#s

[[JiF]Alexander theGreat]

Shell, that is an excellent suggestion to try it for 4 weeks without the custom maps. I will tell you all about the numbers of players. Perhaps we can see something on Gametracker.

And Shell, I still have my nicely wrapped packs, which I will give you during the game

[[JiF]Sgt Shellshocked]

Thanks alex but the credit should really go to curtis as it was his suggestion that we switch the custom maps off for a period to see if our numbers increase , which i agree is a good idea , thanks curtis

[[JiF]curtis]

thanks Shell but the credits also need to go to Blood God, he already suggested this a couple of weeks ago but it doesn´t matter anyway, thanks a lot Shell can´t wait to play with you all again guys & have a lot of fun out there,- that´s what it´s all about & that´s the device of this community too,----- and i love that!!!

[[JiF]Sgt Shellshocked]

lol thanks blood even though your suggestion wasn't quite the same and thanks to all that took the time to contribute to this discussion

[[JiF]zougathefist]

today and yesterday I managed to get online for a very short time, before the boy started noising.

Both times I joined I was a bit disappointed because it was BG that loaded up, I probably could have come back but did not have the motivation TBH as I am not a fan of BG. It is a good game but I don't have the time to learn the kits and maps because of real life commitments. I would much prefer vanilla and I suspect it would attract more players.

As for the customs I always liked CMM but agree that the need to DL these from what would be an unknown site for new people would put them off, as it would me if I went to ATF or Moongamers and had to do soemthing similar - I would prefer a move back to a custom map day.

Looking forward to playing dambuster coop though!

How goes it with the AI Shell? - give me a shout if you need any assistance

[[JiF]DaftGeordie]

Thanks Shell I know how much work goes into those maps but lets just see what happens

[[JiF]Sgt Shellshocked]

Hi Zouga,

I'm still of the opinion that our numbers are low because of the season , most folks are busy enjoying the milder weather and all the activities that go along with it.
I looked at gametracker yesterday and the top 47 players on our pot luck server have all downloaded and played the custom maps , how do I know this? I know this because I have played
custom maps with all of them. Where are these 47 players we might ask ourselves , well as I said before they are doing other stuff. (In my case I have been very busy at work often starting early and finishing late
with so little free time and then when I do get some time I spend it on the dambuster coop development.)

The cmm ended up being a ghostown with only a couple of players ever showing up, this was a real problem because cmm was conquest so not much fun with just two playing.
Most of us will remember why pot luck is now coop only , it was switched to coop because we had such low numbers (long before custom maps were included in the rotation) that conquest was unrealistic. Initially this was a good move but the downside is that we lost a lot of good jiffers and regulars because they prefer conquest. Another factor to consider is the plethora of new games that have hit the scene recently , this has fragmented our jif players as they have all gone off in different directions so the days of lots of jiffers all having fun playing the same game may unfortunately be gone forever [i hope not ]

I used to be a huge fan of bg and although I still do enjoy the game I must admit that since I tried out EOD v2.3 , I am hooked , why? well it's all about the gameplay , it's fast and furious , the bots are a lot smarter and you don't have miles and miles of terrain to traverse only to be picked off by a hull down King Tiger at the far end of the map (Gnomey on MOB knows what I mean) In EOD the weapons are terrific just like BG but the maps are better the playability is better and they even play sixties music in the background. I must admit would like to see an EOD day on jif in the near future.

The dambuster coop is looking really good , it's taking a lot of time because I want to get it spot on.

I already have the bots doing some cool things and they are fighting amongst themselves really aggresively. I have added many new vehicles and some terrain changes to improve playability.
The most challenging task has not been configuring the ai , it has been painting the 2 dimensional pathmaps on what is essentially a 3d map. I didn't want to compromise the original designers
concept so I have had to do lots of tweaking to make the pathmaps work effectively.I also have tried to make this map appeal to different types of players , the sniper/spotter , the dancin infantryman , the tanky , the engy
and of course the pilot and his arch enemy the aa gunner.

I am really enjoying playing it in development mode , the original map is such an excellent design that I want to do it justice so please be patient. I hope to get a version ready for testing with a few volunteers in the next couple of weeks , I have a linux server ruuning at home so that should be fun and provide good feedback before we finally release it. After dambuster i am going to figure out why rheinmetall panzer coop is crashing on linux servers , it works fine on windows servers.

When I am finally done with dambuster and Rheinmetall Panzer I will be playing a lot more on our server because as sure as eggs is eggs if you have a handful of jiffers playing on our server , not only is it fun but it will attract others to join in.

PS
A major problem with new people not having the custom maps is "ADVERTISING" when a new player visits our site to get the maps where does he go? We MUST advertise our map downloads more effectively so that it is easy for new folks to get them. I have asked Mike to make some changes to our front page that will help solve this

[[JiF]zougathefist]

Hey Shell,

sounds like you are really puttingthe effort into Dambuster.

It would be great to get all of the customs with coop, that would be a blast anbd wouyld help to keep people on teh server, I agree that CMM was often a ghost town mainly, I think, because its no fun to play conquest on a big map with only 2/3 people

[duffman]

Hey guys!
I just wanted to let you know I am still around. I do like playing BG but my current computer can't handle the graphics(laggy, but that is another story).

Anyway, I do have all the custom maps and I do enjoy them but I do find myself playing on the 5thMR server for more human interaction.

Just my two cents but I don't see anything wrong with the Pot Luck.

BTW: My Doctor says I am much better now. I have moved down to only boosting jeeps and artillery pieces. Still trying to figure out how you steal any enemy AC and BB.

Oh! I also found that putting mines in enemy Landing craft on 5MR is quite interesting and entertaining. I killed the same guy 6 times and he could not figure out why he died when he entered the LC. We call it the "36th anti-theft device" or the "trunk-monkey antitheft device". lol

Question:Does anyone have issues on the Moongamer Server? I have an average Ping of 62 but the lag on their server is ridiculous. I almost think that some "hacking" might be going on.

[[JiF]Sgt Shellshocked]

Hu duffman good to hear from you and thanks for the heads up on booby trapped landing craft

It looks like the jif community has rallied to the cause as there were 16 players mainly jiffers/regulars on the pot luck server last night so hopefully this will continue and we can enjoy the good ole times again.
If the jiffers and regulars show up in numbers there is no better place to play regardless of maps/mods.

So get yourself over here and maybe you might find some juicy equipment to borrow