night mod

Discussion related to Turbo Sliders and beta version feedback.

Moderator: Forum Moderators

User avatar
Jazzyclub
Community User Level: 3
Community User Level: 3
Posts: 586
Joined: Sun Nov 14, 2004 2:11 am
Contact:

night mod

Post by Jazzyclub » Wed Dec 06, 2006 2:20 pm

for who havent see it this is the video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dzftqFjvKdc

User avatar
diesel 999
Community User Level: 1
Community User Level: 1
Posts: 46
Joined: Thu Feb 10, 2005 1:13 pm

Post by diesel 999 » Wed Dec 06, 2006 4:35 pm

Wowie! :shock:
With those Jazzy night'n'new tiles like in Jeffrey NEW tracks TS goes to next wowie level!
Congrats dudes!!!
that was in youtube too:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7rnG0LLR ... ed&search=
lol

xzeal
Community User Level: 3
Community User Level: 3
Posts: 445
Joined: Sat Oct 30, 2004 10:32 am

Post by xzeal » Wed Dec 06, 2006 4:46 pm

Looks a lot like Death Rally. Good job
Last edited by xzeal on Wed Dec 06, 2006 7:57 pm, edited 1 time in total.

User avatar
Hengari
Community User Level: 3
Community User Level: 3
Posts: 462
Joined: Thu Nov 18, 2004 5:14 pm
Contact:

Post by Hengari » Wed Dec 06, 2006 5:51 pm

diesel 999 wrote:Wowie! :shock:
With those Jazzy night'n'new tiles like in Jeffrey NEW tracks TS goes to next wowie level!
Yeah, nice work but just that it doesn't feel like TS anymore. Edges are not "there" and the feeling and the touch to the track is lost. You may call me old skool but those photoshopped tracks just don't feel good. Tradiotional tracks made with the editor and real tiles are still much more better when racing.
oldschool slider <3 | Hengari @ Quakenet/IRCnet
sliderpoint

User avatar
dede
Community User Level: 5
Community User Level: 5
Posts: 3314
Joined: Mon Apr 10, 2006 10:29 am
Contact:

Post by dede » Wed Dec 06, 2006 6:26 pm

Hengari wrote:You may call me old skool but those photoshopped tracks just don't feel good. Tradiotional tracks made with the editor and real tiles are still much more better when racing.
Yes, I agree with Hengari. For default cars it's hard driving there. But who said they are for default cars? This mod is just superb for fun cups or proper tournaments with custom cars. Very nice job Jazzy!

Newton
Community User Level: 1
Community User Level: 1
Posts: 35
Joined: Mon Nov 08, 2004 7:58 am

Some thoughts

Post by Newton » Wed Dec 06, 2006 6:35 pm

I totally agree with Hengari.

I don't mean to be rude here. It sure looks real nice but on the other hand has nothing to do with ts. Using night mod would make the driving less accurate like Hengari mentioned and due to that the factor of luck would increase. Ts should be kept nice and simple, in gameplay and graphics (and in everything actually). That's what made the impression to the most of the of players in the first place, the simplicity.

User avatar
dede
Community User Level: 5
Community User Level: 5
Posts: 3314
Joined: Mon Apr 10, 2006 10:29 am
Contact:

Re: Some thoughts

Post by dede » Wed Dec 06, 2006 7:12 pm

Newton wrote:That's what made the impression to the most of the of players in the first place, the simplicity.
Hmm, how are these new tiles breaking game's "simplicity"? Jazzy's night mod just adds a feature to TS, that can be used in some fun tournament. I think we should say thanks to Jazzy and to every trackmaker/carmaker/etc: game is more various and this isn't changing its "simplicity". Thanks to Jazzy's mod someone will surely have fun, and that's the goal of the game. And other players? They just continue playing without any problem, and having fun as always.

User avatar
Mouse
Community User Level: 5
Community User Level: 5
Posts: 1358
Joined: Fri May 20, 2005 1:56 am

Post by Mouse » Wed Dec 06, 2006 7:26 pm

I dont know how many of you actually tried this mod, but it indeed does feel quite nice. Perhaps it is not the best for big races, but i dont think it was made for that anyway. It looks very nice, and i like the feel of it. It is hard to see the edges of the track, but, you are racing at night, did you expect to see everything so clear? :)

Wooohoooooo Jazzy, the brain of trackmaking! :P
Image

Newton
Community User Level: 1
Community User Level: 1
Posts: 35
Joined: Mon Nov 08, 2004 7:58 am

More thoughts

Post by Newton » Wed Dec 06, 2006 8:29 pm

I understand what you mean and I also want to emphasize that Jazzy has done real nice job. It certainly looks amazing. Nevertheless I think it is too much for ts. It doesn't look ts-like. Nowdays there is so many mods and features that people have nearly forgot the basic racing that this game is/was all about. Furthermore new mods split the already small community to different even smaller groups. I have noticed that there might be actually more punaball matches played than races driven. It worries me.

But dede, I've realized that we value different things in this game so that's why we have opposite opinions in this matter. Secondly this is a subject that is really hard to argue with you since you haven't been there when ts had it's best days and was a real 'hit' (I mean the 0.86b times). Back then there was no mods (except pb which was just invented) and players focused purely on racing. I'm not saying inventing new mods and features is a bad thing. Some of them just shouldn't be released in order to maintain the real ts spirit that I personally value very high.

ps. Looking forward to your new ts site. Sadly xzeal has no site anymore.

mikko
Community User Level: 2
Community User Level: 2
Posts: 217
Joined: Fri Jan 13, 2006 8:38 pm

Post by mikko » Wed Dec 06, 2006 9:02 pm

I don’t want to criticize either, Jazzyclub’s work looks good and it’s nice to see people being active around TS. But Newton hit the point, and I totally agree with him. Having lots of mods and features tends to split the community. This would not be a problem if the player database would be large, but it is not, unfortunately. Possible ways of increasing player database have been recently discussed in Z’s blog, but it’s a long way from discussions to the real world. Meantime, I’m afraid it would be best for the game/community to focus on the strength of the game: simple racing.

User avatar
-wolf-
Community User Level: 4
Community User Level: 4
Posts: 614
Joined: Sat Nov 05, 2005 10:07 pm
Contact:

Post by -wolf- » Wed Dec 06, 2006 9:54 pm

Wow! But how's that?
Image
Image

User avatar
Limp-pu
Community User Level: 1
Community User Level: 1
Posts: 57
Joined: Thu Jul 06, 2006 3:47 am

Post by Limp-pu » Wed Dec 06, 2006 10:12 pm

I agree with Newton.
Jazzy has done a great job, and it seems really nice, but...
Simple racing is the thing for me. Splitting of community is bad... very bad.
Punaball is bad... very bad.

User avatar
dede
Community User Level: 5
Community User Level: 5
Posts: 3314
Joined: Mon Apr 10, 2006 10:29 am
Contact:

Post by dede » Wed Dec 06, 2006 11:25 pm

Splitting the community?? Men, do you really thing that mods like this can have that power? Ok, puna is puna, many players bought full version just to play it (only for PUNA, not for racing). TurboSliders is TurboSliders, these new mods are just for fun and won't change the way in which we play TS. But it's nice to have them, so if a night you want to set up an xbowl/night-mod/disablegame/battle server, you can do it and have fun with others. That's all, folks!

User avatar
Jazzyclub
Community User Level: 3
Community User Level: 3
Posts: 586
Joined: Sun Nov 14, 2004 2:11 am
Contact:

Post by Jazzyclub » Thu Dec 07, 2006 12:10 am

Hengari wrote:Yeah, nice work but just that it doesn't feel like TS anymore. Edges are not "there" and the feeling and the touch to the track is lost. You may call me old skool but those photoshopped tracks just don't feel good. Tradiotional tracks made with the editor and real tiles are still much more better when racing.
this is only a test track to test how night mod work, i made new default images and .til file to have night textures.

the way is this:
1) download this pack: Night Mod
2) Extract all in your DATA folder (it not overwrite nothing)
3) modify your track in this way: replace include tiles.til with NTiles.til, after open the track in editor and add your light pole where you like, the pole tile have 2 pieces, normal tile and leveltile 2...so place it and cover it :)

if you wanna a fast test-tracl download this: Test Track

PS: i dont think so someone like play only with night tracks, it become boring...i just think more variable ambients are so good...smoe tracks i nday and some in night...WHAT THE PROBLEM????

Newton
Community User Level: 1
Community User Level: 1
Posts: 35
Joined: Mon Nov 08, 2004 7:58 am

Reverse Angle

Post by Newton » Thu Dec 07, 2006 12:11 pm

Okey, this is only my point of view and might be harsh to some people that enjoy playing 1.0.x. nowdays.

For me TurboSliders has been nothing else but good memories since 1.0.x was published. Not only we lost majority of the community but more importantly we also lost that unique feeling of a great nostalgic retro game. In addition to that people are inventing more and more unnecessary mods and add-ons that take the game further and further from the original concept. People should concentrate on development of the basic racing and gameplay instead of trying to make ts look like Death Rally or some F1 Racing Game. After 1.0.x was published we have seen all kinds of mods been made that only shatter the already struggling-small community to even smaller parties. Punaball has (nearly) forced aside the basic racing and it seems that we have 5 little games inside one. People don't know what they should do as funny as it sounds. If you know Mario Party games you might understand what I mean. The game's name could be easily changed to Car Party or something. Some people might even like it but for the players that have bought the game to be able to race that would be a killing hit. Also Ande's workload would at least double. Can't you really see what's happening and what are the consequences on ts? dede as a new ts site builder (if he has the right to decide what it will contain) has a lot responsibility how the game is seen by potential new players.

Z has had many noteworthy ideas that could possible have a positive effect on the game's player numbers. However much lies on one person Ande who would have much work to do by himself. Anyway I agree with Z that every little piece of time that is available should be put on something that would really have relevance. Like Ande said (if I remember correctly) turbosliders was created to be played online because slicks n' slide couldn't provide that feature. Online racing was one of those 'things' that people loved. These days the servers (like have pointed out million times) are pretty much empty. Ironic is that AI players were added to version 1.0.6 just like trying to kill the rest of online racing there is left. Flex commented the situation pretty well some time ago. "Now servers are not empty anymore because AI opponents are racing against each other. Wow." New features should enhance the online playing experience rather than trying kill all online activity. This game stabbed itself badly while releasing AIs in the latest version. Although I might never return playing the 1.0.x game I still feel that helping the game is what I want to do. This game gave me so much in 2004 that I just can't let it kill itself. I wan't to see the game doing good and seing it struggling like this really hurts me.

User avatar
dede
Community User Level: 5
Community User Level: 5
Posts: 3314
Joined: Mon Apr 10, 2006 10:29 am
Contact:

Post by dede » Thu Dec 07, 2006 2:24 pm

I notice that you aren't playing the game in last months, or at least you didn't play so often and constantly. In last months I noticed that full players' activity increased and in last weeks demo players' too. PunaBall provided to increase the number of licenses sold and the number of active players: someone bought the game thanks to PB and then started playing in normal races too. PunaBall is the only "active" mod, because xBumpz, Fuel, AI, Battle and other mini-games aren't used very often. I sold almost 30 licenses thanks to these features (I showed them videos, etc..): without these mods I'm pretty sure no-one of these guys would have bought the full version.
At the moment there are 4 types of players:

1) old school players (racing only)
2) old school players (racing + punaball)
3) new players (punaball only)
4) new players (punaball + racing)

Let's suppose that in each group there are 100 players. Total TS full players: 400.

Let's now suppose that punaball isn't existing. Total TS full players: 200.

Adding features to the game provides to increase number of licenses sold and number of players in servers, though with different interests. Once PB-only players discover how fun is racing, some of them start playing races too (Ippon-Bar for example, just to mention one..). Once racing-only players discover how fun is PB, some of them start playing PB too (Ippon-u9 for example).
Now, my opinion is that in order to maintain this game alive you have to sell licenses and get new players: if TS had no PB, many licenses wouldn't have been sold, and community would have been smaller. The lack of players isn't due to PB or other mods, it's due to players quitting, the price of full version, the awful spot TS has with its demo mode, etc.

Newton
Community User Level: 1
Community User Level: 1
Posts: 35
Joined: Mon Nov 08, 2004 7:58 am

Slow down a bit

Post by Newton » Thu Dec 07, 2006 3:05 pm

"The lack of players isn't due to PB or other mods, it's due to players quitting, the price of full version, the awful spot TS has with its demo mode, etc." -dede

I agree mostly with you there. The price tag is no doubt a serious factor. Not denying it. Demo felt to a horrible ad for the game after I read what kind of ideas people had to change it. Have you asked why players quit playing? I'd interested to hear. Could the reason possibly be the inactivity? I know that if we had a large community we could have many mods without affecting the player numbers in different 'areas' of the game but you can't deny the fact now we can't. If we had only one way to play the game (doesn't matter which it would be.. racing, pb...) the players had no choice but to play it that way. This would gather people together to this one specific game mod and so would make the servers more active. This would attract even more new players. As we have seen there are too many different games to choose from in the main server for each type of playing. Like ~10 different racing servers with different car setup, tracks and so on + all these mods. I also know that this might be hard to change because the number of 'games' is not limited. The game is taking too big steps in a too short period of time. No business can run that way. You have to start with the basics. A new slogan for ts could be... "Back to the Basics". heh.

I find it a strange odd that you want to sell lisences by advertising the game by its punaball mod instead of what the original game is about, racing. So do you get racing then as a side product or the other way round?? Because if you really think so you might want call this a 'football' game from now on.

dby
Community User Level: 2
Community User Level: 2
Posts: 224
Joined: Mon Mar 28, 2005 9:02 pm
Contact:

Post by dby » Thu Dec 07, 2006 4:06 pm

I'm quite sure that banning mods wouldn't bring more players to the game. On the opposite, I think that the way you can make your own tracks, tiles and cars is a huge selling point to a lot of people. Maybe some weirdos don't like racing and only play PB, but I don't think they would suddenly start racing a lot if PB was banned.

All those who complain about new tiles, cars, mods, features seem to be nostalgic of the good old 0.86b - when there was a lot of players... and - note - when it was free. I played 0.86b a short while before 1.0 was released, and sure it was more fun with big races, but the game itself wasn't better... the feeling wasn't lost with new grafix, it's still the same old game mechanics. I've raced some old school cups later on and I don't think the tracks were more fun. It's only nostalgia, any track is more fun with 20 players compared to like 4.

The best things to increase number of players, I think, is a good community page and a smart demo mode... and to release the game for free again, but that is no option. The lack of players to race against make it less fun and people stop playing as much causing a negative spiral, that's what I think, not because of a divided scene.

As for Jazzy's night mod, it sure looks pretty, and might make someone take an extra look at TS. But the mod is only cosmetic, the streetlights and headlights doesn't actually light up anything as I understand, since it's a feature not coded into TS. Good effort though, and if there aren't enough people to have fun racing, why not have some fun modding, doesn't hurt IMO.

User avatar
dede
Community User Level: 5
Community User Level: 5
Posts: 3314
Joined: Mon Apr 10, 2006 10:29 am
Contact:

Post by dede » Thu Dec 07, 2006 4:30 pm

I'm pretty sure that going "back to the basics" wouldn't increase the number of players in servers: every PB-only player will quit and some player (like me) wouldn't replace hours spent playing PB with hours playing races.

And I'm not selling TS license advertising on PB, I'm just showing what game offers:

- Racing in multiplayer mode, offline or online, with or without AI bots
- Punaball
- Other mods
- Possibility to add/create tracks/cars/tiles
- Possibility to join tournaments/cups
etc..

90% of licenses sold are linked to PB and PB tournaments (PunaBall Open Tournament) mainly. Some of these players started playing also races after some month.

If you want to go back to the basics (only racing, no other features added in TS 1.0) with this version of the game (without releasing it for free), I really think that game will die in a couple of months, or at least there won't be other players buying the license.

How to increase the number of active players, then?
- playing in demo servers with newcomers, showing them every feature game has
- organizing cups/tournaments for full version players and demo players
- having a TS official website which offers info&stuff for the community

Since I love TS, I'm trying to make everything I said, but I'm only a TS player, I'm not working as developer or webmaster for JGG: my time is limited. And so it is everyone's :)
Everyone should do his own little work in order to keep TS alive and to help getting new players, instead of criticizing who is spending time in order to add cool features to the game (independently if feature is good or bad - it's still a feature).

User avatar
dragonstar
Community User Level: 2
Community User Level: 2
Posts: 109
Joined: Sat Feb 05, 2005 10:09 am

Post by dragonstar » Thu Dec 07, 2006 5:04 pm

I'd like to say something here too. That night mod looks nice, no doubt about that, but like Hengari said the feeling between the car and the track is lost. Although I haven't tested it much so maybe different track with different car and some competitors could be fun.

In general the development around the game ain't so good either imo. People favor too much eyecandy over the feeling of playing. Tracks made with photoshop sure looks nice, but they ain't so good to drive than "normal" tracks. You can't "feel" where the road goes so good, or the car is totally "loose" of the track (f. ex. in Jeffrey's new imported tracks).

There are some useless mods, like battle, but most of them are good to have I think. Xbumpz and disable are fun now and then. You don't have to race seriously 24/7, you can just have fun with these mods. What's wrong with that? What comes to pb, the game wouldn't be so "popular" without it. Like dede said:
Once PB-only players discover how fun is racing, some of them start playing races too. Once racing-only players discover how fun is PB, some of them start playing PB too.
The price. I don't understand why people are complaining about it. Sure it could be lower, you can say that until it's free, but 17 euros camoon. That really ain't so much. One dinner at some restaurant, one poor night at the local bar. I just bought some catfood and it cost 21 euros ffs. And I'm poor as shit. You have to pay the price only once, after that you can play as much as you like/can without any additional fees.
Newton wrote:If we had only one way to play the game (doesn't matter which it would be.. racing, pb...) the players had no choice but to play it that way.
They'd have a choice, to quit playing.
Newton wrote:As we have seen there are too many different games to choose from in the main server for each type of playing. Like ~10 different racing servers with different car setup, tracks and so on + all these mods.
If you would actually have played the full version some time, you would know that this is crap. For europeans servers could be listed like this: there's one demo-server, two full-version servers (the other with fixed random car) and three pb-servers. Number of pb servers doesn't really matter, 'cos rules are almost the same so people go there where's players. Then there's y4nn1ck's server which is empty almost always(?), vimio's server (slider only with crazy tracks) which is crouded when those swedes are online otherwise it's empty and then occasional random servers (f. ex. cups, mods or just some friends driving). So it's quite easy to choose your server.
Newton wrote:I find it a strange odd that you want to sell lisences by advertising the game by its punaball mod instead of what the original game is about, racing. So do you get racing then as a side product or the other way round??
Ts is a racing game yes, but if you say that there comes this great football mod with it and that makes the person to buy it, what's the problem? As long as the game sells, we get more players and we shouldn't complain (this goes for myself too).

mikko
Community User Level: 2
Community User Level: 2
Posts: 217
Joined: Fri Jan 13, 2006 8:38 pm

Post by mikko » Thu Dec 07, 2006 5:26 pm

The price issue has been talked through several times, I'll continue on that, nevertheless. As dragonstar pointed out, this game is very cheap. By dividing the cost of the game by the hours spend playing it, everyone should realize that. Not one eye-candy 3d-shooter can compete with TS in cost/hour, still many do not even hesitate in buying them. I would not hesitate paying 10x the current cost of the game, its cost/hour would still be low. And I'm not one of the most active players by any means...

User avatar
dede
Community User Level: 5
Community User Level: 5
Posts: 3314
Joined: Mon Apr 10, 2006 10:29 am
Contact:

Post by dede » Thu Dec 07, 2006 6:12 pm

Yes I know, mikko. Price isn't _THAT_ high for a game like this.. But try to make a comparison:

Fifa 2006 (original) -> EUR 19.90 (I chose this from an Italian catalog..)
TurboSliders -> EUR 16/17

DEMO players aren't informed about mods, features, cups/tournaments. TS without these things is shit. Pure shit. Demo players won't buy it for 16/17 €, they prefer Fifa 2006 at the same price.
So, if demo mode sucks like that and noone informs demo players about those things, many potential customers are lost. Try letting them play in full servers or telling them about cups, tournaments.. they understand that price is ok. What demo players know now is: pay 19.99$ in order to enable new tracks for the game. Is that a good offer?

User avatar
dragonstar
Community User Level: 2
Community User Level: 2
Posts: 109
Joined: Sat Feb 05, 2005 10:09 am

Post by dragonstar » Thu Dec 07, 2006 6:26 pm

dede wrote:What demo players know now is: pay 19.99$ in order to enable new tracks for the game. Is that a good offer?
Of course not, you're right. The point is that people here are often complaining about the price, when they should be complaining about the demo-mode and/or marketing.

User avatar
Jazzyclub
Community User Level: 3
Community User Level: 3
Posts: 586
Joined: Sun Nov 14, 2004 2:11 am
Contact:

Post by Jazzyclub » Thu Dec 07, 2006 6:36 pm

we are going out of topic!! if you wnna talk by community problem open another topic....

mikko
Community User Level: 2
Community User Level: 2
Posts: 217
Joined: Fri Jan 13, 2006 8:38 pm

Post by mikko » Thu Dec 07, 2006 6:54 pm

Yes, dede and dragonstar, the current lousy demo-mode is perhaps the most important single reason for the limited number of licenses sold. Many better solutions have been suggested in this forum, and I recently described one solution as a comment in Z's blog, but that requires implementation of Z's ICSS, which is not to be expected anytime soon.

While waiting for the ICSS (hopefully it becomes a reality sooner or later), the best we can do, I think, is to help the demo-players realize what the full version offers and how much value for the money this game actually is. TS.com will have a significant role in that.

One more word about the price. I feel that the price tag itself isn't that important. Whether it is 20€, 10€, or even 1€, that does not make a big difference (of course it has some effects). It's mostly a question of free vs not free. Many people are just unwilling of paying for games, whatever the cost is.

Sorry for mixing your topic, Jazzyclub.

Post Reply