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Future developments? Game dying?
I've been a user of this recreational website for quite sometime now, and I am very curious to observe the developers' plans for the future or just any platform that hosts this information.
I am curious to know this because having been taught programming, I can judge for myself that this game can be improved drastically, and it should not take this long to implement such changes.
Forgive me of my ignorance, but I know nothing of the game before 2014 and contrasting between the past and now; I have to ask, why is the game's progression in quality so slow?
I say this because it seems as if the developers are not working on the game as much as they should, however, this statement is based on a few assumptions such as 1. this is the only game the developers are working on, 2. they make all the decisions on what content is added to the game, and 3. there is enough funding of resources (whether it be money, or they just have an ambition that constantly motivates them to work on this game or both).
I could endlessly list potentially beneficial ideas for the game, and I do want to see this game excel in the 'smmo' genre (where s stands for strategy). I'm sorry if I'm offending anyone due to my ignorance, but I must ask,
Do the developers have any future plans for this game, or are they just sitting on their backside doing nothing to help the game reach it's major potential? Because it seems as if they're just continuously running the servers but not bothering to grow the game and wasting money. If they don't care about the game, why bother waste resources when they could be spending that money for other beneficial projects in their careers?
Sorry for being harsh, but their social media has been inactive for three years now, and I have not seen any updates from them that have contributed to increasing the popularity of the game. Is this game dying?
I am curious to know this because having been taught programming, I can judge for myself that this game can be improved drastically, and it should not take this long to implement such changes.
Forgive me of my ignorance, but I know nothing of the game before 2014 and contrasting between the past and now; I have to ask, why is the game's progression in quality so slow?
I say this because it seems as if the developers are not working on the game as much as they should, however, this statement is based on a few assumptions such as 1. this is the only game the developers are working on, 2. they make all the decisions on what content is added to the game, and 3. there is enough funding of resources (whether it be money, or they just have an ambition that constantly motivates them to work on this game or both).
I could endlessly list potentially beneficial ideas for the game, and I do want to see this game excel in the 'smmo' genre (where s stands for strategy). I'm sorry if I'm offending anyone due to my ignorance, but I must ask,
Do the developers have any future plans for this game, or are they just sitting on their backside doing nothing to help the game reach it's major potential? Because it seems as if they're just continuously running the servers but not bothering to grow the game and wasting money. If they don't care about the game, why bother waste resources when they could be spending that money for other beneficial projects in their careers?
Sorry for being harsh, but their social media has been inactive for three years now, and I have not seen any updates from them that have contributed to increasing the popularity of the game. Is this game dying?
Comments
As a new user to this site (having joined in May 2018) I believe my perspective on this matter is of great importance. The devs should definitely listen to what their new users are saying as failure to do so will result (and already has) in a mass exodus of new and current users from the site. Sure, the site is constantly gaining new users but they are also losing players at breakneck speed.
Upon joining this website I noticed that certain users had advantages over new users. This main advantage came in the form of perks. Users could dawn the shield, flame or starter pack perk and instantly have an advantage over new users, who were already unfamiliar with the nuances and strategies of the game. Perks put these new users at an even greater disadvantage right out of the gate. New users were thus left to fend for themselves and often gave up after dying to some asshole equipped with said powerups 20 or so times. I have empathy for the new users because I was one of them, and there was many times I wanted to give up and never play this game again.
I came to the conclusion that in order to stand a chance against these users I would have to drink the Kool-Aid, so to speak. I persisted because I knew I had a viable strategy that would reward me kills, and that if I could learn how to obtain these perks like the other users I could handily defeat them without much effort. I did just that, and months later I was often at the top of the leaderboard beating out players who had been on here for years. The average user, though, is not going to put in the time to accomplish this and would sooner find an easier game somewhere else than learn this one.
I believe the only way to restore this site to its former glory and level the playing field is to permanently remove perks from the game. I know that certain users might have a fit over this as they have spent years accumulating perks and would consider it unfair to remove them. But it is either that or watch the game continue its slow trek into the grave. I think the choice is simple, when you frame it that way.
I will say I have noticed some things over these years I have played though.
The game used to be on called bombermine (although its now known as gameofbombs). Back then it would have a crap ton of players on (I don't even think I was on in the prime.... when I first started the chat would go by pretty fast with people constantly talking, but if you were playing a year or two before it may have had even more people). Ask Gally or pwnyy about what it was like in 2012 or 2013 xD. Back then certain parts of the game felt a lot more competitive (things felt like they had higher stakes, you wouldn't bounce during a pluto battle... you would die every single time... and even teamplay was intense). The design for the site looked amazing and gave off a totally different feel then the new site did (I remember actually comparing them side to side...right before bombermine.com started redirecting.... you were able to play from gameofbombs or bombermine.... but the gameofbombs site felt like it always had the autumn textures... which are fine don't get me wrong... but not all the time
I would say now... it is still a good game... but I feel like it becomes a game that feels extremely different the longer you play it, and while some changes will upset some people... while other people will like them... and then get upset with the other changes... you kinda end up pissing off everybody slowly over time. (There have been quite a few changes that I really didn't like, and I'm sure there were some changes I loved that others hated). This starts to make people not really want to play anymore.
I'll give some examples below:
People dying too much in plutonium battles, because its hard to get? let's make it so you have a solid chance of bouncing, while making it easier to survive and more annoying if you waste time bouncing around the map (and you would then waste even more time dying when you bounced into the abyss - this is fixed now with armor, but I'm sure this upset people a lot at the time of implementation). There goes another portion of the player base
You also kinda lower the stakes and make the people that loved the fact that you could farm kills at plutonium, or even the people that loved trying to go against people that were geared out spamming the spawn with bombs, but still get the plutonium anyway. So there goes another portion of the player base....
Do you enjoy to sit back and relax late at night when there are less players? and simply farm soccerballs? Do you enjoy practicing your timing by yourself on a server? Here have some bots, they will be incredibly annoying... and will play like pros and noobs at the same time.
So now the people that want to practice on a server, or just go for goals have to deal with these guys (probably isn't a problem now that people have gotten use to them... and it feels like they are less suicidal ;p). But I imagine this also upset another portion of the player base (but it also gave some people things to kill at night when the servers are empty... so good for some people, incredibly frustrating for others).
Playing team play to chill a bit and capture flags? Well you now can get first place in team play from kills (I know a lot of this stuff doesn't matter to anybody... but this game gives no reward for your ranking/ place at the end of the round) While you do get medals, and can look back at your stats... if somebody wants to min-max flags and then gets beaten by somebody focusing on kills..... [I shouldn't of listed this one, it just hurts my soul xD]
Lag While I have mastered the lag (obviously). I remember this was also pretty frustrating... and likely made a lot of people leave as well (I haven't been playing much, but it really hasn't been an issue now....usually... I had 2000 ping last time I got on... but that was probably on my end, since I had a lot of tabs open)
Langoliers This speaks for itself... ;p (I also started playing I think right after they stopped doing it... so I missed the glory of trying to survive xD)
Do you like perks? Well if you don't... there will be no mode added for you (even if lots of servers + rooms will be added to the game). And if you do... well enjoy getting harassed and arguing about them with some people that are VERY against them. (this doesn't apply now at all, even this part of the community has died off... and they are probably the hardest to get rid of in any community xD).
Love the mods? Too many mods? mods aren't consistent? Ivan got tired of sorting out issues and problems with mods, so the mod system was reformed... [I can't remember if people were even mad about this reform, but shadowgirl quit the game shortly afterwards - and she had played for years as well, hoping to become a moderator... but then losing it to this reform.... which was a bit sad (you use to basically be able to be a mod at any age... I believe she was 12 at the time..... (this was like 4 years ago xD)) [The reason this is listed is because it also hurt my soul a bit xD... but also more trolling was happening online from the loss of the mods, since mods can't be on 24/7... and there aren't too many] And I'm sure this trolling during odd hours caused a portion of the playerbase to quit as well.
Love the gameofbombs forum? One of the good things about moving to gameofbombs is that you can use the forum instead of the reddit..... *sadly the forum started randomly crashing, so it had to be changed out years after it was part of the game... this was nobodies fault.... I just put this here because it hurt all of our souls... right? right?... am I the only one?
Level-Up? Nice... The games goal is whatever you wish it to be, but you level up and all you get is a new icon by your name (adding an advantage in the game is likely too much... unless it is on a microscopic level).
But that doesn't stop the game from giving players cosmetic rewards / abilities.....
I'm not saying you bombard people with skins... but when you get to huge milestones (like rank 11, 12,13, 14,15) that take years and years of work, is it not fine to get some exclusive skin? or some random command that does something silly like show a few heart particles above your character? Hell you could even give people a lot of gold + a plutonium or something after they get to those levels (and give people small bits of gold when they level up at the lower levels).
There have also been some nice things added over the years though!!!
Portals? Everything feels a lot more connected... now... where's that teamplay portal eh? (I know, I know... don't look at me like that!)
Red chest? Awesome, don't mind if I do... free perks are quite nice.
Bosses Not as amazing as I thought... but still pretty cool (also cool that the perks feel pretty exclusive)...it would be nice... if you guys stopped killing me... and helped fight the boss though! worst raiding party in existence I tell ya.
Squad upgrade? Plutonium Squad! It is really fun playing with friends and being able to share items (if something like this was made in 2014...... a lot of people would of been squading up - I feel)
Launch pads, spikes, new puzzles? Keep it coming!
Arena I had to intentionally not watch Gally's series on these so I wouldn't be too spoiled xD (another great addition.... although it didn't need to have its access on the map... it could of just been a /duel @player type of thing)
You could even make it so its part of a reward you unlock when you get to level 8 or something.
Congratulations! You are ready to get serious! You now have access to the /duel @player command... be careful who you challenge though!
You could even make it so you can get access to more varieties/maps the higher level you get... and even select your favorite in your settings...
these don't happen too often... but having a crazy round of madness... is pretty fun, when an admin gets on and sets some crazy settings for a round, it changes things up and makes things interesting (I think the monsters room should have never been a thing, it was amazing when Ivan first showed us it on a the regular room... and we were all getting destroyed). It could have been a rare special event (like once per day at a popular time, or once every 100 rounds or something)....
I really do love this game, and I have met some people here... that I consider to be very close friends (I don't use social media at all, and rarely check my skype... honestly gob is the fastest way to get into contact with me - far more faster then my email or any other form of messaging xD). But I do think sometimes changes should be discussed with the community before they are implemented to see if they are indeed great changes. I will say gob has been slowly dying.... but it will always remain with us
I can't remember what other game Ivan was working on (but I remember him linking me to it a long long long time ago.... so that may be a thing that uses a bit of his time? It looked pretty cool as well... dammit memory). He also worked heavily on pixi.js.... since you program, here is his github. (you may find some interesting things to play around with there as well)
https://github.com/ivanpopelyshev
Honestly, I feel like Excuse_me is the main one working on the game currently. (or it may just feel like it since he interacts more on the forum
im also one of the oldest players. i saw damn lots of things here and all i got is disappointment. i dont wanna waste any more time asking where is the desctop client, why the bosses are soooooo duckling rare... the devs just dont care.. in the last 3(maybe4) years this game just lost more and more.
We exist in space of indie gamedev, where everything is a miracle.
Ok, imagine very nervous person who can't do anything half-way, who can only hit perfection or do shit - that's me.
When I started it, I was technical perfectionist and I didnt know anything about how to make good gameplay. I coded something for a month, got players, coded for a year, got HUGE amount of players. Somehow gameplay was awesome, but I didnt have any experience on how to make it better. I became very depressed and I fucked up almost everything. Also all of ideas were given by advisors were "add more stuff" or "add more stuff for money" or "make that game like game X, completely".
For last 3 years I'm helping other people to make their games, and many of good IO-games have my code in them somewhere. Those RPGMaker XP skins we use are legal because they use my code inside RpgMaker MV.
============
Now, if I'll do it again, it has to be EPIC.
I'll stream the process of its creation on youtube and twitch, I'll give all old players all of their plutonium that was spent in-game for skins or for perks, and I finally show everyone that spaceship engine I and ExcuseMe made under name "desktop client". This time it will have both spaceship tech and epic gameplay.
But I'm not ready yet. Stay tuned.
Yes, game is losing a lot of players, or like you said, it is "dying". I'm thankful someone create this thread here, because last week, I talked with Ivan on skype mod group about the exactly same subject.
Yes, the game has a lot of potential.
First of all, I agree with almost everything said. ( @HASHARAHHA14 good job)
I totally understand what Ivan said too. He had a team working with him, and now it is only he and Excuse_Me working in the game development. These two guys and some admins and mods, still want to see the game to be bigger than it is now.
Second. We really need to discuss everything related to gameplay, events, etc. But I think before that, the thing that is killing the game the most, is the LAG. Unless we fix that, we can't discuss gameplay. We don't need more skins, more perks, more changes on the gameplay, or whatever megalomaniac idea now, we only need the game to be playable. Just that. Simple. Like I remember, it was in the old days with 100 people playing on a map, with no lag. Desktop client will solve that, but now, what the game turned in, like skins, more well designed maps, objects, a lot of things added that need to be upload from the browser (where the game operates), they are lagging the game, and of course the servers, which leads me to the last point.
Maybe we have now a lot of servers and a lot of rooms. The players are scattered on the servers. Think: who wants to play a game that has only 7 players on a map? Nobody! people are leaving because of that too. People want people to play with, to interact, to kill
@Hackerham
Can we think on reducing the quantity of servers, rooms, have 2 or 3 nice servers, get back to simple design (or something, I dunno). Get back to origins. Until we can recover the lost players, win new ones, develop the Desktop Client, and after that work on all the things @HASHARAHHA14 talked about. What you guys think?
I remember the game with large maps for playing. Now all maps are the same size. Small maps were annoying, so I'm glad those disappeared.
I've seen this more recent trend of maps with lots of black space, and they are far less fun than those with little black space. With bots, such maps can be a pain to get from one area to another.
I mostly play on the caffeine server, so that's not very relevant to the rest of the game. I'm still trying to figure out why not all perks are infinite on that server. @Hackerham can you fix that? I'll buy some pluto if you do lol
Not everyone plays to kill. I sometime forget to kill bots because I am so used to not killing people. [Yes ik I kill people these days sometimes, but it doesn't change the fact that I enjoy the game the most when I don't kill anyone]
We're still finishing the new engine. Why does it take so long?
1. We're aiming for the best lag compensation possible. It involves the clients and the server running the game independently and synchronizing states via incremental updates, keeping a history of changes and rolling them back when necessary. The algorithms are complex, and making them work (and work fast) takes much more time than was expected.
2. It's inherently robust to packet losses, will support UDP and benefit from it.
3. It's crossplatform. The browser client will be first, but we're already making it compatible with desktop and mobile clients.
4. It's not just one particular game, but generalized for a variety of games, which is harder to do.
Because it's all written from scratch, we're going to make many things differently to address the often voiced concerns for the current version.
Our resources are very limited and all the efforts are put into this project. No updates for the current version of the game = less time until the new version.
Until then, bombs are still bombs and they await you on the game servers, as always!
Can you fix the perks that aren't infinite on caffeine?