That's the problem. It's not a question anymore for those of us down under. If we have to wait for new content, performance & hitreg fixes - the pub scene down here will be dead. And stuff like that won't bring in any new players anyway, because, they likely won't even know, or care. To get the numbers we need - what this game needs is a re-launch. We don't have enough manpower to produce the level of content required to justify a re-launch on it's own, so F2P is really our only means to an end regarding this.
Sure, we can propose viable but half-assed solutions like "perhaps we should include more tooltips" or "lets change up the map rotations" or "lets remove comm as a starting requirement" as if those will do ANY good, or unviable dreams like "lets create an extensive tutorial system that covers absolutely everything a newbie needs to know" or "matchmaking" as if either of those will EVER happen, but at the end of the day, we need to stop dancing around the problem. F2P is one of the only practical solutions we have got, despite people's concerns.
Either that or we cut our losses and decide "We had a good run. It's time for it to start fizzling out. Sorry Australia. No more ns2 for you".
Wtf are you even talking about. UWE doesn't need to monetize this game anymore. I doubt it's even still making them any money but chump change. We already have DLC skins available so there's that anyway. And there's already an excess of servers available. There doesn't need to be any pay to win thing or some weird "kick off 10% to the server guy" crap. If people want to make servers, they will, and pay out of their own pocket, and they are. There's lots of servers sitting around unused already I'm sure they'd be even happier if there were actual people to fill it. And PC price is irrelevant. You're inventing problems that aren't there...
I'd stop making threads about this "dead game" so that when/if new ppl come to the forums they're not bombarded 1st thing by 3 threads at a time talking about how dead this game is when it clearly is not.
Or they could just open up the server browser and see no local servers with people playing at peak times, just like I do - thus seeing for themselves "how dead this game is when it clearly is not".
UWE and faultline messed up by making combat a standalone. People love to play combat ns2 but there is no such thing anymore.
Yup this pretty much. Despite me not playing that much anymore, I probably would still be playing more frequently if combat was built into the main game. Just something extra to keep you occupied but even having combat built into NS2 wouldn't be enough but I imagine it would've helped. Before combat SA was released, there were always 1-2 combat servers active but now their dead.
The biggest problem in this game has been persistent through every single patch.
Infestation and Power Nodes need to be un-linked from EXPANSION. These should be a CHOICE, which opens up distinct POSSIBILITIES, like more commander active ABILITIES. There's no reason that either team should be stopped from building anything, anywhere, at any time.
First of all, I don't agree that is a problem at all.
Secondly. I will do anything you wish, if you can demonstrate that this is the reason the majority of players are not playing NS2. I find it difficult to believe that anyone would leave for that reason.
Hard to demonstrate. Just makes the game linear and less fun. It's the biggest restriction placed on the game. I can't code though, so it's pretty useless to ask me to demonstrate, eh?
You misunderstand what I'm saying. I want you to demonstrate or prove that your claim is accurate. I don't need you to code anything.
sigh. what ever, nevermind.
Can you prove that it's not the problem holding the game back?
But he isn't flat out stating that its a problem or lack thereof when he doesn't have the data to back it up. You're the one spreading conjecture and rubbish.
UWE and faultline messed up by making combat a standalone. People love to play combat ns2 but there is no such thing anymore.
Yup this pretty much. Despite me not playing that much anymore, I probably would still be playing more frequently if combat was built into the main game. Just something extra to keep you occupied but even having combat built into NS2 wouldn't be enough but I imagine it would've helped. Before combat SA was released, there were always 1-2 combat servers active but now their dead.
The biggest problem in this game has been persistent through every single patch.
Infestation and Power Nodes need to be un-linked from EXPANSION. These should be a CHOICE, which opens up distinct POSSIBILITIES, like more commander active ABILITIES. There's no reason that either team should be stopped from building anything, anywhere, at any time.
First of all, I don't agree that is a problem at all.
Secondly. I will do anything you wish, if you can demonstrate that this is the reason the majority of players are not playing NS2. I find it difficult to believe that anyone would leave for that reason.
Hard to demonstrate. Just makes the game linear and less fun. It's the biggest restriction placed on the game. I can't code though, so it's pretty useless to ask me to demonstrate, eh?
You misunderstand what I'm saying. I want you to demonstrate or prove that your claim is accurate. I don't need you to code anything.
sigh. what ever, nevermind.
Can you prove that it's not the problem holding the game back?
But he isn't flat out stating that its a problem or lack thereof when he doesn't have the data to back it up. You're the one spreading conjecture and rubbish.
He has the same lack of evidence that it wouldn't help lol
UWE and faultline messed up by making combat a standalone. People love to play combat ns2 but there is no such thing anymore.
Yup this pretty much. Despite me not playing that much anymore, I probably would still be playing more frequently if combat was built into the main game. Just something extra to keep you occupied but even having combat built into NS2 wouldn't be enough but I imagine it would've helped. Before combat SA was released, there were always 1-2 combat servers active but now their dead.
The biggest problem in this game has been persistent through every single patch.
Infestation and Power Nodes need to be un-linked from EXPANSION. These should be a CHOICE, which opens up distinct POSSIBILITIES, like more commander active ABILITIES. There's no reason that either team should be stopped from building anything, anywhere, at any time.
First of all, I don't agree that is a problem at all.
Secondly. I will do anything you wish, if you can demonstrate that this is the reason the majority of players are not playing NS2. I find it difficult to believe that anyone would leave for that reason.
Hard to demonstrate. Just makes the game linear and less fun. It's the biggest restriction placed on the game. I can't code though, so it's pretty useless to ask me to demonstrate, eh?
You misunderstand what I'm saying. I want you to demonstrate or prove that your claim is accurate. I don't need you to code anything.
sigh. what ever, nevermind.
Can you prove that it's not the problem holding the game back?
But he isn't flat out stating that its a problem or lack thereof when he doesn't have the data to back it up. You're the one spreading conjecture and rubbish.
He has the same lack of evidence that it wouldn't help lol
You have a severe lack of understanding about the burden of proof. And I don't care enough about this subject to resolve this confusion. But in short; a rejection of a claim is not the same as asserting the negation of that claim. By rejecting your claim I share non of the burden of proof.
UWE and faultline messed up by making combat a standalone. People love to play combat ns2 but there is no such thing anymore.
Yup this pretty much. Despite me not playing that much anymore, I probably would still be playing more frequently if combat was built into the main game. Just something extra to keep you occupied but even having combat built into NS2 wouldn't be enough but I imagine it would've helped. Before combat SA was released, there were always 1-2 combat servers active but now their dead.
Improvement: Integrate the two server browsers together in some way, where clicking on a combat server in NS2 would close NS2 and launch NS2:Combat directly into the game you clicked on and vice versa.
Pls stop derailing this thread with F2P stuff. It is not the right thread for that. When i set the title to "what would you do" i meant "what would be YOUR initiative". Something YOU do with YOUR hands and TIME as a POSITIVE action. Eventually changing things for the better. Not awaiting in the corner asking (bashing) for something that only someone else can do (or not).
Pls stop derailing this thread with F2P stuff. It is not the right thread for that. When i set the title to "what would you do" i meant "what would be YOUR initiative". Something YOU do with YOUR hands and TIME as a POSITIVE action. Eventually changing things for the better. Not awaiting in the corner asking (bashing) for something that only someone else can do (or not).
(title edited)
I would start by writing nice messages on the forums. That I can do.
Unfortunately I think we've reached the point where the only thing that could save NS2 are some good bots.
The skill gap between the remaining "pros", vets, and rookies is just WAY too huge, and to make matters worse the good players left in the community seem to have no desire whatsoever to have balanced games. They'll just stack one team until the server empties, then they'll move to another server and continue.
Shuffle and force even teams is currently the only solution we have, but it's not very effective since hive scores are commonly WAY off... I've seen it place 4 2000+ hive score players all on one team, with everyone on the other team all having under 1000 hive score. I've seen people with almost 4.0 average kdr, yet their hive skill is only around 600.... My hive score is something around 1200, yet players who I can't even come close to competing with are only around 900, and other players I can kill with ease have over 2000.... It's just plain broken.
Free to play sounds like it would be a good solution. (what better way to gain new players after all) but in reality all it would do is just make the game a complete nightmare to play. It would become a cesspool of stacking veterans stomping the crap out of clueless and helpless rookies... Plus it would completely open the floodgates for trolls and hackers.
Now on the other hand, if we had GOOD bots with varying levels of difficulty that acted somewhat realistically (ie remove the snappy "aimbot" aim, make it so they don't run at walls doing nothing, have them use the various life forms/weapons, etc.) you open up the door for co-op servers against bots only, where rookies and average skilled players could play the game, get a challenge appropriate to their skill level, and have fun... all without being stomped to death repeatedly by competitive players who get off on farming kills.
Pls stop derailing this thread with F2P stuff. It is not the right thread for that. When i set the title to "what would you do" i meant "what would be YOUR initiative". Something YOU do with YOUR hands and TIME as a POSITIVE action. Eventually changing things for the better. Not awaiting in the corner asking (bashing) for something that only someone else can do (or not).
(title edited)
Once again, you're the one derailing dude...
Just because you don't like F2P doesn't mean it doesn't belong here. Now you're trying to redefine what the thread is about, and changing the title, just so you can keep F2P ideas out. LOL. No.
You don't get to say "gimme your ideas, but only the ideas that I like". It doesn't work like that.
UWE and faultline messed up by making combat a standalone. People love to play combat ns2 but there is no such thing anymore.
Yup this pretty much. Despite me not playing that much anymore, I probably would still be playing more frequently if combat was built into the main game. Just something extra to keep you occupied but even having combat built into NS2 wouldn't be enough but I imagine it would've helped. Before combat SA was released, there were always 1-2 combat servers active but now their dead.
Improvement: Integrate the two server browsers together in some way, where clicking on a combat server in NS2 would close NS2 and launch NS2:Combat directly into the game you clicked on and vice versa.
No, because as we all know (unless you've had an SSD since the beginning) loading up NS2 or NS2 combat is just insanely tedious. If I haven't played for a few days, it can take me 5 mins to load a single map where I can load a SC2 map in about 30 seconds in 4v4. I cba doing that when I need to switch clients to play a game when I might only want to play 1-2 matches, a big issue why I believe people don't jump onto combat SA was this exact problem.
If you could eliminate loading times between clients (maybe have it load once) then maybe I would agree.
DC_DarklingJoin Date: 2003-07-10Member: 18068Members, Constellation, Squad Five Blue, Squad Five Silver
F2P
F2P doesnt bring any money unless you sell weird stuff. (like the often called TF2 hats) This can work, but time goes into making these things. Who would make them? is it worth the time investment?
F2P with PaytoWin items is just plain evil.
Next to a 'I never want to see pay to win' I have the concern of trolls increase. If its as easy as grabbing a new free steam account with a new free ns2id, then cheaters & trolls will probably increase due to ease.
Think of fixing those 2 reasons for F2P and you can get back to me.
Performance
As for performance and load times....
keeping a open ear about what fellow taw say during match preps, I can say fairly sure performance across the board is good. Even folk playing on 'a toaster' can enjoy the game without much issue.
Load times for non ssd folk are and will be abysmal still. It can take some a minimum of 5 minutes to load a map. (although, the 2nd time they load a map its faster of course). I still hear this 'complaint' weekly to know its still happening.
Loadtimes & cleanup
Most extreme long load times are however mod related. Usually in downloading mods. (retries, corrupt mods etc)
Server admins can improve this situation by looking into the http mod backup server, and they should.
It may further improve situation to build a option in the menu, if possible, which does certain cleanups like 'delete all mods'. Every newb who can click a button instead of going to a forum to read how to fix a game, is one happier newb.
@MoFo1 Good AIs are hard to make (think almost as hard as make the rest of the game). I think basic AI commander would be possible (just advancing tech-tree, responding to med requests). FPS players Ai with tactical and strategical thinking, I don't think so right now. When it comes to AI, most games count on AI numbers or AI high precission/otherwise OP to keep human player challenged. Try to think up something simpler.
@UncleCrunch OK, I will bite. What can I personally do to bring players, or keep the ones we have...? Well I have written possitive Steam review like @Luchs suggested. I responded to some negative reviews there of people that got horrible first impression in the game or technical problem, hoping they would give it another try. I try to help if I can here in "technical problems" section, so people get faster response there. I try to be polite and not to be jerk to new players in game. I vote FET every time :P . I passed some suggestions in one of those "game dead threads", that I think are !relatively! simple to make and just maybe maybe could work. I am considering to learn how to mod this game, to polish some things in the game, that can be done as mods. Well honestly, I don't know what else to do from my individual possition. It is in the hands of those who own the IP and who develop it...
Just because you don't like F2P doesn't mean it doesn't belong here. Now you're trying to redefine what the thread is about, and changing the title, just so you can keep F2P ideas out. LOL. No.
You don't get to say "gimme your ideas, but only the ideas that I like". It doesn't work like that.
And what about the other threads that are dedicated to that specific topic ? It's not that i don't like it. It's just not the thread for that and not the priority.
About priorities: Rookies in order to stay (player retention) should get a decent if not good NS2 experience. Especially if they are coming from other games. It's always hard to change habits and / or feel comfortable in new things. It takes time.
Something they can enjoy. Meaning if it wasn't obvious; prepare them for avoiding to be dematerialized in the first five games. If they have the courage to get there. Otherwise it's just gonna be another wave passing by. And eventually going to oblivion. It has been explained months ago and you should read or re-read those specific threads. This forums hosts many of them and they are lengthy. Good reading.
Thank you.
@krOoze
Thanks for this, it's always better to spread the right information and provide some help.
And for everyone who is doing actionS (I and You know who you are out there ) to get things better : Thank you again.
Just because you don't like F2P doesn't mean it doesn't belong here. Now you're trying to redefine what the thread is about, and changing the title, just so you can keep F2P ideas out. LOL. No.
You don't get to say "gimme your ideas, but only the ideas that I like". It doesn't work like that.
And what about the other threads that are dedicated to that specific topic ? It's not that i don't like it. It's just not the thread for that and not the priority.
*searches for F2P threads on front page*
Nope. Can't see anything. Sure there's been many in the past, but there has also been many threads like this too. And if there's anytime to reopen the discussion on these things, it's now.
Also, I don't know why we need 2 threads on the same thing. The only difference appears to be we have an OP in this one trying to keep F2P out of the thread after the fact, and derailing the thread as a result.
Again with another derail. You really don't want this thread to stay on topic do you? Just move on...
@UncleCrunch Yeah I mean, you did change the thread title, but your OP still contains things that is not your initiative, but rely heavily on CDT or UWE to make reality. F2P goes very much the same lane. Don't complain now.
The rest of you, plese keep it civil too. You are derailing the discussion in the direction of the topic of "who is derailing". :o3
F2P
F2P doesnt bring any money unless you sell weird stuff. (like the often called TF2 hats) This can work, but time goes into making these things. Who would make them? is it worth the time investment?
F2P with PaytoWin items is just plain evil.
Well the objective (acording to the OP) is to bring people, not money. Otherwise, I would be the first to get unpleasant about it again. I mean, I do hate the word F2P. It has become the synonym of coin based economy. But I don't see anything wrong in making NS2 free or cheaper and making money(if need be - but CDT is only one investing time in development of the game now, and I don't think they are getting paid one way or another. The money would essentialy go to the next game - Subnautica) from DLCs, plushies and it would be nice to have "shut up and take my money" program too.
Yeah, that's a major issue. Some just quit after the first load that takes 20 minutes and never come back. Whatever the load screen is doing (decompressing textures, compiling shaders, precomputation???) needs to be done on installation time or at least the load screen needs to inform it is just a one time deal and subsequent loads will be OK.
As for performance, exactly as you say. I am running it on Celeron and am just a OK. Some people are just tight basterds when it comes to GPUs, which are important for this kind of thing. It will never run on Intel HD properly.
I discovered and started playing NS2 on a crappy laptop. I never checked but I must have had around 30-40 fps at that time, and still enjoyed it a lot. And continued playing it (at a competitive level) when my laptop died and got a real PC
click find match >> wait 10-15min watch Youtube >> Found match 5v5 >> Join and play fast
^ How can anyone possibly think this is "good" in any way shape or form?!?!?
Waiting 10-15 minutes to be placed in a crappy server with 300+ ping I would have never willingly joined.... Highly inconvenient, and most certainly not fast by any measure.
Far better the way it currently works, open browser, find a server of your choice, join (or queue up if it's full) simple.
I've never once had to wait 10-15 minutes to join a server in NS2. Matchmaking on the other hand is the sole reason I am unable to play many games in my library... It is literally the worst possible thing they could add to the game (next to making it F2P)
click find match >> wait 10-15min watch Youtube >> Found match 5v5 >> Join and play fast
^ How can anyone possibly think this is "good" in any way shape or form?!?!?
Waiting 10-15 minutes to be placed in a crappy server with 300 ping I would have never willingly joined.... Highly inconvenient, and most certainly not fast by any measure.
Far better the way it currently works, open browser, find a server of your choice, join (or queue up if it's full) simple.
I've never once had to wait 10-15 minutes to join a server in NS2. Matchmaking on the other hand is the sole reason I am unable to play many games in my library... It is literally the worst possible thing they could add to the game (next to making it F2P)
He is in the Asia region. That may be what playing certain games is like there. He struggle to find a game of ns2. If forced match making were in place it might be easier for him to find games or so it seems he is suggesting.
@UncleCrunch Yeah I mean, you did change the thread title, but your OP still contains things that is not your initiative, but rely heavily on CDT or UWE to make reality. F2P goes very much the same lane. Don't complain now.
I have to disagree with that. For example a bootcamp mod can be done by anyone who is willing to program it. NS2+, Shine, Pre-game, Siege mod and the initial Combat mod are all mod for NS2. I would if i had the time but i barely play on the WeekEnds already...
He is in the Asia region. That may be what playing certain games is like there. He struggle to find a game of ns2. If forced match making were in place it might be easier for him to find games or so it seems he is suggesting.
I'm sure it sucks to play from a less populated region, but he can join all the same servers a US/EU player can, his ping is just higher. So the only "struggle" is in finding populated low ping servers.
The ONLY way matchmaking could "help" him is by forcing US/EU players into an Asian server where his ping is lower.
That's making the overall experience for the majority worse, just to slightly improve the experience for the minority... That wouldn't help NS2, it would just kill it faster.
He is in the Asia region. That may be what playing certain games is like there. He struggle to find a game of ns2. If forced match making were in place it might be easier for him to find games or so it seems he is suggesting.
I'm sure it sucks to play from a less populated region, but he can join all the same servers a US/EU player can, his ping is just higher. So the only "struggle" is in finding populated low ping servers.
The ONLY way matchmaking could "help" him is by forcing US/EU players into an Asian server where his ping is lower.
That's making the overall experience for the majority worse, just to slightly improve the experience for the minority... That wouldn't help NS2, it would just kill it faster.
Cannon_FodderAUSBrisbane, AUJoin Date: 2013-06-23Member: 185664Members, Squad Five Blue, Squad Five Silver, Reinforced - Shadow
@Pelargir If you count the 2 AUS servers (I get a 150 ping in the Singapore servers many moons ago). But yeah, the game is pretty dead in Asia. MMO and DoTA games and CS are the rage. Of the 2 pub AUS servers, 1 is always full, and the other empty. So I am playing on the Thirsty Onos atm, yeah 400 ping sux, but it is still so much fun because of team work etc... I see many familiar names on the EU servers that are active forum people. So make it feel like home. And thanks for not kicking me with a crappy ping.
@Pelargir If you count the 2 AUS servers (I get a 150 ping in the Singapore servers many moons ago). But yeah, the game is pretty dead in Asia. MMO and DoTA games and CS are the rage. Of the 2 pub AUS servers, 1 is always full, and the other empty. So I am playing on the Thirsty Onos atm, yeah 400 ping sux, but it is still so much fun because of team work etc... I see many familiar names on the EU servers that are active forum people. So make it feel like home. And thanks for not kicking me with a crappy ping.
Well Australia =/= Asia.
And no worries, you're too bad to be kicked. And look at Supa giving an awesome to your message because you've said 'Thirsty Onos'.
@Pelargir If you count the 2 AUS servers (I get a 150 ping in the Singapore servers many moons ago). But yeah, the game is pretty dead in Asia. MMO and DoTA games and CS are the rage. Of the 2 pub AUS servers, 1 is always full, and the other empty. So I am playing on the Thirsty Onos atm, yeah 400 ping sux, but it is still so much fun because of team work etc... I see many familiar names on the EU servers that are active forum people. So make it feel like home. And thanks for not kicking me with a crappy ping.
Well Australia =/= Asia.
And no worries, you're too bad to be kicked. And look at Supa giving an awesome to your message because you've said 'Thirsty Onos'.
Lol. I take pride in my 800 hive score, so it can bring the team down to a more human level :-)
@Pelargir If you count the 2 AUS servers (I get a 150 ping in the Singapore servers many moons ago). But yeah, the game is pretty dead in Asia. MMO and DoTA games and CS are the rage. Of the 2 pub AUS servers, 1 is always full, and the other empty. So I am playing on the Thirsty Onos atm, yeah 400 ping sux, but it is still so much fun because of team work etc... I see many familiar names on the EU servers that are active forum people. So make it feel like home. And thanks for not kicking me with a crappy ping.
Well Australia =/= Asia.
And no worries, you're too bad to be kicked. And look at Supa giving an awesome to your message because you've said 'Thirsty Onos'.
Lol. I take pride in my 800 hive score, so it can bring the team down to a more human level :-)
I'm not playing that much on public servers, so I got like 1.200 or something. See, we're almost equal.
Comments
That's the problem. It's not a question anymore for those of us down under. If we have to wait for new content, performance & hitreg fixes - the pub scene down here will be dead. And stuff like that won't bring in any new players anyway, because, they likely won't even know, or care. To get the numbers we need - what this game needs is a re-launch. We don't have enough manpower to produce the level of content required to justify a re-launch on it's own, so F2P is really our only means to an end regarding this.
Sure, we can propose viable but half-assed solutions like "perhaps we should include more tooltips" or "lets change up the map rotations" or "lets remove comm as a starting requirement" as if those will do ANY good, or unviable dreams like "lets create an extensive tutorial system that covers absolutely everything a newbie needs to know" or "matchmaking" as if either of those will EVER happen, but at the end of the day, we need to stop dancing around the problem. F2P is one of the only practical solutions we have got, despite people's concerns.
Either that or we cut our losses and decide "We had a good run. It's time for it to start fizzling out. Sorry Australia. No more ns2 for you".
Wtf are you even talking about. UWE doesn't need to monetize this game anymore. I doubt it's even still making them any money but chump change. We already have DLC skins available so there's that anyway. And there's already an excess of servers available. There doesn't need to be any pay to win thing or some weird "kick off 10% to the server guy" crap. If people want to make servers, they will, and pay out of their own pocket, and they are. There's lots of servers sitting around unused already I'm sure they'd be even happier if there were actual people to fill it. And PC price is irrelevant. You're inventing problems that aren't there...
Or they could just open up the server browser and see no local servers with people playing at peak times, just like I do - thus seeing for themselves "how dead this game is when it clearly is not".
Yup this pretty much. Despite me not playing that much anymore, I probably would still be playing more frequently if combat was built into the main game. Just something extra to keep you occupied but even having combat built into NS2 wouldn't be enough but I imagine it would've helped. Before combat SA was released, there were always 1-2 combat servers active but now their dead.
But he isn't flat out stating that its a problem or lack thereof when he doesn't have the data to back it up. You're the one spreading conjecture and rubbish.
He has the same lack of evidence that it wouldn't help lol
Improvement: Integrate the two server browsers together in some way, where clicking on a combat server in NS2 would close NS2 and launch NS2:Combat directly into the game you clicked on and vice versa.
Pls stop derailing this thread with F2P stuff. It is not the right thread for that. When i set the title to "what would you do" i meant "what would be YOUR initiative". Something YOU do with YOUR hands and TIME as a POSITIVE action. Eventually changing things for the better. Not awaiting in the corner asking (bashing) for something that only someone else can do (or not).
(title edited)
I would start by writing nice messages on the forums. That I can do.
The skill gap between the remaining "pros", vets, and rookies is just WAY too huge, and to make matters worse the good players left in the community seem to have no desire whatsoever to have balanced games. They'll just stack one team until the server empties, then they'll move to another server and continue.
Shuffle and force even teams is currently the only solution we have, but it's not very effective since hive scores are commonly WAY off... I've seen it place 4 2000+ hive score players all on one team, with everyone on the other team all having under 1000 hive score. I've seen people with almost 4.0 average kdr, yet their hive skill is only around 600.... My hive score is something around 1200, yet players who I can't even come close to competing with are only around 900, and other players I can kill with ease have over 2000.... It's just plain broken.
Free to play sounds like it would be a good solution. (what better way to gain new players after all) but in reality all it would do is just make the game a complete nightmare to play. It would become a cesspool of stacking veterans stomping the crap out of clueless and helpless rookies... Plus it would completely open the floodgates for trolls and hackers.
Now on the other hand, if we had GOOD bots with varying levels of difficulty that acted somewhat realistically (ie remove the snappy "aimbot" aim, make it so they don't run at walls doing nothing, have them use the various life forms/weapons, etc.) you open up the door for co-op servers against bots only, where rookies and average skilled players could play the game, get a challenge appropriate to their skill level, and have fun... all without being stomped to death repeatedly by competitive players who get off on farming kills.
Once again, you're the one derailing dude...
Just because you don't like F2P doesn't mean it doesn't belong here. Now you're trying to redefine what the thread is about, and changing the title, just so you can keep F2P ideas out. LOL. No.
You don't get to say "gimme your ideas, but only the ideas that I like". It doesn't work like that.
No, because as we all know (unless you've had an SSD since the beginning) loading up NS2 or NS2 combat is just insanely tedious. If I haven't played for a few days, it can take me 5 mins to load a single map where I can load a SC2 map in about 30 seconds in 4v4. I cba doing that when I need to switch clients to play a game when I might only want to play 1-2 matches, a big issue why I believe people don't jump onto combat SA was this exact problem.
If you could eliminate loading times between clients (maybe have it load once) then maybe I would agree.
F2P doesnt bring any money unless you sell weird stuff. (like the often called TF2 hats) This can work, but time goes into making these things. Who would make them? is it worth the time investment?
F2P with PaytoWin items is just plain evil.
Next to a 'I never want to see pay to win' I have the concern of trolls increase. If its as easy as grabbing a new free steam account with a new free ns2id, then cheaters & trolls will probably increase due to ease.
Think of fixing those 2 reasons for F2P and you can get back to me.
Performance
As for performance and load times....
keeping a open ear about what fellow taw say during match preps, I can say fairly sure performance across the board is good. Even folk playing on 'a toaster' can enjoy the game without much issue.
Load times for non ssd folk are and will be abysmal still. It can take some a minimum of 5 minutes to load a map. (although, the 2nd time they load a map its faster of course). I still hear this 'complaint' weekly to know its still happening.
Loadtimes & cleanup
Most extreme long load times are however mod related. Usually in downloading mods. (retries, corrupt mods etc)
Server admins can improve this situation by looking into the http mod backup server, and they should.
It may further improve situation to build a option in the menu, if possible, which does certain cleanups like 'delete all mods'. Every newb who can click a button instead of going to a forum to read how to fix a game, is one happier newb.
@UncleCrunch OK, I will bite. What can I personally do to bring players, or keep the ones we have...? Well I have written possitive Steam review like @Luchs suggested. I responded to some negative reviews there of people that got horrible first impression in the game or technical problem, hoping they would give it another try. I try to help if I can here in "technical problems" section, so people get faster response there. I try to be polite and not to be jerk to new players in game. I vote FET every time :P . I passed some suggestions in one of those "game dead threads", that I think are !relatively! simple to make and just maybe maybe could work. I am considering to learn how to mod this game, to polish some things in the game, that can be done as mods. Well honestly, I don't know what else to do from my individual possition. It is in the hands of those who own the IP and who develop it...
And what about the other threads that are dedicated to that specific topic ? It's not that i don't like it. It's just not the thread for that and not the priority.
About priorities: Rookies in order to stay (player retention) should get a decent if not good NS2 experience. Especially if they are coming from other games. It's always hard to change habits and / or feel comfortable in new things. It takes time.
Something they can enjoy. Meaning if it wasn't obvious; prepare them for avoiding to be dematerialized in the first five games. If they have the courage to get there. Otherwise it's just gonna be another wave passing by. And eventually going to oblivion. It has been explained months ago and you should read or re-read those specific threads. This forums hosts many of them and they are lengthy. Good reading.
Thank you.
@krOoze
Thanks for this, it's always better to spread the right information and provide some help.
And for everyone who is doing actionS (I and You know who you are out there ) to get things better : Thank you again.
*searches for F2P threads on front page*
Nope. Can't see anything. Sure there's been many in the past, but there has also been many threads like this too. And if there's anytime to reopen the discussion on these things, it's now.
Also, I don't know why we need 2 threads on the same thing. The only difference appears to be we have an OP in this one trying to keep F2P out of the thread after the fact, and derailing the thread as a result.
Again with another derail. You really don't want this thread to stay on topic do you? Just move on...
The rest of you, plese keep it civil too. You are derailing the discussion in the direction of the topic of "who is derailing". :o3
Well the objective (acording to the OP) is to bring people, not money. Otherwise, I would be the first to get unpleasant about it again. I mean, I do hate the word F2P. It has become the synonym of coin based economy. But I don't see anything wrong in making NS2 free or cheaper and making money(if need be - but CDT is only one investing time in development of the game now, and I don't think they are getting paid one way or another. The money would essentialy go to the next game - Subnautica) from DLCs, plushies and it would be nice to have "shut up and take my money" program too.
Yeah, that's a major issue. Some just quit after the first load that takes 20 minutes and never come back. Whatever the load screen is doing (decompressing textures, compiling shaders, precomputation???) needs to be done on installation time or at least the load screen needs to inform it is just a one time deal and subsequent loads will be OK.
As for performance, exactly as you say. I am running it on Celeron and am just a OK. Some people are just tight basterds when it comes to GPUs, which are important for this kind of thing. It will never run on Intel HD properly.
>> join Japan (asia region) server with only good ping 150
>> empty >> have to play with 300+ ping
So they quit NS2 because developers not doing match making to gather player into one server easily =='
P/s: they play CSGO or DOTA2 because you can click find match >> wait 10-15min watch Youtube >> Found match 5v5 >> Join and play fast
Im really want to do something to save this game , but its not work unless DEV do something about match making
^ How can anyone possibly think this is "good" in any way shape or form?!?!?
Waiting 10-15 minutes to be placed in a crappy server with 300+ ping I would have never willingly joined.... Highly inconvenient, and most certainly not fast by any measure.
Far better the way it currently works, open browser, find a server of your choice, join (or queue up if it's full) simple.
I've never once had to wait 10-15 minutes to join a server in NS2. Matchmaking on the other hand is the sole reason I am unable to play many games in my library... It is literally the worst possible thing they could add to the game (next to making it F2P)
He is in the Asia region. That may be what playing certain games is like there. He struggle to find a game of ns2. If forced match making were in place it might be easier for him to find games or so it seems he is suggesting.
I have to disagree with that. For example a bootcamp mod can be done by anyone who is willing to program it. NS2+, Shine, Pre-game, Siege mod and the initial Combat mod are all mod for NS2. I would if i had the time but i barely play on the WeekEnds already...
I'm sure it sucks to play from a less populated region, but he can join all the same servers a US/EU player can, his ping is just higher. So the only "struggle" is in finding populated low ping servers.
The ONLY way matchmaking could "help" him is by forcing US/EU players into an Asian server where his ping is lower.
That's making the overall experience for the majority worse, just to slightly improve the experience for the minority... That wouldn't help NS2, it would just kill it faster.
Is there even one Asian server?
Well Australia =/= Asia.
And no worries, you're too bad to be kicked.
Lol. I take pride in my 800 hive score, so it can bring the team down to a more human level :-)
I'm not playing that much on public servers, so I got like 1.200 or something. See, we're almost equal.
Keep the casual and competitive at same time >> great idea
If you play competitive you can find dedicated server
If you play casual >> Hit match making button ( it will test player ping/lag before put them in one server with everyone ~ 150ms )
In CSGO >> You can adjust Match making Area to suit your ping/ latency from 50 to 300