[Vortex2]

Urban Terror is my favourite game of all time, though I wasn't around until close to 10 years after the initial release. Naturally, I am curious. I have been passionate about games all my life, and was able to appreciate many early games (perhaps not dating back to the first computers, but nearly) before 3D graphics became a thing.

Beacuse I wasn't there and can only guess, which is less than imagining, I'm hoping you veteran players who were around long before me might be willing to share what it was like to be a part of the first generation of Urban Terror from the start (or at least closer to it than me).

I would also LOVE to hear about AQ if anyone has been around for that long.

In case you don't know where to begin... I have some UrT-related questions:

Approximately how many players would be on at a given time from 2000 and on? Approximations for each year?

When did the playerbase start to 'fall off'? How? And Why?

Were there LAN tournaments?

What was available in the way of leagues?

Were there sponsorships?

What was the community like? How were public servers?

What was IRC like? Was it a primary means of communication and reaching out to other players? Or was it pretty much what it is now? Were most people hesitant to reach out and make personal connections with others? Has this changed?

Were there many teams? Did successful teams primarily inhabit public servers with the occaisonal scrim/pcw or was seeing them in-server a rare occurrence?

How would you describe the experiences of playing Urban Terror in the past? What about at present?

Have Urban Terror players always shared a unique 'niche' experience for those who appreciate it, like a rare flower... or was Urban Terror 'Mainstream' once upon a time?

If you could answer any or all of the above questions that would be great! Don't worry about re-answering a question which has been addressed by someone else. The more the better, please feel free.

Thanks :)

This post has been edited by Vortex2: 12 March 2017 - 03:53 AM

[[PRKL]Rappio]

Well i wasn't there but i thought you could be interested about this:
http://www.quakewiki...ves/siliconice/

[FS Frankie V]

As far as LAN parties this stands out.

[Dyzko]

From what I recall, there were a lot more players, not sure how many but many servers were available with various numbers of players.
I remember people being a lot more talkative as well, both via in-game text chat and on private voicechat.
The overall skill level was a lot higher, at least on the servers I frequented.
Overall it was a lot of fun, especially with the more talkative crowds, at least I think so.
Lots of populated servers available for all game modes, more diverse map cycles than I've been seeing lately, as all vanilla maps and a large variety of 3rd-party maps were played, depending on the server.
Since there was a larger playerbase, bots were less of a necessity, though they could still be found in some places, more commonly being auto-kicked when enough players joined, which can still be seen today in some places, though many more now have a permanent batch.
I personally feel the community has changed more than the game, but I still love to play and I have a lot of fun even now.
As far as when the playerbase "fell off" I'd have to say the decline was noticable near the end of 4.1, but it became truly obvious mid-4.2.
When it comes to LAN tourneys/leagues/etc. I only participated infrequently, so I'm not the best person to ask regarding that.
Honestly, I feel the community has grown apart as it has decreased in size, as people who prefer a gametype seem to stick to that type more nowadays, instead of branching out more.
I really hope UrT can make some sort of comeback, at least a little, as it remains my favorite FPS game of all time. There's just something about it. :P
While this is mostly my personal impressions and opinions, I hope it helps answer some of your questions. :)

[Vortex2]

Dyzko, on 11 March 2017 - 06:19 PM, said:

From what I recall, there were a lot more players, not sure how many but many servers were available with various numbers of players.
I remember people being a lot more talkative as well, both via in-game text chat and on private voicechat.
The overall skill level was a lot higher, at least on the servers I frequented.
Overall it was a lot of fun, especially with the more talkative crowds, at least I think so.
Lots of populated servers available for all game modes, more diverse map cycles than I've been seeing lately, as all vanilla maps and a large variety of 3rd-party maps were played, depending on the server.
Since there was a larger playerbase, bots were less of a necessity, though they could still be found in some places, more commonly being auto-kicked when enough players joined, which can still be seen today in some places, though many more now have a permanent batch.
I personally feel the community has changed more than the game, but I still love to play and I have a lot of fun even now.
As far as when the playerbase "fell off" I'd have to say the decline was noticable near the end of 4.1, but it became truly obvious mid-4.2.
When it comes to LAN tourneys/leagues/etc. I only participated infrequently, so I'm not the best person to ask regarding that.
Honestly, I feel the community has grown apart as it has decreased in size, as people who prefer a gametype seem to stick to that type more nowadays, instead of branching out more.
I really hope UrT can make some sort of comeback, at least a little, as it remains my favorite FPS game of all time. There's just something about it. :P
While this is mostly my personal impressions and opinions, I hope it helps answer some of your questions. :)

Absolutely, thank you very much. :)

This post has been edited by Vortex2: 11 March 2017 - 07:01 PM

[Vortex2]

I've edited my initial post.

This post has been edited by Vortex2: 12 March 2017 - 04:07 AM

[Mod Iye]

Urban zone has a bit of information about players and stuff.

Basically UrT isnt even remotely big enough for such a wiki to work/"be of any use."
The wikia wiki is just bad. (first off i dont like wikia, gamepedia ftw :P) Its stuck in a 2013 state of information, where it still believes that the Mac10 is coming with the idtech5 based UrT HD...

A rather good source for more or less up to date and usefull information is the dswp wiki, however, i don't think they have catched up to 4.3 yet (been a while since i checked though).

[Vortex2]

Iye, on 12 March 2017 - 04:27 AM, said:

Urban zone has a bit of information about players and stuff.

Basically UrT isnt even remotely big enough for such a wiki to work/"be of any use."
The wikia wiki is just bad. (first off i dont like wikia, gamepedia ftw :P) Its stuck in a 2013 state of information, where it still believes that the Mac10 is coming with the idtech5 based UrT HD...

A rather good source for more or less up to date and usefull information is the dswp wiki, however, i don't think they have catched up to 4.3 yet (been a while since i checked though).

I made a new Thread.

And I think the only thing that is preventing us from providing a solid resource with up-to-date information is the belief that it cannot or should not be done. I see no reason not to :)

[GlaD-don]

Nice to think about old times again! Have a long post!

Vortex2, on 10 March 2017 - 05:46 PM, said:

Approximately how many players would be on at a given time from 2000 and on? Approximations for each year?

Order of magnitude is 100s.

Quote

When did the playerbase start to 'fall off'? How? And Why?

There have been multiple peaks followed by dives followed by another peak.

I'd hazard a guess that 2.3 was the first big peak, then things sort of coasted until 2.6a. People started to drop waiting for a new version/lost interest. The bulk of any game's playerbase is casual players who don't develop strong ties to the game and community. They want something shiny and new. When releases stop coming as frequently, they naturally drift off.

I recall a healthy community during 3.0 through to patch 3.7, where releases happened rapidly (weeks/months apart). 3.7 was the final version for a loooong time, and the community seemed dire. Many times, you'd look at All Seeing Eye (Qtracker's predecessor) and see no North American servers with people. (Euro scene was always more active, but it was also pretty dead too.) We were waiting for 4.0 or UrT HD or whatever, and it seemed more and more like vaporware with each passing day.

Then one day 4.0 came out. I would hazard another guess that the period immediately post-release was as active as UrT ever was. Lots of servers, lots of people. As 4.1 became long in the tooth, things died off again. There was a mild peak at the release of 4.2, but it was much shorter lived than the massive infusion of people that came from the 4.0 release.

Quote

Were there LAN tournaments?

Yes, but never for prize money. Nothing official.

Quote

What was available in the way of leagues?

Lots. North America had CAL (CPL's little brother), OGL, TWL, STA, and FTW. Europe had Clanbase and Urban Zone.

Peak of FTW had like 40 teams. Clanbase and Urban Zone had even more, as Euro scene always bigger than North American scene. Competition era was 2002-2011 for North America. I remember season 4 and 5 (2011) of FTW were competitive, but too many of the old school guys dropped after that.

Quote

Were there sponsorships?

Free servers and crap like that. GlaD had a bunch of random sponsors that gave us a server in exchange for using their tag. The teams who sponsored us were pretty scrub, but free server!

Quote

What was the community like? How were public servers?

Good. A lot of us played this damn game for over 10 years.

Quote

What was IRC like? Was it a primary means of communication and reaching out to other players? Or was it pretty much what it is now? Were most people hesitant to reach out and make personal connections with others? Has this changed?

IRC was big in North America. Most clans had an IRC channel and there'd often be lots of people hanging out in it. This was pre-Facebook days. Teamspeak/Ventrilo servers were also popular. Most nights you'd find people to hang out and game with.

Quote

Were there many teams? Did successful teams primarily inhabit public servers with the occaisonal scrim/pcw or was seeing them in-server a rare occurrence?

Depends on the era. Look at archive.org for league sites to estimate # of teams.

Aliasing in pubs was very common. Some people used a known alias, while others like me switched it up all the time. For me, alias was mostly to fly under the radar and not have to engage in chatter. I think almost every good person you'd see in a server was a competition player. Almost no purely pub players were good (although there were a handful--single digits for sure in North America). If you saw a name you didn't recognize at the top of the score board, 99% chance it's an aliased competitive player.

Scrims/pcws pretty rare in north america among the "good" teams. There were some eras where scrims happened more, but the general rule (in North America) was no scrims.

Quote

How would you describe the experiences of playing Urban Terror in the past? What about at present?

Game was fun as hell. Nothing else like it. At the height of the competitive leagues, I had a ton of fun with the game. Good people to play with, good games.

Last time I played, I didn't have any fun because my skill has left me.:) I know what to do, but my character just won't do it. Partly my terrible laptop, partly rust.:) I think there came a point when I didn't really care about the game itself, but instead enjoyed being good at the game and trying to be better than other players. The game became old hat. When I could no longer do that, I realized the game no longer held my interest. I suspect that's true for many of the long-term players.

Quote

Have Urban Terror players always shared a unique 'niche' experience for those who appreciate it, like a rare flower... or was Urban Terror 'Mainstream' once upon a time?

UrT started as a mod to Quake III Arena. Back in the day, installing a mod was a bit more technical. I think that presented a bit of a barrier for many people.

UrT has never been mainstream.

[Valour]

Words cannot describe the inspirational manner in which Don's reasonable, responsible, modest and articulate writing has contributed not necessarily to the entire community, but certainly to each person who has had the opportunity to read his work. This being said, I decided to post a reply anyway, futile as it may be, simply to offer my thanks and respect. Thanks Don. :)

This post has been edited by Valour: 25 April 2017 - 05:19 PM