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Discussion November - State of Smash

Discussion in 'SMASH' started by BrendanLeeT, Nov 1, 2016.

Discussion - November - State of Smash
  1. BrendanLeeT Retired Staff

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    Introduction:
    Hello.
    Smash again has been great this month in terms of updates and development - more will be posted down below.

    Bugs:
    Thank you to all of the people who have been reporting the bugs on the 1.9 beta!
    Majority of the bugs are now fixed! If you know any bugs that are not fixed the please report them here.

    New Maps:
    If you would like to submit a new map then feel free to post it under this section of the forums.
    We have new maps added but we can still add a lot more :wink:

    New Item:
    We have another new item in store for Smash. The item is apart of the Spooky Update so I will let you guys explore and figure out what it does.

    Suggestions:
    If you guys have any suggestions for Smash then feel free to post them on the forums.
    I can not promise you that they will be added; there is always a chance.

    Submodes:
    We are introducing Submodes to Smash for all of you guys to have fun. At the moment we have three modes: Classic, *HIDDEN* and *HIDDEN*. In the Spooky update it shows one of the new modes in the video so if you notice it then feel free to spread the word :wink:

    Spooky Update:
    You can watch the video here.
    Description: Coming soon to a network near you - The SMASH Spooky Update! With new maps, new items, and new ways to play - it'll almost be like you'd never played SMASH before!

    Death Messages:
    The death messages are now fixed! Instead of the messages only showing when a player dies in lava, they now show all the time. This was one of the more recent minor bugs fixed that a lot of you came to me about.

    Development:
    Kayaba has been working hard on Smash with the development. There are a few things I cannot say yet; there is a lot of development happening on Smash.

    The Future of Smash:
    NOTE: Anything listed below may be added but I cannot promise anything.
    The new Smash lobby will be released after the 1.9 beta!
    More maps to come
    Possibly some more Submodes on Smash
    Ranking is still being worked on
    Some secret things that I can not say :wink:

    Quick points:
    Work on 1.9 has continued.
    You can now join the beta at: beta.shotbow.net! Come along and play the Smash beta with your friends!
    A new item is now on Smash.
    Spooky Update shown here.
    Death messages now display properly.
    New Submodes.
    Development on Smash continues.
    Bugs on the 1.9 Smash server have been fixed.
    Fluffoon, Superbob1000, Axyy and 5 others like this.

  2. SkeletonXF238 Regular Member

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    Is all of this new content on the 1.9 version or 1.8 version or both?
  3. 100PercentHippo Retired Staff

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    I believe the Halloween Update will be available on only 1.9
  4. AsiatusxX Regular Member

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    Ranked has been out of service since April 2016. Thats more than 6 months of developement since then. The Maps that have been added were not even created by the Staff. Overall, everything thats going to be updated doesnt seem to be that much either.

    I expect something huge, when waiting this long for something to be released. And with something huge, i mean something that makes this game more enjoyable than before. Im really hoping not to be disappointed.
    SkeletonXF238 likes this.
  5. GalacticaGX Obsidian

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    You could check out the beta server ._. I know it's laggy for you and other EU Players but yolo. New Submodes ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
  6. AsiatusxX Regular Member

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    I did. And as you already said, since its an US Server the gameplay is not enjoyable at all due to the ping issues. Also i dont seem to be able to right click signs to start the game. So i can only join other Lobbys that havent been created by me.
  7. BrendanLeeT Retired Staff

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    I'm sorry that you feel disappointed but even if a staff member built the map(s) it will still be a new map so I don't understand what you're trying to say - If a player submits a build it's still a new map.

    There has been a lot of changes such as: submodes, maps, items, etc. I don't know why you're disappointed when there has been a lot of changes.

    I'm still trying to get a ranked server up and I'm going to ask about it soon.
  8. AsiatusxX Regular Member

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    I am not disappointed. Im patient, more than most of the Smash players are.

    Lets go through this point by point: (@BrendanLee if you are reading this, please read carefully. I want especially you to understand every point i make, so please dont rush through it like its any other post. Thanks a lot)

    First of all, what you consider to be "a lot of changes" can be summed up as the following:

    - New Maps ( Which will go through the same process as all the other maps that have been added: 1) Everyone will play them at the start. 2) They get quite boring after a couple days, which is obvious, every map gets boring after outplaying it. 3) The competetive scene concludes that not a single one of these maps is suitable for ranked. (Which they actually really are. None of the new maps would work on a competetive basis, even though the one with the 8 towers (Neither Chessboard or Abandoned Bridge), i forgot the name unfortunately, looks fucking amazing.)
    As a conclusion: The new Maps havent been created by Staff members, which means there was time for developing everything else.
    Im not saying that the Maps have to be created by Staff members, im just pointing out that this is a part of the updated that the Staff wasnt really involved in. So you had more time to work on other things.

    - New Items: I am not a programmer or a developer. I have no fucking clue how much work goes into creating new items and telling them what to do and when to do it. But i will highly doubt that you spent months of creativity to think of an "Airstrike" or a "Radioactive Beacon". If i can remember correctly none of the items that were suggested by players who play this game hours and hours on a daily basis (They have a clue how to make this gamer better btw.) were introduced with the 1.9 Beta. Which makes me kinda sad, but afterall im not disappointed with the new items either. They may switch the game up a little, which is all i want tbh.
    Once again, i dont know how much time goes into programming these items, but they dont seem to be that big of an update to me.

    - Submodes:
    Calling classic its own Submode is cheap as fuck. Whats that even supposed to mean? "Classic"? It is literally the exact same as before. Now introducing 3 new gamemodes is always better than just 2, but im not complaining about that really.

    Lets start with Classic: The sign on the new lobby of beta.shotbow.net says the following:
    "Classic game type brings Traditional Smash to the new system."
    What even is the "New System"? The fact that you have 3 different gamemodes on the same server is considered to be a "New System"? Fair enough. Classic is literally the same Smash as before.

    Life Less: The Life Less gamemode definetly sounds fun and is good for players who are good at Minecraft PvP, since you dont have to worry about your life count. Playing a very aggressive and risky playstyle is only logical here since camping literally makes no sense anymore.
    But thats what ive played since more than a year now. Party matches with 27 lives are basically that. Making a more skill based game attainable to Players who either cant or dont want to afford a Party Pass is good, but it definetly wont be new to me.
    Im still liking the fact that this will be officially introduced.

    King of the Hill: The most promising gamemode in my eyes. I dont have a single clue what to expect from this and i cant even think of a way how this works out in terms of gameplay, but thats good. Something to look forward to. Something special. Thats exactly whats important for a huge new update. Everything above does not fulfil that criteria, at least in my eyes. And whats even better about this: There may be new Players that are better in that certain gamemode than Players that have been at the Top of the Skill level before.
    Conclusion: Really excited about that one.

    After those three points you said "etc."
    But is there anything else? Not really... At least nothing new. But that brings me to the most important factor of everything.

    Ranked:

    Since 2014 I have been playing this game because of its great potential for a competetive experience. Overall i feel like Smash is by far the best competetive gamemode in all of Minecraft, mainly because the ping does not matter that much. Being able to play on ranked servers was my reason to improve and to learn the game. Which i did to an extend that i can say that im on top of the Skill Level, at least i was during mid 2015.
    I dont play this game for the explosives and because its so cool that the walls break when i hit a player into them. I play this game to become better than anyone else.
    Ranked has been out of service since April 2016 and even before that it was offline since September 2015. And thats pretty pathetic. You have been "working on ranked" since 16 Months. Thats a lot of fucking time. And once again, i do not know how much time and effort solving the issues actually takes, maybe im complaining for no reason and i can be happy that its being fixed within a year. But only receiving "We are working on the Issue" is really fucking frustrating. I am interested to hear more. Tell me about the progress. What exactly is wrong. Even if i dont understand everything you say because its something about the process of programming, because then i can do some research that may or may not be helpful.

    The Smash community really isnt that big. The Shotbow network in general isnt, at least compared to Servers like Mineplex, Gomme or Hypixel. But thats not even bad. Having a smaller community makes it even easier for the developers to create the most enjoyable content. But there is a reason for it not being that big. And that reason is called 16 Months.
    I am so patient and so happy with this game as it is, that it made almost 20% of my life. If Smash had 5000 active Players 2 years ago, for the single reason that is called "time" this number would have dropped down to less than 500. Not everyone is this patient. And i will be honest.
    I dont play casual Smash anymore. I will play Smash as soon as the 1.9 comes out, but for now i dont see a single reason to enter the Smash servers anymore.
    The ranked community has developed in a way that makes my heart hurt. Players that i have met 2/2.5 years ago have left the scene and today me and brontalo are the only one left from the Founders of the clan that im still a part of. I havent heard anything from FallingDutchman since months and shebbear2 who is by far my favourite opponent to play against didnt play me since months either.

    The only thing that really keeps me in the game is this 1.9 Update. And thats why im so desperately hoping not to be disappointed.
    I respect your work BrendanLee and i respect everyone involved in the 1.9 Update. But if the Update "only" includes everything from my list above, then i am already disappointed, simply because of the time that went into it. Its been six months of developement. And just because this game is such a huge part of my life i expect something huge. Something that makes me want to play again.

    But enough of the criticism. I am not disappointed yet, i will definetly play the 1.9 Update first before i judge anything.

    Lets move on to my suggestions:

    Im pretty sure i have mentioned this one in the last "State of Smash" Post already, but i will post it here once again:

    -Ingame Leaderboards: The Visibility of the Top 20 Players is practically not existing. There is not a single Hint in the actual game on how to find the Leaderboards in the Webbrowser. (If the Message "Play ranked for Glory, for the Leaderboards" or whatever it exactly says includes a link to the Leaderboard then im sorry) But still, barely any "common Player" knows that they exist and even less people know where they are. So why not add something like an Ingame Leaderboard?
    I just realized that i forgot the "new Lobby" Galactica already said this: The "New Lobby" looks practically the same as the old one, just a little bigger to the back side. Adding the Ingame Leaderboards would be a great opportunity to create a new room for a "really new" Lobby. It displays the best players ingame and makes them more recognizeable. (Which would potentially lead to less "LEAVE YOU HACKER" spams in the lobby, since you would be able to tell who is really good and who isnt, since Top 20 Players dont really cheat, right?)

    -Restart Vote: This is just in case that the lag issue that has been going around for the last year still makes an appearance. If the server is too laggy and there is no admin around, someone can start a Restart Voting, that allows players to vote either "yes/no". As soon as a certain amount of players have voted yes the server restarts and the lag issue fixes itself for a short period of time. Its definetly better than playing the most painful 30 minutes of Smash that you can possibly imagine.

    -Rewards: What do you play ranked for? A name on the Leaderboards? Fair enough, but that really cant be it. A reward system would mean more competetiveness between players that are already considered "Pro", but would also be attractive for new players to join. You dont receive anything for winning a fucking season. That needs to change.

    I will most likely add more in the next couple days, right now im already writing 45+ Minutes on this text and i need to catch some sleep for my exam tomorrow. If you made it through everything, here is your cookie, im really proud of you. Feel free to share your thoughts and like this post if you agree with anything i said :)

    Hope you have a great day ^^,

    Asia
  9. AsiatusxX Regular Member

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    One more thing that i really want for the Update: An official List of rules. There are so many questions that cant be officialy answered because there is no such thing as official rules especially for Smash. Questions about teaming in ranked, queue dodging and especially a definiton of "Public Shaming" are only a few of the things i want to be answered.
    The current "Terms and Rules" do not display any Smash related content, which is definetly necessary in my eyes.
    iTzFreeXP and SkeletonXF238 like this.
  10. AsiatusxX Regular Member

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    Its been sixteen days since i posted this thread. Still got no reply, neither from any player affected or yourself Brendan. At some point even my patience ends. Just saying...
  11. HydroShock Regular Member

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    Hello all.
    iTzFreeXP likes this.
  12. GalacticaGX Obsidian

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    Hey ._.
  13. AsiatusxX Regular Member

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    One more thing. The active part of the Smash community really isnt that big (Im talking about the forum). This makes it way easier for the Staff to interact with their community. But im not seeing any of that lately, neither ingame or in the forums. I want to get Staff related content more frequently. That includes a reply to my long ass essay up there. At least give me feedback that you actually read it @BrendanLeeT.

    Also: What is the criteria for closing down a thread in the forum? Ive seen all those posts from Deccal and for some reason that i personally dont understand his thread called "Where is this admins" got closed down. Now i know that guy doesnt speak proper english, but criticism of the Staff thats being censored BY the staff? Thats not really good ...
    SkeletonXF238 likes this.
  14. Jedrek_O Regular Member

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    Well, he kinda got the reply from staff so I guess that thread could've been closed because of that (Even though IMO Brendan should let it be for discussion sake), and since thread has yet to be deleted or have its contents modified I can't really call it a censorship.
    Fluffoon likes this.
  15. BrendanLeeT Retired Staff

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    I'm sorry for not replying; I did read it on the day that you posted it. I remember sitting down and talking to a developer about the ideas because the leaderboard stood out to me. I love that idea; I cannot promise anything again. I will get a few of your ideas (Primarily your leaderboard idea) and see what I can do with it. At the time of your post I had multiple assignments - which made me not reply straight away and then I forgot to reply to the post, sorry!
  16. Master_Booster01 Regular Member

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    For those who downloaded Minecraft 1.11, (and using 1.9/1.:cool: SMASH is absolutely broken. Every time you attempt to start a game, the sign just says "Setting Up Game" and doesn't change, and no menu is brought up. In addition, joining games locks you out of quitting, and whenever you QUIT the game by using /hub or ALT+F4, when you come back, you'll find that a "clone" you is taking up the match. This is not a real player, it's simply a taken-up slot.
  17. 100PercentHippo Retired Staff

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    If you haven't already, I would submit that information in a bug report here. That's the most reliable way to get the issues addressed.
    Superbob1000 and DutchBartje like this.
  18. Jedrek_O Regular Member

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    Umm, shouldn't there be a December thread already?
  19. GalacticaGX Obsidian

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    No.

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