A Newbie's Observations

[GunHammer]

First off, let me say that Nexiuz is *infinitely* superior to its main competition in the multiplayer freeware FPS field, Alien Arena. There's just no comparison in terms of speed, excitement, weapons, and gameplay. It's also great to actually have someone to play against! The single player campaign mode was especially good, as was the bot AI. On a more trivial level, I loved how compact the map files are and how fast they downloaded, as well as the handy 35 map pack. Nexuiz blows away AA in this area too, as the latter has no compilation of maps and the maps/textures/models take forever to download with the in-game interface.

The only suggestion I have is better regulation of Beginner servers. There are expert players lurking those servers who toasted me regularly. Very frustrating.

Still, awesome job to the dev team, and all of it for free??? I have to pinch myself now and then to make sure this is real.

[C.Brutail]

Yeah, it's all for free, but not just "free as b33r". Free as FREEDOM (that's what GPL is all about).
About the comparisson to AA: I don't realy think it's competiting AA. As I've never played it, I can't tell what's better or worse than in AA, but the two games are realy not the same: AA has a pretty well designed "martians vs humans vs robots" storyline, but Nexuiz is nothing more than "new age pure DM".
But it's nice to hear, you like this game About the n00b server, there is one, I just can't tell you it's name now. And prectice more, if you have a little experience in other FPS-es (quake series or unreal) you'll find yourself in a pretty familiar place in a short time

[esteel]

I also dislike those comparisons very much.. especially as after a hard time the developers of both games get along quite ok and i think neither of us thinks too much about competing. We just like to create fun games and both have their fans. I like both very much and i think we had enough posts comparing them and creating bad blood. If you do not like AA thats fine but it would be nice to declare that in a more nice and friendly way. But i'm sure Irritant will read your post and try to improve that download thing..
I just think you did not take enough time to discover AA, it also has some nice map packs, a friendly community and is fun to play and btw it is as free as nexuiz as far as i know

Hmm i have no clue about that newbie server, i think it would be the wrong one for me.. what is its name?

[C.Brutail]

I've looked up that server in XQF:

80.82.220.60:26004
DCC's Maiden's Delight BEGINNERS ONLY DM [Duesseldorf, Germany]

To connect, just type "connect 80.82.220.60:26004" in the console from the menu (shift+escape to pull down the console).

[divVerent]

On a more trivial level, I loved how compact the map files are and how fast they downloaded,

Actually, we are cheating in that respect.

Currently, Nexuiz has no in-game map download protocol (the next version will have that too), so maps get downloaded from external HTTP or FTP servers the server admin has to set up. However, as those servers usually have much more bandwidth available than the game server and don't need to get limited like game server traffic needs to, downloads go quite fast - and it's easy to get some web space, even free one, to store one's maps.

Maps, OTOH, are not compact. Map packages usually reach 5 to 10 MB, that is anything but small. It just appears smaller due to the faster "off-loaded" download from "external sources" by HTTP or FTP.

[GunHammer]

Well, I seem to have managed to step on everyone's toes quite nicely with a single post. I guess I'll shut up now. But yes, it was the Maiden's Delight server.

I still have AA on my computer, and I would like to give it another try if I could find a map pack. A weekend of empty servers and fifteen-minute downloads just sort of turned me off from the outset. Honestly, I didn't really mean to sound quite as critical about AA as I see my post was; I was merely trying to commend Nexuiz for appealing to me more, or at least making a newbie's experience smoother.

All I was able to find that even resembled a map pack was this site, http://www.alienarena.info But it didn't have the maps that people were actually playing on.

And lastly, I had no idea that there was a history of debate between the two games, so obviously feel free to lock this thread and chalk it up to ignorance.

[esteel]

Well you did not step on OUR toes but flaming is VERY low in this forum and i think at least those that are game developers too know how it feels to read a comment that bashes ones game. Both games are created in the free time of their respective developers and both try hard to make it as polished and great as possible. I guess you would also not like to read something bad about stuff you created for fun.

Not sure about your problem on the beginners server.. Maybe he just wanted to have some fun or was drunk or what ever. But its not sportsman like to bash beginners, guess the admins will take some extra looks at the server if they read your post.

If you need more help or want more direct response you can also get on irc.. Channel #nexuiz on quakenet. I think the admins of that server are there too.

One mappack for AA seems to be here: http://www.forsakenweb.com/alienarena/f ... y_pack.zip
Or take a look here: http://www.alienarena.info/
Or the official AA forum.. http://corent.proboards42.com/

[Psychcf]

one of the things I find with the nexuiz community is that 1 the "flame" rate (bad pun) is very low, and 2, even if you do flame someone, they don't take it so hard. If I'm mad (I remember I was one night, sorry for anyone who was on that server) and I call everyone on the server a newb, they don't take me too seriously untill I disconnect. Other games are known for their trashtalkers, we are very lucky.

[tChr]

Well, I seem to have managed to step on everyone's toes quite nicely with a single post. I guess I'll shut up now. .

Dont worry dude, You didnt step on anyones toes, I personally enjoyed your enthusiasm about the game. Dont let those old dusty germans scare yeo.. they tend to forget thay are talking to people and not just some alive website somewhere

But seriusly.. You didnt step on any toes. Cya ingame

[C.Brutail]

Dont let those old dusty germans scare yeo..

WTF?