This is what is killing NS2.
Bobinator50000
Join Date: 2013-05-26 Member: 185375Members
Join Date: 2013-05-26 Member: 185375Members
1: Lack of random teams enforced by default on all servers.
95% of the games I've played have been stacked; when players rage-quit they go elsewhere and that kills server and subscription population.
Moreover, the statistics you've gathered to make balancing decisions are dead wrong because you cannot assume equivalent skill on both teams for any percentage of time.
When team balance is done right, players get better over time; they discover exploits and evolve the meta-game which you then both fix and add features to. No game is balanced out the door. Without this feature, your games playerbase will dwindle and die off. This has happened to far larger and more populous games than yours.
Also: Why can I still switch teams when the randomized teams is active?
2: Ambient sounds.
After 50-100hrs, most people can't stand having their brain chemistry f!cked with for an extended period of time. I Come to play a multiplayer game for the community and for fun times; ambiance and graphics are a very minor part of that.
After removing file permissions on the files containing ambient sounds, I found I was being kicked from all the decent servers for failure to validate the files.
Swallow your damn pride, add a button to turn them off.
3: Inability to avoid servers with mods.
I do not want to run client side mods, I do not want to wait to download them. Yet every server runs them.
I am not downloading a 500Mb map to play on some server.
I am not happy with reloading my NS2 from scratch after updates.
Automatically Loaded Client side mods are a failed experiment. This feature has never worked, it cannot work, and will never will work because I do not trust random basement developers. Your installed player base is small right now, thus you are not being targeted; scale that up 2 or 3 orders of magnitude. Counterstrike, Mine craft, WOW, these are just a few examples of games that may have started with client side mods and disabled them because of being targeted by malicious individuals.
4: Server browser.
I've resorted to favoriting modded servers and servers with piss-poor admins I don't like to avoid them.
You need a "Avoid Server" Function.
You need a feature that tells me exactly what mod a server is running.
You need an advanced filtering feature that allows me to view the same filter every time I open the server browser so I don't have to rebuild the filter every time.
I'll be back in a year or two to see how the community is doing; sadly, it is going to go the way of Tribes Ascend. 9 months ago I stopped playing, and the player base seems to be about a quarter of what it was.
95% of the games I've played have been stacked; when players rage-quit they go elsewhere and that kills server and subscription population.
Moreover, the statistics you've gathered to make balancing decisions are dead wrong because you cannot assume equivalent skill on both teams for any percentage of time.
When team balance is done right, players get better over time; they discover exploits and evolve the meta-game which you then both fix and add features to. No game is balanced out the door. Without this feature, your games playerbase will dwindle and die off. This has happened to far larger and more populous games than yours.
Also: Why can I still switch teams when the randomized teams is active?
2: Ambient sounds.
After 50-100hrs, most people can't stand having their brain chemistry f!cked with for an extended period of time. I Come to play a multiplayer game for the community and for fun times; ambiance and graphics are a very minor part of that.
After removing file permissions on the files containing ambient sounds, I found I was being kicked from all the decent servers for failure to validate the files.
Swallow your damn pride, add a button to turn them off.
3: Inability to avoid servers with mods.
I do not want to run client side mods, I do not want to wait to download them. Yet every server runs them.
I am not downloading a 500Mb map to play on some server.
I am not happy with reloading my NS2 from scratch after updates.
Automatically Loaded Client side mods are a failed experiment. This feature has never worked, it cannot work, and will never will work because I do not trust random basement developers. Your installed player base is small right now, thus you are not being targeted; scale that up 2 or 3 orders of magnitude. Counterstrike, Mine craft, WOW, these are just a few examples of games that may have started with client side mods and disabled them because of being targeted by malicious individuals.
4: Server browser.
I've resorted to favoriting modded servers and servers with piss-poor admins I don't like to avoid them.
You need a "Avoid Server" Function.
You need a feature that tells me exactly what mod a server is running.
You need an advanced filtering feature that allows me to view the same filter every time I open the server browser so I don't have to rebuild the filter every time.
I'll be back in a year or two to see how the community is doing; sadly, it is going to go the way of Tribes Ascend. 9 months ago I stopped playing, and the player base seems to be about a quarter of what it was.
Comments
Interesting, where will you go from this?
Randomized teams can easily be worse than teams where players chose sides themselves. Plus you tell players what team they should play on, but there are times when you just want to play on marines or just play on aliens. The ability too choose your side is more important (especially to new players) than the chance for random balance.
Right click the server or click the details button.
I can't think of another game off the top of my head, but given the variety of mods out there or the unfortunate reserved slots booting you after spending several minutes connecting annoyance, it would be a nice feature to have.
All his other points are pretty inept as pointed out previously.
This is where you lost any sympathy from me. Not because I made mods, I don't. Play a game like Arma , where mod revisions, lack of a real central hub for mod hosting and many other buggy side effects of mods are so hideous it makes attempting to use mods that would otherwise really enhance the playability and enjoyability of the game simply just frustrating and time consuming. I WISH that servers would push the mod in it's current state to my client rather than me having to hunt down the correct version (and supporting files), install the mod correctly from often cryptic install guides and attempt to trouble shoot what went wrong and where when it goes bad. That my friend is an epic fail of modding, NS2 is actually the MODEL that other games should strive to reach when it comes to how mods are handled.
This simply just shows me, you have not a clue as to what you are talking about.
Clearly it's a competitive advantage.
None of the official maps are more than 16mb...
The very thing that kicked you for tampering with the ambient sounds combats this behaviour...
2. Performance
3. Performance
4. Accessibility and learning curve.
5. Needs better core mechanics(BT mod).
6. Performance..
Ability to turn off ambient sound can't hurt I guess.
I sifted through my workshop folder and was impressed to see that none of them were very big. Last Stand is 80-ish MB and that's a gamemode. Maps aren't all that big. All the same, a vannilla server filter can't hurt either. Thing is, there aren't many server admins out there not making use of the great community driven admin tools so you'll be hard pressed to find a server with no mods (minus the official ones of course).
I believe the OP is refering to a Blacklist, which I know at least TF2 has. I'd imagine it's fairly common.
Your list and my list are almost identical. The only difference is the language we use. My list is:
1. Performance
2. Performance
3. Performance
4. Lack of matchmaking
5. Skulk movement
6. Performance