Comments on: 0.18 Tournament Results

By: PleasingFungus

PleasingFungus — Sun, 19 Jun 2016 03:10:14 +0000

Yeah, the numbers we’ve seen have always suggested that online players are just a very noisy minority, much like console players, skilled players, devs…

By: Plutia

Plutia — Sun, 19 Jun 2016 03:06:09 +0000

@Disco
a lot of us don’t participate in tournaments too, I’m always running the latest development version by compiling with msysgit2, but I play local, and don’t participate in tournaments all that much because my internet is so crazy, I still bring lots of people into the game who play often but like me we all play on local versions, so tournament isn’t exactly a big measure of how many people actually play, I’d assume anyways.

By: 1158511

1158511 — Wed, 15 Jun 2016 19:38:54 +0000

Just found this game and want to give a huge shout out to the community for making this gem. Did I mention that it was FREE? Incredible work guys I’m loving it.

By: mps

mps — Wed, 08 Jun 2016 15:29:24 +0000

Interest in anything, but games especially, naturally declines over time as novelty wears off. In the long run you can’t rely on word of mouth alone. I think what you’re seeing is a slow narrowing of player base to a “hardcore” audience, for whom the novelty introduced through you guys’ update model is enough (or merely tolerated in some cases lol).

re: Disco’s comment, I too think this is off-base. If anything, .18 has a problem of not going far enough in streamlining vestigial mechanics (no progress on food, going backward on identification and curses) and instead adding questionably designed material (e.g. Pakellas, the return of spirit hounds) or addressing issues of limited interest (most of the amulet reform falls under both of these). The main improvements imo were removal of some wands, removal of most mutation resistance, and reworking some ill-considered monsters (death cobs and entropy weavers).

By: dpeg

dpeg — Wed, 08 Jun 2016 13:56:13 +0000

mps: Why expect downward trend? The usual behaviour is exponential growth first, then stagnation and slow decline. However, DCSS has regular updates, and I am not sure that the Asian community knows about the tournaments, for example. Perhaps this is what you mean by promoting!

Disco: I’ve just approved of your comment, even though it is extremely off the mark from my point of view. Obviously, I don’t care if you think we wimped out, but the game has more depth than ever: spells, monsters etc. are more, and more meaningfully varied, than ever.
I do wonder what those “richer experiences” are.

By: Disco

Disco — Wed, 08 Jun 2016 13:48:07 +0000

Surprise surprise, player count is down across the board while winrate is up. More proof this game is getting worse and worse with all the “streamlining” over the past several iterations. I now only recommend this game to those first starting out with rogue-likes, due to its easy interface and simplistic play. Experienced roguelike players have moved on to richer experiences and no longer play this: just not enough depth anymore.

By: mps

mps — Wed, 08 Jun 2016 01:17:37 +0000

@dpeg: Without any special effort made to promote the game, you can expect a downward trend in player base. You can see this trend between .16 and .17 as well, in spite of .17 being a better release. The more interesting question is why the number of players in the .16 tournament increased so much over the .15 tournament.

By: ventricule

ventricule — Tue, 07 Jun 2016 11:19:30 +0000

Oh wow that shaft on D:1 and then getting stuck between an adder and crazy Yiuf, what an unlucky start.

Thanks everyone for the tournament, I also enjoy these reports a lot, please keep writing them in the future!

By: wat

wat — Fri, 03 Jun 2016 19:31:55 +0000

I had a lot of fun in this tourney. Looking forward to the next one!

There were a lot of great clan names, too. So many puns.

By: dpeg

dpeg — Fri, 03 Jun 2016 01:41:43 +0000

I wonder if the reduction in player count has to do with the loss of the CSZO server. (Curse that griefer, may he be banished for eternity!)

Many thanks to chequers and elliptic!