My thoughts on ET: Legacy and league mod - by kemon

Disclaimer:
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Everything expressed in this text is my personal opinion and I don't claim to know the one and only true way forward. If you disagree with something that is said below, and I’m 100% aware that everyone will find something, then that doesn’t mean we can’t find together. Community projects live through discussions and compromises. The main point of this text is the hope that others are prompted to write down their thoughts as well so we can discuss a long-term roadmap.

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TL:DR
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I propose a focus on public servers/players for 2.77 to quickly grow our community. We need to remove blocks that keep any players from enjoying the game they are used to. I propose a focus on competitive players for 2.78 along with the rebrand to League to nurture our own competitive scene. I'm relying on word of mouth from the public players that are now using ET: Legacy that our game is a viable option. For 2.79, I propose to use optional lua scripts to create a modular plugin system. That way we only have one mod base to support and can outsource wanted pub features, which means we can also promote League for public play. Because we want behaviour of League to be similar across servers, I also porpose the implementation of a second server browser for 2.79. That server browser only displays League servers with whitelisted lua plugins. For that server browser we can then implement a UI rework and authentication system to create a global ranked ladder with clean League gameplay on all servers.
PROS:
* We only have one mod base to maintain
* We provide the option for server admins to customize their League experience
* We provide a clean League experience with a global ranked ladder
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General:
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We are working with a game that is nearly two decades old and whose biggest group of ‘new’ players are likely returning players with previous ET experience. Therefore, I would argue it’s safe to assume that everyone involved with ET has at least some form of sentimental connection to it. Be it to relieve good old memories, stay in touch with at times year-long friendships or simply because of the gameplay. Another huge aspect is the mod-ability of the game. Players play ET in **very** different settings and all of them enjoy it for different reasons.
So, we have players with at least some degree of sentimental involvement and very different preferences on what ET should look and behave like.

ET: Legacy
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For the game, it is therefore of utmost importance to find a common denominator. It should be our primary goal to provide an experience smooth enough for everyone to happily switch from ET to ET: Legacy. We all remember the amount of convincing it took for players to switch from 2.55 to 2.60b and we are looking at the exact same situation now. If we want to convince players to choose ET: Legacy over ET, which should be our highest priority, then we need to ensure that everyone can continue to play the way they are used to.
We can take the example of the [~] block in 2.76 as an example. It always was and still is a problem that servers interfere with the player’s game. The decision to protect the player from this was 100% justified and I will always stand by that. However, we used a wrong approach. We made it impossible for some players to play the game they are used to and therefore gave them zero reason to prefer ET: Legacy over ET. The approach of the server container system is the better approach, because it allows everyone to play while still protecting them.
Going forward, we need to find solutions that ensure players can still play the way they are used to. Technical framework improvements like Alt-Tab as well as native resolution and cross-OS support are the way to go. At least, as long as it’s in our scope of possibilities.

League
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There are other limitations, because ETPro players can not choose ET: Legacy over ET due to incompatibility. For that reason, we are trying to offer a viable alternative with League. If I remember correctly, our default mod started out as a home for all quality of life improvements that can’t be part of ET: Legacy. It was planned to provide a stable base that other teams can use to build their custom features on top. That was around 2013, where mod teams were still partly active. It may sound pessimistic, but we should consider the possibility that there won’t ever be a new release for any other mod aside from our default mod.
At the core of every multiplayer game is a competitive scene. Be it MOBAs like League of Legends, RTS like AoE2 or FPS like CoD, players watch pros on twitch and try to copy their methods. It is, therefore, a good strategic decision to nurture a competitive scene for ET: Legacy. The loss of ETPro can be considered a huge opportunity in that regard, because having the competitive scene in our game play on our mod comes with a lot more possibilities.
I don’t have experience in competitive play, so the only advice I can offer is that we should listen to the feedback of players who play competitively. That being said, we shouldn’t simply implement everything that is reported. There are examples of games who simply always did what the players asked and therefore never had a clear goal to work towards. Without a clear identity and clear plans, games tend to die. For me, prime examples are “Paragon” by Epic Games and “The Culling”.
Gameplay-wise, we should stick to original ET as far as possible. Aside from bug fixes, we should focus on features that improve quality of life by giving the player more easily accessible information (eg. ryven's ticking nade, Aranud's smoke trail on each arty strike). That information should be presented in an inconspicuous manner to have the game look and feel the same way on first glance. An overall similar feeling is important for the transition of players. We should be careful about features that interfere directly with the gameplay (eg. playerhitbox change, medic/soldier re-balancing proposal). Gameplay changes make the game feel different from what sentimentally involved players expect. We are therefore moving away from the common denominator. This does not necessarily mean those changes are inherently bad, but we have to be very careful about them. It may be easier to warm players up to them once they are settled in with ET: Legacy and League.

Going Forward
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Right now, only a portion of the rest group and nobody of the ETPro group are playing on ET: Legacy, let alone League. Like we said, our primary goal should be that everyone happily switches from ET to ET: Legacy.
The question therefore is: How do we get (all of/most of) players to play on ET: Legacy and possibly even League?
Let’s divide the entire ET community into ETPro and rest. For the ETPro group to continue playing like they are used to, they would need to switch from ET to ET: Legacy **and** from ETPro to League. That’s a very drastic step. For the rest to continue playing like they are used to, they would only need to switch from ET to ET: Legacy. They would continue to play on their favourite servers running their custom mods and packs. For them, only the framework would change, but there would still be the same familiar feeling, because the server would still be the same.
Therefore, I propose that we focus on the latter group first. We should ensure that all players of that group can continue playing the game the way they are used to. That means, we should remove all barriers that prevent this from happening (eg. the [~] block). As long as we can’t unite (most of) the rest group, the impression that ET: Legacy is a viable alternative to ET is not entirely given.
As soon as (all of/most of) the rest group is united under ET: Legacy and is happily playing the game like they used to or even on League, there are likely some members of the ETPro group that get curious. The ET community isn’t that large that word of mouth wouldn’t spill over between the two groups. At that point we should then focus on the ETPro group by promoting and rebranding our default mod to League.


Long Term
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The overarching aspect that we need to keep in mind is, that we are very limited in manpower. Our past release schedule is at best annually, so realistically we just do not have the resources to maintain two mods. However, we said earlier that we need to consider the possibility that there won’t ever be a new release of another mod. This is where this text becomes highly hypothetical.
At the point where both the ETPro and the rest group are mostly on ET: Legacy and potentially even League, it could become interesting to  have a mod that is similar to League but not quite as hardcore, for casual players that want to try the way of the pros but still enjoy a bit more leisure.

It is my strong belief that we can’t maintain two mods. That’s why I propose to make most use of lua. The only bloating of the codebase would be limited to implementing hooks. That way, additional features could be outsourced, but still be handled by the same mod. I don’t know if Aranud’s rework of the weapon code made it possible to add additional weapons through lua, I don’t know if lua is powerful enough to change physics and implement a double jump or extensive enough to implement additional skill levels. If it is, then all of that could be handled like plug-ins for server admins. We would then have one mod that is highly modular and customisable.
Lua apparently is powerful enough to allow the implementation of drive-able vehicles by "C", so I suppose it can handle quite a bit?
I’m aware that we want behaviour between League servers to be similar, so I propose a second server browser. In that server browser we only display League servers that have whitelisted lua scripts enabled. That way we have a public server browser and we have a server browser with clean League gameplay. For the latter we can implement a UI rework and authentication system for a global ranked ladder.

Roadmap
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As a conclusion, find my proposed roadmap below:

2.77	[ASAP]
* Removal of all blocks for players of the ‘rest’ group to play the game they are used to
* Focus on public play

Intermediary release	[ASAP +5months]
* Fix found bugs
* Analyse feedback of players

2.78	[ASAP +10months]
* Rebrand to League
* Complete focus on competitive features (namely shoutcaster mode)

Intermediary release	[ASAP +15months]
* Fix found bugs
* Analyse feedback of players

Dreamland 	[ASAP +20months]
* modular lua features
* second server browser to separate public and competitive play
* UI rework and authentication to implement ranked ladder system in second server browser