Outpost Universe Forums

Community => Feedback/Suggestions/Problems => Topic started by: Zardox Xheonov on November 30, 2009, 07:39:57 PM

Title: We Want More Members! Now!
Post by: Zardox Xheonov on November 30, 2009, 07:39:57 PM
Intro:
Welcome to a topic of a very concerned member.
If any of you are not living under a rock then you should know we're short on members.

Stated Concerns:

IRC & Gameplay:
If any of you have noticed (and i know for a fact that most of you know!) the IRC
has been BLARYUGH[/size]ed

This is due to many of our members (and admin/mods) not regulary staying in the IRC. (That includes me as well :heh: ). And when I do check in on IRC to see how it's doing, i see less than 4 idle members. This has been happening for well over 2 months (maybe some exceptions within the time). But none the less I am sick and tired of nobody being around for a game of op2. Let's not forget that the multiplayer part of the game is the most popular style of playing. Thus we should conclude the following: If multiplayer is the only way to express the game(for a gamer that is) and there is never anyone playing multiplay, we must assume the game in most circumstances is dead. (And yes i have considered those who play single player).

OPU Active posters(by month):
Now im pretty sure that most of you have better things to do or just don't have the time and would of wanted to than get on IRC. But there could be another way of looking at it. We should consider how many people actualy sign up to the opu forums and stay. (Im not talking about past times im talking about every date since Jan 1 2009). And also out of our entire 1000+ members how many actualy posted at least 1 topic/reply/not shout box?? (This i have not looked at but if it's under or around 200 then yes we are eventually going to get blighted[/size])! And if somebody could anwser that question it would help our understanding alot (thumbsup) .

Reality(why this has happened):
As nearly all of us are aware of is that the OPU community did not produce/manufacture op2 or op1. This community is also not even close to becoming it's own company. The origin of the OPU community was made possible by Fansites, which today we are still in a "fansite" here. Also consider that we are a rather small fansite for the reason being our so called "favoured" game is not so popular with most anyone else today. (Now don't get me wrong; it is a great game. It's just not the current "fab" right now). And also consider the "human slave" topic which states we as americans are lazy(which i agree with). Since americans (and maybe others) today are lazy, they probably won't get the feel for op2. Besides most sceptics would argue that the colony management portion of the game would rather bore gamers. Most gamers want instant action; the games in where combat is very active or there is more exciting way for noncombat(sims/racing/other). (please note that i know just becuase a game is popular dosen't mean it's a good game but thats not my point; im stating why we have very few members {Read title if your not retarded!}).

Solution/what we should do:
(A very good point by highlander):We should indeed consider the feelings of everone including newcomers. I agree 100% with highlander as that is critical to giving a good impression of ourselfs. And it is somthing we can fix/start on most quickly too. (I want more great thoughts like this!) (thumbsup)

And one more note: please consider EVERYTHING on what I typed becuase nearly every single point in there actualy means somthing and don't you EVER dare to go off topic; iv seen many of you (even well respected high ranking members) post comments on what the other person said befor you came in! you may see no harm in it but i take it personaly when i created a topic and dies out because nobody can actually stay on topic.... (thumbsdown)
Title: We Want More Members! Now!
Post by: vennom on November 30, 2009, 08:18:28 PM
well... we are a small comunity of outpost lovers, im not sure if is there more living outpost lovers than us lol .-. (yeah,its old, but its good, and isnt really the point here lol...) the only logical solution for the member problem, is make ppl like outpost, dont ask me how o.o...

note: its intriguing, we are living the game... we are the last survivors!...
Title: We Want More Members! Now!
Post by: Hooman on December 01, 2009, 02:02:31 AM
Yes, and currently our nursery (forum signup process) is offline.
 
Title: We Want More Members! Now!
Post by: Highlander on December 01, 2009, 02:22:12 AM
I'll have to agree, OPU as a community seems to have stagnated lately.

Like LoP, I don't really have an immediate solution, but I have a few matters I would like to voice in this debate - some which might be useful:
(Oh and let me say this before anyone else feels the need to point it out - I have no interest in the politics of this place, I have little to no knowledge about who is pulling what strings, who hates who and who is generally running the show here, I am merely the objective player who wants to play my favorite game - and these would be my observations)


1) Maintenance: (Site, Hamachi, IRC, etc..)
op2hacker/BlackBox seemed for a while to be running the show here. And he would be our main go-to guy when it came to getting a wide array of things done. Lately though he seems to have gone missing. I would assume he was sitting on many of the "tools" this community uses/used. My question is: Do we, without BB, currently have access to all of these tools ?
(If not, then we should make a priority of getting these tools back to the community)


2) Forum:

A ) Generally, this place is not "newb" friendly. If a new forum user comes here and wishes to discuss something, he is either I) told off for "Necroing" an old thread or he, II) will be critized strongly for posting his idea since "it's old" and told to use the search function. (which in any case would lead to I)
This has been mentioned several times before, but it doesn't seem to sink in. If we want new members (And old Players) to stay then we need to adopt a more positive approach. Keep criticism as constructive criticism and comments on a positive line.
Negative posts serve no other purpose than venting off personal steam and sending negative vibes into the discussion/community.
(And yes, I know some people find it irritating when old discussion are brought back up or old ideas are reposted, but remember you don't have to read it and you certainly don't have to post if you don't like what is being discussed)
And whoever (if any) is moderating this forum should certainly adopt a stricter line on this issue!

B ) IB Store
We get all this ore for posting, but the store has been sold out for how long ?
People actually do care about these things, so I suggest use it.
Reset the Store and ore count every year, add some items to the store and let those who want to, use it.
- Yes it may ultimately lead to some spam posting, but it also encourages activity, which is what we want.


3) Bans:
Over the years several people have been banned for whatever reason. Some of which have been quite active in the community and dedicated to playing OP2. I don't think I've ever seen anyone return. - That might of course be of personal reasons or dislike of the OPU community.
But nonetheless, while I have heard of bans being put into play, I have yet to hear about bans being lifted. Are they still in place or have they been lifted when the ban time expires ?
And ban time themselves, are they realistic ? (No point in giving someone a full year ban, since that will probably be the equivalent of kicking htem permanently from the community)


4) IRC:

A ) Where's OPU bot ?
If we can maintain an IRC server we should be able to keep a bot online which can supply joiners on channel with some basic information.

B ) Idlers/New joiners
I wonder how many thousand people, who over the years have joined the OPU channels, started out with a "Hi/Hello" and followed up 5-30 seconds later with a "Anybody here?" before quitting after 1 minute or so without getting any response from any of the idlers in the channel. When on IRC I rarely sit and watch a silent channel for the whole day, but if someone highlights my name, I would be able to notice that the channel have erupted into life.
So, as I have proposed before, wouldn't it be easier to just include a short notice about how to alert IRC participants about your presence in the little little list of IRC commands ? Alternatively, if we can get a Bot up, have it auto send some info the the joiner.


5) Hamachi
The basic network are full and have been it for how long ?
Where is the bot who used to auto clean those networks ?
And if the bot got lost somehow, why is no one maintaining those network manually ?


6) RTSU
Quite a while ago Leviathan suggested/asked/proposed a merger of some sorts of OPU and RTSU IRC channels. In some form. I can't remember exactly and neither can I refresh my memory since the topic is gone/deleted. (Or I could of course just be looking in the wrong place) From what I remember some people had objections due to certain people frequenting RTSU channels.

Anyways, has any new thoughts been put into this ? Is this still out of the question or can steps be made for a joint effort of sorts ?

No disrespect meant to anyone, but currently the RTSU Op2 channel holds between 10-15 nicks on average (some certainly are bots) and has admins/mods and bots. This is for a community where OP2 only has a minor role.
On our end, for a community which is dedicated to the OP series and OP2 multiplayer, our IRC channel currently holds between 3-4 nicks, no bots and no admins/mods. (ArklonIdle usually being the exception when he is online :)  )

So, don't know about the rest of you, but to me it seems we are doing something wrong and Leviathan is doing something right. Though there might not be many games of OP2 being played on RTSU, at least that channel gives the impression of being in use and you can actually talk to people there..





So, I hope someone can possible answer these questions or make a comment on the different issues.  B)  
Title: We Want More Members! Now!
Post by: Hidiot on December 01, 2009, 05:55:31 AM
Do we want just any members?
The community itself filters that out, maybe except for a few. That is only based on what the community accepts and isn't written down, though.
Also, I would rather take a relative silence of 5 posts a week over 30, out of which 25 were questions already answered, or points which were already discussed. Then again, cursed be human psychology, if you don't nurse a newcomer's confidence in their acceptance, they might not stick around. (Most of the time, the existence of exceptions being implicit).
Title: We Want More Members! Now!
Post by: Spikerocks101 on December 01, 2009, 06:32:06 AM
I don't really mind if it's old questions, since I only go on the forums to talk to people, it's not like there any nuclear science going on here were we have to educate people on our discoveries >_>
Title: We Want More Members! Now!
Post by: CK9 on December 01, 2009, 10:09:08 AM
Baisc generic responce: OP2 is an old game that most gamers out there look down upon.


I've tried many times to get people I know to at least try it, but they take one look at it and turn their noses up at it.


Okay, more in depth;

1) IRC:  When this was first used, I looked at it as a temporary thing until we got the multiplayer client up and running.  It has now been how many years since that was last worked on?

2) new fourmites: As stated, the hardest part of getting them is the hostility shown towards them.  The only way I can see to aleviate this would be a complete restructure of the forums.  Have sections that are clearly marked as hostility-free zones for posting ideas and strictly enforce that.  Make an index of subjects for the threads so people can find the topics.  Find a way to make it so that threads with no new posts after a certain time get locked automaticly.

3) Bans: Most Bans in the community ARE permanent.  Cases such as DM_Horus were done, to my knowledge, because of their destructive nature to the community.  They were the main cause of negativity towards others that thinned the herd, so to speak.

4) RTSU: do to what has been taken as an attempt to takeover OPU, this will never happen.  I believe the topic explaining the situation still exists in the News section.
Title: We Want More Members! Now!
Post by: Zardox Xheonov on December 01, 2009, 01:22:17 PM
I think another way of keeping our members is to encourage/give complements. It shows respect and in some cases can heal somone who is emotionaly injured. And remember not to be blunt with critism.
Keep the ideas coming! :)
Title: We Want More Members! Now!
Post by: Hooman on December 01, 2009, 09:47:52 PM
Things do seem to be a bit stagnant. There seems to be a bit of a void where the old power structure was, and I don't think that's helping. We probably need a way empower more people to do stuff, and I've been looking at the SVN repository a bit for that lately.


After being largely gone for a while, BlackBox handed me the keys to the site, but unfortunately, they didn't come with an instruction manual. I can probably do most of the things that need to be done if only I knew how. There are some restrictions however. I have an SSH login to the machine with the web server, but not root access, so there's only so much I can do to the configuration (hence why the forum signup is still broken). I've tried to get in contact with both Galactic and BlackBox a few times, but I haven't heard back from either in probably well over a month.


A copy of the main web site is (mostly) in the SVN repository, so anyone can check out a copy, and try to make changes. You'll need an account with write access to commit changes yourself, but I'll pretty much give that to whoever asks (PM me). You'll have to leave me a note after a commit though, so I know there is something new there to update the site with (again, PM me).

I'll look into the IB store. I thought I saw something about it under and admin control panel.

I also saw some bans that were set for a rather long while that I was thinking of clearing out.


I have no idea how to administer IRC or Hamachi related things. I may have a limited login to the IRC machine, but I wouldn't know what to do with it. Well, other than setup another copy of the game server. No idea how to play with the IRC service though.


I think the RTSU thing isn't too likely. CK9 brings up a good point there. There is a certain lack of trust between some people here, and some people there. I wouldn't mind lifting a few bans, or converting some bans to moderator preview, but I'd be a bit hesitant to hand over any real power.


From my perspective, I think better tutorials and a new SDK package to help people with coding would be good. That could get more people working on active coding projects, and I've noticed gameplay activity seems to follow coding activity, with a slight delay.


I agree we should do more about people with bad attitudes on the forums. I've been deleting a few "mean" posts lately, but I certainly haven't been all that strict about it. We definately need to accept the fact that old threads will be posted in, and old ideas will be brough up again, and we shouldn't be mean about it. ... We might also want to "encourage" some people to write better posts. You know, in a more positive way.

 
Title: We Want More Members! Now!
Post by: Highlander on December 06, 2009, 03:43:20 AM
Since nobody else seems to have more to say, I guess I'll toss in another reply.

- Hidiot: I would rather have the big activity and lots of members. - Any members.
Most people are just "passerby's" in any case. They hang around for a short time before you rarely see them again. This game is old and it takes a while to get used to, so if we want more active members, both players and for other interests I guess, then we need have a steady stream of people visiting the site and bringing activity to it.

If you check out that last "Unit ideas" thread in the OP2 part of forum, you'll see what brings activity. Evidently people love to discuss their ideas for what may have been or what should have been in the game. And even if our senior members tried to decapitate the thread by saying things like "this has already been discussed" that thread is the biggest one we have seen in quite some time in that forum section.
All I'm saying is, if people would like to discuss their ideas, then let them. If you don't feel like participating in another round of discussing the same topic, then your free to ignore it.



Other stuff:

Bans:
Yes, I know some bans were made on a permanent basis and probably for a good reason at the time. My question was more directed towards IRC bans though I guess. To be a bit more specific and pull a few out of my memories:

- Mooglekupohax or whatever his name is/was. He got an IRC ban(at least) for something and as far asI remember I never saw him come back. Even though he seems a bit odd to me (he's not the only one..) at least he was active in IRC.

- Memspiderdee, Rocknavator, TWH also got banned (again, irc bans at least), for some argument over a game or something of the sorts. Those people I have not seen online since either.

As I mentioned earlier, I cannot of course be sure they don't return because they now dislike opu/op2. But if people get banned and those bans never gets lifted.. well then it's probably a very efficient way of getting rid of our active people.


RTSU:
Firstly, I have to say I'm a bit surprised - in a way. From what I remember the offer from Lev was to have a joint IRC server/channel, at least something more or less along those lines. So, from my point of view this initially at least seems like a good idea. The more people we can potentially gather into our community, the better.. right ?

Secondly, if "some people" have "some issues" with people from RTSU, then honsestly speaking, I would like to be filled in. Who has problems with who ? What is the problem ?
- Seriously, if someone has hacked or destroyed some of our work I can understand that OPU keeps away. But if the problems are of the personal sort, someone dislikes another person or if someone doesn't necessarily share the same ideas.. Well, then it should be possible to bury the differences. There aren't that many people left, so if we wanna manage to keep this game alive, we can't really afford to split the community.

Thirdly, viewing todays situation. Is a IRC merge still out of the question ?
Looking at todays situation, we have an almost empty IRC channel (when was last game played?), which means we lack a mean to offer people to play MP games and anyone dropping into the channel - unless they know their way around with IRC or is familiar with the community - will assume the game is dead.
So unless we take some steps to improve the situation our community here will not be able to sustain itself (Except our shoutbox users).

And if we were to look into that irc merge, what steps would have to be taken for it to become a reality ? Which things do we require, which things can we sacrifice etc..


And for Hoo:

Any news on the Hamachi bot and if it's possible to clear the opu networks ?
Title: We Want More Members! Now!
Post by: Sirbomber on December 06, 2009, 09:03:53 AM
Ah yes, because it's such a good idea to hand over all of our authority regarding the forums, IRC channels, etc. to people who were banned from this place.  I'd especially like the RTSU idea if we replaced BB, Hooman, etc. with a bunch of script kiddies (though due to the RTSU admins' obsessions with Joomla scripts, one could argue...).
Title: We Want More Members! Now!
Post by: Highlander on December 06, 2009, 09:37:58 AM
Quote
Ah yes, because it's such a good idea to hand over all of our authority regarding the forums, IRC channels, etc. to people who were banned from this place.  I'd especially like the RTSU idea if we replaced BB, Hooman, etc. with a bunch of script kiddies (though due to the RTSU admins' obsessions with Joomla scripts, one could argue...).
Hmm, I didn't realize merging/having a common IRC channel would mean we would have to hand over our entire forum/database ? (Or what else etc means)
Is that really so ?

And which persons who were banned from this place would suddenly get control over the entire OPU / The IRC Channel ?


And why would BB/Hooman and everyone else who contributes here be replaced ?
Title: We Want More Members! Now!
Post by: Sirbomber on December 06, 2009, 10:19:44 AM
"Join RTSU" really means "Become a subsection of them" which gives them total authority over us.
Title: We Want More Members! Now!
Post by: Highlander on December 06, 2009, 10:59:29 AM
I don't see how sharing a IRC server gives them complete control over us ?
Please explain ?

Even if "they" which I suppose means Leviathan should have the authority over the total IRC server, at least he is interested in having a growing community and I don't think he would would interfere that much with OPU channels ?

 
Title: We Want More Members! Now!
Post by: Hidiot on December 06, 2009, 11:20:48 AM
Yay for inter-human relations. Yay for inter-human relations in context of power over other humans.

Highlander, you probably know that Administrator-level access means total control over the software/server/whatever, within the limits of the administrator's knowledge on how to use his/her power and any other artificial limits, such as morality, ethics, etc.
Artificial limits/limitations can be easily broken and the result is often quite undesirable.
As such, the people who have this power are a constant liability. No human, not even a saint disguised as a human will be free of suspicion or fear.

A compromise I find reasonable is shared power with the inability of one to remove the other one's power. But what do I know? Also, this is just theory.
Title: We Want More Members! Now!
Post by: Hooman on December 06, 2009, 03:40:13 PM
Quote
A compromise I find reasonable is shared power with the inability of one to remove the other one's power. But what do I know? Also, this is just theory.

This is in practice, quite impossible. To fully administer a computer, someone generally always has root, and whoever has root, can remove other people from being admins. Plus, a system is only as secure as the physical machine. So if someone were to host us, and wanted to take us over, it wouldn't matter if they weren't set as admin, as they could always yank the harddrive out of the machine, copy whatever they wanted off of it, and put it up on a system totally under their control.


As for one of the recent issues, there was the DNS problem. Lev owns outpost-universe.net. He does not own outpostuniverse.net nor outpost2.net. (I believe they are owned by Galactic, and gpgarrettboast). Hence the announcement a while back about DNS server issues, and to only use the other domain names. Apparently, Lev redirected the outpost-universe.net domain name to one of his own servers, and BlackBox caught him early on. There was also reason to suspect this might happen well before it actually did.


I'll check the forum for old bans, but I can't really do anything about IRC, or the OPU bot for the Hamachi networks. I don't seem to have sufficient permission to make IRC changes, and I don't even know how the Hamachi stuff works. I assume it's the same machine as IRC. The last time I logged onto IRC though, it seems like things had been reset, so I would bet any bans would have been cleared from there. I'd also like to point out that the NetFix doesn't ban anyone from trying to use it to host/find/play games, although, it doesn't exactly have any chat.

 
Title: We Want More Members! Now!
Post by: Spikerocks101 on December 06, 2009, 05:34:17 PM
Wait, what? Lev is banned?
Title: We Want More Members! Now!
Post by: speaker on December 06, 2009, 08:15:54 PM
I'm going to put this bluntly, a significant percentage of the members of this forum are complete d-bags to new members, and there is very little sense of welcome except for from a few members.

It is precisely for this reason that i rarely post on this site, and instead lurk.
Title: We Want More Members! Now!
Post by: Spikerocks101 on December 06, 2009, 08:37:18 PM
I use to be nice to new members, but then I got flamed for it...
Title: We Want More Members! Now!
Post by: Zardox Xheonov on December 07, 2009, 06:03:47 PM
*Glares at Sirbomber* -"anyone not living under a rock has played that peice of garbage!" -"noob of pain prepare for a fate worse than DETH!"

*Glares at Eddy-B* -"what do you call this trash?!"

*Glares at Hidiot* -"i wish people like you would suffer for once."

Any one think i should glare at anyone else? i know for a fact there are more.
Upon the top of your heads, whom is contributing to making the OPU a harsh place for newbies?

*Glares at anyone else who has contributed*

Speaker has a point.

(i don't take it personaly but a new member probably will)
Title: We Want More Members! Now!
Post by: speaker on December 07, 2009, 10:00:19 PM
of the top of my head

http://forum.outpost2.net/index.php?showtopic=4627 (http://forum.outpost2.net/index.php?showtopic=4627)

i hadn't seen a .rar file before, now i have

http://forum.outpost2.net/index.php?showtopic=4673&st=0 (http://forum.outpost2.net/index.php?showtopic=4673&st=0)

he got away without much flak by being very apologetic and agreeable

I'm too lazy to go rooting around for more, but honestly, it's almost impossible to come up with a new idea on a forum this old, people who try usually get flamed out

as for "use the search function", it's not google, it doesn't work that well
Title: We Want More Members! Now!
Post by: Freeza-CII on December 07, 2009, 10:38:09 PM
Well.  As far as I know LEVI is not banned.  Alot of people that are over on RTSU did have a grudge or supposed grudge against opu admins because they got banned or kicked. One of the reasons levi isnt around is that he is over on rtsu.  One of the reasons he made rtsu was to have control over opu in some fashion or manner after he was limited to what he could do have doing some stupid s*** and lost alot of his admin powers.  

OP2 is a very old game.  It would have to compete with NEW games that actually work and were coded more correctly.  This is one of the reason and major contributing factor to members dropping off the face of the earth.  Also alot of people had s*** happen in there life that would keep them away be it school work or family.  One of the reasons I rarely show up on irc.  The only way you would get any new members would be bait and switch or a op2 3d or op3 being completed which I have high doubts seeing the number of projects come and go.

Hamachi is a great program but i got to be honest yall need to make your own rooms on the hamachi.  Having the bot clean out the server was kind of a nightmare as it would malfunction all the time. OPU doesnt need to control every thing it was a nice idea to have the hamchi rooms run by the bot but impractical.

As far as new members being treated like crap after suggesting Ideas.  I have to say.  Ideas are great.  But please before you pass judgement on the people that are tired of the ideas and tend to be a angry old man yelling at kids look at the genesis sub forums. You will see why we have a negitivity to ideas as such.  


Side note:  I wish all the doom 3 speak would stop.



 
Title: We Want More Members! Now!
Post by: Hidiot on December 08, 2009, 07:12:34 AM
If people who sometimes speak their mind about what they think is wrong would just run under some rocks and just leave everyone alone, would that solve the pressing problem of rudeness with no side-effects?

How many people ever wonder if a world of happiness framed within what we think is reality is not necessarily a good thing?

I guess I could go on and on about some things, but I'm afraid I'd only do more harm then good to anyone. I forgot what it means to be treated with a smile ever since I started questioning the validity of such measures.
Title: We Want More Members! Now!
Post by: Sirbomber on December 08, 2009, 08:58:10 AM
Quote
Side note:  I wish all the doom 3 speak would stop.
Never.
Title: We Want More Members! Now!
Post by: Hooman on December 08, 2009, 10:50:50 PM
Lev was never banned, as far as I know. Just removed as an admin. I checked the ban filter, and lifted the ban on the only name I recognized. (They were misbehaving because they wanted to leave, but couldn't bring themselves to leave, so they forced an admin to remove them). All the others (5 or 6?) looked like they were spam bot accounts.


Quote
Side note: I wish all the doom 3 speak would stop.
Agreed. But don't worry, I think I may have that solved.  ;)
 
Title: We Want More Members! Now!
Post by: CK9 on December 08, 2009, 11:31:01 PM
all fear the might of the hooman
Title: We Want More Members! Now!
Post by: Simpsonboy77 on December 09, 2009, 04:07:30 AM
My first week here was actually kind of different. I started off with a simple intro, got maybe a page of comments and I think I played 2 games that day... and got crushed. Life goes on, it was still fun playing a game that was 12 years old. Then maybe a week or so later I came up with a project to start on. It was making the EMP missile damage like a adv lab blowing up. I thought it would be easy, but people told me "people frown upon super weapons". I didn't feel like I was flamed or anything, they just thought people would want to hang me for it. :) My idea getting shot down didn't affect how often I came here. I asked for people's opinions and they gave them to me. Isn't that the reason you post something?? Seriously when you ask for input expect anything. Plus it is the internet, you can just ignore people, or ask if people agree with person A.

I really don't see where people are saying the OPU community is harsh to newcomers. Perhaps I'm not active enough or I'm too new, but I don't think there is anyone who would want me out because I don't come often. (if you do, please don't say anything XD)

It's a community, you take what people offer, and once you understand some stuff then you can start giving back. Like I want to start a project, but after my first thread I learned to do some homework on it before posting. So I downloaded the SVN and SDK, and I look through it a bit. And giving back can be as simple as just playing or posting.

Now I wrote this without sleeping for quite some time, and I did proofread it, so don't kill me for sentence structure and grammatical errors. Firefox does spell check so I'm good in that sense.
Title: We Want More Members! Now!
Post by: Hidiot on December 09, 2009, 05:53:37 AM
Maybe we need a true "grammar nazi" to clarify what being harsh about someone's writing really means.

Now, is there anyone who can bring an effective introduction video or text? When facing someone with an Outpost game for the first time, unless they have a deep curiosity burning within them, the rather steep learning curve is a problem.

Addendum: I recall some talks about this, but nothing since.
Title: We Want More Members! Now!
Post by: CK9 on December 09, 2009, 08:56:39 AM
I remmeber at one time I was planning on making a video in an attempt to intice curiosity, but that was before the big music industry uproar that made it so I can't use music in vids....so I don't make vids anymore.
Title: We Want More Members! Now!
Post by: Simpsonboy77 on December 11, 2009, 01:04:21 AM
I posted the idea (recently) to make the video. So far I just have a general outline on what I want to show, I haven't decided if I am going to narrate, or if I'll have text appear. I'm kind of leaning towards narrating.

http://forum.outpost2.net/index.php?showtopic=4723 (http://forum.outpost2.net/index.php?showtopic=4723) Link to thread discussing it. I'd actually like a bit of feedback before I go and waste half a day only to find I missed something crucial.
Title: We Want More Members! Now!
Post by: CK9 on December 11, 2009, 02:14:23 AM
narration is much better in my personal opinion, but you need to be careful on the video format to make sure the video and audio don't separate too much
 
Title: We Want More Members! Now!
Post by: Highlander on December 13, 2009, 06:40:04 AM
Anyways, since this topic seems to be dropping without anything definite steps being taken towards any goal I guess I'll attempt to kick start it again.

Back to my original points in this discussion:

1) The tools for the site is something we need. And reactivation of the signup process is of vital importance. As you mentioned Hooman, many things did not come with a manual but I hope that doesn't prevent you from trying  B)
(With other Admins gone, your basicly running the place now so you need to be on top of things  (thumbsup) )


2)
A: I see moderation is picking up. Great effort!

B: The IB store doesn't have to be anything fancy (Sure a game of sorts would be great but it's not necesarry), but just a restock or addition of some items would go a long way. Remember, even Impulse items gives a morale boost, though it's less than the Luxury goods.


3) Ban's: Nice effort Hooman, let's hope that this issue is solved then and that those who wish can get onto the IRC channels.


4) IRC
A: Can we get a bot up for IRC ? With some decent functions it could be a good help on the IRC channel

B: I would still like to see the addition of a small text explaining how a newcomer potentially can get the attention of the idlers. Since I brought this up in my first, I think I have seen 3-4 of these incidents since then. From the little time I spend online on IRC there are bound to be a lot more of them during a day.


5) Hamachi:

- Ok, too bad this seems to be out of our (or Hooman's) hands at the moment.
But then, should we not make new ones, update the manual to redirect people to the new channels and start moderating them again (to avoid them filling up) ?

Sure everyone should show up for IRC, but not everyone is and as a community we should really be providing the means for easy gaming. - As opposed to everyone creating their own rooms for games as someone proposed.
- Another thing that speaks against the practice of private game rooms is that the host can potentially kick players from the room or block them.
(Sure you can ruin hamachi games in other ways as well, but public game channels provides more fairness)


6) RTSU:

Seems like this is a very heated issue indeed.
However, for good or for worse I still have some questions around this:

I) All I'm asking for/visualizing is a joint IRC effort. Basicly having one #outpost2 channel instead of having one #outpost2 on OPU and another #outpost2 on RTSU.
As Sirbomber seems to be saying, does this mean we have to hand over all control of the whole OPU to someone else ?
(In my mind it seems to be as simple as changing our IRC DL package and/or applet to join another server/channel. Of course you can make it more complex if joining someone elses IRC server is out of the question - But then again, this is coming from a guy with little knowledge of computers)

II) With no active people, with no information or bots and no mods/admins how are we supposed to keep our IRC channel alive ? - My simple reasoning is, the more people and attention we can manage to accumulate in one place, the longer we can potentially keep this game alive.

III) If the whole thing doesn't work out, all we have to do is change back to our own IRC server isn't it ? We won't lose anything, but at least we made an effort to keeping the game alive.



As always, no offense meant to anyone, even though the topic might not agree with everyone.
Title: We Want More Members! Now!
Post by: Moley on December 13, 2009, 06:59:39 AM
me and my friend played often and where decent, we even had a turnement, but after a while and a ban by the principle we stoped playing and moved on to other games...
could this be what is happning, kids that would be intrested in the game, being stoped by rules, compatibility problems, and poor advertizing?
If so then what could we do... the only way i see is to advertize... any ideas on how to sperad the word, if not on OPU, then on OP2?
Title: We Want More Members! Now!
Post by: Hooman on December 13, 2009, 03:06:01 PM
Galactic seems to have stopped by and fixed the forum registration.
Go Go Galactic Forum Registeration! :P

The IB Store should get periodically restocked.


I'm against changing the IRC downloads to point somewhere else. People are lazy and don't like redownloading stuff, so if we had any problems it could be quite difficult to change back.