How to make that game more popular?

[Fippmam]

I couldn't even imagine playing tron with a touch screen, all of my what would be compromised. I'll stick to playing it on my keyboard.

I'll disagree there. Tap left to turn left, tap right to turn right. Get rid of the brake, and make the camera so that manual control is not needed. Couldn't be more intuitive (...)

That's almost what I've done some years ago when I've tried to port it on my phone (iphone 3G). I've split the screen in 3 for left/brake/right + double tap for menu access ... with multitouch, even double binders can be happy. That was working pretty well (apart from too low fps, typically less than 12, and too high ping on network games, usually more than 400 ...)
I wonder how practical would it be to kind of draw your path on the screen though ... I mean not to draw the path perfectly but to draw your turns with the right timing ...

Whoa, how can I get in on this? Did you publish the app? It sounds awesome.

[voodoo]

That's not awesome... all it shows me is that mobile devices require special care in many aspects like memory management, controls, networking and were not powerful enough at this time (which is probably not true anymore). Not to mention that gles 1 was limited and is incompatible with gles2, that texturing was annoying due to gles limitation, that I've used vertex arrays while vertex buffers are probably required to get correct fps, that sdl with ios support is still not in stable release (plus sdl_image and sdl_mixer are pretty hard to build against current sdl 2 so far, or I'm too dumb to build them), that apple did not provide standard ip headers at this time (I don't now if this has changed but I remember adding a netword header in the project to fix that issue, which was incompatible with apple rules to be published), etc. All this together means a real port would required much more work than what I've done at this time. Plus all this is partly lost anyway (the code in my launpad account is not event the last version), and it should probably be almost fully redone due to all these issues.
I would say it's a "bag of hurt" to paraphrase someone ...

[/dev/null]

The game was quite popular before we started catering to casual players, now its nothing but bumper pool. Its no surprise that the popularity went down, why bother to get good when you have an option to just wait.

[Illuminati]

Strictly speaking about fort, though I enjoy it, pickup is preventing it's growth. Last time we had a new player on there that had never played fort before, many players including admin(s?) pretty much abused him for not knowing the basics of fort citing the opinion "if you've never played fortress before, you shouldn't be on pickup", well, where exactly are they meant to learn when 95% of fort these days is pickup?

I get kicked from fort for grinding wrong -/-

[Fippmam]

I get kicked from fort for grinding wrong -/-

Then don't grind wrong.

Anyway the past week has seen an increase in 9v9 MegaFort matches, and literally no pickup games. Dunno if that's good or bad but on the upside, I didn't see a single person get kicked for newbiness during my matches played there.

[compguygene]

Most of us, when we started playing fortress, got kicked at least once or twice for grinding wrong or just not doing things right. I would like to hope that people would vote to suspend you today instead of kick. That is usually what happens when I am around. Suspend was invented so people could be forced to spectate and learn instead of being kicked.

[PyrrhicVictory]

Most of us, when we started playing fortress, got kicked at least once or twice for grinding wrong or just not doing things right. I would like to hope that people would vote to suspend you today instead of kick. That is usually what happens when I am around. Suspend was invented so people could be forced to spectate and learn instead of being kicked.

Agreed. Sadly, I don't know what the command for suspending is. (There's no option in the police-menu).
It is doable for Remote User, right?

[Word]

It's /vote suspend player

[PyrrhicVictory]

It's /vote suspend player

Oh, thanks a lot.

[Phytotron]

I don't think I agree with even suspending. You guys have the Ladle and pickup for your organized, regimented Fortress play. Public servers should be open to anyone to play however they like, within reason. If that means they don't grind at start and just drive around aimlessly, they should be allowed.

[Word]

well, at worst this can be like playing soccer with a guy who constantly produces own goals.

[Slov]

If that means they don't grind at start and just drive around aimlessly, they should be allowed.

no

It'll always be hard to teach new players how to grind properly and forcing them to watch is kinda the best thing that can be done right now, suspending is good. It should be in the menu along with the kick poll so more people would use it

[Fippmam]

Of course there's the possibility that suspending someone will essentially be the same as kicking them, because they lack the patience to just sit and watch - can't blame 'em. I really don't see this issue being resolved completely. We really shouldn't ban/kick/suspend them, but one non-compliant team member can ruin a fort game.

[Phytotron]

It's punitive. And the kind of people that will endure that so that you can scold them into playing your very specific, regimented way, well, those will and have become your Fortress community. And the cycle continues.

This isn't a professional sport. This is a video game, an open, egalitarian one. It's supposed to be for fun, entertainment, for everybody, including casual gamers—in the public servers, at the very least. If a player doesn't "grind properly," so be it. Adapt on the fly. Try different things. Or go to a pickup game or some other closed-off pseudoaristocratic 31337!57 server.

And by the way, this crap doesn't only apply to new players. Need I remind you all that I—along with a handful of others like Lucifer, your_mom, dlh, KamP, etc.—invented most of the way you all still play Fortress here 6 years later. I was there at the beginning; I know what's up. However, if I or someone like me goes into one of the public Fortress servers and doesn't play exactly how you people want, to the letter, then we'll get suspended or kicked. That's as bad as the "no closing" crowd.

Let people play the goddamned game and stop acting like you're a bunch of Lords.


Anyway, I'd just like to point back to everything I've already said in this thread, because it all stands. That includes my lamentation that a topic about popularizing Armagetron (something I don't think is really necessary), like so many topics that begin being about Armagetron in general, has narrowed and devolved into a conversation about just Fortress. Armagetron is not Fortress.

[takburger]

Maybe make a loading screen when launching the game with a kind of short video presenting the different modes (very short flashes)

Like: flash dogfight (you see a core dump, it last 2 sec)
flash fortress (you see initial grind and split, maybe accelerate to make it last 2 sec)
flash sumo (you see mass mazes for 2 sec)
flash banner (armagertonad logo or smthg)
menu

So the new players would have subliminal message about the grind in fort