The State of FAF
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I've personally only been active in the FAF community for almost a year so I suppose I'm still relatively new. One aspect of the state of FAF community that I strongly dislike is the amount of friction publicly displayed between the different teams involved in FAF. Hang around the Discord long enough and you'll see long arguments between the coloured names over certain issues in or out of the game. Whether the issue is actually substantial or not, I can't tell. But I feel like this sort of dirty laundry being aired out in the public for all server members to see only serves to provide an air of animosity between contributors that brings down the vibes of the place and could potentially deter future contributors. I've had contributor and moderating roles in other community Discords and there were usually rules to present a united front while mostly civil debates and arguments took place behind closed doors, away from the public eye. So coming here and not really seeing that was a bit of a culture shock for me. At this point, whether any change on this would actually do anything isn't even clear to me since it appears that this has been the way it is for quite awhile but it is something that occupies my mind from time to time.
I don't really have an educated opinion on game balance because I don't really think I'm qualified to comment on that. Having to groundfire T3 Sera subs is annoying though.
Replay-review channel is great, although you really only see the same few trainers helping out in the threads. Whether the rest of the team are inactive or prefer helping people privately. Who knows. But I have no complaints regarding the quality and speed of advice given there.
CGN is a nice step forward, the gimmicks are interesting enough to keep it different from a typical mapgen lobby and the emphasis on voice channels gives it a much more relaxed and social environment.
I look forward to more frequent tournaments involving the lower-ranked members of the community. Even without any substantial rewards, trying to win in a more competitive setting is a good incentive for improvement as well as reaching out to others for help and practice. It may not attract the most viewers but it's a net positive for the participants and the community.
If there's one addition I would like to see, it would be a more transparent process on how maps are selected for the map pool in matchmaking queues. I don't have issues with what maps are in the pool for my rating (1100~ ladder) but to my untrained eye, the rotating pool feels pretty random.
Of course, I wish servers were more stable and resistant to DDOS attacks but I don't have reasonable suggestions on how to achieve that so it might as well be a pipe dream.
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I am very proud of the community and how FAF is still standing after so long time and after so many ups and downs.
The recent discussion about a future rule change is the best example how mature FAF got. The discussion has such great input and shared thoughts from so many members that I am honored to be a part of the association team as well.
Discord is also a very active place. I am more of a silent reader, but newcomers always receive help, and the tech support from @MostLostNoob, and the major Linux-Support from @iczero is absolutely outstanding.
Are there some memes and cat-images in the general-chat from time to time? Yes, but that is part of the online experience. It never gets out of control.
There are some quirks and hiccups, such as DDoS attacks, or ICE-Adapter-Bugs, but nothing that can not be resolved over time. If the developers were not working behind the scenes to mitigate the most malicious attacks, or fix game-breaking bugs, FAF would have gone the way of the Dodo a long time ago.
I love watching replays from other players while making dinner. It is part of my daily routine and some kind of comfort before going to bed - I would truly miss it if it no longer existed. So thanks everyone for contributing.
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No mapgen month would work great for faf revival
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I love you guys so much
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MORE TOURNAMENTS PLEASE
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I am preparing a presentation that i will send to some of the board members, hoping to have them make it land on the next general meeting, regarding the state of FAF. Very briefly, i think FAF could be so much more, not because i think it sucks but because there's so much untapped potential in my opinion. Before i proceed, i can't talk about the community without mentioning the game first. In my opinion the game deserves more, there is a lot of stuff in the RTS genre who is subpar to supcom in terms of game design, but somehow manage to have bigger numbers, more recognition. This game should be more popular, and the community along with it. Respect to all the work being done by people who don't get a cent out of it, i wish for them and the whole community to be even more successful.
Being more specific, even tho i really enjoy the game, and although some excellent work is behind it, we have a low number of concurrent players (the max i've counted was 220 on a sunday evening), it's hard to get new members while some will inevitably move on, the infrastructure is both very complex and weak to DDoS, making for some hard technical challenges, and the competitive scene is to my knowledge not in his best era. The game is fun, the community is very helpful (well at least a portion of it) when teaching less experienced players, mods everywhere, even a ladder system, but imagine how things could go if we had bigger numbers and actual money for the infrastructure, some popularity on platforms like twitch with monthly events that have a public, that is something i would like to see. There would be many more things to mention, but i can't write a wall everytime. Is anyone here good with powerpoint and willing to lend me a hand on the presentation? I select based on factions played
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If you are playing the game then it seems to be in a decent state for pubs/custom games. But if you wanna just watch content like tournaments/high level casts/analysis then honestly it's pretty bad. Tuning in into the last tournament, just to see muted foley stream his beach excursions was pretty sad moment tbh.
Maybe I'm missing some YT casters etc, but I don't think we have anyone like Jagged at the moment.
And no, watching Gyle cast a "hIGh LEvEl" game doesn't count.
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@TheVVheelboy Do you think there's an available incentive to casters that FAF can offer? Or is it simply a case of waiting for the newer generation of casters to grow and find their feet a bit?
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@Razana you learn to ignore all the infighting among the colored name folk once you accept and realize that I am right in all things
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@Vindex I cant believe they downvoted my man for being right
