Servers with higher skill are always empty. I always have to choose from the 2-3 servers available to me with people who have little concept of the game and this frustrates me. These are always on 5-star servers, the only place I can really play. Usual scenario: 10 people in server: 2 good players, 8 not-so-good players. Match system detects the 2 good players, splits them on opposite teams. The lucky ones get on the team with the less-not-so-good players. The team that gets these lucky few absolutely destroys the other team with the leadership of their (usually sniper or assault) good player. Match ends in about 3 minutes. So my question is...where are all the good players? I remember before this All-Star system, I had plenty of matches that were very even and they were MUCH more enjoyable. I really think this game has such high potential, but then this sort of stuff happens. I don't really know who's to blame, but I usually resort to being a **** in-game because of my frustration. Should I try less so that my rating goes down, then join 3-star servers to find even matches? WTF is the deal? I'm sick of playing 1v4 over and over because of teammates who don't have a concept of teamwork.
It is surprising that even with very few people left here is still a lot of people that don't know how to play the game. I really enjoy the game but it sucks that there is a lack of people to play with at the same level. Really wished this game took off competitively, because really there is no other MP game on the current market that interest me. Brink...... was totally not worth the $50 I spent on it while MNC was easily worth all $15 and then some. (Ill still TRY to play brink but it crashes so often its unplayable ATM. It doesn't feel like it has the competitive potainal either even if it was stable) I don't like modern pew pews but really the next multiplayer game I'm looking at is BF3 :-/ this is so depressing that I need to make myself excited for a modern military pew pew fest.
I tried to play last night (I tend to play reallllly late at night) and there were only 2 servers showing up with ANYONE on them (I have my options set to show full servers, but not empty servers.) The servers were Uber IAD and Uber Syd. iad was full, and I can't really play at Syd (I live in california and the distance causes MAJOR lag)
I was under the impression that the concentration of skilled players was going up with the lowering of the population with the occasional newbie here and there.
I know what turned off the better players. Snipers more than others. Improved votekick functionality.
maybe they'll come back once they realize brink is a disappointment? i actually randomly ran into vampwood on a brink server tho i haven't seen him in mnc in ages.
ARS0N1ST and I were on a team and my ping was below 150. The meaning is that there should be virtually no way for us not to win, and win hard. Everyone on the server was making jokes at the start about how obvious this outcome was. Little did we realize just how bad our team was. Our Support left his Firebase deep inside our base. It never fired a shot throughout the match. One guy went 0-20 or so. Both our Support and our Assault were making LazerBlazer turrets. At the end of the match, I had the most money, ARS0N1ST was just under me, and the next guy on our team was over $2,000 below ARS0N1ST. Oh, and we lost. This was a 5-star server, obviously. Why were all these beginners there? It was quite tempting to cuss out our Support. Some people did. But frankly this is not good for the future of the community. If you show a little patience, that person may just grow up to be a 5-star Support. As a community, we have an obligation to help people stick around, and here are two ways we can do that: #1: Give them a few tips. Tell him or her his or her Firebase cant hit anything from inside the base. Tell him or her how to pick it up (first time I did this, I was just testing what the buttons did, and then I didnt know what button to use to pick it back up). Try your best to be calm about this, hard as it may be. #2: Tell him or her about the star ratings, and that he or she can find a more suitable server if the server has 3 stars or below. Since these people joined a 5-star game, it indicates they did not understand the point of the star system. If you suggest this and then find out they did know about the star rating but decided to ruin your game anyway, then you can feel free to rage on them. The star rating seems pretty straight-forward to all of us, but some people have actually asked what it means. Those 2-star level-0 players on 5-star servers arent asking what it means, but they obviously dont know either. Uber Entertainment should probably make mention of it in their tutorial in the next patch, if it is not there now (I havent done the tutorial in ages for obvious reasons). L. Spiro
Because that's the only server with anyone on it? Well, recently that's the only reason why I end up in 5 star servers. My rating sits solidly at 3 stars and I prefer to go into 3 star servers as there is less pubstomping going on there. Unfortunately sometimes the only servers with anyone in them are 5 star servers.
I do try to help as much as I can where I can but it is very hard to do so. I often encounter players who just don't seem to care about getting better or learning. Though my biggest issue is finding where the new players are at. I've been trying to work on how I adress their weaknesses without sounding douchey. Any suggestions on what I should say to someone who: Built a lazerblazer without leveling it up? Sets up a firebase in a not so helpful place? An assassin that goes from player to player dieing every time? Also yeah Brink has stolen our thunder. I wish Uber would advertise during those times between releases of blockbusters.
Dont build LazerBlazers. Ever. And explain why if he responds. Last time, my guy didnt respond at all, and kept building them for several matches, even after other people were much harsher in telling him not to build them. That guy was a true *******, and we dont need him in our community. You probably wont be able to clearly tell him where is a good place, and if you do get him to follow you somewhere and you type everything out, you will be sniped or your base will be raped. Either let this one go, or tell him to pay attention to where the enemy sets up their turrets, and set his up on the opposite sides. Focus more on killing bots and only attack players when you are coming from behind. Make it your goal to kill bots and get juice, then to use juice to kill turrets. They may not know that coming from the front results in their own death. If you can convince them that killing bots and turrets is their goal instead of killing players, you win! L. Spiro
Like I said before if the game was balanced you wouldn't have to worry about people making the wrong choice as there wouldn't be a wrong choice. Personally I haven't played because everytime I check I see no servers where I can get less than 150 ping much less 100 ping. I started playing TF2 more and now Brink and I haven't checked at all lately. With the whole ping kicker thing I may not be able to play at all even I wanted to play at those pings anyway. The game has reached the stage that dead games come to where you have a few stragglers left who know the game inside and out and a small stream of newbies (the game is cheap and still featured on the steam list so there will always be some new people coming in). This happened to COD 1 almost instantly when CoD 2 came out. Games basically boiled down to which team had the most new people as the old guard roughly had the same skill level. Instead of wasting all that time making a "fun" map like Tully's which once you get over the LOL there's a chicken honeymoon stage you realize that it's only purpose is to make Steel Peel seem less bad, Uber should have sat down and seriously reworked the game mechanics so it would actually retain players. Edit: The benefit of a game that is distributed electronically is that another sale can instantly refresh the playerbase as if it was new unlike games that rot in Brick and mortar stores so you don't have the "too late" problem. TF2 bleeds players left and right but is sustained by adrenaline shots in the form of updates (mostly hats).
I agree that this game is not a tight as other shooters where its a little hard to misuse a class without immediately knowing what the class is for after death. That needs to be worked on. I also agree strongly that coupled with good maps and another sale MNC could enjoy some popularity. Couple this with improvement of communication and a better way to teach new people and MNC would attract and retain players.
The answer is obvious: Hats! The biggest turnoff for noobs is the pubstomping. TF2 has pubstomping and yet has a large community. The only difference I can see: Hats! Seriously though, I have no idea why this game isn't retaining a decent population. It's a great game. A couple of minor tweaks for balance maybe but nothing major required. Even the "bad" levels are fun with even teams. Everyone wants more content but forgets that TF2 came out with almost nothing and slowly built up its content over time (and community help). Mod tools are required. Hopefully when those are released the community will grow around new content (and someone can add some sweet, sweet, sexy hats). Until then I'll pop in to get stomped once or twice a month and log off again to play something less frustrating with more active servers.
TF2 has those lucky crit moments which can turn even the newest players into utter killing doom machines if the situation is right. That, and the only buttons you ever need to handle your weapons is M1, and M2. Coupled with the customization and overall tone of the game, it's not too hard to see why it's an easy game to stick to, unless you get butt-hurt over hat drama. On the other hand, if you're newbie against a vet in MNC, well... you better hope you catch him off guard, and even that's hard to do since your name and healthbar is showing whenever you're in the vicinity. It's like the game was designed to have in built wall-hacks in mind. Seriously, what's with that? :lol:
