I must not fear.
Fear is the mind-killer.
Fear is the green-tide that brings total obliteration.
I will face the tide.
I will permit it to pass over me and through me.
And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path.
Where the tide has gone there will be nothing....only I will remain.
btw loki, u made kodiakFIVE to right? there is a slight bug on the map where you removed the hallway hangar bay, some triangles dissapear at certain positions, If you got the time to fix that that would be great ^^
Lets summarize the 1st day of sale:
Over 1000 players again, wich is good
+1. Love seeing so many new players!
But:
They play on horrible rubberbanding servers:
I don't know, if I picked up a new game on Steam, joined a server, and got heavy lag or warping, the first thing I'd assume is that the server I'm playing on is simply crap. And what I'd do is try out other servers, not blame the game.
There are enough well-performing servers out there so that statistically, even rookies should realize soon that the game can perform very well.
So nothing changed. Its like all the sales before.
Except the fact that the game plays and performs better than it has during *any* sale so far?
I played with a decent group of rookies tonight. Three of which were pretty decent players picking stuff up quickly; they asked questions and communicated. I found it sad when they told me that they were not impressed with the game because it was too complicated. Out of all rookies, these were ones I actually enjoyed playing with. The height of the green wave yet they found it too complicated.
I also repeatedly heard that skulks eyes in the mouth was annoying.
Lets summarize the 1st day of sale:
Over 1000 players again, wich is good
But:
They play on horrible rubberbanding servers:
[
Getting stomped on rookie friendly servers:
So nothing changed. Its like all the sales before.
Well, we are back to 380 players in one week.
Be prepared for more "this game is dead" threads.
Good work.
Don't assume they -all- play in those servers that might actually rubberband.
Our rookie teaching project has been amazing, to a point where I might extend it for another week. Veterans have been incredibly supportive towards the new players, teaching the basics and showing how game mechanics works. You know what's the best thing about that? Those players came back to learn some more! There were very good reasons for that too. What's that you might ask? Not only the veterans have been extremely patient and supportive with the new players but they've also been amazingly kind. Even if the rookies sometimes ask silly questions (Where do get a robot?) and such, thank you all who has been visiting our server and supporting this project. Been great fun so far!
stop whining, be happy I put another quality server up.
I'm not. I just see for a fact that 24 slot server aren't what NS2 needs. I remember a video from UWE that said it would be better to try to play 6vs6 games... Being a magnet for players that are looking for crowded servers with a high number of player (that reflex coming from other games) isn't providing a good first contact for rookies. Nor showing the good example.
I think that 24 slot servers just end in bringing fresh meat to a bunch of rascals (they gonna stack). Player retention ? Well, this kind of server is more part of the problem than the solution.
BTW +1 for @DePARA. Rubber banding or not it's happening the same way it used to.
stop whining, be happy I put another quality server up.
I'm not. I just see for a fact that 24 slot server aren't what NS2 needs. I remember a video from UWE that said it would be better to try to play 6vs6 games... Being a magnet for players that are looking for crowded servers with a high number of player (that reflex coming from other games) isn't providing a good first contact for rookies. Nor showing the good example.
I think that 24 slot servers just end in bringing fresh meat to a bunch of rascals (they gonna stack). Player retention ? Well, this kind of server is more part of the problem than the solution.
BTW +1 for @DePARA. Rubber banding or not it's happening the same way it used to.
I personally don't think 24 slots are too bad (but I never go anything above that). However, it is true that high player count servers can make it harder for rookies to learn.
dePARAJoin Date: 2011-04-29Member: 96321Members, Squad Five Blue
I think the 2 screenshots of ATF telling us the true sad story:
30% of the servers cant handle the game and i cant imagine the 1st impression of new players playing on them.
Why are admns pushing there slotammounts to 24 and above on hardware that cant handle this?
Are they playing on there servers?
Im sure many of these bad performing servers would run ok with 16-18 slots.
Hell, even 36 slot wooza is running better than 30% of the servers out there (its a sad day for me to say that )
These bad performnig servers are one of the reasons new players didnt enjoy the game.
And its becoming worse when "homeadmins" firing up there 3 tick rubberband-hells.
Some sort of filter or blocking in the serverbrowser is needed.
Possible solution:
A master server should collect server data over a ammount of time (2-3 days maybe)
If a server is performing bad 50% of its uptime this server should not be shown in the browser.
I think the 2 screenshots of ATF telling us the true sad story:
30% of the servers cant handle the game and i cant imagine the 1st impression of new players playing on them.
Why are admns pushing there slotammounts to 24 and above on hardware that cant handle this?
Are they playing on there servers?
Im sure many of these bad performing servers would run ok with 16-18 slots.
Hell, even 36 slot wooza is running better than 30% of the servers out there (its a sad day for me to say that )
These bad performnig servers are one of the reasons new players didnt enjoy the game.
And its becoming worse when "homeadmins" firing up there 3 tick rubberband-hells.
Some sort of filter or blocking in the serverbrowser is needed.
Possible solution:
A master server should collect server data over a ammount of time (2-3 days maybe)
If a server is performing bad 50% of its uptime this server should not be shown in the browser.
The new performance statistics in the future server browser will solve this problem. No active actions like blocking will be needed (and there are good reasons not to), though a popup warning like the one for very high player slots would be handy for servers rated as bad.
Those are facts. We have to see them and make decisions accordingly.
That being said, the dedicated server suffered a sensitive drop in performance in recent patch 267. I've had discussions with a number of server operators and they noticed it. Is has even pushed some of the popular servers over the edge ! They did not intend for that and their hardware has not changed.
For us specifically, the effect is significant, hence the lowering of slot count (and it's still giving the last players who join the yellow plug).
This is the other side of the performance medal and deserves just as much attention.
The performance label itself is enough, I agree with lwf.
Instead of a warning (it's a nag) maybe try revising the labelling into just three colours (not all the colours from red to green). We could have "OK" for servers getting a score of 10 and above, "Loaded" for servers getting scores from -10 - +10, and "Bad" for servers diving below that. I believe this would be a harsh yet fair rating.
Hardcoded upper limit (if above 20 players = server doesn't show up in the browser). 20+ players can't be good, especially late game. If it's not good, why keep it?
Maybe, for a lucky few with great computers, and maybe some servers can handle it okay... The vast majority will have a terrible time though. If it was the other way around (only a few experienced bad performance on such servers) it would only be a discussion about gameplay, but it isn't. So make servers disappear from the list when they go above 20* players. A simple yet effective solution, no?
*20 is an arbitrary number. Perhaps 18 is better, or 22... The devs could set it at 18 today and eventually increase it along with performance updates.
My server is 22 slot (2 reserved) that is running on a $70 cpu (Stock cooler atm) (8 gig ram) runs fine late game. There are very few (if any) hiccups on games that last a long time (hour + ). I'd hope most of the servers that are 24 slot + are on a better cpu, or at least a higher OC than 4.2 on a Intel G3258. But given that my 20 slot server runs without tick rate drops or other such probs, to say that 20+ slots = bad isn't correct. I've seen some servers that with only 1 slot full as "Bad" and some that are 24 as "Good" or "Ok".
Its all a matter of hardware/bandwidth , not slots.
Side note. I watched my server today, as it was full for 6+ hours, it only went to "Ok" on very long games. Didn't dip to "Loaded" or "Bad". And as I said, that's on a $70 cpu w/ stock cooler.
Its all a matter of hardware/bandwidth , not slots.
Servers aside, it's also about the performance on each client. More players means more player models, built-up areas, effects, babblers ... on the screen, which equates to less FPS.
Comments
I must not fear.
Fear is the mind-killer.
Fear is the green-tide that brings total obliteration.
I will face the tide.
I will permit it to pass over me and through me.
And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path.
Where the tide has gone there will be nothing....only I will remain.
think this fits! yay I get to use it again!
@loki,
That one is going on the MOTD immediately haha,
btw loki, u made kodiakFIVE to right? there is a slight bug on the map where you removed the hallway hangar bay, some triangles dissapear at certain positions, If you got the time to fix that that would be great ^^
Over 1000 players again, wich is good
But:
They play on horrible rubberbanding servers:
So nothing changed. Its like all the sales before.
Well, we are back to 380 players in one week.
Be prepared for more "this game is dead" threads.
Good work.
Really? Thats interisting.
#WREKT
I don't know, if I picked up a new game on Steam, joined a server, and got heavy lag or warping, the first thing I'd assume is that the server I'm playing on is simply crap. And what I'd do is try out other servers, not blame the game.
There are enough well-performing servers out there so that statistically, even rookies should realize soon that the game can perform very well.
Except the fact that the game plays and performs better than it has during *any* sale so far?
I also repeatedly heard that skulks eyes in the mouth was annoying.
Don't assume they -all- play in those servers that might actually rubberband.
Our rookie teaching project has been amazing, to a point where I might extend it for another week. Veterans have been incredibly supportive towards the new players, teaching the basics and showing how game mechanics works. You know what's the best thing about that? Those players came back to learn some more! There were very good reasons for that too. What's that you might ask? Not only the veterans have been extremely patient and supportive with the new players but they've also been amazingly kind. Even if the rookies sometimes ask silly questions (Where do get a robot?) and such, thank you all who has been visiting our server and supporting this project. Been great fun so far!
Let's look at facts. This is a perfbrowser screenshot I took yesterday night:
I'm not. I just see for a fact that 24 slot server aren't what NS2 needs. I remember a video from UWE that said it would be better to try to play 6vs6 games... Being a magnet for players that are looking for crowded servers with a high number of player (that reflex coming from other games) isn't providing a good first contact for rookies. Nor showing the good example.
I think that 24 slot servers just end in bringing fresh meat to a bunch of rascals (they gonna stack). Player retention ? Well, this kind of server is more part of the problem than the solution.
BTW +1 for @DePARA. Rubber banding or not it's happening the same way it used to.
I personally don't think 24 slots are too bad (but I never go anything above that). However, it is true that high player count servers can make it harder for rookies to learn.
30% of the servers cant handle the game and i cant imagine the 1st impression of new players playing on them.
Why are admns pushing there slotammounts to 24 and above on hardware that cant handle this?
Are they playing on there servers?
Im sure many of these bad performing servers would run ok with 16-18 slots.
Hell, even 36 slot wooza is running better than 30% of the servers out there (its a sad day for me to say that
These bad performnig servers are one of the reasons new players didnt enjoy the game.
And its becoming worse when "homeadmins" firing up there 3 tick rubberband-hells.
Some sort of filter or blocking in the serverbrowser is needed.
Possible solution:
A master server should collect server data over a ammount of time (2-3 days maybe)
If a server is performing bad 50% of its uptime this server should not be shown in the browser.
I know you know of this thread. http://forums.unknownworlds.com/discussion/135400/serverperformancedata-and-proposed-269-serverbrowser/p1
Those are facts. We have to see them and make decisions accordingly.
That being said, the dedicated server suffered a sensitive drop in performance in recent patch 267. I've had discussions with a number of server operators and they noticed it. Is has even pushed some of the popular servers over the edge ! They did not intend for that and their hardware has not changed.
For us specifically, the effect is significant, hence the lowering of slot count (and it's still giving the last players who join the yellow plug).
This is the other side of the performance medal and deserves just as much attention.
The performance label itself is enough, I agree with lwf.
Instead of a warning (it's a nag) maybe try revising the labelling into just three colours (not all the colours from red to green). We could have "OK" for servers getting a score of 10 and above, "Loaded" for servers getting scores from -10 - +10, and "Bad" for servers diving below that. I believe this would be a harsh yet fair rating.
Yes it can.
*20 is an arbitrary number. Perhaps 18 is better, or 22... The devs could set it at 18 today and eventually increase it along with performance updates.
Its all a matter of hardware/bandwidth , not slots.
Side note. I watched my server today, as it was full for 6+ hours, it only went to "Ok" on very long games. Didn't dip to "Loaded" or "Bad". And as I said, that's on a $70 cpu w/ stock cooler.
NS1 ftw. I want to make a ns1 server just for SnG's. Show a few ppl I know that play NS2 what NS was all about.