ActionUT Ceases Development

Too bad. I never played it much after the first month of the last release... ...but that's just because I thought it'd be more ideal with the next release.

Oh well.

Good luck fellas. Sadly, i feel your pain all too well.

Just becuse MSU end that dosent mean the whole UT-Community have to die, just becuse there is no money and almost no fame to gain from the UT2K4 players this shouldnt totaly kill the community... i mean.. look at CS (yuck) it took them ages to get a nice realease and even longer time to catch the massive intrest the mod has today.
Its not uncommon to hear people say: " HalfLife.. isint that like a mod for CounterStrike? "

So to all the other modteams: please stay in there, think before u terminate production or switch to steam.

The MSUC had nothing to do with it. AUT was is development before it was announced and is the legacy of a UT99 project, way before MSUC Also, everyone get out there and give the mod a go!

Thank you, the community, for the great support and general spirit over the last couple of years and Squirrel, good luck your next big project the IRC boys were talking about.

Drats.

"There are simply not enough people playing the mod..."

Wow... that's the worst reason ever to stop devolopment of something.
I seriously thought the modding community was about something else then aiming to gain instant fame, maybe I was wrong?

Erm, check your facts. Instant fame? The Action series started the whole 'big' mod following, fame has never been a goal.

I don't know if you are a modder yourself but if you are you would appreciate how after 7 years on various engines its not too amazing to see the oldest team members wanting to get some free time. Also, if you read the statement, the lack of players was only one of many reasons.

Action Quake made me mod. Always liked your work, but understand your reasons.

NinetyNineNights said:

"There are simply not enough people playing the mod..."

Wow... that's the worst reason ever to stop devolopment of something.
I seriously thought the modding community was about something else then aiming to gain instant fame, maybe I was wrong?

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Oh please. Who the hell said anything about instant fame? Having other people play your stuff is one of the main reasons to mod, or at least releasing a mod.

Making a multiplayer mod is pretty complicated stuff. It takes a lot of time and energy. It can get pretty annoying to spend hours on this stuff and then have people toss it aside because of one or two things. Or complain about how there aren't any servers. Or whatever. Gamers have gotten so damn needy over the years. I've watched lots of decent mods and mutators get completely ignored because nobody bothered to try and get behind them, bothered to get some servers together, bothered to really help out. So maybe you can't code, can't model or can't map. You can't tell me you don't know how to start a game. It's getting to the point where I don't think people really want mods anymore - they just want a commercial quality game they don't have to pay for.

The Action series was one of the early mods that really took an interest in changing up core portions of gameplay. Not just weapons or map elements or items, but really altering the controls and how they would interact in the game. It helped define a genre of realism which has basically become pervasive in shooters. It came before Counter-Strike, before Infiltration, before any of them.

It was great to hear it coming to the Unreal engine, it's a big loss to see it go. This is a mod with a sound heritage and now it might completely disappear. And part of the reason is because gamer expectation of mods have changed. Even when people get high quality stuff, there's little weight behind it. How many Alien Swarm servers am I seeing on Gamespy right now? How many Red Orchestra servers? Huh? None, that's how many. UT2004 is the fifth largest online game on the Gamespy stats and the mods are almost completely unrepresented. Infiltration has moved to Source and now AUT is out. Honestly think that people not playing mods would have nothing to do with it?

Oh please. Who the hell said anything about instant fame? Having other people play your stuff is one of the main reasons to mod, or at least releasing a mod.

Making a multiplayer mod is pretty complicated stuff. It takes a lot of time and energy. It can get pretty annoying to spend hours on this stuff and then have people toss it aside because of one or two things. Or complain about how there aren't any servers. Or whatever. Gamers have gotten so damn needy over the years. I've watched lots of decent mods and mutators get completely ignored because nobody bothered to try and get behind them, bothered to get some servers together, bothered to really help out. So maybe you can't code, can't model or can't map. You can't tell me you don't know how to start a game. It's getting to the point where I don't think people really want mods anymore - they just want a commercial quality game they don't have to pay for.

The Action series was one of the early mods that really took an interest in changing up core portions of gameplay. Not just weapons or map elements or items, but really altering the controls and how they would interact in the game. It helped define a genre of realism which has basically become pervasive in shooters. It came before Counter-Strike, before Infiltration, before any of them.

It was great to hear it coming to the Unreal engine, it's a big loss to see it go. This is a mod with a sound heritage and now it might completely disappear. And part of the reason is because gamer expectation of mods have changed. Even when people get high quality stuff, there's little weight behind it. How many Alien Swarm servers am I seeing on Gamespy right now? How many Red Orchestra servers? Huh? None, that's how many. UT2004 is the fifth largest online game on the Gamespy stats and the mods are almost completely unrepresented. Infiltration has moved to Source and now AUT is out. Honestly think that people not playing mods would have nothing to do with it?

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You hit the nail on the head there dude. Majestic 12 for UT2004 died because of pretty much the same reasons.

The Gamespy stats are slightly inaccurate.

RegularX said:

Having other people play your stuff is one of the main reasons to mod, or at least releasing a mod.

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Not for everybody. I'm working on a little Total Conversion to fill up any spare time I have, I'm just doing it because I enjoy it and really don't care how many people play it. I can understand you guys disbanding because it's having an adverse effect on other aspects of your life but don't blame the gamers for simply finding more enjoyable ways to spend their time.

RegularX said:

Having other people play your stuff is one of the main reasons to mod, or at least releasing a mod.

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It shouldn't be.
I work on mods because I like to work on mods. That is the only reason, period.
So, from my point of view, I cannot agree on the first qoute. Of course it's not nice if all your work was completely being ignored, but that's not the case here.
Although you probably have good reasons to stop, and I am verry sorry about your desicion, this should not be used as an argument.
Then again, it could/must be different for me than for all the developers who have been working on it for 7 years
Ah well, I hope you guys enjoy your leisure, you deserved it

Ciced said:

Not for everybody. I'm working on a little Total Conversion to fill up any spare time I have, I'm just doing it because I enjoy it and really don't care how many people play it. I can understand you guys disbanding because it's having an adverse effect on other aspects of your life but don't blame the gamers for simply finding more enjoyable ways to spend their time.

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Me neither I mod becuse I want to see how far I can take it, what I can learn about programming,mapping,3d modelling starting with nothing. All my skills have improved on all fields and I still get reviews that could make me suicidal... but its not about that.

EB is way behind the big mods on a lot of fields an dosent deserve a good review ..yet.. and u wont see me quiting in a while.
But still its sad to see how people DONT play the best mods out there.. FO is ( if you ask me ) one of the most complete mods that have ever been created.
Maps, animations, models are more then many MP-games can offer today,
and the code is some of the most amazing **** I have ever seen, the coding part normal player cant see, but modmakers do. And still its not played that much, not over net atleast.

I dont know why acctully, i mean, not to be critical but MJ12 and SAS isint really starting a new area of MP-mods, they pretty much do what CS does ( okay i know about skillpoints etc.. but still ), FO on the other hand is something we havent seen before ( i havent ) AND STILL people sit in the same chair night in and night out playing CS...its insane... someone should create a special CS-virus to get rid of that crap.
PS. sorry about the spelling, im in a hurry

there are still people making mods for UT04. who didnt enter the MSUC *cough*

its a shame really. but maybe this might force Epic to speed up the next unreal engine games before more mods ship to HL2 or close down.... as we all know when UE3 is out. Mods from HL2 etc will come back to UT!

Spare me the altruistic mod angle.

And let's be specific here, I'm not a member of Akimbo and never have been.

Look, I've been mapping and modding since Doom and little to a certain extent a little before. I can still probably count the number of people who have seriously played my stuff on all my paws. I generally do this for experimental reason, academic reasons, just to see what X does with Y (or what I like to call the hamster effect). And I've coded lots of stuff, including what was probably the largest mutator pack for UT2003, just get stuff done for other people to look at and learn from.

So let's skip the reasons to mod speech. Fact is, when you take the time to organize a large team of people and keep them motivated to build something really large - one of your goals is going to be to have people play it. Read what I wrote more carefully - one of the major reasons to <b>release</b> something is to have people play it. I don't think there's a big logical leap there.

Most TC teams are trying to make multiplayer games. Unreal might have really good bots, but MP games are best played against real people. In fact, most MP games take drastic changes when different groups of people played. I enjoyed playing Riftwar with just myself and a friend - but I loved playing it with 6 or more people. Same with Freehold. Same with nearly everything I've done. Multiplayer games are more fun with people. Pretty much a fact.

So try and organize and motivate a team of skinners, modellers, mappers, texture artists, sound effects guys, musicians and coders with the concept of "you know, I doubt anyone will really play this when we're done." Lemme tell ya, it doesn't work that well. Hard enough to keep a team together when half of them are trying to get jobs in the industry and disappear halfway through development - even harder if they think that once it's done, it will just get played for a week and then shelved.

So yeah, doing some coding or mapping on your own - that's not a big deal to worry about the outcome. Probably have a fine time just firing up Instant Action and taking things for a spin. Smaller the team, easier it is to get away with that. Course, these days - people want TC's. They want expansion packs. Everyone wants pro quality work.

So we're heading for a catch-22 here. Gamers want "big circle" development, but not aren't really interested in supporting enough to gel an audience. "Big circle" mod teams want an audience, which will probably just leave the "small circle" crowd to entertain themselves.

I am very sorry to hear this. This is what I have to say about it:

Less people playing the mod online is also because there is a majority playing offline. This is a complaint I hear everywhere. I would like to shout out:

STOP PLAYING OFFLINE AND START PLAYING ONLINE!

Also T.B.H.:

MrGlock said:

I don't know if you are a modder yourself but if you are you would appreciate how after 7 years on various engines its not too amazing to see the oldest team members wanting to get some free time. Also, if you read the statement, the lack of players was only one of many reasons.

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I could not get that out of the statement. Maybe you should make that more clear.

I can understand your point PigBear and I'm afraid I haven't done much research on how many people are playing what, but I think there just aren't enough UT2k4 players to go around. CS is so popular worldwide because it has the system requirements of a carboard box, I dare not try out RO because it would probably melt my PC. (My comp is 3 years old and can't play the majority of Onsalught maps). I think perhaps these new engines are a victim of their own success, they need damn good comps just to play them which the casual gamer is not prepared to splash out on.

Does anybody have any sites that has player stats for mods and games?