Long, possibily slightly rant-ish post.
You're kinda letting it rot and die anyway currently, giving MM8BDM all the attention, and just forgetting about the balance issues this one has.
Why its still being played is because it is fun. And alot of that fun just kept getting better and got more people because it improved (and, well, yeah, the more content to mess around with), but in the long run, if the flaws get too bad, people might just stop playing it.
And i'm quite personally getting sick of the constant marine spam you see daily, and either do nothing about, just watch your teammates kill themselves merely looking at an marine. Or join the marine's team. Hell, might as well call it Marine vs Ghouls! Of course the humans often complain about the Sjas that constantly seem overpowered to them, well i guess he is quite powerfull and difficult to deal with.
Even if its the last update you'll ever do, atleast PLEASE balance the damn thing before you leave it to rot. It seems quite unlikely it will need much more stuff if you're putting all your effort into MM8BDM, so atleast give the people who like it and some of the people who care for its balance an update! It'll just make it more amusing to play when we want to play it for whatever reason.
Its closed to being decently balanced anyway... Ah, the memories of instakill lightning arrows, 3 super powerfull ice arrows, the machinegun ripping through ghouls even better then the hunter's arrows at some point...
If all those balance issues are behind us atleast we can then just play it if there's an active game going on anyway, without being mauled by riotguns or sjas only. Assuming no new issues pop up. :P
Oh, and considering MM8BDM is your current popular project anyway, it doesnt need much new stuff to regain popularity, for all i care its an silent update! What would possibily stop you from updating it? I'm sure many people would love an balance update anyway, plenty of people getting tired of the usual flaws. Personally, i'll be quite happy when its all fixed, hosted on the official, non-laggy servers, and i can just enter it one day and just ENJOY a good ol game of GVH. Maybe just for purely the sake of nostalgia.
All this is assuming the 10th version is releasable, unless there's still some issues to fix or tests to be done. Speaking of, i DEAR GOD HOPE there is a proper spread for the Riotgun now. :P
(And dont ask me to make a own patch or anything, because i want a fixed GVH to be hosted on official servers, and best way to do it is to have a new one to be released, of course. :P)
Hmm... Well i wonder if there's any progress with giving GVH to a person or possibily a group. I guess you could give it all to DTD if you're looking for a willing person, or maybe give it to a group of people who you can consider reliable and who care enough about GVH to not mess it up (not many people that fit the bill, but there's bound to be atleast a few on this forum).
Hmm... And i wouldnt care too much on how messy the code/decorate/acs is though, as long as it works i say! Making good stuff is almost never easy anyway, it doesnt have to be easy, just doable!
Slightly off topic: I wonder, aside map changes where any other things changed in that unofficial file? Like the classes or the ACS?
Edit: An long, serious (but probaly anger inducing) idea, maybe worth it to add to the list, if people can see past their blind rage upon seeing this:
Possibily alter lightning arrows to do less damage? They're getting amazingly popular, and can instant kill Creepers from just about any range and 2-hit Jitterskulls while extremely vulnerable on long range without miss, when they recently attacked. Kinda annoying you can be instakilled on ANY distance, or atleast almost get killed, skill is one factor, but its quite rediculous, not to mention, it'll pick up popularity afte-- uh, IF the riotgun gets nerfed.
I'd suggest around 50 possibily randomized damage, almost always hitting 1/2 or 1/3'd of an ghoul's life. Except for creeper being practically 4/5 damaged after a direct hit. His job is hard enough with cheaters, explosives, lack of movement... :P
The reason for this suggestion is that its practically impossible to kill people without GETTING killed as an Jitterskull when there's a hunter around. If they are good with lightning, they WILL hit you at EVERY, SINGLE, ATTEMP, that you make to kill an human. And its merely 2 hits and you're out.
As for the Creeper, he's small, people sometimes cheat, and he has it hard enough anyway, besides, he'll be nearly dead and a single projectile can destoy him or a unlucky grenade.
Any other classes have the luxury of acceptable to quick movement and can dodge plenty of lightning arrows if they're good at it.
My only alternative suggestion is to give Jitterskull either an permanent or temporarely resistance while attacking and untill the absolute moment he can (and assumingly does) teleports/moves. If it wears off before he moves at all it'll be useless and only a matter of timing. Not sure if Creepers will need any extra resistance with this idea.
Ah, i remember that very odd modification someone made for GVH, based on weaknesses like pokemon, meh, it wasnt too entertaining.
Mostly because it wasn't meant to be entertaining, as it was just a minor edit. (Except for Jitterskull & Choke being able to survive a bit longer, because they got healed when they killed/damaged humans.)
I might take a shot at making an alternate lightning bow, but that probably won't be coming soon.
Because I have to make the stuff on my main computer, then getting it over to another to upload/discuss stuff. Not to mention This:
(http://img88.imageshack.us/img88/183/sargd3d7h.png) (http://img571.imageshack.us/img571/9069/bossd4d6argh.png)