Armagetron Revitalization?

sinewav · Post by **sinewav** » Wed Feb 25, 2009 5:21 pm

Is Teamspeak the best software? I've used it before and found it adequate. My team uses Skype, which does the job but is kind of annoying. I've heard about Ventrillo and Mumble, but have no experience with it.

Should I fork this thread, because I think it would be a nice discussion. Unless it's already been discussed (I didn't search).

Luke-Jr · Post by **Luke-Jr** » Wed Feb 25, 2009 5:30 pm

I don't think many (any?) developers are going to use either TeamSpeak or Skype. They're both proprietary and not standards compliant. We already have IRC. It works fine. If we really need a voice discussion I can setup my PBX to do conferencing and we can use real phones.

compguygene · Post by **compguygene** » Wed Feb 25, 2009 7:23 pm

np, i understand the philosophical reasons. I had hoped that it would be a way for the Community, that is already using the software, to meet the developers. Several clans in the community use this software.
I don't want to turn this thread into a What's wrong with proprietary software? thread....np

Any other developers of players want to chime in their opinions?

Website · Post by **Z-Man** » Wed Feb 25, 2009 7:33 pm

Luke-Jr pretty much is the only Zealot here when it comes to hating closed source stuff

I do have Skype installed here somewhere (probably only on the Mac). But no, I don't see much use for voice chat for development. IRC is fine for real time communications and beats voice chat on the non-annoyance level, this forum is fine for non-realtime communication.

Post by **Lucifer** » Wed Feb 25, 2009 11:41 pm

Actually, I'm a bit of a zealot with closed source stuff too.

Website · Post by **Z-Man** » Thu Feb 26, 2009 1:00 am

Yeah, but you're less vocal about it

2020 · Post by **2020** » Thu Feb 26, 2009 3:30 pm

Z-Man wrote:Yeah, but you're less vocal about it

har har

radian · Post by **radian** » Sat Feb 28, 2009 6:28 am

just got a call from disney studio,s...
they are scrapping the new tr2n 2 movie..
in favour of armagetron advanced...
the cheques have been sent out..
but z man still hasent decided what colour yatch he wants yet...
i sudgest a movie pack special..with fort zones on the sails
..phew!!!...cup of tea anyone

compguygene · Post by **compguygene** » Sat Feb 28, 2009 3:52 pm

Well, I am never going to argue much in favor of closed source. I myself don't like to use closed source software, except for practical reasons. Here is my dilemma regarding the use of TeamSpeak, etc.
I am trying to Encourage users to view use Armagetron as platform that has as sophisticated online play as other "pay" services. This demands the use of a VOIP solution.
As I stated before, text alone is not enough, in this time. With the advent of services like Xbox live, etc. not having some sort of VOIP solution, is almost archaic seeming. When I spent time researching the available open source options, none were marketed or made with gaming in mind.
Therefore, there was either too much sophistication and complexity in use and installation for the average gamer, or not an easy way to set up channels, etc.
Teamspeak was designed with gaming in mind. Yes, it is closed source. Yes, it is probably only a short term stop gap solution. But, it is a solution that clans within the Armagetron Community have begun to adopt.
When I did the math in regards to the available bandwidth in the VPS plan that I have purchased from Luke-Jr, and my probable user attachement, etc. I realized that it would cost me nothing to offer a public TeamSpeak Server to the Community. According to the Licensing Agreement, as long as I make no money, and take no donations, I can offer such a service to the community.
So, I figured, why not?
Worse case scenario, nobody uses it and I take it down and delete the files, NP.
Best case scenario, we all get to know each other a little better and maybe bind together a little closer.

The likely scenerio...a middle ground. Here is a recent example.

To get more American Clans playing fortress I plan to run a monthly Fortress for Four tourney. This plan got started by me having discussed it on the Wild West Forums, and put up a Fortress For Four Server, based on current Ladle Settings.
But, a few people have stopped into the Public TeamSpeak to talk With me. We very quickly came to some decisions, which mushroomed into chat, I have been told, in many places.

The hope is that by leaving the Public TeamSpeak available for anybody's use, people will use it!

Ok, so maybe it's not for you developers... but maybe one or two of you might like to hold a public "chat" with a group. Just a thought. I really do respect your views on open source and if I could magically change the world's use of closed source...i would. With my own family I get stuck using Windoze computers. But, we don't live in an ideal world.

So, there is my short book about why the whole TeamSpeak thing!

KamP · Post by **KamP** » Sun Mar 01, 2009 2:03 am

Lucifer wrote:Heh, bump. Did I kill this thread?

That last post was a major tl;dr
Trying to catch up to this thread, it's something I'm interested in. Will probably double post when I finally do catch up.

KamP · Post by **KamP** » Sun Mar 01, 2009 2:18 am

From what I gleaned from the thread, there's a decent amount of work to be done, and I agree with apparition's general ideas.

The site is the face of the game, the first thing most people will see of armagetron, and it'd help for it to be up to date. If your web page guy isn't doing it, get someone else to write copy. I'd be glad to do it myself, I'm a bit on the free side right now. Or even start a blog to showcase new developments (with servers, development, new moviepacks, whatever).

What I think apparition is really talking about is lowering the barriers to entry for the community. Basically, making the arma community more open and friendly, as well as integrating it more tightly with the game itself. I would say that a lot of the people playing the game now hardly even know about the existence of these forums or the other features of the website.

I've been thinking about this in relation to arma for a few days now. Basically, how to make the community more user-friendly. The game has some role to play in this, but the site has a much larger one.

Cleaning up the forum is a big part of it. There are more subforums in this forum than there were when I stopped playing a while ago, and it seems that a lot of them are very stagnant! Simplicity is the most important thing here.

The wiki should be kept up to date, that's true. But as Luci said, that isn't so much the responsibility of the devs, so much as the responsibility of the people that enjoy the game. To that end, one of the best courses of action to take, imo, is to create an evangelist team, complimentary to the dev team, that would work towards keeping arma in the public eye, keeping people abreast of new developments in armagetron, and creating ways for new users to enjoy the game easily and quickly.

As for tutorials, and learning how to play... I think that should be a part of the game. A one-time tut on new installs, with instructions on how to grind, how to turn, how to change cameras, and how to chat. For people that are reinstalling, have an option before the tutorial to go on with the tut or go on to the game.

Concord · Post by **Concord** » Sun Mar 01, 2009 2:31 am

you people move slowly

KamP · Post by **KamP** » Sun Mar 01, 2009 2:36 am

Concord wrote:you people move slowly

Hand me the keys, we'll go fast somewhere, Fear and Loathing-style

Luke-Jr · Post by **Luke-Jr** » Sun Mar 01, 2009 8:39 pm

I don't think anyone's stopping someone from revamping the website. You could probably even have a subdirectory in beta.aanet if you want. Whether that gets adopted as the main site is of course dependent on the result. One thing that would be a great improvement is the ability to add i18n to the site.

compguygene · Post by **compguygene** » Sun Mar 01, 2009 10:42 pm

I really think that US...(as in not dev's but players and server admins) should be writing and updating the Wiki a whole lot more. We all like to point fingers at the other guy that didn't write enough docs, when we need to write them.
To that end, I have been taking forum posts that are stuck in the Wild West World and collecting them into more cohesive actual documents for the Wiki.

I ain't saying that we at Wild West have some "secret" or "unknown" stuff. But, we have some well written forum posts that I can easily massage into good Wiki posts.
As soon as I learn how to build a CTF server, I would like to build a Wiki page for it, to make it easy for others.

I would like to see others in the community that are NOT developers do this.

Developers should be freed as much as possible to write code! That's whats going to grow arma! Free the dev's and get the community to write doc's. Other open source community have people who just write doc's, why not us?

I just think it's time for us to grow up a little in that way...but hey...anarchy rocks!

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