On what server are you an admin? |
| 14:48.40 | blast007 | a number of them, and I run bzexcess |
| 14:48.42 | blast007 | http://wiki.bzflag.org/DevelopmentPlans/2.6.0 |
| 14:49.53 | blast007 | (that there is my vision of what we need to fix for the next major release - opinions may vary) |
| 14:51.24 | Godson2 | is there any discussion on the forum as to what features the next version should have? |
| 14:51.37 | blast007 | no |
| 14:51.54 | Godson2 | why not? |
| 14:52.39 | blast007 | why should there be? |
| 14:53.55 | Godson2 | because the users may have different ideas on how to improve the game |
| 14:54.29 | blast007 | yeah, "Add new flags!" "Add a kill cam!" etc.. |
| 14:54.45 | blast007 | very few users have actual good ideas :P |
| 14:55.13 | blast007 | most of the ideas are just "I want this so I can dominate people with super powers" |
| 14:55.19 | blast007 | or "I saw this in COD" |
| 14:56.23 | blast007 | http://wiki.bzflag.org/Flag_ideas/Rejected :) |
| 14:56.57 | Godson2 | so who decides then? a small team of developers? |
| 14:57.10 | blast007 | pretty much... |
| 14:57.41 | blast007 | the only release I can recall where we actually had a defined plan and actual leadership was 2.4.0 |
| 14:58.04 | blast007 | other than that, it was kinda a "add some feature you want and halfway test it" |
| 15:00.37 | Godson2 | but these developers hardly play themselves or are extremely experienced players and are adding features which only add to the compexity |
| 15:02.43 | blast007 | welcome to the jungle |
| 15:03.51 | Godson2 | are you using different admin names on different servers? |
| 15:04.11 | Godson2 | I haven't seen an admin named 'blast' for a long time |
| 15:04.41 | blast007 | I hop on a couple times a month |
| 15:04.45 | blast007 | :P |
| 15:07.51 | Godson2 | Adding dialogs seems useless to me, it doesn't solve any problem whilst it adds complexity |
| 15:08.48 | blast007 | it's pretty essential for tutorials |
| 15:08.49 | Godson2 | In a decade of playing I still haven't figured out how to enable auto key repeat when firing. |
| 15:09.06 | blast007 | uh.. there isn't an auto key repeat |
| 15:09.30 | blast007 | people either map several buttons to fire, or use the mouse wheel |
| 15:09.50 | Godson2 | some people are firing of five shots extremely quickly, like when you use MG |
| 15:10.02 | blast007 | yeah, mouse wheel ;) |
| 15:10.03 | Godson2 | they once said there's a config setting |
| 15:10.10 | Godson2 | ? |
| 15:10.16 | Godson2 | firing with mouse wheel? |
| 15:10.19 | blast007 | they make the mouse wheel fire |
| 15:10.20 | blast007 | yes |
| 15:10.40 | Godson2 | weird, never heard about that |
| 15:10.41 | blast007 | or they map like 3 or 4 keys to fire from the config file (though the /bind command may work as well) |
| 15:11.14 | Godson2 | why not just an auto repeat like MG? |
| 15:11.28 | Godson2 | the MG obviously does what I want |
| 15:11.43 | Godson2 | but it doesn't work for 'normal' flags |
| 15:12.57 | blast007 | because that's not how we do it |
| 15:13.46 | blast007 | I've personally never needed to do anything crazy for shooting.. I just use the left mouse button and Q |
| 15:14.01 | Godson2 | what does Q do? |
| 15:14.11 | blast007 | for me, it shoots.. |
| 15:14.21 | blast007 | for you, it probably toggles the radar |
| 15:27.33 | Godson2 | gg |
| 15:28.26 | *** mode/#bzflag-chat [-o blast007] by ChanServ |
| 16:41.27 | *** join/#bzflag-chat Godson2 (5654358e@gateway/web/freenode/ip.86.84.53.142) |
| 16:41.43 | Godson2 | i can't access the bzexcess server~ |
| 16:41.58 | Godson2 | it says error connecting to server |
| 16:42.25 | Godson2 | anyone having the same problem? |
| 17:03.58 | blast007 | only users in my ban list |
| 19:42.35 | *** join/#bzflag-chat thrakattak (cz3141@gateway/shell/devio.us/x-pkzlndpvpchphdfk) |
| 20:29.30 | *** join/#bzflag-chat spldart (~james@bzflag/contributor/spldart) |
| 21:20.41 | spldart | Surgery sucks! |