A new guy's perspective

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[scrapkingss]

First off, love the mod.  It is in a large sense, better than the actual original game.

One thing, however, and it is a big thing...  it is extremely demoralizing, as a new player, with entry level companies, to play against the more advanced companies out there.  I do realize that the veteran players enjoy using the companies that they spent time to develop.  I can respect that, I am sure I would too.  I also realize that to some extent the potential for loss on my part is rather low, in terms of risk vs. reward, since generally my units have little or no veterancy.  However, it is discouraging to play, simply put it is not fun.  Not to mention that it is significantly harder to develop veterancy with the heavy losses incurred in these battles.

The obvious conclusion for me is to outright avoid playing the more advanced companies, which is not explicitly easy since there is no way of knowing a given player's level of advancement prior to actually being in game.  The shame is that I will wind up playing less games, making the uphill march even longer.  But to continue being easy points, feeding already strong opponents more strength, and gaining little for the loss, simply feels foolish.

I would hope the developers could consider the steep curve for newcomers in an estabilshed system - where the actual number of players does not support readily made games for same levelled players easy - as something which needs attention.

[Migi]

We have been saying this for a little while. I hate playing these new guys because its ridiculous how much damage i can inflict without them having a counter demolishing move.

Please give the new players CPs to spend out to teir 4, or close, or something.

[planekiller]

yea sounds good let the new players be able to play cps abd get xp

[Apex]

A Ranking system is already in the works and should be ready soon.
And i like the idea of giving new players extra cp's for the days they have missed.
1 CP for each day the war has been going on should be fine.

[Nevyen]

I think the issue here is perspective, i know for me i see it differntly from the new guy.  For me well i have 50 games under my belt a swag of verteran troops and not really fussed, but from scraps point of view and allot of the silent element of the community as far as the forums go the veteran players have a dominant effect on their experiance.

Those who fail to treat this as a testing environment and approach it from a competative aggressive stand point are killing the mod for new players.   That is  a mind set issue. But and this is the issue as i see it.  if that exists now in the alpha it will continue to exist in the beta and the release eventually and needs to be managed and curbed.

Wow in its arena system has an effective balance system for its.  I'm maintaining this line as even the recent comment in mags where the comments relate to the mod not really for the faint of heart or somthing. If we want to attract players we need to move beyond the need to fetter our own egos with battle records and rewards for playing and seek the balance to allow any player to join and feel competative and not be destroyed in their first few games and be put off by aggressive players. Right now we need to attract players to the community and develop a consistant player base.

The thing i fear now about player ranks is that it will ostrasize players at both ends of the spectrum based on when they log onto play.  With a limited player base a high ranking player could log on and find that they can't get a game becuase there a heap of low ranking players who arn't interested in stacked teams or losing in one one matches and visa versa where a low ranking player logs on to find a host if high ranked players with no hope of competativly playing.

I know i suggested rankings in the past but the recent drop off in player numbers makes it difficult to make such a system work and effectivly attact players.

The issues are cps and the subtle changes that dramatically change the way this game is played it has been for new players up to 3 weeks after the war began and casual players.  I can only hope the dev team sees this.   

 

[Apex]

hmmm makes me think...

[Thtb]

Makes me train more newb´s

[Apex]

You are right. We have to accept some cuts on our persistancy benefits in order to make it easier for newer players and get more people into this mod. Smaller Tier 4's and a different kind of cp and rb system would help.
I realize that ranks would make players more selective when playing games, but what we forgot completly is that we cant take something like this into teamspeak mandatory. Maybe into the Launcher, but maybe just on ones own war control panel and in the forums is already enough.

Another big problem apart from the gap between new and veteran companies is the complexity of this mod. Systems like TAV, Availability, Resupply and Dwindling Ressources all serve a good purpose, but its a lot to take for someone who is completely new. Magazine reviews say the same.
When i first came to this mod, i suggested scrambling all the tactical battle changes, keeping the fights vanilla and just focusing on the strategic warmap part. But I know that fldash wants more than that, and thats also why we all love this mod so much. But the more complexity we add, the less attractive this game becomes for casual players. We have a hard core of players, but it is a rare occasion to meet someone new.

Now i know that there is efforts in the dev team to scramble systems like Availability and Resupply (which are expendable), so you could just hop in anytime and play, and that you have to worry less about certain things in expense of a certain degree of persistency.
It has to be thought about whether its not worth a try.

But whatever you wanna do, it has to be done quick. The release of OF is imminent and its implementation into Eir is a chance that has to be used.

[fldash]

I'll spill some beans here.  We have plans to develop a ranking system nearly identical to the one used in the Relic Online ladders.  Rewards for matches will be based upon the difficulty level of your opponent.

In addition, we will most likely give minimum of 1 CP/day no matter how many battles you fight, even if you don't fight any.   New players joining the battle will get x number of CP where x is the number of days the war has been in progress.

Furthermore, details on complex functions like TAV, resupply, availability will not be made available.  We will only mentions that there are systems in place to control these things.  It's not important for our players to know how they work, only that they are present.

That's all I can say at this time.

[Nevyen]

GASP

[Thtb]

_Maybe make a lot of addvertisment, fancy banners and videos that anounce he next release so we get new players on that date. Those newb´s coud fight each other and woud not be foreced to play with Slaughter´s just to play.

[Apex]

Beans? I like Kartoffels more.

[Nevyen]

FL well done mate 

[Apex]

Sounds like Good Stuff 

[scrapkingss]

I am impressed with the community support, and with the fast, and positive, developer response.

Many players here have represented the community well, and have been a great help in smoothing the learning curve, and softening the blows of playing in the early going.  A particular example would be how several players have gone out of their way to play new, or relatively new companies when offering games against me.  I still lose quite often, but the frustration factor is non-existent in that case.  The reward is that these players get a much more competitive gaming experience from playing me, as opposed to relatively risk free points.

As a suggestion to the Devs, would it be possible to display a value representing the average veterancy of the engaged companies, perhaps upon joining a battle (on the "Battle" submenu)?  This would help to insure selecting more well balanced matches.  With the upcoming CP changes, that at least would be the same for everyone, but certainly a 2-3 veterancy difference makes for the beginnings of a lopsided affair.

Great stuff, and very encouraging.  Looking forward to the changes, and to seeing how the expansion is adapted to the mod.  This mod is really a unique game unto itself, quite reminscent of the old Star Fleet Command online campaign, which I enjoyed to no end.

[Compact Flash]

Great idea with the CPs, hadn't thought of that.

[Marine436]

I'll spill some beans here.  We have plans to develop a ranking system nearly identical to the one used in the Relic Online ladders.  Rewards for matches will be based upon the difficulty level of your opponent.

In addition, we will most likely give minimum of 1 CP/day no matter how many battles you fight, even if you don't fight any.   New players joining the battle will get x number of CP where x is the number of days the war has been in progress.

Furthermore, details on complex functions like TAV, resupply, availability will not be made available.  We will only mentions that there are systems in place to control these things.  It's not important for our players to know how they work, only that they are present.

That's all I can say at this time.

The developer in me say's awesome ballanced idea
The gamer in my Say's Interesting
The power leveling Whore in me say's DAMIT

[Compact Flash]

Which will win the battle for Marine's inner soul! Find out after the break...

[Unkn0wn]

Mission accomplished?

[Compact Flash]

I really do hope so...