My EIR Experience after some 2 weeks

octide-ally Offline

EIR Regular
Posts: 16

« on: April 27, 2008, 08:06:54 pm »

Hi there,

this is just what i feel about the mod after playing it for about 2 weeks and some 20 games with 3 different accounts (2 allied, 1 axis).

First of all, the mod is great. I love the ability to create my companies in the nicely done web interface, and not having to worry about building a (unrealistic) base like in vCOH... hell who produces tanks on the field anyways?
Oh and I like MCP.

I also really enjoy the ventrilo service. It adds alot to the game since you can join random games and still be able to talk to most people, to make up tactics, tell others about things that happen on the battlefield and stuff like that. That adds to the experience alot.

Now for the things I don't like. This text will be longer than the things I like, but that doesnt mean that its more important, I still think the mod is great except for that two things:

1. Faction player# balance / getting a actually GOOD and FAIR game

When I joined in I created an axis account, I played them in vCOH and I actually am a german so I thought I'd help with fatherland defense. Well...
until maybe half the axis games I join have "reserved slots for buddies", and the other half is waiting for allies all day long.

So okay, since I didn't want to be lame and actually wanted to play I created allied accounts as well. And they can be fun, too. But since I've switched from [Axis] to [Both] I virtually ONLY play as allies, because, well, theres just too many axis. And its always when i log on to the launcher and I see e.g. a 3v3 which is 0 allied, 3 axis... I wont join that game. Everytime I joined a game like that I've lost without any chance to high vetted troops with a matched setup across the three enemies.

I do understand that this problem is hard to fix, and I'm not demanding any changes, just want to tell my opinion about it.

And whats the deal with like having 8 (!!) axis players waiting in games 0v3, 0v3, 0v2 games yelling around vent for allies to join... if 4 of them would just play allies this game and the other 4 the next game everybody could play. But on the other hand, if people were like that than communism would work.

2. gameplay wise:

On one hand, Veterancy is needed for a game with persistency. You need to be able to archive something in order to play any MMO, I understand that. And I enjoy my own vet units tear through vet0 enemies as well.

But on the other hand, I find its very hard to go up against vet, especially since it happens most when you're new. In any game, you should start kinda easy and it should get harder the more experienced you are with the game. With EIR, its the other way around. As a newb, you have a VERY hard time for numerous reasons. One is the vet thing. I try to force the enemies to retreat their vet units and it works most of the time but while doing so, I lose squads because I cannot retreat mine or he wont retreat his, and thus I'm gaining vet very slowly.
Second is that when you're joining a game with 0% (33%), actually other players on your side will leave the game... In the beginning I was really annoyed by that but lately, I caught myself doing it as well (or at least not joining a 2v3 where the other two guys on my side are 0% (33%))

In a traditional MMO (RPG) the solution to this problem is levels. Assign a level to a player (based not only on win% but mainly on company VET), and make it so that you can play only a certain level range around your level. The possible problem is that with the small community (in MMO terms), it might be hard for some players to get a game.

I've heard much about what will be fixed in 2.0 and whatnot. Maybe this post is redundant because of that but I just wanted to tell you guys my opinion...

To the devs:

(all of the following is IMHO)

This is a great mod, keep up the good work.
Fix what needs being fixed first, every new player you lose because of the problems with matchmaking and stuff probably won't come back for 2.0 even if it fixes all the issues. I have experience with mod creation (not for COH), and I can tell you if your game is marked as stupid for whatever reason in someones mind its very hard to get them to try it again.

Yeah, thats about it. Thanks for reading.


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TheDeadlyShoe Offline

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