Steam release will bring zero players to zero k

quote: .

So that's your point?

..

To state the obvious, the key things are initial impressions. trouble free launching ie:

Easy download and running.
No launching errors\crashes.
No map\mod download requirement confusion.
Less obnoxious abuse of newbies.

There will always be a massive hit of people initially that will drop fast, the game is definetely not for eveyone, but the question is how many will be maintained and will that stablise and grow.

Anecdotal evidence isn't really anecdotal if it directly evidences your point without generalisation. I ended up playing zero-k after being picked up from the Ovorts steam dream too. I was loyal to Evorts even through the ugly and unintuitive lobby system. Gameplay was fun, and soundtrack was killer. I was really reluctant to start playing zero-k, but there just wasn't any games on evorts at times I could reasonably be expected to be awake.

Zero-k has already benefited from steam without even releasing. OP should probably consider phrasing their views as a question cos they got some learnin' to do.

Player retention is a whole different story and depends on game quality and how much long term engagement it has.

As far as I know, the initial Evo release was an IRC client style lobby without any other content included in the install.

• The only mode of play was to join autohosts on the server.
• Most content was only downloaded upon joining a game room.

This lead to spectators swarming lobbies and clogging chat. Games could often not start because people were downloading the map or game (or engine? I don't recall). The download server may have been overloaded at some point. People complained that they had downloaded a downloader or IRC client instead of a game. When you finish downloading a game on steam you often want to start playing that game, not wait for ages for the rest of the game to download.

In short the new player experience seemed to be terrible. We have put a lot of work into this area.

• The steam package comes with the game, engine and a selection of maps (we may limit the featured map pool temporarily to reduce extra download requirements).
• We have a lot of singleplayer content which introduces the game to new players and reduces the cost of the server breaking. There are good AI levels, chicken games, tutorials and campaign all playable locally and with a reasonably straightfoward UI.
• Matchmaker and Planetwars should aid long term multiplayer retention.

Do those games need to do the download before they can be started? I think the problem was that the downloads could start at any time. In effect the launcher was an IRC program and people without content could block the game for people who do.

There is a little bit of incorrect info here wrt evo release, but the larger points are ok.

Let me point out that the game itself was fine, as in functional, non-crashing, etc.

The players did not understand swl. Keep in mind, this is Dojo SWL we are talking about, not the current and much better react SWL.

The other issue was the steam featured Evo VERY PROMINENTLY not only on the front page, but also in the little popup that comes up when you first start steam. Enter, shitshow. I was expecting 10 - 100 players. Not 50 gazillion.

Current evo on launch of the lobby or single player will delete the rapid folder (a common issue with pr downloader on windows is package lists not being updated unless the rapid folder is killed) and initiate pr downloader via command line to download stable and test versions.

I decided that I valued first time player experience (function) over form. I believe this was the right call.

Evo's largest issue remains the lobby, but thanks to the changes to getplayerroster, it looks like 104 isn't something that can be used atm.

quote: Dojo SWL

Googled it. What is that?

quote: The other issue was the steam featured Evo VERY PROMINENTLY not only on the front page, but also in the little popup that comes up when you first start steam. Enter, shitshow. I was expecting 10 - 100 players. Not 50 gazillion.

lmao

So how do I reconcile the standalone version of Zero-K with the Steam Evolution version of the game, if I simply want to quietly advertise the game more widely by letting my Steam friends see that I have it? Do I let Steam install the Evolution version, or can I redirect it to use the standalone version? I don't really want to have both installed.

(I am a former TA player and sorta-modder, which is how I came to know of Spring and later Zero-K. I never played it much but tried to keep it installed and current for years, then got out of the habit. Now here I am again.)