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

[ianh05]

We've had a little sample of what he has planned to release I believe.

[cephalopod]

MMMEGA POST

...big flywheels with small wheels. Basically, I want to see less robots like the ones you see in the usual robot showcases.

Where are you seeing this nowadays? HS and VS are totally outdated and outclassed in DSL at least.

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

Myes. Tournament videos never get huge amounts of views. It's only people that are in it or have been following it. Personally I have not seen it because I am not interested in stock or AWs

1-7

^Me

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

JD I love you.

Oh and PokAImon has been downloaded 3 times at maximum. I put hours into that.

I'm far too cynical about everything here.

[Sage]

Stock was fun until we finally had to put a limitation on in-game glitches (hax mode).

DSL was fun until i built a sh**ty popup and won BBEANS6.

[Natef]

I'm terrible at bot building.

[HurricaneAndrew]

1. What do you want to see more of?

DSL Tournaments that are "just for fun". In other words, the standard of building isn't like 123stw or The Ounce. IRL tournament host are way too picky about what is "realistic" and what isn't. Standard DSL tournaments are full of bots that are either built to be generic as possible or so efficient that Barack Obama would masturbate to them, or full of bots that exploit every loophole the builder can find. Getting past round 1 of a tournament is fun every once in a while.




2. Why don't you comment much?

My input is deemed unimportant when I do, so screw you assholes.




3. Where do you spend most of your time on the forum?

The former Off-topic and Junkyard. Showcases and Tournaments on occasion.





4. Do you watch tournament videos that don't feature your own bot?

Yes. I even downloaded most of the BB5 until the pace got to one video a month.




5. Why don't you enter BOTM?

I have no decent ideas for anything that would be worth splashing and that I feel anyone would give a sh** about. Thus the reason everything I build goes into the showcase after being entered in a tournament. Seldom before.



6. How many AI packs do you have?

Two. Stock and DSL, both with original AI.




7. Do you play stock, DSL or both?

I once played stock regularly, but I haven't even opened stock for over a year. I stick to DSL now.




8. What have you given to the community?

Jack sh**, in my opinion... Other than a running joke that got old two years ago.



Edit: Fixed some spelling errors.

[090901]

I'm terrible at bot building.

You are only terrible because you gave up on building because you thought that you were terrible

[Natef]

I'm terrible at bot building.

You are only terrible because you gave up on building because you thought that you were terrible

Getting philosophical, I see.

Yes, that is part of my problem.

[Gauche Suede]

1. What do you want to see more of? DSL 3
2. Why don't you comment much? (ignore if you do).
3. Where do you spend most of your time on the forum? The Showcases
4. Do you watch tournament videos that don't feature your own bot? Sometimes
5. Why don't you enter BOTM? I can't make splashes
6. How many AI packs do you have? 3 (1 123 AI, 1 Ultimate Stock AI, 1 for IRL building)
7. Do you play stock, DSL or both? Both
8. What have you given to the community? None

[JoeBlo]

1. What do you want to see more of? More fun building.. before people jump on my and say IRL.. no, thats debated over too.. rule of cool doesnt seem accepted anymore if somethinbg cant fight as well as a clone of a clone of a clone... thats why I lost all interest in building..

2. Why don't you comment much? funny enough.. you know how this site goes down at consistant times each day? my time zone means its down before work and after work until later at night.. so a lot of it I have no choice in.. beyond tech support I dont have much else to offer anymore anyway..
3. Where do you spend most of your time on the forum? The server error page :/


4. Do you watch tournament videos that don't feature your own bot? My own tournaments count? :P If people rave about how good something was I tend to want to see it for myself but I no longer even read other tourney threads

5. Why don't you enter BOTM? I dont want to sound up myself.. becasue im not.. but it came to most people not wanting me to win anymore :/

6. How many AI packs do you have? installed? couldnt tell you but 40+ RA2 copies speak for themselves

7. Do you play stock, DSL or both? Option 4 but I really havent played anything in the last year

8. What have you given to the community? Years of my life, Moderating/ Maintaining, The 1.4 Patch, 10 Tournaments, 1 AI pack, Countless smaller patches and fixes, new components, new arena's, skin/ graphic work and a reason to hate me for not releasing a bunch of said stuff yet..   

[090901]

3. Where do you spend most of your time on the forum? The server error page :/

we have a winner

[ianh05]

Seems like people don't enter BOTM due to splash skills, I have the same problem as seen by my pitfall splash  .

[madman3]

That's probably the primary issue with BOTM, the splashes. I've enterred BOTM once ever with my replica of Metal Gear Rex, which was pretty good as a bot but the splash completely let it down. I don't have the time to get practice with Paint and so on, and I know my bots would probably only get votes if the splash was good.

[Naryar]

I'm terrible at bot building.

You are only terrible because you gave up on building because you thought that you were terrible

Yes, just like all the builders who bawww about how the community these days don't accept them.

[Jack Daniels]

Stock was fun until we finally had to put a limitation on in-game glitches (hax mode).

It is really unfortunate that happened really.  From my perspective, since the unveiling of hax mode.  The veterans that embraced it have lost interest in the community because it is not allowed in tournaments. Yet, tournament hosts don't want such an unbalanced playing field.  So they disallow hax mode to make a tournament more inviting to new/unskilled builders.   It makes tournaments more inviting and fun, but alienates the elite builders that take things to the next level.

It's actually kinda fascinating how delicate the balance is (and continues to be).

Honestly, I would love a hax mode centric tournament that got entries from Sage, Scrap, Robo, Psyc, Inf, etc etc. (Plus current awesome stock builders)

[Jonzu95]

I checked the statistics, and there are new members joining like normally, only difference I've seen is just that there has been less topics and messages lately, but I wouldn't say that the community is dying. It's just not so active year compared to 2010 & 2011. If you know what I'm trying to say here...

[Naryar]

So you stock guys are afraid of a lack of balance ? Hey, just make up a rule system for standard Stock building that says what you can and cannot have in your bots. Make it the default rule for stock tournaments, and those who are caught breaking the rule should be punished.

Note that it should not focus on HOW it is done, but on the RESULT, considering that no one but the builder can control how it is done.

[Virus Bomb]

Stock was fun until we finally had to put a limitation on in-game glitches (hax mode).

It is really unfortunate that happened really.  From my perspective, since the unveiling of hax mode.  The veterans that embraced it have lost interest in the community because it is not allowed in tournaments. Yet, tournament hosts don't want such an unbalanced playing field.  So they disallow hax mode to make a tournament more inviting to new/unskilled builders.   It makes tournaments more inviting and fun, but alienates the elite builders that take things to the next level.

It's actually kinda fascinating how delicate the balance is (and continues to be).

Honestly, I would love a hax mode centric tournament that got entries from Sage, Scrap, Robo, Psyc, Inf, etc etc. (Plus current awesome stock builders)

yeah this. nothing is stopping anyone from showcasing hax mode bots or running hax mode tourneys.

[SKBT]

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?

1. more mature members who build
2. if i have something important to say i say it. otherwise i see no point in saying something like "great bot" or "looks cool"
3. dsl showcase and real robotics
4. not usually because i don't have time. if a bunch of people are talking about how awesome a match was, i will watch it
5. if i have a "good" idea i enter. otherwise i don't.
6. 2 (starcore 3 and DSL 2.1)
7. i dsl most of the time.
8. i'm not really sure what counts as a contribution but i have a fairly active dsl showcase and provide insight about real robotics and moderate the section.

[123savethewhales]

Hax mode exostacking == perfect invulnerable chassis.  And perfect invulnerability is just stupid in any game.

Hax mode without exostacking would do nothing but make HS chassis a bit smaller, while taking away most of the design step.  I am not seeing where the excitement is.  By the end of the day what matters is still the de-weapon game.

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.  n00bs
2.  Because I would sound like a broken record.  DSL == MOAR RAZORZ, Stock == MOAR BEARCLAWZ.
3.  On the main page
4.  I don't even watch videos with my own bot.
5.  The rules tend to be too restricting for me, so I only enter those "do whatever the you want" ones.
6.  While I have others, I only play 123AI on DSL because I am self absorb like that.
7.  DSL, maybe a bit of stock now but not really.
8.  Nothing.

Also you are building AW stock AI pack and an "I DON"T ACCEPT NEW BOT" pack....  Like just maybe they are not the most interesting things in the universe...

[HurricaneAndrew]

Also you are building AW stock AI pack and an "I DON"T ACCEPT NEW BOT" pack....  Like just maybe they are not the most interesting thing in the universe...

I have to agree... There just aren't many people that are into Stock AW bots. There's a lot of people that don't even like DSL AWs.