game is losing the fun-factor again due to lack of community.

[ianh05]

Why I am losing interest again:

*0 help on the new AW AI pack.
*1 team for the GTM AI pack.
*No feedback on the new RA2RPG boss set-up, barely any on the general topic.
*12 views on the Robo Zone 2 final video.
*My completed Robo Zone 2 tournament topic has almost 1000 less views then nary's 1 round so far tournament (roughly 2 hours vs 33 mins total video time).

I fear that if Trov releases any mods these days he wouldn't get the thanks he deserves, instead people would just download and play the mod without saying anything or ignore it completely. People put in time to provide the community with new and exciting things so I can see why the community is lacking new AI packs and Arenas.

Some questions:

1. What do you want to see more of?
2. Why don't you comment much? (ignore if you do).
3. Where do you spend most of your time on the forum?
4. Do you watch tournament videos that don't feature your own bot?
5. Why don't you enter BOTM?
6. How many AI packs do you have?
7. Do you play stock, DSL or both?
8. What have you given to the community?

[Philippa]

1. What do you want to see more of?
2. Why don't you comment much? (ignore if you do).
3. Where do you spend most of your time on the forum?
4. Do you watch tournament videos that don't feature your own bot?
5. Why don't you enter BOTM?
6. How many AI packs do you have?
7. Do you play stock, DSL or both?
8. What have you given to the community?

1. Tournaments.
2. I do, just not much on the showcases or things.
3. Playground.
4. Sometimes, depending on the tournament and bots.
5. I do.
6. None anymore.
7. Both, but DSL more.
8. Nothing really, a few mediocre artbots.

[Resetti's Replicas]

I've said it a million times, the artistic side of building is way too underappreciated on this forum.  I have proof that my replicas attract new members. Some people can be real twats when they give critique to new members, I know I had to think for quite awhile about whether or not I wanted to say here, after the reception I got.


We've got exactly what we want; everyone who plays Robot Arena 2, and has the interest and the know-how to build bots that can go to to toe with the veterans.  Maybe that's what needs to be changed.

Ian, how many views do your videos have?  I'd kill to get mine into a measure of thousands.

[RpJk]

I completely agree with you Ian.

1. Comments in showcases, more people helping in AI packs, Tournaments actually happening
2. I do I just want to see more comments that do with RA2 in general.
3. Showcases and Tournaments.
4. Depends on how creative the other bots are and the gimmick of the tourney.
5. Not good at image manipulation and cropping.
6. 1: the ultimate AI pack.
7. Purely Stock.  I would only build in DSL if it was BBEANS.
8. A few VS's, popups and a few other bots.

[Badnik96]

1. DSL3 and people sending teams for LDAI
2. (ignoring because I do)
3. somewhat split between the showcases, real robotics and the chatterbox (I do need to showcase more though)
4. Sometimes, depends on if I'm bored or not
5. I know I can't make a candy splash so most times I just won't bother
6. As in working on/released, 2. As in ones I have downloaded/installed, it depends on the computer. (my old desktop had somewhere around 25, this one has only 3 or 4)
7. More DSL than Stock, but I dabble in both from time to time
8. MMAI, LDAI, the uber tournaments, BW Bash and the other tourneys I've hosted (RW, TTT, BoF)

[G.K.]

1. Bots and comments from the community. Less playground trash.
2. Time, I have little these days due to my schoolwork. I used to comment on like, every thread.
3. Showcases and Tournaments.
4. I try to but time and bandwidth are constraints.
5. Because I can't make splashes to save my life.
6. Countless.
7. Almost exclusively stock.
8. I don't like to blow my own trumpet, but quite a lot.

Some people can be real twats when they give critique to new members

Completely agree.

[Urjak]

.
Some questions:

1. What do you want to see more of? DSL 3
2. Why don't you comment much? (ignore if you do). I prefer observing from afar.
3. Where do you spend most of your time on the forum? Tournament and DSL Showcase sections
4. Do you watch tournament videos that don't feature your own bot? Generally
5. Why don't you enter BOTM? Have no interest in splash making.
6. How many AI packs do you have? Three or so.
7. Do you play stock, DSL or both? DSL
8. What have you given to the community? I suppose the only thing I have really done is furthered the fall of DSL through the pursuit of game-breaking designs.

[Probably Rob]

1. What do you want to see more of? Robots that don't always have double wedges/flippers, big flywheels with small wheels. Basically, I want to see less robots like the ones you see in the usual robot showcases.
2. Why don't you comment much? (ignore if you do). N/A
3. Where do you spend most of your time on the forum? Anywhere, depends what the recent posts are.
4. Do you watch tournament videos that don't feature your own bot? Sometimes, I watched a couple of the Olympic videos despite Mr. System's comments, I've also watched 2 or 3 videos of Nar's recent tour'.
5. Why don't you enter BOTM? N/A
6. How many AI packs do you have? 1 - Firebeetle Component Pack.
7. Do you play stock, DSL or both? DSL.
8. What have you given to the community? The second pic and first two links of my signature.

[Jamin]

I've said it a million times, the artistic side of building is way too underappreciated on this forum.  I have proof that my replicas attract new members. Some people can be real twats when they give critique to new members, I know I had to think for quite awhile about whether or not I wanted to say here, after the reception I got.


We've got exactly what we want; everyone who plays Robot Arena 2, and has the interest and the know-how to build bots that can go to to toe with the veterans.  Maybe that's what needs to be changed.

Ian, how many views do your videos have?  I'd kill to get mine into a measure of thousands.

Your replica videos are actually how I found out about RA2/this forum.

Everything I caused is your fault

[G.K.]

And me.

[Mr. AS]

Why I am losing interest again:

*0 help on the new AW AI pack.
*1 team for the GTM AI pack.
*No feedback on the new RA2RPG boss set-up, barely any on the general topic.
*12 views on the Robo Zone 2 final video.
*My completed Robo Zone 2 tournament topic has almost 1000 less views then nary's 1 round so far tournament (roughly 2 hours vs 33 mins total video time).

ITT inf syndrome "im not appreciated enough for what ive done"

and to answer your questions
1- more stock tournies and stock things and obligatory dsl 3
2- n/a
3- well my user profile says i spend most of my time in stock/dsl showcase
4- if it seems like an interesting match
5- cba
6- hummm lets see: sc4, bbeans ai (with some dl'd bots that i ai'd to test my bots against such as dark void 2, quasar 4, and copy/pasted bots from other ai packs like seism 16 from doomed bots, nuclear fallout from bttb etc, and some bots i ai'd from cb/fb/you and challenge bots), the ai'd bots from that old annihilator tourney i did, pys ai, inf ai, restocked 0.1 and the asai wip all on one copy of ra2
7- stock (i was addicted to dsl for some time but then i got bored and went back to good ole stock) and now i rarely touch my dsl copies
8- 1 (soon to be 2) tournaments, 1 team in ldai (meh), tournament entries, developing asai slowly but surely, some other shizz, a few challenge things hosted, and my stock showcase is on its 20th page now

[freeziez]

1. Tournaments, which is why I hope to finish BB5 so I can move on to some more exotic ones, instead of it turning into the Survivor of GTM tournaments (lol).
2. n/a
3. Playground, because AS.
4. I watch all tournament vids if I'm in that tourney, and some others occasionally if I'm bored.
5. Because I suck at making splashes.
6. ...let's not talk about that...
7. I play both, although DSL pretty much dominates Stock because I personally think it's open to more creativity.
8. Battlebots. I think that's about it.

[Resetti's Replicas]

I realize I didn't actually answer your questions, I'll go ahead and do so, leaving out the parts where I'm just repeating myself



1. What do you want to see more of? Recognition for artistic or just-for-fun building
2. Why don't you comment much? (ignore if you do). Because other people are better at it, and I'm worried I'll get a mute or ban if I don't give good advice.
3. Where do you spend most of your time on the forum? Playground, I was trying to keep Survivor and Ask Sonny going.
4. Do you watch tournament videos that don't feature your own bot? Occasionally
5. Why don't you enter BOTM? Because I'm not good at graphic design
6. How many AI packs do you have? None, it's not a priority
7. Do you play stock, DSL or both? DSL, heavily modded
8. What have you given to the community? See Above

[090901]

1. What do you want to see more of?
2. Why don't you comment much? (ignore if you do).
3. Where do you spend most of your time on the forum?
4. Do you watch tournament videos that don't feature your own bot?
5. Why don't you enter BOTM?
6. How many AI packs do you have?
7. Do you play stock, DSL or both?
8. What have you given to the community?

1. Stock tournaments
3. Split time between the 2.
4. Sometimes
5. I entered this month
6. 3, Nar AI for DSL, Ultimate AI for Stock, and another copy that I use for tournaments and my own bots.
7. Both.
8. RA2 Robots for 3+ years.

[Naryar]

...I have that feeling you're trying to do too much stuff at the same time.

and don't be surprised if the community does not give your work enough feedback for your own tastes. I feel the same way sometimes. But it's what happens. We're here to have fun, not validate the feelings of others.

Now for your questions...
1-More glorious battles, more awesome robots (See Domanating's showcase for examples), more efficient stuff, more balance, more use of different components.
2-Mostly because I don't feel there is something to add at the point.
3-I tend to spend less time in the showcases and tournaments and more in off topic. Well, that shows a shift of interest...
4-Not any more - most of the time.
5-Realize deadline too late, rationalize it's too late for me to get something good done.
6-Only one I use is nar ai, really. I have others that I haven't touched for a while.
7-DSL
8-Well, I am one of the launchers of DSL standard building. also, nar ai. also, trained many newbies, also moderating stuff, also, MNGM, also, being legendary. That's pretty much all.

[Jack Daniels]

Some questions:

1. What do you want to see more of?  Replica Tournaments and IRL tourneys with a strict adherence to the spirit of IRL building.

2. Why don't you comment much?  I comment enough.

3. Where do you spend most of your time on the forum?  Showcases and Tournament stuff.

4. Do you watch tournament videos that don't feature your own bot?  Sometimes. But too many hosts don't take the time to really outline who made which bot and just record vids. I honestly hate it when I watch a vid to a tournament and it doesn't show a (well made) splash showing both bots and who made them.  Strengths and weaknesses are a nice touch too. Click's tournament vids are a good example of what I like to see.  I don't like having to go back to the splash or brackets to figure out who made which bot.

5. Why don't you enter BOTM?  A decent BOTM entry for me takes sometimes a whole day or weekend to focus on.  I just never seem to have the time lately.  Winter usually slows my life down, I am more BOTM active then.

6. How many AI packs do you have?  Starcore and DSL baby.

7. Do you play stock, DSL or both?  Mostly DSL now.

8. What have you given to the community?  Positive vibes and support for Artbots/IRL building.  I can appreciate there are builders who favor efficiency and builders that favor appearance.  Both building styles should be embraced and encouraged depending on the direction of the builder.  (but you can save yourself a world of hurt by avoiding the grey area in between)

A note to ian:  The appreciation for antweights is fairly low.  The matches are unfortunately boring and hardly destructive.  While, I do love the challenge of building something small.  The excitement of watching it battle is non-existent.  I do appreciate that you like them so much, but I just don't see a lot of support from the community in that direction.  AI packs are a different monster really.  A lot of members here are interested in tournaments... and we use AI packs that test our bots in preparation for tournaments.  "Benchmark" AI packs are going to get a lot of support.  Inf AI, Starcore, NarAI, etc etc.  are very helpful in a sense for testing.  "Entertainment" AI packs aren't going to get much support or excitement because usually the player will try it out and then forget about it mostly.  To a degree DSL actually falls in this category.  It is the foundation, but a dated proving ground. (some might argue that it wasn't a very good proving ground initially)

In closure, I am surprised the community is still active for a (almost) 10 year old game.  Given the age of the game, I am happy it has the support that it does have. <3

[freeziez]

I think the reason the forum seems to be "dying" is because it's aging. We get a huge influx of younger members (I mean, we have 1063 members, there's a bunch joining every month), but only a handful stay, and the ones that have been around a long time are starting to leave, so it looks as if it's lost the original feel.

[RpJk]

Basically people the building known as GTM is starting to collapse.

I'd give it another 3 to 5 years before it crumbles to dust.

[090901]

I think the reason the forum seems to be "dying" is because it's aging. We get a huge influx of younger members (I mean, we have 1063 members, there's a bunch joining every month), but only a handful stay, and the ones that have been around a long time are starting to leave, so it looks as if it's lost the original feel.

what i find funny is all the people who claim that the forum is dying are members who a new compared to how long ra2 has been around, lol.

[Naryar]

I think the reason the forum seems to be "dying" is because it's aging. We get a huge influx of younger members (I mean, we have 1063 members, there's a bunch joining every month), but only a handful stay, and the ones that have been around a long time are starting to leave, so it looks as if it's lost the original feel.

what i find funny is all the people who claim that the forum is dying are members who a new compared to how long ra2 has been around, lol.

Yes

Basically people the building known as GTM is starting to collapse.

I'd give it another 3 to 5 years before it crumbles to dust.

Nonsense. This forum has lasted for a while, and it will last quite a bit more.