CRA no longer popular?

I remember years ago CRA? (freeze tag with rifles and special abilities) was insanely popular on Nexuiz and I also remember playing it on Xonotic. After finding my old demo files (800mb worth) for Nexuiz Classic on my external disk, I installed Nexuiz Classic and Xonotic again but I was disappointed to find that no one plays that game mode any more.

Here's a demo which was labeled "_BEST_KD" from my Nexuiz demos : https://open.tube/videos/watch/66869d52-...37bf2baa4e

The models for the ice are missing as the files can no longer be found, but don't mind that, the models existed when I was still playing.


There's one server that runs this for Xonotic and it's the "[MoFo] Rifle Riot [Camping Rifle/CRA]" Server, but no one seems to be playing it.


So I guess my question is, why isn't it popular any more? Did you even know up until now that this game mode exists? It makes me somewhat nostalgic seeing my old demos and also a bit sad that this specific game mode isn't being played any more.

Xon used to have a CRA server, my guess would be around 2013 or so. Then that one server died and most players moved to Overkill. I think most people don't even know what CRA was (for me it was "that server with rifle and FT") so they couldn't exactly ask about it or google it. Later Overkill got too competitive and in 2015, the server list was reworked so vanilla servers are at the top. Overkill stopped getting new players and died. The only modified servers which survived are insta (probably because insta is pretty well known in other games) and jeff's vehicles (maybe because he advertised it much more actively like spamming other servers and built up a large dedicated playerbase).

Sidenote: we call insta/overkill/CRA/vanilla rulesets now. Gametypes are DM/CTF/FT/etc. We're trying to avoid confusion because most people refer to bath as modes which is misleading.

Aynway, i am looking into the serverlist code now to add a "ruleset" column next to "type" so we can get rid of the category system and stop discriminating against modified servers. It's probably only gonna lead to months of arguments but worth a try. No way to run a modified server these days because no new players will join.

If you wanna try Overkill locally, get a recent git or autobuild and run `exec ruleset-overkill.cfg`. It's not the exact config it should be because of bugs and confusion but it's close enough. I'll restart my Overkill server on Wednesday unless i run into more broken things (like my server not even appearing in the server list... sigh) and then try to fix up the config. There is no ruleset-CRA.cfg file yet, i should probably work on that too, it was a lot of fun and much more newbie friendly than vanilla.

Here's a demo which was labeled "_BEST_KD" from my Nexuiz demos : https://open.tube/videos/watch/66869d52-...37bf2baa4e

After watching the demo, my first reaction is -- kudos to the devs over the year! What an amazing improvement!

So I guess my question is, why isn't it popular any more? Did you even know up until now that this game mode exists? It makes me somewhat nostalgic seeing my old demos and also a bit sad that this specific game mode isn't being played any more.

I have played Rifle-only games but never thought it's my thing. Xonotic provides so many different fun weapons, so I never quite understand why having one weapon is more fun.

Instagib CTF with hooks, though, is an exception. Although it has one weapon (technically three -- blaster, vaporizer, and the hook), the hook, the speed, and the CTF dynamics makes single-weapon more appropriate.

There are many game modes/mods/rulesets over the years, but not all of them survive the time/popularity test. It doesn't necessarily mean they are bad; it only means people's interests are shifting over time.

Sidenote: we call insta/overkill/CRA/vanilla rulesets now. Gametypes are DM/CTF/FT/etc. We're trying to avoid confusion because most people refer to bath as modes which is misleading.

Thanks.

Aynway, i am looking into the serverlist code now to add a "ruleset" column next to "type" so we can get rid of the category system and stop discriminating against modified servers. It's probably only gonna lead to months of arguments but worth a try. No way to run a modified server these days because no new players will join.

This is a great idea.

If you wanna try Overkill locally, get a recent git or autobuild and run `exec ruleset-overkill.cfg`. It's not the exact config it should be because of bugs and confusion but it's close enough. I'll restart my Overkill server on Wednesday unless i run into more broken things (like my server not even appearing in the server list... sigh) and then try to fix up the config. There is no ruleset-CRA.cfg file yet, i should probably work on that too, it was a lot of fun and much more newbie friendly than vanilla.

Thank you!

So i said i'd restart my server on wednesday, i just didn't say which one. Had some problems with systemd and didn't feel motivated to dig into it until now. Anyway, it's up now. So far only default maps, will figure out map downloads, IRC bridge and other things ... on thursday. Ideally this one

I noticed some other Overkill servers popping up from time to time which on one hand is nice because it looks like people are interested, on the other they're not real Overkill. Some of them are outright broken - one uses old 0.8.2 where half the config is missing, another has broken dodging. Even if they work properly admins seem to wanna play with cvars, adding things like the hook which completely change the gameplay and don't really capture the spirit of what Overkill used to be.

Which reminds me, my server now has bugs like broken fullbright and playermodels are wrong. Every time i touch overkill i find something else broke since last time. This is why i keep putting it off. Will try to fix those too soon....

I had one of the first CRA servers on Xon (Freeze Mofo changed names a few times) about 2013 or so. With Marios and Melas help a modifed hook for fishing froxzen players and grenade were introduced Ice nade/Napalm/etc..). The server got up to 25 layers at a time for quite a while. Part of the downfall was my mistake as was on a budget and moved the server from Hetzner in France to OVH in Quebec. This resulted in a revolt by EU players with the exta 20-30ms ping LOL Anyways after that it just never recovered. Then Xons popularity took a dive for a bit which killed it even more.
 I restered the servers a few times as still have the config files but its wasn't getting the traction as lots of players are ping sluts and can't handle ping times longer than 50ms lol

I don't have much time to admin servers atm so shut them down again a few months back. I'd prefer to host the server at OVH Montreal as ping to the server for EU players is not that be and give NA players a better ping vs hosting in France where NA players will have much bigger ping escperially west coast Canada/US about 200ms+

Certain server configs where really popular for a  bit then die. Vehicle and Overkill (mine and Mon) were super popular for a while and had a huge player base then just die. There were a few Xon dies off perdios over the years.

I'd be willing to restart if there's enough interest maybe even start a EU based server.