Posted: Sat Feb 06, 2010 4:25 am Post subject: ZDS #127 - This one's for the old schewlers!
Gratuitous CTF post.
We're going to go ahead and blow the dust off the chosen pack this week. I can't remember when the last time this ever got hosted or played, except maybe around Saturday April 12th, 2008. ( ) Be there tomorrow because Old School CTF is going to slap team-based flag-capturing elements on top of old favorites (we're looking at appearances from E1M8, Dweller2, Greenwar, IDMap01, and Dwango5 material here, as well as others). I think it's a snazzy bit of work. Snazz snazz pizazz here!
I forget things when rushing at the last minute. In this case, I forgot a vox. Zvox4 is fine if some server hosts are just itching to reconfigure. Blech, my mistake.
Joined: 05 Jan 2005 Location: off the grid, but still fighting for the users!
Posted: Sun Feb 07, 2010 2:37 pm Post subject:
Nice catch this week Cuppy. Me, I'd given up after last week and really didn't think people deserved a ZDS any more.
I guess we got a few in the US side last night, although it was mostly the regulars - Thief, Cuppy, Jad, Malignity, Konar and Dark_Odyssey. Some guy called 'Rise' gets special mention for sticking it out too. Jad gets 2x<3 for his server. Quack gets nothing but scorn for being around but playing some priv zdctf instead.
Of the remakes last night then:
DW5M1, E1M1 and the big green marble one were great fun and the Greenwar map was very cool.
SSL2 was pretty manic, as was the other DW5 map.
The Dweller map was interesting if a little cramped, and the BFG was annoying there.
IDMAP01 was a bit too sprawling.
Underhalls wasn't too terrible.
E1M8 really was.
Which, checking back, is almost exactly how I felt about the maps last time we played them too
Oh and I don't know why Krawa even bothered with a Euro server, as all the XXX guys were busy playing their DM pack when the Euro session was supposed to be played
So yeah, I might just continue finding other stuff to do than bother coming up with ZDSes.
Joined: 13 Jan 2009 Location: 3. Kuhdorf von links
Posted: Sun Feb 07, 2010 6:48 pm Post subject:
"So yeah, I might just continue finding other stuff to do than bother coming up with ZDSes."
<--that would make many ppl very sad, kybernetik-hai!
Maybe there are ways to get a lot more people participating in ZDSses. I am a professional noob in every aspect, but i thought a bit about how to attend more players.
The problem is: ZDS is only announced in this forum & mouth to mouth a bit, but many ZD-users NEVER take a look in here and many players even dont enter IRC. Most users - especially those that are new to ZDaemon - just enter a crowded server on top of Zlauncher list. And particulary for those new users it would be great to get soaked into a whole new doom-experience every week!
Now, i dont know if my thoughts are technically makeable, but would it be possible to attend more buds play a ZDS trough:
-Force ZDS servers to be on top of Zlauncher list on Zaturday evenings
-Giving them more attention trough putting a bold frame around that server and/or accent it with different colours
?
So it is made with certain other online-games too. If there is some special tourney/session, you dont need to search for it, youīre FORCED to see it if you enter gamelauncher/website.
Every ZDaemon user would - and should - be able to see when some great ZDS is running - many even dont know what ZDS IS
I bet a Snickers that something like that would attract more players.
Aye, lads, ītis true ... it WAS a great session, and moreso cuz I didnīt know this WAD before
But alas, what unnerves me a bit - aside from the steadily shrinking ZDS community - is the augury of calling it a day a bit ...
Come on Cyber, there are so many things that rankle me, too, about this whole lotta stuff, but why not continue, if not at all, only just for those WHO deserve it ?
I really know what it feels like to continuously churn out brain powered stuff which noone seems to appreciate or care about (I have been a pen & paper roleplaying gamemaster for many a year, mind you ), but on the other hand there is the grim truth of not all ppl ticking the same (which grieves me personally, sometimes, tbh) and living their lives just like this or that, maybe being on holiday, or having a date on saturday evening, or what else. Maybe even just taking a little break from DooMination for a while
I am sure there will come a time when ZDS will have more accession and popularity again, and if not, who cares ? Up the hammers for the elite marines !
Quack gets nothing but scorn for being around but playing some priv zdctf instead.
Actually we were playing ZDS - but it was 1-2 hours before it was supposed to start.
These were some nice maps, there should be more than just 10.
Might steal this again for HorizoN, I'll see about it.
ManoLO wrote:
I bet a Snickers that something like that would attract more players.
Joined: 13 Jan 2009 Location: 3. Kuhdorf von links
Posted: Sun Feb 07, 2010 7:27 pm Post subject:
Dark_Odyssey wrote:
if not at all, only just for those WHO deserve it ?
<--thats the ultimate WRONG state of mind there, Dark. Everybody that gives ZDaemon a chance at all has deserved it. If more people would think and act like that, it would die a slow & painful death.
I am going to be completely blunt and honest when I say ZDaemon has been dying off ever so slowly. It's not the same as it was about 2-5 years ago. With releases every couple months/years, it's hard for people to stick to ZD without some novelty. People rarely use the forum anymore and don't even talk in IRC. Most of them are just on because zlauncher does it automatically. I've attended about the first 75-100 ZDS until I simply found no time and when I found it, I'm always on Skulltag. I still support ZD for the people I have played with since the beginning and got to know, otherwise, there's nothing here.
The reason I think that it's always the same people and occasionally some new ones who play ZDS every week is because others don't know about it or rather would play something else. As manolo said, people don't read the forums much and people don't pay attention to IRC. I strongly believe if zlauncher didn't automatically sign people into IRC, there would be significantly less people on there. I really have no idea on how to make the ZDS more popular except find popular wads and try to make it 16 player friendly or something. Maybe host it on a different day since people are usually doing something else on the weekends.
The problem is: ZDS is only announced in this forum & mouth to mouth a bit, but many ZD-users NEVER take a look in here and many players even dont enter IRC.
Back when ZDS was originally started, Bonzo used to get the website and the motd in IRC to advertise it beforehand, as well as spamming IRC when it was about to begin. I did the IRC bit when I ran it for a while (motd, spamming countdowns etc.), maybe something like that needs to be done again.
The other thing that happened originally was that a compilation of maps would be run, and in some cases with maps made especially for it....dunno if that would help nowadays but doing it occasionally might get the mappers involved in it more, as well as encouraging them to turn up and play.
Dark_Odyssey wrote:
if not at all, only just for those WHO deserve it ? <--thats the ultimate WRONG state of mind there
No, it isnīt, dear ManO, cuz I didnīt demand an "exclusively for the die -hards" ZDS, but instead pleaded Kyber and others to "not let it die in ANY case even for us die-hards", completely independant of any means / ideas / measures for boosting up ZDS again and making it attractive for more / new / different players, which is a different kettle of fish
Just complete the "if not at all, only just for those WHO deserve it ?" with "UNTIL days seem brighter again". In brackets.
Some good ideas to start with would be YOURS, for example.
Furthermore, I think this "advertising" ZDS thru IRC and other means to be great, too.
Perhaps some mapping geniuses (*CyberHINT*, *KrawaNUDGE*, *Etc.MAUW*) could XWE some "ZDS ad-drapes" to be superimposed over existing Brit 10 and EXEC textures, too ...
Joined: 13 Jan 2009 Location: 3. Kuhdorf von links
Posted: Mon Feb 08, 2010 8:38 am Post subject:
Indeed. Some kind of an IRC-solution would be the most easiest way to attract loads of girls and guys i guess.
Something like establishing an IRC-channel called #ZDS,
and invite every player that is on in IRC atm into that channel which has got the topic : JOIN ZDS !!!
Heh, cheers Cybershark for mentioning my name in the list of players who participated in this ZDS, but I've been on just shortly, played only about 3 maps, and didn't like them much.
I can't stand remixes of known maps like greenwar, e1m1, ... and, god, even into CTF. Still, I'm not saying it was unplayable for me or anything, especially with the right people it's fun.
The reason I left so "early" was the time - 3AM - as I've already mentioned, the USA session is too late for me, I'm usually too tired for playing this late, and the Euro is, on the other hand, too early IMHO for other people, as it usually doesn't get much interest. Around Saturday midnight would be more appealing time perhaps.
About getting more people play ZDS: I'm all for ideas to get more people interested in ZDS, but... are you kidding, ManoLO? Seems like you want to force people play ZDS. It's not a mandatory event.
Sending a quiet message via server notice as a reminder (as I've seen the testing of it done this night) is ok, but you want to send PMs to everyone on IRC, strangers and people who just doesn't want to play or invite them to some channel, literally annoy them?
This is not the way. It should be done in a less disruptive way.
We need more people spreading the ZDS spirit around. Right, many players don't read forums nor #zdplayers, but there are some of them who are active in other channels. If ZDS games are arranged, discussed, in other channels that people read, it could bring attention to people unaware of the event otherwise, and even people knowing about it but letting it flow with the "ah, fuck it" approach.
We can be more vocal in the future to capture a little more interest through #zdplayers. Our advertising consists mainly of the weekly forum thread at the moment. We'll try a few things and see what kind of difference it makes (if any).
Attendance has been light some weeks and fine other times. It's frustrating some sessions aren't as popular as others when we take the time to prepare server settings and think up new ideas. Every week is practically a contest to outdo the week before in an attempt to garner enough attention. Doom is sixteen years old and, frankly, it's a marvel to me anyone even plays this game anymore. Doom has had a remarkable shelf life and maintains a lot of enthusiasm within the community still. The game's aging process has been a very slow and gradual one compared with modern games. We couldn't escape the aging cycle forever. We can all look forward to the day that Doom 4 is released and the Doom community as a whole sees a sizeable bump in the number of people playing again like when Doom 3's hype was sky-high. But seriously, there are still a few more things within the realm of our power we can do requiring little effort to boost ZDS attendance perhaps!
As far as #127 goes... Some remixes were a lot more fun than I thought they would be. The Greenwar one was certainly the best in my book. E1M8 was a little enjoyable I guess. I'd really like to see how the Underhalls would be if there were 5 people per team. The map itself is quite expansive and I felt a letdown after having 2 vs 2 or something.
Joined: 13 Oct 2007 Location: League Master Clan: .CI.
Posted: Mon Feb 08, 2010 11:21 pm Post subject:
This mappack is great, shame I'm going to miss the night - But I'd love for someone to take some demos. I'd like to see how some of the maps play out, the entryway and ssl2 maps like very good. Thinking about using them for something
Yes it was a shame you missed it this past weekend. Entryway WAS pretty good as a CTF and made for quite a defender's game. The final score was 2-1 with an overtime extension. SSL2 was frantic.
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