I’m assuming there are at least a few hardcore players of these games around – I’m curious to get your opinions on them, the differences, likes/dislikes between versions, etc.
I played SubSpace on a 486 over a dial-up connection in, uh… 1997? Holy cow. It was great fun.
I’ve played 'em all, and I found 'em a lot of fun for a while. Eventually I found them repetative, but for quick blasts they’re a good time. The best one I’ve played recently is Starport, which puts that kind of gameplay into an MMO persistant galaxy.
Subspace was a great game when it still had a thriving community on the VIE (and later SVS) servers. You have to go back a few years for that, though.
Cosmic Rift was bleh. I played it a bit when it first went public, and while it had some nice improvements over SS, it was too newbified. The skill curve wasn’t very deep. Subspace derived its lasting power from the deep gameplay and the incredibly deep skill curve. Cosmic Rift didn’t have that, and thus I don’t think any SS players decided to pay for it.
Continuum is just a new SS client designed to prevent cheating. Unfortunately, the guy who coded the client can’t even get basic shit like p-bombs working properly, and it has a few other quirks. Since he stopped development, the community is basically stuck with a buggy piece of shit client. Also, some of the settings changes in Chaos/League (i.e. the last SVS zone without a ball) have been nonsensical and stupid. The Javelin was absolutely mauled some time back by a speed reduction. That reduction, as far as I can tell, was designed to help whiners catch runners without actually having to learn any basic skills/tactics to do so.
After VIE cut the game loose, the community basically killed itself. All that’s left now is a vast conglomeration of lousy super-zones that require about as much skill as a Fisher Price gameset.
I’m starting to think that we should just have a thread (or a forum) where Brian introduces us all to cool games we’ve never heard of. I learn more from his posts than I learn from anyone else on this forum…and always about actual GAMES!
p.s.: Thanks for another game for me to fiddle with, Brian.
Hehehe, the pleasure is all mine, Robert. :)
Subspace was fun. Didn’t some of them go onto create Infantry for Sony?
Can you provide some concrete examples of this?
Continuum is just a new SS client designed to prevent cheating.
Did they open source SS or something, or was it a compatible “hacked” client?
Yup Jeff & I.
Jeff still works at SoE, I am now at Maxis.
Infantry is still going at SoE, supported by Yankee who does a great job and was also on the original Subspace team. Interestingly Infantry’s subs have been pleasantly stable for several years now. Cosmic Rift is based off the Infantry engine and also available at SoE.
Continuum is a free player supported Subspace upgrade and very good also.
Not to jack my own thread, but I can’t help but feel that SOE completely screwed up their “Semi-Premium” services like Infantry et. al. There was no clear market position for them, no clear marketing and target consumer, but it was (and is) a reasonably strong (but small) space that they can dominate.
Something like the Station would be a great staging ground for interesting game design experiments. Using a decent core engine like Infantry/CR’s that is generalized enough that you could have a small team rapidly prototype ideas that could be then put to the test by the community. Give each team 6 months to get to beta, throw it up there, and if the community likes it, develop it some more. If they hate it, kill it and move on. If they love it, consider moving it to Premium as a new project.
But I digress…
Ahh Subspace, I loved that game too!
I still go back to Netrek now and then as well. Im sure if someone made a spiffy, 21st century client that it could really draw in some new blood … the gameplay is certainly there. Ahh one can dream!
Can you provide some concrete examples of this?
Yeah. I felt like after two days in the CR equivalent of RZ that I had already mastered the game. Honestly, it’s been so long since I tried out CR that I can’t remember most of the specifics, but one of the things I do remember was that it was easier to land shots in CR. I think a typical vet in SS will have around 45% bomb accuracy and 15% gun accuracy in any given session. And that’ll be lower if they’re doing a lot of funneling. It felt much easier to land hits in CR, particularly bullets. Probably because the physics were a little tighter.
Did they open source SS or something, or was it a compatible “hacked” client?
It’s a client that emulates SS that was coded from scratch.
Holy. Shit.
There’s never been a game like subspace, but all the ‘svs’ - ‘standard vie servers’ type zones have just about died out. I guess there’s still people playing pro league here and there but nothing like it used to be even 5 years ago.
On the other hand it’s amazing what you can achieve with bots and custom maps, I’ve seen some pretty cool stuff over the years. I even played in a zone that worked like a mario brothers game :)
I hope this steam integration brings in a new generation of players and keeps the dream alive :)
Continuum still has players last I checked a few months ago. They’re all in Trench Wars, which I hate. I played Subspace/Continuum for over 15 years pretty much non stop. Some ppl here and there play 4v4 2v2 etc which are sub arenas in Chaos. Escape + A to see the arena list. Jeff actually started playing 4v4 in Continuum after Cosmic Rift died. A few players began playing a few different games together like Diablo 3, Dota, Dota 2, LOL just to name a few. Most players still login but they’re all old now and go to sleep early and work all day so 4v4 and other zones come to life for a short time from around 11pm est to 2am est. Most who are still left who still play in 4v4 are mostly ppl who played during beta days. In 2006 Continuum began to die but zone owners breathed a breath of life into it by using bots to keep stats on Web pages and to organize leagues. Also some zones used them (bots) to have map changes which would accommodate different pops, ref events… it just goes on and on. Anyways this guy is pretty far off. Last league in 4v4 was in 2014. In Powerball 2012 I believe and Trench Wars still had league last I checked. Death Star battle died. Powerball moved and is in Chaos. Sometimes Chaos still hosts Alpha and other old zones on Sundays but since league stopped not so much. Mostly the crazy assholes made everyone stop eventually it got old and less and less ppl started showing up because honestly ppl are so screwed up no one wanted to be around them. It’s like 4chan except in real time.
Lady_Death
Xena.
Subspace/Continuum is now on steam
Wow, I just played that for the first time in 15ish years. My original username must still be on file but the password and college email I used to play it is long since lost. I wasn’t great at it, but I’ll give it some more time and maybe relearn those Asteroid physics skills.
My high school friend Jerry introduced me to the game back in the beta days. Some of the maps (alpha, chaos, DSB) are as familiar to me as de_dust or the first GTA’s San Fierro. Which means if I find them again I’ll be fumbling around for a half hour, constantly dying, but probably have a good time as I do so.
This makes me glad.