I decided to register to say hello and add a few thoughts. People probably won't remember me as I didn't make a big impact (that I remember of anyway). I was surprise to remember my own nickname, let alone my password. But I've played Subspace... sorry, Continuum since probably 95 or 96 (under NameLess I think) and under the Quinl@n nickname since 2002. The good times of 24kbps baud modem, Geocities horrible pages and all. (Probably 56k in fact).
When I discovered DSB, I played it 99% of the time, the other zone were just boring to me. I think I was... decent. But I never played league. I might have joined at some point but later created a squad call "DoNotAskMe" so that people stop asking me to join theirs. (Might be an indicator that I was not completly useless).
Most of the time in the 2000, I would play for a period and forget for a few years. And be amazed that it is still alive when I get back.
I've read most of the relevant stuff on the forum about how to get more people and it is saddening that the game itself (not DSB only) lost the battle of time even though it is still up. It's not surprising but now, I'm old.
For DSB, I felt that many of the discussions were focused on League and at some point it kind of bothered me. Because League cannot be the forefront. Pub will trickle down to league, not the other way around. You won't get more than 1 league player for every 50 if not 100 pub players. Most of them being casual players (like me), others being one-off that won't like it or play it enough to bother. The ones that will dedicate time are a rarety.
I personally never cared about league mostly because I don't have that competitive gene but more importantly, it wasn't something I could commit (time, job, whatever).
I admit I don't have a solution. We're in 2019 and Subspace almost looks today like Pacman or Tetris looked when SS came out. Now that Ray tracing (cough pointless) is suddenly a thing and kids buy 900$ video cards... I doubt even a massive marketing campaign would change a lot. But, maybe it should be tried if not already.
Also, about DSB, I just got out of a big session on Chaos zone where they have Bots there that are quite something. I got my ass handed to me at first. They wake up when you go near them and they frigging chase you in gang. I even thought I was duped for a few minutes by a vet taking over them.
Mind you I didn't play for like 7 years but it it took me awhile to get in the right ship and realize how dumb they were when you get the trick.
But can these bots be adapted to DSB ? You put them in their special freq and their goal is to get the flags. Or something like that. A solo player won't really be able to hold the DS alone but it would make it a challenge. Entering DSB wouldn't be like entering an empty room.
While it didn't save Chaos zone from being empty of real players, it does make it... well fun.
I have no clue how to program these things. But if the ChaosBots can do what they do (not much to be honest but still), probably something can be done with them in DSB.
Anyway, enough babbles. Hope you all got old well, I have grey and this game doesn't make me feel younger.
Cheers!
