Sunday, May 15, 2011

Are Custom Maps Any Good?

   This is the question I asked my self when I started Ace of Spades the other day, so I figured I might as well find out. I joined and tried out a few servers running custom maps. First off something I already disliked is how the server browser does not tell you if maps are running a custom map or not. So I had to just try joining servers until one had a custom map. Once I was in, it was great!

The Urban Map
   The first custom map I tried was the Urban Map. This map takes place in a large city like area. It gets it's point across with a quite a few detail less buildings that are mostly different size rectangular prisms with holes blown into corners and sides of walls. In between the building was just a relatively flat grass layer and craters. The water layer instead was dirt at the bottom of craters. The map could have been so much more had the creator spent time on it. Sure it was fun but image actual streets, buildings with interiors, staircases, and windows. Yet the map was created within 24 hours after the map creating software came out so for its time frame it is quite good.
The map with buildings behind it.


Relatively empty areas between buildings.
Bridge Wars
    Bridge wars brings a whole new spin to Ace of Spades. Instead of being able to take the route you want to the enemy intel you are now separated by a huge gaping chasm that is sure to kill you. Sure you could try to place blocks to make a bridge across it but chances are, you will die. When the map starts there is a half constructed bridge in the middle for both sides. The sides will duke it out as they try to build the bridge and steal the enemies intel. However both sides of the map are simply flat and boring land.

The map showing the bridges and flat land.
The giant chasm and bridges.
The flat land on both sides of the map.
Cave Wars
   This map is simple yet fun. It takes the idea of "What if the map had a huge mountain in the middle of it" and implements it. The mountain however has a few natural caves that go through it. Now players must adapt to a new environment to fight in as they work there way through natural caves.

The map showing the mountain in the middle.
The mountain from the ground.
Inside the cave system.
So the answer is, yes, custom maps are extremely fun when done right! They can make the gameplay feel refreshing and new! So, tell me, do you enjoy playing on custom maps? 

Saturday, May 14, 2011

This Poll in Review (What you would like to see)

   I created this poll with the original intentions of showing Ben what his community would like to see added to the game. In the end I was surprised by the outcome of the votes. I expected most to be relatively even, nothing too far ahead. Boy was I wrong. Weapons dwarfed all others coming in at first place with 236 votes. Thats more than 3 times the amount of votes for maps. Now, In my own opinion I must say.... I am worried about the implementation of new guns. The smallest mistake can unbalance the entire gmae and ruin the experience.
Maps 76 (14%)
Gamemodes 73 (13%)
Blocks 25 (4%)
Weapons 236 (44%)
Classes 70 (13%)
Mod Support 42 (7%)
Nothing 7 (1%)

    What kind of weapon would you want to see added first?

I'm back! Updates 0.45, 0.46, and 0.47

  While I was busy I missed out on some awesome Ace of Spades info like the minimap and the higher resolution player weapons. This may mean the current weapon mods on the blog may no longer work, however most likely they are still compatible.  Nope, the update broke old model compatibility, looks like all the of the mods section needs to be redone! Along with 0.45 comes rifle block damage again. It was interesting playing with it off though, it seemed like bunkers and forts were more useful when someone couldn't just shoot a hole in it with ease. Although 0.45 was riddled with fixes and a little content 0.46 and 0.47 bring little to the table besides a few albeit important bug fixes.


Ace of Spades Beta 0.47
-floating block fix
-unexposed map edge fix

Ace of Spades Beta 0.46
-fixed name bug
-fixed map generator missing voxels

Ace of Spades Beta 0.45
-added minimap
-new weapon/tool models with higher resolution and better lighting
-new ironsight png (allows scopes)
-increased grenade throw distance
-default resolution reduced to 800x600
-restored rifle block damage
-server-side ammo count fix
-fixed grenade damage after death
-volume now adjustable when dead
-fixed bug in floating block detection
-fixed occasional no respawn bug
-server-side sanity checks on map edits
-default install directory changed to avoid UAC issues
-getcube function now works properly
-reduced grenade bandwidth usage
-color of map grid changed
-map grid spacing is now even
-better handling of exposed map edges in-game

 So, I'm wondering did you enjoy rifle block damage turned off or are you happy to see it back?

Friday, May 6, 2011

Faster than the speed of light! Beta 0.42

   This is great! Sure, having to to update your game multiple times for bug fixes might seem like a bad thing but it isn't! This shows Ben is able to quickly respond to bugs and tackle them efficiently! Within an hour the game went from 0.36 to 0.4 to 0.41 and now 0.42.

Ace of Spades Beta 0.42
-fixed map radar bug
-fixed image tearing on fast rotation (may fix potential crash)
So, not too many fixes and no new features but still a worthy update.

In other news, people have already started working on maps! Here is a WIP image showing the map grid and a small custom map!

By Tark
Version 0.42 is available from the official website and our F.A.Q.

Thursday, May 5, 2011

Quick update Beta 0.41

After Ben made a mistake of not including a folder with the install called vxl he has quickly released another update.

Ace of Spades Beta 0.41
-vxl folder added to installer
-version fix test

Also wanted to mention a few more new things. Maps should now have a useful grid on them for cooridnstio with team mates. Also map editing is supposed to be relativley complex. Not as simple as Weapon and player editing anyway. Do you think you are going to try and create maps for AoS? I know I will!

Beta 0.4 Custom Maps!

   Within the last few minutes Ben has released a major update with multiple bug fixes and support for custom maps! Yes you read that right! The newest version will come with a "VOXED map editor". So far I don't know much about it but will report back when I do. So far we know maps are constrained to 512 x 512x 64 which is the current map dimensions.


Map Format Requirements
    Also great news is rifle block destruction "should" be added back in in this version as with new fixes like live grenades dropped on death. As in if you have pulled the pin on a grenade but not thrown it and you die, a grenade will be dropped. Along with that some fixes in map loading and lag kills were implemented!

Ace of Spades Beta 0.4
-added VOXED map editor
-servers can load custom maps
-F1 will save a map from in-game
-added map grid
-drop live grenades on death
-gunhit sould restored
-fixed chat with caps lock
-map loading done all in memory
-more bounds checking on array indices
-fixed queued up lag kills
-added more server-side cheat detection

I cant wait to see what maps have been/will be made! Maybe a map section will be created on the site for map uploads!

Sunday, May 1, 2011

Exclusive Interview with Ace of Spades Creator, Ben Aksoy.

We all know and love Ace of Spades but we are yet to hear about the future and even more so about Ben himself. Recently I contact Ben with a few question I knew and hoped the community were dieing to hear. So, without further ado.


1. What inspired you to make Ace of Spades? Is it designed after a specific war?

I just wanted to make a game that I would want to play. I quit gaming
a long time ago because I was sick of static environments and rinse
and repeat gameplay. I wanted a game that rewarded creativity over
reflexes so I developed Ace of Spades. It's not modelled after a
specific war although there are some Vietnam influences (the namesake
of the game). I'm keeping things a little abstract because it gives me
more freedom when adding features, and gives players more freedom with
their imagination.



2. You already said you would like to see a Map Editor added but do you have any other thought on how you may extend modability.

There's already a growing community in modding the game sounds and
model files. I'm not a big fan of server-side mods because I know the
first mod would be those bad Quake killstreak sounds that first put me
off gaming... but maybe down the line it'd be cool to allow admins to
script simple gamemodes. Also, custom maps should be supported pretty
soon!



3.  How are you dealing with all the attention? Do you plan on recruiting/hiring help?

It's pretty cool to see your name on big sites (when they spell it
right) but I wish I was better prepared for all the initial traffic. I
didn't think the game would catch on so quick. Despite all the offers,
I don't think I need to recruit people yet... the fun part of
development starts now anyway.



4. Do you want to increase the range of vision?

In terms of fog, probably not. It's there for performance and network
bandwidth reasons and I've never liked pixel hunting in Red Orchestra.
Fog allows flanking tactics and the game already has a pretty decent
view range.



5. Where do you want to take the game? Do you want it to stay realistic or make it a little over the top?

I'd like to keep the AoS on the side of realism but still keep the
gameplay simple and instinctive.
I think the abstract, simplified gameplay allows player more freedom
in their style of play instead of suffocating it.



6. Do you want to implement more details into maps like grass, tress, or boulders?

Yes, I'll definitely add more detail to terrain generation, and add
different types of terrain. And the map editor should allow players to
create whatever they want.



7. You have already described where you want to take the games weapons but have you made anymore plans since then?

I wish I planned that far ahead, but I'm just going day-by-day. I
would like more weapons that take advantage of the dynamic terrain...
a satchel charge or mortar would be cool but they'd have to be
implemented in a way that couldn't be abused.



8. Could voxlap and Ace of Spades support vehicles? If so would you ever consider implementing any.

The terrain is too blocky for jeeps/tanks, but planes and PT boats
aren't out of the question.



9. Do you want to change the size of the maps? If so how big or small?

Not really... I'd like to increase playercounts to 64 one day though.


10. Last but by least, of course, what is your favorite team to play?

Click my name on a news post at ace-spades.com to find out.

This just in, I checked. He is a supporter of the green menace. Err I mean green hive, or is it grunmacht now? Who knows...

Anyway, I hopes you enjoyed the interview and bookmark the blog for future news and mods for Ace of Spades.

This Poll in Review (Where did you hear about AoS)

So for this weekly poll I asked everyone, "Where did it hear about Ace of Spades?" I added the websites I heard most people were coming from and figured the poll would easily shift to them, but I was wrong! Although about a quarter of voter said they first heard about the game on 4chan, where Ben first pushed for the games fame. A good deal of people were also from the Facepunch forum which has an active megathread on the game. Only a few votes trickled through for Penny Arcade, Something Awful, and Facebook. With five percent stating they heard about it online. Close to 50 percent however heard about it from a different site!

Facepunch 87
4Chan 105
Penny Arcade 3
Something Awful 8
Facebook 3
Not Online 23
Other Website 183
What is Ace of Spades? 8

So everyone that voted for another site, what site was it?