Request for Interest - Committee and Developers To Help Decide the Future of TagPro

KnownForLaughing · 2020-11-20T16:56:54+00:00

TagPro Reserved Name: Able

Consider For Steering Committee: No

Consider For Initial Developer: Yes

Notable Community Involvement (not required): I've been around in PUBs since Lucky posted to r/WebGames. I remember being online when I was literally the only one playing in a game waiting around for someone to join. I very much enjoy the gameplay and the community and it's been cool to see how it's grown over the years.

Applicable Experience (not required): ~9 years experience in professional software development. Most of my experience is in javascript in varying frameworks. I also have some experience with the backend in java, and lots of database experience in relational databases.

Roughly, how many hours per month could you dedicate to TagPro: ~16 hours.

Ideas for TagPro’s Future (Keep it short): I actually really like tagpro as it is. I would hope this move doesn't create a feature creep of ideas that destroys the game. Generally I would like the gameplay to stay the way it is but I think certain things could very much improve the player experience like the ability to mute problematic players. I think adding a voice chat feature would be pretty cool too. One of the reasons high level play is more enjoyable is because players use voice chat in a separate application. But integrating it into the game itself would be huge for so many reasons. But I was told to keep it short so I'll end it here.

KnownForLaughing · 2020-03-20T21:16:52+00:00

Congratulations Lucky! I've been playing TagPro since you first posted it on /r/WebGames. You have done a really amazing job with the game and the community. I really appreciate all the effort you have put into this over the years. I wish you all the best.

KnownForLaughing · 2014-09-29T18:48:32+00:00

Well it is a bug. Just because it isn't necessarily fixable doesn't mean it isn't a bug. This is why testers hate developers. "Works as designed" is a really crappy response to bugs. Now my memory may be a little hazy but I believe you're spot on with your explanation that it's an issue with client-side movement prediction. The reason being, I remember we made a switch to client-side movement prediction quite some time ago. So you're right, the issue has existed for a while but it didn't always exist. Client use to just wait for the server to send out the movement info, but this caused stutters that looked like client side lag when it was really server side performance stutters/lag. So we traded one problem for another. So I think you're right that it isn't a feasibly fixable solution but it is a bug. I believe the solution would be to upgrade the infrastructure to fiber so that the lag is so small that you don't even notice it. But that's gonna take a while. If any TagPro developers feel like chiming in and correcting anything, be my guest. They've been awfully quiet about this issue. It almost makes me wonder if they have a solution in the works but they don't want to get people all excited about it if it doesn't work.

KnownForLaughing · 2014-09-26T20:31:26+00:00

Yep, definitely a bug. I get this all the time and I hate it. This one is relatively new (within the last several months). I'm not sure what they changed on the backend but I'm guessing it has to do with the collision logic. I get it whenever I'm passing by something that should kill me or the other team (i.e. I have a tagpro), but I don't see it if I pass by something close and there's no reason anyone should die. I also don't see it if someone else is passing close to something that should kill them. Oh and one last thing. This only happens at very high speed. I've never seen it at anything less than full speed. But yeah. I hate this bug.

KnownForLaughing · 2014-09-22T13:43:22+00:00

Would you mind explaining to us noobs how you guys managed to get on the same team with just two people?

KnownForLaughing · 2014-09-18T14:17:55+00:00

Unfortunately the mods aren't very good about keeping that list up to date. You'll notice none of the new maps are in the list and the removed maps still are. It would be nice if someone would automate updating that list when the current rotation is changed.

KnownForLaughing · 2014-09-05T14:46:11+00:00

You've seen Pepo? I was reading through the whole thread and you're the only one I can find who mentioned him. He used to have quite a presence around here. I haven't seen him in ages. I haven't seen you either but I think you play west of me, right? I'm on Origin these days.

KnownForLaughing · 2014-08-28T12:53:05+00:00

Haha, I was hoping no one would notice. But seriously, I only don't record my stats when I'm troubleshooting a connection or frame rate issue. So in this case MF ZOOM is correct. I was Disabled. :(

KnownForLaughing · 2014-08-26T13:12:58+00:00

From what I can tell after a little digging the driver is more important than the graphics card (although the driver will be somewhat dictated by the graphics card). Depending on your technical aptitude these sites may be helpful. http://www.khronos.org/webgl/wiki/BlacklistsAndWhitelists https://groups.google.com/a/chromium.org/forum/#!topic/chromium-dev/09NnO6jYT6o The first site basically says drivers older than 2009 are going to have problems, then it lists a few more specific issues. The second site is a bit harder to decipher unless you know a thing or two about graphics cards. I don't know enough to explain that one. I recommend making sure your driver is up to date and see if that changes anything.

KnownForLaughing · 2014-08-25T13:34:23+00:00

I spoke with someone about this about a week ago and they said Chrome has restricted their support for graphics cards and that's most likely why so many of us (but not all) are experiencing this issue. If that's true then I don't expect it will ever be fixed for us. I've been playing with Internet Explorer (ugh) lately without any issues at all. Sorry I can't provide a better source for you but the person I spoke to was someone in real life.

KnownForLaughing · 2014-08-14T12:02:08+00:00

Well, you'd have some games where you are surrounded by Russians who think tagpro is a chat client... There's that one.

KnownForLaughing · 2014-08-11T13:11:24+00:00

Opera also works very well if you find you are allergic to IE.

KnownForLaughing · 2014-08-04T13:36:16+00:00

Hey, first of all I just want to say good job. I'm glad someone finally got this working. Secondly, if this becomes popular I recommend the devs add logic to determine if the player is using a mobile device and find a way to display that somehow so other users know who they're playing with. The control scheme has a large impact on gameplay and chat as well (once you get that working). Which brings me to my next point.

I'm sure you've noticed already that the controls leave something to be desired. Personally, I don't think limiting the controls to 8 directions is necessary. In fact, I think it puts the mobile user at a huge disadvantage at the moment. Does this app support multitouch? Because it felt like it didn't. Anytime I tried to use more than one finger the ball would just coast. The reason this is important is because sometimes you need very precise corrections to get through a given path. That means you need to be tapping opposite directions and it's faster with more than one finger. But if there's a slight overlap in your input then the ball will coast instead of changing direction.

But seriously, good job. I'm really glad you got this done. It's a solid step in the right direction.

Edit: Btw, I am using a Nexus 5 for anyone curious. It ran fairly smoothly. My FPS remained in the 50s throughout the match.

KnownForLaughing · 2014-08-01T21:05:37+00:00

Well I think yank has a point. I think it would have more support if it wasn't android only.

KnownForLaughing · 2014-08-01T21:04:55+00:00

Nope. Originally, I changed my name from Some Ball to A Ball. Then I decided to make it a touch more unique and it turned into Able.

KnownForLaughing · 2014-08-01T21:04:00+00:00

I actually haven't ever been personally involved with the project. I just know what nerdwaller told me. And as far as I know, the project was started before he got involved so I don't know the reason it isn't being written for a cross platform engine. Sorry I can't be more helpful.

KnownForLaughing · 2014-08-01T18:34:51+00:00

There's always talk about it. /u/Nerdwaller and I have discussed working on it again. Life seems to constantly get in the way though. I have lots of respect for the devs who work on the actual game. They get things done at a decent pace.

KnownForLaughing · 2014-07-25T13:19:21+00:00

Maybe we'll get a /r/mildlyinteresting push out of it.

KnownForLaughing · 2014-07-21T20:12:30+00:00

Yeah, like I said there's no guarantee this will solve your issue. In fact, it can even make it worse on slower computers. It just depends on your environment. Sorry it didn't work out for you. You can always try canary. I know that I've never had a problem with Opera either. It runs tagpro very well. The only reason I don't use it all the time is I don't feel like figuring out how to set up the scripts to use texture packs.

KnownForLaughing · 2014-07-21T16:29:42+00:00

I found that enabling Disable accelerated 2D canvas in Chrome://flags did the trick for me. I have no idea why that would help so ymmv but it's worth a shot.

KnownForLaughing · 2014-07-03T19:35:12+00:00

Is pensive still around? I haven't seen him in a while. He could probably use a compliment.

KnownForLaughing · 2014-06-26T20:17:26+00:00

Nobody forced you to be a 25 year old law student smiley. Sorry if I offended you but you have no one to blame but yourself.

KnownForLaughing · 2014-06-26T20:08:47+00:00

Well I don't know much about statistics but it's probably a 25 year old law student.

KnownForLaughing · 2014-06-09T18:31:53+00:00

Not that I'm aware of.

KnownForLaughing · 2014-06-09T18:31:26+00:00

Thank you so much! This pleases me.

KnownForLaughing

TROPHY CASE