Newbie question
FireFro
Join Date: 2002-04-12 Member: 426Members
Join Date: 2002-04-12 Member: 426Members
<div class="IPBDescription">Please tolerate me</div>I have a question I've been pondering for awhile. I read the FAQ and most of the stuff at readyroom, and it's given me a good sense for how the flow of a match might go. I understand about resources and how victory is gained, but I'm still a little curious about how long an average game would last. Obviously this depends on how good the teams are, but on average, how long does it take for evenly matched, competent teams to drain another's resources down and finish them off? It sounds like games can be pretty extended what with players evolving and fortifying and building resources, but just how long does it all take? Would even experienced teams find that a match could be long or short depending on the variables, or is it generally over in a few minutes?
Also, are any different gametypes being planned where the objectives will be different?
If I should have seen this else where I apologize. This game has me all excited.
Also, are any different gametypes being planned where the objectives will be different?
If I should have seen this else where I apologize. This game has me all excited.
Comments
Which is a good thing.
As for gametypes, several alternatives have been raised, but no alternatives will be going into the game until version 2 at the earliest.
<!--EDIT|Greedo386|April 12 2002,20:43-->
...you b@stards. <!--emo&:D--><img src="http://www.natural-selection.org/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif" border="0" valign="absmiddle" alt=':D'><!--endemo-->
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20-minute games have been the goal for awhile, but we're not near that right now. Some games are over in 5 minutes, others (many) have lasted well over an hour. If people don't mind playing longer games, and the late-join works well, AND, the CPL doesn't mind longer games, then we won't actively try to bring the average game time down.
The biggest thing I'd be worried about with longer games is spectatability and what the CPL thinks of it.
i think in the playtesting this is not a problem, but in the mass crowd it <u>might</u> be.
*cough* emipre earth *cough* 9 hours per game *cough*
2 hours is right on par for RTS games... unless there's mad tankcrushing/helicopter gibbing/ zerg mutalisk swarming <!--emo&:D--><img src="http://www.natural-selection.org/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif" border="0" valign="absmiddle" alt=':D'><!--endemo-->
You know... the sport of playing games...
It would be unfortunate to have a commander leave half-way through a pub match, but whether its a 20 minute or an hour long match, this is bound to happen sometimes. Just hope whoever takes over is quick to adapt.
If CPL has a problem with long games you could try putting a time limit in for League matches (whichever teams is winning after 20 minutes) but that wouldn't be as fun and I have no idea how you would measure who's winning.
For me personally 20-30 minutes games would be ideal, and I'd enjoy one that went over an hour (even if I had to leave it before it ended) because if it lasts that long it must be a good match. Some people might have issues with an hour game, but I get the impression these aren't frequent and are usually the result of a good, balanced match (in which case people will hopefully be enjoying it too much to care)
even if a game is 2h long its not slow... i can tell you that... the 2h games is more like long battles for the last nodes, its really stressed and intense, and how cant u luww the feeling of being in the enemy hive alone and the motion tracker spots 3aliens..! iiii (8
as for public games and ppl entering and leaving the whole game, i really dont see this as much of an issue. often with other FPSs players pop in and out to get a few frags in here and there. when you join an NS game, ure making a commitment and its so much better if you play the game through. its addictive... ~:)
The point limit would never be reached.
A very long game is good ONLY if the game is interesting enough to last that long. In a game like this you shouldn't rush. It makes a feeling of incompleteness because you never finished the battle. If what I'm seeing about NS is any indication its going to be worth an ammount of game time. However, do put in a way to vote to change the map or something to that effect.
It would make all-night Lan parties helluva fun.
1: If flayra and friends designed it to last twenty minutes or thirty, thats how long it probobly will take (mas or menos) to research the whole tech tree. After that, everyone and his grandmother might end up traipsing around with nuke guns and stuff (With no more research to drain the rp pool, they can buy more weapons, which are probobly priced to be balanced with the other drains on the marine rp pool)
2: Many players will have to leave over the course of a game for activities in that oh so irritating real world. Because players cant join once a game is in progress (as far as I have been lead to believe), this leads to a game starting out with a good 32 players, but ending with a tiny grouping of 10 to 15 players (enough for one, maybe two squads of marines).
3: As has already been mentioned, many fpsers are used to playing for thirty minutes to an hour (and in some cases, an hour and a half). Because a player that joins a server must spectate until they can begin the next round, very few players will be willing to wait more than twenty to thirty minutes (even the most patient among us) before being able to play. Result: People decide the mod is not worth their time and go get some substandard instant gratification like CS.
I could be wrong, after all, Im not a playtester . . . . But, my guess is that the team will hold to their twenty to thirty minute goal. Course, at lan parties or somehting similar, a nice two hour game would be fun. Maybe they could make a seperate mode, just checked in the box, which would extend the game length by tweaking things (research time, respawn wait, costs of leveling up, costs of building etc . . .) I dont know though. This post has been a tribute to Pimpy.
3: As has already been mentioned, many fpsers are used to playing for thirty minutes to an hour (and in some cases, an hour and a half). Because a player that joins a server must spectate until they can begin the next round, very few players will be willing to wait more than twenty to thirty minutes (even the most patient among us) before being able to play. Result: People decide the mod is not worth their time and go get some substandard instant gratification like CS.<!--QuoteEnd--></td></tr></table><span id='postcolor'><!--QuoteEEnd-->
You can join pretty much at any time (or so I've been lead to believe). You join with the next reinforcement purchase, or the next time the hive spawns some eggs or whatever they're using to determine spawning on the alien side.
<!--EDIT|Moleculor|April 14 2002,17:30-->
Is NS not going to support mid-game joins? Maybe once the game has started, players could join but would automatically be assigned to the team with fewer players. This would both allow people to join late, and help make up for uneven teams if others leave.
The only worry is the tech tree... if the game's been going for a while, spawning as a Bob is going to be difficult. Here's a thought: maybe give them a hand based on the point at which they enter the game. I imagine there will be a tally of the total number of RP gained by each side over the course of the game... so try this:
For aliens, give them X resource points to start, where X=Xo + CR (Xo is default starting resources for alien, C is a fractional multiplier, and R is the # of RP that each alien has received since the game started, minus RP for kills).
For marines, inform the Commander that he has a new marine to look after. Then add X points to the Marine resource pool, where X is based on the R/M (R is the total # of RP mined by the Marines, while M is the # of Marines in the game).
This is from someone who doesn't know the resource structure well, but it's a starting point, right? (:
I sure hope not. That would suck majorly. I'd probably end up not playing NS if it was like that. I have the patience of a hyperactive three year old buzzed on sugar. I don't think I could wait even ten minutes for the match to be over. An hour would be a game breaker for me.