Game Balance And Server Size
PetitMorte
Join Date: 2002-11-06 Member: 7232Members
Join Date: 2002-11-06 Member: 7232Members
<div class="IPBDescription">how many players = which side wins?</div> Something that I've noticed, both from playing on many different servers and from running one myself (Petit's NS Playpen 65.24.12.9:27015) is that the balance of the game seems to depend on how many players you have.
No, I'm not talking about the game where there's 10 marines and 4 aliens... I mean that the numbers of players the server will support seems, <b>IN MY OPINION</b>, to swing the balance towards one team or another.
On small servers, 8-10 players or less, the aliens seem to win more often.
On medium servers, 12-16 players or so, the game seems to be fairly even
On large servers, 18 players or more (!!!32 for god's sake!!!) the Marines will win.
Please note that I'm not blaming either side for having too much power, or pointing out the flaws of newbys... I'm just discribing my experience.
On large servers, the marines can post people for defense instead of having turret (turrent?) <!--emo&:)--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/smile.gif' border='0' valign='absmiddle' alt='smile.gif'><!--endemo--> farms, and there are more marines to cover each other. 3 live people are better then 7 turrets, so just post em there.
On small servers, marines are sent out individually, or in small groups and get munched pretty quickly by roaming skulks. The don't have enough people to push into and hold areas, and have to depend on turret farms for D... and we know that doesn't work.
So if you find your favorite server seems to have the same team winnning over and over, try switching to a server with more/less people. See what happens.
Or not. <!--emo&:)--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/smile.gif' border='0' valign='absmiddle' alt='smile.gif'><!--endemo-->
No, I'm not talking about the game where there's 10 marines and 4 aliens... I mean that the numbers of players the server will support seems, <b>IN MY OPINION</b>, to swing the balance towards one team or another.
On small servers, 8-10 players or less, the aliens seem to win more often.
On medium servers, 12-16 players or so, the game seems to be fairly even
On large servers, 18 players or more (!!!32 for god's sake!!!) the Marines will win.
Please note that I'm not blaming either side for having too much power, or pointing out the flaws of newbys... I'm just discribing my experience.
On large servers, the marines can post people for defense instead of having turret (turrent?) <!--emo&:)--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/smile.gif' border='0' valign='absmiddle' alt='smile.gif'><!--endemo--> farms, and there are more marines to cover each other. 3 live people are better then 7 turrets, so just post em there.
On small servers, marines are sent out individually, or in small groups and get munched pretty quickly by roaming skulks. The don't have enough people to push into and hold areas, and have to depend on turret farms for D... and we know that doesn't work.
So if you find your favorite server seems to have the same team winnning over and over, try switching to a server with more/less people. See what happens.
Or not. <!--emo&:)--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/smile.gif' border='0' valign='absmiddle' alt='smile.gif'><!--endemo-->
Comments
<ul>
<li>With too few people, alien ambushes become much more successful, and much more devastating.
<li>With too many people, marines are capable of fielding multiple combat capable groups and can therefore expand in several directions simultaneously. Either situation puts much more stress on the cohesiveness and teamplay of the other team.
<li>With 12-16 players, you can have one combat group of marines and still allow for casualties without destroying their effectiveness.
</ul>