Only 500 cocurrent players..
MisterYoon
Join Date: 2012-08-18 Member: 155747Members
Join Date: 2012-08-18 Member: 155747Members
<div class="IPBDescription">this is too bad.</div>
Maybe steam has just shut down. I saw sudden drop of cocurrent players of the whole games on steam. So did NS2.
But it still stays on 500 cocurrent players while the other games are being filled up. The peak of yesterday was only 2.5k..
It's just as much as Gorilla patch. With regards, that Gorilla patch happened at beta stage, i do think it's really bad to see under 1k amount of cocurrent players.
Within a month, Natural Selection 2 lost so much of players. It was stable on the first, second week around 5k. But suddenly it dropped beneath 2.5k.
Losing more than 50% of players in a month is definately not good. I am pretty sure, the biggest reason/problem is performance, and then maybe some ridiculous unbalance which ruins game like tres onos, which actually got just fixed. Anyway, still horrible performance, that's definately the biggest reason why ns2 lost already too many players playing. It was really bitter to read some comments that performance even got dropped in recent patches.
I was kind of delighted when i read a post from UWE, that they just found a tremendously good programming to increase the performance. They said they could increase performance around 50%(which is crazy) within few days. But, i don't see any of improvements since then, unfortunately.
Free weekend, sales, will make ns2 be revived, but only financially. Natural Selection 2 is a game which need really stable player bases. As therefore players can have really good experience and even fun. So just some events like sales on simillar stage of the game won't help us to have more fun on ns2 anymore. And i feel sorry because i do have thought ns2 is basically really good game and therefore it should be really fun. However, just some other big problems like performance are making players to leave.
And for that, performance and some lack of balance, features must be fixed as soon as possible. Especially performance. I don't want to see an announcement from UWE that it was mistake to decide this game with LUA.
Maybe steam has just shut down. I saw sudden drop of cocurrent players of the whole games on steam. So did NS2.
But it still stays on 500 cocurrent players while the other games are being filled up. The peak of yesterday was only 2.5k..
It's just as much as Gorilla patch. With regards, that Gorilla patch happened at beta stage, i do think it's really bad to see under 1k amount of cocurrent players.
Within a month, Natural Selection 2 lost so much of players. It was stable on the first, second week around 5k. But suddenly it dropped beneath 2.5k.
Losing more than 50% of players in a month is definately not good. I am pretty sure, the biggest reason/problem is performance, and then maybe some ridiculous unbalance which ruins game like tres onos, which actually got just fixed. Anyway, still horrible performance, that's definately the biggest reason why ns2 lost already too many players playing. It was really bitter to read some comments that performance even got dropped in recent patches.
I was kind of delighted when i read a post from UWE, that they just found a tremendously good programming to increase the performance. They said they could increase performance around 50%(which is crazy) within few days. But, i don't see any of improvements since then, unfortunately.
Free weekend, sales, will make ns2 be revived, but only financially. Natural Selection 2 is a game which need really stable player bases. As therefore players can have really good experience and even fun. So just some events like sales on simillar stage of the game won't help us to have more fun on ns2 anymore. And i feel sorry because i do have thought ns2 is basically really good game and therefore it should be really fun. However, just some other big problems like performance are making players to leave.
And for that, performance and some lack of balance, features must be fixed as soon as possible. Especially performance. I don't want to see an announcement from UWE that it was mistake to decide this game with LUA.
This discussion has been closed.
Comments
Peak players vs current players, 2.5k peak, around 600-700 current, looks like the European playerbase is the only playerbase for NS2.
<img src="http://i.imgur.com/WTQUb.png" border="0" class="linked-image" />
Yeah i noticed that because all of games on steams lost whole cocurrent players suddenly. But it's still not that filled up as much as others.
Anyway, as you said, 2.5k is really not great. Actually 2.5k is a peak. I saw only 1k~1.5k cocurrent players on whole day.
NS2 had never fewer cocurrent players than Killing Floor in first two weeks. But now this has far fewer. It can be still success as an indie game, but i just wanna say, to lose so much players within a month is really really not good.
Probably. But that doesn't cause <50% loss of cocurrent player amount. It's way too much. I don't think peak 2.5k or average 1.5 is that too much bad. However, what's really bad is they lost already too much, and still losing too much. This won't happen in any of game, unless a game is tremendous garbage. Actually NS2 is itself really good game. So that means, just because of side issues like performance, bugs, and some balance issues, ns2 has lost so much players. It's not like BRINK got failed. Because BRINK was actually not enough good, but NS2 is actually good, innovative in some cases, looking really good, however losing too much because of some lack of so basic side issues.
Anyway, as you said, 2.5k is really not great. Actually 2.5k is a peak. I saw only 1k~1.5k cocurrent players on whole day.
NS2 had never fewer cocurrent players than Killing Floor in first two weeks. But now this has far fewer. It can be still success as an indie game, but i just wanna say, to lose so much players within a month is really really not good.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
The problem for NS2 has always been retaining players. The trailers look amazing. The idea behind the game is amazing. When you consider this is an indie game, it looks even more amazing. Then people pick up the game, generally have problems with performance (either server or personal), and quit. Performance is still crappy for so many players that they probably won't play it again if they quit. Nobody wants to play sub 60 fps. Nobody wants to play with hitching. And even though performance has increased drastically, it is still not good enough for a huge swath of players who don't own an i5 or i7 with a cpu at 3.5ghz++.
This, basically.
:(
I'm glad the Australian community is still solid, even NS1 was still holding strong until perhaps three years ago.
ED: On a side note, i'm running this game on a machine that could be described as mid-range at BEST, and the game is very playable for me (over 100 hours now, in fact). Everything is set to Low or Off except for AA and AF and I get a solid 40-50 FPS until late game when most of the map is under control to which then it dips down to 20-30. It's nothing I would quit the game over.
Best name for COD ever.
Yup. I still play in spite of the performance issues but if there is one thing that really has me upset, it's that my "Above Average" gaming rig can't handle this game. Even though UWE stated it could with no problem.
<b>First priority, above anything, for the love of god, fix performance. Balance can wait.</b>
<i>You won't have anything to balance if people can't play your game.</i>
Yeah, but people who aren't already fans won't play a game where they "dip down" to 20-30 fps. 20-30 fps looks and feels TERRIBLE, specially in a game that requires precision aiming and movement.
*Edit: I see now that somebody posted similar thoughts in another thread on this subject.
when a guy finds himself with an hour or so to play pc games, he has a huge selection; tf2, counterstrike, dota, 'flavour of the month' games, crack-addictive singleplayer games etc. you won't steal their audience unless you do one better.
personally i still like to play tf2, because i have friends that play tf2 and my connections/fav pub servers etc are guaranteed fun. i still squeeze in some daily ns2, but after a bad game where noone uses/listens to comms and doesn't have a clue - i have to quit and start up some tf2 for my 'fix'.
anyway, it's good to see that ns2 is doing better than red orchestra 2.
#1 hugest problem = you need a really powerful rig to run this, sorry but there's no reason to design a game 20% or less of gamers can even run, let alone like
(I run the game great, even tho it crashes sometimes for no reason)
This, and it happens to all games. Here's a comparison between several <a href="http://steamgraph.net/index.php?action=graph&jstime=1&appid=4920q212680q730q200710&from=1343804400000&to=End+Time" target="_blank">other successful indie games and CS:GO</a>.
NS2 doesn't have a huge peak like the others either due to the much more marketing (CS:GO, Torchlight) or very cheap release price (I picked up FTL for $9), but it also doesn't have as huge of a drop in playerbase as the others. Lest we forget, gamers are fickle and frequently move on to the newest shiny toy.
Of the other 7, the main complaints I have received are:
-marine weapon hit registration (and yes, they know how to aim)
-game balance (team v team)
-lack of tutorial
-piss poor attitudes of 'expert' players trash talking new players
-lack of more larger servers
-map balance issues
-lack of map variety
The main compliments I have received are:
-unique gameplay (commander mode)
-well executed games are very enjoyable
-nice visual environments and effects (eg attacks on power nodes kill lights etc)
-player choice for weapons/upgrades
-play areas aren't all wide open, which enhances atmosphere
So far the bad isn't quite outweighing the good, but they are playing less than they were a few weeks ago. Based on my past experience in the gaming industry, a game usually has two months to 'make or break'. If we are still seeing these issues in January then this will significantly impact future sales.
NS2 doesn't have a huge peak like the others either due to the much more marketing (CS:GO, Torchlight) or very cheap release price (I picked up FTL for $9), but it also doesn't have as huge of a drop in playerbase as the others. Lest we forget, gamers are fickle and frequently move on to the newest shiny toy.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Oh that's quite reasonable. But still thinking that 1.5k from 5k is kind of big loss. I hope UWE can improve performance and fix bugs very soon again and let lots of them come back. However, i am not pretty sure about performance increasement. They mentioned that they could improve 50% of performance in few days with new programming, which is to me as if they can do that over and over again, but it's now going even backwards. I believe they can make it, but actually not sure in these days.
America kind of fell off after the old CS 1.5/1.6 days. Back when we had the strongest competitive teams in the world. They grew older, had families. That's when the COD generation came along. Now it's all about being a pubstar in an easy game that 12 year old's can excel at. I'm glad that Europe is enjoying competitive gaming so much. I can only hope it comes back to the Americas.
Oh ****ing <i>please</i>.
Because our generation was so damn old when the first competitive FPS games came out.
If you were born in 1985, that means you were 13/14 in 1998 / 1999. So why the hell <b>shouldn't</b> teenagers be doing good at Call of Duty? You have better reflexes, better eyesight, better hand/eye coordination when you're young. Mozart wrote some of his finest works when he was young. There's a saying that runs something along the lines that a brilliant mathematician will perform his greatest work before the age of twelve.
Jaedong was 16 when he started playing Brood War professionally. FlasH, widely considered the top Starcraft player, was born in 1992, which put his professional debut at the ripe old age of 15. All of them started playing and kicking asses years and years before then. I guess that makes Brood War a crappy game because teenagers can excel at it? If FlasH started playing Brood War when it came out, that means he was probably kicking asses when he was <i>seven</i>.
<!--sizeo:4--><span style="font-size:14pt;line-height:100%"><!--/sizeo-->I was <b>14</b> when Tribes came out. How old were you?<!--sizec--></span><!--/sizec-->
This is seriously getting to the point where we need a new iteration of Godwin's Law. "As an online discussion about video games grows longer, the probability of a cliche whine about CoD or CoD kiddies approaches one."
<!--quoteo(post=2036294:date=Nov 28 2012, 04:16 AM:name=TychoCelchuuu)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (TychoCelchuuu @ Nov 28 2012, 04:16 AM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=2036294"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->I'm not sure this SteamGraph site is totally accurate but whatever, <a href="http://steamgraph.net/index.php?action=graph&appid=4920q219640q42160q35450q104700&from=0" target="_blank">NS2 is doing pretty normally for a multiplayer only indie FPS</a>. The lesson here seems to be that everyone loses players.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
And isn't that just the most ironic thing? In a thread where there's been several posts whining about how the CoD kiddies are the ones who just pick up games and abandon them, the most damning proof is that it's the people who support and play indy games (which is more than likely "our" generation of gamers) that will only play them for a few weeks before giving up and moving on to the next thing.