Depends on what type of a game we want. Do we want more FPS type games, mmorpg, steam games, etc? Do we want team based games?
I’ll think of a list of possible games later. I’ll think of past games and future releases.
club penguin
I have said it before, and I will say it again: I think that the best way to keep AOS going is by continuing to improve the game experience.
OpenSpades, if it were to be developed further, could do this.
Disregarding OpenSpades, further work can be done by introducing new maps, and by adding game (mechanical) elements through scripts.
Babel game-mode is a prime example of this.
A while ago I suggested that I would like to see (land)mines in AOS.
MuffinTastic then surprised me by making a script that did so ( aos://323695688:27106:0.75 ).
Using this script, one can right-click on a block while grenade is selected, and thus turn it into a proximity and gunshot sensitive landmine.
The script now works quite well, also in Babel (where I tend to play), and I would love to see it play-tested on a filled up server.
I suspect that using the script will make defense a bit easier, although the offensive capabilities of mines should not be underestimated (mines will go off in a series reaction if setup correctly, making BIG explosions possible).
My hope is that sufficient enthusiasm in these forums can convince Aloha admins to give the scripts a go (maybe for a limited test period at first).
I, for one, have had a lot of fun (under)mining the enemy.
The mines are great but we already have some great modes and scripts. The problem is promoting modes to fill up with more people, or getting the modes to cycle so our current allocation of players don’t get bored of only playing babel or arena (ctf never gets boring though and it’s easier to implement scripts without overhauling the game).
It’s always going to get harder and harder to keep the people staying with just AoS itself so it’s pretty important to build a wide community with multiple games.
That brings me to my request for more “events” so we can instantly have a populated server for people who browse the master list to join (instead of having a dedicated person who wants people to join the server be alone in there)
Holy shit, we need those mines in the next FSOM, unless of course it’s spadewars or zombies…
ctf never gets boringright... that's exactly why people quit playing it (hallway "ctf" doesn't count)
That is an over-optimistic view for the future of this game.
The way that makes the most sense to me to even attempt reviving this game is through the development of OpenSpades and its optimization.
Making YouTube videos aren’t going to get the server repopulated unless done professionally. Footage of gameplay with a amateurish commentary, let alone a mere footage of a mediocre gameplay is not something people think as being done “professionally”. First of all, videos like that aren’t even going to show up when people search “Ace of Spades” or even “Ace of Spades gameplay”. You know what will show up if someone decides to search that up? Either the song “Ace of Spades” by Motorheads show up or the JaGex version of Ace of Spades will show up. Even if people happen to watch the video, the poor quality of the videos will be an immediate turn off for the viewers. Finally, the videos need to be entertaining if you want people to even consider playing obscure games such as Ace of Spades. The reason why YouTubers such as Pewdiepie, Captainsparklez, or Markiplier is so successful is because they are, to a wide audience, entertaining. It’s fun (though not for everyone) to watch them play games and hear their insights on games that we’ve never seen before. By simply posting a video of a 100 killstreak or a perfect game on arena with no explanation or even an entertaining commentary will not reflect on the game positively.
Hackers run rampant on the servers even though admins and reporters try their best to reduce the damage inflicted by the hackers. However, the number of admins and their methods that police the servers are obviously neither enough nor effective. People who decide that they want to try this game out may have an image of this game where hackers run rampant 24/7 after getting killed by aimbot or ESP in multiple servers, obviously not good for this game to have a larger player base. Now, I am not saying that all the games in this world is free of hackers; I’m saying that others games have smaller hacker to player ratio than AoS. Most of it is because the hackers can only be banned by admins in AoS, who have things better to do than watch AoS servers all day for hackers. Admins aren’t paid either; they are just players who have been playing the game longer, decided to create their own servers, and attempted to run them in an effective manner. Despite their efforts, they have their limits. It’s not like they are in a company where this game is their job or banning hackers are mandatory. Other games that we play have systems in place where getting rid of bad eggs is people’s job. AoS does not.
As for the suggestions that people continue to give such as the landmine mentioned by ScrapHeap, they are refreshing. These novel ideas are amazing and they certainly have the potential to reinvigorate the players that play this game. The problem is, these are minor changes that sometimes may not even bring new players into this game. Just look at the new gamemodes that the scripters constantly created. They are either created from community suggestions or created by their own imaginations. All their concepts and ideas are enjoyable (at least for me). Guess what happens? Everyone just sticks with babel because it’s the most familiar, most bug-free, and most simple. Another problem is that simple changes like that, while welcomed by the people who play the game right now, it’s not easy for those changes alone to bring people OUTSIDE the current player base into the game because quite honestly, they are simple tweaks that aren’t very much game changing.
I do not think that aloha.pk is dying. I think that AoS is dying. Aloha.pk can simply move on to many of the aforementioned games and gain more community members. Perhaps this is also a way to gain more AoS players.
Battlefield (3 and / or 4), MC (possibly different gametypes other than vanilla), Unturned, Kerbal Space Program DarkMP, CounterStrike (Source, GO? [Bhop, Surf, VIP, etc), Gmod (LOTS of gametypes), Terraria, H1Z1, DayZ, Just Cause 2 / 3 (?) Multiplayer, I can think of tons and these are just off the top of my head.
OH, The Ship! That’s a brilliant game, it really suits aloha.pk’s style imo.
i know i’m late, better now than never
b[/b] different communities, therefore none should have jurisdiction over the other.
b[/b] if you’re trying to say it’s shifted towards aloha, you’re simply not right, imo.
b[/b] then why even suggest it?
b[/b] did you fact-check that before you put it in your post? (link, link)
b[/b] that’s much more hassle than it needs to be. iirc, it’s always been the way it is now: you host a server, it’s on the list. you, I, and anybody else should be able to do that no matter what.
b[/b] both did, really. Jagex buying the game, and making their own version, stopped the development of the game BnS hosts. since the game is unchanging, people have been able to develop these cheats without fear of an update breaking/preventing them them. you’ll notice that barely anyone develops cheats for openspades. it’d be even rarer if it were closed-source and updated more frequently. (yes, not impossible, but much more rare)
serverlist
from above,
people should learn how to host their own servers with a VPS* instead 
* (or even their own server-class computer in a colocation facility)
i, for one, think simply pushing iceball is a much better, easier and less painful alternative. yes, it’s more complicated than that, but we can all want things, right?
MuffinTastic: "I, for one, think simply pushing iceball is a much better, easier and less painful alternative. yes, it's more complicated than that, but we can all want things, right?"Iceball had dropped below my radar, hence my talk about OpenSpades (which I tried again two weeks ago, and still can not befriend due to lack of control response). Can anyone inform me what the status of this project is?
Now… if we wanted to not only keep both Aloha and Voxel fps alive (which I think is what sets Aloha apart from other forums), but make them grow again, then one holy grail would be to get AOS / OS / Iceball onto smartphones / tablets.
Addictive gameplay that goes light on the hardware should make voxel fps a good candidate for such a port, although I suspect that substantial work would be involved.
More argument is needed 
Okay Monsta;
some 39% of all gamers play games on smartphones. (http://www.bigfishgames.com/blog/stats/the-future-of-mobile-gaming/).
Games on mobile devices often are “low hardware footprint” games that are suited for causal gaming. The most successful of these are often somewhat addictive.
Gaming on mobile devices has actually led to the revival of many older titles which, while not on par with current pc games, still can deliver a good experience on a less powerful device.
Voxel FPS using the voxlapp engine is famous for using little computing power. It can be played casually (I often pop in for a 10-20 minutes game between other tasks). It is definitely addictive (we are all still here, are we not?). Finally, it would open up the game to a new and large group of players that have never experienced voxel FPS.
Do you really not think that this could be beneficial?
Ehh, it’s circumstantial. Yes mobile gaming is trending and effective, but can we really categorize AoS as a casual enough game for a mobile device? It’s an online, competitive FPS. Mobile games aren’t really suited for that, and if they ever are made it’s for single player (and usually pretty easy).
It wouldn’t hurt at all to try it though.
At least it gets the discussion going beyond “which other games can we focus on instead”, which, if implemented, would mean that I, for one, would never be seen again on this site.
I come here for voxel fps (which is a unique and very good combo), and nothing else.
I also happen to believe that the way ahead is to expand and rejuvinate, and therefore I come with suggestions for possible ways to do so. At the moment, Babel iswell understood, and the only “new” is to find the best way to win new maps. Quite a few maps have known “optimal solutions”, and winning or not depends /almost) only on team distribution.
Adding new game mechanics (mines, hint hint) could stir things up a bit, and reduce the grind that some maps currently are to builders.
The problem lies in controls. if you’ve ever played MC on mobile, you’ll know that the controls on those devices are slow and cumbersome, making movement and even aiming accurately very hard. ontop of that, for AoS you’d have to drastically change core aspects of gameplay to compensate for that (adding aim assist, perhaps making size of map smaller so it’s not so tedious to walk around), which I personally feel isn’t very much in the spirit of the original concept of the game.
I would hope that it would be beneficial, however i personally don’t think mobile is suited for FPS games. I’d like to be proven wrong, though.
Also, i’d like to clear some things up about Voxlap. It is not better for AoS than OpenGL-based engines, only different.
Infact, for mobile, it would be very bad to have Voxlap (once we ignore that voxlap requires x86 processors and most mobile devices run ARM processors), because iirc it almost completely ignores the graphics of whatever computer it’s being run on. This is an interesting, and in some circumstances, a good approach because you can’t be certain if the person playing your game has a [decent] GPU. However, most (if not all) phones have graphics chips/APUs powerful enough to play, say, the latest Need for Speed:
That should be more than enough to render a textureless 3D block world.
“But wait,” I hear you saying, “what about the strange circular segments, and 2D planes that make up blocks and objects?”
those could be simulated, for stylistic purposes. keep in mind, OpenGL is an extremely versatile rendering API. you can make a game look like anything, if you’re smart enough about it.
topo/BR, if you read this, please do tell me if i’m making things up about voxlap, thanks
Edit:
Alive and kicking, here’s a link for you (iceball subreddit).
on the right, there’s a link to their webchat, so you could log on and say ‘hi’ i suppose
Hi Muffin,
thnx for the reply.
I agree that UI would be a big problem, and I also agree that Voxlapp may not be suited for a smartphone.
What I meant, is that the graphics style of AOS (definately NOT photorealistic) means that lots of extra GPU horsepower will not be needed.
Other than that, I was mainly trying to think outside the box on this.
I would love to see continued development of voxel FPS (non Jägex)
Whether the game would come to Smartphones or not, would not influence my personal gameplay, since I am a desktop guy, but what people would get to know on their smart-phones, they mght decide to give a try on the desktop as well (smartphone only servers could solve the issues with aiming help etc. needed for the smartphone edition.)
I will try out iceball ASAP.
that’s not voxel or FPS, heretic!