Please add official support for organizing PUGs
slikts
Join Date: 2012-12-11 Member: 174759Members
Join Date: 2012-12-11 Member: 174759Members
I'm a lapsed NS2 player (last launched the game almost a year ago) since pubs only seem appropriate for picking up the basics or messing around, and the reddit PUGs were too low-level while in ENSL there was just too much overhead to get a game going. I notice that almost all of my contacts that used to be NS2 regulars have also stopped playing. I've played for about 400 hours and invested hundreds of hours more studying about the game, and it's been one of my favorites since NS1, but looking at the direction NS2 has been going I don't see a compelling enough reason to try and pick it up again. It's a shame because NS is a true jewel of team-based games, but it's not really keeping up with the times in terms of facilitating organized play. Currently I get my team-based game fix mostly in CS:GO competitive matchmaking (maybe War Thunder counts as well), and previously in Dota 2. The experience is night and day to what it was like playing in ENSL PUGs, and I fully realize that matchmaking in games like CS:GO is possible because the user bases of those games are just much larger than for NS2, but I think NS2 could reasonably be made to support organized 6v6 matches to a similar effect.
It could possibly work like this: each player would have an individual profile that would keep track of games played. Abandoned games would be recorded and displayed publicly in their profile as a ratio. It should work as a basic way to discourage abandoning while not punishing those who don't usually do it.
Players would be able to start a lobby that would have four slots for commanders (alien and marine commanders for both sides, one person could take both commander slots for their side if they'd like) and options for server location, number of rounds (bo2, bo3 etc.), map and lobby title (could be used to say if the game is for skilled players or everyone). There would be a lobby browser showing the selected options, number of players joined and whether the commander slots are filled. Players would see the latencies for the server locations for themselves and others, so that they wouldn't join a game where they lag. There would also be an integrated contacts list (possibly based on Steam) and an option to invite contacts to a lobby.
Players would select their teams before the game started and commanders would spawn directly in hives and CCs. The game would start after a warmup period so that everyone can get connected, and there would be a grace period of some minutes allowing players to reconnect if they dropped out and only registering an abandon after the period expired, then making the game safe to leave for everyone. The server would handle swapping the teams after each round.
Basically, what this system would do is completely streamline what already happens in PUGs anyway. The biggest problem probably is hosting the servers, but it could very well be worth it if it meant more players having better games and stopping the decline in player base. This could possibly mean less people playing in pubs, but it could also mean more people in pubs if the player base would grow overall.
It could possibly work like this: each player would have an individual profile that would keep track of games played. Abandoned games would be recorded and displayed publicly in their profile as a ratio. It should work as a basic way to discourage abandoning while not punishing those who don't usually do it.
Players would be able to start a lobby that would have four slots for commanders (alien and marine commanders for both sides, one person could take both commander slots for their side if they'd like) and options for server location, number of rounds (bo2, bo3 etc.), map and lobby title (could be used to say if the game is for skilled players or everyone). There would be a lobby browser showing the selected options, number of players joined and whether the commander slots are filled. Players would see the latencies for the server locations for themselves and others, so that they wouldn't join a game where they lag. There would also be an integrated contacts list (possibly based on Steam) and an option to invite contacts to a lobby.
Players would select their teams before the game started and commanders would spawn directly in hives and CCs. The game would start after a warmup period so that everyone can get connected, and there would be a grace period of some minutes allowing players to reconnect if they dropped out and only registering an abandon after the period expired, then making the game safe to leave for everyone. The server would handle swapping the teams after each round.
Basically, what this system would do is completely streamline what already happens in PUGs anyway. The biggest problem probably is hosting the servers, but it could very well be worth it if it meant more players having better games and stopping the decline in player base. This could possibly mean less people playing in pubs, but it could also mean more people in pubs if the player base would grow overall.
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