OpenArena Message Boards

I have an idea. Its rather simple. How about we add the name OPENARENA to the main page? The banner just has the logo and two nice model images but no name of the game. Its feasible to do.

P.S. My apologies if this post sounds very patronizing

Haha that is a pretty good idea, I assumed it had some kind of information that the game was called that but it doesn't xD, or at least just a short description to inform people that it's a game site they're on...

Thanks

Kyle.

I just took a look at the front page and it struck me that there isn't a single screen shot on the frontpage and the top menu does not include a screen shot option either.

A single screen shot to show what the site is about is quite important, only if you already know about OA would you even bother to read as much as  single line of text.

One screenshot on the frontpage, just a small one is all that is needed to show what the game is about.

There is a screenshot link on the about section that takes you to the forum to look at screenshots from user's created topics. :-/ Not really a good way to show screenshots.

Personally, I wouldnt add screenshots of the game on the main page. Keep it in its own section. But yes, definitely shows screenshots on the OA page. Maybe even videoes embedded from youtube. It could be the Multimedia section :-)

1) I think a "remake" of the website was planned, it should take your suggestions into account ;)

2) While I'm at it, I'm sorry for offtopic but, I see on the front page:
=> Should that date be taken seriously ... ? or is it another "pressure date" (false release date ?) I wish there was a quick fix for OA 0.8.6, even in april, because actually this version is left in a not so satisfying state, which doesn't help people to migrate.

3) I notice 0.8.1 is still often downloaded (http://stats.download.tuxfamily.org/awstats.pl?month=04&year=2010&config=openarena&framename=mainright&output=urldetail) (Half of the guys downloading 081 don't download 085.), in particular from external websites (http://stats.download.tuxfamily.org/awstats.pl?month=04&year=2010&config=openarena&framename=mainright#referer) which didn't update. I don't know if using patches to update is a successful approach in that matter. In front page we see: 0.8.1 + patch, but it's not clear this patch brings to version 0.8.5. Usually, patches are named like: 081to085.
The main referal is a spanish-speaking page about a game named K.O.S. secret operation, and the publisher didn't give the right link ... On the right page (OA 080), he used the wrong screenshot, but the right link, fortunately. It has already been mentionned, some way to check the latest version from within the game (and a "do not bug me again" option) may help.

Feel free to split if I'm too offtopic ...

the game needs a news feed on the startup screen to display updates and stuff like that. if the game can't autoupdate itself it at least has to tell the user there are new versions available.

1. Newcomer John is searching a free multiplayer game.

2. John finds OA and comes for first time on openarena.ws:".....mmmm what's the site about???...ah there is something written: "OpenArena is a community-produced deathmatch FPS based on GPL idTech3 technology.
There are many game types supported including Free For All, Capture...." bla bla bla.....I don't have the nerves for it....I leave the site"

So a simple screen on main page would be good, but an intro or videotrailer of OpenArena would be fantastic.

3a. John found other games than OA and play them.
3b. Next day John go again on oa.ws, looked on Media and found what's the game is about. He says "interesant game" but "what's the name of the game?".

On main site should be standing "OpenArena" instead of the logo only.

Why hasn't this happened yet? Whose in charge of the website?

I want to see the words Open and Arena at the top of the website in big letters below or above the logo.

Ok?

You really can't go wrong doing this...

Me? Two reasons the design sits unchanged on my harddrive:

1. There a lot of flaws of the website (boards logo should lead to the homepage, some boards colors mix up wrong, brushed metal header and glossy bars look bad), so instead of fixing this one, I tried to make another one (http://openarena.ws/board/index.php?topic=3513.msg29787#msg29787). But a new design should be the final one, so probably it would be better just to fix the errors with this one.
2. I'm a challenge junkie, I enjoy trying my hands at new things, that's the reason I started skinning and now "mapping" instead of fixing the site. But if you visit my site in my signature and click the donation button on the right, I'll lap dance for ya' :)! Even a single bottle of beer can keep me motivated in this hot summer.

But I will try to fix the errors in the next weeks, I promise.

Thanks for the info Udi.

I took a look at that thread and the picture of the new site idea and I like it.

Donations eh? Maybe one day... ;)

Yeah I'd donate, or at least try to find a way. Remarkable actually, paying for a free game while I never ever buy any games (only download and get for bday usually). Only once before i bought a game myself because i wanted to play :P (which was CnC3 btw)

Ya I never buy games either. Last game I bought was some shareware game like 10 years ago.

Now I download. :)

Donating though to help keep a free project moving along is not that bad though.

I imagine that's what your doing here eh UDI?

What can Udi do with the money to bring OA forward?  Can someone explain?

Get some capital, then buy a donuts factory in the shape of the OA logo.

Yeah, but I'll do it anyway. :)


OpenArena is an open source project, which means that if you contribute something, someone else can use it (modify it, distribute the modified work) later, even outside OA. The thing is that most of the open source developers work in their free time, so they do what they like or want to do _after_ their paid job. But with money you can 'hire' the developers to do what _you_ want. Different developers need different amounts, and there are developers who say they will only work for money, but I'll do the design _anyway_, so donation is not a must, but a gesture. If you like my work you can donate, if you don't like it, you won't. Also you shouldn't think about big amounts, $1-$5 or 1€-4€ is more than enough, imagine as buying one or two beers for your buddy :).

Also there are better places to put your donations than my pocket, probably I would spend the money on the OpenGameArt.org (http://opengameart.org) subscription ($5 a month). But again I won't turn commercial, and will work on the webpage, textures, shaders (lately tried my hands at skinning and mapping) etc.

Good to know Udi. Maybe I'll donate enough for some beers for ya sometime.  ;D

Good news. Actually, I think that what OA misses the more to get more widespreed is only communication and marketing, there's no technical or competitors (don't say QuakeLive, it can't even run mods or custom maps).


http://www.quakelive.com/forum/archive/index.php/t-11311.html

From the same post on QL forums:
But when I played QuakeLive, I didn't feel to have "unlagged" (hitting someone with hitscan weapons was difficult with an high ping)... somebody knows if they have a console command to enable delag mode?

They didn't say that they implemented unlagged or delagged code, but "anti-lag" features ("similar to popular mods" = CPMA), so they probably added the 100 ms lag hack from CPMA.

This means that you are fully delagged up to 100 ms, but above, you will lag as everyone else. That's the problem we ran into when starting the OACL2010 league.

This means that the gap between low and high pings is even increased!

hm no the gap 100ms decreased right? Seems weird if delag would be turned off entirely after 100ms instead of just supporting delag till 100ms.

No because you still get the 100 ms delag hacks, even if you are above. But this means that for example :

Players 1 has 95 ping : fully delagged for all weapons
Player 2 has 165 ping : results in a 65 ping

Here is an excerpt from the CPMA documentation :


On a sidenote : a good link about Timenudge and sv_fps :
http://www.promode.org/?p=316

As most admins leave sv_fps to the default (20) I guess everyone should standard set timenudge to -19 or something no?

Hmm not that familiar with the stuff, can someone tell me if he means that sv_fps 20 is better for low end connections than for example 40? Seems weird because you can just set /snaps to whatever you like it to be for your connection.

You can't set snaps in CPMA, the mod (server) determines how many snaps the client gets and not the client (and sv_fps is set to 30 by default in CPMA).

why that? :-\