Hey UWE and what's left of the community
Crispix
Join Date: 2007-01-10 Member: 59543Members, Constellation, Reinforced - Supporter, Reinforced - Silver, Reinforced - Gold, Reinforced - Diamond, Reinforced - Shadow
Join Date: 2007-01-10 Member: 59543Members, Constellation, Reinforced - Supporter, Reinforced - Silver, Reinforced - Gold, Reinforced - Diamond, Reinforced - Shadow
Hey everyone. Long time player of both NS games.
It's been a blast to be playing lots of NS2 again after a couple year hiatus due to work/personal reasons. When I came back to playing NS2 again around March/April of this year, I was pleasantly surprised to see a number of servers still being played on with an active community.
As of now for the last few weeks, I've noticed a massive decline since a few servers that will not be named were taken down which in my opinion, has had a huge impact on the number of players remaining that are playing this game.
In all honesty, I love this game. This game (and NS1) have kept me happy and given me an escape from reality while I'm not working or doing other things. Despite what people in the community think of me when I play the game, I respectfully thank everyone who actually still plays this game because without you, I wouldn't have anyone to play with. I almost guarantee that those who are still playing are saying exactly the same thing.
The purpose of this post is more of a direct message to UWE/community developers because as a long time fan whose put in so much time and love (and for a lot of NS1/NS2 merch purchases -- Wasabi, if you got a Gorge Plushie lying around, I'll need the link!), I don't want this game to eventually disappear. Who knows, maybe there's plans for an NS3 hence UWE wanting to hire an artist for a new IP, I don't know. But the current games that UWE have that have active players are Subnautica and NS2.
I love Subnautica. It's great! But if it weren't for NS2, I'd probably be more miserable than anything.
The point I'm trying to get at is that I wish there was a way that UWE/Community devs can push a lot more attention for NS2. The game isn't perfect, but it's definitely a lot more polished than when it was Alpha if anyone remembers those days. In fact, I would even say that with the way the game is right now, it's near damn perfect for the genre of game that it is. I'm sure a lot of people would disagree with me. But hey, if I'm having fun, then the game is working then. Of course there's always room for improvement so I say bring it on.
I know it may not be the business model UWE/community devs want to hear, and it's been asked hundreds of times by other community members, but is there the chance that this game can go F2P? Even if not, how about bundling NS2 for free with the purchase of Subnautica. The idea of keeping your cosmetic DLC as a way for income would probably work well if there are higher volume of people who would be actively be playing.
I know in rebuttal that the problem with opening the flood gates for anyone to start picking up the game for free is that, it would allow a lot of smurf players which ultimately affects the rank matching. I almost feel as if hive skill matching in the game is what has declined the player community in NS2 to begin with. If you think of it, it never existed in NS1. You would just find a server, join up and play. Sure people complained about teams being stacked but the point is, is that it was easy to get a game to get going, and everyone was having fun for the most part. Now we have people shuffling teams non-stop because everyone is worried about a number. I get that the game is competitive and more modern hence why having a way to scramble teams to even balance, but if a game is difficult to start because of a mechanic that allows people to keep delaying the start of a game, then there's the problem. Maybe leave a mechanic like that on competitive ranking servers, and leave it off for normal public game servers. The problem then becomes, who's going to run the servers, because since now we have a decline in servers because of a low player base, then eventually the game is going to dwindle down to no one playing. Seeding near empty servers to just wait for people to join up and then shuffling teams for 5 minutes can get pretty frustrating.
So I guess, I'm eagerly asking if there are any considerations or business model plans to get active players playing once again and keep the community consistently growing. I don't want this game to die
From a fan.
It's been a blast to be playing lots of NS2 again after a couple year hiatus due to work/personal reasons. When I came back to playing NS2 again around March/April of this year, I was pleasantly surprised to see a number of servers still being played on with an active community.
As of now for the last few weeks, I've noticed a massive decline since a few servers that will not be named were taken down which in my opinion, has had a huge impact on the number of players remaining that are playing this game.
In all honesty, I love this game. This game (and NS1) have kept me happy and given me an escape from reality while I'm not working or doing other things. Despite what people in the community think of me when I play the game, I respectfully thank everyone who actually still plays this game because without you, I wouldn't have anyone to play with. I almost guarantee that those who are still playing are saying exactly the same thing.
The purpose of this post is more of a direct message to UWE/community developers because as a long time fan whose put in so much time and love (and for a lot of NS1/NS2 merch purchases -- Wasabi, if you got a Gorge Plushie lying around, I'll need the link!), I don't want this game to eventually disappear. Who knows, maybe there's plans for an NS3 hence UWE wanting to hire an artist for a new IP, I don't know. But the current games that UWE have that have active players are Subnautica and NS2.
I love Subnautica. It's great! But if it weren't for NS2, I'd probably be more miserable than anything.
The point I'm trying to get at is that I wish there was a way that UWE/Community devs can push a lot more attention for NS2. The game isn't perfect, but it's definitely a lot more polished than when it was Alpha if anyone remembers those days. In fact, I would even say that with the way the game is right now, it's near damn perfect for the genre of game that it is. I'm sure a lot of people would disagree with me. But hey, if I'm having fun, then the game is working then. Of course there's always room for improvement so I say bring it on.
I know it may not be the business model UWE/community devs want to hear, and it's been asked hundreds of times by other community members, but is there the chance that this game can go F2P? Even if not, how about bundling NS2 for free with the purchase of Subnautica. The idea of keeping your cosmetic DLC as a way for income would probably work well if there are higher volume of people who would be actively be playing.
I know in rebuttal that the problem with opening the flood gates for anyone to start picking up the game for free is that, it would allow a lot of smurf players which ultimately affects the rank matching. I almost feel as if hive skill matching in the game is what has declined the player community in NS2 to begin with. If you think of it, it never existed in NS1. You would just find a server, join up and play. Sure people complained about teams being stacked but the point is, is that it was easy to get a game to get going, and everyone was having fun for the most part. Now we have people shuffling teams non-stop because everyone is worried about a number. I get that the game is competitive and more modern hence why having a way to scramble teams to even balance, but if a game is difficult to start because of a mechanic that allows people to keep delaying the start of a game, then there's the problem. Maybe leave a mechanic like that on competitive ranking servers, and leave it off for normal public game servers. The problem then becomes, who's going to run the servers, because since now we have a decline in servers because of a low player base, then eventually the game is going to dwindle down to no one playing. Seeding near empty servers to just wait for people to join up and then shuffling teams for 5 minutes can get pretty frustrating.
So I guess, I'm eagerly asking if there are any considerations or business model plans to get active players playing once again and keep the community consistently growing. I don't want this game to die
From a fan.
Comments
Steam charts don't show this shutdown had a huge impact. There are other reasons for that.
You can also note that a year ago, in August 2018, NS2 had the same amount of players: https://steamcharts.com/app/4920
As for the rest of your message, I don't really have an opinion as going F2P has already been discussed a lot in the past.
Now, its okay to say that skins etc would work fine for a source of income, but that requires development time and is a small sum compared to game sales.
There is also a minimum expected from F2P games, such as matchmaking and other mechanics, a DLC store and easy integration of said DLC... many things that are expected of a F2P game, ns2 simply doesn't have at the moment... and as we saw with Evolve, if you do F2P wrong, your game dies.
As for the desire to see more development, I can assure you I feel the same, I would LOVE to see a huge team behind ns2 and really pushing for it to be the best it can be, but unfortunately there just isn't the funding to do it. Behind the scenes you'd be amazed at how much such a small team is able to accomplish, its genuinely crazy to see this team work at the speed they do and how much work they put into things that unfortunately just don't pan out and as such, the public never sees (as is the way in development).
The team are incredibly hard working and don't get nearly enough credit for the time and effort they put into the game, I know that if I were to win the lottery or something, I would be donating a large sum of money to ns2 to keep it going, give the devs and income they deserve and potentially boost the number of staff working on it in general.
Thanks , Max
Yes, I like the idea of free NS2 for Subnautica players. I'm not too sure about F2P unless the seeding problem is solved.
The game right now is honestly brilliant and arguably at its peak gameplay-wise. Balance somehow seems better than a few weeks ago. Perhaps Marines have their shit figured out now?
In my opinion the game 1.5 years ago was nearly perfect. Good balance, good mechanics.
I dont know why the Balance is changed over and over again. For what? The balance was fine 1.5 years ago.
Also the introduction of the skill badges was not a good idea imo. People go crazy about their elo, what leads to bad teams. I woule hide skilltiers again. There should be no way for players to look their skill tier up.
A good thing is to see combat mode back in ns2. Big points.
At least the playercount is not that low for summertime. Normally it rises in winter again.
Ns2 was always an skill focused niche game with high learning curve. Unfortunatly such games are not that popular anymore like years ago in times of half life or quake. Today people love to play on their couch after work and want to be able to be good in games without putting that much time in it.
They play pubg or fortnite today where you are able to get at least a few kills even when ypu are complete retarded. Then they play ns2 get completly stomped and blame the game for that. Then they switch back to the game where they can win or have a hidden comeback mechanic. Best example is fifa here...
Plus there is an added bonus to being able to see at a glance whether to trust a player to understand an order, hold a lane, or be fair game to receive criticism. Previously I would be appalled at bad play and get mad, but now I can see a pink badge ahead of time and plan accordingly. If a Sanji or Spec Ops makes a horrible gaff it's fun to rib them because they should.know better.
Skill badges are a definite improvement.
You should make a new discord account and join me on the worst ns2 discord in history. We miss you. https://discord.gg/vYDyJQA
I hear TA's politics channel is a pretty happening place, and maybe the most fun ns2 discord though.
If the money has just completely dried up and the game's on life support, then sure, go F2P. No harm in it. But it seems that the devs have reason to think that they're still getting enough game sales that it remains their best option, so I'll take their word for it.
WOW so this whole time I was fighing against skins: it turns out that it is only a small portion of your revenue? You really were just fishing money out of your current supporters then. Surely you must attribute some of your losses to choosing to fund through microtransactions.....
Nevermind... IDC
I stopped playing: may your future endeavors be more honest.
Yeah... this small indy team that works their asses off were just in it for the money, you must be right, how could I have been so stupid not to have seen it earlier? Its so obvious to me now, this tiny, niche game with relatively low sales... its all been a money grab... ALL SEVEN YEARS OF DEVELOPMENT WERE FOR THE MONEY!!!11!1!!!!11ONEONE!!!!ONEONEONE!!!1111!!1!!!!!!1!!!
/s
If you don't want to play anymore, thats on you, get over it, move on.
Many here were very unsympathetic to people who couldn't afford $75 to be special... You were unsympathtic to color blind issues...
You could have made easy on me by having a setting to only use original skins... but as divided, uwe choosen to side with skin buyers.
Get over it?
I guess deep down I do care.... I enoyed ns1.... I was really happy that I was able to afford a computer and NS2 when I did.
I played the hell out of the game. Got removed from steam forums for trying to resist your new model of sales.
No, you didn't make it ez for me at all. Part of me must be hurt to be here again. Or maybe I just hope that you see the light one day.
You divided the community over $75 skins.
I have been told that the shadow skulk is not p2w, but it is "shadow", and given the excuse that the red eyes and the red whatever.
The camo skins not being p2w... but it's camo and came out when a jungle type map came out....
When options of different contrasting skin that can be used on different maps...
My argument against skins doesn't seem to need my colorblindness, but what do I know... I can't see what you see.
Of course the orginal skins can be more camo in some places in some maps too, I can't argue this, but selling options do enter an element of P2W.
I remember in counter strike 1.6 there was an option to force the CT and T to use only the first option skin.
They could select another one, but to you only those two skins were used. Sometimes this helped against customs, but I'm sure others used it like I did to remove the artic skin from snow maps. Sounds dirty right?
Yet, this is a great example of what skins varriants verses no skin varriants can do for someone in a FPS.
Skin varriants can and does give someone an advantage.
Bruh
Eventually that same kid... Had a friendship that he didn't think he led on anything more... Well I guess everything can go both ways. Ignorance can be bliss, but it is easy to unintentionally hurt someone that way..... "Everybody plays the fool"... sometimes some people are just fools too. lol