I want to try and keep this short and to the point,
Now I run Onos Bar - 34 Man Server and also just about to bring up the second server to its crazy how popular the larger games are. But sadly there's a few things keeping the larger games from being more frequent which I think seriously needs to be addressed on UWE's part. I do know the situation of NS2 and I know UWE is trying to make this game pure "competitive gaming" but in order to do that you need players do you not!? and since release this game has done nothing but decline due to its learning curve and balance set only for 16 player servers the average amount of players on NS2 daily is between 350 in the quiet time and 870-920 on the weekends its pretty pathetic for a game which offers immense amount of fun but is just being (and sorry for saying this but I find a lot of people saying this these days) neglected by its own dev team.
Now I have played NS2 ever since the first alpha release well... suppose pre-alpha really when it was just a room and a marine running around, and have watched the game grow and rapidly improve but then slowly degrade to fun things removed that did not need to be removed things being limited and literly made to be identical to the enemy teams ability or item to keep it "balanced" for competitive mode..when sadly in the end it just feels so mirrored theres no uniqueness to a team anymore its sad I'd give examples but that would be swaying from what I really want to say so anyway!.
Things I think really need to be prioritized and worked on.
A. Dedicated server hosting to be run on Multi-Threading
B. Server optimization (Even on 24 man rounds the game still gets bad towards the end with Tick drops) **Number one Priority**
C. Do some more game balance but to be honest like myself and a few other people out there we have made our own balance changes and it works much better than the standard balance that is in the game by default.
D. Increase the server player limit (So we don't have to hex-edit but do this after B.)
E. (this is mainly for the people that are still having trouble) but also a few more client side optimization tweaks wouldn't go a miss.
These really should be the top priority for UWE to try and bring this game back from its steady decline,
I see the steam forums riddled with complaints (which i know all games get so don't moan at me for saying that)
and just bad press of this game everywhere its really sad for such an amazingly revolutionary game it tops all the other simple run and gun games out there, but sadly it does not top there player base, player limit or even server stability which is a HUGE problem!!.
I really hope future updates will include these fixes on a much more regular bases rather than adding.... Bots.. (I like the idea for training new commanders BUT I think this should be done once you have wiped out much more important issues) and also the vote system is something out of a 1980's TV show graphic...some of the modder's out there have created lovely GUI vote systems which work like an actual vote system i.e someone can start a vote instantly it has to be voted to start then have a good ratio to win rather than 1 person saying no and 20 people saying yes and it still saying "vote failed" Thank god we can turn the vote system off in the config.
Anyway After what ended up being a long post I just wanted to end it with.
Great job UWE on making a truly amazing game it really is one of a kind which breathes new life into this stale era of game, but please....do not forget your player base. the game needs larger servers like NS1 had playing 32 man servers and later on after modded servers started coming in, 64 man ns1 servers really did make such fun chaotic games! that lasted long 40minute - 1 hour rounds of fun!.
I hope you will listen to this rather than push it aside.
Revy.
Now I run Onos Bar - 34 Man Server and also just about to bring up the second server to its crazy how popular the larger games are. But sadly there's a few things keeping the larger games from being more frequent which I think seriously needs to be addressed on UWE's part. I do know the situation of NS2 and I know UWE is trying to make this game pure "competitive gaming" but in order to do that you need players do you not!? and since release this game has done nothing but decline due to its learning curve and balance set only for 16 player servers the average amount of players on NS2 daily is between 350 in the quiet time and 870-920 on the weekends its pretty pathetic for a game which offers immense amount of fun but is just being (and sorry for saying this but I find a lot of people saying this these days) neglected by its own dev team.
Now I have played NS2 ever since the first alpha release well... suppose pre-alpha really when it was just a room and a marine running around, and have watched the game grow and rapidly improve but then slowly degrade to fun things removed that did not need to be removed things being limited and literly made to be identical to the enemy teams ability or item to keep it "balanced" for competitive mode..when sadly in the end it just feels so mirrored theres no uniqueness to a team anymore its sad I'd give examples but that would be swaying from what I really want to say so anyway!.
Things I think really need to be prioritized and worked on.
A. Dedicated server hosting to be run on Multi-Threading
B. Server optimization (Even on 24 man rounds the game still gets bad towards the end with Tick drops) **Number one Priority**
C. Do some more game balance but to be honest like myself and a few other people out there we have made our own balance changes and it works much better than the standard balance that is in the game by default.
D. Increase the server player limit (So we don't have to hex-edit but do this after B.)
E. (this is mainly for the people that are still having trouble) but also a few more client side optimization tweaks wouldn't go a miss.
These really should be the top priority for UWE to try and bring this game back from its steady decline,
I see the steam forums riddled with complaints (which i know all games get so don't moan at me for saying that)
and just bad press of this game everywhere its really sad for such an amazingly revolutionary game it tops all the other simple run and gun games out there, but sadly it does not top there player base, player limit or even server stability which is a HUGE problem!!.
I really hope future updates will include these fixes on a much more regular bases rather than adding.... Bots.. (I like the idea for training new commanders BUT I think this should be done once you have wiped out much more important issues) and also the vote system is something out of a 1980's TV show graphic...some of the modder's out there have created lovely GUI vote systems which work like an actual vote system i.e someone can start a vote instantly it has to be voted to start then have a good ratio to win rather than 1 person saying no and 20 people saying yes and it still saying "vote failed" Thank god we can turn the vote system off in the config.
Anyway After what ended up being a long post I just wanted to end it with.
Great job UWE on making a truly amazing game it really is one of a kind which breathes new life into this stale era of game, but please....do not forget your player base. the game needs larger servers like NS1 had playing 32 man servers and later on after modded servers started coming in, 64 man ns1 servers really did make such fun chaotic games! that lasted long 40minute - 1 hour rounds of fun!.
I hope you will listen to this rather than push it aside.
Revy.