APXEOLOG wrote:The problem is, if you want to add something into the client without the FPS drop, you should have knowledge about: client architecture, java (concurrency), opengl. Because of this reasons custom clients generally slower then the default one in theory. Mostly they are not - only because of some trivial rendering optimisations which are present in all custom clients. But if the amount of unoptimised custom features is greater then rendering benefits, then you get the situation when custom client has less FPS then default.
All valid points. However my argument to that is based on the effect it can have on the business model, and game itself. There are companies like Bethesda and even Wildcard with Ark: Survival Evolved that develop their own custom modding client so people can mod the game. However, what they don't give you access too; is the hard coded side of things. Like for instance, you could not create an entirely custom game from it, since some things are locked outside of the ability of the modder. Sure, I'm sure a few people could, but the majority won't know how.
What my point is here; is that with companies like this, they take the amazing mods that do really well and incorporate them to their game. Sure, they have a bigger staff, more money, and pretty much an unlimited amount of resources, but one would imagine that with how long this has been going on, that some form of change is due for the default client. You can't expect your community to run your client forever. I am almost willing to bet that there's probably a 85% margin of players that; if one day, Loftar & Jorb decide to pull the plug on custom clients, and that the only client that can be used is the default, their player base would drop drastically.
My other point is that I just(literally) got someone new into the game and gave them all the instructions on what to do and how to install everything. 5 minutes later they're lost, and can't figure out why the game won't launch, why it won't play when they click on the AutoHaven.jar, and why it doesn't seem to work no matter how many times I tell them step-by-step what to do. I had to TeamViewer into their computer, make sure Java was updated, move some things around, adjust some settings, and finally we were able to get Hafen to boot. Then, literally, the first thing out of her mouth was "What in the hell is wrong with this mini-map? It's terrible." Right there, provided I didn't explain and tell her about the different custom clients, she would have been done. As a great man once said, "It's not about what you like, it's the consumer".
Summary? out of the people that play Hafen, only 20% of them are actually going to say anything or reach out for help when they can't figure out how to get the game to load, or why the mini-map placement is so bad, or why in the world they can't see what the quality of an item is without hovering over each one, or actually doing physical math. When 95% of your playerbase utilizes a feature of a custom client, you integrate that into your own. I mean honestly, you already have the code for it in the custom client, polish it, make it your own, and then push it through to the default client. If Jorbtar are going to call Hafen "Eternal Alpha" then some of the things the community does, uses, and says should matter. Spend some quality time with the client, do some optimizations, add some new features to it, make it a smoother, simpler, more fluent install/download and you'll be all set. I really love some of the features of Amber's and Pasta's client, but do I use it? Nope. Simply because it runs like complete garbage. I might be a strange case that it happens too, but you have to figure I'm only one of the 20% that's going to say anything. The only client I've ever had a remote amount of luck with is Ender's, and in the past 5 years that I've been playing SeaTribe games, he's never let me down. Because it seems he knows what he's doing. There aren't many people out there that want to spend 45 minutes trying to get a game to install, going to outside sources like Java downloading first, or doing research on why their computer won't launch it. They will simply just not play, and that's just because we're creatures of simplicity, it's what we crave. A quick and easy install to get in the game faster.(Case In point: Steam)
If they want the game to stay around this player base, then keep it up! But I really don't see any company
not wanting to make money. go for a month and just focus on the client, optimizations, ease of install, etc. and I'm sure noone will truly mind, because that's what we want to see, progress.
There's going to be people that would just rather have content, but the majority of players(especially new ones) have a hard enough time learning the game. Having to get them to do custom clients and understand the install process is just one of the many things that people just don't want to do. Because it adds more headache to the learning curve of the game itself, there should not be a learning curve just to get it running too. I'd love to bring more of my friends into the game. Sadly, they usually bug-out because of the clients and not knowing which file is for what, which client is for what, and why they need these different clients.
On a side note: Take a look at the McDonalds story(I know, murica' and all that), but when McDonalds first launched in like the 1950's(or somewhere around then), they had 9 items on the menu. Their business was booming, then they slowly started to add more, and business was still booming. However, do the right research and you'll find that the profit margin of McDonalds projected earnings started dwindling rapidly as they began adding more and more to the menu. The psychology is simple, give the customer too many options, and in the end, they choose none. This story would fit perfectly in the theory of all the custom clients, there's too many of them. Start compiling them all together, or start removing them. Limit your customers options, give clear instruction on which ones to pick and why, and then the consumer with consume. Sales 101.
