Introducing the Official community mod for Alpha 26

[Stan`]

3 hours ago, BreakfastBurrito_007 said:

I think some kind of lobby message would really help expose more of the community to the mod, perhaps a short intro to the mod and a list of the top 1-5 most popular changes would make people interested enough to get it. It could be an automated message when players join the lobby. 

It's doable but popups are a bit spammy.

[alre]

16 hours ago, Stan` said:

It's doable but popups are a bit spammy.

right now they are way better than not doing anything. the lobby is divided between different versions of the game and this hurts the project. 

[BreakfastBurrito_007]

1 hour ago, alre said:

right now they are way better than not doing anything. the lobby is divided between different versions of the game and this hurts the project. 

I find that its not too much of a problem when you have plenty of mod hosts and plenty of vanilla hosts. I occasionally join 0ad in my morning in Pacific time and find it to be devoid of community mod hosts. I think this is because the main promoters of the mod play in my afternoon time and haven't been there in the morning to hype it up.

I am thinking it would just be part of the popup message that plays just when you join 0ad lobby, so it would not be too annoying.

[real_tabasco_sauce]

Hi @Stan`, @wraitii,

What will the plan be for updating the community mod with the a27 simulation files? I presume that wall change is one of the last changes to these files, so conceivably the repository could be setup for a27 even before the actual release right?

This way I could start putting some ideas together — Melee damage increase, han crossbow nerf, unit specific upgrades, siege tower capture attack, maurya hero aura, crush armor adjustment. I could also get @borg-'s sparta ideas in the community mod.

[Stan`]

Well we probably have to first determine if it was a success or not. People like @alre and few others and some dude that got mad at us on Facebook have a point, this might have divided the community. And while our statistics show that the number of active players hasn't decreased, I've noticed a lack of people in the lobby which I hope isn't because of that.

If we do continue another mod will be created so that the A26 can continue to exist. One could argue that it could be another branch but I'm afraid the current set up will become more complicated than anything. So, we'll see.

[real_tabasco_sauce]

9 hours ago, Stan` said:

Well we probably have to first determine if it was a success or not. People like @alre and few others and some dude that got mad at us on Facebook have a point, this might have divided the community. And while our statistics show that the number of active players hasn't decreased, I've noticed a lack of people in the lobby which I hope isn't because of that.

If we do continue another mod will be created so that the A26 can continue to exist. One could argue that it could be another branch but I'm afraid the current set up will become more complicated than anything. So, we'll see.

I see. I would say most players saw it as a success, probably because of the faster turnaround on new content.

With regards to splitting the community, I think this could be improved going forward. The primary reason to play the community mod (at least early on) was because of its bugfix for the Han farming techs. Because of this, the community mod became the default version of the game for a large group of players. So, subsequent versions were heavily vetted with voting to ensure only guaranteed improvements were merged. What resulted was in my eyes, a much less ambitious version compared to the possibilities the community mod provides. 

My thoughts are if the mod adopts a more experimental approach, like a community test environment, the majority of games will take place on a27, with those curious to try out new content playing occasionally on the mod.

With this more experimental approach, both players and contributors should be more welcoming to ambitious content, which may be imbalanced, or otherwise sub-optimal. The "risk" of playing the mod would be that some things may be bad changes and some may be great changes, and to avoid this risk, I imagine players would prefer vanilla 0ad rather than playing the community mod alone.

Edited February 5, 2023 by real_tabasco_sauce

[chrstgtr]

3 hours ago, real_tabasco_sauce said:

My thoughts are if the mod adopts a more experimental approach, like a community test environment, the majority of games will take place on a27, with those curious to try out new content playing occasionally on the mod.

This couldn’t happen in a26 because of the Han farming issue, which made the mod the de facto version of a26 for anyone who cared about balance at all. 

[real_tabasco_sauce]

14 minutes ago, chrstgtr said:

This couldn’t happen in a26 because of the Han farming issue, which made the mod the de facto version of a26 for anyone who cared about balance at all. 

yeah I mentioned that earlier, but I guess it was buried in my rather long post. I'd say overall its something we should try again for a27.

Not sure @Stan` if it should be a new "main" branch. Would the old a26 version then just be a branch of main? Maybe it should be a separate project?

[Lion.Kanzen]

On 05/02/2023 at 5:23 AM, Stan` said:

Well we probably have to first determine if it was a success or not. People like @alre and few others and some dude that got mad at us on Facebook have a point, this might have divided the community. And while our statistics show that the number of active players hasn't decreased, I've noticed a lack of people in the lobby which I hope isn't because of that.

If we do continue another mod will be created so that the A26 can continue to exist. One could argue that it could be another branch but I'm afraid the current set up will become more complicated than anything. So, we'll see.

 

what happened?

[Stan`]

2 minutes ago, Lion.Kanzen said:

what happened?

Well you cannot play without the mod (for good reason) so people feel left out on the lobby. At least some people do and complained to me.

[Lion.Kanzen]

Just now, Stan` said:

Well you cannot play without the mod (for good reason) so people feel left out on the lobby. At least some people do and complained to me.

Can't play? Because? Did you implement it as a mandatory requirement?

[Stan`]

30 minutes ago, Lion.Kanzen said:

Can't play? Because? Did you implement it as a mandatory requirement?

Well you cannot play with people with the mod, else it goes OOS.

[Lion.Kanzen]

1 minute ago, Stan` said:

Well you cannot play with people with the mod, else it goes OOS.

That means that many downloaded the mod.

I still have the idea of making an updater/ patcher(This psychologically would make the transition/acceptance easier).

[real_tabasco_sauce]

On 05/02/2023 at 3:23 AM, Stan` said:

Well we probably have to first determine if it was a success or not.

Are there any more opinions on this?

[Lion.Kanzen]

I was seeing that in some games they notify you of balance changes and new mechanics months before.

I refer back to Clash Royale.

 

See the example, through Twitter and the development blog.

 

They have just announced a controversial change for the month of June 2023.

 

I am interested in us communicating better with the community.

[Stan`]

7 hours ago, real_tabasco_sauce said:

Are there any more opinions on this?

Not that I know of, maybe we should make a public poll.

[real_tabasco_sauce]

9 hours ago, Stan` said:

Not that I know of, maybe we should make a public poll.

Yeah I think its a good idea.

[real_tabasco_sauce]

On 13/02/2023 at 12:20 AM, Stan` said:

Not that I know of, maybe we should make a public poll.

Should that be done here in this thread or maybe a new topic? Another option would be to use an external polling resource and post links to it in various places.

[Stan`]

New topic sounds good. Then it can be linked too from other sources. (Although in the case of social media it reduces their reach drastically.

[Lion.Kanzen]

On 30/09/2022 at 4:17 PM, Lion.Kanzen said:

she helped me with the numbers of what I told her it could be.

she is very smart and good with numbers.

[real_tabasco_sauce]

 

[maroder]

Feedback wanted for some last minute potential bugfix/ balance changes:

catapults can't see what their firing at: https://code.wildfiregames.com/D4962

Han upgraded cc seems a bit op: https://code.wildfiregames.com/D4961

(not directly related to the community mod, but I thought this might be the most efficient place to get some feedback)

[real_tabasco_sauce]

4 hours ago, maroder said:

Feedback wanted for some last minute potential bugfix/ balance changes:

catapults can't see what their firing at: https://code.wildfiregames.com/D4962

Han upgraded cc seems a bit op: https://code.wildfiregames.com/D4961

(not directly related to the community mod, but I thought this might be the most efficient place to get some feedback)

These look great. I am fine with either nerf option discussed for the super cc, as this is one of many han strengths.

Perhaps we could also consider https://code.wildfiregames.com/D4952 here?

It's a similar balance/minor content addition patch for maury. 

[maroder]

16 hours ago, real_tabasco_sauce said:

Perhaps we could also consider https://code.wildfiregames.com/D4952 here?

reading the discussion on the diff, that one seem generally accepted. Fine by me.

[BreakfastBurrito_007]

I always thought it would be fun if specs could read ally chat from teams during a game. Is this something that can be added in the community mod?