These updates are great- and they are appreciated. Unfortunatly it is difficult as a gamer who soley bought the game to eat the cake to be asked to wait patiently for the cake.

When we have things such as Steam + Clans + Ranking systems that come standard in games, it is frustrating to see a game backtrack.

I have not played Demigod in a while. I am simply waiting for all the things mentioned above. But Thanks for keeping us posted--no matter what happens you have definetly made a mark in keeping the community.

Considering that the Impulse in-game and community features (Reactor.dll I believe) were released a year early, I am sure that Stardock has a lot of improvements in active development. That screenshot teaser looks great!

Out of 250 matches I've had to deal with jerks less than 5 times so far. So I'm counting my blessings.

In Diablo 2 I was luck to find an honorable guild early on in my online experience which made a big difference and eventually got me into MMOs. Most of my guild experience in MMOs have been positive. Given the way match making works for Pantheon and Skirmish, I don't get to play with or against the same players too often. I also don't find much time to chat during a match since there is so much to do and time spent chatting takes away from time playing. I think the addition on clans and a better chat system / friends list or some better documentation of the existing one would help players hook up.

One thing I'm wondering is whether it would be possible to be part of more than one clan. For example, I'd like to be part of a casual clan with my old MMO buddies while also being part of a competative clan for challenging matche play.

yeah exactly my point too, except I can't wait to get all issues fixed, I keep on playing

fingers crossed all issues will be fixed soon.

but these updates from frog are well appreciated for sure

Frogboy, i know that you played Demigod on Gameranger. Emulate that with the shift-tab impulse interface. You already got the friends list and chat, you need the rest of it. I think this is much simpler and less time consuming than trying to copy Steam...

I don't know about you, but i have met online many kind people in Demigod. True, i stumbled upon 2 or 3 (from dozens of games) who were jerks and calling names and then rage quit, but most of the time they either are communicative players or quiet ones. Personaly if i find a noob and he seems like a nice person, i don't mind that much loosing the game because of him. I stay with him 'till the end and hope that he learned something. When i encounter some jerk, i usually stay quiet and let him boil in rage.

And now for something completely different, why there are no 4v4 or 5v5 Pantheon matches? Will there ever be?

Completely agree, this is the first game that has been able to get me so hooked so quickly in... ever?  But it is not that way for everyone, which isn't to say that they can't be won over. 

I believe the three pronged attack truly is what will keep the game going, and each aspect is as important as the other.  Market enough to generate a population, update content enough to develop the reputation that makes the community market within itself and makes people WANT to pay for the game, and continue improving a feature rich community environment to keep us all connected.

It really is impossible to exclude any of these when achieving a long fruitful lifespan, which we all want!

Thanks for the screen shot.  I'm looking forward to this Frogboy.  It's cool to see things like this get built from the ground up. 

I'd like to add something I believe has been missed up until now - Valve does one thing other developers don't really do; game related products. I don't mean merchandise, I mean things like the 'Meet the [Class]' videos that they produce for Team Fortress 2. The community is filled with talented people who will eventually make their own such videos, however helping them along with official support will ensure the community connects not just in the game, but also outside of it. And this is where a community gets it's legs. Having a friends system, community groups and supported Clans is very helpful and convienant, however games developed thriving communities long before these features became standard issue features - and they did it because the community could relate to one another. Fan fiction, wallpapers, game play movies; these items help people connect to the game and to the community more, and ensure they'll stay around for a long, long time.

To give a basic example, albeit a somewhat disconnected one, in my guild in World of Warcraft I noticed our members started playing the game less and started posting on our guild forums less, despite the fact that we were progressing through the PvE content steadily and we were tearing it up in PvP events often. To help build morale, I recorded several movies of our shenanigans and edited together a bit of a guild movie and posted it online. It worked like a charm; people were playing more and posting more. The effect of these kinds of items cannot be understated.

Yep currently it's the only realistic way to get together with games.

I would also agree with an earlier poster than an IRC style chat in the Multiplayer area would be great. I don't share Frogboy's vision that the clan component will increase the games population - World in Conflict had a very good one, the game was good but that alone was not enough to ensure sales. You need to get people playing. However a clan/friends component to ensure friends team up is a good idea regardless.

I'd love to see voice communication in game - if that is provided by impulse then great but it must be part of the game - i.e not require you to be an impulse friend - linked up etc. Voice communication adds a whole new depth to the game.

Also improve the Pantheon so random match ups are more enjoyable - increase the numbers that can play and ensure friends can tie in when playing.

I'm laying great store in the demo - make sure it broadcasts on xfire so people can see friends are playing the demo. The community will ensure it's advertised as well. Hopefully retail versions will be able to play with the demo version.

Tals

Vilger, where are you looking though, and at what time?  And what timezone?  As I'm sure you're aware, some people just use the game's online features, some use xfire, some use GameRanger.  If FrogBoy says a certain number of people are online at a point in time, I'm sure his access to the consolidated data is more accurate than someone only watching one medium.

The game is just gearing up, though a way to consolidate the population would be awesome.

vilger: If you're having connectivity problems at this point, you need to look at your own setup. I am not aware of anyone having any problems at this point. I'm not sur what you're even talking about.

As for how well the game is doing in the EU, I can't speak to that as that is Atari. 

Opengames.aspx only displays the # of people on the server that we used during the beta. There several such servers.

I love those videos myself.  It's worth pointing out that we (Stardock) are the publisher of Demigod. It's not actually our game so that would be a suggestion we'd have to pass on to GPG.

Regarding the demo: The demo isn't interoperable with the full game in online play.

Ultimately, we will do everything we can do to keep the multiplayer community growing but as a practical matter, if you want more players, it will largely be based on word of mouth as people get friends and such into the game.

nice deleting skills