@wooza
I can tell you why the playerbase has dropped a bit.
Cause your community is on strike (isnt your server down atm? ) and try to blackmail the devs with exact this.
"Oh look, the average playerbase is going down by 30. This is "proof" that the changes didnt help in player retention of new players.
Well, im sure your coordinate this strike on discord and thats the reason for no proof.
ZavaroTucson, ArizonaJoin Date: 2005-02-14Member: 41174Members, Super Administrators, NS2 Playtester, Squad Five Blue, Squad Five Silver, NS2 Map Tester, Reinforced - Shadow, WC 2013 - Silver, Subnautica Playtester, NS2 Community Developer, Pistachionauts
edited April 2016
We actually have more players than last year at this time. It's not a huge number, but it's better, and it's looking brighter.
Again, we do not ignore anyone. The ragdoll change was specifically something we borrowed from NS2+ for those that wanted it and use it, and the font change was made to provide better support for non-standard Latin character sets (yay other languages!). While I agree that the ragdoll change could do with an on/off feature as it was in NS2+, I think that efforts should be focused elsewhere in the time being.
On the topic of ignoring voices, I do agree that we could probably work on better transparency with what is happening, surely, but I'd rather hope that we not hype features or fixes in the event that they take longer than usual (new main menu, looking at you!). Transparency would help greatly in showing you guys what exactly is a priority for the team, but also allow you guys to discuss it before its thoroughly through the pipeline. Though understand, for features and annoyances with NS2, not everything is fixed in a day, and we're also taking new directions with NS2 to propel it forward, so priorities shift through development.
Retention is the biggest thing, and we're still figuring it out. NS2 is not an easy game, nor is it a forgiving one. People like that about NS2. I like that about NS2. I don't think those things will necessarily change. But things like performance, the optimal game experience, tutorials (coming very soon!), forms of player gating, and otherwise are the main drivers of change and increased retention.
and the font change was made to provide better support for non-standard Latin character sets (yay other languages!).
The problem with the font change is fonts were re-rendered but with new sizes (and I'm confident this wasn't intentional), the fonts being bitmaps, changing the size, it affects everything that uses text in the game. So now, all the text is larger.
As you can easily see here:
It's good to support more languages, but this can be fixed easily, it's just exporting the fonts with the correct sizes, nothing else.
Looking at the three month charts it seems that the playerbase actually increased a little after the 12th (Probably due to the update), then went back to normal: http://steamcharts.com/app/4920#3m
And you might notice that it's going down at the very end - that's the data of today. It's literally going down because by noon (time of this posting), most players haven't played yet.
woozaSwitzerlandJoin Date: 2013-11-21Member: 189496Members, Squad Five Blue
@F0rdPrefect
Don't forget that the last days my servers were online too with players on it (only sometimes, till the attacks continued).
I don't want to say people quit NS2 because I shut down the servers. I want to say people leave the game because they do not agree with the changes the devs made.
UWE wants to dicate what fun is and how NS2 is meant for them to be played, but on the other side they "care" for the player retention. Those two will never be in a harmony.
I don't want to say people quit NS2 because I shut down the servers.
Yet you did shut down your servers according to you. Furthermore you first said it was due to lack of players because of the change, now you say it's because you're being ddos'd (which is not the fault of UWE or any changes they made)
So just to clarify, which is it? Their changes "killing" your playerbase, or someone ddos'ing your servers?
I would think rookies are going to have much better chances getting kills in servers where they only have to worry about 1-2 pro level players on the enemy team instead of 5-6.. Where they can try a lifeform without having to worry about rounding a corner to encounter 10+ marines who instakill them before they can do anything.. Where they won't have to stick with a group of teammates all the time in order to feel useful.. Where nearly every fight isn't a cluster**** of 5-10+ marines and 5-10+ aliens jumping around like rabbits on crack trying to kill each other..
Only goes to show you haven't played enough on large servers (indeed you said 'the few times I've played on large servers' in the previous thread). Here's what regular rookies think now, just sampled from the most recent thread:
This is the same point I noted before -- Large servers allow rookies to learn and enjoy the game in an environment where they won't get penalised for a mistake. Large servers make better learning grounds for rookies than small.
To be frank, our goal is to make the game better and get new blood. Not only get new blood... RETAIN IT. So we need to improve both the new player experience, and the game itself. Because if we dont, then it dies. Plain and simple.
The changes we make will NOT be liked by all. We know that. We don't always agree ourselves. But you can't please a playerbase who have been playing the same game for so long, and who have been able to mod the game so much. However, the entire team are long-time NS veterans from both pub and comp play. We've all played and loved NS1 and NS2 for over 15 years now. We do not make changes lightly. Some will work, some wont. But we need that freedom to try and MAKE it work. The team is dedicated to the game. Hell, we are working on the game in our FREE time as well as our PAID time because we LOVE NS2 so much.
We need new blood to survive. We need new blood and new gameplay to make the game more exciting and less stale. Please, try not to fight us as we do this. Healthy debate and discussion is great and we welcome it. Just not the anger or the attitudes.
Thankyou @Obraxis for your always considerate posts. I don't think I've always been as polite in my posts, and I apologise for those times I haven't.
@wooza
I can tell you why the playerbase has dropped a bit.
Cause your community is on strike (isnt your server down atm? ) and try to blackmail the devs with exact this.
"Oh look, the average playerbase is going down by 30. This is "proof" that the changes didnt help in player retention of new players.
Well, im sure your coordinate this strike on discord and thats the reason for no proof.
Are you completely insane?
While I don't often agree with you DePara, you're usually not suffering paranoid delusion. There are about 12 people on Wooza's discord, and we are 100-150 players down right now.
But moving onto the reason I got on tonight to post.
Now by all means lets have discussions, we have a couple of camps and everyone is passionate. But as it happens Woozas is being DDOSed right now, and that just makes me sad. It's a bit too co-incidental not to be related to the last two threads and patches. Physical attacks (in this case, on a real-world server) is the resort of unintelligent people when faced with truth they don't like.
You don't see the 25% of the community the prefers large games coming on here telling people who prefer small servers to play on large, or DDOSing small servers. Yet the reverse is not true. Why is it so hard to just let people play a game the way they want to play it? It's time to grow up.
That said we should probably be thanking them, for finally we can put to rest a long-held misconception: that without large servers, all these players would magically fill small servers.
The overall playerbase has dropped since the the 294 patch was released on April 12. The lowest it's been in four weeks
The exception, of course, are the peaks -- especially on the 16th, 17th and 18th. Woozas was active on the 16th, 17th and 18th.
The highest peak on the 18th, we have a third large server active called 'Mutiny'. Three large servers = the highest peak since April 11, before patch 294.
After the 18th Mutiny is taken down, and Woozas is DDOSed -- and the player base drops again
The conclusions are clear:
The player base is at its highest when large servers are active, and at its lowest when large servers are not
The idea that if the large servers didn't exist that all these players would move to smaller servers and fill them up is now proven not true. You can bet some players are certainly playing on smaller servers to get their fix, yet we are still about 70-100 players down from earlier in the month (actually, 200 down from its peak, but about 70-100 on average).
Large servers attract players. Large servers keep people playing.
Given we have data on this now, it would seem one way to keep the community alive and encourage growth is to promote large servers in the browser and encourage players to join them -- especially rookies, as it gives them a fun experience with less pressure to perform and thereby has them coming back for more.
This is no longer theoretical. We may have already permanently lost players even when the DDOSing stops and Woozas comes back up.
Looking at the three month charts it seems that the playerbase actually increased a little after the 12th (Probably due to the update), then went back to normal: http://steamcharts.com/app/4920#3m
Sorry Ford, see above Those peaks are when Woozas is active -- not due to the patch (in fact, in spite of the patch) -- and the highest is when we had three large servers running.
This is probably the best post that has been made on the entire debate. It is structured, conclusive and backs it's claims up with data. I concede you are right on all points.
What should we learn from this?
NS2 probably needs two gamemodes - one for large and one for small servers. (Proper gamemodes, I mean; with maps and fine tuned balancing. Props to the guys who are modding in that direction though.) I can't really see it happening, but it would be great in ns3. (Along with matchmaking, ranked play, ....)
FrozenNew York, NYJoin Date: 2010-07-02Member: 72228Members, Constellation
edited April 2016
There's one thing that other games with very varying player count servers do to make this all OK.
They have a traditional ranked mode.
Ranked modes allow players to actively, conscientiously and purposely better their game-play in hopes of joining ranked play and rising through the ranks as they progress, eventually choosing to continue playing at their "found level" or joining a team to continue their progression in an even more rewarding way.
We don't have that, well... We could, but we need to have officially sponsored "ranked" modes like CompMod. How to have this without matchmaking? You can't, really, but you can limit things like Hive Score to CompMod enabled servers with locked playercounts. This keeps it clear what the game is designed and balanced around to all players, and that all other game modes are there FOR FUN.
Because just like people say that high count servers take players from lower counts, I know that's bull-shit because if CompMod went away I would go away too. Same fucking difference
My servers are offline because a troll is ddosing my servers 24/7 so I took them offline to prevent any further damage.
Edit: I suggested my regs to play on servers I recommended. Some of them do, some of them won't open the game.
I am a rookie and wooza's server is one of the first i played Idk call me a masochist maybe but I loved getting my ass kicked in 40 player matches, but I also feel like playing with the guys on wooza's server gave me a goal to strive for i wanted to be as beast as they were so I corpse foddered my self time and time again until i got better . I am still not to great and when I stop playing ns2 for a few days - a week I get rusty but Ns2 is a rage fest that I really love and I hope you decide to bring your server back up, if not I thank you for the time I was able to spend there .
There's one thing that other games with very varying player count servers do to make this all OK.
They have a traditional ranked mode.
Ranked modes allow players to actively, conscientiously and purposely better their game-play in hopes of joining ranked play and rising through the ranks as they progress, eventually choosing to continue playing at their "found level" or joining a team to continue their progression in an even more rewarding way.
We don't have that, well... We could, but we need to have officially sponsored "ranked" modes like CompMod. How to have this without matchmaking? You can't, really, but you can limit things like Hive Score to CompMod enabled servers with locked playercounts. This keeps it clear what the game is designed and balanced around to all players, and that all other game modes are there FOR FUN.
Because just like people say that high count servers take players from lower counts, I know that's bull-**** because if CompMod went away I would go away too. Same **** difference
-> Complete Hive2, introduce ranked play (maybe even 6v6 AND 8v8) with matchmaking, make ns2 f2p: Bam, players. And if you throw in some hats: Profit.
If you advertise it right, it could turn into the big esports game it maybe should have been. If not... there's always ns3.
I wish this debate could take place in its own topic, in a factual constructive way, in wich every argument against persons or not related would be strictly censored.
People could expose, without beeing called names or NS2 unworthy, what they like in their favourite environment size.
IeptBarakatThe most difficult name to speak ingame.Join Date: 2009-07-10Member: 68107Members, Constellation, NS2 Playtester, Squad Five Blue, NS2 Map Tester, Reinforced - Diamond, Reinforced - Shadow
I had a partially amusing thought, what if instead of sorting by the amount of player slots a server has, the server browser instead sorts them by the percentage of filled player slots in relation to the max player size a server has. This could prevent the server browser from being so top heavy with increased playercounts and could help lower pop servers fill up faster as well.
I'm an advocate for large servers and this would negativity impact how full those servers may get, but I think with this system the devs wouldn't need to hide large servers behind a tab.
Example.
Server #1 | 100% Full (24/24)
Server #2 | 75% Full (9/12)
Server #3 | 50% Full (16/32)
Server #4 | Empty (0/12)
Of course there should be an advanced option to specify the range of playercounts you prefer, but I think having this as default would make the browser more "fair" for everyone involved.
such as seeing how many people complete the tutorial. It's valuable information.
I think we need some sort of commander tutorial.
I'd recommend a tutorial that teaches how to ARC, how to assist your team in big fights (usefulness of catalyst, usefulness of nano-shield), how and when to echo structures like whips, crags, harvesters, upgrades and the different path of upgrades and their specific advantages for both sides.
If commanders could be better in average, games would be more fun in average.
dePARAJoin Date: 2011-04-29Member: 96321Members, Squad Five Blue
edited April 2016
Al i see in this forum is this:
The same 10 people bringing the same arguments pro large servers while the same 10 people bringing the same arguments against large servers.
Then i read "The Devs are not listen to us, they are killing NS2"
So, who is "us" here.
The 10 pro or the 10 against?
What about the current 300 players who dont post here?
Are they "us"?
Maybe the Devs have more information based on statistics?
We have lost many players during April/May to summer last year also and the year before.
And, what a suprise in the 1st year also.
Maybe this is patch independend?
Maybe its cause something called SUN wich is outside and let people doing something else than playing?
But im sure some of "us" ignore this fact.
So please stop saying that the game is losing players 1 week after the patch cause the patch.
You have no proven data and the game has lost players before alot (where the large server where normally acceccable).
If the collected stats tell the devs another story that some of "us" thinking, they might be on the right track to save NS2.
Maybe some of "us" dont like these facts then. Well, like Ironhorse said, its not your game.
I had a partially amusing thought, what if instead of sorting by the amount of player slots a server has, the server browser instead sorts them by the percentage of filled player slots in relation to the max player size a server has.
I think the best solution is to sort by the ranking function used for "play now." This is mostly sorting by ping, but it prioritizes servers that are just on the cusp of having enough players for a good game.
I had a partially amusing thought, what if instead of sorting by the amount of player slots a server has, the server browser instead sorts them by the percentage of filled player slots in relation to the max player size a server has.
I think the best solution is to sort by the ranking function used for "play now." This is mostly sorting by ping, but it prioritizes servers that are just on the cusp of having enough players for a good game.
Well the best way to do that would be to have a custom filter of sorts, with a checklist of preferred variables. Optimally it would be set up as default to sort by best filled player slot ratio, ping, and server performance. Then have additional options for server size, gamemode, and favorite servers. The important thing is to not take control away from the server browser, just make it easier for people to find what they want. (and don't decide what they want for them)
such as seeing how many people complete the tutorial. It's valuable information.
I think we need some sort of commander tutorial.
I'd recommend a tutorial that teaches how to ARC, how to assist your team in big fights (usefulness of catalyst, usefulness of nano-shield), how and when to echo structures like whips, crags, harvesters, upgrades and the different path of upgrades and their specific advantages for both sides.
If commanders could be better in average, games would be more fun in average.
There are plans for this and we have some preliminary drafts, but only so much can be done in such a short period. Beige didn't sleep last night trying to finish up the new basic Alien tutorial for an impending release. I'm super excited to see how it plays, as the marine one which will be bundled with it is top notch.
haha dude.. cherry picking? my shadow play only saves 4 minutes at a time, i'm not goin thru the many, many hours of shadowplay that i have to please you about some totally moot point. I picked the first 2 ragdoll clips i found that i didnt immdiately look away from after the engagement ended so you could see. Maybe it never bugged out for me? you said yourself it happens "sometimes" in that comment you linked (good contribution btw). You dont see them instantly dissolving in the 291 clip? I dont even get the point you're trying to make. That i'm a liar? good point, glad you brought it up.
Hey guys it seems that the name implementation isn't working very well, i've changed my name in game and it now changes my steam profile name. not the other way around?
it even changed my steam profile previous names i hadn't even used some of those names for ages (6months-1year+)!
Can you please fix this issue?
Last name i used was Flayra, it changed my steam profile name to Flayra, made my profile name look messy and besides i hadn't used these names on this update, so why did it change my name to previous names i used in game, didn't realise you were tracking that meta data! would love to get my hands on that
haha dude.. cherry picking? my shadow play only saves 4 minutes at a time, i'm not goin thru the many, many hours of shadowplay that i have to please you about some totally moot point. I picked the first 2 ragdoll clips i found that i didnt immdiately look away from after the engagement ended so you could see. Maybe it never bugged out for me? you said yourself it happens "sometimes" in that comment you linked (good contribution btw). You dont see them instantly dissolving in the 291 clip? I dont even get the point you're trying to make. That i'm a liar? good point, glad you brought it up.
The point I was making was that NS2+ doesn't solve the issue completely. And yes, that is cherry picking. In addition to the first two you didn't look away from, you could easily filter away those whose ragdolls that didn't dissolve. I can do that too. Two dead, one dissolved.
"Sometimes" is also often enough that it made an impression. As for never happening to you, I find that rather unlikely. Did you never get any rifle jams or get phased back to the same gate as well?
Edit - Image works in a new tab. Can't embed it properly.
The Ragdoll issue can be fixed with a simple toggle or slider. IMPLEMENT IT <<<<<<<<<<<<<
The font needs to be fixed, it way too fucking big.
Just realized that Steam names and IGN is now linked. This bothers me a lot, since I play with a different name on NS2 than on other games.
If you guys are so worried about player retention, then hire some veteran players to teach the god damn greenies how to play in rookie only servers. Give them a badge and everything.
If UWE keeps taking this game into the wrong direction, I'll probably just quit playing NS2 and sell my PC, maybe hit the gym and delete my non-existent Facebook.
while I don't notice the rag doll changes as I've already had them set to disappear immediately in ns2+ for as long as i can remember having the option, I'm not sure why a slider wasn't introduced into vanilla as it had already been in aforementioned ns2+.
I'm supposed to get that ns2+ doesnt solve what issue completely from "i call bullshit?" All i said was i dont notice the change because i dont. you can carry on your crusade if you want, but i really dont care. you're probably right, they probably linger sometimes, but i havent noticed enough to have it make "an impression," and honestly you can take my word for it or not, i picked the first clips i found of ragdolls in view after kill. No "filtering" of videos, just not wasting any more time on this.
Here, lets be very clear. It is impossible to not notice this change, especially if you have it has bothered you enough previously for you to enable instant ragdoll dissolve in NS2+. Claiming otherwise is just dishonest.
So again, all I'm actually seeing is you saying i'm being dishonest, which is why i quickly put together the clip; to show how negligible the difference is to me . I dont see the need to even bring it up in the first place, just seems like nastiness for nastiness' sake. have fun w/ that.
twilitebluebug stalkerJoin Date: 2003-02-04Member: 13116Members, NS2 Playtester, Squad Five Blue
edited April 2016
I feel the ragdoll shader change was too drastic. Corpses of jumping players literally vanish into thin air, which looks very confusing ("Did I kill her or did she just vanish?"). Dirty Bomb conveys death very well with their "gray out" shader. If a player is dead for good, the corpse loses all colour (turns gray) and looks "dull". I think that would be a better visual effect than vanishing corpses. (The Quake Live example looks good too)
Comments
Edit: I suggested my regs to play on servers I recommended. Some of them do, some of them won't open the game.
I thought he was being DDoS?
Again, we do not ignore anyone. The ragdoll change was specifically something we borrowed from NS2+ for those that wanted it and use it, and the font change was made to provide better support for non-standard Latin character sets (yay other languages!). While I agree that the ragdoll change could do with an on/off feature as it was in NS2+, I think that efforts should be focused elsewhere in the time being.
On the topic of ignoring voices, I do agree that we could probably work on better transparency with what is happening, surely, but I'd rather hope that we not hype features or fixes in the event that they take longer than usual (new main menu, looking at you!). Transparency would help greatly in showing you guys what exactly is a priority for the team, but also allow you guys to discuss it before its thoroughly through the pipeline. Though understand, for features and annoyances with NS2, not everything is fixed in a day, and we're also taking new directions with NS2 to propel it forward, so priorities shift through development.
Retention is the biggest thing, and we're still figuring it out. NS2 is not an easy game, nor is it a forgiving one. People like that about NS2. I like that about NS2. I don't think those things will necessarily change. But things like performance, the optimal game experience, tutorials (coming very soon!), forms of player gating, and otherwise are the main drivers of change and increased retention.
The problem with the font change is fonts were re-rendered but with new sizes (and I'm confident this wasn't intentional), the fonts being bitmaps, changing the size, it affects everything that uses text in the game. So now, all the text is larger.
As you can easily see here:
It's good to support more languages, but this can be fixed easily, it's just exporting the fonts with the correct sizes, nothing else.
@wooza
Looking at the trends of the whole month, I fail to see anything dramatic:
http://steamcharts.com/app/4920#1m
Looking at the three month charts it seems that the playerbase actually increased a little after the 12th (Probably due to the update), then went back to normal:
http://steamcharts.com/app/4920#3m
And you might notice that it's going down at the very end - that's the data of today. It's literally going down because by noon (time of this posting), most players haven't played yet.
Don't forget that the last days my servers were online too with players on it (only sometimes, till the attacks continued).
I don't want to say people quit NS2 because I shut down the servers. I want to say people leave the game because they do not agree with the changes the devs made.
UWE wants to dicate what fun is and how NS2 is meant for them to be played, but on the other side they "care" for the player retention. Those two will never be in a harmony.
Yet you did shut down your servers according to you. Furthermore you first said it was due to lack of players because of the change, now you say it's because you're being ddos'd (which is not the fault of UWE or any changes they made)
So just to clarify, which is it? Their changes "killing" your playerbase, or someone ddos'ing your servers?
I still haven't seen anyone leave due to the recent changes.. Still waiting for you to show this "drastic decrease" that the recent changes caused.
Honestly if your servers are down then it looks to me like we gained players.
http://forums.unknownworlds.com/discussion/comment/2280605/#Comment_2280605
http://forums.unknownworlds.com/discussion/comment/2280613/#Comment_2280613
http://forums.unknownworlds.com/discussion/comment/2280627/#Comment_2280627
Then there's wisdom from non-rookies:
http://forums.unknownworlds.com/discussion/comment/2280531/#Comment_2280531
http://forums.unknownworlds.com/discussion/comment/2280624/#Comment_2280624
http://forums.unknownworlds.com/discussion/comment/2280659/#Comment_2280659
http://forums.unknownworlds.com/discussion/comment/2280795/#Comment_2280795
http://forums.unknownworlds.com/discussion/comment/2280800/#Comment_2280800
http://forums.unknownworlds.com/discussion/comment/2280744/#Comment_2280744
Rautapalli nails it:
"...if you look at Steam forums etc. you'll see that there's not many people complaining about performance anymore. It's people complaining about the toxic community and not being able to compete on most servers after they lose rookie status (both of which I'd say are a much bigger problem on smaller servers)"
This is the same point I noted before -- Large servers allow rookies to learn and enjoy the game in an environment where they won't get penalised for a mistake. Large servers make better learning grounds for rookies than small.
Thankyou @Obraxis for your always considerate posts. I don't think I've always been as polite in my posts, and I apologise for those times I haven't.
That said I just have to pull this one up...
Are you completely insane?
While I don't often agree with you DePara, you're usually not suffering paranoid delusion. There are about 12 people on Wooza's discord, and we are 100-150 players down right now.
But moving onto the reason I got on tonight to post.
Now by all means lets have discussions, we have a couple of camps and everyone is passionate. But as it happens Woozas is being DDOSed right now, and that just makes me sad. It's a bit too co-incidental not to be related to the last two threads and patches. Physical attacks (in this case, on a real-world server) is the resort of unintelligent people when faced with truth they don't like.
You don't see the 25% of the community the prefers large games coming on here telling people who prefer small servers to play on large, or DDOSing small servers. Yet the reverse is not true. Why is it so hard to just let people play a game the way they want to play it? It's time to grow up.
That said we should probably be thanking them, for finally we can put to rest a long-held misconception: that without large servers, all these players would magically fill small servers.
http://steamcharts.com/app/4920#1m
Lets note the following:
The conclusions are clear:
Given we have data on this now, it would seem one way to keep the community alive and encourage growth is to promote large servers in the browser and encourage players to join them -- especially rookies, as it gives them a fun experience with less pressure to perform and thereby has them coming back for more.
This is no longer theoretical. We may have already permanently lost players even when the DDOSing stops and Woozas comes back up.
Edit:
Sorry Ford, see above
This is probably the best post that has been made on the entire debate. It is structured, conclusive and backs it's claims up with data. I concede you are right on all points.
What should we learn from this?
NS2 probably needs two gamemodes - one for large and one for small servers. (Proper gamemodes, I mean; with maps and fine tuned balancing. Props to the guys who are modding in that direction though.) I can't really see it happening, but it would be great in ns3. (Along with matchmaking, ranked play, ....)
Apart from the minor detail that it is absolutely categorically is not. But ok pal.
They have a traditional ranked mode.
Ranked modes allow players to actively, conscientiously and purposely better their game-play in hopes of joining ranked play and rising through the ranks as they progress, eventually choosing to continue playing at their "found level" or joining a team to continue their progression in an even more rewarding way.
We don't have that, well... We could, but we need to have officially sponsored "ranked" modes like CompMod. How to have this without matchmaking? You can't, really, but you can limit things like Hive Score to CompMod enabled servers with locked playercounts. This keeps it clear what the game is designed and balanced around to all players, and that all other game modes are there FOR FUN.
Because just like people say that high count servers take players from lower counts, I know that's bull-shit because if CompMod went away I would go away too. Same fucking difference
I am a rookie and wooza's server is one of the first i played Idk call me a masochist maybe but I loved getting my ass kicked in 40 player matches, but I also feel like playing with the guys on wooza's server gave me a goal to strive for i wanted to be as beast as they were so I corpse foddered my self time and time again until i got better . I am still not to great and when I stop playing ns2 for a few days - a week I get rusty but Ns2 is a rage fest that I really love and I hope you decide to bring your server back up, if not I thank you for the time I was able to spend there .
-> Complete Hive2, introduce ranked play (maybe even 6v6 AND 8v8) with matchmaking, make ns2 f2p: Bam, players. And if you throw in some hats: Profit.
If you advertise it right, it could turn into the big esports game it maybe should have been. If not... there's always ns3.
People could expose, without beeing called names or NS2 unworthy, what they like in their favourite environment size.
295 has nothing to do with that.
I'm an advocate for large servers and this would negativity impact how full those servers may get, but I think with this system the devs wouldn't need to hide large servers behind a tab.
Example.
Server #1 | 100% Full (24/24)
Server #2 | 75% Full (9/12)
Server #3 | 50% Full (16/32)
Server #4 | Empty (0/12)
Of course there should be an advanced option to specify the range of playercounts you prefer, but I think having this as default would make the browser more "fair" for everyone involved.
I think we need some sort of commander tutorial.
I'd recommend a tutorial that teaches how to ARC, how to assist your team in big fights (usefulness of catalyst, usefulness of nano-shield), how and when to echo structures like whips, crags, harvesters, upgrades and the different path of upgrades and their specific advantages for both sides.
If commanders could be better in average, games would be more fun in average.
The same 10 people bringing the same arguments pro large servers while the same 10 people bringing the same arguments against large servers.
Then i read "The Devs are not listen to us, they are killing NS2"
So, who is "us" here.
The 10 pro or the 10 against?
What about the current 300 players who dont post here?
Are they "us"?
Maybe the Devs have more information based on statistics?
So we lost so many players cause the last patch?
Lets see:
http://steamcharts.com/app/4920#1m
We have lost many players during April/May to summer last year also and the year before.
And, what a suprise in the 1st year also.
Maybe this is patch independend?
Maybe its cause something called SUN wich is outside and let people doing something else than playing?
But im sure some of "us" ignore this fact.
So please stop saying that the game is losing players 1 week after the patch cause the patch.
You have no proven data and the game has lost players before alot (where the large server where normally acceccable).
If the collected stats tell the devs another story that some of "us" thinking, they might be on the right track to save NS2.
Maybe some of "us" dont like these facts then. Well, like Ironhorse said, its not your game.
I think the best solution is to sort by the ranking function used for "play now." This is mostly sorting by ping, but it prioritizes servers that are just on the cusp of having enough players for a good game.
Well the best way to do that would be to have a custom filter of sorts, with a checklist of preferred variables. Optimally it would be set up as default to sort by best filled player slot ratio, ping, and server performance. Then have additional options for server size, gamemode, and favorite servers. The important thing is to not take control away from the server browser, just make it easier for people to find what they want. (and don't decide what they want for them)
There are plans for this and we have some preliminary drafts, but only so much can be done in such a short period. Beige didn't sleep last night trying to finish up the new basic Alien tutorial for an impending release. I'm super excited to see how it plays, as the marine one which will be bundled with it is top notch.
The difference, as I said, is not something I notice at all.
it even changed my steam profile previous names i hadn't even used some of those names for ages (6months-1year+)!
Can you please fix this issue?
Last name i used was Flayra, it changed my steam profile name to Flayra, made my profile name look messy and besides i hadn't used these names on this update, so why did it change my name to previous names i used in game, didn't realise you were tracking that meta data! would love to get my hands on that
The point I was making was that NS2+ doesn't solve the issue completely. And yes, that is cherry picking. In addition to the first two you didn't look away from, you could easily filter away those whose ragdolls that didn't dissolve. I can do that too. Two dead, one dissolved.
"Sometimes" is also often enough that it made an impression. As for never happening to you, I find that rather unlikely. Did you never get any rifle jams or get phased back to the same gate as well?
Edit - Image works in a new tab. Can't embed it properly.
The font needs to be fixed, it way too fucking big.
Just realized that Steam names and IGN is now linked. This bothers me a lot, since I play with a different name on NS2 than on other games.
If you guys are so worried about player retention, then hire some veteran players to teach the god damn greenies how to play in rookie only servers. Give them a badge and everything.
If UWE keeps taking this game into the wrong direction, I'll probably just quit playing NS2 and sell my PC, maybe hit the gym and delete my non-existent Facebook.
I'm supposed to get that ns2+ doesnt solve what issue completely from "i call bullshit?" All i said was i dont notice the change because i dont. you can carry on your crusade if you want, but i really dont care. you're probably right, they probably linger sometimes, but i havent noticed enough to have it make "an impression," and honestly you can take my word for it or not, i picked the first clips i found of ragdolls in view after kill. No "filtering" of videos, just not wasting any more time on this.
So again, all I'm actually seeing is you saying i'm being dishonest, which is why i quickly put together the clip; to show how negligible the difference is to me . I dont see the need to even bring it up in the first place, just seems like nastiness for nastiness' sake. have fun w/ that.