Free Vp3dl v3.2.3.9 versions to give away as prizes.....

[Freeball]

Hello everyone,

I have been given some VP3DL v3.2.3.9 to give away as prizes (Qty to be confirmed) but it has been agreed with celeris.

What we need to do is decide how we do this....

Couple of ideas....

1) We run some 3099 tourneys.

2) We pair a 3099 player with a 3239 player. We then hold a tourney and the 3239 player who wins gets his 3099 buddy who he/she has been paired with, a VP3DL.

Any other ideas would be greatly appreciated.

Its a start.....

Freeball

[Freeball]

Sorry to confirm these will only be awarded to older version players.


Freeball

[Albinario]

I have the older version, can I play?

[Sophisticated Beggar]

Hmm, tough one.
I guess there would be nothing to stop anyone who has a 3099 version playing (in disguise or whatever) in such a tournament.

3099 tourneys are bad..we all know why.

A tourney for 3239 players, unless they have 3099 buddy's would also seem pointless. Having not played 3099 since the DL came out I don't know any 3099 players.

Maybe, like Ron said, there could be a 3239 tournament set-up and then 3099 players could pick a player - if that player wins, they get the upgrade.

Or, find out how many 3099 ers would be interested, run a 3239 tournament, having the number of interested 3099 ers as maximum entry then allocate (out of a hat) each 3099 er a player.

[Tattooz]

yea i think he said the player matching would be random. i think it would be better to have a 3099 tourny, but as tone says, how are we to know that someone who has 3239 wont be playing the old version just to win another copy? or is this ok?

[9balldotcom]

You have no real way of knowing who has how many versions....after all i got the dl version the 2099 version the curly version...and if I want another 3239 serial to give to someone else I would just enter the tourney to try and win another.

Simply do 3099 tourneys for those that want to enter them.....whether they have 3239 or not.

If they are up as prizes then they should be available to anyone who wants to play for them...

[Freeball]

oh well cant win ere.......

Ill leave it then.

Freeball

[9balldotcom]

No Ron your idea is good...your first one
1) We run some 3099 tourneys.

Dead simple,then if you do want to award serials to them that win thats fair.
Ideas that try to omit others from joining the tourneys is perhaps with hindsight one of the reasons there is a split lobby.Its well apparent that people on 3099 want to stay on 3099 if only so they can at least play vp3....not in tourneys....giving them an opportunity to win a 3239 version is a good incentive.......but my suggestion is make it simple.....

Id been thinking of doing some 3099 tourneys a little while back to see what the turnout would have been like.

I say if you got the chance do em.

[DARKH0RSE]

Maybe mass mail this lot on here http://www.vipladder.com/cgi-bin/vpladder.cgi?ladder=74&ViewPlayer.x=85&ViewPlayer.y=19

see if you can pull any 3099 players in

[AlinVille]

I just wonder how many will say they can't set rooms in those 3099 tourneys.

But overall, running some tourneys on 3099 and giving those players a chance to get the DL version is a great idea.

[Freeball]

From Me
Hi Steve,

I was wondering if it was possible to offer some free vp3 upgrades of v3.2.3.9 as tournament prizes or competion's or something. Just some sort of incentive to get some older version players to play with the possibility of an upgrade. will only apply to current players not to new players.

From celeris
We don't have a problem doing that but how are they going to play in the tournament if they don't have VP3DL?

From Me
We could do just 3099 tourneys or run some sort of giveaway or summit. Just wanted to see if we could get something from yourselves.

Or we could pair a 3099 player with a 3239 player and the 3239 tournament winner wins the 3239 DL version for the 3099 player he/she is paired with...etc etc etc.


From Celeris
I don't have a problem providing some licenses as prizes.

What is the goal here? Are you trying to the more participation in online tournaments?



From Me
To: "support@celeris.com" <support>
Hi me again,

The problems we have is this...

http://celeris.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=1469

I really want to give those players still on 3099 for whatever reason the chance to upgrade and join the 3239 tournaments etc etc.

I have seen on a few occasions a 3099 user stating they are unable to get 3239 as no credit card or no means of purchasing it etc etc. I just wanted to give some sort of incentive. Its quite surprising how many 3099 challenge rooms are created.

The vp3 scene has seen some drastic decline in the last few months which as left our tournaments empty and cancelled and i for one do not wanna see it collapse. I have been an avid vp3 fan for at least 6 years and have played it daily. i have to enjoyed the whole VP series and am proud to say i still have them all.

We were given a carrot a little while ago with the mere suggestion of vp gold but alas no more info has been forth coming. again if the info/interest was here the players may stick around.

i so want to keep the VP community going for as long as i can but i cannot do it alone it takes the extremely hard work of many people ie Celeris/TDs/Zwylle/Nugget/amongst many others and most importantly the players. Without these its bye bye.

So what im asking for is lets get everyone using the same version, lets give them updates and info on forth coming news if any. if there is no new game coming or whatever then what have we got? a slow declining community which at some stage will be gone and i for 1 dont wanna see that.

Any info help or whatever would be greatly received by us all.....

Thanks

Freeball


Rant over....................

All we want to do:

[9balldotcom]

I actually think that it would be interesting to hear from Steve at Celeris exactly how many people download the 3239 version and pay for the serial....say over a month on average.

Because hes getting free advertising by those on the vp3 lobby and on one or two other web sites going around....apart from that...how else does VP3DL get to the masses out there???

Well thats another subject......been mentioned before advertising.......still couldnt beleive there was actually a VP3 tv advert(probobly only seen the states......cos interplay didnt think us Europeans would be sold on a pool game probobly).....but there it is on YOUTUBE.....

I agree entirely with Ron in trying to keep my favourite game going...but isnt there only so much you can do.

I think you have to poll the 3099 players in the lobby somehow...simply ask em....put on your 3099 and go play with them and get some opinions from them.
I have to say,most of them guys from initial thoughts arent that bothered at the fact that they cant play in tournaments....I mean any Tds not exactly flooded with 3099ers wanting tourneys are they\?
My thoughts are exactly the same as they have been on 3099ers.......the vast majority got their copy of VP3 from warez sources and never paid for it....and its simply their prinicples of not buying a game(yes they might use the no credit card excuse) that stops them from paying Celeris money for a game they already got.
Most of them are basically happy with what they got......they also got plenty of people to play with still havent they>?.

Wouldnt it be great if somehow you could download 3099 FREE.....??? THINK ABOUT IT FIRST FORE YOU SHOOT ME DOWN IN FLAMES.

Firstly you spread the word of vp3....if theyre getting it for nowt then theres no excuse....will we see the lobby flooded with 3099ers>>> maybe.will it revive online pool......will they all be ghostballing....nah thats a myth and useless anyway.

What about us sad twats that bought the DL version then????

Answer to that one is......when and if VP GOLD is released.......we all get it at a discounted prices like a sort of upgrade from having already paid Celeris previously.

In the end things will take their course.......VP Pool will live or die dependant on how many still want to play it and thats the fact that sadly dwindling numbers on an upcoming 7 year old game show.

Having 3099 tourneys and 3239 tourneys as an option should seriously be considered though......regardless of the cheating aspect in one version ....just bite the bullet and see what happens.

[Tattooz]

if you know a certain player has 3239 already are u going to keep them from playing to win another serial? just curious....

[zwylle]

If anyone wants to go through the hassle to uninstall DL, install 3099 and re-install DL (3099 always has to be installed first in order for both games to work), why not let them win a license.
They may give it to somebody who uses it online.
It promotes DL online play either way.
Genuine 3099 players have the wanted advantage in a 3099 tourney as the physics are quite different.

As to the sales numbers.. I don't know how many copies Celeris actually sell, but apparently there are tons of players who never even manage to get into the VP3 lobby. They have lots of help requests concerning this.
That's one of the reasons why they are thinking about having their own server for VP Gold.

[vpeer]

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[vpeer]

The volume of sales is enough that there should be plenty of new players for online. I think the main barrier to new players getting setup. I see the following as issues in order of severity:
1) Firewall settings
2) GameSpy Arcade does not see VP3DL executable
3) Installing GameSpy Arcade

The first and worst can't be fixed without redoing how VP3DL connects. Newer versions of DirectPlay support UPnP which would reduce this issue greatly. Upgrading is not that easy as DirectPlay changed quite a bit. Granted the router has to have UPnP enabled and there still may be problems but the number of people getting VP3DL to work online would be much higher.

Without reading the FAQ or forum, which most people don't do, GameSpy Arcade does not see VP3DL.

The GameSpy Arcade install turns off some people.

Many buyers are not tech savy and people in general lack patience. The harder it is to do and the longer it takes them more people you lose in the process.

Of the 3 items, number 2, GameSpy Arcade not seeing VP3DL is the easiest to fix. I can change the VP3DL install to use vp3.exe instead of vp3dl.exe. I have a new installer, the old one is causing more problems lately. I'll make this change for a new release. It won't be a required upgrade to play, the game won't be changing.

I'll look into upgrading DirectPlay. This could be difficult to impossible depending on the GameSpy Arcade SDK.

There is not much we can do about the GameSpy Arcade install but that is probably the least of the issues.

What people in the lobby could do is go out of their way to be friendly to newbies and help them get their firewalls setup. I don't know how many new people come into the lobby but I would expect it would be several every week.

[Sophisticated Beggar]

While we have your attention Steve, the easiest and most effective way of helping our small community would be to give us regular updates of VP Gold.

A mere snippet that a new game will be coming out would certainly keep a lot of people interested and obviously bring us much needed new blood.

[Sophisticated Beggar]

If anyone wants to go through the hassle to uninstall DL, install 3099 and re-install DL (3099 always has to be installed first in order for both games to work),

Not the case for me. I just mounted an old image of VP3 Jeanette, installed it and it worked fine for me, on and off-line.

Or is it the patch that is the problem?

I'll try that.

Hmm, that works fine too.

[zwylle]

If anyone wants to go through the hassle to uninstall DL, install 3099 and re-install DL (3099 always has to be installed first in order for both games to work),

Not the case for me. I just mounted an old image of VP3 Jeanette, installed it and it worked fine for me, on and off-line.

Does your DL version still work?
Maybe it changed with one of the latest DL patches, but it used to be that when you installed 3099 after DL it overwrote some of the files or registry entries needed by DL.

[zwylle]

Of the 3 items, number 2, GameSpy Arcade not seeing VP3DL is the easiest to fix. I can change the VP3DL install to use vp3.exe instead of vp3dl.exe. I have a new installer, the old one is causing more problems lately. I'll make this change for a new release. It won't be a required upgrade to play, the game won't be changing.

That would be great!
I remember back when we were testing the initial download version you had it that way, and to have the parallel installation of VP3 and this version on the same computer wasn't possible. There were some shared registry entries or something like that. Is that resolved?

If the upgrade isn't mandatory I don't see a problem if you can't have them installed parallel, people could just use 3239 if they wanted both installed. I'm just wondering.

[Sophisticated Beggar]

Does your DL version still work?

Yup

[9balldotcom]

My new pc I transferred vp3 dl to it with new serial.
After I did that i installed vp3 3099 and im still using the disc for that version I havent bothered to try image of it....simply cos i think it could have problems with vista security maybe.

But both versions work fine in gsa.after the usal switch in the settings.

[vpeer]

I'm going to do a new release to fix #2, make the vp3dl.exe executable vp3.exe.
This will cause some problems trying to have 2 versions 3099 and 3239 on the same system. But I don't think catering to people who are not upgrading because they don't want to pay $9.95 and in the meantime losing some new players because they are confused as how to get GameSpy to recognize VP3DL.

Other corrections on the new rev:
New installer that should reduce/eliminate many install problems.
I'm looking into a problem when VP3DL won't run 2560x1600. Not sure I can fix that as it looks like a DirectX problem

I'm also looking for better solutions for the NAT traversal and punch through. Microsoft is not supporting DirectPlay anymore. This looks like a complete rewrite which would make it only VP3Gold. I'm trying to find some 3rd party libraries that will make it possible to do on VP3DL.

[AlinVille]

Of the 3 items, number 2, GameSpy Arcade not seeing VP3DL is the easiest to fix. I can change the VP3DL install to use vp3.exe instead of vp3dl.exe. I have a new installer, the old one is causing more problems lately. I'll make this change for a new release.

I'm going to do a new release to fix #2, make the vp3dl.exe executable vp3.exe.

No news?

[mal_clarke]

I want to hear more from VP3 Gold, although this looks to have been shelved indefinately. Shame.

Echoeing Alinville, any news from Steve would be welcome.