Obsidian Conflict Forums

In my eyes, the mod isn't really thriving. Not as much as it used to a few months back. Remember that time? When half the servers were half full a lot, but now you see like 2 servers that are half full. The others have 2 or 3 people playing in them and the others are barren. Keyfox isn't even as popular as it used to have been. Hell, the MGO server isn't even as popular as it used to have been.

So, why do I think the mod is lacking in people? Few reasons.

1) There's just not a lot of replayability in it. How fast did Harvest or Diving or any of those others minigame maps get old? A few days, maybe a week or so? And what do you do after you beat every map 5 times with a bunch of friends and pubbers? What I'm getting at is that although this is a coop mod, it needs different game modes. Something to keep playing, and to come back to after you tried out all the other game modes. I'm not picking at totally different modes like deatchmatch or deathrun, but something co-opy, like a Team Scavanger Mode where you run around trying to get more NPC kills than the enemy team until the time runs out. Just like 4-5 new game modes to keep things fresh. There are a number of different gamemode maps out there, but they're scattered so thin throughout each sectons (How many stand off maps or Team Deathmatch maps does the mod have?) that you might as well consider it a misc map type.


2) Anime. I summed up basically everything in an earlier post:

DisConnected wrote:I should add that when you do get Steamworked, try to keep the anime advertizing to a minimum. I mean, have you seen how people react to it on "official" Steam releated websites like SPUF and Facepunch? People just don't like it, and the potential playerbase will go down. Like the screenshots and gameplay vidoes that you guys post up on Youtube, people will first think that the anime models will actually be an official feature of the mod, and won't download it. And before you say, "Well, those people are retards that should not judge a book by its cover," remember that we're talking about the internet, which has PEOPLE on it. And knowing people, I'd say about 75% of them just look at the screenshots, a summary, and a few videos and decide if they like it or not. I also know that about 75% of that 75% probably doesn't like anime. So, try to keep anime to a minimum on videos, screenshots, and some of the forum topics.

Again, not trying to be rude here, but apparently people have a lot of stuff to stay in public about "Those weaboos that something something something, can't run a mod, rant rant rant, rage, etc, etc..."


3) There's nothing different about it from other co-op mods. You run around with your team shooting some NPC's, getting points, and finishing the map. You can do that in HL2:DM too. Now, the cash system is good, and that's a feature that should be advertized big time, but is there anything else other than a few interesting maps that you don't play after a few runs (looking at you, RPG-style maps)? There doesn't seem to be a lot of progress with custom weapons, since you can only copy other weapons and then change sounds, animation, model, ammo values, and damage value. There's really no pizzass to it, like grenade launchers or flamethrowers or those spear things you tape to the barrel of your gun to stab people with (slightly biased because I still want a battle axe to use, but gets the point across).


4) Needs more hats publicity. This is probably the easy one, since Steamworks will take care of that. But, you need a really good trailer. One of those trailers that slightly exaggerates how the game really is played through use of bigger explosions and better NPC animations.

Again, just my look on it, but opinions are opinions. Just in case though, /flameshield.

The anime crap is a broken record. Anime has nothing to do with the mod. We cannot control how the community thinks, what they like, and what they do.

Nobody is forced to play on the Keyfox server, or any other anime-oriented server for that matter. You're supposed to play the mod with friends, and chances are, if you hate anime, so do your friends. So start your own damn server, or find an empty one that isn't Japanese (since that is the most likely to be anime-oriented.)

The fact people don't like something that isn't forced upon them is their problem, and nothing can be done about it. I don't plan to take down KeyFox because a bunch of stuck-up idiots who hate anyone with a disagreeing opinion don't like it. And I don't plan on changing my anime-oriented persona for them either. 90% of people who complain about the the 'anime in OC' still play the mod anyway, they just love to have something to bitch about.

Also, it's been months since the last update. Everything dies down between updates. Even TF2 does. Re-playability will always be limited. L4D was proposed to have endless amounts of it, yet I got bored of L4D2 after the first month. It is something that can only be strengthened and reinforced to last longer, it cannot be unlimited.

We are already working on ways to make OC different from other co-op mods in terms of actual co-op. We recently asked MMav to code a new ai/feature that allows an NPC to jump onto players, absorbing heatlh, and can only be removed by another player (can be toggled for singleplayer purposes.) So in other words, we're adding in ways where teammates are 100% requirement in order to succeed, just like L4D.

You drive good points. But unfortunately, most of these have been addressed ages ago and you are just generally late to the issue.

I totally get what you're saying, and I agree. When the mod gets popular those who don't like anime would chill in their servers and those who like it will be around theirs. But if you promote anime through videos and screenshots, then chances are that those people that don't like anime would probably think that the mod is full of it, and wouldn't even give it a chance. Honestly, I think this might apply to other custom models as well. Just a bunch of Storm Troopers running around shooting combine might be a bit random in a trailer.

I'm not saying to make something that people can play forever, I'm saying add more replayability to it. Like say a person plays say, zombie mode for a while, then goes onto RPG themed maps, then goes onto regular old co-op, then decides to try out zombie mode again a few months later and get back into it.

Well, that feature would be cool, but it would be one of those small things that you don't really know about until you've actually seen it. What I'm driving at is that you probably won't see "- Requires teamwork with a new NPC player-tackling script" under the "features" section of a mod ad. You'd probably see something like "- Lots of NPC scripts that promote CO-OP gameplay." But you did say features, so I'm guessing you have more than one of these scripts planned out already. And yes that does make it slightly different than other CO-OP mods but just by promoting CO-OP in a new way. But just plain running through a map killing all these NPC's with some friends is still CO-OP. I'm saying branch out into other sections of CO-OP, with different intentions other than just finishing the map.

First time I heard about any of that...An update a little more often wouldn't hurt, to at least tell us what you guys have planned out, to limit the amount of threads with old points like this.

The OC 1.35 Teaser does not have any custom models in it other than 1 anime model. That was a mistake on our part, and both I and W0rf0x have agreed that no one should be using custom models in the SVN while testing official content. I personally hope to be the one to make the next trailer for OC, since everyone likes the 1.35 trailer (which only took me a matter of an hour or so to make.)

So yes, your point about custom models is extremely correct. And has already been resolved. Future official media won't have such things.

Also W0rf0x worked on a custom drivable Combine APC that can hold up to 2-4 players (it's been a while, I don't remember the specific number). Each player has access to a gun of some sort. This is just another example of a co-op based future OC will have.

It has already been decided that OC will not longer have any more non-Steamworks updates. The next official update will be the Steamworks one. So yes, it's going to be a long time. I wouldn't be surprised if the team changed their mind on this case, but as W0rf0x told me, it is the current case.

I think that the key to the success is the modification. Upgrading the weapon scripts, mapadds and entities systems would attract the people ("make your mod inside this mod, easy, quickly and with help!"). Look to the "mod maps" like 2D_little_campaign, Harvest/Diving, Kake, Cardwar or Burnout. It are good looking and fun to play.

About the playermodels, is like say everyone: "If you dont like them, then dont use it". Even the more anti-anime people respect the mod. Dont listen to the trolls.

All i can say is that things will get better once the Steam version is out, we are currently very busy getting everything steamworks ready, i have a lot of interesting WIP maps which i can go back to once that is done.

I'm both developer and avid player of the mod so i see the problems that players have with it, and I'm trying the best on my part to change that, whole broken escape series is getting a huge overhaul to be more appealing and have greater replayability.

Once we are on Steam, updates will be a lot more frequent, which is why that is our next goal, though this thread got me thinking about a pre-steam update, which would contain the mod in mostly the state it would be on Steam, to address some problems early and also give server admins and mappers time to adapt and maybe revise their maps for Steam.

All I think is the problem here is the replayability.

While the lobby thing is nice, it would be good if there was something that highlighted maps that would be good for showcasing features and introducing newer people to the Mod. Kiwi got some friends to give this a go once, they thought it was alright, but the biggest problem we had was just finding a decent map.

The anime thing is a red herring. I will spare a rant, but I don't like it in Sven when people play as zombies or grunts, or in OC when they play zombies or combine because they look like the bad guys. I also don't care for the unpteen million variations of SMGs and shotguns.

Next there is the player base. Last I checked the campaigns were broken and the vast makority of the maps were crap, filled with bullet spounge enemies that make the map a spawn rush die fest for small numbers of players.

Onto the real issue here, that of replayablity. There is a light at the end of the tunnel here. The promise of spawn that multiply depending on player count is one that, if delivered, would greatly improve the game for groups of all sizes. If they make it a mapadd entity that you can just plop down somewhere, even better. Maybe even a L4D style random spawn thing could be added way down the line so that enemies aren't always in the same place.

While RPG style systems would be nice, the core game has to be worth playing. Leveling for it's own sake is pointless, and if you're not careful you could end up with a sven co-op type situation.

Other modes aren't needed. I play OC for co-op, not to play TDM or CTF or whatever.

Imo, there is one way to improve the next version. This is going to sound harsh. Gut out all the maps and add the official ones that meet a certain quality standard. There is alot of trial and error in finding good maps. To many have beginners traps such as pits you have no clip out of or poor gameplay endless streams of combine that you have to grind through and gunships that have 10000000 hp. These maps should be available, but as a pre 2.0 pack or something.

No RPG, and the other rest is just repeating, if anything that repeats here again then I'll just close the thread without further note as I don't like to see repeated things like that the campaign is broken

And I don't see any reason to remove any maps unless it's outdated or not working anymore, or it's author didn't respond to us by the release