Here's a kicker. When is this game gonna be balanced for 24+ players?
There's not a damn server in this game that runs 6v6 aside from private pugs.
1CC Protolab. Mass Exo trains. Shit Fades and lifeforms in general with little to no effective ability of crowd controlling that many players and MACS/turrets defending those Marines, LET ALONE EXOS. Flamethrowers completely rendering hive structures and Gorge structures useless within seconds.
I'm starting to realize why a game like COD no longer allows people to host servers anymore due to people creating servers with rules the game didn't originally intend (*cough*, 24slot ns2 *cough*)
Abilities like Focus bite/swipe in NS1 made even crowd-controlling in 32 slot servers tolerable, with acid rocket and xenocide being the ultimate turtle breakers being splash-damaged based abilities.
WHAT IS UWE (sewlek) DOING TO ADDRESS THIS ISSUE? 6v6 is not the reality here. Go open NS2 right now and look at all the 24 slots. Don't even get me started on that ridiculous 32 slot server. I dont want to resort to 6v6 pugs to play what the actual game intended, and neither should regular pubbers.
Yet people wonder why this game loses players on occasion. Maybe because it's not FUN.
All complaints about marine dominance.
Here's a hint, even in 24 man aliens still have the higher winrate. This game was never intended for 6v6 either, UWE servers are 8v8. In fact large portions of the game are practically non-functional on that level of play, ie support lifeforms and weapons often can't be used for support because there aren't enough players TO support. The balance issues are also far more extreme the lower the player count, 24man is pretty close, better than 60/40 I think, but in 12man and especially comp are looking at aliens winning 3 out of 4.
It's kind of entertaining that people think that the next patch will be an improvement.
Aliens win mostly because of fades, gorges early game, pubs being an unorganized mess, a noob commander on marines having a FAR more negative impact than a noob commander on aliens, and marines generally requiring more teamwork with lesser mobility - an unfortunate paradox.
If fades and gorges are nerfed, I think the balance could swing the other way though. I think without fades aliens might never win :-) ...
In any case, I guess it's nice to be expecting some kind of miracle patch, but I'd lower my expectations about the next balance "stab in the murky fog."
Oh, by the way, while we're ranting randomly about balance, I think the ability to make a crag hive and drop 2 shells nearly instantly at the beginning of a round is pretty much the most broken thing I've seen for a LONG time... :-P
Aliens win mostly because of fades, gorges early game, pubs being an unorganized mess, a noob commander on marines having a FAR more negative impact than a noob commander on aliens, and marines generally requiring more teamwork with lesser mobility - an unfortunate paradox.
There are lots of suggestions around to fix this - UWE just has to try one.
Also, why is this a paradox?
Oh, by the way, while we're ranting randomly about balance, I think the ability to make a crag hive and drop 2 shells nearly instantly at the beginning of a round is pretty much the most broken thing I've seen for a LONG time... :-P
Since 250, crag is about the least useful hive upgrade - why is this OP?
It's kind of entertaining that people think that the next patch will be an improvement.
Aliens win mostly because of fades, gorges early game, pubs being an unorganized mess, a noob commander on marines having a FAR more negative impact than a noob commander on aliens, and marines generally requiring more teamwork with lesser mobility - an unfortunate paradox.
If fades and gorges are nerfed, I think the balance could swing the other way though. I think without fades aliens might never win :-) ...
In any case, I guess it's nice to be expecting some kind of miracle patch, but I'd lower my expectations about the next balance "stab in the murky fog."
Oh, by the way, while we're ranting randomly about balance, I think the ability to make a crag hive and drop 2 shells nearly instantly at the beginning of a round is pretty much the most broken thing I've seen for a LONG time... :-P
Oh god I seriously hope I never see a Khamm do that while I'm on aliens. That sounds like the most retarded suicidal early game strat I've ever heard of in my life. I would honestly rather see him drop 3 whips.
With a "strat" like that, and I'm hesitant to even legitimize it as a strategy, you are stuck without any resources for about 3 extra minutes. 3 extra, agonizing minutes with nothing but skulks (and res-starved gorges without tunnels or adren) and shitty carapace. Not even cara 3, but cara 2 which is barely even worth the time it takes to evolve.
Comp can do some crazy things, mostly because they are effectively playing an entirely different game than us regular folk. I won't suggest I know how effective some of those strange things can be in their bizarre little world, but in pubs that kind of thing is nothing but a death sentence.
I play a lot and have only played on ns2 stats like once or twice in my entire career time; I don't think many servers run this mod, and one of the servers was a private server
Also I win as marine a lot in public play, I sometimes even find it easier to play marines in public because I can cause so much leverage for the team to win
Maybe this game has an internal stat tracking which would give better insight on what's going on; cause I don't think a plugin that's running on a few servers gives any good indication on how the game is playing out. But I won't argue that aliens may win more
Too bad "Reinforced" doesn't sound like a balance patch. In fact it doesn't sound like a content patch either. The only major confirmed features I know of are linux, a new map, and the female marine, none of which change the gameplay on existing maps.
I would expect some marine buffs from that name, basically "reinforcing" them. It's more of a mechanical term, so it hints more at marines than aliens (IIRC "Gorgeous" was focusing more on aliens than marines in terms of new features (Babblers, Gorge Tunnels, Camouflage shader update), so the name was kinda fitting).
Plus the blog post about the update also said:
Lots of other hinted but secret stuff is also going in.
And when they say "lots", then I am sure they mean it. And the fact that the name of the update doesn't fit that well with the content revealed thus far makes me just even more confident about the unrevealed stuff.
Didn't I read somewhere that Reinforced is the biggest update in NS2 history? If that should be the case, I'm certain there will be more content than just grenades along with some balance tweaking.
It's kind of entertaining that people make all such a fuzz right before the update hits, dooming the game because the update is surely not gonna bring any kind of balance improvements whatsoever. This seems like an emerging pattern; I remember some people being on the fence before 250 hit, claiming that "if this thing goes live, it will certainly kill NS2 in an instant".
Seriously, why can't people wait just 5 more days and pretend to be grownups instead of making unfounded speculations about what the update may and may not be.
It's kind of entertaining that people make all such a fuzz right before the update hits, dooming the game because the update is surely not gonna bring any kind of balance improvements whatsoever. This seems like an emerging pattern; I remember some people being on the fence before 250 hit, claiming that "if this thing goes live, it will certainly kill NS2 in an instant".
Seriously, why can't people wait just 5 more days and pretend to be grownups instead of making unfounded speculations about what the update may and may not be.
One of the things we know for certain is that it will bring in an influx of new players with a sale on Steam attached to it and then a week or 2 weeks later the playerbase will drop back down to where it was before the update.
Here's a kicker. When is this game gonna be balanced for 24+ players?
There's not a damn server in this game that runs 6v6 aside from private pugs.
1CC Protolab. Mass Exo trains. Shit Fades and lifeforms in general with little to no effective ability of crowd controlling that many players and MACS/turrets defending those Marines, LET ALONE EXOS. Flamethrowers completely rendering hive structures and Gorge structures useless within seconds.
I'm starting to realize why a game like COD no longer allows people to host servers anymore due to people creating servers with rules the game didn't originally intend (*cough*, 24slot ns2 *cough*)
Abilities like Focus bite/swipe in NS1 made even crowd-controlling in 32 slot servers tolerable, with acid rocket and xenocide being the ultimate turtle breakers being splash-damaged based abilities.
WHAT IS UWE (sewlek) DOING TO ADDRESS THIS ISSUE? 6v6 is not the reality here. Go open NS2 right now and look at all the 24 slots. Don't even get me started on that ridiculous 32 slot server. I dont want to resort to 6v6 pugs to play what the actual game intended, and neither should regular pubbers.
Yet people wonder why this game loses players on occasion. Maybe because it's not FUN.
dePARAJoin Date: 2011-04-29Member: 96321Members, Squad Five Blue
In that moment i saw a 2nd 32 slot server popping up in the EU i start to host a 34 slot server only to tell the people with ingame adverts that servers like this are crap.
As these servers are "hacked" ones via hex-editor, the serverbrowser should not show them.
And 20 slot servers should be the possible maximum allowed.
But it seems UWE didnt giving a cent on horrible serverperformance (serverbrowser should show the average serverperformance of the last hr, not the one from that momennt you cklick on update serverlist) and balance for the ass cause 32 slot servers for example.
And i agree that its nearly impossible to balance a game for 6v6 and 12v12 at the same time.
UWE use the clangames (6v6) as an commercial to bring more players to the game. wich is fine.
But people who bought the game play on horrible 32 slot servers.
All these free weekens and steamsales are useless cause the first impression counts.
And the first impression is following on most servers:
- 7 ticks rubberbanding ("whats wrong with this game, battlefield runs smooth. fuck this shit" result: deinstalled)
- Clanplayers killing a whole rookie team alone ("cool game, but too many cheaters" result:deinstalled)
Sad thing is: we are going to see this again soon.
Aliens to me seem quite OP early game, a lot of Games I play, the Aliens tend to win before marines can get a proper hold and bring out the Exo's. Marines in my opinion are OP late game, Aliens just can't seem to win against a large number of Exo's period ... so in my opinion, Aliens need to be nerfed early game and Marines late game, I would be very interested to see how a game unfolds if this were done.
Aliens win mostly because of fades, gorges early game, pubs being an unorganized mess, a noob commander on marines having a FAR more negative impact than a noob commander on aliens, and marines generally requiring more teamwork with lesser mobility - an unfortunate paradox.
There are lots of suggestions around to fix this - UWE just has to try one.
Also, why is this a paradox?
Because on a pub, when you say "marines in <herpderp>" to an alien team, usually several players respond, get there, set up and go in together. The same action on marine side requires 1.5x-2x the time. And it's just SO much more difficult to coordinate due to the slower movement speeds. I'm not saying this is inherently "broken" because one of the cool things about this game is that it's somewhat asymmetric. However, unfortunately this has the side effect that well-coordinated actions on marine side take a LOT more preparation, spatial/map positioning awareness, patience, etc. etc. than on alien team.
Oh, by the way, while we're ranting randomly about balance, I think the ability to make a crag hive and drop 2 shells nearly instantly at the beginning of a round is pretty much the most broken thing I've seen for a LONG time... :-P
Since 250, crag is about the least useful hive upgrade - why is this OP?
I disagree that it's the least useful. Sure, regen is a piece of crap more than ever before. However, the additional bullet or two that cara2 and 3+bio2 2 minutes later give skulks can make a HUGE difference in pub games. And, you can have that advantage almost instantly.
For pubs, IMO it's a matter of "how many marines can this skulk kill" before dying. Early game, I often see marines struggling numbervnumber against no-upgrade-whatsoever-skulks. The immediate ability to require one or two more shots (I haven't run the numbers, 2 more shots might also require biomass2) before marines can even have weapons 1 is just ridiculous. It might seem insignificant, but early game is SO important on pubs that I feel like UWE really needs to sit down and thing what EXACTLY is possible in the first 2-3 minutes on either team, and the impact it has on early game balance.
Oh, as an added side effect, cara also helps gorges to be pretty much indestructible by pub marines. Get 2 cara2 gorges together jumping around, healspraying each other behind a clog obstacle and amidst 6 hydras, and yeah... have fun with that. And all that, 30 seconds into the game. It just almost guarantees INCREDIBLE map control for aliens way too early in the game. Gorge is too cheap, healspray and spit are too op early game, carapace is too fast.
Of course, we're talking about pubs. I'm sure players who LOL at skulks while killing 2 with the same clip coming from different directions aren't really bothered by that "one/two more bullets" that carapace gives you - but it's a whole different situation on pubs where people suck and you pretty much have to anticipate that a single decent skulk can kill 1.5 decent marines early game, on average.
The Cup matches are IMO showing that medspam + nanoshield micro can win almost anything, if the team's micro is good, and the resources spent on the medspam will be more than paid back by the greater map control established.
dePARAJoin Date: 2011-04-29Member: 96321Members, Squad Five Blue
Didnt snails win there marineround?
Didnt saunamen lose all there fades?
Are Div1 players represent all competitive players?
Did you understand my post @res?
Aliens win mostly because of fades, gorges early game, pubs being an unorganized mess, a noob commander on marines having a FAR more negative impact than a noob commander on aliens, and marines generally requiring more teamwork with lesser mobility - an unfortunate paradox.
There are lots of suggestions around to fix this - UWE just has to try one.
Also, why is this a paradox?
Because on a pub, when you say "marines in <herpderp>" to an alien team, usually several players respond, get there, set up and go in together. The same action on marine side requires 1.5x-2x the time. And it's just SO much more difficult to coordinate due to the slower movement speeds. I'm not saying this is inherently "broken" because one of the cool things about this game is that it's somewhat asymmetric. However, unfortunately this has the side effect that well-coordinated actions on marine side take a LOT more preparation, spatial/map positioning awareness, patience, etc. etc. than on alien team.
Oh, by the way, while we're ranting randomly about balance, I think the ability to make a crag hive and drop 2 shells nearly instantly at the beginning of a round is pretty much the most broken thing I've seen for a LONG time... :-P
Since 250, crag is about the least useful hive upgrade - why is this OP?
I disagree that it's the least useful. Sure, regen is a piece of crap more than ever before. However, the additional bullet or two that cara2 and 3+bio2 2 minutes later give skulks can make a HUGE difference in pub games. And, you can have that advantage almost instantly.
For pubs, IMO it's a matter of "how many marines can this skulk kill" before dying. Early game, I often see marines struggling numbervnumber against no-upgrade-whatsoever-skulks. The immediate ability to require one or two more shots (I haven't run the numbers, 2 more shots might also require biomass2) before marines can even have weapons 1 is just ridiculous. It might seem insignificant, but early game is SO important on pubs that I feel like UWE really needs to sit down and thing what EXACTLY is possible in the first 2-3 minutes on either team, and the impact it has on early game balance.
Oh, as an added side effect, cara also helps gorges to be pretty much indestructible by pub marines. Get 2 cara2 gorges together jumping around, healspraying each other behind a clog obstacle and amidst 6 hydras, and yeah... have fun with that. And all that, 30 seconds into the game. It just almost guarantees INCREDIBLE map control for aliens way too early in the game. Gorge is too cheap, healspray and spit are too op early game, carapace is too fast.
Of course, we're talking about pubs. I'm sure players who LOL at skulks while killing 2 with the same clip coming from different directions aren't really bothered by that "one/two more bullets" that carapace gives you - but it's a whole different situation on pubs where people suck and you pretty much have to anticipate that a single decent skulk can kill 1.5 decent marines early game, on average.
Cara is SHIT for gorges. That pair of healspraying gorges isn't kept up by cara, they are kept up by Adren or a shift or else they are out of energy to healspray each other in 10 seconds. Celerity is better for early skulks (referring to non-rookie pub, not pro). They close distance faster, meaning taking fewer hits, they are harder to hit in combat, and they have much less difficulty with bouncing marines, thus ending combat faster and taking fewer hits. All in all the combat survival of a celerity skulk is miles above that of a cara skulk.
Go open NS2 right now and look at all the 24 slots. Don't even get me started on that ridiculous 32 slot server.
Can't. 2/3 of the servers are yellow or red ping. Out of the remaining 1/3, half are probably King Khauna with a couple of locked ones. Basiclly, only have 2 or 3 joinable servers at a time.
It's kind of entertaining that people make all such a fuzz right before the update hits, dooming the game because the update is surely not gonna bring any kind of balance improvements whatsoever. This seems like an emerging pattern; I remember some people being on the fence before 250 hit, claiming that "if this thing goes live, it will certainly kill NS2 in an instant".
Seriously, why can't people wait just 5 more days and pretend to be grownups instead of making unfounded speculations about what the update may and may not be.
i knew and predicted it would break the game's balance royally.
gold star for me, but i failed to convince people. Next time they think about taking something from that balance mod from hell i'll be sure to make more noise.
It's kind of entertaining that people make all such a fuzz right before the update hits, dooming the game because the update is surely not gonna bring any kind of balance improvements whatsoever. This seems like an emerging pattern; I remember some people being on the fence before 250 hit, claiming that "if this thing goes live, it will certainly kill NS2 in an instant".
Seriously, why can't people wait just 5 more days and pretend to be grownups instead of making unfounded speculations about what the update may and may not be.
I was one of those people and 250 did kill a lot of peoples interest off in the game, the people that are playing 251 every other day now are not the same people who were playing 248 249 and a little bit of 250.
dePARAJoin Date: 2011-04-29Member: 96321Members, Squad Five Blue
edited August 2013
After watching the finals between snails and saunamen (1st round was awesome btw) i realized there is NO way to balance the game for pub and competitive with one version.
These top div1 teams can handle and kill fadeballs. Div2, div3 and pub not.
Lets say UWE going to nerf the fades, what happen then? The fades would be useless for div1 teams.
I think its time for an pro mod.
Let the div1 players create there own enviroment of the game and UWE is balancing for the pub.
Reduce the max serverslots to 20 wich end in better performance and better balance.
Mark servers in the serverbrowser that cant hold an average tickrate of 28-30.
Introduce real rookie servers for 2 weeks after an steamsale where players above an 1600 elo score cant play.
Introduce servers for skilled players where rookies cannot play (elo score below 1600)
I fundamentally disagree with all the "oh but NS2 can't be balanced for both pro and noobs" argument.
Notice as someone said that the Saunamen vs Legendary Snails was all about shotguns and Fades?
Yea I got no problem with that. The problems regarding imbalance as I see them have nothing to do with either of those 2 things. I think shotguns and Fades are balanced perfectly.
IT IS GORGES that have a problem.
IT IS THE LACK OF VIABLE alternative to shotguns that is a problem(in the sense that it decreases variety), hence why I called for a buff to flamethrowers.
IT IS THE LACK OF VIABLE alternative to shotguns that is a problem(in the sense that it decreases variety)
These issues (like most issues in the game) are not mutually exclusive to either pub nor organized play. Sewlek is well aware of most of the points made in this thread and I'm sure there will be attempts to address or improve some of them in Reinforced.
I agree with reducing the max to 20. I wish I could find more active servers with smaller population (or just more servers in general) but it's just not possible right now.
So ... some student intern guy from France ruined your game ... all that progress made in fps and we sacrifice it on more speedy models ... May as well call the game "NS2 - AMD vs Intel."
Like the Total War series - we won't be stung that many times in a row - watch RTW2 fall over sales wise, it is because we just don't trust you anymore. Guess you could get away with another couple of games, but the damage has been done, just ... disappointing.
PS4 here we come ... at least that runs ddr5 main memory. Just ... so sorry for you. Truly.
Comments
All complaints about marine dominance.
Here's a hint, even in 24 man aliens still have the higher winrate. This game was never intended for 6v6 either, UWE servers are 8v8. In fact large portions of the game are practically non-functional on that level of play, ie support lifeforms and weapons often can't be used for support because there aren't enough players TO support. The balance issues are also far more extreme the lower the player count, 24man is pretty close, better than 60/40 I think, but in 12man and especially comp are looking at aliens winning 3 out of 4.
Aliens win mostly because of fades, gorges early game, pubs being an unorganized mess, a noob commander on marines having a FAR more negative impact than a noob commander on aliens, and marines generally requiring more teamwork with lesser mobility - an unfortunate paradox.
If fades and gorges are nerfed, I think the balance could swing the other way though. I think without fades aliens might never win :-) ...
In any case, I guess it's nice to be expecting some kind of miracle patch, but I'd lower my expectations about the next balance "stab in the murky fog."
Oh, by the way, while we're ranting randomly about balance, I think the ability to make a crag hive and drop 2 shells nearly instantly at the beginning of a round is pretty much the most broken thing I've seen for a LONG time... :-P
The power of hope.
There are lots of suggestions around to fix this - UWE just has to try one.
Also, why is this a paradox?
Not if oni can finally take their role...
Since 250, crag is about the least useful hive upgrade - why is this OP?
Oh god I seriously hope I never see a Khamm do that while I'm on aliens. That sounds like the most retarded suicidal early game strat I've ever heard of in my life. I would honestly rather see him drop 3 whips.
With a "strat" like that, and I'm hesitant to even legitimize it as a strategy, you are stuck without any resources for about 3 extra minutes. 3 extra, agonizing minutes with nothing but skulks (and res-starved gorges without tunnels or adren) and shitty carapace. Not even cara 3, but cara 2 which is barely even worth the time it takes to evolve.
Comp can do some crazy things, mostly because they are effectively playing an entirely different game than us regular folk. I won't suggest I know how effective some of those strange things can be in their bizarre little world, but in pubs that kind of thing is nothing but a death sentence.
Also I win as marine a lot in public play, I sometimes even find it easier to play marines in public because I can cause so much leverage for the team to win
Maybe this game has an internal stat tracking which would give better insight on what's going on; cause I don't think a plugin that's running on a few servers gives any good indication on how the game is playing out. But I won't argue that aliens may win more
Didn't I read somewhere that Reinforced is the biggest update in NS2 history? If that should be the case, I'm certain there will be more content than just grenades along with some balance tweaking.
Seriously, why can't people wait just 5 more days and pretend to be grownups instead of making unfounded speculations about what the update may and may not be.
One of the things we know for certain is that it will bring in an influx of new players with a sale on Steam attached to it and then a week or 2 weeks later the playerbase will drop back down to where it was before the update.
I actually agree with this.
As these servers are "hacked" ones via hex-editor, the serverbrowser should not show them.
And 20 slot servers should be the possible maximum allowed.
But it seems UWE didnt giving a cent on horrible serverperformance (serverbrowser should show the average serverperformance of the last hr, not the one from that momennt you cklick on update serverlist) and balance for the ass cause 32 slot servers for example.
And i agree that its nearly impossible to balance a game for 6v6 and 12v12 at the same time.
UWE use the clangames (6v6) as an commercial to bring more players to the game. wich is fine.
But people who bought the game play on horrible 32 slot servers.
All these free weekens and steamsales are useless cause the first impression counts.
And the first impression is following on most servers:
- 7 ticks rubberbanding ("whats wrong with this game, battlefield runs smooth. fuck this shit" result: deinstalled)
- Clanplayers killing a whole rookie team alone ("cool game, but too many cheaters" result:deinstalled)
Sad thing is: we are going to see this again soon.
Because on a pub, when you say "marines in <herpderp>" to an alien team, usually several players respond, get there, set up and go in together. The same action on marine side requires 1.5x-2x the time. And it's just SO much more difficult to coordinate due to the slower movement speeds. I'm not saying this is inherently "broken" because one of the cool things about this game is that it's somewhat asymmetric. However, unfortunately this has the side effect that well-coordinated actions on marine side take a LOT more preparation, spatial/map positioning awareness, patience, etc. etc. than on alien team.
I disagree that it's the least useful. Sure, regen is a piece of crap more than ever before. However, the additional bullet or two that cara2 and 3+bio2 2 minutes later give skulks can make a HUGE difference in pub games. And, you can have that advantage almost instantly.
For pubs, IMO it's a matter of "how many marines can this skulk kill" before dying. Early game, I often see marines struggling numbervnumber against no-upgrade-whatsoever-skulks. The immediate ability to require one or two more shots (I haven't run the numbers, 2 more shots might also require biomass2) before marines can even have weapons 1 is just ridiculous. It might seem insignificant, but early game is SO important on pubs that I feel like UWE really needs to sit down and thing what EXACTLY is possible in the first 2-3 minutes on either team, and the impact it has on early game balance.
Oh, as an added side effect, cara also helps gorges to be pretty much indestructible by pub marines. Get 2 cara2 gorges together jumping around, healspraying each other behind a clog obstacle and amidst 6 hydras, and yeah... have fun with that. And all that, 30 seconds into the game. It just almost guarantees INCREDIBLE map control for aliens way too early in the game. Gorge is too cheap, healspray and spit are too op early game, carapace is too fast.
Of course, we're talking about pubs. I'm sure players who LOL at skulks while killing 2 with the same clip coming from different directions aren't really bothered by that "one/two more bullets" that carapace gives you - but it's a whole different situation on pubs where people suck and you pretty much have to anticipate that a single decent skulk can kill 1.5 decent marines early game, on average.
lol dumbest thing I've ever read.
So a 70% win rate for aliens in comp play Div1 is balanced?
Most marine tech becoming useless in comp play is balanced?
Didnt saunamen lose all there fades?
Are Div1 players represent all competitive players?
Did you understand my post @res?
Questions questions questions.
Cara is SHIT for gorges. That pair of healspraying gorges isn't kept up by cara, they are kept up by Adren or a shift or else they are out of energy to healspray each other in 10 seconds. Celerity is better for early skulks (referring to non-rookie pub, not pro). They close distance faster, meaning taking fewer hits, they are harder to hit in combat, and they have much less difficulty with bouncing marines, thus ending combat faster and taking fewer hits. All in all the combat survival of a celerity skulk is miles above that of a cara skulk.
Can't. 2/3 of the servers are yellow or red ping. Out of the remaining 1/3, half are probably King Khauna with a couple of locked ones. Basiclly, only have 2 or 3 joinable servers at a time.
i knew and predicted it would break the game's balance royally.
gold star for me, but i failed to convince people. Next time they think about taking something from that balance mod from hell i'll be sure to make more noise.
I was one of those people and 250 did kill a lot of peoples interest off in the game, the people that are playing 251 every other day now are not the same people who were playing 248 249 and a little bit of 250.
And this is exactly why,
Server Performance, Client Performance, and Balance are all at their worst on these servers.
Get, rid, of, it.
These top div1 teams can handle and kill fadeballs. Div2, div3 and pub not.
Lets say UWE going to nerf the fades, what happen then? The fades would be useless for div1 teams.
I think its time for an pro mod.
Let the div1 players create there own enviroment of the game and UWE is balancing for the pub.
Reduce the max serverslots to 20 wich end in better performance and better balance.
Mark servers in the serverbrowser that cant hold an average tickrate of 28-30.
Introduce real rookie servers for 2 weeks after an steamsale where players above an 1600 elo score cant play.
Introduce servers for skilled players where rookies cannot play (elo score below 1600)
But im sure we see something like this again:
Notice as someone said that the Saunamen vs Legendary Snails was all about shotguns and Fades?
Yea I got no problem with that. The problems regarding imbalance as I see them have nothing to do with either of those 2 things. I think shotguns and Fades are balanced perfectly.
IT IS GORGES that have a problem.
IT IS THE LACK OF VIABLE alternative to shotguns that is a problem(in the sense that it decreases variety), hence why I called for a buff to flamethrowers.
These issues (like most issues in the game) are not mutually exclusive to either pub nor organized play. Sewlek is well aware of most of the points made in this thread and I'm sure there will be attempts to address or improve some of them in Reinforced.
1) There are 24 slot servers that have great performance (IE: Mavick's Server)
2) Some people get good enough performance with that many players (I do).
3) Believe it or not, 24 slot players is actually MORE BALANCED than lower player count servers currently.
4) 24 slot servers IS WHAT IS SAVING PUBLIC NS2 GAMING AT THE MOMENT. If you don't believe this, then you are the cancer of NS2, not 24 slot servers.
Like the Total War series - we won't be stung that many times in a row - watch RTW2 fall over sales wise, it is because we just don't trust you anymore. Guess you could get away with another couple of games, but the damage has been done, just ... disappointing.
PS4 here we come ... at least that runs ddr5 main memory. Just ... so sorry for you. Truly.