Remove rookie friendly?
xBlueXFoxx
Join Date: 2013-06-07 Member: 185497Members, Reinforced - Supporter
Join Date: 2013-06-07 Member: 185497Members, Reinforced - Supporter
I think it's safe to say, "Rookie Friendly" is VERY misleading, people just enable it now for more server activity, they always end up a mix of rookies and gives pub stompers a clear choice of what server to join.
IBIS, SteamGamers, Mavicks, LFkers, Hyperion, and many more, are rarely seen without experienced players getting their 5 minutes of fame, it's simply the reality, the majority of the public servers on the list are RF, it's a useless, misleading feature that does not work, but if anything has an opposite effect.
(These are just a few examples of servers that have very skilled players in them, I digress in terms of "bashing them," as there's many other servers that also get their share of pub stompers.)
IBIS, SteamGamers, Mavicks, LFkers, Hyperion, and many more, are rarely seen without experienced players getting their 5 minutes of fame, it's simply the reality, the majority of the public servers on the list are RF, it's a useless, misleading feature that does not work, but if anything has an opposite effect.
(These are just a few examples of servers that have very skilled players in them, I digress in terms of "bashing them," as there's many other servers that also get their share of pub stompers.)
Comments
In my opinion the tag "rookie friendly" says nothing about the skill lvl of a server at all. In fact there is no point why rookies shouldn't play together with advanced ppl. How else should they learn how to play this game the right way.
As for learning how to play the game correctly, that's a whole different subject, the odds of advanced players being in the server will likely be the same. I've mentioned in other topics that the tutorial and bot training system have a very long ways to go. I think an interactive tutorial should be made to show both the marine and alien aspects of the game showing what each portion can do, something more scripted, rather than a CPU heavy, not-so-great bot training system that half the bots get stuck on walls/objects.
Its always funny to see an official UWE "rookie friendly" server with the highest skill level (maybe the skill-level is useless also, who knows)
These "friendly" servers are unfriendly like every other server.
Example: If a rookie jumps in the CC and start with an turretfactory, you see the 1st ejection votes.
Servers with "no rookies" in the servername are useless also btw, cause you have 40% rookies on them most of the time.
Most people dont want to wait and they join populated servers.
Im sure people who play the 1st time would join servers named "1st time players getting perma banned here" if the server has enough players.
Couldn't have said it better myself.
I think the "skill" meter is intended to replace it in the future, but how exactly does that system work anyways?
Interesting to see what they come up with.
Valid point, but again I don't believe there's much detail of what the skill meter exactly is or how it's determined, I only recall "Skill meter added" in the reinforced update change log. I doubt the majority of users really use the skill meter, but that may just be me.
I'm hoping more changes are made to make the game more welcoming to new players, minor assistance, interactive tutorials, bug fixes and balancing, and a bit less confusion on what servers are more accepted of new players. But as mentioned, Rookie Friendly does not in anyway mean Rookie Friendly, and just adds confusion.
Ofc there is as ns2 is "open source". The skill meter displayes the avg. skill rating of all players who are on the server. You can look up you rating here: http://hive.naturalselection2.com/ But the function for the skill rating has changed a lot in the last month.
There are just two cons about this system: 1. Not many servers are whitelisted for the "hive". 2. A Elo/Rating System needs a matchmaking system to be correct. Otherwise the player skill rating / elo is too much based on how much teams are balanced.
Personally, I do not use rookie servers (except for bringing friends into the game) so at least I refrain from pub stomping there. Not likely I'm alone in this.
Firstly, I take "rookie friendly" to mean that I would have to refrain from playing my best or at least comm every round. Secondly, the level of game play and communication seems much better on the european non-rookie servers which I frequent. (Oh, and make that non-french, non-russian, as I speak neither french nor russian
I only wish the crappy server browser would finally get a usability upgrade and I could filter or blacklist out all the servers I never want to visit. And could... oh, you know what. I'm not even going to open that can of worms... There are so many threads on the server browser.
The fact that they haven't done any of these things hopefully suggests that they've planned to deal with these problems when that big ranking system that they announced a while back is released.
This would also allow for a higher level of population growth imo, taking the edge off of a game for those who would rather not get cut to much.
Safety bubbles!
Sounds like a massive marine buff to me
All the poor rookies would hate to play alien with that.
I dislike the rookie tag though. Once the hive ranking system works properly I would love to see joining servers to be only possible within a certain skill window.
That would require an extremely accurate ranking system of course. But it enables to have "rookie"-servers, servers just for very high skilled people
and mixed servers where rookies could learn from experienced players or experienced players could play drunk or so...
Yeah, no. Between rookie servers and 18+ there's really not much if anything to pick from.
Beyond that I'd agree that the rookie tag is a failed attempt at hoarding rookies to one server. Even if it would have worked you run into the issue of "NEWBIES HERE, ALL YOU CAN EAT".
If UWE does get the matchmaking system of the ground they should redo the whole rookie system and base it on player-skill. Maybe allow 2 players above the threshold to join but only allow them to comm or spectate.
As horrible and crappy those TRUE rookie only games might be, at least that way you might keep people interested long enough to want to improve. Most gamers these days are casual and when they get stomped, they never look back.
*Starts game*
Oh look a tutorial.
*15 minutes later*
That seemed really pointless, I mean I already know the game I bought contained the feature to construct buildings... that is why I bought a hybrid RTS/FPS game in the first place. I guess I will just figure out how to use all that other stuff like exosuits and fades later on while playing. Oh well, on to the server browser. Oh look a noob friendly server, I don’t normally bother with these in other games, but this one is more complicated, so I will give it a shot. Marines seem cool, let’s begin!
*Spawns*
Commander dropped some buildings at base so I will build those. Ok, those are done, time to move on to the next ZOMFG MY FACE.
*Dead*
Wow he was on top of me before I even fired a shot. Let me try getting there with teammates. Hmm… they are all over the place but this one guy is going in the right direction, so I will stick with him. Commander dropped a building in this new room, so let’s build ZOMFG MY KNEES.
*Dead*
Where the hell did he come from? He killed both of us so easily.
*Another 10 minutes of being steamrolled*
Everyone just stays at base, aliens don’t attack. Marines have a trickle of resources coming in and just repair the base buildings and defend the entrances. A vote to concede continually comes up, but I don’t know how to vote. Someone says “it’s the C key”, but I remapped it, and there is no option to reset to defaults.
Wondering where the other team was, I am about to venture out when 3 skulks run into the base and explode, killing 9 marines. While spectating, I see the rest of the heavily upgraded aliens run in and start attacking all the buildings. Then a couple lerks camp out behind the infantry portals and spawn kill marines. The aliens destroy the comm building and that terrible match is over.
So for the second match a vote goes up to randomize teams. It passes, but nothing changes. The marines get steamrolled again. At this point I switch to another rookie friendly server. I try aliens this time.
*Spawns*
Alright marines are going to get it this time. Their guns are so weak, all I need to is charge at them from the ceiling and BRAAAAP.
*Dead*
WTF! I’m dead? HOW?! This is the exact same technique those other guys were using but these marines can insta kill me from across a room in one burst.
*Another 5 minutes of getting insta killed after entering every room*
Oh forget this.
*Quits game*
Based on the above experience, do you think most new players would continue playing? The only reason I’m even bothering to post is because I played NS1 for years. Unfortunately, I moved out in the country and only had satellite internet, so all I could do was watch NS2 develop and wait for release. Now, I am finally in a place with an awesome internet connection, so of course the first thing I do is buy NS2. All I can say about this game is I am massively disappointed.
TLDR
Getting continually crushed by ahole players who seem hell bent on destroying noobs for lulz is going to kill this game. The rookie only servers are a giant trap that will only turn people away. There is no ability to learn, because you are crushed with .01 seconds of seeing an enemy. Hence the situation above. I full well know you have to expand in this game to win, but the nanosecond we dared venture 10 feet from base, all of us would get killed. Coordinated fire, sticking together, checking corners and ceiling, all proved useless against players who knew every inch of the map, flanking and killing us all with ease.
I am not mad about the money I spent, or those other players (it is the internet after all). I just really want to play NS again and not have it die. So please devs, disable this noob trap and give noobs a chance.
I think a common misconception is that it means "rookie friendly" and not "rookie only". Also, as stated before, there are too few servers to not go on the rookie friendly servers. Being helpful is all you can do...
btw
The only thing missing is that someone tries to kick you for speccing
The one thing I know about griefers is that they can spread like wildfire if left unchecked. You don't want newbies emulating and be accepting of this behavior. In fact, a lot of players will specifically avoid communities that have been tainted by an ever expanding group of griefers. While I will still play because of my love of NS1, others may not. New players are essential to the life and longevity of any game, but even more so for an indie game. Hence why I am so very concerned.
I highly doubt that is what happened.
In all the time I've played NS2 I have only known a team to try to pull this once (my team) and it actually resulting in someone on my team attempting to vote-kick me when I informed the other team my team was just planning to base rush then then pull out and camp intentionally. So while yes it could happen I have to think it would be pretty rare based on my experience. I have seen more winning teams concede when they have been unable to break a siege and the losers (usually marines) refuse to concede just for the sake of ending the game than winning teams try to prolong the game.
If marines get backed up into their base early it is becomes more and more difficult for and alien team (in a public game) to end the game before they tech up. This effect is greatly exaggerated on large player count servers and the amount of focus fire marine teams are able to output when grouped up. This results in most alien players either suiciding into the marine base, picking off wandering marines or waiting for the marines to concede. The reality is the alien team probably cannot organize well enough to end the game as half their team is new or just not listening. Then there's player(s) who did most of the work to back you into the base, they simply cannot overwhelm you to end the game without the support of their team.
On the flipside it can be hard for marines to end the game if their commander does not support their push on the hive with offensive PG/armory/obs/meds/nano etc. this tends to happen less often though. Sometimes the "wait for exos to push" mentality permeates a team of pub marines even if they are having no issues containing the alien team. Unless that is what happened to you which, yeah, that sucks.
I've never seen this happening. Problem is: The enemy team doesn't have to be made out entirely of vets - two or three experienced player coordinating or being in the right place at the right time can pretty much decide a game.
I'm agreeing with all @crymeariver said - I had the following even happen some hours ago.