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Solarity
Join Date: 2012-11-13 Member: 170515Members, Reinforced - Shadow
Join Date: 2012-11-13 Member: 170515Members, Reinforced - Shadow
Comments
@Biz
Good Lord will you ever give it up?
NS2 is playable, and is fun. It has been since launch, despite the odd stale tactic problem here and there, and of course the perennial teamstacking issues that most multiplayer games face.
If they were pretty much any other company, UWE would have walked away from NS2 after launch and not made any improvements or content updates.
The way you go on and on and on about 'OMGZ NS2 still in beta UWE sux' is frankly not only irritating to those of us who disagree with you, but is also incredibly disrespectful to a company that dedicates its time (ie money) to continued improvement of a released product which has probably netted them over 90% of its lifetime income by the 6 month mark.
The reason UWE support this game is to make it better, but they would not be expected to by gamers who are used to being shat on my games companies releasing substandard products and then forgetting about them (DireKatana anyone?).
The alternative is that UWE pull a DNF... keep the game in development for as long as possible trying to get it perfect (then inevitably have issues with companies dropping out over the course of a ridiculously long project), then eventually have to scramble to release a piss-poor excuse for a game, which is then basically ignored post-release.
So stop this inane, destructive 'NS2 in beta' nonsense you keep piping up. It's annoying, incorrect both factually and in spirit, and ridiculously disrespectful to these guys who invest so much of their time to improving the game at their cost for your benefit.
Rant over.
@Solarity: it's summer time, families away on holiday, very good humble bundle just out; I really wouldn't worry too much about it!
I cannot possibly know how much "multiple" actually is
if explains "some" of the decline in activity
Its winter down here...kids are at school and snow is falling.
Maybe. There are balance issues but other than using NS2stats (some consider it unreliable) the extent is unknown for balance by player counts and time spent on matches. I guess we will have to see if the next content patch changes anything.
In my experience another side of the issue is that it's so hard to find a good match of NS2 these days in pubs. Most are pretty terrible. I mean there is nothing fun about stomping an obviously inexperienced team that cannot aim where the game ends prematurely as well as getting stomped with a team full of rookies vs a bunch of experienced players. Not many new players or average players really enjoy those types of games and some may be turned off from playing when they associate the feeling of irritation from the bad games when they think about loading up NS2. Not sure it is something you can fix since most gamers are used to running around and shooting things with minimal teamwork and carry that over from other games. First impressions are important to them and if they are not having a good time in their first few games they will take off.
Tbh I do not think most of the rookies will even read any new tutorials unless they are literally forced to go through the motions they are learning since they do not even listen to simple one sentence advice in game and there is basically little communication. Then you have the regulars on a server who stack quite a lot on small amount of servers people frequent. I find the above cases a lot more common from the games I play and they are not very enjoyable to play in. Since the game has around 400-1000 players throughout the day, most are split in different area of the world at different times, you can't exactly just hop elsewhere. I guess these issues exist in other games but they usually have a large player base to offset them. Performance is also holding a few people back though less than before.
And how do you know that for a fact ?
What? Are you suggesting that UWE working on NS2 is being paid for by a 3rd party? And that such costs also cover the lost revenue of not putting those man hours into a new game? Seriously?!
UWE is just a shadowy front for the NSA, secretly stealing all of our information on sneaky gorge tunnel placement. WAKE UP MAN, this is happening!!!!
This post makes more sense than most of these anti-balance change posts I keep reading. No joke.
1 You don't things for free forever.
2 UWE have a engine non the less and / or teams that can work : graphics for example. It would be stupid not to make/sell something beside NS2 when you have assets like that.
In the game industry... scratch that : in ANY industry you always have outsourcing. Why UWE shouldn't be a contractor for some other company ? Why should it be limited to game industry ? Media, movies, Mo-Cap etc... Doing the dirty work is still bringing money isn't it ? This kind of deal is always constraint by a NDA agreement. So you won't here a thing. This is one of the possible scenario. There are others as well.
You really need to grow up coz' frankly you lack of imagination.
There's an NS2 "1.0" server running that is almost always full as well, select BB249 on top of the in the server browser and you can play the old NS2 if you want to.
2. We are not doing any contract work /outsourcing for other companies. Currently NS2 is our ONLY source of revenue. though not a very large one. And we are still putting a ridiculous amount of time into it.
Can I have some of what you're smoking?
I love the idea of a movie company employing UWE to work on NS2 updates, and making sure it's kept secret too.
Made my day, thank you!
Heh, I stopped playing after that patch. I tried for about 2 weeks and just hated every minute of it. I tried to discuss it on the forums but the devs (and fanboi competitive players) were too quick to beat down any dissenting opinions.
I just came back to the forums today to see what people were saying after having noticed that the game Defiance - yeah that crappy game based on the SciFy TV show - has more players. Think about that.
I played the NS franchise since the original NS1 mod beta - anyone remember when OC's only shot one direction? Yeah... so you can't say I'm just a random guy. Unfortunately this franchise is now dead to me.
So yeah, ya'll have fun. It won't be too many more months when NS1 and NS2 have the same number of players, if you know what I mean. I'm going to miss NS / and the original NS2, but hey, UnknownWorlds got my $50 pre-order back 5 years ago and I knew then it was taking a chance that the game may never even be released. I figure between NS1 and the first few months of NS2 that I got my money's worth.
I hope so. It looks really fun!
I doubt that summer time has a large negative effect on player numbers. To me that's just a myth.
Sure, some people are on holiday, but not everybody and usually not for more than a few weeks.
On the other hand, more free time equals more time to play.
Take a look at the most played multiplayer Steam games: TF2, Dota 2, CS:GO, even Garry's Mod gained players during summer or stayed at the same level.
Summer is a bad excuse for NS2's dropping player numbers.
Already said this before in other threads but games like NS2 in their current design model are non-existent in today's market. People don't play for the pleasure of getting better anymore in addition to fun, they need something to chase. The carrot on the stick, to an average player, there is none of that in this game and no way to measure skill other than round scores. A global leaderboard, a level up progression system with cosmetic upgrades, cosmetic score, anything.
I know hardcore NS2 fans wouldn't like this in the game but relying on steam sales (where the retention rate is pathetically low) and content patches to bring back/bring players into the game might work in the short term but I don't see this game growing much in the near future without modernizing it in some way, it will become stagnant with the same players playing while they very slowly trickle away as time goes on. It's awesome that content is coming out, it's awesome that this game is so good as it is already, it's awesome how UWE frequently interacts with its community, the game is awesome but it's just lacking so much to retain it's playercount. I love this game, I'm just a pubber but it's one of the most fun games I've invested time into for years. That's my opinion and prediction.
Like I said, I'm not too sure if it would make a positive difference but you have a good point. Still, it is a multiplayer only game with no real tutorial and only one official game mode. A $60 dollar title has much more varied content usually a full 5hour minimum campaign + tutorial mode + multiplayer with various modes + extra mode like horde/zombies + other content like arcade modes, you get the picture. Even if NS2 is a lot more fleshed out in terms of gameplay, new people won't recognise that, all they see is a multiplayer only game. $25 for that type of game? That ain't cheap to people who have never played NS2.
Not defending that summer is a reason for the concerns of the OP, but for a lot of people such as myself, summer definitely has the opposite effect of more (inside on the pc) free time.
Sad, i believe you keep trying. whatever it is. I mean NS2 is a showcase. A lot of people see it as one item. All these loonies (over here also) just don't get how hard it is to create a company, make it work (people together) and finally getting something out. Since the game industry is located in USA and Canada mostly... there is probably something to do. The most difficult i presume is to "get in".
On my side of the world, we don't talk about luck so : "merde".
I'm not the one who should monitor his recreational chemical intakes while i see that you understand things the opposite way it should be. It makes me think you don't really have a professional experience what so ever.
Do you really think Brad Pitt (Sorry Brad) comes on a set and act after a night he was sh!t faced (or tired because of jet lag) ? Yes!! He does; make up and CGI do the rest. You would be surprised to see how much of a movie (even dramas) are "retouched" on post production. If you know someone working in the CGI industry which is never far from the game industry (or photo / magazine, or even media (tv) ), ask him. There are tons of contractors in there. From pré-prod to post-production.
Just as a quantitative example. Se for yourself and ask yourself how many different :
-Movies you see each years ?
-TV channels you have in your country ?
-Different TV show you watch each years ?
-Magazines / newspaper you read ?
-Games you play ?
-Tv commercials (oh god) you see not willingly ?
Did you know that the communication industry, moves 500$ billion (yes Billions) each years in the world ? How much people do you think it employs ? Directly, and not. Movie industry?, Tv industry?. Game industry? There is always something to do.
It's not because you have a game company that you can't add two size on Keira Knightley's boobs for a "cover" (Sorry Keira, you're are gorgeous (: ).
And the award for most spectacularly missing all the points goes to...
...
UncleCrunch!
<applause>
Well, one way to do it is to disguise the tutorial as a mini-campaign. That would require a lot of work though.
You take one to feed the other. A lot of company aren't making any money but they are maintained by business angel (or group) non the less. In capitalism you don't do that unless you have a good reason. It's not the UWE case. One would prefer the DIY (internally) way.
One example in the game industry would be 3D realms and DNF. They did save money for DNF while doing contracts for others. Sadly it ended up bad. But still, that's how you do.
As another example, It's like ISP. They were not making any money during the 90's and 2k's (Worldcom scandal also
Like commercials in an episode of ... say (finding a SF show in my head) Falling skies. It's not for nothing you have 10~15 minutes / act.
See it as an investment. You can't be "pure" in this world. At some point you have make a deal.
You have no argument