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Beyond All Reason (Free Total Annihilation Inspired RTS)

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Re: Beyond All Reason (Free Total Annihilation Inspired RTS)

#121

Post by anal_reactor »

nekusar wrote: post #96
PtaQQ wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hey, PtaQ here, BAR’s Community Manager. I’m sorry this was your experience. There are definitely some very competitive lobbies, but harassment is not acceptable. Please report any players involved, as reports are the only way we can identify patterns and take action. We have an active moderation team and do review them. For a more relaxed experience, I’d recommend trying less established meta maps. Lobbies marked “r…

These days, online public lobbies are almost always hostile. Doesn't matter the game, either. You can ban words, phrases, etc. The hostility is also through actions and not just insults. The only way to have actual fun gaming is a private group of friends. Think lan party, and definitely not public.

What if hostility is a feature? They have a culture that works for them. Many organizations do not survive massive influx of new members - numbers inflate quickly, community adapts rules because you cannot manage a big community the way you'd manage small community, old members leave, new members get bored and also leave, the community tries to manage a small community the way you'd manage a large community, whole thing collapses. Meanwhile if you're hostile to new members you avoid unsustainably high expansion and complete collapse of the organization's management structure because there is no expansion. Expansion is not a measure of success if it sacrifices maintaining current culture. Asian societies famously function like that.

Re: Beyond All Reason (Free Total Annihilation Inspired RTS)

#122

Post by s1artibartfast »

energy123 wrote: post #98
foolfoolz wrote: post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

FAF has a good community. it’s clear some people are better than others and you won’t get yelled at for not knowing what to do and can ask for help. the problem with FAF isn’t community, it’s technical. the game and connectivity are so painful that it might take you an hour to get into a game. and then you play 30 mins, get to the core part of the game, and someone drops. it’s a 10/10 experience when it’s good but it…

Thanks for the feedback. Do you think the BAR community is good too, if you've played it? I want to hear what you think so I can get a comparison/relative viewpoint across the two games.

It is an intense game with open chat, so someone will inevetiably let you know if they think you blew an hour long game. That said, I have found the community to be quite nice. there are noob clans and people running training clinics.

Even the guy that let of steam after losing will probably give you tips on the next go round.

Re: Beyond All Reason (Free Total Annihilation Inspired RTS)

#123

Post by blks »

estearum wrote: post #68
embedding-shape wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It's amazing the degree to which streaming/online communities around video games have destroyed the games themselves I think they might destroy the streaming/online communities, but I wouldn't say it destroys the game itself. I play BAR, but never with random strangers, the game works fine, but I also don't participate in any "video game" communities or watch/play with streamers, so what you're saying sounds very f…

I don't see how your comment makes sense. You're not part of any "community" but you also never play with random strangers? I only play public matches with random strangers and this is the feeling. Obviously this wouldn't apply if I had a small community of not-strangers to play with consistently, which you do have but oddly describe as not having a community.

I think by “community” he meant the whole community of a particular game, where you communicating with people, consuming same content, get influenced, etc

Re: Beyond All Reason (Free Total Annihilation Inspired RTS)

#124

Post by thunfischtoast »

IshKebab wrote: post #116
nekusar wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

These days, online public lobbies are almost always hostile. Doesn't matter the game, either. You can ban words, phrases, etc. The hostility is also through actions and not just insults. The only way to have actual fun gaming is a private group of friends. Think lan party, and definitely not public.

I don't think that's true at all. I mainly play Rocket League, and while you do have bad games, I'd say at least 80% of them are fun. It does benefit from: 1. Limited coms (nobody seems to use voice chat, perhaps partly because it was completely broken for years), and while you can type, it's too fast paced to write much so mostly people just use quick chats sarcastically (What a save!) 2. Games are really short (abo…

Matchmaking is a real problem in most games because of smurfing.

Re: Beyond All Reason (Free Total Annihilation Inspired RTS)

#125

Post by antisthenes »

aetherspawn wrote: post #14

Great game, technically impressive, but the community can be quite mean and toxic. I played for around a year after having played other TA Spring RTS for a few years prior, and if you don’t follow the exact meta of the month (whatever that might be) in terms of build order and things, people can get really aggro and your team can vote to kick you and take your units. Also, one particularly aggravating part of the com…

This is a classic take by a non-competitive player that would be better suited playing PvE or campaign games.

That being said, there's nothing wrong with that. Just understand that when people are trying to win, they have skin in the game, and are investing time and effort to win every game.

> Also, one particularly aggravating part of the community is that it’s considered courtesy to surrender once the front line is broken instead of playing the game out and letting the back eco players try and recover it.

Yes, it is courtesy not to waste other people's time. Not sure where the controversy is, rather than your misunderstanding. Usually it's quite evident whether the game is lost (again, if you are a somewhat competitive player).

> I stopped playing because I felt like I had a lot of negative interactions in every 2nd or 3rd game.

You need somewhat of a thick skin to play competitive team games. This goes just as well for more popular games like DoTA or CS2. It just seems you didn't, but it's not the game's fault or its community's.

Re: Beyond All Reason (Free Total Annihilation Inspired RTS)

#126

Post by __turbobrew__ »

Perz1val wrote: post #12
j4k0bfr wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I love watching BAR multiplayer games but definitely felt a bit overwhelmed in the midgame with this one. How anyone can comprehend a 40v40 in real time is beyond me haha. I guess it's just a muscle to build. Looking forward to a break where I can get into BAR, I've been utterly nerdsniped. Uthermal's VODs are good stuff [1]. [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YBIBYkD7tyY

I think that's the point of those massive RTS games, your attention is like a resource you must manage

It isn’t only massive RTS. In 1v1 Brood War attention is also a resource.

Re: Beyond All Reason (Free Total Annihilation Inspired RTS)

#127

Post by mannanj »

estearum wrote: post #25
aetherspawn wrote: post #14

Great game, technically impressive, but the community can be quite mean and toxic. I played for around a year after having played other TA Spring RTS for a few years prior, and if you don’t follow the exact meta of the month (whatever that might be) in terms of build order and things, people can get really aggro and your team can vote to kick you and take your units. Also, one particularly aggravating part of the com…

It's amazing the degree to which streaming/online communities around video games have destroyed the games themselves. Every update to every game launches a large scale effort to find the "meta" which is then instantly disseminated to the most try-hard assholes on the Internet. Anyone who dares to develop their own strategy/style/loadout is up against hordes of people (a growing proportion every day) who just copy wha…

Seems people in general have started to project their lifes disappointments, stresses, and greater human needs onto a digital dimension like video games. Growing up they used to be about fun. I have endless memories as a child playing Mario N64 and it not needing to be about playing a particular way; only as a I got older and competition and disappointments being human as an adult added up did I notice this shift you mention in online game communities.

I like to ask now, "have you heard of playing for fun?" It's surprising how little people seem to remember that games are made for fun & learning ("play" as a human construct).

edit2: taking back this edit on political conjecture to say something shifted that I'm not sure what. edit: in online games I played growing up too, this negativity/anti-fun change came probably around 2004 with bigger changes in the US political climate as well.

Re: Beyond All Reason (Free Total Annihilation Inspired RTS)

#128

Post by doctorwho42 »

bheadmaster wrote: post #65
estearum wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's amazing the degree to which streaming/online communities around video games have destroyed the games themselves. Every update to every game launches a large scale effort to find the "meta" which is then instantly disseminated to the most try-hard assholes on the Internet. Anyone who dares to develop their own strategy/style/loadout is up against hordes of people (a growing proportion every day) who just copy wha…

Meta-gaming is a natural progression in all human games. Chess players find "metas" like openings. It's just that video games are too simple and have very restricted meta set.

Id say it's only natural when importance or value are placed on the outcome of the game.

By it's very nature, games are supposed to be fun and bonding experience for a community of humans.

But the modern interpretation is one of direct conflict to show ones superiority for the sake of feeling superior. Which ultimately leads to the imbuing the games with a level of importance or value for the victor.

Re: Beyond All Reason (Free Total Annihilation Inspired RTS)

#130

Post by moffkalast »

whartung wrote: post #104
tobinfekkes wrote: post #87

This is amazing to see TA on HN. I grew up playing Total Annihilation in the 90s because my cousin worked for Cavedog and got us a CD for free. It is still one of my favorite games to this day. So many great memories with that game, countless hours playing with my brothers, getting up early to play before school, asking my parents for extra chores to earn more computer time. Games aren't the same anymore. I still hav…

TA is the only game I consciously went out to buy a faster machine to play. Upgrading from my 133MHz to a 400MHz so I could run more units in TA. I rarely played TA vs other people. It was always either the PvE scenarios, or skirmishes. Against multiple AIs I would strive to take out several of them, leaving one time to build up. Then the game would quickly devolve into "hose on hose" combat where my automatic produc…

You know, just the other day I dropped back into RA3 for a few hours and left wondering why they set every map up so that everyone runs out of resources 15 minutes in as the collectors go empty, so nobody can really do much. Makes for battles that are really limited in scope for seemingly no reason.

Hose vs. hose sounds epic af.

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