Universal Soldiers Beta 8

[TheDane]

well, noone wanted to take it over and I thought it was too good to go to waste. So I've decided to finsih what i started, and now beta 8 is online for testing at: 94.75.248.44:7777 (Europe, Amsterdam).

More info about the mod can be viewed here: http://www.thedanesjoint.com/index.php/ ... -soldiers/

what is it? Well, it's my attempt at implemeting real RPG gameplay into FPS gameplay.

Give the server a run and please add your feedback so the gamestyle can be as good as possible.

[Feralidragon]

I didn't try it yet, just saw the description, characters, pickups and such, and it looks really good (from both visual and gamestyle points of view).

I don't have time now to play or to try anything now (too late already with other stuff), but I advice anyone trying this out as it seems really good.

Good job

[TheDane]

I'm currently developing an add-on for it, a weapons mod that adds new sets of weapons to the gameplay to give a wider variety to the gamepley. My fellow coder (beefy) is working on an add-on aswell, this is a monster add-on that will spawn "bosses" into the gameplay. These add-ons are in early stages of development so there will be more details as it progresses. .... stay tuned

[TheDane]

upped to v10 on the server (and also available for download)

[TheDane]

upped to beta12, lot's of optimizations. New boss monsters etc. Also available as download for further testing.

[Sergeant Todd]

Thanks, Dane. I'll have to try it out and get back to you.

[TheDane]

gopostal just finished the first teaser:

[Feralidragon]

I comented the video, and the mod looks really nice (only now I saw somewhat the gameplay on it)
The soul mesh makes me remember a very old "soul related" weapon mod I did right at the beggining with that kind of mesh as well (it's still online in some map somewhere lol).


Now, I have a couple of tips if you want to catch the attention of players with your video, assuming you're going to do another at the release:
1 - Never let the video name have the default name: US.wmv doesn't catch anyone's attention (except where you post it), "Universal Soldiers", which is the name of the mod is way more "catchy" for people and will lead more people to watch it and know about it.
2 - I personally aprove the usage of Windows Movie Maker to make the videos (I used it myself, although I won't use it anymore most likelly), but people are sick of those typical Movie Maker effects. I strongly advice to not use those effects to show text, use mostly simple coupled effects like fades, images with text, text itself without "windows like" effects, etc..
Idk if you're actually understanding what I mean with the effects.
Use more simple effects in stronger ways, not showing WMM like typical traces, and people will get more interested to see the video.
3 - Add lots of tags: "unreal", "tournament", "us", "univeral", "soldier", etc

In resume, the mod itself is very nice, but the video itself doesn't (the music can be said to be well chosen depending on which players-target you want to promote it and play it).

I am not an expert on this kind of promotional stuff, but personally I give it a lot of importance if I want to get my mods noticed for instance, and it already happenned to have more people playing my mods because of that same people just browsing randomly and gave a shot to my video due to its title and thumbnail.
So I guess you should give the same importance if you want to get your mod more populated.

Just my 2 cents

[TheDane]

well, I've never made any movies of my own, I gave it a try once but gave it up quickly. Gopostal made this for me and I think he did a good job since I'm not capable of doing it myself. But let's face it, YouTube is very up to the beat, UT is not. I bet only those watching the video and playing the game will actualy considder trying this gamestyle, so therefore I "just" publish the link to it on UT related sites.

Also, I've tried before to get a mod popular, it's never going to happen, people and most server admins are stuck on their prefered gamestyle, that's why so many servers seems to be clones with the same players as regualars, so it's hard to get your mods played, it's too late in UT history.

[Feralidragon]

Well, regarding the video, I also think the video isn't "bad" in that sense of the word, I just think that a bit more time should be taken to do the next video.

Relative to gametyles and new mods, sorry Dane, but you're wrong and I already seen it with my own eyes this very year. Several months ago (in April or May), a new concept in Instagib was implemented in a certain server, and in less than a week, it got popular and it's still popular, and it wasn't anywhere a clone from another server (except the fact it has combo gibs). The concept was simply the players having a "grapple", and it was so fun and got popular so quickly, that I barelly could enter in a normal day.
Ok, you may arg "well, it's still Instagib", but the gameplay was a lot different from a regular insta, or even a regular combo insta.

The same happens with US for instance: it has a full RPG concept in it, and the idea of it still being expanded and players evolving the longer they play for better stuff is what many players are seeking today. Now, you have to show it off in its greatest glory so people know it, and people have to be atracted to it first, and if they like, great, you get yourself more players and more support.

But well, this "care" in the content showoff worked really well with me, just saying it could work with you as well.
Just look at Food Fight for instance, they wouldn't have such popularity at moddb, if it wasn't the logo and the great concepts showoff, showing really good stuff in a very funny way.
Care in showing off the mod is half way to grant success to your mod, in one way or another. Now taking this advice or not is really up to you, as I am just seeing another great mod not getting enough attention perhaps due to small things like this, although the mod is great from what it seems.

Just think in the saying "an image is worth a thousand words", now just imagine if you give the same care to those videos and images as you give to your mod, and you get yourself a quite popular mod in hands. Plus, not knowing how to do a video is not actually an excuse: it's easier than it sounds, and personally, I didn't born with that knowledge either, I had to "learn" it in one way or another if I wanted people to notice my mods as well.

Now it's up to you bro

[TheDane]

hmm you may be right, but I'm not trying to make excuses lol, I just can't find the time to learn new stuff all the time. There is so much I want to do, but every time there is always something new I got to learn ..... if I had just listened better in school *lol*

Oh, I don't see a new weapon as a revolution, when i speak about trying something new i'm speaking about gamestyles. The shock rifle has been customized a million times, i count them all as one, just with different twists. weapons have to be like the Nali ones before we can speak about them changing gameplay that much. The common thing for most shock rifles is that they are mostly on CTF servers.

[TheDane]

The server is updated to beta 14, this is a bug elimination version, gameplay has not changed. Download also available for servers/offline gameplay.