Save DropTeam!

[Phonan]

There have been several topics like this so far, as DropTeam has been out for a while and the player base is still quite small. I believe there is one main reason. I have seen NO advertising anywhere for the game. The only reason I myself found it was a review on Apple's website. I can count two ways for people to find DropTeam: Reviews and Battlefront. Either they happen to read a review of it on a website, or they already have gotten Battlefront games and so can find DropTeam by checking back here. I'm not saying it's Battlefront's fault for the lack of advertising, but we do need to get DropTeam out somewhere.

As to the first problem, take a look at the "big" review sites out there.

1- Gamespot.com

No review, no boxshot (though I've never seen the box,) not very populated in my opinion.

2- IGN.com

Once again, no review, no previews, no cheats, no guides...

I could go on, and there are some sites with reviews of DropTeam; however, it is just not "out there." I know that the devs can hardly control what websites decide to or not to place on their site, but DropTeam just doesn't have its name out. People don't know it exists, which is a huge problem for getting it played.

This affects both groups- the devs and us players. The devs get more money if more people play, and we get more people to play with. How do we solve this?

A couple of ideas. They may not be the best, but maybe we can get some more.

1- Forums. Hopefully at least some of us belong to another forum or few. If any people here belong to gaming forums, why not make a post (maybe in the off-topic section,) on DropTeam. Tell people about it and hope some people will come. I'll definitely do this on the Supreme Commander Forums.

2- Websites. I know Toby has a website, and perhaps others here do as well. Obviously businesses shouldn't, but perhaps those of us with personal websites could advertise for DropTeam. Nothing huge, just, say, a button in the sidebar with the DropTeam logo. Or perhaps just one day making a "post" about the game.

Those are my two main ideas. Maybe we want a gameplay video to show prospective new players. A Wikipedia entry is another idea. Anyone else?

While I'm here, I would like to forward a couple of suggestions to make the game more interesting and perhaps modding-friendly. These both (I believe,) must be implemented in code by the devs.

First, when one sets the tag for "Number of DropShips" in the XML file, this does not determine how many people can drop at once. For example, let's say I give each team one DropShip. The entire team can drop 9 vehicles in 9 dropships, but if one is killed, they're out of ships. This is not too intuitive, and having limited DropShips could pose some interesting new scenarios.

Second, and finally, it would be great to be able to make movies for the game intro and maybe campaigns. If this could be coded into the game, I for one would be willing to work on game videos.

That's all for my post. I hope we get a discussion going on ways to get DropTeam out there. All the improvements in the world won't help if nobody knows this game exists. Anyone?

[ November 28, 2007, 01:34 PM: Message edited by: Phonan ]

[__Yossarian0815[jby]]

The question is how to get out of the chicken & egg situation that currently bedevils DT. even if we could get a major review site to do a (favorable) review of DT, the trickle of newcomers would hit the empty server and then we´ve added to the non-playing installed base.

I´ve been thinking of how to get the non-playing owners of the game to give it a second try.

Idea 1)CM map

I bet a considerable number of players who bought the game are waiting for the WW2 mod. I´d say 99% of these players play combat mission. i think making some or even 1 classic CM map for DT might be able to kickstart some interest in the game again.

Idea 2) a challenge/organised game

We (the veterans of DT) could organize a few games at well publicized times.

i´ve also been thinking of challenging those Goonrush guys on their own forum

[Phonan]

Thanks for replying, jby!

As I know nothing about Combat Mission, I think this is a great idea but best left to someone who's played the game.

I think a tournament is a great idea to get people back to playing again. Do you think, say, we should post a sticky or something until a certain date far away, next year even, and try to get everyone who stops by the forums in that time period to join?

I like the Goonrush idea. We'd need to make an account of course, but a huge Vets vs. Goonrush best-of-3 war would be great and possibly bring more into the game. Perhaps if we have a "delegate" to their forum, we can tell them of upcoming events on our end, and vice versa.

EDIT: And something I forgot- can we get CZ back up? Otherwise we'll have trouble handling any rush of newcomers. If anyone else can host a server it would be great!

EDIT 2: I just made a post here on the relatively busy Supreme Commander forums.

[ November 28, 2007, 05:49 PM: Message edited by: Phonan ]

[__Yossarian0815[jby]]

hmpf, just saw that they want 10 bucks registration fee for the forum that goonrush hails from...

good post on SC forum!