Several people have posted on this matter in the "Proposed Balance Changes" thread, but I believe this to be an important enough issue that it deserves its own thread.
The balance mod is going live in the next couple weeks, and most who have played the mod for more than a couple hours seem to be of the opinion that the changes coming will be for the better. The mod adds many more strategies, makes underused elements viable and stops games from being as predictable as they were in vanilla NS2. These changes will most likely breathe some life into the competitive scene.
Seeing as this is a complete game relaunch we're talking about here, chances are that the release of this mod is going to come with a sale and a free weekend. This is where the problem emerges. To put it simply, NS2 has a major player retention problem. It's sold plenty of copies, but currently has fallen off of the top 100 games on Steam. A startlingly low number of the players from the last free weekend stuck around past it, despite a good number of copies being sold.
Now, part of the issue has been performance. Hopefully the introduction of LuaJIT will mollify these concerns. The BT mod itself will also help to remove another issue in player retention, that being the staleness and predictability of competitive matches. On the other hand, there is another reason this game loses so many players that isn't being addressed - the steep learning curve and the lack of a good tutorial system.
This game has an extremely steep learning curve. There is more depth and strategy to be had, and more things that need to be learned, than most multiplayer games have to offer. As a result, it is very possible for new players to feel completely lost and unsure of what to do. Unfortunately, there is no good tutorial system in place to make the introduction to the game's mechanics easier for them. The YouTube videos included in the game are entirely unsatisfactory. They do not share all of the important info, and many of them are so poorly done that it would be extremely difficult for a new player to glean any important information from them. Struggling to pick up all of the complex gameplay mechanics and without an informative tutorial, many new players become frustrated and leave the game behind.
The introduction of the balance mod will increase the learning curve for the game, particularly when it comes to alien movement. The Skulk and Fade can move much more quickly in BT than in vanilla, but in order to do so players must use a more skill-based system, and also one that is less intuitive for a beginning player to pick up. Additionally, the BT will make all of the current tutorial videos more or less obsolete, as so many elements of the game will be changing.
Because of this, I am requesting that UWE strongly consider completely revamping their tutorial system from the ground up to make it more intuitive for new players. The BT will improve the game, but without a better tutorial in place the game will still struggle to retain new players. The next free weekend will end up exactly like the last one did unless serious changes are made to the way UWE caters to new players.
If anyone from the community is willing to provide assistance, they should speak up, here or otherwise, as this is a problem that affects all of us.
I'm sorry for the essay-length post, but this is a topic that I strongly feel is vital to the continued survival of NS2.
The balance mod is going live in the next couple weeks, and most who have played the mod for more than a couple hours seem to be of the opinion that the changes coming will be for the better. The mod adds many more strategies, makes underused elements viable and stops games from being as predictable as they were in vanilla NS2. These changes will most likely breathe some life into the competitive scene.
Seeing as this is a complete game relaunch we're talking about here, chances are that the release of this mod is going to come with a sale and a free weekend. This is where the problem emerges. To put it simply, NS2 has a major player retention problem. It's sold plenty of copies, but currently has fallen off of the top 100 games on Steam. A startlingly low number of the players from the last free weekend stuck around past it, despite a good number of copies being sold.
Now, part of the issue has been performance. Hopefully the introduction of LuaJIT will mollify these concerns. The BT mod itself will also help to remove another issue in player retention, that being the staleness and predictability of competitive matches. On the other hand, there is another reason this game loses so many players that isn't being addressed - the steep learning curve and the lack of a good tutorial system.
This game has an extremely steep learning curve. There is more depth and strategy to be had, and more things that need to be learned, than most multiplayer games have to offer. As a result, it is very possible for new players to feel completely lost and unsure of what to do. Unfortunately, there is no good tutorial system in place to make the introduction to the game's mechanics easier for them. The YouTube videos included in the game are entirely unsatisfactory. They do not share all of the important info, and many of them are so poorly done that it would be extremely difficult for a new player to glean any important information from them. Struggling to pick up all of the complex gameplay mechanics and without an informative tutorial, many new players become frustrated and leave the game behind.
The introduction of the balance mod will increase the learning curve for the game, particularly when it comes to alien movement. The Skulk and Fade can move much more quickly in BT than in vanilla, but in order to do so players must use a more skill-based system, and also one that is less intuitive for a beginning player to pick up. Additionally, the BT will make all of the current tutorial videos more or less obsolete, as so many elements of the game will be changing.
Because of this, I am requesting that UWE strongly consider completely revamping their tutorial system from the ground up to make it more intuitive for new players. The BT will improve the game, but without a better tutorial in place the game will still struggle to retain new players. The next free weekend will end up exactly like the last one did unless serious changes are made to the way UWE caters to new players.
If anyone from the community is willing to provide assistance, they should speak up, here or otherwise, as this is a problem that affects all of us.
I'm sorry for the essay-length post, but this is a topic that I strongly feel is vital to the continued survival of NS2.