Zircon

I remember playing 0.3r2 with a few other ULK members on the day 0.5 released for an hour or so.We personally thought it was more fun... It might have been lacking in a few new additions, but the quality of gameplay was great. I think the reason 0.5's servers are emptying is pretty self-explanatory. People are just waiting for a version that lives up.

Okay, but keep in mind that since it's a warp point it will be essentially useless in matches...

The bandwidth requirements are higher in 0.5, as most of you well know by now... There's nothing wrong on your side if this is only happening in MTA (unless of course your connection speed is just too slow). Join the crowd if you don't like it.

But you have to ask yourself... is it worth the cost? Better coverage for car insurance or more preventative measures for illegally obtaining a passport is. The security improvements in 0.5 aren't. There's also better methods to stop cheaters in real life. In-game we can only ban them from servers. Why bother trying to improve clientside cheat protection when it will be reversed eventually, anyway? Why not improve server administration instead, the only real way to keep cheaters out of the game? The situation wouldn't be as bad if something of more importance had to be sacrificed.

You can put all of the random insults aside... they're not needed. I'm not here to flame anybody, and you shouldn't be, either. I don't need programming knowledge to see "what goes on behind the scene." You're the one that's lacking in common sense if for some reason you think that all new additions must come at a cost. Stability and playability shouldn't be sacrificed for anything. It's also no excuse to lose focus on gameplay in process. "New additions" is a broad term, and few have positively affected gameplay over the last few releases... How would you know exactly what the security improvements were? The MTA team didn't even mention it on the 0.5 preview page. Safegards against exploits (such as BLooD's weapon) are possible, you're right, but was the cheating protection improved? My guess is that it wasn't, considering the fact that the client was cracked within minutes of the official release... and looking at your "MTAClient.exe string reference" sig (hmm). This is of course just an assumption, but if cheating can't be stopped, can exploits not be stopped either, either? Were the security improvements really necessary, especially at such a cost? Oh, and I'm doing just fine on my P4 2.4 GHz with 1 GB of RAM machine, but not doing so great on my 56k connection (which was just fine in previous versions, but can't seem to handle the nearly doubled bandwidth requirements for 0.5)... thanks for your concern, though.

Unfortunately, the current spawn system isn't the only problem with VC DM in this version, and in the bigger picture, would have little impact on gameplay if it were the only thing that was changed in 0.5.1. I agree.

I'm still skeptical. 0.2.2, 0.3r2, and 0.4.1 quickly addressed major bugs that affected gameplay, but that's apparently not the case with 0.5.1. It seems to be only focusing on new additions, as I said earlier, which would explain why it has taken so long already (not that I have any problem with the wait). That is, unless someone could elaborate which positive changes to the gameplay 0.5.1 will introduce. I understand bug fixes, but which bugs have you fixed? You say that you've made a general increase in stability, but how have you done that? Are there any other real improvements worth mentioning at this time?

"Stability" goes beyond just the amount of crashes. Unless I missed something on the preview page, the new VC DM mainly focuses on new additions, not gameplay. I'm seeing a pattern of new additions only bringing forth more problems, therefore lowering the overall stability and quality of gameplay. A good example is the "security improvements" introduced in 0.5.

Just wondering, since you said the same about 0.5 before it released... and I think we all know how short your promises fell there. Good luck, though.

Is that so?

I'm not on a low-end system either, so that's not my problem (though I'm sure it would be for some). I'm just using 56k... that however did not render the game unplayable until now. The system and bandwidth requirements (or recommendations, really) for previous versions were already high enough. Performance should not get worse per new release. More and 'better' features isn't any excuse... You've bogged the game down with so many new additions that only a limited amount of people can play now, and those that actually can can't fully enjoy it because you also took your eyes off gameplay in the process.

But giving up stability for something less important (the 'security improvements,' which have yet to be explained in detail, so I'm assuming they're very minor) is too costly.The MTA team took their focus off gameplay long ago...

You just wiped several people off the playing field, then. I strongly disagree that implementing ANY new feature at the cost of stability is a good idea. A higher demand for bandwidth and processing power will only severely limit the amount of people that can play this game. And I unfortunately fall into that category... well, it was fun while it lasted.

Well... Seeing as how no dev has responded to this, I guess it's safe to assume that they don't know what's wrong or don't how to fix it. Not a good thing... increased bandwidth usage creates a problem for both the players and server owners alike. Is the question 'why does 0.5 consume more bandwidth' that difficult to answer, or is everyone really that clueless?

I think it would be better if you just take the WK Chariot Hotel, which is the last location you mentioned. Vice City map updated.

That's why ULK isn't active...We are still around, though.

No one scheduled a match with FKU... I don't know where he got that from.

If your ping hasn't changed, then don't bother saying so... this seems to be only affecting people with slower connections. I'd like to know why the bandwidth usage has increased in 0.5, and if it could it be fixed any time soon.

Same here, but I'm on 56k. I had a 200-250 ping in smaller servers (10-12 players or less) in 0.4.1 and earlier, which was fairly normal (and at least playable at the time), but now when my ping isn't spiking to 1000, it's pushing 400 in every server I go to. That's pretty ridiculous. The bandwidth usage seems to have increased in 0.5, and that's not good. This needs to be addressed as soon as possible... otherwise, a lot of people won't be able to play this game anymore. At least I know that I'm not the only one having issues with this. Slow connection or not, there's no reason my ping should be twice as high as before. Apart from VC DM, this is the only thing that's holding me back from playing 0.5. Look into it for the next client release, please.

That would require sharing the airport with CE. CE needs to specify which part they want to own now. (I do agree that splitting the airport up is a good idea, since it's such a big place.)

Then open the MTA client, go to the options tab, and click on the "Reset Vice City config file" and "Reset GTA3 config file" buttons.

Open it with notepad.

I would love to see random weather disabled completely. The whole feature is just annoying. It could be bright and sunny in-game for a few moments, and then suddenly fog just overlaps everything, the screen turns dark, or it starts pouring rain. All of which are extremely annoying, especially when you're in the middle of gameplay. Constant sun in 0.3r2 and lower was so much better...

The spawn points in GTA3 are pretty random, so I'll allow bases anywhere on the map until classes are introduced on all islands. NS and VCK added to the GTA3 map, and MFC added to the Vice City map. Mike: Could you be more specific please? Cocanuta: I'm assuming that TFS doesn't have six or more members, since it's a new clan. I don't see a roster anywhere, though. VCP: Please pick another base in Vice City... I should have requested this earlier. The construction site is a spawn point.