NS2 - It gets worse
daeli
Join Date: 2010-04-05 Member: 71179Members
Join Date: 2010-04-05 Member: 71179Members
I sporadically play NS2 to see if it makes any progress. Yet whenever i start the game after a patch it gets worse. Let me list some points that make the gaming experience very frustrating:
- For the game to start it takes about 10 seconds. That is inacceptable. At least give the user some feedback instead of a black screen.
- When you are finally in the game - alt-tabbing is extremely hard. (As example: Battlefield Bad Company 2 - wich has better graphics but is starting a lot faster and has less problems when alt-tabbing)
- Memory consumption is enormous, despite the fact the textures aren't that great and the overall look is nothing revolutionary compared to other games.
- Finding a server is hard. Even if there are free slots shown the server is in most cases full. Also, you always get a black screen when you want to join a server wich is very annoying. Why don't you just use a popup that gives you feedback?
- When you finally found a game - loading times are unacceptable. At an average it takes about 10-20 seconds to just load the map, yet the maps are just indoor maps without anything spectacular. After that you get a huge freeze until you can finally play.
- Ingame there are major freezes. Some popular places are: Loading marines, Choosing a side, entering a new room.
- When you open a menu (lets say 'b' for evolve) you have to hit Esc to leave it, not, as everyone would expect, 'b'. This applies to all menus accessible with shortcuts.
- The overall movement is very stuttering. The mouse movement doesn't get smoothed and also other players movements are very stuttering wich makes it hard to hit anything - as alien as well as marine
- The 'alien vision' is useless as it doesn't give you any feedback of the lighting in your close proximity as an alien, wich is crucial
These are some of the points i experienced just today by playing some 10 minutes. These are the general direction of the problems wich makes testing NS2 impossible at the moment. Unless these are fixed, we really can't give honest feedback about the gameplay, as the problems are so big that they can't be ignored.
Before the fanboys rage over my thread i really want the devs to consider wich direction they will take - maybe reduce the graphics but improve the overall playability. You know, graphics isn't everything. Just have a look at the server browser. About 99% of all beta testers arent playing. You really should be worried about it. Improve the playability of NS2 or it will be a stillborn child.
- For the game to start it takes about 10 seconds. That is inacceptable. At least give the user some feedback instead of a black screen.
- When you are finally in the game - alt-tabbing is extremely hard. (As example: Battlefield Bad Company 2 - wich has better graphics but is starting a lot faster and has less problems when alt-tabbing)
- Memory consumption is enormous, despite the fact the textures aren't that great and the overall look is nothing revolutionary compared to other games.
- Finding a server is hard. Even if there are free slots shown the server is in most cases full. Also, you always get a black screen when you want to join a server wich is very annoying. Why don't you just use a popup that gives you feedback?
- When you finally found a game - loading times are unacceptable. At an average it takes about 10-20 seconds to just load the map, yet the maps are just indoor maps without anything spectacular. After that you get a huge freeze until you can finally play.
- Ingame there are major freezes. Some popular places are: Loading marines, Choosing a side, entering a new room.
- When you open a menu (lets say 'b' for evolve) you have to hit Esc to leave it, not, as everyone would expect, 'b'. This applies to all menus accessible with shortcuts.
- The overall movement is very stuttering. The mouse movement doesn't get smoothed and also other players movements are very stuttering wich makes it hard to hit anything - as alien as well as marine
- The 'alien vision' is useless as it doesn't give you any feedback of the lighting in your close proximity as an alien, wich is crucial
These are some of the points i experienced just today by playing some 10 minutes. These are the general direction of the problems wich makes testing NS2 impossible at the moment. Unless these are fixed, we really can't give honest feedback about the gameplay, as the problems are so big that they can't be ignored.
Before the fanboys rage over my thread i really want the devs to consider wich direction they will take - maybe reduce the graphics but improve the overall playability. You know, graphics isn't everything. Just have a look at the server browser. About 99% of all beta testers arent playing. You really should be worried about it. Improve the playability of NS2 or it will be a stillborn child.
Comments
<!--quoteo(post=1837857:date=Mar 19 2011, 12:10 AM:name=daeli)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (daeli @ Mar 19 2011, 12:10 AM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1837857"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->- For the game to start it takes about 10 seconds. That is inacceptable. At least give the user some feedback instead of a black screen.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->It's unpleasant, but I wouldn't drag the devs away from fixing more immidiate issues right now.
<!--quoteo--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE </div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->- When you are finally in the game - alt-tabbing is extremely hard. (As example: Battlefield Bad Company 2 - wich has better graphics but is starting a lot faster and has less problems when alt-tabbing)<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->I've been running in windowed-mode for that very reason. Not a solution, but a work-around.
<!--quoteo--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE </div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->- Memory consumption is enormous, despite the fact the textures aren't that great and the overall look is nothing revolutionary compared to other games.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->That might be Lua at work, an ongoing headache-generator for both the community and the dev-team. Hopefully max's new lua-binder will provide some eleviation.
<!--quoteo--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE </div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->- Finding a server is hard. Even if there are free slots shown the server is in most cases full. Also, you always get a black screen when you want to join a server wich is very annoying. Why don't you just use a popup that gives you feedback?<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->It gives you feedback, but you are right that you're first stuck looking at a black screen for a few seconds before it does (you can bring up the console to immediately see what happened). See #1 for this though.
<!--quoteo--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE </div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->- When you finally found a game - loading times are unacceptable. At an average it takes about 10-20 seconds to just load the map, yet the maps are just indoor maps without anything spectacular. After that you get a huge freeze until you can finally play.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->The loading-times might be the Spark engine doing it's pre-processing of the map, to help provide a smoother experience later on. The initial crappy performance is probably the part that it hasn't (pre-processed).
<!--quoteo--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE </div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->- Ingame there are major freezes. Some popular places are: Loading marines, Choosing a side, entering a new room.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->Same story as above, caching.
<!--quoteo--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE </div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->- When you open a menu (lets say 'b' for evolve) you have to hit Esc to leave it, not, as everyone would expect, 'b'. This applies to all menus accessible with shortcuts.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->The GUI is indeed need of a rework, especially the armory (which should close after having bought an item really). I'm inclined to do a #1 here too.
<!--quoteo--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE </div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->- The overall movement is very stuttering. The mouse movement doesn't get smoothed and also other players movements are very stuttering wich makes it hard to hit anything - as alien as well as marine<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->Lua's garbage-collector. The C++-stack instancing might help here, it's on the todo-list (next build maybe?).
<!--quoteo--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE </div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->- The 'alien vision' is useless as it doesn't give you any feedback of the lighting in your close proximity as an alien, wich is crucial<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->I actually think the alien-vision is pretty powerful right now, and it would be nice if it had at least some drawbacks to force you not to use it constantly.
That was a quicky.
I just can't understand why they changed how simple things used to work, almost perfectly. they over complicated practical ideas simple and effective ideas which worked fine over better graphics. Much of the current game has been dumbed-down for easy playing, and no way is challenging as it used to be. New players might enjoy it more than old players, imo. Though it is beta, so who knows.
EDIT:
Oh and alien vision? Create a macro or smash your flashlight key constantly, then you'll see how op it is. It's pretty awesome.
Everything else needed to be said was said by Player.
Everything else needed to be said was said by Player.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Maybe he's distracted by the 20-30 second videos saying that ea owns it, crytek produced it, and how it runs better in intel.
Nope, NS2 has become MUCH better since the engine test. I remember trying out that engine test... It was unplayable.
But now! I can play this game, the only thing that makes my FPS lag is the Flame-throwers... (Alien night-vision doesn't help either)
If you played the Engine test and then you play the newest build. You WILL be able to see the difference!
All of the stuff that you have seemed to complain about is something to do with the engine or the FPS rate, or the lag, or something of that sort. Optimization and that stuff comes with every build. All of this will obviously be fixed anyway when the game comes to a later stage.
What UWE need to worry about at the moment is the OVER-POWERED...ness of the shotgun!
NERF THAT GOD DAMN SHOTGUN UWE!!!! NOAW!!!!!!!
Plus 1000+ videos you don't want to watch (e.g. *whisper* nvidia) but you have to and can't click 'em away.
I logged in to play when the DI-patch was put in an was all excited, but I got pretty massively disappointed as I realized that the addition of DI itself was causing the whole server to collapse and the alien-side being hindered rather than improved, so I've personally put this game to rest until things shape up some more. Telling my friend about this game as well is now turning out to be a embarrassing affair as it always seems to be unplayable each time I try to play with him. It's still a great deal better though than when it started, but it's quite frankly going at a agonisingly slow pace to really keep up the excitement (for me at least) with each patch.
But as I've come to realize it's all part of creating an engine from the ground up, so respect to UWE... but to preserve my hope for this game I'll seeya in a few builds.
Actually, usually you can find the movie files, rename them, then never have to think about them again :D
also.. and much more importantly:
<!--sizeo:5--><span style="font-size:18pt;line-height:100%"><!--/sizeo-->ITS A BETA<!--sizec--></span><!--/sizec-->
the few actual issues you mentioned (Stuttering, or black screen) are all part of the process of making a game / product..
and the dev team are fully aware of everything - you creating a new thread about this does nothing but show your level of frustration and lack of participation / search button usage. Thanks.
the only thing i can slightly agree on is the pace at which this small, albeit talented, development team operates. they may be too small for their own good, in regards to getting a working, stable, and completed product out in time before all interest is lost and onto something else. I'd love to see them enlist the help of the community and give credit etc. its worked well for them in the past, why not let us help finish the product with you?
You're doing it wrong.
<!--coloro:#FFFF00--><span style="color:#FFFF00"><!--/coloro--><!--sizeo:5--><span style="font-size:18pt;line-height:100%"><!--/sizeo-->ITS A BETA<!--sizec--></span><!--/sizec--><!--colorc--></span><!--/colorc-->
- Ingame there are major freezes. Some popular places are: Loading marines, Choosing a side, entering a new room.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
This is exactly what I have been reporting on getsatisfaction. They always assured me it would get tweaked, but I haven't seen much changes the last 10 patches in preformance. Then again I did play alpha where the lag of now is nothing compared to what it was back then so saying there is no progress is a lie, but it would be nice if the game became playable.
The strange part is that I only have this problems on some servers. I have it on those UK servers, or even my clanserver, but I don't have it on the aussie server (350 ping!) or the nsarmory server (30 ping).
The half empty servers are in part caused by these connection problems, but they are also caused by the lack of content. An ingame download manager that allows people to join any game with any custom map or mod would help (also suggested this before). This is really what can prevent a game from dieing to soon so I hope they make work of it.
I have already accepted that it will take em longer to smooth my game then I first tought, altough they do seem to be working on some performance issues now but I don't want to get my hopes up..
This is a early in-development TEST of the game's engine and assests. It is NOT a game yet. It's OK you have no idea what a beta test actually is. I blame the marketing practices of game publishers over the last few years - they release the nearly completed version of the game that requires no testing to the public to drum up word of mouth.
<!--coloro:#00FF00--><span style="color:#00FF00"><!--/coloro-->+1<!--colorc--></span><!--/colorc-->
<!--quoteo(post=1837887:date=Mar 19 2011, 02:32 PM:name=Thaldarin)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Thaldarin @ Mar 19 2011, 02:32 PM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1837887"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->You're doing it wrong.
<!--coloro:#FFFF00--><span style="color:#FFFF00"><!--/coloro--><!--sizeo:5--><span style="font-size:18pt;line-height:100%"><!--/sizeo-->ITS A BETA<!--sizec--></span><!--/sizec--><!--colorc--></span><!--/colorc--><!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
<!--coloro:#00FF00--><span style="color:#00FF00"><!--/coloro-->+1<!--colorc--></span><!--/colorc-->
Oh oh don't forget the team is technically an Indie team. What 7 employee's? Working only with the money from sales of the game and their own blood sweat and tears.
People get thrown a "BETA" 2 weeks before it goes gold from companies like EA, Crytek ect... that have hundreds of people on a single team working on a game and have the money, time and ability to polish a game within months if not weeks. They become spoiled little brats that expect everything to live up to that expectation without knowing the correct facts.
Even though NS2 is in "BETA" stage. It's still at the point where only DEVELOPERS would see the game and continue to polish it out. You should actually consider yourself privileged that UWE allowed access to a game that is still early in development. And if you were around when NS1 was released you'de probably remember the game being pretty unplayable even then. That was back on the HL1 engine.
So to the OP and his minor little whining just because the game is not exactly what he wants it to be right now is just hilarious.
We have better things to think about than mashing a key constantly
We have better things to think about than mashing a key constantly<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
OK, so you get ultra-vision that sees through darkness, smoke, fire, and loose obstacles and yet still lets you know the light level in the room. What do the marines get to balance that out?
Its easy. Just remove the ###### vision and let rooms with destroyed power nodes black.
- For the game to start it takes about 10 seconds. That is inacceptable. At least give the user some feedback instead of a black screen.
- When you are finally in the game - alt-tabbing is extremely hard. (As example: Battlefield Bad Company 2 - wich has better graphics but is starting a lot faster and has less problems when alt-tabbing)
- Memory consumption is enormous, despite the fact the textures aren't that great and the overall look is nothing revolutionary compared to other games.
- Finding a server is hard. Even if there are free slots shown the server is in most cases full. Also, you always get a black screen when you want to join a server wich is very annoying. Why don't you just use a popup that gives you feedback?
- When you finally found a game - loading times are unacceptable. At an average it takes about 10-20 seconds to just load the map, yet the maps are just indoor maps without anything spectacular. After that you get a huge freeze until you can finally play.
- Ingame there are major freezes. Some popular places are: Loading marines, Choosing a side, entering a new room.
- When you open a menu (lets say 'b' for evolve) you have to hit Esc to leave it, not, as everyone would expect, 'b'. This applies to all menus accessible with shortcuts.
- The overall movement is very stuttering. The mouse movement doesn't get smoothed and also other players movements are very stuttering wich makes it hard to hit anything - as alien as well as marine
- The 'alien vision' is useless as it doesn't give you any feedback of the lighting in your close proximity as an alien, wich is crucial
These are some of the points i experienced just today by playing some 10 minutes. These are the general direction of the problems wich makes testing NS2 impossible at the moment. Unless these are fixed, we really can't give honest feedback about the gameplay, as the problems are so big that they can't be ignored.
Before the fanboys rage over my thread i really want the devs to consider wich direction they will take - maybe reduce the graphics but improve the overall playability. You know, graphics isn't everything. Just have a look at the server browser. About 99% of all beta testers arent playing. You really should be worried about it. Improve the playability of NS2 or it will be a stillborn child.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
I for one am looking forward to the beta......
It's not about ping, but CPU load. To find a good server, type net_stats in console and check the server tickrate. 30 is good for your typical shooter.
Except that you'd have to stretch that definition immensely to have it include NS2...