What does the future hold for Altitude?

[wyclef]

Missing the times when we would get regular updates with new features and functionality. Anything exciting planned for this game ever again?

[Slender]

The moment KarLam decided to make the game free and make no more money out of it, meant the end of future development for it.

[wyclef]

So several years from now this game will be more or less dead?

[Slender]

Who knows? The current player base is most likely around 17-30 years old? We will eventually grow old and priorities will arise. As most communities, my personal feeling is that people will slowly stop playing the game from now on precisely because of this. But the outcome could be anything, there's also been a significant low amount of palyers over the past year or two but very active, this could perfectly go on for who knows how many years.

[VAN1SH1NG]

What do you want to see? New features and and functionality can be developed by the community. This is of course limited to what can be accomplished by reading the server logs and issuing commands to the server. But there is still quite a bit that can be done.

Ladder is under active development although work on it is slowing down due to lack of time. 90% of the work going forward will be on improving the website which will be a big deal to those interested in stats. There will also be pub servers with stat collection posted to AltitudeRank.com within 3 months.

New game modes are possible, but again due to lack of time don't expect too much from me. Dodgeball will be running on ladder servers this month. I developed a replacement to ball_football last year with a much larger map and you respawn where you die rather than always back in a designated spawn area. This should also finally be permanently launched within the next few months.

I had two variations of volleyball planned but no idea when/if they will be completed. I have been really wanting to create a large scale zone control type mode, but again no idea since nothing has started on it and any free time I can find is going to go towards improving the AltitudeRank.com website. Race could work very well too now with the relatively new feature to set spawn points midgame. I can probably find the time to do race since very little work is necessary.. basically only making maps and having spawn points set to location of death.

I'd like to also transform AltitudeRank.com from just a ladder website to a complete Altitude website. It could be marketed and hopefully bring in some new players. For example I just created a website for another game yesterday: https://allegiancegame.com/. So imagine something like that but mixed with stats, etc from AltitudeRank.com

[wyclef]

new planes, new weapons, new skins, new fun like the old days. make all skins accessible, more care required landing, more difficulty flying heavily damaged plane, instant replays, altitude loyalty superpowers for sticking with the game since the beginning, etc.

i just want to game to be instilled with some new life. how can i make some custom skins. tired of santas hat. Is there another newer game out there like altitude everyones playing?

[VAN1SH1NG]

Never going to see new planes or weapons in Altitude. I don't think we need any new planes anyway since it is balanced pretty well now. New weapons/perks could help keep things fresh while maintaining balance, but I don't see the devs putting any time into that since its not making them any money. Same to the rest of the things you mentioned.

Truthfully I think the only huge change they could make with little effort that would be worthwhile is a server option to remove gravity either from the ball or for everything (with the exception of bombs).

Removing gravity, at least from the ball, could make ball_football play much better. Removing it completely could make things feel fresh.. like more of a space shooter.

I've not found any newer games like Altitude which is why most of us who like these types of games are still here. There was an older game very close to Altitude but not with planes. It has much more in-depth game modes, but Sony shut down the servers and it is not very alive anymore. You can check out the community run servers at http://www.freeinfantry.org. As far as I know pretty much only one game mode is played anymore which is unfortunate.

I think SubSpace is probably still alive too but haven't played that in 10+ years, so I don't really know. But nothing newer, but similar to Altitude seems to exist.

Really the only option for continued development in Altitude would probably be if they attempted a KickStarter for new features. I think they are focused on making new games and probably don't want to put any time into Altitude. But who knows.. maybe they could be convinced to start a KickStarter with very lofty goals that would convince them it is worth their time.

[wyclef]

maybe we should start a kickstarter to raise money for them to continue work.

[VAN1SH1NG]

They would need to do the KickStarter, not us. Really no harm for them though. They could set whatever really high funding amount they want and if they don't reach it, no loss to them other than the time to set up the KickStarter.

The problem is I think they are working full time on a new game and they'd probably have to release that and support it for awhile before they'd consider putting that kind of time into Altitude, paid or not.

[Mango777]

Are karlam actually working on a new game?

[Karl]

Long answer: I tweet like once a year or so on average. https://twitter.com/nimblygames

Short answer: Yes we are working on a new game, it's called Flamebreak. It is due for release this summer.

[Brutal]

Ooo a new game. I'm down to try another game by Nimbly Games. Altitude seems to slowly dying but I know there are a few new players every day so it could go either way. But Flamebreak, sounds pretty cool! Any hints or previews we could see yet?

[mikesol]

Originally Posted by Brutal

Ooo a new game. I'm down to try another game by Nimbly Games. Altitude seems to slowly dying but I know there are a few new players every day so it could go either way. But Flamebreak, sounds pretty cool! Any hints or previews we could see yet?

If you go to the twitter account Karl linked to - you can see a few glimpses of some parts of it

[Brutal]

Thanks Mike. So it won't even be a plane based game like Altitude?

[Oyster]

How do I get on the development team for Nimbly Games?

[Mango777]

What is the theme/genre of Firebreak? By the looks of the art and stuff, it will be a top-down fantasy game where you attack enemies like boomerangers, elves and maybe dragons.

[REDDRAGON]

rip

[Knipchip]

I think Altitude's multiplayer gameplay is very good for many reasons. The reason that its popularity has been fading seems to lie elsewhere.

Main shortcomings seem to be:
1) Netcode
2) Watching games not thrilling enough, too few wow-moments
3) No matchmaking; this needs to be done in a way that minimizes randomness
4) No possibility for modding
5) Bad AI
6) Cartoon style; people are biased

In time I could solve 5) provided 4) is solved, if only to show ball-type naysayers what's possible. 1), 3) and 6) are doable. 2) seems to require altitude 2.0, which is a good excuse learn from 1.0's shortcomings and create an even better game.

I could write a long story on why precisely this type of game seems so promising, but that'll have to wait.

Would it not be an interesting idea to introduce special abilities to this game? I can think of many that would really add something to this type of game. This would definitely solve 2). Imbalance? Not if matchmaking is done right.

The fact that many people enjoy this type of game was proved early on. And this game could become so much better still, and gain the qualities necessary for being able to thrive more reliably in today's gaming community. I would be interested to hear karlam's precise reasons for abandoning this concept.

[Mango777]

Originally Posted by Knipchip

(...)
6) Cartoon style; people are biased

I would love seeing a "texturepack" option implemented, where you can choose to texture your planes differently. If people can choose/make different texturepacks, I'm sure more people would be attracted to this wonderful game, since right now I'm pretty sure most people who come across Altitude think its a cartoon game for kids. (Which is totally not true.)

[wyclef]

altitude is life

[-MH-CaptainVogez]

Yeah it was a surprise to come back after 2 years and see a certain couple of people playing still, and yet others who were mad fanatics gone a while ago apparently.
It's always fun to come back and have a spin even if majority of the people you will be online with are just new players who won't stay around long.

[Solikos]

Assuming there was some development given to the game, it seems like you could borrow a couple of common (but successful) ideas from other games to really stir it up:

1) Add randomized items (perhaps awarded every 1000 xp). This would give achievement-seeking players a reason to keep playing. Can you imagine Diablo w/o random equipment drops?

2) Add some actual benefit to acing - a skill tree! This would not only add a lot more variables (in addition to the perk system) but keep players motivated in gaining experience. More variables would give players even more combos to tinker with. You could require a certain amount of xp regained in order to 'respec' (make some use of all the exp gained after max ace).

Of course both suggestions throw what is currently a well balanced system into a bit of flux, but I personally would love a thermo-reducing rudder and maybe some NOS!

[wyclef]

there should be an altitude mod where there are more modern planes like stealth bomber and a10 warthog etc.

[CmdrNoval]

Originally Posted by wyclef

there should be an altitude mod where there are more modern planes like stealth bomber and a10 warthog etc.

Did someone say A-10 Warthog...

You now have my full attention...

[Mango777]

Originally Posted by wyclef

there should be an altitude mod where there are more modern planes like stealth bomber and a10 warthog etc.

And they should add moving turrets (tanks)... that can be modified in map editor, eg. make a thermoEMP missile (not rocket) tank. That shoots at you.

[SirriuS]

Originally Posted by VAN1SH1NG

What do you want to see? New features and and functionality can be developed by the community. This is of course limited to what can be accomplished by reading the server logs and issuing commands to the server.

Maybe at one point they (creators) can allow mods or an API or better yet, open source it so we can fork it and add/change features. And if one branch gets popular can be updated as the main branch effectively updating the game.

[tomato man]

Originally Posted by SirriuS

Maybe at one point they (creators) can allow mods or an API or better yet, open source it so we can fork it and add/change features. And if one branch gets popular can be updated as the main branch effectively updating the game.

This would be awesome for hundred reasons but i think its never gonna happen