What Can We Do Better?

[Jacktheassassin]

Keep the off topic forum games but do more timesplitters related tournaments, like the football and ACTUAL timesplitters gaming tournaments. Short post but I got to the point.

[Hano]

Keep the off topic forum games but do more timesplitters related tournaments, like the football and ACTUAL timesplitters gaming tournaments. Short post but I got to the point.

Couldn't have said it better myself.

[InfectedSausage]

Maybe more enthusiasm about the Community Project could work?

[FezzyBear]

The whole thing about not bumping a thread if it's over ??? days old could be done away with, which would encourage newer members to look through the backlog of TS-related topics and post in them. Their posts would then produce more responses from other members.

Not that long ago, everybody was complaining that we had too many TS-themed tournaments and polls going at the one time. Nobody had any interest in making up a map idea of their own on a sheet of paper or drawing program file to enter in to the Map Invention Tournament, which we tried to get going on two different occasions.

[Lt. Surge]

Do we have Chat yet?

[InfectedSausage]

Do we have Chat yet?

En Oh.

[(insert name here)]

The whole thing about not bumping a thread if it's over ??? days old could be done away with, which would encourage newer members to look through the backlog of TS-related topics and post in them. Their posts would then produce more responses from other members.

Ah yes, I definitely agree with this.  When I was a new member, I ignored this (because I recalled somewhere in the rules or the orientation video that you should always post in an old topic if it already exists).  As a result, I got plenty of the TS-related talk out of old threads around the forum and never felt that people around here need to talk about TS a little more.  Granted, at that time people were still regularly talking about TS anyway, but I think my point still stands.


Regarding the TS tournaments and polls, I do think those should be avoided in general.  They're just another version of the "What's your favorite..." threads which have always been frowned upon and locked upon creation.  I feel all the generic tournaments/polls made the forum too cluttered and were burying just as much good TS discussion as the off-topic threads.

[GodOfVengeance]

Just to make it clear, TimeSplitters Football is NOT TimeSplitters related. TimeSplitters mapmaking thread/tourney IS something TimeSplitters related. And no, I don't mean draw a map and then judge it, a stupid idea, in my honest opinion.

I'm not sure if it would spark people's interest more but even weekly challenges like: "Whoever gets the highest score on this challenge/league wins!" That has something to do with the game and that might spark some interest into the series.

[Force Ten]

And no, I don't mean draw a map and then judge it, a stupid idea, in my honest opinion.

How is it not TS related? The maps are intended to be used in TS gameplay. Yeah, you can't really see or play the map itself but the tournament thing was a decent idea. Really, despite all the cool exploits and such of TSFP's mapmaker, there's only so much you can do with it, at least appearance-wise. I'm not opposed to a tourney involving making a map in TSFP and recording it but the drawn thing could have been fun, too.

EDIT: I guess I'll try to make one suggestion. As small as it may be, would it be possible to have the who's online list on the main page?

[InfectedSausage]

And no, I don't mean draw a map and then judge it, a stupid idea, in my honest opinion.

1. It's still TS related, and would make for a fun torn.

2. It's far better than having a mapmaker map torn, where you can't really do a lot, and the torn would get boring.

[Maxbarrass]

One thing I would say might help the Forum, not in ways of brinning people towards it is to make a general list of rules and put them at the top of the screen next to all the other links like 'Home', 'Forum', 'Help'...  Just a small one that would explain some of the main rules that you would rather people to abide by.

It would also be nice if we could some how (i'm not sure how it will work) have more than just the Recent Topics bar.  How about we split it up so that the comments TSCP would be on one bar and comments on contests would be on an other. TS related topics would be on an other bar like New News, New Videos and whatever related to anything TimeSplitters news wise.  Then have a bar for recent comments on Off Topic sections of the Forum.  That is just a suggestion any way. 

I think we should also advertise what we have done a lot more.  Such as Videos we have made and maps we have created like with a banner or something that links to a different part of the sight.  As long as it is TimeSplitters Related. 

[(insert name here)]

Regarding Map Tournaments: Personally, I'd prefer a design-whatever-you-want custom map tournament to a MapMaker one.  Sure it's not as TS related, but it allows for more freedom and better map designs.  Frankly, I don't find looking at videos of other people's MapMaker maps interesting at all.  It's fun to play a map someone made, but if you're trying to get an idea of what it's like from a video alone, it just doesn't sell it for me.

I'm not sure if it would spark people's interest more but even weekly challenges like: "Whoever gets the highest score on this challenge/league wins!" That has something to do with the game and that might spark some interest into the series.

I like this idea.

EDIT: I guess I'll try to make one suggestion. As small as it may be, would it be possible to have the who's online list on the main page?

Ah yes, this has been bugging me, and I keep forgetting to mention it.  One of the staff members said they'd fix it a long time ago but apparently forgot about it.


Actually, that just reminded me of a couple other tiny things I've noticed.  Since they're minor, I'll just go ahead and edit them into this post instead of making an entire new post below for them:

1: The delete post button is still missing.  I think there is one board where it still shows up, but the majority of the forum it doesn't.

2: Not even a problem so much as me just wondering, what the heck is this?  And if it doesn't do anything, can it go away?  It doesn't match.

[GodOfVengeance]

1. It's still TS related, and would make for a fun torn.

2. It's far better than having a mapmaker map torn, where you can't really do a lot, and the torn would get boring.

I'm very sorry, but unexperienced mapmakers would say that, yes. If there's one thing you guys should've picked up from my series (If someone actually followed it) it's that you can make pretty much whatever you want. It's a feature IN the game.

Now tell me how the hell you want to judge a map DRAWING of how "playable" it would be and how GOOD it is. You cannot compare these two because they are both incredibly different.

Also, with TS-related stuff, especially stuff like mapmaker/features included in the game, I also actually mean features IN the game, but whatever. Also, if the drawed maps were intended for TS gameplay, wouldn't it be better to make them in the TS MAPMAKER? =P

So yeah, who are you fooling? Not me. If you still really want to continue drawing maps etc, be my guest.

[InfectedSausage]

I'm very sorry, but unexperienced mapmakers would say that, yes. If there's one thing you guys should've picked up from my series (If someone actually followed it) it's that you can make pretty much whatever you want. It's a feature IN the game.

No, you can't.

Even for pros, there is still a limit to what you can do in the mapmaker.

There's only about 5 tilesets. There aren't a lot of tiles. It'll get boring fast. If we have about 16 users participating, it'll get repetitive. Sorry, but that's the truth.

Now tell me how the hell you want to judge a map DRAWING of how "playable" it would be and how GOOD it is. You cannot compare these two because they are both incredibly different.

Look at how it worked for the character creation torn. If it is very TimeSplitters-ey from the look and the faithfulness to the series, then it's good. That's how the character creation torn worked, that's how the map creation torn was gonna work. People will view the mapmaker torn and be like 'Yawn, seen this tileset about 5 times now, and there's not a lot to see. Next'

Also, with TS-related stuff, especially stuff like mapmaker/features included in the game, I also actually mean features IN the game, but whatever. Also, if the drawed maps were intended for TS gameplay, wouldn't it be better to make them in the TS MAPMAKER? =P

No, because there's a huge limit to what you can do.

So yeah, who are you fooling? Not me. If you still really want to continue drawing maps etc, be my guest.

Will do 

[FezzyBear]

I'll state three points in response to the Mapmaker/Map invention discussion:

1. Not everybody has access to a capture card or semi-decent video recording equipment, whereas the vast majority of people would be able to construct an idea on a piece of paper/MS Paint image and explain more of their creation by way of text.
2. Mapmaker is limited. As much as a small portion of the community can do fancy things with it, it's a tile-based system with pre-determined parts and functions. Imagination is not limited.
3. In order to make a true community based tournament, it would be silly to automatically exclude those who cannot record and upload their creation, or who don't feel as if they could compete with those members who can do out of the box things with the mapmaker.