What's going on?

rmbrown09rmbrown09 Join Date: 2012-10-17 Member: 162592Members
edited October 2013 in NS2 General Discussion
I took a break from the game about 6 months ago. Back then there were 2.5k plus players daily, lots of servers etc. I have been looking at the steam stats recently and have been noticing that NS2 isn't even making the top 100 on most played Steam games. What happened to this game / community? Again I have been out of this for a while now but it seems like the whole game just died over the last 6 months.
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Comments

  • UncleCrunchUncleCrunch Mayonnaise land Join Date: 2005-02-16 Member: 41365Members, Reinforced - Onos
    welcome back
    ...and you have a lot of readings to do.
    Long story.
  • killer monkeykiller monkey Join Date: 2010-02-26 Member: 70743Members, Reinforced - Shadow
    Great question, I dont know
  • sglee241sglee241 Join Date: 2006-12-30 Member: 59321Members, Constellation
    lack of contents to keep ppl playing. there is no awards. getting bored.
  • NordicNordic Long term camping in Kodiak Join Date: 2012-05-13 Member: 151995Members, NS2 Playtester, NS2 Map Tester, Reinforced - Supporter, Reinforced - Silver, Reinforced - Shadow
    Maybe it did not die, but more shaken and shifted down to the core.
  • HobocopHobocop Join Date: 2010-11-23 Member: 75226Members, Reinforced - Shadow
    edited October 2013
    Was this six months ago during or close to a free weekend?
  • SjNSjN Join Date: 2003-01-07 Member: 11983Members, Reinforced - Supporter
    marines are faster than aliens now. so i heard they're switching names... marines will be aliens and aliens will be marines.
  • 2cough2cough Rocky Mountain High Join Date: 2013-03-14 Member: 183952Members, Reinforced - Shadow, WC 2013 - Supporter
    Hobocop wrote: »
    Was this six months ago during or close to a free weekend?

    Agree, that seems like a pretty high number for it to not be a free wknd. Anyways, yeah there seems to be less goin on, but on the other hand, I am able to find same servs open consistently. Thusly, I'm able to play w/ the same peepz more often, which I mostly like.

  • RadimaXRadimaX Join Date: 2013-02-05 Member: 182840Members
    the game changed twice per month, instead of new maps we had essensially new game to adapt to every 2 weeks. still waiting on DISCOVERY (releasedate 2017+?)
  • AchillesAchilles Join Date: 2013-04-20 Member: 184907Members
    Yeah, the 6 month haitus may be a blessing in disguise. You'll only have to relearn 1 new game, instead of the 4-6 like the rest of us! xD
  • NordicNordic Long term camping in Kodiak Join Date: 2012-05-13 Member: 151995Members, NS2 Playtester, NS2 Map Tester, Reinforced - Supporter, Reinforced - Silver, Reinforced - Shadow
    A good bit of pessimism going on here. It is not as bad as some make it out to be ^ but there was change. Arguably balance is highly improved.
  • ns2isgoodns2isgood Join Date: 2013-04-16 Member: 184847Members
    It hasn't died and it's still easy to find a game at all hours of the day. When a game has hundreds of players still playing, that isn't dead.
  • IronHorseIronHorse Developer, QA Manager, Technical Support & contributor Join Date: 2010-05-08 Member: 71669Members, Super Administrators, Forum Admins, Forum Moderators, NS2 Developer, NS2 Playtester, Squad Five Blue, Subnautica Playtester, Subnautica PT Lead, Pistachionauts
    Not to white knight, but coincidentally this is the screenshot i took last night (a random Wednesday evening in west coast USA)
    lxkUTEA.jpg

    Good enough for me. *shrug*
  • ZaliZali Join Date: 2013-06-23 Member: 185668Members
    IronHorse wrote: »
    Not to white knight, but coincidentally this is the screenshot i took last night (a random Wednesday evening in west coast USA)
    lxkUTEA.jpg

    Good enough for me. *shrug*

    One page of servers doesn't exactly give people that many options. A grand total of three servers with green pings and 100% performance, two 20 slots and a 24.
  • IronHorseIronHorse Developer, QA Manager, Technical Support & contributor Join Date: 2010-05-08 Member: 71669Members, Super Administrators, Forum Admins, Forum Moderators, NS2 Developer, NS2 Playtester, Squad Five Blue, Subnautica Playtester, Subnautica PT Lead, Pistachionauts
    edited October 2013
    @zali
    There has never been more than a handful of servers on the west coast, so nothing new there with having only a couple <100 latency.
    Not to mention my internet is terrible, (i live on a farm with no cable or dsl available) and you can play pub ns2 just fine with a latency of 100ms anyways.

    So while you see 3 servers, i see 20+
    Like i said... good enough for me.
  • MoFoMoFo Join Date: 2013-09-09 Member: 188047Members
    I've also seen a massive drop in numbers since reinforced. Nearly all of my favorite servers used to be full 24/7, yet now they're empty most of the time...

    I think the reason so many people are leaving has to do with whatever they screwed up with regards to Skulk vs Marine movement. Whether it's the strafe jump itself, or something they tinkered with in the coding of collision or skulk movement... it doesn't really matter.

    Ever since the change I notice that roughly half my bites that should be connecting (and did before the change) aren't... Even when I'm literally running up the Marine's leg it can miss...

    Extremely frustrating, and a huge turn off for many players... myself included. Still holding out hope they fix it.
  • NeoQuaker1NeoQuaker1 New York Join Date: 2013-02-19 Member: 183182Members, Reinforced - Supporter, Reinforced - Silver, Reinforced - Gold, Reinforced - Shadow, WC 2013 - Supporter
    sglee241 wrote: »
    lack of contents to keep ppl playing. there is no awards. getting bored.

    I'm glad that NS2 doesn't have a ranking/unlocking system like Battlefield 3. Everyone is always on the same playing field with no disadvantages.
  • BensonBenson Join Date: 2012-03-07 Member: 148303Members, Reinforced - Shadow, WC 2013 - Shadow
    edited October 2013
    My question about that photo is how bad does a server have to be to show as 23% performance considering how most servers (18-24) slots still have rubberbanding and show as 100% in the browser.....and why is it full?
  • KwisatzHaderachKwisatzHaderach Join Date: 2012-02-06 Member: 143872Members, Reinforced - Shadow, WC 2013 - Supporter
    edited October 2013
    MoFo wrote: »
    Ever since the change I notice that roughly half my bites that should be connecting (and did before the change) aren't... Even when I'm literally running up the Marine's leg it can miss...

    Extremely frustrating, and a huge turn off for many players... myself included. Still holding out hope they fix it.

    So, I'm not alone? There are times when I could bite my keyboard because I was craftily flanking a marine, sneak up on him and shove my muzzle down his bottom, start biting and only hear the cold and empty *grump* instead of the satisfying *GRUMPSCH GRUMPSCH*. Marine turns around. Dead. Same problem with swipe sometimes btw.

    Concerning OP:
    A lot of ppl can't handle change and NS2 has changed a lot! Also, with the indtroduction of the new render APIs (DX11 and OpenGL) the game ran pretty badly and many users had continued crashes.
    I'm sure there are a number ppl who are just pissed off at how UWE handle this game and thus quit playing: the focus on comp (noone can deny that anymore, not even me), the release of buggy new content builds just before the free weekend, the fundamental changes to gameplay every few months, the free updates and ongoing bugfixing :P
  • BobRossTheBossBobRossTheBoss Join Date: 2012-12-31 Member: 176824Members
    SjN wrote: »
    marines are faster than aliens now. so i heard they're switching names... marines will be aliens and aliens will be marines.

    To the kharaa, marines are the aliens.
  • VetinariVetinari Join Date: 2013-07-23 Member: 186325Members, Squad Five Blue, Reinforced - Shadow, WC 2013 - Silver
    james888 wrote: »
    A good bit of pessimism going on here. It is not as bad as some make it out to be ^ but there was change. Arguably balance is highly improved.

  • shonanshonan Join Date: 2013-01-28 Member: 182562Members, Reinforced - Shadow
    No problem finding games in Europe, good enough for me.
  • NeokenNeoken Bruges, Belgium Join Date: 2004-03-20 Member: 27447Members, NS2 Playtester, Reinforced - Shadow, WC 2013 - Silver, Subnautica Playtester
    Ah, people have been saying this game is dying since 2012, yet it's still here, getting updates, and seeing servers fill up every evening.
  • MuckyMcFlyMuckyMcFly Join Date: 2012-03-19 Member: 148982Members, Reinforced - Supporter, Reinforced - Shadow
    Servers I play on are almost always full and waiting for a slot, games going well despite the evil 'reinforced' patches.
  • Ghosthree3Ghosthree3 Join Date: 2010-02-13 Member: 70557Members, Reinforced - Supporter
    IronHorse wrote: »
    Not to white knight, but coincidentally this is the screenshot i took last night (a random Wednesday evening in west coast USA)
    lxkUTEA.jpg

    Good enough for me. *shrug*

    Meanwhile in straya, 2 maybe 2.5 full public servers at MOST any night of the week.
  • SpaSpa Join Date: 2013-05-20 Member: 185301Members
    Part of the problem is some of the old servers are out of date, and so the others are constantly full. However, I still have fun playing tbh this is the first game I learned to play with a keyboard.

    Rm- biomass, new tech tree alien and marine, grenades and researching is different along with alien vision. These are just a few changes. I just suggest playing and seeing what the changes were.
  • OtsOts Join Date: 2003-07-30 Member: 18577Members, Constellation
    To the grumpy people complaining about missing bites, did you try increasing your field of view(done in general options)? Cause that's what made me pretty much nail all my bites again.
  • joshhhjoshhh Milwaukee, WI Join Date: 2011-06-21 Member: 105717Members, NS2 Playtester, NS2 Map Tester, Reinforced - Supporter, Reinforced - Shadow, WC 2013 - Shadow, Subnautica Playtester
    ...or just angle your camera slightly up when biting in anticipation of the marine SJ. :D
  • BentRingBentRing Join Date: 2003-03-04 Member: 14318Members
    And ffs, quit holding the mouse button down when trying to bite a marine. All it really does it make it easier for a marine to track you.
  • popolitopopolito Join Date: 2013-08-29 Member: 187177Members
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