<!--quoteo(post=2055845:date=Jan 4 2013, 02:00 AM:name=PimpToad)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (PimpToad @ Jan 4 2013, 02:00 AM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=2055845"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->" Hell the multiplayer experience just sucks unless you are running some stupidly OC'd computer.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd--> My computer is 4 years old, and I get a constant 30-50 FPS on max settings at 1920x1040.
theres only so much info you can regurgitate on new players. this is where this argument about "letting players know" crap fails. you can have ALL the tooltips in the GD world in the game, but at the end of the day new players are going to get killed more often than not. thats just a fact of gaming, and its sad that it needs to be explained. and it happens in every game, criers gonna cry. if a new player cannot be assed to play a game and learn how to play, how is that the games fault. christ, i shudder to think of the days of instagib weapons in games. imagine a new player trying to jump into rocket arena, christ. i just dont get the mentality of buying a multiplayer game and expecting it to be easy and have no ladder.
<!--quoteo(post=2055924:date=Jan 4 2013, 08:37 AM:name=MMZ_Torak)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (MMZ_Torak @ Jan 4 2013, 08:37 AM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=2055924"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->If I Ruled The World...
I would focus on the Hit Reg problem, and maybe some simple tutorial like TF2 has. I would not even touch balance until the hit reg was solved as it could seriously mask or impersonate the real problem.
After that and the (lets be honest) percentage of people that are not interested in the core game play leave, focus on balance. Allow some time for the people that "just want to shoot aliens" and treat this as some glorified DM game to get bored and leave; it may take a month for them to go. Trying to get people not interested in teamwork, not interested in doing more than shooting aliens, to play 'right' is like herding cats. They aren't interested in the core game play, they will skew any metric used to gauge balance.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd--> I think one could argue that this already happened shortly before the holiday sales. Look at the stats for builds 233/234. The game just got progressively more unbalanced over time.
<!--quoteo(post=2055689:date=Jan 4 2013, 02:11 AM:name=Flayra)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Flayra @ Jan 4 2013, 02:11 AM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=2055689"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->Hmm. We definitely take this problem seriously, but I'm not sure what to do about it.
I think we have a hit-reg problem, but I definitely am trying to figure out if one side is easier to play or not. I always thought aliens were harder to learn than marine, but the skill-curve could steep in the beginning and then level off for aliens (that's my current hunch), while marines is smoother but takes longer to get good at.
Another problem my be celerity and how hard it is to hit anything that's moving so quickly. I tried to address this in the beta by having celerity only work outside of combat (ie, have it slowly increase and let you get between rooms quickly, but stop working once you take damage or attack). Most people didn't seem to like that concept though, so it was changed. Maybe it's a culprit now?<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
I cant imagine it being celerity, it is rarely used in comp games and we still see marines being much much harder to win with.
I honestly think the problem is a combination of: crag healing rate causing hives to be impossible to kill without arcs and map alterations that made hives more blocked off from before crags healed so well.
Remember the series of map changes made to block off hives due to them being too easy to snipe down from outside the hive? (a good example is shipping) Combining this with the buff to crags that was seen a few patches ago has made hives crazy hard to kill.
Further combine this with the fact maps were designed before crags hard countered anything but arcs and thus most hives do not have a good place to siege from means hives have become very hard to kill at all.
<!--quoteo(post=2056071:date=Jan 4 2013, 06:17 PM:name=xDragon)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (xDragon @ Jan 4 2013, 06:17 PM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=2056071"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->If your not winning engagements crags in the hive are not going to matter....
Not to mention that a crag dies in pretty much 2 rifle clips.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
If each one takes 2 rifle clips to kill and there are 4 crags that is only an extra 8 rifle clips required to kill the hive. However these crags are alot smaller than a hive and can be easily places in areas pretty much impossible to shoot without standing ontop of them: under the lockers behind the hive in Warehouse, behind the hive in Data Core or behind the hive in shipping. Thus meaning that marines can no longer stand in clever positions egg locking whilst slowly killing a hive, instead they have to rush behind the hive to kill the crags and putting them in easily ambushable positions.
Remember that these marines till have to kill skulks/fades aswell... its not just a crag shoot...
<!--quoteo(post=2056076:date=Jan 4 2013, 06:23 PM:name=Zek)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Zek @ Jan 4 2013, 06:23 PM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=2056076"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->Attacking a fortified hive is a late game scenario. Most marine losses are decided far, far earlier than that, by a simple lack of territory control.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
You can wish to believe that all you like: but in reality that isnt the case, in my experience close spawn games where the enemy has a strong push team will see a crag places behind the hive early.
Forewarning before reading my wall of text: <b>I have multiple friends who bought ns2 and stopped playing ns2 because the engine performance wasn't responsive enough on midrange computers. It has nothing to do with the gameplay itself.</b> If you want a game to be competitive or have good adoption rates, make sure there are ample options for players with less money invested in hardware to have the same competitive experience as those who have plenty.
Aiming at things that move fast is easier when the game is responsive.
I am under the strong impression that removing options and things to do from players is a bad formula. Having an alien commander make a poor decision from being new can leave a bad taste in anybody's mouth. Especially since aliens having a commander means their options for enjoying the game they want to play are being decided for them. There is a binary way to play ns2 as an alien now and that is boring. It also means new players as commanders can make some pretty 'bad' matches like the original poster is complaining about.
Ways to remove options from players to enjoy the game they want to enjoy: *Fades transition poorly into late game. *Alien commander removes diversity and player options from aliens. (Why would I buy X lifeform if I don't have access to Y upgrades that I deem necessary to play effectively) *Poor performance in a FPS exaggerates balance noise issues. (some can't even play the game!)
One of the neatest phenomenon I saw was during the public release day(s) of ns2. The matches on the UWE bulk pub servers consisted of both teams eternally clashing at the same spot which was basically as the crow flies to eachother's base. I think that phenomenon is a good indicator of what a new ns2 player understands of a game they don't read in manuals/blogs/tutorials. Why should I not infinitely shoot at and die to aliens as a new player? What would help me figure out I benefited from doing something else, especially if I think my commander was obnoxious on the microphone and I decided to mute all communications from them? What indicates to me as a marine/alien that I get to purchase this upgrade if I help secure this resource tower or lock down my second command chair/hive? Nothing at the moment.
Don't be mislead though, I really don't believe hand holding is necessary. Simpler is not always better. A game that has no avenues for people to enjoy their 'own' perception of what 'fun' is for themselves is just a 'game' as seen by the game creator. Perception of fun is extremely subjective to the players and if there isn't ample amount of options on how to play a game and have fun doing it, then the players won't stick around. (Marine players don't have that many pres or objective based options...) <!--quoteo(post=2055689:date=Jan 3 2013, 10:11 PM:name=Flayra)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Flayra @ Jan 3 2013, 10:11 PM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=2055689"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->Another problem my be celerity and how hard it is to hit anything that's moving so quickly. I tried to address this in the beta by having celerity only work outside of combat (ie, have it slowly increase and let you get between rooms quickly, but stop working once you take damage or attack). Most people didn't seem to like that concept though, so it was changed. Maybe it's a culprit now?<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd--> Please don't homogenize everything, don't remove the option of running away by changing celerity to turn off when you get hit (what???). Don't change teleport (COOL!) into move real fast (see: fade leap, meh) -fades. Vortex has been more like snoretex. The gorge does even less base 'gardening' than in ns1 now which is certainly not cool. Marines don't have a box/belt fed double barrel heavy machine gun anymore, though they did get a flamethrower which is neat but not a reason to cut the ladder out of the picture. Please add alternative lifeform ability upgrades to choose from (aliens) that allow the gorge/lerk/fade to have an aggressive/skilled role and a basekeeper/new player favorite role that IS NOT determined for you by the commander. Work on the HUD to blatantly show that you do not earn player resources when you are dead. Being an FPS game, I would hope I didn't have to spend my life in the map overlay to be effective. I am pretty sure new players would rather be shooting at things and looking at the level's design instead.
A good HUD should convey the goals of an FPS game elegantly. Aliens still don't have hive name&health+upgrade+research status indicators marginally as useful as the ones in ns1. Even as a long term player, I still would like a hud direction indicator of my active hives. Sometimes they pop up when my face isn't in the overlay map. It would be good if I knew it was just dropped so I would go defend it. Both teams don't have any new player friendly explicit indication of what a resource tower is or what it does for the player and they really should. The +1 point for kill popup text unnecessarily directs new players to seek out those frags that don't do anything. I suspect it would be more useful to show where known un-captured resource nodes were. Additionally, it could be good to indicate a second base expansion location and how it granted access to more tech.
Was the LMG/spawn rifle really something that marines should be using endgame to take down somebody's 75 resources time/gameplay onos investment? The LMG/HMG formula was something that could be balanced more for different phases of the game. A single comm chair turtle that requires a lot of onos for the pubs to actually nab the win screen is probably not good.
I still play ns2 to date and I enjoy it. I strongly believe it isn't living up to its full potential.
i have about 150 hours of NS2 under my belt, and i still have negative K/D everytime, 2kills to 18death is nothing new for me. but i still come back for more. ns1 had the same effect for me, i just like it, its fun, even when you lose. the times that i owned CS servers is gone, i simply dont have the skill anymore, getting old i suppose, but in NS i can still be usefull, i can build, i can support, i can play bait or distract, and i feel usefull to my team.
PS: because its about new players here, let me tell you about my first day in ns1: i found that halflife mod that puts marines against aliens, sounds cool, installing. i join a round in progress, i spawn as marine, i figure its more like what i know so it should go smother. i keep following other marines and they start building some sort of structure and i even figured out what key to press to help them. we get ambushed by skulks and for some reason i survive with 1 other marine. i start feeling... unsave. i keep folowing him, checking our six. while checking our back i hear him die but when i look at him there is only a corpse. i just stand there checking front and back. suddenly a fade appears in the middle of my crosshair about 1 meters away. i cant shoot i cant move i simply forze out of fear and shock and he sloughters me with his scythe arms.
i fell in love with ns. NS is like that cool alien vs marine movie that never got made, think alien 2 on steroids.
The problem, as you mentioned already, is not that marines are too weak early on but that that new players get beaten up by more experienced players. Now when that is true - and it is, in fact! - then the solution cannot be to increase the armour as well of fire power of the marines because of the gap in terms of <i>skill</i>. The problem, as you've pointed out, are <b>not</b> not the marines itself because even teams, in terms of experience and skill, will probably result in a somewhat even match. Tweaking the balance for <i>all</i> players becaues new players have a hard time during their first rounds, will result in a even more broken balance for the rest of the playerbase.
If anything, give <i>rookie</i> players some sort of boost so they don't get eaten up that easily - though, I don't really like this idea at all. What new players need are more information, tips, hints, advices, maybe some sort of squad-system and simply a less frustrating start. But soften the initial experience for new players but tweaking the overall balance in their favour will result in a broken balance for everyone else. You cannot really compensate lack of skill due to balance. If I'd play say StarCraft² against an experienced player, I would get beaten up in no time. The <i>solution</i> to this problem cannot be to give my units more firepower, hp, more starting buildings, etc. but I simply have to <i>learn</i> to play the game.
If new players, especially as Marines, have most of the time no clue what to do and what the game is about in the first place, then I think that can ruin a gaming experience. The solution, as other's have mentioned it again and again, are more hints, tips, etc. for rookies - I think getting beaten up by experienced players is something everyone is, or at least should, be able to get along with when he starts to play a new game he doesn't know. What can frustrate people is, when they die and neither know why, how or for what reason. I mean, there are tutorials at Youtube but frankly, when I install a game I would be really pissed off if I had first go to Youtube to watch some videos. I want the game to explain itself to me while I play it. Currently, NaSe2 does a bad job in that aspect. Meddling around with the balance, though, won't solve the problem but just cause many more.
Ideas:
If you get killed by another player, show the player a pop-up - he hasn't anything to do while he respawns anyway - where you get information about the weapon or lifeform that killed you. You furthermore become tiny advices how to cope with that weapon or lifeform. If you see a structure you get a little in-game pop-up that briefly explains the function of this structure, etc. That game simply needs more explanations. You cannot expect new players to browse through Wikis, watch Youtube videos or keep asking other players.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Tool tips would do wonders on some abilities. I do sorta like larger clips for the purpose of the use of cover fire and shooting where a jump skulk will be rather than trying to trace him with your cross hairs. I think cover fire is pretty tactical. I kinda wish there was another guy or something that had 100 rounds to do that.
<!--quoteo(post=2056113:date=Jan 4 2013, 11:17 AM:name=Venatos)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Venatos @ Jan 4 2013, 11:17 AM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=2056113"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->i have about 150 hours of NS2 under my belt, and i still have negative K/D everytime, 2kills to 18death is nothing new for me. but i still come back for more. ns1 had the same effect for me, i just like it, its fun, even when you lose. the times that i owned CS servers is gone, i simply dont have the skill anymore, getting old i suppose, but in NS i can still be usefull, i can build, i can support, i can play bait or distract, and i feel usefull to my team.
PS: because its about new players here, let me tell you about my first day in ns1: i found that halflife mod that puts marines against aliens, sounds cool, installing. i join a round in progress, i spawn as marine, i figure its more like what i know so it should go smother. i keep following other marines and they start building some sort of structure and i even figured out what key to press to help them. we get ambushed by skulks and for some reason i survive with 1 other marine. i start feeling... unsave. i keep folowing him, checking our six. while checking our back i hear him die but when i look at him there is only a corpse. i just stand there checking front and back. suddenly a fade appears in the middle of my crosshair about 1 meters away. i cant shoot i cant move i simply forze out of fear and shock and he sloughters me with his scythe arms.
i fell in love with ns. NS is like that cool alien vs marine movie that never got made, think alien 2 on steroids.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Yeah I am a new player and the complexity is what attracts me to this game.
<!--quoteo(post=2055929:date=Jan 4 2013, 08:57 AM:name=Cregore)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Cregore @ Jan 4 2013, 08:57 AM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=2055929"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->My computer is 4 years old, and I get a constant 30-50 FPS on max settings at 1920x1040.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd--> *shrugs* My buddy has a 1st Gen i7 @ 4ghz and he complains of fps drops below 30. I think he games @ 1680x1050 and I'm more inclined to believe him than someone who can't even get his own resolution right.
<!--quoteo(post=2056101:date=Jan 4 2013, 02:00 PM:name=S_Badguy)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (S_Badguy @ Jan 4 2013, 02:00 PM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=2056101"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->QUOTE (Flayra @ Jan 3 2013, 10:11 PM) * Another problem my be celerity and how hard it is to hit anything that's moving so quickly. I tried to address this in the beta by having celerity only work outside of combat (ie, have it slowly increase and let you get between rooms quickly, but stop working once you take damage or attack). Most people didn't seem to like that concept though, so it was changed. Maybe it's a culprit now? Please don't homogenize everything, don't remove the option of running away by changing celerity to turn off when you get hit (what???). Don't change teleport (COOL!) into move real fast (see: fade leap, meh) -fades.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
here we go
build 233 - remove celerity
cater to the people that wont be playing in a month regardless.
<!--quoteo(post=2055835:date=Jan 4 2013, 01:42 AM:name=Amb)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Amb @ Jan 4 2013, 01:42 AM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=2055835"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->yeah, stay in those games, don't come to NS please. Thank you.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd--> My comment was a smart ass comment.
If NS/NS2 were easy, I wouldn't have liked the first one and the current one.
<!--quoteo(post=2056136:date=Jan 4 2013, 12:34 PM:name=PimpToad)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (PimpToad @ Jan 4 2013, 12:34 PM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=2056136"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->*shrugs* My buddy has a 1st Gen i7 @ 4ghz and he complains of fps drops below 30. I think he games @ 1680x1050 and I'm more inclined to believe him than someone who can't even get his own resolution right.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd--> That post was made at 5:57am my time, I'd been awake for about 10 minutes and was getting ready for work.
I run the game at max settings* @ 1920x1080. What's his video card, how much ram, etc, etc.
I'm using a <a href="http://ark.intel.com/products/33910/Intel-Core2-Duo-Processor-E8400-6M-Cache-3_00-GHz-1333-MHz-FSB" target="_blank">Core2Duo 3.0 Ghz(E8400)</a>, a <a href="http://www.nvidia.com/object/product_geforce_gtx_280_us.html" target="_blank">GeForce GTX 280(eVGA variant, same specs though)</a>, with 4 GB of DDR2.
It may be the fact I'm running a fresh install of Win7 64bit, so I don't have a lot of bloat associated with running an OS for an extended period of time.
Last night I turned all the graphics settings to minimum to see if there was a huge difference.
*I never use anistropic filtering, or anti-aliasing regardless of which game I'm playing as they are huge FPS hits in all games except really old ones.
<!--quoteo(post=2056265:date=Jan 4 2013, 08:05 PM:name=Cregore)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Cregore @ Jan 4 2013, 08:05 PM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=2056265"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->That post was made at 5:57am my time, I'd been awake for about 10 minutes and was getting ready for work.
I run the game at max settings* @ 1920x1080. What's his video card, how much ram, etc, etc.
I'm using a <a href="http://ark.intel.com/products/33910/Intel-Core2-Duo-Processor-E8400-6M-Cache-3_00-GHz-1333-MHz-FSB" target="_blank">Core2Duo 3.0 Ghz(E8400)</a>, a <a href="http://www.nvidia.com/object/product_geforce_gtx_280_us.html" target="_blank">GeForce GTX 280(eVGA variant, same specs though)</a>, with 4 GB of DDR2.
It may be the fact I'm running a fresh install of Win7 64bit, so I don't have a lot of bloat associated with running an OS for an extended period of time.
Last night I turned all the graphics settings to minimum to see if there was a huge difference.
*I never use anistropic filtering, or anti-aliasing regardless of which game I'm playing as they are huge FPS hits in all games except really old ones.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd--> i7-920@4ghz, 2x2GB 6950, 16GB 1600mhz Corsair Dominator, 3xRaid0 AAJS WD Caviar Black lowest I've seen so far on r_stats is 24fps, though I'll probably fraps soon to see exactly how low the fps drops. Only supported game I can't get a decent performance on 3 monitors so far so 24fps was from single monitor res
<!--quoteo(post=2056269:date=Jan 4 2013, 05:14 PM:name=Makenshi)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Makenshi @ Jan 4 2013, 05:14 PM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=2056269"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->i7-920@4ghz, 2x2GB 6950, 16GB 1600mhz Corsair Dominator, 3xRaid0 AAJS WD Caviar Black lowest I've seen so far on r_stats is 24fps, though I'll probably fraps soon to see exactly how low the fps drops. Only supported game I can't get a decent performance on 3 monitors so far so 24fps was from single monitor res<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd--> My real life friend who gifted me NS2 for christmas says it runs "Suspiciously well." on my system.
I'll screen-cap with Fraps tonight when I do my marathon.
<!--quoteo(post=2056269:date=Jan 4 2013, 05:14 PM:name=Makenshi)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Makenshi @ Jan 4 2013, 05:14 PM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=2056269"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->i7-920@4ghz, 2x2GB 6950, 16GB 1600mhz Corsair Dominator, 3xRaid0 AAJS WD Caviar Black lowest I've seen so far on r_stats is 24fps, though I'll probably fraps soon to see exactly how low the fps drops. Only supported game I can't get a decent performance on 3 monitors so far so 24fps was from single monitor res<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd--> Do you have anistropic filtering and anti-aliasing on?
When I used to play WoW, it ran poorly for me with 16xAA.
I was teaching my cousin how to play the game, and a specific player X decides to stomp the entire team by going 30-0 and making a tutorial about it. Although tutorials are great and all for teaching, it's completely unfair for new players to be used as guinea pigs for one's benefit.
I'm writing this not for that player in specific currently editing his tutorial, but for all those with experience/competitive level play wanting to see a growing and friendly community:
1. If you are keen about making tutorials, either: - Create your own server and ask your friends to help you out - Go in a server where your level is more or less equivalent to others and do it, because showing your skills against those about the same level is where new players will learn most from tutorials. They won't learn a single stuff if you decide to destroy players who don't have a single idea of what's going on and most likely will stand still not knowing what to do and let you 3 bite him off in 1 second. - Do what Strayan does (Strayan's videos are amongst the best tutorials // gameplay footage)
2. Responsibility: As a player and consumer, of course you can do as you please because it's your money and you can do anything you want. But keep this in mind, by stomping people, recording their plays without approval (many people dislike being recorded getting destroyed on YouTube), you create a gap between experienced and new players (explained in detail below).
3. Friendly community: Don't think 30-0 will make the suffering team most likely be happy to continuously get killed the moment they step out of that IP / base / hive.
4. Don't tell commanders to do what you want. Explain them the reasons of why you demanded and the benefits of it. I've been hearing a lot of times of: "Eject this noob commander, he sucks", "You're (#@(@^, please get out of the server or get out of the chair" etc.
Your action to stomp a team alone, or with a friend / other player is a recipe to kill the game in the future. I'm pretty sure the creators of this game were hoping to develop a very friendly environment community, team based, fun game, yet we are seeing a completely opposite effect right now, thus how this thread was a created by a disgruntled new player attempting to learn a great game. This gap I wrote about between experienced and new players just gets larger as the new players lose interest in the game if they don't have any positive outcome of the game such as a win by playing some kind of key factor to result in that win, or any benefits from their loss but frustration.
From that game I just got out of, my cousin was so pissed he got repeatedly killed by the same person over 10 times in such little time he simply decided to stop playing it for good because of what you did (you know who you are). This is one of many ongoing issues of a community that may struggle to get fresh players by these kinds of experienced players with thirst to obtain a good score. NS2 is not score based only game, it's also mainly teamwork.
Maybe I am frustrated and you were right saying I was pissed in game when I started calling you out when my relative raged, because you just killed someone I could enjoy playing NS2 with the little time I have to play and university studies. LoL and HoN is a perfect example ( a lot may disagree on this, but this is my opinion) of a friendly vs competitive community. LoL is by far more popular and enjoyable environment than HoN, because they have their ways of balancing the game and let new players time to learn the basics before facing greaters challenges, while HoN, new players get pub stomped already, and/or by the little mistake they do, they get scorned by others and called out.
This game does not need to be balanced, it already is. What it needs is a veteran/mature/kind community to support the newcomers with open arms. This requires a great effort from this community. I come to put myself as being part of that selfish, bad community looking for a good score on the board and shine in the server. But overtime, I realize that what I've been doing is wrong, and to try to see a growing and friendly public, I have to readjust myself in function of the server I join. I nowadays look at my performance during a game and try to balance as I can or simply change servers or give some tips and play a more supportive role
TL; DR If you are a good/experienced player, don't join rookie servers to destroy them. Instead, either join a server about your level, balance the team or teach those who desire to learn. Your stomping has consequences such as a bad community image of the game, leading to less players, less recruitment.
Enough ranting for now, I'm falling asleep and this is probably incomplete as I forgot some stuff I wanted to write...
PS: Good job ( - - - - ) again for making NS2 lose yet another potential good player. I'm really holding myself to not write your ID in this post.... Good luck for your tutorials, hope it won't teach the viewers how to stomp a rookie server.
<!--quoteo(post=2057228:date=Jan 7 2013, 12:06 AM:name=Yragorn)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Yragorn @ Jan 7 2013, 12:06 AM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=2057228"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->I'm really holding myself to not write your ID in this post....<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd--> Call them out, no one cares.
And by no one cares, I, of course, mean: No one cares that your cousin was incapable of losing constantly in a game he's new at. If you quit at the first overwhelming challenge, you won't be the person to stick with games often. It's a shame he took it so negatively and a shame he's already written the game off, but if being trounced is his trigger, he's already playing the wrong game by the nature of it's rather difficult learning curve.
Finally, whomever was making the "tutorial" probably has the right idea. No better way than to show <b>why</b> an experienced player is succeeding against a newer player. If I made a video of a skulk that was about my skill level and I die to him 50% of the time, I'd have nothing to educate with other than "hey, see he jumps" or "that lerk moves around quicker than you probably do." or "I killed him because I aimed slightly better that time". If I show 30 rookies making mistakes from the attacking point of view it's easy go "He died because he didn't jump at all" or "That lerk stayed in combat too long and relied too much on his needles to try and get a kill without dodging".
<!--quoteo(post=2057228:date=Jan 7 2013, 02:06 PM:name=Yragorn)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Yragorn @ Jan 7 2013, 02:06 PM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=2057228"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->TL; DR If you are a good/experienced player, don't join rookie servers to destroy them. Instead, either join a server about your level, balance the team or teach those who desire to learn. Your stomping has consequences such as a bad community image of the game, leading to less players, less recruitment.
PS: Good job ( - - - - ) again for making NS2 lose yet another potential good player. I'm really holding myself to not write your ID in this post.... Good luck for your tutorials, hope it won't teach the viewers how to stomp a rookie server.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
We don't have servers our level, us competitive players are forced to play pub with the scrubs or not at all.
Also the server says "rookie friendly" not "rookie only" big difference.
If your friend can't hack 1 loss in a video game, I'm afraid he's not going to make it very far anyway.
<!--quoteo(post=2057243:date=Jan 6 2013, 10:56 PM:name=Koven)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Koven @ Jan 6 2013, 10:56 PM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=2057243"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->We don't have servers our level, us competitive players are forced to play pub with the scrubs or not at all.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd--> That's crap.
I used to play RtCW competitively.
There was five servers run by competitive clans for public play.
If you want to play with competitive people, get a server hosted somewhere that'll give most people in your time zone a decent ping, and then spread the word around.
Do you competitive types still use IRC? It's great for setting up impromptu public matches vs random teams of competitive types.
<!--quoteo(post=2056210:date=Jan 4 2013, 04:23 PM:name=VeNeM)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (VeNeM @ Jan 4 2013, 04:23 PM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=2056210"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->here we go
build 233 - remove celerity
cater to the people that wont be playing in a month regardless.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
They won't be playing in a month even without a tutorial or whatever because this game is an unbalanced ###### fest for the Aliens and are somehow getting buffed next patch.
There was five servers run by competitive clans for public play.
If you want to play with competitive people, get a server hosted somewhere that'll give most people in your time zone a decent ping, and then spread the word around.
Do you competitive types still use IRC? It's great for setting up impromptu public matches vs random teams of competitive types.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Koven isn't in North America if you could believe that.
Comments
My computer is 4 years old, and I get a constant 30-50 FPS on max settings at 1920x1040.
I would focus on the Hit Reg problem, and maybe some simple tutorial like TF2 has. I would not even touch balance until the hit reg was solved as it could seriously mask or impersonate the real problem.
After that and the (lets be honest) percentage of people that are not interested in the core game play leave, focus on balance. Allow some time for the people that "just want to shoot aliens" and treat this as some glorified DM game to get bored and leave; it may take a month for them to go. Trying to get people not interested in teamwork, not interested in doing more than shooting aliens, to play 'right' is like herding cats. They aren't interested in the core game play, they will skew any metric used to gauge balance.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
I think one could argue that this already happened shortly before the holiday sales. Look at the stats for builds 233/234. The game just got progressively more unbalanced over time.
I think we have a hit-reg problem, but I definitely am trying to figure out if one side is easier to play or not. I always thought aliens were harder to learn than marine, but the skill-curve could steep in the beginning and then level off for aliens (that's my current hunch), while marines is smoother but takes longer to get good at.
Another problem my be celerity and how hard it is to hit anything that's moving so quickly. I tried to address this in the beta by having celerity only work outside of combat (ie, have it slowly increase and let you get between rooms quickly, but stop working once you take damage or attack). Most people didn't seem to like that concept though, so it was changed. Maybe it's a culprit now?<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
I cant imagine it being celerity, it is rarely used in comp games and we still see marines being much much harder to win with.
I honestly think the problem is a combination of: crag healing rate causing hives to be impossible to kill without arcs and map alterations that made hives more blocked off from before crags healed so well.
Remember the series of map changes made to block off hives due to them being too easy to snipe down from outside the hive? (a good example is shipping)
Combining this with the buff to crags that was seen a few patches ago has made hives crazy hard to kill.
Further combine this with the fact maps were designed before crags hard countered anything but arcs and thus most hives do not have a good place to siege from means hives have become very hard to kill at all.
But that is just my two cents.
Not to mention that a crag dies in pretty much 2 rifle clips.
Not to mention that a crag dies in pretty much 2 rifle clips.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
If each one takes 2 rifle clips to kill and there are 4 crags that is only an extra 8 rifle clips required to kill the hive.
However these crags are alot smaller than a hive and can be easily places in areas pretty much impossible to shoot without standing ontop of them: under the lockers behind the hive in Warehouse, behind the hive in Data Core or behind the hive in shipping. Thus meaning that marines can no longer stand in clever positions egg locking whilst slowly killing a hive, instead they have to rush behind the hive to kill the crags and putting them in easily ambushable positions.
Remember that these marines till have to kill skulks/fades aswell... its not just a crag shoot...
<!--quoteo(post=2056076:date=Jan 4 2013, 06:23 PM:name=Zek)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Zek @ Jan 4 2013, 06:23 PM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=2056076"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->Attacking a fortified hive is a late game scenario. Most marine losses are decided far, far earlier than that, by a simple lack of territory control.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
You can wish to believe that all you like: but in reality that isnt the case, in my experience close spawn games where the enemy has a strong push team will see a crag places behind the hive early.
<b>I have multiple friends who bought ns2 and stopped playing ns2 because the engine performance wasn't responsive enough on midrange computers. It has nothing to do with the gameplay itself.</b> If you want a game to be competitive or have good adoption rates, make sure there are ample options for players with less money invested in hardware to have the same competitive experience as those who have plenty.
Aiming at things that move fast is easier when the game is responsive.
I am under the strong impression that removing options and things to do from players is a bad formula. Having an alien commander make a poor decision from being new can leave a bad taste in anybody's mouth. Especially since aliens having a commander means their options for enjoying the game they want to play are being decided for them. There is a binary way to play ns2 as an alien now and that is boring. It also means new players as commanders can make some pretty 'bad' matches like the original poster is complaining about.
Ways to remove options from players to enjoy the game they want to enjoy:
*Fades transition poorly into late game.
*Alien commander removes diversity and player options from aliens. (Why would I buy X lifeform if I don't have access to Y upgrades that I deem necessary to play effectively)
*Poor performance in a FPS exaggerates balance noise issues. (some can't even play the game!)
One of the neatest phenomenon I saw was during the public release day(s) of ns2. The matches on the UWE bulk pub servers consisted of both teams eternally clashing at the same spot which was basically as the crow flies to eachother's base. I think that phenomenon is a good indicator of what a new ns2 player understands of a game they don't read in manuals/blogs/tutorials. Why should I not infinitely shoot at and die to aliens as a new player? What would help me figure out I benefited from doing something else, especially if I think my commander was obnoxious on the microphone and I decided to mute all communications from them? What indicates to me as a marine/alien that I get to purchase this upgrade if I help secure this resource tower or lock down my second command chair/hive? Nothing at the moment.
Don't be mislead though, I really don't believe hand holding is necessary. Simpler is not always better. A game that has no avenues for people to enjoy their 'own' perception of what 'fun' is for themselves is just a 'game' as seen by the game creator. Perception of fun is extremely subjective to the players and if there isn't ample amount of options on how to play a game and have fun doing it, then the players won't stick around. (Marine players don't have that many pres or objective based options...)
<!--quoteo(post=2055689:date=Jan 3 2013, 10:11 PM:name=Flayra)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Flayra @ Jan 3 2013, 10:11 PM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=2055689"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->Another problem my be celerity and how hard it is to hit anything that's moving so quickly. I tried to address this in the beta by having celerity only work outside of combat (ie, have it slowly increase and let you get between rooms quickly, but stop working once you take damage or attack). Most people didn't seem to like that concept though, so it was changed. Maybe it's a culprit now?<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd--> Please don't homogenize everything, don't remove the option of running away by changing celerity to turn off when you get hit (what???). Don't change teleport (COOL!) into move real fast (see: fade leap, meh) -fades. Vortex has been more like snoretex. The gorge does even less base 'gardening' than in ns1 now which is certainly not cool. Marines don't have a box/belt fed double barrel heavy machine gun anymore, though they did get a flamethrower which is neat but not a reason to cut the ladder out of the picture. Please add alternative lifeform ability upgrades to choose from (aliens) that allow the gorge/lerk/fade to have an aggressive/skilled role and a basekeeper/new player favorite role that IS NOT determined for you by the commander. Work on the HUD to blatantly show that you do not earn player resources when you are dead. Being an FPS game, I would hope I didn't have to spend my life in the map overlay to be effective. I am pretty sure new players would rather be shooting at things and looking at the level's design instead.
A good HUD should convey the goals of an FPS game elegantly. Aliens still don't have hive name&health+upgrade+research status indicators marginally as useful as the ones in ns1. Even as a long term player, I still would like a hud direction indicator of my active hives. Sometimes they pop up when my face isn't in the overlay map. It would be good if I knew it was just dropped so I would go defend it. Both teams don't have any new player friendly explicit indication of what a resource tower is or what it does for the player and they really should. The +1 point for kill popup text unnecessarily directs new players to seek out those frags that don't do anything. I suspect it would be more useful to show where known un-captured resource nodes were. Additionally, it could be good to indicate a second base expansion location and how it granted access to more tech.
Was the LMG/spawn rifle really something that marines should be using endgame to take down somebody's 75 resources time/gameplay onos investment? The LMG/HMG formula was something that could be balanced more for different phases of the game. A single comm chair turtle that requires a lot of onos for the pubs to actually nab the win screen is probably not good.
I still play ns2 to date and I enjoy it. I strongly believe it isn't living up to its full potential.
the times that i owned CS servers is gone, i simply dont have the skill anymore, getting old i suppose, but in NS i can still be usefull, i can build, i can support, i can play bait or distract, and i feel usefull to my team.
PS: because its about new players here, let me tell you about my first day in ns1:
i found that halflife mod that puts marines against aliens, sounds cool, installing.
i join a round in progress, i spawn as marine, i figure its more like what i know so it should go smother.
i keep following other marines and they start building some sort of structure and i even figured out what key to press to help them.
we get ambushed by skulks and for some reason i survive with 1 other marine. i start feeling... unsave.
i keep folowing him, checking our six. while checking our back i hear him die but when i look at him there is only a corpse.
i just stand there checking front and back. suddenly a fade appears in the middle of my crosshair about 1 meters away.
i cant shoot i cant move i simply forze out of fear and shock and he sloughters me with his scythe arms.
i fell in love with ns.
NS is like that cool alien vs marine movie that never got made, think alien 2 on steroids.
The problem, as you mentioned already, is not that marines are too weak early on but that that new players get beaten up by more experienced players. Now when that is true - and it is, in fact! - then the solution cannot be to increase the armour as well of fire power of the marines because of the gap in terms of <i>skill</i>. The problem, as you've pointed out, are <b>not</b> not the marines itself because even teams, in terms of experience and skill, will probably result in a somewhat even match. Tweaking the balance for <i>all</i> players becaues new players have a hard time during their first rounds, will result in a even more broken balance for the rest of the playerbase.
If anything, give <i>rookie</i> players some sort of boost so they don't get eaten up that easily - though, I don't really like this idea at all. What new players need are more information, tips, hints, advices, maybe some sort of squad-system and simply a less frustrating start. But soften the initial experience for new players but tweaking the overall balance in their favour will result in a broken balance for everyone else. You cannot really compensate lack of skill due to balance. If I'd play say StarCraft² against an experienced player, I would get beaten up in no time. The <i>solution</i> to this problem cannot be to give my units more firepower, hp, more starting buildings, etc. but I simply have to <i>learn</i> to play the game.
If new players, especially as Marines, have most of the time no clue what to do and what the game is about in the first place, then I think that can ruin a gaming experience. The solution, as other's have mentioned it again and again, are more hints, tips, etc. for rookies - I think getting beaten up by experienced players is something everyone is, or at least should, be able to get along with when he starts to play a new game he doesn't know. What can frustrate people is, when they die and neither know why, how or for what reason. I mean, there are tutorials at Youtube but frankly, when I install a game I would be really pissed off if I had first go to Youtube to watch some videos. I want the game to explain itself to me while I play it. Currently, NaSe2 does a bad job in that aspect. Meddling around with the balance, though, won't solve the problem but just cause many more.
Ideas:
If you get killed by another player, show the player a pop-up - he hasn't anything to do while he respawns anyway - where you get information about the weapon or lifeform that killed you. You furthermore become tiny advices how to cope with that weapon or lifeform. If you see a structure you get a little in-game pop-up that briefly explains the function of this structure, etc. That game simply needs more explanations. You cannot expect new players to browse through Wikis, watch Youtube videos or keep asking other players.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Tool tips would do wonders on some abilities. I do sorta like larger clips for the purpose of the use of cover fire and shooting where a jump skulk will be rather than trying to trace him with your cross hairs. I think cover fire is pretty tactical. I kinda wish there was another guy or something that had 100 rounds to do that.
the times that i owned CS servers is gone, i simply dont have the skill anymore, getting old i suppose, but in NS i can still be usefull, i can build, i can support, i can play bait or distract, and i feel usefull to my team.
PS: because its about new players here, let me tell you about my first day in ns1:
i found that halflife mod that puts marines against aliens, sounds cool, installing.
i join a round in progress, i spawn as marine, i figure its more like what i know so it should go smother.
i keep following other marines and they start building some sort of structure and i even figured out what key to press to help them.
we get ambushed by skulks and for some reason i survive with 1 other marine. i start feeling... unsave.
i keep folowing him, checking our six. while checking our back i hear him die but when i look at him there is only a corpse.
i just stand there checking front and back. suddenly a fade appears in the middle of my crosshair about 1 meters away.
i cant shoot i cant move i simply forze out of fear and shock and he sloughters me with his scythe arms.
i fell in love with ns.
NS is like that cool alien vs marine movie that never got made, think alien 2 on steroids.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Yeah I am a new player and the complexity is what attracts me to this game.
*shrugs* My buddy has a 1st Gen i7 @ 4ghz and he complains of fps drops below 30. I think he games @ 1680x1050 and I'm more inclined to believe him than someone who can't even get his own resolution right.
Another problem my be celerity and how hard it is to hit anything that's moving so quickly. I tried to address this in the beta by having celerity only work outside of combat (ie, have it slowly increase and let you get between rooms quickly, but stop working once you take damage or attack). Most people didn't seem to like that concept though, so it was changed. Maybe it's a culprit now?
Please don't homogenize everything, don't remove the option of running away by changing celerity to turn off when you get hit (what???). Don't change teleport (COOL!) into move real fast (see: fade leap, meh) -fades.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
here we go
build 233 - remove celerity
cater to the people that wont be playing in a month regardless.
My comment was a smart ass comment.
If NS/NS2 were easy, I wouldn't have liked the first one and the current one.
That post was made at 5:57am my time, I'd been awake for about 10 minutes and was getting ready for work.
I run the game at max settings* @ 1920x1080.
What's his video card, how much ram, etc, etc.
I'm using a <a href="http://ark.intel.com/products/33910/Intel-Core2-Duo-Processor-E8400-6M-Cache-3_00-GHz-1333-MHz-FSB" target="_blank">Core2Duo 3.0 Ghz(E8400)</a>, a <a href="http://www.nvidia.com/object/product_geforce_gtx_280_us.html" target="_blank">GeForce GTX 280(eVGA variant, same specs though)</a>, with 4 GB of DDR2.
It may be the fact I'm running a fresh install of Win7 64bit, so I don't have a lot of bloat associated with running an OS for an extended period of time.
Last night I turned all the graphics settings to minimum to see if there was a huge difference.
*I never use anistropic filtering, or anti-aliasing regardless of which game I'm playing as they are huge FPS hits in all games except really old ones.
I run the game at max settings* @ 1920x1080.
What's his video card, how much ram, etc, etc.
I'm using a <a href="http://ark.intel.com/products/33910/Intel-Core2-Duo-Processor-E8400-6M-Cache-3_00-GHz-1333-MHz-FSB" target="_blank">Core2Duo 3.0 Ghz(E8400)</a>, a <a href="http://www.nvidia.com/object/product_geforce_gtx_280_us.html" target="_blank">GeForce GTX 280(eVGA variant, same specs though)</a>, with 4 GB of DDR2.
It may be the fact I'm running a fresh install of Win7 64bit, so I don't have a lot of bloat associated with running an OS for an extended period of time.
Last night I turned all the graphics settings to minimum to see if there was a huge difference.
*I never use anistropic filtering, or anti-aliasing regardless of which game I'm playing as they are huge FPS hits in all games except really old ones.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
i7-920@4ghz, 2x2GB 6950, 16GB 1600mhz Corsair Dominator, 3xRaid0 AAJS WD Caviar Black
lowest I've seen so far on r_stats is 24fps, though I'll probably fraps soon to see exactly how low the fps drops. Only supported game I can't get a decent performance on 3 monitors so far so 24fps was from single monitor res
lowest I've seen so far on r_stats is 24fps, though I'll probably fraps soon to see exactly how low the fps drops. Only supported game I can't get a decent performance on 3 monitors so far so 24fps was from single monitor res<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
My real life friend who gifted me NS2 for christmas says it runs "Suspiciously well." on my system.
I'll screen-cap with Fraps tonight when I do my marathon.
lowest I've seen so far on r_stats is 24fps, though I'll probably fraps soon to see exactly how low the fps drops. Only supported game I can't get a decent performance on 3 monitors so far so 24fps was from single monitor res<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Do you have anistropic filtering and anti-aliasing on?
When I used to play WoW, it ran poorly for me with 16xAA.
in fact, iirc even with everything at minimal i still dipped into 30s
Are you running any other applications(Not that it'd matter with your RAM)/processes?
I spent $1600 on it when I built it.
For the same price, with today's gear, I could get some crazy stuff.
I was teaching my cousin how to play the game, and a specific player X decides to stomp the entire team by going 30-0 and making a tutorial about it.
Although tutorials are great and all for teaching, it's completely unfair for new players to be used as guinea pigs for one's benefit.
I'm writing this not for that player in specific currently editing his tutorial, but for all those with experience/competitive level play wanting to see a growing and friendly community:
1. If you are keen about making tutorials, either:
- Create your own server and ask your friends to help you out
- Go in a server where your level is more or less equivalent to others and do it, because showing your skills against those about the same level is where new players will learn most from tutorials. They won't learn a single stuff if you decide to destroy players who don't have a single idea of what's going on and most likely will stand still not knowing what to do and let you 3 bite him off in 1 second.
- Do what Strayan does (Strayan's videos are amongst the best tutorials // gameplay footage)
2. Responsibility: As a player and consumer, of course you can do as you please because it's your money and you can do anything you want.
But keep this in mind, by stomping people, recording their plays without approval (many people dislike being recorded getting destroyed on YouTube), you create a gap between experienced and new players (explained in detail below).
3. Friendly community: Don't think 30-0 will make the suffering team most likely be happy to continuously get killed the moment they step out of that IP / base / hive.
4. Don't tell commanders to do what you want. Explain them the reasons of why you demanded and the benefits of it. I've been hearing a lot of times of: "Eject this noob commander, he sucks", "You're (#@(@^, please get out of the server or get out of the chair" etc.
Your action to stomp a team alone, or with a friend / other player is a recipe to kill the game in the future.
I'm pretty sure the creators of this game were hoping to develop a very friendly environment community, team based, fun game, yet we are seeing a completely opposite effect right now, thus how this thread was a created by a disgruntled new player attempting to learn a great game.
This gap I wrote about between experienced and new players just gets larger as the new players lose interest in the game if they don't have any positive outcome of the game such as a win by playing some kind of key factor to result in that win, or any benefits from their loss but frustration.
From that game I just got out of, my cousin was so pissed he got repeatedly killed by the same person over 10 times in such little time he simply decided to stop playing it for good because of what you did (you know who you are).
This is one of many ongoing issues of a community that may struggle to get fresh players by these kinds of experienced players with thirst to obtain a good score. NS2 is not score based only game, it's also mainly teamwork.
Maybe I am frustrated and you were right saying I was pissed in game when I started calling you out when my relative raged, because you just killed someone I could enjoy playing NS2 with the little time I have to play and university studies.
LoL and HoN is a perfect example ( a lot may disagree on this, but this is my opinion) of a friendly vs competitive community. LoL is by far more popular and enjoyable environment than HoN, because they have their ways of balancing the game and let new players time to learn the basics before facing greaters challenges, while HoN, new players get pub stomped already, and/or by the little mistake they do, they get scorned by others and called out.
This game does not need to be balanced, it already is. What it needs is a veteran/mature/kind community to support the newcomers with open arms. This requires a great effort from this community.
I come to put myself as being part of that selfish, bad community looking for a good score on the board and shine in the server. But overtime, I realize that what I've been doing is wrong, and to try to see a growing and friendly public, I have to readjust myself in function of the server I join. I nowadays look at my performance during a game and try to balance as I can or simply change servers or give some tips and play a more supportive role
TL; DR
If you are a good/experienced player, don't join rookie servers to destroy them. Instead, either join a server about your level, balance the team or teach those who desire to learn.
Your stomping has consequences such as a bad community image of the game, leading to less players, less recruitment.
Enough ranting for now, I'm falling asleep and this is probably incomplete as I forgot some stuff I wanted to write...
PS: Good job ( - - - - ) again for making NS2 lose yet another potential good player. I'm really holding myself to not write your ID in this post....
Good luck for your tutorials, hope it won't teach the viewers how to stomp a rookie server.
Call them out, no one cares.
And by no one cares, I, of course, mean: No one cares that your cousin was incapable of losing constantly in a game he's new at. If you quit at the first overwhelming challenge, you won't be the person to stick with games often. It's a shame he took it so negatively and a shame he's already written the game off, but if being trounced is his trigger, he's already playing the wrong game by the nature of it's rather difficult learning curve.
Finally, whomever was making the "tutorial" probably has the right idea. No better way than to show <b>why</b> an experienced player is succeeding against a newer player. If I made a video of a skulk that was about my skill level and I die to him 50% of the time, I'd have nothing to educate with other than "hey, see he jumps" or "that lerk moves around quicker than you probably do." or "I killed him because I aimed slightly better that time". If I show 30 rookies making mistakes from the attacking point of view it's easy go "He died because he didn't jump at all" or "That lerk stayed in combat too long and relied too much on his needles to try and get a kill without dodging".
If you are a good/experienced player, don't join rookie servers to destroy them. Instead, either join a server about your level, balance the team or teach those who desire to learn.
Your stomping has consequences such as a bad community image of the game, leading to less players, less recruitment.
PS: Good job ( - - - - ) again for making NS2 lose yet another potential good player. I'm really holding myself to not write your ID in this post....
Good luck for your tutorials, hope it won't teach the viewers how to stomp a rookie server.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
We don't have servers our level, us competitive players are forced to play pub with the scrubs or not at all.
Also the server says "rookie friendly" not "rookie only" big difference.
If your friend can't hack 1 loss in a video game, I'm afraid he's not going to make it very far anyway.
That's crap.
I used to play RtCW competitively.
There was five servers run by competitive clans for public play.
If you want to play with competitive people, get a server hosted somewhere that'll give most people in your time zone a decent ping, and then spread the word around.
Do you competitive types still use IRC?
It's great for setting up impromptu public matches vs random teams of competitive types.
build 233 - remove celerity
cater to the people that wont be playing in a month regardless.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
They won't be playing in a month even without a tutorial or whatever because this game is an unbalanced ###### fest for the Aliens and are somehow getting buffed next patch.
Yay.
I used to play RtCW competitively.
There was five servers run by competitive clans for public play.
If you want to play with competitive people, get a server hosted somewhere that'll give most people in your time zone a decent ping, and then spread the word around.
Do you competitive types still use IRC?
It's great for setting up impromptu public matches vs random teams of competitive types.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Koven isn't in North America if you could believe that.