<!--QuoteBegin--Elowind+Mar. 24 2002,09:43--></span><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td><b>Quote</b> (Elowind @ Mar. 24 2002,09:43)</td></tr><tr><td id="QUOTE"><!--QuoteEBegin-->well i was planning on being alien, but since everyone seems to want to be, and the marines need a lot of skill, i might as well play marine. but right now im playin sum TFC to try to get some old skill back<!--QuoteEnd--></td></tr></table><span id='postcolor'><!--QuoteEEnd--> And just last week we had someone complaining about too many people wanting to be marines. Trust me people, there are plenty of each side to go around!
As for "Who's hosting 'it'?"... to which 'it' are you refering? The installer, or the servers?
well i havnt seen anything except in teh fag abotu everyone wanting to be marines, but the part of the "what class will u be" thread most peopel were saying alien because of the flying and wall climbing and special abilities and so on
*sigh* Why must everyone not believe a word I say? It's like they think I'm a compulsive liar or something.
<a href="http://www.natural-selection.org/cgi-bin/ikonboard/ikonboard.cgi?act=ST;f=1;t=1016;st=30" target="_blank">Thread where people were complaining about too many 'Marine wannabes'</a>
yea, ur right i guess but this is what i read <!--emo&;)--><img src="http://www.natural-selection.org/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/wink.gif" border="0" valign="absmiddle" alt=';)'><!--endemo--> (sorry if im irritating u, just showin what i saw.. i dont bother readin all of topics im not intrested in.. i should though :-p )
molec: I think Mart is talking 'bout Steve's avatar... And Molec is right it kinda changes all the time, sometimes more people want to be alien, sometimes marines, it depends on their mood i guess.
<!--QuoteBegin--Elowind+Mar. 22 2002,21<!--emo&:0--><img src="http://www.natural-selection.org/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/wow.gif" border="0" valign="absmiddle" alt=':0'><!--endemo-->5--></span><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td><b>Quote</b> (Elowind @ Mar. 22 2002,21<!--emo&:0--><img src="http://www.natural-selection.org/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/wow.gif" border="0" valign="absmiddle" alt=':0'><!--endemo-->5)</td></tr><tr><td id="QUOTE"><!--QuoteEBegin-->i think this will be successful but it may take time, but what im saying is that if there are no servers up peopel may loose intrests, so theres got to be a way at teh beggingin to attract people willing to host servers and stuff, so there will always be people on, and always be someone to play with.<!--QuoteEnd--></td></tr></table><span id='postcolor'><!--QuoteEEnd--> Well jsut seeing this post. I have made an arrangment with MPZ www.mpz.co.uk <-- shameless pimp <!--emo&:p--><img src="http://www.natural-selection.org/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/tounge.gif" border="0" valign="absmiddle" alt=':p'><!--endemo--> We run bookable servers at very low costs as i have mentioned b4, And as soon as it is released i will ensure that there are bookable servers for the game <!--emo&:)--><img src="http://www.natural-selection.org/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif" border="0" valign="absmiddle" alt=':)'><!--endemo-->
Just to add - Servers cost 1 Credit per 15mins. TO purchase credits 50 Credits = £5 100 Creidts =£10 etc etc
So u do the maths <!--emo&:p--><img src="http://www.natural-selection.org/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/tounge.gif" border="0" valign="absmiddle" alt=':p'><!--endemo-->
I have often asked this question myself. Counter-strike's popularity is an order of magnitude bigger then any other FPS out there. If NS doesn't grow as popular as CS, that shouldn't be a huge surprise.
That said, even with the extra complexity in NS, both sides were designed to allow the average Joe to jump in, shoot crap and be effective from the get-go. The base marine will not be unfamiliar to most players. You have your standard equipment, you don't have to help build your base if you don't want to, if you see an alien, you'll want to shoot it. One advantage NS has over CS is the fact that it's much easier to distinguish between friends and foes, eliminating the frustrating "I thought he was on my team so I didn't shoot" syndrome.
I'm sure we'll have plenty of work to do to make the first time experience even easier for players, but that's definitely effort well spent.
I think it will eventually get quite popular. It has flash and plenty of eye-candy so will immediately start attracting players. But it also has very in-depth gameplay potential that will keep alot of these players hooked from the get-go. Others may be intimidated by the sheer complexity of the game resulting from the teamwork and RTS qualities, but I think this intimidation will wear off as the lemmings following the leaders realise that all the leaders love it. Conceptually, it doesn't seem like it would be too difficult for players to jump right in. Mod fans all have a certain degree of FPS skill already, adapting to new weapons is relatively easy. The only thing that will be slightly intimidating is the CM. Since its such an important position, I think you'll find many players will be shy to try to command in public servers, instead starting private servers to train themselves before being responsible for other players. Unfortunately, I think it will happen that if you're not a good commander, some ppl will yell at you. It happens in other games where the classes require a certain degree of responsibility, eg engineers and meds from various games.
The crucial factors that will determine the success of NS are the quality and balance of the game itself and the atmosphere that comes with it. We all know how hard the dev team is working to make this game as good as they can, and I'm sure I'll lose many pairs of socks from continual shock of the features and gameplay. The atmosphere is up to us. Let's make it a good community. We could be supportive of new players, encouraging them and suggesting tactics. Elitism will only lead to seclusion; saying that we're better because we were here first and not welcoming players will only restrict its potential growth.
I think that NS could be huge. Steal all those punks still playing RTSes and add em to all the FPS freaks and *thunder* NS will rule the world */thunder*
<!--QuoteBegin--Mart+Mar. 24 2002,21:39--></span><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td><b>Quote</b> (Mart @ Mar. 24 2002,21:39)</td></tr><tr><td id="QUOTE"><!--QuoteEBegin-->Yeah but the more servers there are, the less concentrated the teamwork is... people will be less-inclined to work together because there won't be a familiar community of players... if it goes mainstream there will probably end up being lots of servers that just dissolve into a DM frenzy with the inclusion of resources being a side plus.
Off topic: Steve, don't forget who to thank for your sig <!--emo&:)--><img src="http://www.natural-selection.org/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif" border="0" valign="absmiddle" alt=':)'><!--endemo--><!--QuoteEnd--></td></tr></table><span id='postcolor'><!--QuoteEEnd--> yeah , but there could be more teamwork if commander can punishe all marines who do something wrong and about finishing theyr missions , i got an idea.now all players in cs probabily just make missions as secondary objective and killnig as first.i think u can remove it by making round ending only when mission objectives are done or all players are dead and about popularity i think its gonna be most popular game over the time or least game of the year title when retail comes out of production second i think its conna change games history as much as it made cs cos it has totaly new idea system third i think when everything goes good way there is gonna be one stand alone game like cs:cz it is so dont yell about its not enought good or something like it
<!--QuoteBegin--Elowind+Mar. 22 2002,10:12--></span><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td><b>Quote</b> (Elowind @ Mar. 22 2002,10:12)</td></tr><tr><td id="QUOTE"><!--QuoteEBegin-->do u think this will grow to be one of the most played games like counterstrike, popular but not as muych like tfc, even less like half life<!--QuoteEnd--></td></tr></table><span id='postcolor'><!--QuoteEEnd--> back to the topic, first of all, do you mean thet TFC is more played than CS? cause CS is alot more played then both TFC, DOD, and HL.
the only mod that's cooler than CS is Scihunt, but that goes whitout saying.. <!--emo&;)--><img src="http://www.natural-selection.org/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/wink.gif" border="0" valign="absmiddle" alt=';)'><!--endemo-->
but i really think its gonna be about as popular as for example opera, or SI or sven coop. whit about 80 people online 24/7, and im sure its gonna get its own section in gamespy.
thats wut i ment, CS at teh top one rank down would be tfc another down and so on.. but what i think makes counterstrike so balanced is the fact they buy guns, and each team-specific gun has a similar team-specific gun for the other team.
another thing that makes a game more popular is realism, if its something out of the ordinary like pirates and vikings, wizard wars, scitist hunt <!--emo&;)--><img src="http://www.natural-selection.org/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/wink.gif" border="0" valign="absmiddle" alt=';)'><!--endemo-->, and all those other fun but weird mod, people play at frist but then get sick of, its the real challenging mods and realistic mods that keep people
well , but its still better than cs im gonna be one of "hardcore" players of this mod anyway like somebody says "any time , anywhere <!--emo&:p--><img src="http://www.natural-selection.org/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/tounge.gif" border="0" valign="absmiddle" alt=':p'><!--endemo-->" and thats true about this mod <!--emo&:p--><img src="http://www.natural-selection.org/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/tounge.gif" border="0" valign="absmiddle" alt=':p'><!--endemo-->
<!--QuoteBegin--cyberdaemon+Mar. 28 2002,09:48--></span><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td><b>Quote</b> (cyberdaemon @ Mar. 28 2002,09:48)</td></tr><tr><td id="QUOTE"><!--QuoteEBegin-->i think u can remove it by making round ending only when mission objectives are done or all players are dead<!--QuoteEnd--></td></tr></table><span id='postcolor'><!--QuoteEEnd--> thats how it is in CS and thats a deathmatch game now.
Wurmspawn, I think you've hit the nail on the head. I've thought a lot about growing the community properly, as I think that's why CS has the community it has. It got too many people, too fast.
I've thought about growing the community slowly and solidly, but I can't think of a way to do it. I thought that maybe Steam would allow us to have a very slow rollout at first, or that the playtesting group could slowly grow to encompass everyone. That way, everyone on the servers would know each other, would receive a warm welcome, and would be given a chance.
I cannot for the life of me think of a reasonable way to do this on a larger scale. Maybe NS could be slowly rolled out only players with a last name that started with "A? I just can't think of any feasible approach. Maybe there could be official servers, where model players exist?
This is the biggest consideration I have before releasing NS in some form. If anyone has ideas, feel free to let me know!
I doubt there is really much that can be done to control this. It's just a situation where you have to do the best you can in producing the game, then cast the dice and hope for the best. It will either be popular or it won't. It may grow in popularity quickly or slowly. It may end up like some mods and be fairly popular for a short run then die out. It's nearly impossible to predict such things accurately. Realistically, the only thing that you can do is to try an avoid the pitfalls and mistakes that other mods have made. Take Frontline Force as an example. It's a terrific and well-designed mod that <i>should</i> be more popular and have a broader community than it currently has. At one time, it was the 3rd most popular mod in terms of both players and servers, behind CS and one other mod that I can't recall now. People will, I'm sure, argue about how subjectively 'good' it is as an argument to why its popularity has declined, but a much more likely cause is the upset in one of the major planned releases. It was supposed to take care of some significantly important issues and bugs, but its release was delayed over and over again. Players simply grew tired of waiting and left to follow other mods. Although they did eventually release the update, and it is still a very high quality mod, the damage had already been done. The other problem that this mod experienced was the inevitable comparisons to CS. This shouldn't be of concern for NS, although I do still see the occasional forum suggestion or comment that is coming from the CS/tactical shooter camp.
If you avoid those mistakes, continue to support the community as it grows, and are willing to learn and occasionally compromise based on feedback from players, then you've essentially done all you can to try and make NS a success.
I'm under the impression this community grows faster and faster every day, lots of new peeps on forum and IRc, not a bad thing aslong as they respect the forumlaws and if they are nice to other people, I think this mod will be very popular, I think it'll be one of the most important mods in the future, I even think it'll draw players from cs, not so sure if that's good :/
im pretty sure it wont die out, since planethalflife have been posting somethng about NS about every second day, and im sure you guys will make mod of the week, and since almost every HL player (i know i do) visit planethalflife every day.
I vote a serect downloading server a few days in advance for all of us loyal forum goers! That way they'll be a small core of non-illmas that will spread out the word and the like. Then again...it could be just wanting NS a few days before everyone else. But not until "When it's done!"
yea but as they said its growing fast quickly, alot of people would join in a short time.. and who would they pick for that secret server ppl who joined b4 a certain date? a certain number of posts?
(does this seem to have gotten off topic from game popularity to community growth?)
I certainly hope its not based on post count. I've been here for quite a while now (I know, not nearly as <i>some</i> of you, so spare me the rant please) and I'd say over 80% of the people I see post I've never seen before. I am certainly going to be one of the first to download this awsome looking mod, but I don't see how someone would base an early release to people who have nothing better to do the stay on the forums all day. Some people need to work and some people need to goto school. Some people may not have internet access 24/7 like other people (be it at the home/office/school/what ever) - and just being a forum ##### shouldn't get you extra privliges as well. However, I really don't see this happening anyway - so its pretty pointless.
Regardless, Im starting to rant and ramble, so in an attempt to get the thread back on topic:
I think NS will deffinatly be as popular, if not more so then CS - givin a few circumstances. I think it needs to be exposed right, have the right number and correct balance of new players (IE, low cheater/llama count, high teamplayer/maturity count).
I more or less see the later happening, because I doubt enough CS llamas would want to hang around a game that would be difficult to comprehend - IE: team work. Well, I guess they could just be the aliens, but I doubt playing the same team over and over would be that thrilling. However I don't see how cheating could be that thrilling either, but apparently it is ...
Whatever... I think NS, givin time, will become more popular then CS.
If anyone ever did a secret server download thing, I'm sure that it would be based on forum registration date, or something. Or maybe it would just be announced on the Forum, and if you don't visit here, you wouldn't see it.
*shrug*
I doubt it would happen, but it'd be kinda cool. But if there was a 'secret release'... where would the servers be?
Silver there can be and there is a lot of teamwork in CS, just not on the pubs, watch soem demos from famous clans and you'll see what I'm talking about, for every map they have like 4/5 tactics that require full support by every teammember, I really liek watching wardemos, soem clans have great tactics and it's really impressing to see how well hey work together, first getting in position then waiting for the sign to attack etc. It's when you see demos like that you know what CS is all about, I hope the NS exeperience will be at least as overpowering as watching or playing a clanwar...with thsi exception that NS will work on pubs 2, or so I hope.
I hope it's not based on forum registration date, this is the third time I've had to register now <!--emo&:D--><img src="http://www.natural-selection.org/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif" border="0" valign="absmiddle" alt=':D'><!--endemo-->
Anyhow, I personally think one of the key factors in growing a decent community and in furthering the popularity of this mod lies with us - the players who are most familiar with how the mod works.
Imagine Joe Newbie, sees the NS link on PHL and DLs it, and logs into a half-full server, and has NO idea what the game is about, what to do, etc. It'll be up to us to show him how to play - rather than the usual 'STFU NEWB! RTFM! YOU SUCK!' You know what I'm talking about, it happens all the time.
I was also going to post about things like various methods to advertise the mod to potential players once it's released, but I think I'll stew on that topic a little longer.
<!--QuoteBegin--Elowind+Mar. 29 2002,00:30--></span><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td><b>Quote</b> (Elowind @ Mar. 29 2002,00:30)</td></tr><tr><td id="QUOTE"><!--QuoteEBegin-->yea but as they said its growing fast quickly, alot of people would join in a short time.. and who would they pick for that secret server ppl who joined b4 a certain date? a certain number of posts?<!--QuoteEnd--></td></tr></table><span id='postcolor'><!--QuoteEEnd--> If so, i think it should be a combination <!--emo&:)--><img src="http://www.natural-selection.org/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif" border="0" valign="absmiddle" alt=':)'><!--endemo-->
I dont have a big post count, but i joined the OLD forum, now those people are sacrete <!--emo&;)--><img src="http://www.natural-selection.org/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/wink.gif" border="0" valign="absmiddle" alt=';)'><!--endemo-->.
FamDiaper-Wearing Dog On A BallJoin Date: 2002-02-17Member: 222Members, NS1 Playtester, Contributor
I dont see why we cant just play on the regular servers. All it means if we get private servers is that it will split the community and also delay normal players from playing. People who follow, quietly, thinking abou the mod with friends should have every right as those that post lots to play the game.
Speaking on what Fam said, I am hopefully going to be renting about 5 servers for NS once it gets closer to release. But I am olanning on setting 2 of them aside for training in the early going and reduce it to one later on.
People could sign up via a site (rr.org or such) for basic or advanced training. On Mondays and Thrusdays I would have some basic training sessions and Tuesdays and Fridays have more tatical and advanced training. People who sign up would submit a nickname to play under, and I would send a server password to all the signups I could handle each night. I would have the list of allowed players so I could control who got in. Also, I would be owning the servers, so no problems with rcon and such <!--emo&:)--><img src="http://www.natural-selection.org/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif" border="0" valign="absmiddle" alt=':)'><!--endemo--> This way the new players could get some practice time/mini-games in before they go out into the deadly world by themselves. And so they arent called that f'ing n00b yadda, yadda when they try and play for the first time.
Comments
And just last week we had someone complaining about too many people wanting to be marines. Trust me people, there are plenty of each side to go around!
As for "Who's hosting 'it'?"... to which 'it' are you refering? The installer, or the servers?
<a href="http://www.natural-selection.org/cgi-bin/ikonboard/ikonboard.cgi?act=ST;f=1;t=1016;st=30" target="_blank">Thread where people were complaining about too many 'Marine wannabes'</a>
<a href="http://www.natural-selection.org/cgi-bin/ikonboard/ikonboard.cgi?act=ST;f=1;t=1016;st=0" target="_blank">http://www.natural-selection.org/cgi-bin....16;st=0</a>
And Molec is right it kinda changes all the time, sometimes more people want to be alien, sometimes marines, it depends on their mood i guess.
Well jsut seeing this post. I have made an arrangment with MPZ www.mpz.co.uk <-- shameless pimp <!--emo&:p--><img src="http://www.natural-selection.org/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/tounge.gif" border="0" valign="absmiddle" alt=':p'><!--endemo--> We run bookable servers at very low costs as i have mentioned b4, And as soon as it is released i will ensure that there are bookable servers for the game <!--emo&:)--><img src="http://www.natural-selection.org/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif" border="0" valign="absmiddle" alt=':)'><!--endemo-->
Davyb
MPZ HL Co-Head
Just to add - Servers cost 1 Credit per 15mins.
TO purchase credits 50 Credits = £5 100 Creidts =£10 etc etc
So u do the maths <!--emo&:p--><img src="http://www.natural-selection.org/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/tounge.gif" border="0" valign="absmiddle" alt=':p'><!--endemo-->
That said, even with the extra complexity in NS, both sides were designed to allow the average Joe to jump in, shoot crap and be effective from the get-go. The base marine will not be unfamiliar to most players. You have your standard equipment, you don't have to help build your base if you don't want to, if you see an alien, you'll want to shoot it. One advantage NS has over CS is the fact that it's much easier to distinguish between friends and foes, eliminating the frustrating "I thought he was on my team so I didn't shoot" syndrome.
I'm sure we'll have plenty of work to do to make the first time experience even easier for players, but that's definitely effort well spent.
Others may be intimidated by the sheer complexity of the game resulting from the teamwork and RTS qualities, but I think this intimidation will wear off as the lemmings following the leaders realise that all the leaders love it.
Conceptually, it doesn't seem like it would be too difficult for players to jump right in. Mod fans all have a certain degree of FPS skill already, adapting to new weapons is relatively easy. The only thing that will be slightly intimidating is the CM. Since its such an important position, I think you'll find many players will be shy to try to command in public servers, instead starting private servers to train themselves before being responsible for other players. Unfortunately, I think it will happen that if you're not a good commander, some ppl will yell at you. It happens in other games where the classes require a certain degree of responsibility, eg engineers and meds from various games.
The crucial factors that will determine the success of NS are the quality and balance of the game itself and the atmosphere that comes with it. We all know how hard the dev team is working to make this game as good as they can, and I'm sure I'll lose many pairs of socks from continual shock of the features and gameplay.
The atmosphere is up to us. Let's make it a good community. We could be supportive of new players, encouraging them and suggesting tactics. Elitism will only lead to seclusion; saying that we're better because we were here first and not welcoming players will only restrict its potential growth.
I think that NS could be huge. Steal all those punks still playing RTSes and add em to all the FPS freaks and *thunder* NS will rule the world */thunder*
Off topic: Steve, don't forget who to thank for your sig <!--emo&:)--><img src="http://www.natural-selection.org/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif" border="0" valign="absmiddle" alt=':)'><!--endemo--><!--QuoteEnd--></td></tr></table><span id='postcolor'><!--QuoteEEnd-->
yeah , but there could be more teamwork if commander can punishe all marines who do something wrong and about finishing theyr missions , i got an idea.now all players in cs probabily just make missions as secondary objective and killnig as first.i think u can remove it by making round ending only when mission objectives are done or all players are dead
and about popularity i think its gonna be most popular game over the time or least game of the year title when retail comes out of production second i think its conna change games history as much as it made cs cos it has totaly new idea system third i think when everything goes good way there is gonna be one stand alone game like cs:cz it is
so dont yell about its not enought good or something like it
back to the topic,
first of all, do you mean thet TFC is more played than CS?
cause CS is alot more played then both TFC, DOD, and HL.
the only mod that's cooler than CS is Scihunt, but that goes whitout saying.. <!--emo&;)--><img src="http://www.natural-selection.org/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/wink.gif" border="0" valign="absmiddle" alt=';)'><!--endemo-->
but i really think its gonna be about as popular as for example opera, or SI or sven coop. whit about 80 people online 24/7, and im sure its gonna get its own section in gamespy.
another thing that makes a game more popular is realism, if its something out of the ordinary like pirates and vikings, wizard wars, scitist hunt <!--emo&;)--><img src="http://www.natural-selection.org/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/wink.gif" border="0" valign="absmiddle" alt=';)'><!--endemo-->, and all those other fun but weird mod, people play at frist but then get sick of, its the real challenging mods and realistic mods that keep people
"any time , anywhere <!--emo&:p--><img src="http://www.natural-selection.org/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/tounge.gif" border="0" valign="absmiddle" alt=':p'><!--endemo-->" and thats true about this mod <!--emo&:p--><img src="http://www.natural-selection.org/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/tounge.gif" border="0" valign="absmiddle" alt=':p'><!--endemo-->
thats how it is in CS and thats a deathmatch game now.
I've thought about growing the community slowly and solidly, but I can't think of a way to do it. I thought that maybe Steam would allow us to have a very slow rollout at first, or that the playtesting group could slowly grow to encompass everyone. That way, everyone on the servers would know each other, would receive a warm welcome, and would be given a chance.
I cannot for the life of me think of a reasonable way to do this on a larger scale. Maybe NS could be slowly rolled out only players with a last name that started with "A? I just can't think of any feasible approach. Maybe there could be official servers, where model players exist?
This is the biggest consideration I have before releasing NS in some form. If anyone has ideas, feel free to let me know!
Realistically, the only thing that you can do is to try an avoid the pitfalls and mistakes that other mods have made. Take Frontline Force as an example. It's a terrific and well-designed mod that <i>should</i> be more popular and have a broader community than it currently has. At one time, it was the 3rd most popular mod in terms of both players and servers, behind CS and one other mod that I can't recall now. People will, I'm sure, argue about how subjectively 'good' it is as an argument to why its popularity has declined, but a much more likely cause is the upset in one of the major planned releases. It was supposed to take care of some significantly important issues and bugs, but its release was delayed over and over again. Players simply grew tired of waiting and left to follow other mods. Although they did eventually release the update, and it is still a very high quality mod, the damage had already been done. The other problem that this mod experienced was the inevitable comparisons to CS. This shouldn't be of concern for NS, although I do still see the occasional forum suggestion or comment that is coming from the CS/tactical shooter camp.
If you avoid those mistakes, continue to support the community as it grows, and are willing to learn and occasionally compromise based on feedback from players, then you've essentially done all you can to try and make NS a success.
(does this seem to have gotten off topic from game popularity to community growth?)
Regardless, Im starting to rant and ramble, so in an attempt to get the thread back on topic:
I think NS will deffinatly be as popular, if not more so then CS - givin a few circumstances. I think it needs to be exposed right, have the right number and correct balance of new players (IE, low cheater/llama count, high teamplayer/maturity count).
I more or less see the later happening, because I doubt enough CS llamas would want to hang around a game that would be difficult to comprehend - IE: team work. Well, I guess they could just be the aliens, but I doubt playing the same team over and over would be that thrilling. However I don't see how cheating could be that thrilling either, but apparently it is ...
Whatever... I think NS, givin time, will become more popular then CS.
*shrug*
I doubt it would happen, but it'd be kinda cool. But if there was a 'secret release'... where would the servers be?
<!--EDIT|Moleculor|Mar. 29 2002,04:39-->
Anyhow, I personally think one of the key factors in growing a decent community and in furthering the popularity of this mod lies with us - the players who are most familiar with how the mod works.
Imagine Joe Newbie, sees the NS link on PHL and DLs it, and logs into a half-full server, and has NO idea what the game is about, what to do, etc. It'll be up to us to show him how to play - rather than the usual 'STFU NEWB! RTFM! YOU SUCK!' You know what I'm talking about, it happens all the time.
I was also going to post about things like various methods to advertise the mod to potential players once it's released, but I think I'll stew on that topic a little longer.
If so, i think it should be a combination <!--emo&:)--><img src="http://www.natural-selection.org/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif" border="0" valign="absmiddle" alt=':)'><!--endemo-->
I dont have a big post count, but i joined the OLD forum, now those people are sacrete <!--emo&;)--><img src="http://www.natural-selection.org/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/wink.gif" border="0" valign="absmiddle" alt=';)'><!--endemo-->.
People could sign up via a site (rr.org or such) for basic or advanced training. On Mondays and Thrusdays I would have some basic training sessions and Tuesdays and Fridays have more tatical and advanced training. People who sign up would submit a nickname to play under, and I would send a server password to all the signups I could handle each night. I would have the list of allowed players so I could control who got in. Also, I would be owning the servers, so no problems with rcon and such <!--emo&:)--><img src="http://www.natural-selection.org/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif" border="0" valign="absmiddle" alt=':)'><!--endemo--> This way the new players could get some practice time/mini-games in before they go out into the deadly world by themselves. And so they arent called that f'ing n00b yadda, yadda when they try and play for the first time.