2. The daily player count swings up and down but ns2 seems to have a really hardcore player base that wont quit anytime soon. The devs are very proud that they have put out so many build is such a short time I think. Don't let the player base scare you. We bite, but only as skulks and lerks.
3. You will not get good performance in this game even at the lowest graphical level. I am honestly unsure if you will be cpu or gpu bottlenecked.
It's an Acer Aspire
Phenom II x4 n930 2ghz
Mobility Radeon HD 5650
6gb DDR3 (Dont know the speed) 7.1 WEI rating
Lowest denominator is the HDD, which has a 5.8 WEI rating
Some playtester like Ironhorse or Obraxis will no doubt have more accurate information about how ns2 plays on this specific setup, what fps range you should expect and so on.
But honestly, from experience all i needed to read was the first line (2ghz) to know that you will generally not have an enjoyable experience. Even an underclocked 2ghz Haswell will struggle with ns2 quite a bit. My guess for you would be around 30 fps average at best. Which might be playable if it felt smooth. But with a Mobility HD 5650, you will have on top of that the most god awful input lag known to man - even on lowest settings possible.
Basically, if i was you, i would (safely) overclock my cpu as much as possible, and upgrade the gpu. Although i guess tough luck if it's a notebook *
Ram and HDD is not going to be your bottleneck.
*But if you feel like gambling with $5, go for it. There will be heaps of people in the same boat as yourself (average/modest hardware), so you won't be ruining anything really.
I don't know...looking at ns2stats I don't see much going on...Will probably just take a pass on this one. Oh well.
Please notice that ns2stats.com only covers ~25% of the EU servers and like ~10% of the US Servers. As it's a mod and therefor is needed to be installed by the server admins.
I don't see the playerbase as problem of ns2. It's more the performance of the client/server software. Saying so you (with your current specs) should really test the game somehow before buying it.
@TTribaLL
If you are poor you can also try your luck:
-at the charity generosity thread (look)
-at
(caster who sometimes gives away free copies to non-owning people in the chat).
Next live event: 11/17/13 | 12pm PST/9pm CET (good even if you dont get a free copy).
You should check it and search for other sales regularly as it has a timer that will change often.
I doubt 6.25 is that "risky" of an investment, but I understand your sentiment to wanting to save money, especially if you are unsure if it will run well on your machine.
Prepare yourself, Black Friday is coming, and of course the Christmas Steam Sale
While there are TOP-MEN working on helping to lower the performance woe's of the game.
I for one would never game on a laptop even if it is the top of the line. It just doesn't do the game justice to play on a tiny screen, tiny keyboard and possible shoddy Wifi.
It would also be super awkward if you played this in public, because then you'd also need a headset to hear anything, and unless you're comfortable for shouting at players into your microphone with random people around you, that just too much
On another note if your getting tired of CS:GO you may want to switch over to CS:S as it has a lot and much more polished mods. CS:GO is really just a test from valve to see if they can kill off community servers for good and just have only matchmaking and a more consoleish experience in the future.
Although ns1 playerbase is dried up think of how long that lasted and just for a MOD that no one really knew about! NS2 has much more general user appeal than ns1 ever did and a player base that is just as dedicated. Put simply the only think that could possibly mess up this game is some sort of botched matchmaking system like cs:go/tf2 that basically kills off a lot of the servers and then collapses the player base. Short of some disaster like that this game will still be alive and kicking in time for ns3 in 10 years.
Comments
3. You will not get good performance in this game even at the lowest graphical level. I am honestly unsure if you will be cpu or gpu bottlenecked.
But honestly, from experience all i needed to read was the first line (2ghz) to know that you will generally not have an enjoyable experience. Even an underclocked 2ghz Haswell will struggle with ns2 quite a bit. My guess for you would be around 30 fps average at best. Which might be playable if it felt smooth. But with a Mobility HD 5650, you will have on top of that the most god awful input lag known to man - even on lowest settings possible.
Basically, if i was you, i would (safely) overclock my cpu as much as possible, and upgrade the gpu. Although i guess tough luck if it's a notebook
Ram and HDD is not going to be your bottleneck.
*But if you feel like gambling with $5, go for it. There will be heaps of people in the same boat as yourself (average/modest hardware), so you won't be ruining anything really.
Please notice that ns2stats.com only covers ~25% of the EU servers and like ~10% of the US Servers. As it's a mod and therefor is needed to be installed by the server admins.
I don't see the playerbase as problem of ns2. It's more the performance of the client/server software. Saying so you (with your current specs) should really test the game somehow before buying it.
Apart from the thread about it...
Look here: http://www.tf2outpost.com/search/167136068
Many ppl offering NS2 for 3 TF2 keys. Find one, add him and then ask if he has one copy left.
If so go and buy 3 keys here with your steam fund: http://steamcommunity.com/market/listings/440/Mann Co. Supply Crate Key
Doing this you get NS2 mostly as cheap as during the sale and are protected by Steam Trading
If you are poor you can also try your luck:
-at the charity generosity thread (look)
-at (caster who sometimes gives away free copies to non-owning people in the chat).
Next live event: 11/17/13 | 12pm PST/9pm CET (good even if you dont get a free copy).
ps: i have great respect for your E Peenor.
https://www.humblebundle.com/store
You should check it and search for other sales regularly as it has a timer that will change often.
I doubt 6.25 is that "risky" of an investment, but I understand your sentiment to wanting to save money, especially if you are unsure if it will run well on your machine.
Prepare yourself, Black Friday is coming, and of course the Christmas Steam Sale
While there are TOP-MEN working on helping to lower the performance woe's of the game.
I for one would never game on a laptop even if it is the top of the line. It just doesn't do the game justice to play on a tiny screen, tiny keyboard and possible shoddy Wifi.
It would also be super awkward if you played this in public, because then you'd also need a headset to hear anything, and unless you're comfortable for shouting at players into your microphone with random people around you, that just too much
Although ns1 playerbase is dried up think of how long that lasted and just for a MOD that no one really knew about! NS2 has much more general user appeal than ns1 ever did and a player base that is just as dedicated. Put simply the only think that could possibly mess up this game is some sort of botched matchmaking system like cs:go/tf2 that basically kills off a lot of the servers and then collapses the player base. Short of some disaster like that this game will still be alive and kicking in time for ns3 in 10 years.