Bringing New Life Back To VC:MP

[SugarD]

As many as you may or may not know, I'm working alongside multiple people to try and bring back the MTA 0.x series for GTA III/VC. Some of you may ask why I even bothered just saying that, or why I'm here. The reason is because I would like to do the same for VC:MP. Admitting it or not, the mod is dying. Development, assuming there even is any happening right now, is being kept so secretive that users aren't even sure if the mod is still being coded. 0.4's Public Beta turned out to be a horror fest, the site can barely stay up half the time, and the popularity in the mod has gone downhill very quickly ever since users became unsure of it's stability in the community. I would like to change this. I'm asking that the devs try and pull themselves together and begin coding again, (and if they have been this whole time, publicize it). I'm also asking that the community get involved in repopulating this mod. I'm also willing to help out in any way I can. Might I suggest a new website design as well? New users have no clue that the forum still even exists because there is no link to it. The forum is also lacking a link back to the main domain, or the downloads. An overhaul with a fun, fresh look might give it a boost of confidence in the users' eyes. Also, more publication of what's going on with the team. I know I mentioned it a few times already in my post here, but besides development, overall just post about how things are going. Are tests going well? Are devs on a small break to clear their heads? Is a special event related to VC:MP coming up? Etc.

Anyone else who also has ideas, post them here. I would like to see what everyone thinks about this.

[Klaus_Meine]

Do you even play VC:MP, SugarD?

[Skirmant]

The development isn't that secretive, it's just not happening at all. All you need is to contact Maxadator to find out. And as I heard from him, serious development isn't going to happen ANY time soon because of the occupation of developers with more serious stuff. Like a job, school, family ect.
But I agree with you that it's ridiculous that there's not even a link to the forum in the main page. And more popularity would surely be nice.

[Charleyutton]

I have a feeling that you haven't been observing VC:MP very closely SugarD. Without meaning to sound condescending, most of your facts are plain wrong.

VC:MP has been growing steadily for the last 3 years or so. The playercount in 2008 averaged at about 25/30 players online max. In 09 it was probably closer to 40 and now it can be seen to get up to over 130/140. This is in part due to the release of R2, but mostly because of the efforts from certain members and bodies within the community to promote activity and keep the game alive. There are a couple of servers that have been putting a lot of dedication into the effort and the clan scene is larger than it has ever been.

The official website and consequently the Master Server List have been going up and down for as long as I can remember; It is not a new thing. I remember in 2008 they went down for about 2 months or so, or maybe 3. But we still carried on. Many of us have tried to help the devs in some way or another, even with the offer of financial support and MSL mirrors, but sadly it's a lost cause. We have accepted that trying to affect the official side of VC:MP is a waste of time and effort, instead, it is up to us to influence the unofficial side; ie. clans, servers, events.

The most helpful thing you could do realistically would be to put effort into one of those things, not this. There is a community in VC:MP, one far larger than any time in the last few years, it's just not on this forum.

[[AoD]NC]

SugarD... I remember the name from LU and MTA forums... Oh that you .

You said some true things in your posts, but devs are deciding what to do. Some of these points were already discussed, but that's all for now.

Yeah that's true devs may be busy with real life, but look, someone paid for the server & domain so the mod is not dead yet.

On some nightly test, max said that he would be happy, if there would be more active developers, who knows how to code a MP (for example people who would know how to do a trainer for a game using memory hacking etc.).

[YaceQ]

Its not so easy unfortunatelly... But Charleyutton is right, we've got more players than ever. Now ther is over 80 players playing. Earlier (0.1d, 0.3) almost everybody played on LW, now its different. ~15 players on one server, ~20 on second, ~15 on third, etc. It's not so bad as it seems One problem is, that we have nothing to test now I think if players knew that devs are coding and new version will be out sonner or later, there would be more active players. And this forum would be alive.

[Charleyutton]

One problem is, that we have nothing to test now

Again, I disagree. There are many ways in which VC:MP could be manipulated but isn't.

There are 2 ways we can still 'test' out VC:MP's capabilities:

Ingame: Learning new glitches and bugs. We're constantly finding new glitches and it would be silly to say we know them all now, as some have come out as recently as a couple of months ago.

Outofgame: Whilst VC:MP's scripting capabilities are often slandered, it's not because they are necessarily particularly limited, it's that they're not easily accessible. If someone were to put a decent amount of time into learning complicated scripting and game manipulation, I'm certain they would come up with things not seen on any server at present.

It's all good and well sitting here going 'oooh it's the devs fault or vcmp's fault for being so limited' or 'oooh we need a new version because we've exhausted this one.'

I think it's probably time people stop calling the devs lazy and actually putting some work in themselves to make the most of a mod that has plenty more potential than that which has been displayed so far.

The dead forums here aren't because the devs are lazy, it's because people are lazy.

[[AoD]NC]

Ingame: Learning new glitches and bugs.

Do you mean those VCMP bugs or VC's map glitches?

If someone were to put a decent amount of time into learning complicated scripting and game manipulation, I'm certain they would come up with things not seen on any server at present.

Yeah, if someone spend some time on scripting, he will make something awesome, but have you ever tried to script for a other MP or in the basic SCM? There are thousand of functions, which are not available for VCMP, but could be!

I think it's probably time people stop calling the devs lazy and actually putting some work in themselves to make the most of a mod that has plenty more potential than that which has been displayed so far.

What do you suggest? Make a user-modded-VCMP-version ?

[SugarD]

Ingame: Learning new glitches and bugs.

Do you mean those VCMP bugs or VC's map glitches?

If someone were to put a decent amount of time into learning complicated scripting and game manipulation, I'm certain they would come up with things not seen on any server at present.

Yeah, if someone spend some time on scripting, he will make something awesome, but have you ever tried to script for a other MP or in the basic SCM? There are thousand of functions, which are not available for VCMP, but could be!

I think it's probably time people stop calling the devs lazy and actually putting some work in themselves to make the most of a mod that has plenty more potential than that which has been displayed so far.

What do you suggest? Make a user-modded-VCMP-version ?

@Your last comment, it almost seems like that's how things will end up happening in the future if the devs don't come back. It happened to MTA 0.x, so I can see it easily happening here.

@Klaus: I won't even get into that topic with you. Yes, I'm from Argo, and only Argo, but I'm not even about to discuss that one.

Edit: I know there's a topic discussing it on the SA:MP forums, but what about the future possibility of open source? It worked well for MTA: SA and kept their mod from dying completely, and even helped them pick up a few good devs to assist with all the work. Maybe VC:MP could benefit from a similar method.

[Charleyutton]

@NC: 1) VC:MP bugs. Fighting glitches etc.
         2) Fair enough
         3) No, I'm talking about my previous points.

[[AoD]NC]

Note guys, that VCMP is STILL property of the VCMP team so maxorator, bakasan and Falcon. If they will be back, they will decide what to do.

Moving to open source? Was discussed on this forum, but I doubt that this will happen to VCMP. VCMP's 0.1c source was released and look what happened: there were so many multiplayers built on this source (see VC:MV, VC:P, VCO partly and many many more). For now VCMP is the ONLY available multiplayer for VC (correct me if I am wrong).

@Sugar: I have heard about the project for bringing MTA:VC back. MTA:VC is oldschool, that's maybe the only reason why to play it. Towncivillian has maybe fixed many bugzors in MTA's scm file, but he won't make a better sync? Also MTA is using a SCM file, VCMP since R2 don't even need a scm file.

[Force]

Just my two cents but if you look around, there ARE servers with some pretty good scripts, for example theres SvM, HA, MDM, MDR, all official servers, even with their own forum section here, with some unique scripts on offer to the public. The problem is everyone just flocks to either XE or UMS, with UMS being a cheaters paradise, I hate to say it but there are more cheaters around now than there ever was.

[YaceQ]

One problem is, that we have nothing to test now

Again, I disagree. There are many ways in which VC:MP could be manipulated but isn't.

Could be, of course. But there is more players playing in servers like XE or UMS than in servers with great scripts. Dunno if u remember 0.2 version and this town in sky. There were hundreds of players on this tests. It was smth different than 0.1d. Scripts are ok, its not possible to do everything with them. New versions, progress in VC-MP, it will encourage more players to play this game. Scripts aren't for all server, new version is.

[[AoD]NC]

Don't agree with you Jacek. If there won't be a new release, players will simply leave this MP. Even if there will be a new version, every day passed meanwhile means that some players will leave this MP.

[Klaus_Meine]

Could be, of course. But there is more players playing in servers like XE or UMS than in servers with great scripts.

Well Argonath has some pretty neat scripts and is as well quite populated