NS Becoming More and More
Syringed
Join Date: 2003-04-17 Member: 15579Members, Constellation
Join Date: 2003-04-17 Member: 15579Members, Constellation
<div class="IPBDescription">Like Team Fortress Classic?</div>Ever since I started playing NS again, it seems like litterally half the servers poofed from existance that I used to know. Frequently, I'm starting to learn a lot of the new servers around (Which I will refrain from naming.) are nothing but bot servers are often do not tell you in their title or otherwise as a method of trying to lure players under false assumptions.
It's stuff like this that eventually killed TFC after a while and I really hope some new NS or even combat servers become open over time. I remember in the good ol' 1.04 days when it was possible to find packed servers even at early morning hours in the US. No longer does that happen. <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/confused-fix.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid="???" border="0" alt="confused-fix.gif" />
It's stuff like this that eventually killed TFC after a while and I really hope some new NS or even combat servers become open over time. I remember in the good ol' 1.04 days when it was possible to find packed servers even at early morning hours in the US. No longer does that happen. <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/confused-fix.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid="???" border="0" alt="confused-fix.gif" />
Comments
Maybe i should install bots?!
NOT
When I originally read the title, I thought he would mention the way NS has become a lot more "FPS with occasional structure building" (like TFC) than the RTS/FPS hybrid it used to be.
Euro :
FX Clan
YO Clan
VCS Public
NA :
Lunixmonster (if its still around)
TacticalGamer
Only servers worth playing on IMHO :
Euro :
FX Clan
<b>YO Clan</b>
VCS Public
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Thx for the recommendation SpaceJesus. We try our best to keep a decent community and server at YO.
On regs nights, we tend to have mostly very good games. The ones where you are about to lose, yet somehow manage to claw it back and win. Those are awesome games.
When the server is public, the games in general are average to poor depending on who's playing. WE've been seeing a lot of new and returning players to our servers who are learning or re-learning how to play NS. While that is going on, as well as the transition to 3.2, I expect games quality to start to rise in the next month or so.
edit: okay maybe the reg nights are cool, but public... i cant stand it...
are there realy so much clanners? are you sure? maybe I always join at the wrong time...
Ever since I started playing NS again, it seems like litterally half the servers poofed from existance that I used to know. Frequently, I'm starting to learn a lot of the new servers around (Which I will refrain from naming.) are nothing but bot servers are often do not tell you in their title or otherwise as a method of trying to lure players under false assumptions.
It's stuff like this that eventually killed TFC after a while and I really hope some new NS or even combat servers become open over time. I remember in the good ol' 1.04 days when it was possible to find packed servers even at early morning hours in the US. No longer does that happen. <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/confused-fix.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid="???" border="0" alt="confused-fix.gif" />
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I have a theory as to why this is happening, which plays into some of the things that the devs are responsible for, and some things that they are not.
Here are the things that they are not responsible for.
1, Having the game on a dated engine I've read that people get new computers around every 4 to 5 years, NS has been out for a little over 4 years. I'm sure people moved on because they might have gotten upgrades or a new system, and they want to see the latest graphics as well as different gameplay. Nothing can really be done about that.
2. General Attrition. This means people drop out of a varieyt of reasons, i.e. learning curve, not enough time, switching genres, etc... In short this means that people naturally stop playing the game for a variety of reasons.
Here are the things that the development team IS responsible for.
1. Forums and website down for over a year. Flayra's original premise behind this game was to create a unique social experience beyond the game. For the most part he succeeded, as there were many forum discusssions, server communities and competitive teams were formed, and even educational sites such as NSguides and NSlearn formed. The forums were a large part of this success, and when they crumbled for whatever reason, that hurt the dev team's credibility, and also contrubuted to some attrition with server communities crumbling as well as having CAL-NS close its doors. Many community members felt (and justifiably so) that NS had closed its doors forever, and were not going to waste their time supporting a team that did nothing in return for them for over a year.
2. People being unhappy with newer versions. Statistically, sicne 2.01 the player base has dropped significantly with each new version released. In short, the more versions the dev team put out, the less people were playing them. Part of the reason is the ineffective and anecdotal method of testing, with often their times their theories not corresponding with reality. For example, their balancing procedure is attrocious, they do not have ranked individuals so balancing skill is a crap shoot, and they also do not test things appropriately when actually doing testing. The developers change several variables at once with each new patch, despite a majority of the community complaing that they do just that. Changing a variety of variables makes it difficult to figure out with aspect of the game is unbalanced as well as the potential combination effects that may or may not exist based on the combination of variables. This probably lead to a lot of loyal community members to quit and move on to other games.
3. Impossible demans on the development team due to the significantly delay of a <i>beta</i>. The developer team claimed they were working on the new version ever since the site went down and assured the competitive community (on the CAL Forums no less) that they were working hard, doing everything they can, and make the new version "better". Unfortunately the new version is extremely too little, and way too late. The damage is already done with again the server communities failing, and CAL-NS being diminished. People waited for so long and it got built up only to be disappointed. And a lot of players are still complaining about the current version still being inadequate and either reverted back to the previous version, or stopped playing altogether.
I'm sure there might be more reasons, but these are what I think of off the top of my head at the time of writing this. I apologize in advance if anyone is offended, and I already expect that my views will be seen either as biased or simply not true because of my status with some people within this community.
Despite all that I believe that my theory holds water, its just a matter of whether people whill choose to believe it, or ignore it because it is not uncondtional postive regard that so many of the developers are currently conditioned to.
Thank you.
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you can blame nsa for that crap. "lets have a 30 person ns server!" how about F$©K no
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If you have a problem with the way our server is run, I recommend that you goto #nsagames and talk to an op.
And to be perfectly honest, we are thinking about taking down the NS server simply because at the time of its rebirth, only minimal people have connected to it, I don't believe changing the server size will fix any of that, but I would be happy to experiment in case I am wrong.
Our box can only handle so much, and we want to get the most effective use out of it as possible, if that means that we remove NS due to community stagnation than so be it.
"Using script #numbers!, speedhack detected. Banned permanently"
What crap! I played there for one round and was banned in RR while jumping around like crazy.. :s
From now on I remain completely silence and stand still in RR so I don't get banned for jumping around fast.
Extra levels has stopped combat being fun <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/sad-fix.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":(" border="0" alt="sad-fix.gif" />
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QFT.
QFT.
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Completely agree. Planetary Defender for the lose.
Then co maps came and destroyed the pleasure of the effort.
But anyway, i remember there were already some bot servers at 2.1 times, but there were plenty of full ffa servers at anytime too.
Speak of combat though, I think that whole game kind of ruins the skill level of the alien players who get used to it. Namely because they get used to stacking upgrades that can't be stacked in regular NS, and because they get used to dieing more often with advanced lifeforms, which is ok for CO but very bad for NS. It also gets people used to not spending res on structures. Combat should be adjusted so that it benefits NS rather than detracts from it, IMO.
anyways, i really miss the 1.04 days. It was just too addicting, i dunno why though.
The games were epic and it was a constant back and forth battle. Anything could change the outcome. It was just the best game ever back then and its a shame some people couldnt experience that.
I remember when i had my old 16 player 1.04 server up, oh man full constantly, every game was something to remember. i just couldnt stop playing.
i think firewater is completely right.
anyways, i really miss the 1.04 days. It was just too addicting, i dunno why though.
The games were epic and it was a constant back and forth battle. Anything could change the outcome. It was just the best game ever back then and its a shame some people couldnt experience that.
I remember when i had my old 16 player 1.04 server up, oh man full constantly, every game was something to remember. i just couldnt stop playing.
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Unfortunately it doesn't matter what you or I think, only what is happening right now.