Player colors in the new scoreboard?

[MirceaKitsune]

The new scoreboard in the SVN looks very beautiful and much more complete then the previous one. There's only one thing that's been removed from the older scoreboard however, the ability to see each player's two custom colors. That was a very nice feature because some players identify someone on a map from the scoreboard by the colors they have on theirselves since no one stays to read their names during fighting and its the best method to see who is who from the list overall. It would be really sad to see that go... I for one always enjoyed knowing each by their colors in a deathmatch game with many players around. Then again I wouldn't want to see anything ruining the beauty of the new scoreboard either, but I was wondering if maybe there can somehow still be player colors displaying for everyone in that list?

Below is a picture with my own idea on how this could look like very nicely (its a paintrbushed screenshot however so no code changes or anything). That two-colored ball marked with the white arrow is something each player could have left of their name to show what their colors are thus making it easy to identify them on the map. It could be smaller then that and have some shading effects to not look so plain. That or another type of symbol would be best I think since the background behind the name in the old scoreboard really didn't look too pretty.

[[-z-]]

You sure request a lot of things. You know we all do this as a hobby right? These requests that you may consider simple can actually be quite complicated and the lot of them add up to be quite a work lord. The bulk of which will surely be put on diVverent. As I said before, your enthusiasm is great and I think you have a lot of good ideas but you seem quite demanding.

Donating to the developers or otherwise contributing is a great way to lift some of pressure of these requests. Knowing that they are working towards something that's going to be appreciated not just be greeting with more and more requests.

Anyhow, with that said... I actually discussed a similar idea with divVerent a few days ago. I was thinking something more like waypoints, halo 2 style. Players would be given an option of say 8 pictures and 2 colors (of the the available quake pallete). The addition to the scoreboard would be a nice touch.

But don't expect this change soon.

[MirceaKitsune]

Yeah I know the game is made as a hobby and open source. And I hope im not talking more then I should either... I'm not demanding them, just like talking and discussing new ideas and hoping they will be around if anyone can add them. Wish I was a dev myself so I knew how making stuff really is like *nods* if I only understood C / C++ / C# coding I would love helping out with stuff where I could too.

Otherwise I'm not sure how colored waypoints above each player would be like. Not sure how they'd look in crowded DM maps if each player had one floating above them... floating names when the names option is on would probably be best here I think.

[[-z-]]

Every little bit helps, 20 dollars, 10 dollars, 5 dollars, hell even 1 dollar helps. Its all less than you'd pay for a retail game where your ideas probably aren't even listened to.

Otherwise I'm not sure how colored waypoints above each player would be like. Not sure how they'd look in crowded DM maps if each player had one floating above them... floating names when the names option is on would probably be best here I think.

Err.. they would fade and shrink based on distance, I don't think they'd even be shown in DM... except maybe on focus on the player. I was thinking as more a team game so you know which teammates are where quickly and easily.

[take_this_cup_of_poison]

The bulk of? Hehe.That's an order of magnitude of understatement Virtually anything that is not media creation is done by divverent nowadays (with the exception of tZork's turrets, some menu additions etc, and savageX's terrain tool).

You sure request a lot of things. You know we all do this as a hobby right? These requests that you may consider simple can actually be quite complicated and the lot of them add up to be quite a work lord. The bulk of which will surely be put on diVverent. As I said before, your enthusiasm is great and I think you have a lot of good ideas but you seem quite demanding.

Donating to the developers or otherwise contributing is a great way to lift some of pressure of these requests. Knowing that they are working towards something that's going to be appreciated not just be greeting with more and more requests.

Anyhow, with that said... I actually discussed a similar idea with divVerent a few days ago. I was thinking something more like waypoints, halo 2 style. Players would be given an option of say 8 pictures and 2 colors (of the the available quake pallete). The addition to the scoreboard would be a nice touch.

But don't expect this change soon.

[TVR]

... You sure request a lot of things ... These requests that you may consider simple ...

There is no benefit withholding from expression, but potential benefits exist for the contrary; popular ideas help determine a development roadmap.

... 20 dollars, 10 dollars, 5 dollars, hell even 1 dollar helps ... Its all less than you'd pay for a retail game ...

The beauty of FOSS projects is completely voluntary development, from ones not enticed by commercial gain.

... Virtually anything that is not media creation is done by divverent nowadays ...

Relevant to the issue at hand, the new scoreboard was implemented by Blµb/0.

[[-z-]]

I don't want to derail this thread but...

The beauty of FOSS projects is completely voluntary development, from ones not enticed by commercial gain.

Did I say he had to pay?? I was making a point clear. Some people feel they can't contribute to the development but they can help out financially. I can tell you first hand, these people DO MAKE A DIFFERENCE in FOSS.

take_this_cup_of_poison was just emphasizing a point. Your negative attitude and constant undermining isn't what fuel the people who develop for this game. Its people who contribute. With ideas, graphics, code, good attitudes and money, yes money helps. Servers aren't hosted for free and life isn't always cheap.

Development that goes unappreciated can be frustrating. Constantly being told things about your software "aren't good enough" without saying, "here's what I did to help" makes you wonder, "under what authority?"

Yes, people take and don't give back to FOSS all the time. But at the heart it is about community and contribution.

You didn't even comment on this idea, you just came in this thread to show how "smart you are". Now we all know!

[MirceaKitsune]

Every little bit helps, 20 dollars, 10 dollars, 5 dollars, hell even 1 dollar helps. Its all less than you'd pay for a retail game where your ideas probably aren't even listened to.

I'd like to donate if I had any online money but sadly I don't and never had any Only form of real money I actually have are L$ on the Second Life virtual space though I'm not making any more there either so yeah. Anyway no need to fight over this, we do understand this and once again I hope I'm not making the devs feel bad with throwing too many ideas around. I wouldn't want anyone to get stressed over this if it's too difficult nor feel bad making the game, and anything that I report I only expect to be considered when and if someone can and wants to make it and don't need to see it in sooner then it's possible and comfortable for the devs.

In the end it is already enough we have what we have so far which is really wonderful. If that makes anything better I consider Nexuiz the best online FPS that exists so far (even better then Alien Arena which I tried and is nice too but didn't like it as much) and I think it's very close to being at the quality of a commercial gaming like the UT series and others. The fact this game is free at the same time is the thing I find most beautiful even if I know the devs don't get much off that. I think this game made many people who like this genre very happy and interested

Just as a note though, servers can be hosted for free like I do, though that depends on how you look at things. I have my PC on a unlimited transfer cable connection account and keep it running all day long because well, I spend most of my days at it doing random stuff. Since I'm connected anyway, I run server-sides for things and other applications, IRC channels, web pages and other stuff while its open almost always 24 / 7. I'd have my computer open even if I wasn't hosting them so that means I'm not paying anything extra to have a server so I am hosting things for free. Of course I don't have high peering powers and many get lag to me but still, anyone with a PC who has a slightly good connection can make a server and keep it open while their computer is on. Not sure how much it costs to keep a server running in other places on their own... unless something brakes and you need to buy new hardware I'm guessing it's only the internet accounts someone needs to pay but yeah.

Back on topic, even if waypoints could or could not be good my main question here is about the player colors in the scoreboard, and some method like that to display them again. On the technical side I thought maybe the method from the older scoreboard could be used just that instead of making the colors the name text's background they could be applied to a two sided symbol left of the name like a simple sphere like that colored in two sides. Dunno much of the code so it's probably not that easy then.

[divVerent]

I'd consider that very irritating and redundant for CTF... and want to see another solution in the future.

ONCE CSQC is able to find out where player entities are (it currently is not, but someone may implement the EXT_CSQC_1 extension which provides that feature), one could add a nice floating name display near the player. Maybe only show it when a key is pressed, and restrict it to the player closest to the crosshair (so it is less visual spam). Also, it would obviously be a good idea to only show it when the enemy is completely unobstructed, or it'd be like a wallhack

For those familiar with Tactical Ops: Assault On Terror: that game has such a display, and I liked it very much. That's where I want the "show names" function to be going to, and it'd eliminate the need for colors in the scoreboard. And I'd prefer to not implement some temporary hack that we'd immediately throw away once someone makes EXT_CSQC_1... so for now, put up with this.

However, anyone who makes such a patch is welcome to submit it, it'd be accepted, but he would be told that the change is likely to be removed later.

[[-z-]]

I wouldn't recommend trying to run an open source community off a home server. Your unlimited plan is probably not as unlimited as you think. The upload speed and computer hardware is far below what a datacenter can provide. A simple power outage can really screw you too, unless you have a UPS (Uninterruptible power supply) but even then there are some risks.

There are varying degrees of hosting options that start a mere dollars per month but for those mere dollars you can sleep soundly. Of course, these mere dollars begin to grow with your community and depending on your needs, servers can start costing you over well over 100 dollars a month.

I'm sorry this whole thing was blown out of proportion, I was just making a passing comment about donating or otherwise contributing. I don't want you to feel like your ideas are unwanted, that is surely not the case. Nexuiz is free, I don't want anyone to feel like they have to pay, that's absurd. I was just trying to put all these requests into perspective. Letting those who feel they can't contribute any other way can do so by financially helping out the project.

Can we please resume the topic at hand? :-\