So with the LAN Party and the Match Event wrapped up, the server now ready to get into the more public, roster-based part of the celebrations, and me just done with a busy few weeks, with a hefty map review behind me and some (expected) quiet time for the upcoming weeks, I'd be a waste to not take this opportune time and propose some ideas I've had for awhile about the rest of CEONSS' 10-year anniversary festivities, see what everyone thinks of 'em.
First off, let's talk dates. Specifically, game-significant landmark dates for us in 2019. We already observed UT2004 completing 15 years since launch in mid-March and are in the process of celebrating the bigger milestone of this server and community turning 10 these days. But there's yet another date coming up to keep in mind: as we know, the UT franchise started with UT99, and that game, as a recent article reminded me, was first launched on
Nov. 23rd, 1999 in the Americas, and a few days later on this side of the pond.
Even though that might stretch the pre-planned schedule presented at the top of this thread, I'd like to propose that we extend the remaining parts of the celebration by 2 more weeks so as to conclude the entire fest on the final, decimally significant date of the year for the game and go out with a bang, so to speak, ringing in the third decade of UT by wearing our [20YRsUT] or [UT@20] tags. It would also provide more time to maybe do a few extra promotional/streaming activities and outreach attempts over the YouTubes n' Twitters and all those other gaming/social venues that might hit fresh eyes and attract 'em to the server. More importantly though, it would afford us the room to try a few more things around the concept of the roster-based changes discussed above, which just so happens to be the next topic I wanna get into below.
For most, a description that starts with "Classic Map Week (i.e. original Torlan, Crossfire, ...)" as a sampling of themed roster changes to follow might garner an indifferent "oh, okay" kind of reaction. Mine was a more on the concerned side for a couple of reasons. First, Torlan excluded, many of the stock, original ONS maps had the tendency to contain only one primary (a few had a second, stub primary leading nowhere) and/or to include a chokepoint node in their Node Link Setup (NLS), both of which I've repeatedly decried in the past on this msg.board as deeply problematic practices (example
here).
The problem has to do with the core of the ONS metagame - strategic territory control through skill and teamwork - which itself requires the presence of
meaningful choice in where to go and how to fight next until you reach the enemy core. When it comes to original maps and the aforementioned kinds of link setups, however, what instead happens is that ONS break downs around such single primary or chokepoint nodes, since the only choice for either team is to just keep butting heads around the area with no alternative, reducing the gametype to a DOM variant with vehicles, where one team keeps controlling and spawning at A, the other at C, and they're both trying to grab B. (This is also why "pearls on a string" series of degree-2 nodes in an NLS is a bad practice, btw, even for maps with >=2 primaries.) One choice in where to go next is zero meaningful choice. Zero meaningful choice is not ONS.
"But, Peg", you might say, "aren't you laying this a little thick n' dramatic?" Well, UT2004's stock maps are ArcticStronghold, Crossfire, Dawn, Dria, FrostBite, Primeval, RedPlanet, Severance, and Torlan, and then there's four more in the ECE, namely Adara, IslandHop, Tricky, and Urban. Wanna know how many of them are
not affected by these issues when considering their default (or most, or even all alternatives) link setup? Dawn and Torlan. That's the whole list. Ten others have only one primary in their default NLS, and 7 also contain a chokepoint node as well. With those numbers in mind, I think this is an important point to emphasize and raise awareness about.
Giving ourselves a week or more to revisit older content can certainly have value, but IMO not more value than what I believe the server's mission statement to still be, i.e. to be a place to play
actual ONS, not some other gametype pretending to be that in name only, even during those weeks. In other words, some care should be taken that the selected "classic" content still adhere to the ONS gametype, or that it be minimally modified to adhere to it, if there's no alternative NLS available to address the issue, and that, invariably, a benchmark should be enforced where maps must have at least 2 primaries and link setups without unavoidable chokepoint [central] nodes. Shouldn't really prevent anyone from experiencing all the
annoying "vintage" ONS design standards, while still ensuring the free time we're spending on the server 15 years later is still to play actual ONS.
The other reason this list of original maps bugs me is because, presumably, the theme of the intended roster changes will be one of retrospection. Players will be able to re-experience older content, hopefully sparking subsequent reflection and conversation regarding how ideas, standards n' policies evolved, which directions taken worked better or which ones didn't. To my mind, there's no reason why that examination shouldn't involve
all of the gametype's past 15 years' worth of notable content and
all of CEONSS' 10-years-long history of evaluation, adaptation, curation of and contribution to that pool of user-generated content. Why limit the scope only to Epic-bundled maps that came out in 2004-2005, when our ONS experiences have been shaped by so many other successful, characteristic - emblematic of the gametype even - works that were created or refined between then and now? It'd be a shame to crack open that proverbial old book, but only to go as far as the first chapter and then stop as if we've relived the full story.
Fortunately, the fix for such a concern is pretty straightforward: simply try to be a bit bolder and broaden our horizons to the kind of classic content we can add to the roster during the retrospective of the server's 10 years in the "ONS life", always ensuring, of course, it's maps the server has hosted before and that we considered good even by the older standards, instead of any old chaff. And if you're with me on that, well, I've got a pretty nostalgic and audacious list of concept/implementation swaps for you to check out right below
.
The main bundle:
- MinusTankMeUp-CEONSS-v1 -> MinusTankMeUp-)o(-Gorz-BigAl
- MasterBath-C-SP1 -> MasterBath-Ren)o(vation-v2
- Gunshop-C-SP5-test1e -> D$K-Gunshop-SP1-32p
- Tyrant-C-SP1 -> Tyrant-)o(-Renovation-V1
- Nevermore-TankMeUp-RC1-SP2 -> Nevermore-ECE-T32
- DoubleSlap-V3 -> THI-TripleSlap-RC2 (the lowered ceiling, 4.7MB edit; not the 6MB, high ceiling homonym)
- CaptainSors_Island_of_Pwnage_C -> CaptainGordons_Box_of_Pwnage_RC1
- SpankJox-C -> SpaceJox-SP2
- LegoFort-C-SP1 -> BlockFort-V5
- Tropic-32p -> TropicNightfall-32p
Looser fits, based on map size and mix of dominant playstyles:
- BridgeOfFate_Blame_P_Again_C -> Katharos_NV_Blame_P_beta4b
- AbandonedCity-SedV3-C -> ONS-Acerbus-)o(-Danno-V7-Edit6
Additional bundle of tried n' tested content you can also swap with more recent maps for the roster retrospective, if you want:
- KAKMO[UPC]-32p-Beta2-NNC
- Ascendancy-T32-beta3 (or Ascendancy-BadWolf-V1c)
- Bittersands
- Crossfire32-R7
- Dawn-t32-Beta3
- Pyroclastic-R3
- Tek-32p-beta2-3-K2
- StormyWeather
And on Halloween night, we let the
real monsters n' zombies roam:
- IMPULZE-V3-C-beta3 -> SPAMBOX-Revisited
- SpaceCargo-C-beta9 -> {IGS}-Grendelkeep-SP5
- CanyonDuel-C-sp2-beta5 -> CataldiPark-EONS-Edition-V1 (don't look at me like
that, I said what I said!)
With some (or all) of the above swaps added to the mix, IMO it'd make our trip down memory lane more comprehensive n' exciting, updating the rest of the schedule like this:
- October 27th - Nov 23rd: Original Maps + Beloved Community Classics + Misc Good Oldies + Resurrected, Cursed Abominations
- November 23rd: Observation of UT99's 20-Year Anniversary and end of celebrations
Two more related things to quickly mention here. One, as always, if you do decide on this scope expansion, but are missing any of the above maps (or their dependencies) and can't find 'em anywhere else, just tell me what you need and I'll bundle it up for you.
Two, it's kinda unavoidable that some casual ingame visitors might not realize the server will be in a retro funk and might perceive the vast difference in gameplay/design standards from one classic map that's, say, community-made and well- kitted out to another stock classic, where individual weapon hunting might be required after respawning before one even start fighting, as too jarring.
With that in mind, there might be some sense in considering adding some kinda "minimum quality" safety net to the all maps before throwing 'em in the pool, by way of micro-editing them. This would be limited only to replacing stock, lackluster lockers with their custom n' properly stocked equivalent (mine layer exceptions would apply) so people won't have to keep throwing away their low-ammo linkguns, and incorporating OnslaughtSpecials2[_RNH] to offer link beam catching and node health display on radars. Beyond that, each old map would be left to "speak" for itself on its own merits, by way of its own design decisions and mix of unique gameplay elements.
Like I said at the top, I've got some free time, so if you give me the green light, I can get started on those at any point.
Lastly, something not directly related to the server's celebrations planning that seems to've been overlooked so far this year, but it's timely enough to raise these days. Since we're well into the spooky season of the year, how about we also throw
Cat's Halloween edit into the roster?
Speaking of horrors, seems I've gotten back into the habit of assembling disturbingly long posts again. Bleh. Think I'll make the next one deliberately short, see if that scares it away. Anyway, do let me know what you think about all this, folks.
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