How to make FF more popular

[oaties]

1. Add a Tutorial Mode in 2.5, for each of the classes, basic movement skills, defence vs offence etc.

1a. Maybe add achievements that are oriented at become a better player rather than grinding. Cap 250 flags as scout, hit 250 enemies out of the air as soldier, 4 kills in one det as a demoman, etc

2. Set up servers that run noob friendly and fun maps such as Dustbowl, Avanti (general AvD maps) so the noobs can either play offence or defence.

2. Release game on steamworks on 2.5 release, gets added to HL2 mod section

3. Lots of players download it and start playing on noob friendly servers.

4. ??????

5. PROFIT!!!

[Everything]

More like remove slot reservation from one of the two populated servers available in the server list.

I love OT, but when it's 20/22 for 10 minutes, and the talos is like 6/22, and I want to play, I can't. Great incentive to play TF2.

[chilledsanity]

4. Add bot code so when you only have 3 or 4 people playing, you can still have a 22 man game.

I realize this is easier said than done though, programming AI must be outrageously difficult, even moreso for something like FF.

[WiFiDi]

its actualy not that there needs to be fancy tutorials but i think rather video tutorials also ot and other server should run offical maps most of the time for awhile when 2.5 comes out anyways. also advertising for 2.5 not alot just some. i mean if no one heres anything good about the game game gets no players.

[JackBauer]

May I quote myself

but am I the only one, that thinks a FF blog would be a good idea?

get a ff blog up with active writers and news around the FF scene. advertise FF 2.5, say it's gonna be a major change and it's gonna be something new and awesome (even if it's a lie), make it palatable to everybody, especially the ex-ff and also tfc players. tease the whole gaming community with a release date e.g. 11-1-2011. so everybody will be looking forward to it and won't be able to sleep because of sheer excitement.

spread the news with facebook, irc, blogs, forums etc.

ersonally I would announce small patches just right before they come out and once they are released a short list of what things got fixed.

when it comes to major changes or important patches as in 2.5 I think the devs could tease the community with a release date (I know it's difficult to name a date) and may give a small sneak peek away to the community. although sometimes, as an old swiss saying goes, less is more: just an announcement of major changes to come and a release date and let the community guess what the major changes could be. it's up to the devs.

the rest could be filled up with community news (*cough* FF Cup for example), league news and games (if there are any), server news and appointments like AvD-Wednesday nights, friday night pub fun zone etc.

the thing is, I think we need to show the whole world the game ain't completely dead yet and there are still a few lost souls around and even some are still working on the game.

Would anybody start playing a game that looks dead and empty based on the official homepage's news? I don't think so.

the way I see it: 2.5 is make or break. if we can't attract any new players with 2.5, when then?

I'm aware 2.42 is coming out first which is a good thing. Don't matter if it takes 3 more months for 2.5 to come out. we could use the meantime for propaganda, huge commercial and advert campaigns.

also steamworks would help a lot imho, but I read today it will stay more or less an utopia.

or check http://forums.fortress-forever.com/s...ad.php?t=22234

[Iggy]

Originally Posted by oaties

1. Add a Tutorial Mode in 2.5, for each of the classes, basic movement skills, defence vs offence etc.

1a. Maybe add achievements that are oriented at become a better player rather than grinding. Cap 250 flags as scout, hit 250 enemies out of the air as soldier, 4 kills in one det as a demoman, etc

2. Set up servers that run noob friendly and fun maps such as Dustbowl, Avanti (general AvD maps) so the noobs can either play offence or defence.

2. Release game on steamworks on 2.5 release, gets added to HL2 mod section

3. Lots of players download it and start playing on noob friendly servers.

Those achievements are really useless, but those are the kind I support. I don't agree with any achievements that "unlock" something that aids someone who plays more. To me, that's what SKILL is for. Those are more like a way of keeping track of one's personal "stats". Sadly, I think there is too much other work that needs to be done before that gets implemented.

[Bridget]

Originally Posted by oaties

1a. Maybe add achievements that are oriented at become a better player rather than grinding. Cap 250 flags as scout, hit 250 enemies out of the air as soldier, 4 kills in one det as a demoman, etc

Grind-based achievements are boring. Once you capture the flag once, you understand how it works. You don't need to do something 249 more times to grasp it. Someone mentioned on the achievements thread I made that the achievement system should log activity. So, your first capture nets you an achievement, and all the captures afterwards are logged on your stats page. All grind-based achievements should work like this. First time achievement, rest are merely logged in stats. The only time you should be required by the achievement system to do something more than once is if the means of doing it is different for each respective achievement.

[Iggy]

True, but if you use "milestone" achievements for each class, that would encourage people to go for them, without altering the game in any way.

First cap, 10th cap, 25th cap, 50th cap, 100th cap, etc.... each with their own title. The title could even show up when the player changes classes.

It doesn't have to limited to caps, either. Flag carrier kills, Infections for Medics, Airshots for Soldiers, etc.

[Pixel]

Fortress Forever has a lack of motivation. Achievements such as these would be great.

Also at the end of a map, if somehow the winner was pointed out more obviously. Like maybe voice over or something and possibly some visual.

[Carrots]

hi oaties

[Iggy]

Originally Posted by Pixel

Fortress Forever has a lack of motivation. Achievements such as these would be great.

Also at the end of a map, if somehow the winner was pointed out more obviously. Like maybe voice over or something and possibly some visual.

You mean something like "BLUE team wins the match!"?

[chilledsanity]

"You have the flag!!!"

[Dexter]

1) killing streak abilities
2) death streak abilities or attribute bonsus
3) ranks and XP system
4) jetpacks
5) item and trade system

[oaties]

Originally Posted by Pixel

Also at the end of a map, if somehow the winner was pointed out more obviously. Like maybe voice over or something and possibly some visual.

Like how TF2 has MVPs. I don't like to say it, but TF2 has ALOT of really good ideas that make it so popular.

The best kinds of achievements are the ones that encourage a player into exhibiting helpful playing styles, such as heal 3000 health as a medic, repair 3000 armor as an engineer etc.

Originally Posted by Dexter

1) killing streak abilities
2) death streak abilities or attribute bonsus
3) ranks and XP system
4) jetpacks
5) item and trade system

Why do you need to say something stupid. This isnt Call of Duty, the reason why Call of Duty is so popular is because it appeals to NEW GAMER'S as well as "HARDCORE GAMERS". Fortress Forever appeals to only veterans of TFC. By adding my suggestions and some of the other suggestions, you would be catering to the beginner community, which is what needs to be done.

I don't care about the league players crying. I myself am a league player, pickups are much more fun than pubs to me, but if anything you can just make a cvar that disables some of the default things on pubs, kind of like how TF2 has a cvar that disables crits.

[chilledsanity]

Originally Posted by oaties

Fortress Forever appeals to only veterans of TFC.

And even then...

[oaties]

Originally Posted by Bridget

Grind-based achievements are boring. Once you capture the flag once, you understand how it works. You don't need to do something 249 more times to grasp it. Someone mentioned on the achievements thread I made that the achievement system should log activity. So, your first capture nets you an achievement, and all the captures afterwards are logged on your stats page. All grind-based achievements should work like this. First time achievement, rest are merely logged in stats. The only time you should be required by the achievement system to do something more than once is if the means of doing it is different for each respective achievement.

That's a good idea. But, you are implying that once you capture a flag once, you understand how capping it works. There are many ways to grab a flag, such as by killing the defenders, by concing past them etc. The fact that it requires you to do it 250 times sets a goal for the beginning player by encouraging them to engage in a task that not only makes them a better player, but also benefits their team.

[Gwarsbane]

Originally Posted by oaties

Fortress Forever appeals to only veterans of TFC.

No it doesn't, there are many in FF I have played against and currently play against who have never played TFC.

[moosh]

Originally Posted by oaties

Why do you need to say something stupid. This isnt Call of Duty, the reason why Call of Duty is so popular is because it appeals to NEW GAMER'S as well as "HARDCORE GAMERS". Fortress Forever appeals to only veterans of TFC. By adding my suggestions and some of the other suggestions, you would be catering to the beginner community, which is what needs to be done.

He was being sarcastic.

[Bridget]

That's FF-Dev for you. They are sarcastic about every proposal made to better the game.

[zE]

Can anyone post the dudes Active in Dev team please. The active ones only and their specific area of work inside FF. Thks