The current number of active players varies from day to day. Beside the current projects that I know are currently being developed, there are about 50 of us, still actively playing. They seem to come out of the woodwork, when a reunion date has been set, and they have had some time to plan to attend. Other techniques I have used to reunite players is to post a news item, of games currently running and the term in which they will be running, usually brings in 10-15 players.
Personally, I have not given up on the game.
I have created some new maps, mods, and skins, and currently providing support for other modders and mappers. In addition, I am currently assisting in side projects to the latest release of the Last Resort Mod, which seems to be the norm in today's games.
Others are still creating mods and maps for the game, with similar goals of pushing the engine beyond it's capacity.
Guys feel free to leave your comments and support.
I'm a little hesitant to install software such as tunngle so I'm trying to get a reading on the current situation visavi online playing.
The very last co-op games I played online in October 2008 with 3 others was great fun, but I also remember vividly how deserted the servers were that entire year, and by deserted, I literally mean not one single person logged in except me, on most occasions.
It's great that you continue to support this awesome game. Happy new year!
ThunderStick I understand your reluctance to install unneeded software on your machine. I am very much the same way. Unfortunately the only way to play Swat 3 multiplayer any more is over LAN so a program like Tunngle is necessary.
If it is any comfort to you we tried many different software packages (eg Hamachi, Commodo VPN, and a few others that I can't remember now).
We finally settled on Tunngle for a variety of reasons:
1) Similar experience to the original Swat 3 servers ie a chat lobby players can assemble in before starting up a game
2) Ease of use. Many packages were difficult to install for the average user. Many would have problems getting through the firewalls of the host or client.
3) A lot of the LAN to Internet packages we tried were buggy. Usually the internet part worked well enough but the user interface had problems.
As for finding people on the server, I won't lie to you it is a bit of a crap shoot. What I find best is to join this website's Teamspeak server. You may find a few people are busy making maps or mods and are busy chatting about it rather than actually playing.
Hope to game with you online sometime (when I finally finish the new update to the Last Resort Mod, lol)
I honestly wasn't expecting there to be a flood of players still playing, especially considering that now we need a third party program installed to play multiplayer.
To keep my rant as brief as possible (which may not infact happen), this was of course the destiny of Swat3 thanks to Sierra's total and complete botch of the 2.0 patch all those years ago (thanks also to which the results were the massive exodus of players from the game). A proprietary only server to play multiplayer? The same fate awaited all those that purchased EA games as well. Had this game had proper multiplayer support built into it (like the few others from 1999 that I still play) the game would have had indefinite life to it (theoretically). They continued the ball drop with the 2.1 patch which was essentially the we don't care about Swat3 anymore.
Yeah, I was there for it all. I started playing online during the v1.6 patch/5 person multiplayer days. Boy, those were the game's glory days, short as they were.
So yes, Jim, I also of course remember your great Christmas map that you made with Reaperman, and also the website you both had.
Anyhow, with regards specifically to tunngle, my reluctance to install this software is basically to do with the fact I don't know how invasive it is with regards to changing TCP/IP settings, etc., and what Windows system files it either changes or overwrites, and that is my main concern. I'll have to investigate this software some more.
Hi guys. It is very nice to see that there are still ppl playin' this game. I hope I'm not alone in here in march 2013. Anyone would like to play some mission with me? I'm really into it :-)
Its awesome to know that there are 50 people that still play, i wonder why dont we record our own like gameplays and post them on youtube possibly make a series maybe we can gain more members that way and make swat 3 the # 1 game played in 2013! :3
Well I wouldn't expect that much ;-) but I think we can try to play together - that would be something. Watching gameplays of other ppl can be boring, but playing together - never :-) FaithLuria how about that? Me and my friend are ready anytime.
I'm an old school tactical player, SWAT series are number 1 for me! Good to know that there are a "few" guys still playing SWAT 3. Would be awesome to play with you.. do you guys have xfire or steam, smth like that so we could arrange smth.
We do meet on TeamSpeak, and always up for a few games. www.dncgaming.net teamspeak details can be found on site. See you in game, sorry for not reponding on Tunngle been quite busy these past few days.
