When Ns Gets Flooded By The My Games List
Karrd
Join Date: 2005-02-26 Member: 42555Members
Join Date: 2005-02-26 Member: 42555Members
<div class="IPBDescription">What will people do with the new players</div> I'm sure most people will agree that when NS finally makes it to the My Games list in steam, we're going to be flooded by a lot of new players. I'm posting this topic, so that maybe we can work out ahead of time what can be done to ease the problems that will inevitably appear. This topic is not for discussing whether or not newbies will be good for NS or for the differences between CO and NS, or anything else.
So, what can be done to both help the influx of new players, and to help the established players?
The first idea that pops into my head would be to try to create a group of players who would try to act as traffic officers, directing newbies towards the newbie friendly servers, and away from the newbies unfriendly ones.
Another idea would be for servers to at least temporarily change thier names to reflect whether or not newbies should join them.
Also, if most established players would remember the names and addresses of the sites that help you learn NS, that would be helpful.
That's my ideas, just for a start, what else can we do to help the transition?
So, what can be done to both help the influx of new players, and to help the established players?
The first idea that pops into my head would be to try to create a group of players who would try to act as traffic officers, directing newbies towards the newbie friendly servers, and away from the newbies unfriendly ones.
Another idea would be for servers to at least temporarily change thier names to reflect whether or not newbies should join them.
Also, if most established players would remember the names and addresses of the sites that help you learn NS, that would be helpful.
That's my ideas, just for a start, what else can we do to help the transition?
Comments
Give newbies admin powers? <!--emo&:D--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/biggrin-fix.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='biggrin-fix.gif' /><!--endemo-->
Or,we could just play NS as normal and help along any newbie Q's like "how do I build" and "what's an onos...AAAHHH!!". <!--emo&::onos::--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/tiny.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='tiny.gif' /><!--endemo-->
Everyone was new at everything at some point.
If they ask for help, then:
"messagemode 1 <b><span style='color:RED'>ADAPT</b></span>"
Although, I guess a list of noob-friendly servers that NSPlayer can easily access wouldn't hurt.
So, what can be done to both help the influx of new players, and to help the established players?
The first idea that pops into my head would be to try to create a group of players who would try to act as traffic officers, directing newbies towards the newbie friendly servers, and away from the newbies unfriendly ones.
Another idea would be for servers to at least temporarily change thier names to reflect whether or not newbies should join them.
Also, if most established players would remember the names and addresses of the sites that help you learn NS, that would be helpful.
That's my ideas, just for a start, what else can we do to help the transition? <!--QuoteEnd--> </td></tr></table><div class='postcolor'> <!--QuoteEEnd-->
The current people who think they are skilled but get rocked by competitive players will have people to condesend to.
So it will seem like they don't suck as bad.
No doubt Valve would make a news post telling everyone that NS is now available on My Games. I think it would be best if they also stressed learning something about the MOD before playing (ie providing a link to NS's manual), or else there will be many many confused people...
Also, some kind of effort will need to be made to point out to everyone the differences between CO gameplay and NS gameplay, and to make sure new players understand when a server is running mods (there aren't that many vanilla servers out there anymore).
Also, also, has anyone considered the potential problem of the number of players exceeding the number of server slots?
Things will go much smoother if things like this are worked out or prepared for ahead of time. That is what this topic is for, not for just saying to help out the newbies. Overall, NS is a very friendly community, and I have no doubt that most of the old players will help the new ones adapt, but that won't be enough.
Although it would be very complicated explaining all of NS.
Although it would be very complicated explaining all of NS. <!--QuoteEnd--> </td></tr></table><div class='postcolor'> <!--QuoteEEnd-->
i agree with zaggy this would help immensily
There are ~ 450 servers right now. Assuming they average to about 20 slots per server, that gives all of NS a current capacity of 9,000 players simultaniously. This is including all the password locked servers, and I doubt the servers actually average to 20 slots per server.
Now, as of right now, during the middle of the day (not during peak hours at night) NS has ~1,000 players playing, Day of Defeat has ~5,500, and CS has ~96,000.
The potential problem isn't that there will simply be many newbies, it's that the number of new players could easily exceed the number of old players. Imagen not being able to join servers, or joining a server to be one of only a few experienced players.
CO overshadowing NS, however, will be a huge problem. It woud be best to remove it as soon as possible.
And this isn't a topic about removing CO, keep the comments on topic: what we can do to help deal with the flood of players that will arrive when NS gets on the my games list.
remember, back in 2.0 and before there wasn't any CO to help us grasp the basic concept of how ns works. yet we still managed to learn it and love it. but maybe that is because everyone was a noob then <!--emo&:p--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/tounge.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='tounge.gif' /><!--endemo--> . and maybe update the manual, we don't want them wondering why the hell there aren't these things called babblers in the game.
I'm not saying there <b>Will</b> be an influx of players, I'm saying there <b>Might</b> be. And as it stands, if a moderate portion of the potential players tried the game out at about the same time (and I can almost guarantie there will be a spike in the short time after NS is first added to the My Games list) there will be significant problems.
An example analogy: Imagine the problems a learning server would have if 2 CAL players joined and played for awhile. Now imagine what would happen if a CAL team suddenly had to play with 3/4 of it's players being slightly below average.
The problem isn't that the new players won't learn (eventually), it's that potentially, there will be a time when the mixture of new players vs old ones will be extremely out of proportion. And that would cause NS to be a very different game.
I think it would be wise to at least have a plan already prepared, just in case this does happen. It wouldn't end NS by any means, but it would put a dent in it for quite awhile, as well as scaring off a large number of potential players.
And also, even if there isn't a massive influx, having a few things done (such as pointing out what servers are Newbie friendly) could gain NS alot of players they might miss otherwise.
How would this list of newbie friendly servers get to new players? Most new people will probably see it listed, and install it from there. They won't read a manual, they won't read any news item about the game, they will start playing as fast as possible. No matter what information you make available, they won't see it. The only preparation that can happen is in contacting server owners, and possibly having them change server names for a short period of time, or other similarly helpful changes.
Just hoping won't help guide them to the right servers. That's why I created this topic.
<!--QuoteBegin-im lost+--></div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> (im lost)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'><!--QuoteEBegin-->...Most new people will probably see it listed, and install it from there. They won't read a manual, they won't read any news item about the game, they will start playing as fast as possible. No matter what information you make available, they won't see it. The only preparation that can happen is in contacting server owners, and possibly having them change server names for a short period of time, or other similarly helpful changes.<!--QuoteEnd--></td></tr></table><div class='postcolor'><!--QuoteEEnd-->
That's some of the things I've been trying to get across. A guide, and training maps, will help some people, but most of those people are the type who would have figured it out anyways. Something more active, like changing server names, or the like is needed to not only get the new players into the right servers, but give them at least a general idea of how to play ahead of time.
and tell em to type gg flamethrower in console to get a flamethrower
All of them might not stay, but some will.
And the people who leave the community because they cant handel the influx of new players....well, good bye. If you dont have the patience to teach new people the ropes for the 2 weeks that people will try this mod for and then decide if they want to move on or still play because its fun, then you dont belong here.
Just so I know where to point people to, or take them to, for guidance..
And yeah the influx is gonna be a mini nightmare that would need controling to an extent for the hardcore servers.
/Edit Spalling,..Gramm'or...,
On the stereotyping of CS players, grow up. Not everyone that plays CS is a deathmatch 12 year old flamer with no intelligence or patience, and not every NS player is the epitome of teamwork and strategy. Just as many idiots play CS as NS by ratio if I had to guess. Let the players speak for themselves instead of you putting words into their mouth or acting for them.
Instead of asking for a sticky with newbie/vet servers, etc, why don't one of you asking for it actually make one then ask for it to be stickied? Actions say more than words do.
There won't be a huge influx of players. All new players do is play a game or two, then quit and never play again because the learning curve is absurdly steep. IT would be nice, but in reality there will be little to no change. More players than ns server slots...lol....thats a good one. <!--QuoteEnd--> </td></tr></table><div class='postcolor'> <!--QuoteEEnd-->
If that were right, then no one would be playing NS, since we would all had to quit when we started out.
Remeber, we were all new once.
My 2 cents.
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agree. just stay friendy towards the newbies who want to give this game a try. <!--emo&:)--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/smile-fix.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='smile-fix.gif' /><!--endemo-->
Although it would be very complicated explaining all of NS. <!--QuoteEnd--></td></tr></table><div class='postcolor'><!--QuoteEEnd-->
i agree with zaggy this would help immensily<!--QuoteEnd--></td></tr></table><div class='postcolor'><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Issue is and always has been lack of scriptable events etc..
Meat Popsicles map is a reasonable start for those already familiar with NS, but considering I've found ways to kill myself and get trapped outside the map, drop all sorts of objects where I shouldn't and effectively break the map by spending all my res then recycling RT's and dropping med packs everywhere it's just not the training map needed in this case. A training/hazard map NEEDS to be able to teach a new player how to play the game and protect them from being able to break it. (Think HL training map, you simply can't break the map)
Unfort. it looks like 'My Games' will occur before all the issues that arise from building a training map will happen so we will have to work around this absence...
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<!--QuoteBegin--></div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> </td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'><!--QuoteEBegin-->remember, back in 2.0 and before there wasn't any CO to help us grasp the basic concept of how ns works. yet we still managed to learn it and love it. but maybe that is because everyone was a noob then <!--emo&:p--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/tounge.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='tounge.gif' /><!--endemo--> . and maybe update the manual, we don't want them wondering why the hell there aren't these things called babblers in the game.<!--QuoteEnd--></td></tr></table><div class='postcolor'><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Take a look at both the official and community manuals.. They are both current as of 3.0F (and NiteOwl's might actually be more up to date than that)