People are too stupid to play NS2. Make an official alternative game mode already.
tallhotblonde
Join Date: 2012-12-11 Member: 174770Members, Reinforced - Supporter, Reinforced - Shadow
Join Date: 2012-12-11 Member: 174770Members, Reinforced - Supporter, Reinforced - Shadow
You are achieving nothing with the balance changes.
Pub games are worse than ever and you have killed the game competitively.
Stop ruining NS2 by dumbing it down for the filthy casuals and make an official alternative mode already.
Just think of a way to make a more arcade style combat mode which isnt combat for legal issues - Control points on the map, with no commander IDK you think of something.
At the moment you have achieved nothing positive for the games community and hive 2.0 isnt the answer.
Jesus Christ.
Pub games are worse than ever and you have killed the game competitively.
Stop ruining NS2 by dumbing it down for the filthy casuals and make an official alternative mode already.
Just think of a way to make a more arcade style combat mode which isnt combat for legal issues - Control points on the map, with no commander IDK you think of something.
At the moment you have achieved nothing positive for the games community and hive 2.0 isnt the answer.
Jesus Christ.
Comments
That's why I've suggested a single player campaign. I know it's not re-playable, but it could be the gateway drug for proper NS2 :]
Edit: Hive Challenge is singleplayer, but it is not a campaign
It is so easy to kill skulks right now and you effectively lock aliens to 1 hive meaning they cannot get any tech to actually do something.
The UI changes and all that are nice I suppose...
On servers bigger than 6v6 there was no change that could cause the balance to tip over marines.
It probably comes from either smurf and returning players playing more marines side, or I think it may comes from those half bots half players round that tend heavily to have real players go to marines, and train aim vs bots in "cooperation mode".
We're trying to address issues with player retention. We actually still get quite a lot of new players trying the game, holding onto those players is key for NS2 to survive. You don't expand a game's playerbase by targeting a highly skilled small portion of it, you do it by encouraging and helping new players in modern accepted ways. It's not Fall 2009 anymore. Change is good. NS2 has been stale for a while, constant updates are helping keep us relevant, getting us feedback much faster and shows the game is still alive.
Compared to last year, we're seeing an increase of ~12% to the playerbase over the last few months against last years. Not as as much as we'd like, but it's a really nice positive. So sorry the game isn't going the way some of you want, but we believe it's necessary to ensure the game's growth.
Also, if you don't mind, might you share if the retention rate of new players have increased at all? Is the year on year increase simply due to more players trying the game or have more new players stayed. Please also keep in mind that we had almost no updates for awhile due to issue with the build machine that coincides with the same period being compared. It might not be the quality of the updates that are attracting new players but that there are updates at all.
Um, I think there were other issues that impacted the success/failure of combat far more than the "splitting the community" argument, say like, 0 advertising so nobody knew that it even existed? Just say'n
Change is not good. Good changes are good. Bad changes are bad. Easy as that.
Good luck by continuing dumbing down the game to appeal the CoD players. I am sure they will have much fun the 5 hours they care about NS2.
I mean, you could do what Deck and many others said to help player retention. But it's easier to change Onos boneshield or adding health bars than to find ideas how to teach beginners better, right?
But what is new is the complete lack of any understanding of the game of most of the current players.
Especial playing aliens is so horrible and unfun right now i cant describe it.
All i see is braindead skulks running around on the floor complete clueless only to engage alone against 4 marines.
And after that they doing this again and again and again. (ckecking the gametime, 230hrs. wtf)
They have no idea what happen on the map meanwhile. (4 marines in topo? maybe they going c12 next or nano?, Nano whats that?)
One good shooter harassing one of the alien naturals is basicly enough, then the skulks coming one by one, meanwhile rines taking the whole map.
I was always pro rookie only servers but it looks like they made things only worse in the long run.
If someone died 5 times at the same position against the same marine, does this skulk really need an tutorial that says "Nono, its not a good idea to run on the floor against this marine in an long corridor"
Dont tell me people are that dumb today.
Believe it or not, they are...
You'd be surprised how often I have to tell people "don't bother fighting those marines, just attack something else, they'll come to you!"
Fortunatly, you make a nice pair that raise the average understanding.
This is true but not what the devs want. They do not want hardcore player base, they want a playerbase full of casuals and they are trying to make the game ready for that.
A new wiki has been in the process of being made for a few months now. AFAIK, it is slow going. @Foxy could tell you more if you really wanted to know.
I didn't donate money to this game's continued development for you to take ns2 and make it into overwatch with shitty hitboxes and removed gameplay mechanics. Give me my fucking money back you dishonest money grubbing con artists. Screw this bait and switch, and screw your "more money now" based approach. I will NEVER buy a UWE game again as long as you are employed here, you are a traitor to your playerbase and i hope it comes back to bite you in the ass in a big way.
You've forcibly taken the game in my library i always loved going back to and shat allover it, congrats, gotta keep getting dollarydoos from the 5 new people who try ns2 when your not selling the game for 10 cents on steam.
Then the PDT came along and now I get random crashes when joining a server, textures are no longer loaded when I first log on, and I get a 5-10 second freeze as soon as I open the scoreboard after map changes..
I disagree with disagreeing based on disagreeing for the sake of disagreeing to disagree
I like competitive games. I have lots of friends who like competitive games. But generally there are a few things that make me play games over a long period of time.
Honestly, you could just do what Evolve did when they released Evolve Stage 2.
Their game had a very high minimum skill requirement. So they reduced that by doing the following:
- gave everyone the ability to use the Dome (so you didn't have to rely on a single team-mate to be good)
- reduced the amount of unique abilities per Character (So you could switch characters more easily and still play well)
- And made the maps smaller and less complex (It was hard for new players to learn the very complex maps, and made games frustrating)
Then they added a TON of cosmetic things you can buy from an in-game shop, and new hunters/monsters you can unlock.And after completing the above, they made it so you can start playing the game for free.
Of course they also changed the name of their game, so anyone who previously owned the game, would see "Evolve Stage 2, I need to see what this is."
Just my opinion. But I bought the Natural Selection 2 4 pack, and tried to get my friends to play, and it was generally impossible.
Since there was no matchmaking, you don't progress in ELO, and at the time there were no cosmetics or anything to work towards while you were learning the game. Your only option was to HOPEFULLY find a good lobby, and hope a veteran didn't come in and destroy you, or join your team and make it boring.
tl;dr Refund my taxes, someone spent them wrong.
Speaking of matchmaking, I will admit that I have a bias on the issue. I'm used to community servers and player run balancing being the only way to play. I never had xbox live or psn, so I'm not used to pressing play and emerging in a random game. NS2 could theoretically do MM, but keep in mind this isn't a cure-all. With a paltry number of players entering the game at any given time, you can't just wait a few minutes for a huge pool of players to collect and be sorted. That kind of MM would be impossible, and sorting joining players into already running games (of which there are always very few with open slots) wouldn't be much better. It's not just a population problem, either. Servers need to be high performance and standardized for all players, like Valve's official servers (usually) are. I wouldn't want to be matched to a Thirsty Onos server, because I live in NA and that server doesn't. Matchmaking needs to be especially high quality thanks to the skill ceiling (more like skill sky) in this game, while still being fast and allowing for friends to play together.
tl;dr Matchmaking is complicated, and Hive 2 should help. In the meantime, git gud.
Making those 2 modes until they are satisfactory, giving the game a permanent f2p window where anyone who nabs the game keeps it and then closing it once there's enough players would be a good way see if things can work out. Still, impressed at the game being updated all this time.
I have the exact opposite experience.. So many games these days my friends and I will get hyped for, but when we get into the game and see no dedicated server browser, and nothing but matchmaking to play.. We immediately uninstall and refund..
Every game I have that uses matchmaking I am unable to play.. Either it takes years for it to find players, or it connects me to people on the other side of the planet with 500 ping, or its hilariously unbalanced with a "party" of friends against a group of randoms.. (and ironically unbalanced games of parties destroying random teams of loners is by far the most common problem)
In truth all matchmaking is at its core is a team stacking mechanic that let's you stack 24/7/365... And it punishes everyone with wait times and excessive lag to do it... Funny how before matchmaking was introduced to the gaming world team stackers were extremely frowned upon, and in some cases even warranted kicking them to get a fair game.
It's just pure cancer of the gaming industry in every conceivable way. Any minor benefit matchmaking gives you can easily be added as features to a server browser..
Yes, you could do that on a server browser but it is less smooth. You could end up joining a server in the middle of a round and then offset the balance, you could have to wait to play. You would need different skill level servers and for them all to have people in them. I think the experience of playing a game looks better with matchmaking in today's world.
It looks like they are thinking about a hybrid matchmaking idea which might be the only way to go about it for NS2.