Speed: possible quick yet radical 'rookie friendly' / retention fix

CCTEE

So the other day @SupaFred setup his server to run at about 10% normal speed.
I played for about 20 min with 1 or 2 others on the server just messing about.
Dont get me wrong: it sucked (like wading threw a pile of invisible p00p). But:

-It was really easy to aim as marine
-Skulks still killed me when they got me by surprise
-Dodging skulks was hard because the relative dodgespeed vs their reactiontime made it easy to compensate / follow me
-The performance (visually / textures etc) seemed better (just more time for server and pc to respond to playerfeedback i guess)

So maybe reduce the game speed to 90% (or so?) of what it is now = happy rookies?
Discuss !

SantaClaws

The amount of impact of such a change is impossible to predict. But I reckon it would be catastrophic in the mid-to-high level sphere. The amount that peoples tracking will improve, is probably not going to be proportional to the reduction of the speed. I think some won't improve at all, some will have massive and notable improvements. -so I fear, that this would likely increase skill gaps.

Keep experimenting with it - maybe there's something to it. But my immediate reaction is; no thank you.

Saffron_baker

What about having so that normal sensitivity (the sensitivity you begin) is at 50% so you can lower it to!
I think cs people would wan't that!

CCTEE

SantaClaws wrote: »

The amount of impact of such a change is impossible to predict.

Predict, yes. but easy to test: need 1 pub 90% gamespeed server.
@SupaFred @wooza ??

SamusDroid

lussebull wrote: »

What about having so that normal sensitivity (the sensitivity you begin) is at 50% so you can lower it to!
I think cs people would wan't that!

I just lowered the default a few patches ago

Nordic

Besides the positive reasons you mentioned, it would make it hard for people to notice the netcode. For example, you would be less likely to die around corners. It may also benefit hitreg too.

I do recognize some positive benefits of a slower ns2, but at the same time I want ns2 to be faster. I am just not sure the game engine can handle it.

IeptBarakat

90% sounds a little overkill, I'd be up for trying anything in the 50-75% range.

SantaClaws

CCTEE wrote: »

SantaClaws wrote: »

The amount of impact of such a change is impossible to predict.

Predict, yes. but easy to test: need 1 pub 90% gamespeed server.
@SupaFred @wooza ??

As I tried to explain in my first post. No - one server is not enough. Because this is going to affect all skill levels differently. The top level players, are the ones who are going to be the fastest to adapting to this. The lowest tier players, might not even notice any improvement at all.

So no, you can't just test it on one server, you will have to test this across as many skill levels as possible. This means, gathers and scrims, as well as public servers, wooza etc.

Kouji_San

IeptBarakat wrote: »

90% sounds a little overkill, I'd be up for trying anything in the 50-75% range.

I think he meant a 10% decrease in speed (90% server "speed 0.9" command), or something

However that would slow everything down, even the bullets

BabblerKing

We have experience with varying game speed and this is not feasible.

Lower factor boosts marines, higher aliens, brutally so.

@CCTEE Add me to steam and I'll show you a round at 90 of 95% on Wooza's.

Oh, wait, my posts are banned. Never mind.

SupaFred

@CCTEE Sorry about that I meant to change the speed back immediately but for some reason the web admin needed some time in between commands. Anyway, I set the server to 50 and 200 % that day. When I've played around with speed settings in the past it tends to unbalance the game too much. But it's still worth it if you play Yakety Sax while being at 200%.