Matchmaking, Free to Play, Easy watching of Replays, Hosted Servers, Groups
Yautja_cetanu
Join Date: 2006-11-06 Member: 58428Members, Constellation
Join Date: 2006-11-06 Member: 58428Members, Constellation
I was involved with NS1 and have been involved in the development of NS2, its great to see it getting finally released. But I can't help but feel that it is doing quite a few things in its infrastructure that are quite old school and really needs to be updated.
Matchmaking - I think having to search for servers to play is really stressful. There are usually servers that are full or with no one in it. Being able to click "play" and wait in a lobby until there are at least 10 people to play with (like in Dota2) would be better. Maybe there could be something that marks off that you would like to be commander?
Hosted Servers - This is kind of part of matchmaking but rather then people hosting their own servers, i think it would scale better if the servers were created when a group of people wanted to play. (again like dota)
Easy Watching of Replays - This might already be in but I'm thinking like Starcraft? Recording replays and saving them, watching them and giving them to other people easily and then also watching them together.
Groups - For match making being able to do matchmaking together.
Free to play - I tried to do a search for this. But I'm finding it hard to get my friends into NS2. Its a game you really need to try to really appreciate. There arn't any trailers or videos that I've seen that really capture what is cool about playing NS. I think a Free to Play model would work really well for this kind of thing.
I briefly searched the forums but haven't been here for a few years so sorry if these ideas and suggestions are already there! I'll be suprised if there arn't clear reasons against these things? Also I don't know if an Indie team of 9 people could do it. But what you do think?
Matchmaking - I think having to search for servers to play is really stressful. There are usually servers that are full or with no one in it. Being able to click "play" and wait in a lobby until there are at least 10 people to play with (like in Dota2) would be better. Maybe there could be something that marks off that you would like to be commander?
Hosted Servers - This is kind of part of matchmaking but rather then people hosting their own servers, i think it would scale better if the servers were created when a group of people wanted to play. (again like dota)
Easy Watching of Replays - This might already be in but I'm thinking like Starcraft? Recording replays and saving them, watching them and giving them to other people easily and then also watching them together.
Groups - For match making being able to do matchmaking together.
Free to play - I tried to do a search for this. But I'm finding it hard to get my friends into NS2. Its a game you really need to try to really appreciate. There arn't any trailers or videos that I've seen that really capture what is cool about playing NS. I think a Free to Play model would work really well for this kind of thing.
I briefly searched the forums but haven't been here for a few years so sorry if these ideas and suggestions are already there! I'll be suprised if there arn't clear reasons against these things? Also I don't know if an Indie team of 9 people could do it. But what you do think?
Comments
Hosted Servers = A key part of PC Gaming, if you want restricted servers go and play call of duty on the Xbox 360 where there are no mods, no custom game modes and no active admins.
Easy Watching replay = sure, it sounds good but where are such a small developer team going to get the funds, time and skill to create and host thousands of replays like you see in Starcraft 2? Fraps and youtube is all you need for pc gaming.
Groups = not needed, you can connect to a server directly through your friends steam account or tell them on ventrilo/teamspeak/mumble.
Hosted servers:Always a nice thing to have.But who would be paying the bills?
Easy watching replays-Yes yes yes yes.Spectator mode is a very underlooked thing in games lately.Better spectator mode=better videos on youtube and more shoutcasting for competitive matchs=more attention to the game=gooood.
Groups-I would disagre with kio that groups are not needed.I play with 2 of my friends all the time and sometimes a server would apear as 10/16 and by the time i join it,it's full.I would like to have the option to either join together with my friends as a group,or not join at all.
F2P-I just dont see it happening at this stage.I dont think the devs got any real interest in making the game F2P for now.
Later on when the game starts dyeing,maybe than.
If you got any well though f2p model that could work for ns2 feel free to share it.
It WAS a key part of PC Gaming. Have you played any Dota2, LoL or Starcraft? Starcraft still have mods and custom game modes. Admittedly no active admins but I don't think active admins are that great compared to the effort it is to get a good one. Hell when I hosted my own NS1 server ages ago it was hard getting admins who didn't act like dicks and were reliable, even though it was my own server. Much rarer to find really good admins on other servers. Even when NS1 was in its prime there were like only 2 or 3 servers that had admins that actually added to the enjoyment of the game.
I'll also admit that SC hasn't quite got Arcade sorted yet.
This is my point. I feel NS2 fits in with where PC gaming (especially competative team games that are perfect for esports) was about 5 years ago.
Blizzard don't create or host the replays. They are stored on your machine. I think Valve hosts replays with Dota2 but replays are generally relatively small and efficient files (as rendering is on your computer). My expectation is that quite a bit of ground work has to go into the engine to make that possible.
Yes :S This is a tough one for such a small group of devs. I don't think hosted servers matters that much on its own but I think its important for good group-based matchmaking. As it means I only have to wait for a good group of 10 people to play not also wait for a server.
Yes :S The best way to handle this with NS1 is just pay for your own server and reserve slots on the server for your friends. Its why most of the good servers were hosted by clans. This is a ridiculously high barrier of entry to just play a game with friends. (Its great! I learnt all my sysadmin and community moderating skills from NS and SWG and have a Job now because of it
I think the issue is that natural selection is ridiculously more fun when you are playing with people you know compared to playing with strangers. There is so much depth and strategy that just gets wasted playing on a pub with everyone running about doing their own thing. NS2 has a high learning curve but actually its not that hard being a noob if you follow orders and have a good team of people on voice chat that can help you out.
Both LoL and Dota are realising the importance of matchmaking to making you enjoy the game. Playing with pleasant people makes the difference almost more then the game itself. (Riot are giving a talk about some of their techniques)
Anyways Free to play means you are far more likely to get your friends hooked and into it.
I do see how monetisation is difficult. But then I'm a constellation member. I paid money just so I could have a icon next to my name on the scoreboard even when NS was a free mod. Also, I LOVED being a constellation member. The icon was a mark of pride that I had contributed but also I found that I tended to have more fun playing with other constelation members. If I was a commander I'd give the best weapons to constellation members or team up with them as they were more likely to know what they were doing.