What next?

[Kekouse]

Ok we have now FaF thank to Zep. It's great and give us the possibility to make FA like we wanted. Because we all know that FA is one of the best RTS so far....but no one knows it
FaF is now on Beta-level. When everything will be ironed (2-3-4 month?) it will be advertised a little bit everywhere on teh internetz.
We will have something like 2-3 days of "visibility" on those english-german-french gamesites. People will try it (without cdkey check we will have some first time players for sure)...and then stay or leave for good.

We are all multiplayer gamers....now FaF is good to make some Vs games.
BUT
80% of the players never touch the multiplayer side of RTS games. That's a fact. Sin of a solar Empire devs said it, Stardock with Demigod said it, Steam stats says it for almost all RTS games.
It's frightening. Teammates are yelling at you because you do everything wrong. And when you lose (as a new player) against some old TAplayer it's not fun.
For this reason "The last Stand" Coop mode on Dawn Of War 2 is the most played. For this reason people are playing against the IA. For this reason DotA-like are loved amongst players (coop + less options).

If we want to get new players, we have to give something for them.
Zep said the integration of Sorian AI is top priority. That's good. It will give the possibility to make some Human Vs AI matches.
After that having Phantom, Murder parties and survivals would be the next step.
In the end the best would be to do some Solo Levels.

-A la Starcraft2: to learn the basics in a map with objectives .
A com under the attack of 5 Fighter-Bombers must survive 3 minutes.
Produce X amount of Mass and Energy before the Y minute mark
Using mobile shields with an inferior land force to beat the enemy
etc...
Having a scoreboard could give the "I can do it" Feeling for newcomers.

-A la Total Annihilation: Remember Battle Tactics?
Numerous little missions done like puzzles. Escort this, go there, beat the Krogoth etc...
In this case having many levels could give the impression of plentiness. "Whoa there is so much to do and so many levels"


I know its early and it's not the priority for now...but 80% of players doesn't care about Balance and competion.
At least we can discuss it here if you have some ideas

[FunkOff]

Hmm. Sorian AI. I don't have it.... any chance you and link me? Once I have it, I can look at making FAF and sorian AI compatible.

Phantom and survivals work with FAF just fine. Most FAF players prefer 1v1 and team games, however.... but honestly, you can just host any type of game and people will join.

Missions are planned, yes. I can make missions, but I'd rather not be a one-man team for this... missions are definitely time-consuming to make. Alternatively, people who are good with youtube (like barry) can make demonstration/tutorial videos. Learning through action is better than learning through observation, however... but again, the function is time and ability.

[iviv]

http://code.google.com/p/sorian-ai-mod/

That's the Sorian AI. I don't understand it all, but I believe the issue is that it requires the included Lobby Enhancement Mod to work, but the FAF lobby mod overrides that so the AI doesn't function. I don't know what in the lobby it requires or anything, that's just what I've been told. But yeah, Sorian AI should be a huge priority from my point of view.

[Gowerly]

I did an FA noobcast recently. You're more than welcome to check that out (although that's more for people watching other casts), and we can work on that. My lovely British Tones should slide the knowledge into your mind.

[TA4Life]

link?

[Gowerly]

http://www.twitch.tv/gowerly/videos

My internet isn't great, so the quality suffers.

[TAG_ROCK]

Kekouse, nice ideas

[FunkOff]

http://code.google.com/p/sorian-ai-mod/

That's the Sorian AI. I don't understand it all, but I believe the issue is that it requires the included Lobby Enhancement Mod to work, but the FAF lobby mod overrides that so the AI doesn't function. I don't know what in the lobby it requires or anything, that's just what I've been told. But yeah, Sorian AI should be a huge priority from my point of view.

It's on my list of things to add to FAF. I'll make it work or at least put forth a good effort.