Is mnc dead?

I stopped playing mnc for quite a few months and just recently decided to start playing again.
Most of the times i can find an aussie server with a few people in it, but lately i'm finding it hard to find any servers with people in them.

As i look at my server lsit now, 70 servers detected, only 4 of them have people in them, 3 are full. But those 4 servers are american (i assume, 300+ ping for me, i live in western australia).

So where the hell have all the players gone to? Before i stopped playing, i remember there being quite a few populated aussie servers.

It's a real shame, this game had huge potential, i just feel not many people new of its existence.

all the decent aussie players scared off the noobs, and the decent players only play at random times, i can jump on most afternoons and find a full server which means i have to wait, basically i close the game and try again later, then when i do get in, the server empties after a few matches anyway, most of the time

almost...

That sucks

Uber should spend more time advertising...everywhere.

I mean, i never wouldve heard of this game if my mate didnt show me it before release (he browses steam store alot). Even he quit the game a couple weeks after reslease because he was a nub.

This game is too good to die out this early, people need to know that this game exists!

Advertising isn't the problem, its keeping the players we got.

its been a year, hopefully some update comes for the 1 year anniversary but i think that will be for xbox

Yes.

Aussie servers can be very quiet at times. We unfortunately have a rage issue in Australia with people quitting after 1 lost match. So even when you join a full server it can empty out completely after 1 game.

Most nights one server seems to have people in it till about 12am. The -Stipe- server has been popular lately. Set your filter to ping <150 and you will just get Aussie and NZ servers. There is about 15 of them total.

Now if only we had a queue system so I could go make a sandwich while I wait to join a server, maybe I'd play more MNC and less Shogun TW.

How is keeping a total of 50 or so players going to help mnc?
Hardly any one i know knowsthat this game is out there until i mention it.

120 players to be exact.


Thing is Uber has been able to drum up quite a few people on three different occasions but after 3 days they leave and the entire pub scene is filled with people who don't know anything about the flow of the game.

Hell I run into the occasional assault that plays like it is COD despite the general distillation of the game population down to its strongest and oldest players.

You could come at this from different angles:

Advertise the forums ingame
Most players that visit the forum know more about the game and are more likely to become invested in it. Least time and resource consuming


Make it easier to see the Crossfire trailer and playbook

Simple. Rearrange the hierarchy of the menus to make the playbook and crossfire trailer visible. The playbook has all the information you need except for the knowledge that assassins are built to dispense of bots. Even then the crossfire trailer should at least be a start to knowing that this is a DotA-like game. Simple.

Make a new tutorial
This is a time and resource consuming task that will reap less benefits for the amount of work put in than the other two.

Even with that there is no guarantee that there are people that won't be frustrated with the 6 maps, 2 modes, no mod support (insert oxford comma) and the fact that MNC has (gasp) more strategic depth than some major multiplayer shooters.


I'm satisfied with the number of maps because I love the gameplay and the many different angles a given situation can be played from. However I'd like to see more. New mode is coming eventually so yeah.

one thing i realized is that there isn't much to work towards after 6 custom classes.

for say TF2 has its own item system that makes players wanting to collect them all where as Protags in MNC are only visible to others one at a time and don't really show much. not saying that we need an item system but what we need is some kind of thing to work towards. i'm not really motivated to start up MNC recently though i still love the game as every time i start the game, i play for quite a long session. the game itself is fun there's just not a goal for us (well me) to start playing it (another reason is that i'm tired of starting the game, seeing no servers, then quitting).

and also... mod tools

goals are just wool pulled over sheep's eyes to drag people along when the game isn't good enough to. That being said, tons of games have resorted to this (every single MMORPG ever) and it's a little idea. However, real players play for the game.

My experience, having just hit the 25 hour play time mark, is that there isn't enough help for new players. There aren't enough people, so new servers are empty 80% of the day, the whole server lobby is scary for a lot of players who are bombarded with tons of info they have no clue about, the tutorial doesn't even mention crossfire mode, moneyballs, or anything, and most people don't know how to play because they are not guided towards a goal. My friends who all play League of Legends know about Monday Night Combat, my friends who play HoN know about Monday Night Combat, but they'd rather go play the new Realm of the Titans instead.

The other issue is the revenue system. All the MOBAs are going into free-to-play with microtransactions. I HATE IT personally, but I have to admit that the revenue stream is much higher that way. I tried to get my friends to play MNC, but they don't want to pay the upfront cost. I think the idea is people will spend TONS more on a game they've already played and know is good than a game they haven't had the opportunity to play deeply yet. HoN was doing terrible, and then they made it free-to-play and now my friends who played LoL exclusively are playing HonN and LoL on a 50-50 ratio. Not that they've spent money on it yet, but the playerbase has definitely increased. More guest passes would go a long way to helping allow people into the game, while hopefully not having stupid *** microtransactions (can't believe people burning through 200$ for goodies in a game, but that's their own decision).

EDIT: P.S.: Did I mention TF2 went free-to-play as well?

I forgot to take that into account.

Thing is I'm not sure how that could be handled. If you go for small cosmetic changes like bits of armor in Halo then is is possible to create a custom look without breaking the game's artistic aesthetic and keeping it so that classes have a defined outline from a distance. This requires a lot of work.


You could go with minor performance enhancing things but that would make the game literally pay to win.

To the above poster try Help and Options -> Playbook. The Crossfire tutorial trailer is a bit meager but there is a lot of class specific information.

I've been to the playbook, but I mean there's no live-action crossfire tutorial. I guess DotA managed to get huge with no tutorials whatsoever, but that was a free game not looking for revenue (at least, not back then). Plus, by the time I found it, I already knew all there was in it (after about 10 hours of crossfire play). On my entire Steam Friends list I have the most crossfire earnings, and I've only played 25 hours. There are 4 others on my list with the game, and none of them "like" the game when asked. One of them is eager to try (he bought it on sale with a lot of people in my software engineering program) but hasn't done so yet, and the other 3 just don't like the game.

Additionally, a game so team-based has a few problems with rage-quitting and matchmaking. Uber decided to opt for the TF2 approach (considering what the engine looks like and the graphics style) and go with a server lobby, no matchmaking, and risk-free mid-game leaving.

Compare that to MOBAs (which this game is supposed to be, according to vets), where you can get banned for leaving too much mid-game (not that we really have the playerbase to afford this), effort is put into creating ratings for each player to accurately determine skill (we have all-star rating, but it doesn't seem to get used when determining teams and if people try and stack with pre-game team picking, it all goes to hell), and the team you start with is the team you end with (as opposed to team swap). The games also never start with a player disadvantage (2v1 is the worst, but even 6v5 is ugly) and there are unrated modes if you still want to do these things (leave risk-free, play without ratings affected, play with a player handicap). This last paragraph is really the part that gives new players tons of trouble. Why go through the trouble of playing when the vets (often friends) won't get split to even the skill level on each team, leavers can get away with it, and you have to fight shorthanded?

Timegate has had the same problem with Section 8 Prejudice, getting new players in and getting them to stick around

MNC has the advantage due to not needing GfWL but S8P is still a damn fun game

You know after the mess that was the star rating system I had not considered this for quite a long time.

Matchmaking would be interesting. Though

I hate that people aren't here because there are few maps because Uber is small.

A mod kit would fix this but it proved so difficult that other pressing matters came up because Uber is small.

People are not here because people are not here stemming from Uber being small.

if they bring in the match making from xbox i will not play the game, 1 in every 20-30 games would be playable, the rest was prob around 300+ ping. at least they made servers and a browser so you can choose, it helps people who don't live in the US

At the least they could balance the teams from the people in the server. I mean, you come across 2 [FAP] or 2 [PR] or just about any clan tag out there who pick the same side and the server won't even attempt to balance the game around it; it just seems to throw random players on each side unless you choose your team before-hand.

not the one from 360. a completely new one, one specifically built for PC; one that co-exists with the current server browser that will make use of star rating and levels to put people of similar skill levels in ranked matches, competing for a ladder, competing for a prize, competing for a dream!

An idea is an idea alone until it is put into action. What is the star system missing that can be improved. What things are not accounted for and how can those things be taken into consideration?

Right now we know it accounts for Bot kills, player kills, money gained and wins.

What it does not account for is the skill of others on your team, your individual performance based on the length of the match, and the skill of the other team.