Been writing some code

[Softly]

For the last few weeks I've been writing some client and server code that can support chatting/playing FA. Happy to say now that I've successfully managed to host a game using this new client between two (virtual) machines on my local network.

Now that I've demonstrated (at least to myself) that I have the necessary skills to get started, the question remains: Are people interested in a FAF alternative?

What I am suggesting is that I write the code for an alternative place to play FA with separate:

1) Games (Different servers, different connection solutions, different ratings etc)
2) Balance (I have a few ideas for giving as many people as possible the balance they want)
3) Chat (although my client supports connecting to FAF chat as well by default, and I am aiming for discord integration in the future)
4) Communication/Moderation (I love talking to people )
5) Everything else

If there's some support for this idea then I will keep going with the project, I would expect to be able to release a first version in about 3 months (the basics: chatting, playing, rating, matchmaker), with more and more features as time goes on. The main focus for me on this project is making the code simple enough that any idiot* can contribute, that way any community that does get created can have as many people involved in the dev as want to get involved.

If nobody likes the idea I can also leave FAF to it

Happy to answer questions in this thread if people have any.



* aka me.

[lextoc]

Why would you recreate FAF? Because of the currently-used technologies and balance?

Also, moved to Off-Topic.

[Exotic_Retard]

soooooooooo whats up with the dstoj lobby? dont we have enough alternatives?

also whats up with splintering the community. not a fan of that since for example the largest issue with ladder is that no one plays it and even less than that wont improve it tbh.

if it has eq as official balance i would not mind this ofc xD

[Softly]

Why would you recreate FAF?

It's a good question, and I think there is two main points to address.

1) Why recreate FAF? - Well I am not aiming to recreate FAF, since I'd end up forever playing catch up. What I want to do is start small and build strength where FAF might have weaknesses. A competitive market helps drive innovation and reduce inefficiencies; I'd like to try and apply that to the FA community.

2) Why me? - Right person right time I guess.

[PhilipJFry]

The community is small enough as it is if it were to split then finding games with appropriate opponents would get too hard.

[Softly]

also whats up with splintering the community.

The community is small enough as it is if it were to split then finding games with appropriate opponents would get too hard.

Sure, but I believe this would be overshadowed by the effect of holding onto more players that we bring in.

I'll just repost a graph thats currently not working in the stats thread:

download2.png (89.51 KiB) Viewed 4406 times

Here we see that while lots of new players come into FAF, the number of active players doesn't rise. By offering something different to what FAF already has, more of these players will remain playing FA, rather than just leaving.

This is also ignoring the effect of bringing players from steam, many of whom have played FAF and just don't like it. By offering something different, we can bring them on-board.

[lextoc]

I believe every game has this problem, keeping players active. There are a lot of games I just try out and play for a month and ditch after. You're talking about bringing players on-board. On-board of what? If I understood correctly your custom client will not be a part of FAF.

Right now, FAF is "in need" of devs, there are more than enough items on the to-do list. I don't see how splitting up the community would help, together you are stronger.

[PhilipJFry]

I still don't get how you would make all those people that don't stick to FAF stay on your alternative.

[nine2]

No thanks softly... Id rather you assisted far devs than splintered community. You may not agree with every decision but you can still contribute.

[Softly]

No thanks softly... Id rather you assisted far devs than splintered community. You may not agree with every decision but you can still contribute.

Hi Anihilnine, thanks for the feedback. I've already contributed a considerable amount of time to FAF over the years, and continue to wish it all the best. FAF does a lot of things really well, so my main goal is to try to match up to that high standard!

Right now though I simply can't find the time to contribute to FAF, there's lots of pressures on my time that mean that it won't happen in a serious way.

The choice I'm looking to make here is whether to make an alternative to FAF or not (which I do have the time for); if people decide against then I'll probably head off to do other projects.