Natural Selection Free to Play
ghostdlr
Join Date: 2015-07-02 Member: 205950Members
Join Date: 2015-07-02 Member: 205950Members
I found some old topics but lots of things changed since .
This game needs a steady flow of new players to stay alive .
There are plenty of ways to monetize everything ... skins DLC or a donation system like the one for Reinforced , stuff that is already implemented .
This works well for Dota 2 and Counter-Strike GO , without giving an advantage to those paying so I don't see why it won't also work for Natural Selection .
Any new thoughts on the subject ?
This game needs a steady flow of new players to stay alive .
There are plenty of ways to monetize everything ... skins DLC or a donation system like the one for Reinforced , stuff that is already implemented .
This works well for Dota 2 and Counter-Strike GO , without giving an advantage to those paying so I don't see why it won't also work for Natural Selection .
Any new thoughts on the subject ?
Comments
There are some real hurdles, from improper tutorials and infrastructure for rookies, to lack of servers to support the numbers, to administrating a F2P game, to actual DLC implementation.
These real hurdles prohibit such a decision from occurring right now.
Maybe one day in the future...
And all natural selection servers are hosted by the community . So if the community increases , the number of people hosting the servers will increase .
And regarding the rookies , natural selection 2 doesn't have a toxic community like Dota or League of Legends . A new player can easily integrate and server owners can set up restrictions if they only want experienced players.
There's force balance team option so you can have a fair game , even with rookies .
It's sad to see only 200 people online in the evening . A free to play model might change this .
The rookie issues (as those threads mention) are multiple. There currently is no adequate tutorial, our hint system is barely functional, there are no rookie only servers for them to not be stomped in, and there needs to be more access to information for them to study.
Lastly, while we can make DLC in the form of cheap skins, it may not be enough to purchase the expensive servers and development time necessary (consider the TEAMS of admins that exist for F2P games) to ensure a smooth F2P experience. The economic model must be re thought entirely.
We're just not there yet.. even if we wanted it to happen, which not all of us are on board.
I think at this point we have better chances of raising the playercount with actual new content and extreme optimizations for existing customers, as well as fixing some of those rookie woes before doing a free weekend deal.
There is no team of admins in Dota, LOL, CS GO. Everything is fully automated .
There are currently 130 servers active and 210 people playing . They could handle around 2500 players .
I don't remember exactly how many users were online during the last free week-end . NS2 was briefly on top 100 on steam so I guess around 2000 .
I'm currently renting dedicated servers from OVH . You can get a Xeon 1245V2 with 32 GB RAM, SSD or HDD for 40 EURO + VAT / month . And they actually work ... I had no uptime or loss/ping problems in Europe . There is no need for a big investment in infrastructure.
I understand you're not there yet . I think Free to Play should be the next step for Natural Selection 2 . Only a higher player base can turn it into an esport title .
I would imagine any potential infrastructure would be designed to help retain player so the game has a sustained playerbase.
Stop copy-paste your message from your clipboard. I caught you!
First, I think we need some kind of player segregation based on skill levels. Whether that means rookie only servers or full fletched out matchmaking systems integrated with hive skills, or some kind of Hive skill requirement for entry on certain servers - I don't care. But there needs to be some mechanism to separate these players, otherwise rookies are going to continue to be stomped, and player retention will suffer.
When you have that, a free weekend would make sense, but not before imo.
I guess Ironhorse works for Faultline Games now. (too soon?)
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Author of a ePaper manual for NS2, now also a steam guide
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How do you propose to not turn NS2 into a F2P-cesspool like TF2 or Dota 2?
Funny, but just to back up my claim, this is based on prior stats.
We average 6-9 thousand players on free weekends, despite considerable time passing after launch.
Even if we disregard the likelihood of those stats occurring again and assume for loss of popularity and consider half of that, (ignoring new content which would still bring in existing players) and the fact that we'd need rookie only servers specifically (which won't be 24 player servers), then we're looking at needing ~400 exclusive servers to be safe. Considering we have about 65 operational servers as of this writing (browser claims 140, but only 60 something are responsive) that barely covers the requirement of returning players, let alone the "rookie only" specific servers. I don't expect even 20% of existing operational servers to temporarily shift to rookie only at the cost of their current community.
If the numbers end up being less, that'd be easier to handle, obviously.
Also we could mitigate some of that need by hosting larger player servers instead.. but.. I think we'd all agree we want to give a more accurate representation of NS2. (both in performance and gameplay)
I doubt we'll actually end up renting 400 exclusive servers or anything near that.. but it's worth considering, and it'd be better to be safe for a week than to fall on our faces with zero means for people to play.
But giving a lerk whos sitting still spiking significantly more tank won't really hurt those games.
Maybe a mode where you start with certain structures already, like randomly start with 3 DCs, 3 MCs, or 3 SCs? And an arms lab with 1-1 or something?
Could this concept be true for game servers too? I do not know. Would there be any value in having potentially every server full? If so, would that produce a better image?
But someone has to pay for those servers at the end.
Yes, therefor making possible worth trying to under do the capacity. We don't know how many servers we need, but more than 60 (if there is 60).
I just don't know if the same concept applies here. Cost aside, If you can not play because the server is full, does that make you think the game is more popular than it really is?
Im not sure how much it costs to rent an NS2-quality server per month, but this might be a way to fund "official" servers again.
Some people would buy the pack to help the communty, some would buy it for the cosmetics, but as long as people buy it, it could help offset the cost of F2P/Community Servers.
Just a thought!
I think it'd be nice to have a mode where people are all around harder to kill, and then keep NS2 as it is making it a "hardcore" mode or whatever. Most games do this nowadays.
@Pelargir nope, that's not what I am planning for. Maybe you skimmed over it?
Number of servers -- While we would certainly need more, I don't think we need more than a few dozen. Lots of reasons for this:
Server size -- I'd strongly suggest all rookie servers are no less than 24 players. Lots of reasons for this:
- Even among rookies skill gaps will start to appear. No one likes to feel their team lost because of their gameplay -- this will stop them coming back. On large servers, an individual's performance contributes less to a win. A rookie can learn and make mistakes as part of a team and not feel they let the team down.
- More players means more interactions, more learning from others, more social bonding, and more freedom to experiment with gameplay and (in aliens case) lifeforms. See point above.
- We'll attract all walks of players. Like it or not, many games have large servers. These players will feel more comfortable joining a server with many players.
- Spectating -- more slots means opportunities to spectate to learn. Many people like to learn by watching as well as playing. Just because a server has 24 slots doesn't mean every game is 12v12.
Yes you can argue NS2 is designed for 6v6, but training wheels come in many forms across many disciplines, and for rookies large servers make it easier for them to learn and have fun -- and thereby, most importantly of all, stick around.On a more important note, why are you suddenly accepting the ns2 killing concept of rookie only servers?
I would like to see any upcoming free weekend/week coincide with a new rookie tournament announcement to show people the amazing side of competitive which is the biggest player retention mechanism at the moment.