Analyzing the State of Ravenfield - part 1

Today I looked at some of the trends on how Ravenfield is doing. I split Ravenfield into 3 core groups that drive it: The developers, players, and modders. This is part 1! Unfortunately I didn't have the time to make it all in one video, so next week will wrap this up.

Important note: I am by no means a data scientist

[Lopqv]

I would say ravenfield is a little dry right now but really cant blame steelraven being the sole developer working on this game

[timewaster]

You know what this game is missing? A chill YouTuber who isn’t screaming the whole time and makes actually entertaining videos.

Oh wait, I’m commenting on his video.

[blaze]

Man, I am so happy a new ravenfield YouTuber has joined the community

[versace]

Just like SteelRaven, you’re the sole chill YouTuber for this game

[King_CreepaLot]

Ravenfield desperately needs more media coverage, I'm happy to see you becoming a dedicated RF YouTuber, you've got some great videos. The editing is great, there's no major background noise in your voiceovers, and you've got some very great video ideas.

[sumyouh]

Ravenfield desperately needs a better way for modders to directly access bot behaviour. We need more mods like "Courteous AI", "Smoothment", "Let Actors Run Away Mutator", or even a working "bot skill tweaker" which makes the bots feel less like "bots" and not walk in straight lines single file and have more unique responses to certain situations.

Ravenfield for me also has a huge problem with deadlocked fights usually only consisting of 3 or less fronts that never change throughout the game. If there was a mod that influences where and when bots can spawn, it might provide a more variable experience.

Lastly, I'd really like to see bot collision. Bots dont have collision and it really makes you feel removed from the rest of your team, and sometimes they cluster into a phallanx of guns. With bot collision, the bots may find different routes rather than walking in the AI predetermined path, which once again changes up the variety of the battle environment.

[Csp]

Another factor to development that we tend to forget about is technical debt. As the game's been expanding, we've been expecting things from it that Steel clearly didn't account for when he made Funny Blue and Red Block Man Shooty Game. To put it another way, as more people and business move into the once small and remote "Ravenfield City", the government has to juggle building new infrastructure to accommodate growth, while also replacing old lead pipes and filling potholes that the locals could just ignore back in the day.

[raw]

Honestly, I am impressed by the level of analysis you’ve done. Most of these videos are just vibe checks but you actually bothered to collect data you’ve earned yourself a subscriber, good sir.

[WuRay-gl]

Ravenfield isn't dying thanks to dedicated and talented people like you

[Novice_Rifleman]

Perfectly constructed analysis and great commentary. Nice job!

Excited for part 2!






7:41 "Who is the GOAT of Ravenfield modding?"

My answer would either be Sofa or King_CreepaLot. Sofa makes great vehicles and maps whilst King makes excellent weapons, skins, and is a very friendly person.

[Mystic-ytlk]

raven field is like the ship of Theseus- even when we change everything, it is still raven field

[epicdude]

this video jsut reminds me that i started playing before EA9 or 10, whichever one had the parachutes, because i remember just jumping out of aircraft and landing on the ground ragdolled with no impact to my health at all, because the parachute update also added fall damage

[svijj_]

For a one-man team, I'd say the game is doing quite well. However, I did hear some players voicing their dissatisfaction, saying that Steel focused on "making characters with anime faces" for the scripted mission rather than AI improvements. Indeed, I too would like to see some improvement on that front, but from what I know coding bots in Unity is one hell of a spaghetti code, so it's not an easy task.

Good video, as always, and an informed one as well! Funnily enough when such a topic is brought up in any gaming community, only a few dare to actually do their math and statistics

[Gangneung]

ur my favorite ravenfield youtuber
keep up the great work!
first one to like too

[Miki_Azy]

What the community needs is a proper modding guide. Especially for the new trigger system in EA28.

There's just not enough players being transformed into modders, and existing modders cannot access new features like trigger system that easily.
From my experience, only a few modders that has scripting knowledge or a huge amount of spare time can get trigger system to work since Steelraven hasn't made any tutorial on triggers and has never provided an example map that modders can use to study how to set up trigger system in the RFTools toolpack. Considering it has been 9 months since EA28 has released, only 12 maps with trigger system just shows how hard it is for modders to use the new trigger system without any user manual.

[enzotoronto]

the best upcoming ravenfield youtuber! keep going man, i set aside parts of my day just to watch one of ur new videos ;D

[maximfyodorovich]

One thing annoying with steam workshop, once an item goes down it also deletes from your pc

[Gangneung]

to answer to who the goat ravenfield modder is probally Sofa

[TryalArrow]

In my opinion (typed this out to further emphasize it), the only missing 'nice' factor is a good bot AI. Steelraven settles that and everyone will be happy

[migueeeelet]

Covering the workshop separately is a good idea; something that is still unclear to me to this day is whether a mod from 2022, 2020 or even 2018 still works, or if it's obsolete. I can imagine people seeing these old mods and going "wow, no updates, workshop is dead, game is dead", when in reality it's just that those mods don't need updating (which is a good thing - the game is robust and mods don't break easily). It'd be great if you could explain that part