Tron activity

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þsy
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Tron activity

Post by þsy »

This is a bit of a pointless post, and is a little fort-community-centric, but I thought it might be an idea to create a place for discussing something which people seem to be talking about a lot:

It appears that fortress, and sumo to some degree, are experiencing really low levels of activity, both on public servers and in competitions (especially ladle). We are in the middle of summer (I wouldn't know, it's been raining a lot here in England), which usually has a lower level of activity, but even still - it feels pretty dead at the moment

I don't want to take away from the wealth of newer players coming through, we've seen a lot of new teams in ladle. But what has constituted the 'core' group seems to have faded into inactivity in the last 6 months, and with less people to play with it's having a negative multiplier effect

I myself am pretty inactive, so I have no leg to stand on, but I don't want to see things drop any further. As I said, this is a bit of a pointless post, but I would be interested to hear what other people think. Is this just a low that will fluctuate back to high? How can we get more people involved and more people back?
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Re: Tron activity

Post by Word »

1) many people of my age are busy with their exams, or university (some even have to take care of a baby). that's why PRU is taking a nap. Most new players are 14 or older but I have a feeling that we young adults used to be the majority and most of us currently have to make the decisions that we'll regret for the rest of our lives. :)

2) there's no mega fort server anymore (DS's, G5's, MB's)

3) there's no free-for-all fort server anymore, like Fort Cafe or our humble attempt, OpenFortress (not sure what happened to it, Ai can maybe bring it back if you ask him - I don't mind if it's under SP's flag).

4) as you said, it's summer.

5) ideally the tutorials and improvements from 0.4 on should attract and keep more people than previous versions, because they make it much easier to access.

I'd normally say that "less pickups" would be something positive, because it doesn't disrupt ongoing fort games. Then again, there aren't any other ongoing fort games anymore.
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sinewav
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Re: Tron activity

Post by sinewav »

It doesn't seem like Ladles are any less exciting, so I have no worries. There were core groups of people in the past who disappeared. There were times were Fort was very dead for months. Here, take a look at this Ladle, number 27 in November 09. Nine teams. Half of those people are not on the grid anymore. Yet, Fortress was able to rebound quite nicely after that and even grow larger.

The fact you are pointing this out might be indicative of a swelling sense of nostalgia that others might also be feeling, causing them to return to the grid? We have seen some old players return recently.

Also, I've been seeing a lot of late-night Fortress going on (4:00-5:00 GMT). in TX Fort, Redemption Fort, and some other Fort servers. And while 6v6 pickup hasn't happened daily for a while, 3v3 Fort has! :P
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Re: Tron activity

Post by Word »

I think those months were a bit special though, considering what else was going on in some parts of the community (like here and on the pages that followed). It's Ww, ID, VcL, BS, and Freelancers.
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Re: Tron activity

Post by nux »

Word wrote:I'd normally say that "less pickups" would be something positive, because it doesn't disrupt ongoing fort games. Then again, there aren't any other ongoing fort games anymore.
But when there is one going on, they push those playing to add up. If the pickup starts, that fort dies, and its highly unlikely another pickup will start after the first finishes; there was a reason for MB not wanting to advertise pickups on his server. Im not a fan of pickups with so much inactivity; its a very closed group, new people cant play on pickups, so they end up playing happy fun time or ctf, nothing against them, but it means less people for fort and sumo.

You should also not wait for 0.4, epsy is the only active dev, and even he is busy as hell (hey, theme park tycoon is real career), with only zman throwing in a few commits every once in a while. Other than that, its a pretty deserted place.
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Slov
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Re: Tron activity

Post by Slov »

I don't remember any lack of activity last summer, I'm pretty sure there were even more people on that the rest of the year (anyone remember MB53's 24-7 sessions lol).. You always had to wait like 20 mins to get into Empha's and G5's was packed in the evenings..
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Monkey.D.Luffy
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Re: Tron activity

Post by Monkey.D.Luffy »

We will have to wait for winter to see if there is really a lack of activity. Winter is pretty much the most active period for Tron.
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DaGarBBaGeMAN
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Re: Tron activity

Post by DaGarBBaGeMAN »

Slov wrote:I don't remember any lack of activity last summer, I'm pretty sure there were even more people on that the rest of the year (anyone remember MB53's 24-7 sessions lol).. You always had to wait like 20 mins to get into Empha's and G5's was packed in the evenings..
Yeah, Ladle 48 had seven more teams signed up than Ladle 60. There really is a lack of activity; the pros are becoming inactive one by one, and there's a lack of rookie teams as well.
Last edited by DaGarBBaGeMAN on Wed Aug 08, 2012 2:46 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Clutch
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Re: Tron activity

Post by Clutch »

As for sumo, there's almost constantly a sumo server with people in it. skytower is generally packed
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Mecca
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Re: Tron activity

Post by Mecca »

IMO, this game will always struggle with attracting and keeping new players.

There is an extremely steep learning curve, and the veterans aren't known for treating the newbies with care.

I haven't been very active lately. What are these tutorials like?
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Ratchet
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Re: Tron activity

Post by Ratchet »

Word wrote:1) many people of my age are busy with their exams, or university (some even have to take care of a baby). that's why PRU is taking a nap. Most new players are 14 or older but I have a feeling that we young adults used to be the majority and most of us currently have to make the decisions that we'll regret for the rest of our lives. :)

2) there's no mega fort server anymore (DS's, G5's, MB's)

3) there's no free-for-all fort server anymore, like Fort Cafe or our humble attempt, OpenFortress (not sure what happened to it, Ai can maybe bring it back if you ask him - I don't mind if it's under SP's flag).

4) as you said, it's summer.

5) ideally the tutorials and improvements from 0.4 on should attract and keep more people than previous versions, because they make it much easier to access.

I'd normally say that "less pickups" would be something positive, because it doesn't disrupt ongoing fort games. Then again, there aren't any other ongoing fort games anymore.
+1

Goodygumdrops was speaking about this in SkyTower Sumobar last night. I believe the main problem is the abundance of fortress servers that people play in. He was griping about how the good fort servers are always EU and the Americans cry about ping and blah blah blah. I asked him why he's complaining about the Americans not liking playing in EU servers, because the EU people do the same about American servers. I also pointed out that fortress used to be EU dominated, but most of the new clans that are up and coming (ww, er, rd, rz, whatever else I'm missing) are US-majority.

I think Sumo is as active as ever, I always see people playing some form of sumo (though I personally would like a good team sumo server to go up.)

I think activity would spark if these things happened:
- Less people trying to salvage up 12 people to get one pickup game going
- A GENERAL American Fortress server, not all these clan-owned servers. Give some of the respected and popular fortress players the proper access level to manage the server, and keep out the trolls.

Basically, I think the biggest thing is a well-hosted server with great bandwidth in the USA, under the name of something like "Fortress Cafe of America", or maybe the old traditional "Fortress Cafe" even. Just something non-clan specific, and an agreed-upon place to go for general games. Right now we have every clan trying to get THEIR fortress server active. I think they should save their servers for practices and clan-specific events, and everyone else should come together and try and get one active server going.
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Pr3
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Re: Tron activity

Post by Pr3 »

There's nothing lonelier or sadder than the end of a game with no ending.

Gradually players get bored and move onto other games. I think that is happening to Fortress players who've been around for a while now. How long can we play a game with no end in sight? When will be the end? When will it be time to leave? I think it's just natural that people disappear in this kind of game. Life has its stages. Anyway, that's what I've been thinking about lately :P. In short, I've also noticed the inactivity, as well as share in it.
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delinquent
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Re: Tron activity

Post by delinquent »

I have an idea:
I know that 0.4 has the tutorials, but until they're more widely distributed, wouldn't it be a nice idea to add a learning server for newcomers where they can learn a little without being flamed? If I ever get the amazon ip config sorted out, I'm doing it.
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Re: Tron activity

Post by Word »

http://forums3.armagetronad.net/viewtop ... n+entrance

feel free to use the stuff there (fourth post I think), but the server wasn't a big success. you are my hero if you can come up with a better plan.

Ai do you happen to have the settings and can upload/link them here? I can look but I think you'll find it faster.

You can PM me if you want the help topics with the color codes we used. I remember that most was default settings, except cycle_brake which was set to 0.5 .
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delinquent
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Re: Tron activity

Post by delinquent »

Well, I have had some slight progress. I can host a game using the client from the server, but the dedicated server still doesn't seem to be registering at all.
Yeah, if you can pull a config file, I'll leave it up until I can find a way to get dedicated working. Then I can have up to four instances of the program running, with approx 50 to 90 ping from a UK connection
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