Print

Add to Reputation:  

What do you think of this post?

I agree I disagree  
Comment:

[CptLima]

I've already seen several posts here since the release of 5.0 - but I've yet to see a real discussion about this problem.

Right now, as of 1/11/17 at 8:30 p.m. EST, there are 5 populated servers. Three (3) are Arsenal-only, and two (2) are LTK.

There are many community members (like me) who prefer Deathmatch, CTF, MWGG, and/or other game types over LTK and Arsenal. However, I can't even contemplate how many times I've logged on the last 3-4 months and seen ONLY Arsenal and LTK servers populated.

Of course, there are plenty of servers with Deathmatch and/or mixed game types still active that I could join - and hopefully, after a few minutes, get others to join - but, in reality, the fact that the game has very limited game types regularly available to play is a huge turn-off, especially to new/prospective recruits to the mod. What, if anything, can we do to correct this in future releases? I know that many of the people logging onto the active LTK/Aresenal servers are doing so because, simply, that no other servers are active - and if there was a, for example 6/12 deathmatch server running, they would join it instead of the Arsenal one, but do so because there is simply no other active server.

This is, in my opinion, a critical issue to the future success and sustainability of the mod, but I haven't really seen it discussed much here. Obviously, people are by-and-large going to join the game types that are most popular - however, there is a significant section of the community that I feel is being left out if types like CTF and DM are relegated to "well, there may be a server, sometimes, but probably just LTK and Arsenal."

EDIT: I think one big factor is there are plenty of people playing the mod week-to-week who log on, but get frustrated / disappointed when they see no active DM, TDM, etc. servers running and quickly log off. When there is a DM server active with 4-5 people, it often jumps to 10-15 relatively quickly. My main concern is, over time, DM/TDM/CTF servers will die out if that trend continues, which would be very sad because of how enjoyable those game modes are.

I get that there may quite possibly be nothing that can be done about this - the player base determines what is popular and what isn't - but if there is anything at all that can be done, I think it's a discussion worth having to ensure those players who don't care for LTK and Arsenal do stick around and continue to support GoldenEye: Source.

[null]

I'd sure like to see more people stay, whether it be more official game events, possibly a new and improved ranking system, and/or documentation cleanup on the website.  I think as long as something new happens every once in awhile, players will almost immediately join, at least until their nostalgia wears off again.

[CptLima]

I like the concept of Team Arsenal; although I enjoy other game types more, it makes it more bearable when I can only find an Arsenal server that is active.

Team play (2v2, 3v1, 2v1) was my favorite mode in GoldenEye 64; it's tough nowadays for enough people to be in a TDM or CTF server where teamplay "activates" itself.

Thankfully it still happens at peak times - I had a great series of team matches the other night on a server with 12-15 people playing until a hacker showed up and most left. If "Team Arsenal" catches on on the more-populated Arsenal servers, it at least gives those of us who prefer not to play Free-For-All options.

[Graslu]

I'm planning on starting events of stuff like everyone vs me and stuff like that on my server. You may be interested on that in the future once I start doing them.

Our server has teamplay disabled for DM as I've always felt FFA plays better for GE:S, but we still have CTF as a teamplay mode, and I'm working on adding Uplink back in, too.

I agree with you that the server list is kinda in a bad shape right now and there's no variety, having only Arsenal and LTK (Team Arsenal doesn't really add to the variety I'm afraid), leaving no room for those that want a "normal" experience, but hopefully I can get a community around my server again like we've been doing for the past decade.

[CptLima]

I enjoy playing DM on your server whenever it is populated; always attracts a good crowd.

I'm all about variety and balance - makes any game better. I remember people started leaving MOH:AA Spearhead almost overnight by the thousands when the server list went from a variety to mostly modded / non-standard servers, after years of it being a game that had hundreds of populated servers active at any given time.

I never played this mod before 5.0, although I was always aware of it, but when I first joined this summer after the social media viral takeoff of the 5.0 launch, I immediately fell in love with it - especially the servers that had the built-in rotating variety of game types, and DM / TDM / CTF / MWGG.

Unfortunately it only took a couple of months for a lot of those people who popped in to check it out to start disappearing, although I'm guessing the community retained quite a few "new recruits" like myself who plan on sticking around and playing weekly alongside the veterans.

I love the idea of events / tournaments and it would be awesome if a competitive scene emerged (or re-emerged, not knowing what it's been like over the years) - and if it does (or if there is one that I haven't discovered yet) I'd be happy to join it and participate.

[Graslu]

I remember people started leaving MOH:AA Spearhead almost overnight by the thousands when the server list went from a variety to mostly modded / non-standard servers, after years of it being a game that had hundreds of populated servers active at any given time

I agree, honestly I stopped playing a month or so after release until recently because everything you could play was Arsenal or LTK, which to me doesn't really represent what GE:S is and isn't really enjoyable to me. Even though I started playing GE:S in 2010, it wasn't until 2012 where I played the mod non-stop from until early 2015, then on and off before 5.0 since the activity wasn't too great, but you could get games going on my server if you waited a while.

I love the idea of events / tournaments and it would be awesome if a competitive scene emerged (or re-emerged, not knowing what it's been like over the years) - and if it does (or if there is one that I haven't discovered yet) I'd be happy to join it and participate.

GE:S always had a competitive niche, either private tournaments, public ones, or just the server rankings you probably know about already, it's just that there wasn't much room for it on 5.0 when everything available to play was Arsenal or LTK, which are not gamemodes that fit the competitive style, so private events like practices which we used to play every saturday had to be canceled since people lost interest in the game. I'll try to bring them back on February though.
As I said before I'll try to setup events for fun where there are different teams, and maybe do public tournaments someday as I did in the past.

This is not an attack to those that host servers that are Arsenal or LTK only, but I think it's understandable that for people like us that look for a more competitive playstyle it's not too pleasant to see this being the only option of playing.

[null]

I'll join any event on a regular bases as long as i have time too. I think that would be a great idea Graslu, i'll try to frequent your server more. 

I agree that Arsenal or TeamArsenal has very little to do with the original game if nothing at all, but i don't think its a problem with variety as much as something more consistent to work towards like a player of the month or something. 

[Graslu]

Variety is good indeed, but the issue right now is that people doesn't choose variety but decide to join the same modes so it's not the server host fault but the community's. It'd be all good if there was a healthy balance between the modes and servers.

[null]

Well, thinking about it a little more, i think it's up to the server admins to implement gameplay vote plugins which would deter people from switching servers so often so that players experience all the flavors of gameplay without moving on.

I've implemented one such plugin on my server (https://forums.alliedmods.net/showthread.php?p=641197) and hoping to bridge the gap between players interests in the other varieties, but it'll probably be pretty rocky (roughly losing half the players every gameplay switch) until that catches on.

[CptLima]

It's definitely a community issue; can't blame server admins for hosting arsenal and LTK-only servers.

The issue is it's a problem that makes itself worse, because whenever players who prefer DM / TDM / CTF / MWGG / TLD log on and see just Arsenal and LTK going, if they don't have patience to get a server going, they log off, and after repetition eventually give up or log on infrequently.

Basically, the players who prefer the standard game types and non-LTK need to be as active as the players who are mobbing the 3-5 Arsenal and LTK servers 24 hours a day... and I'm willing to bet some of the players in those populated servers are there but would prefer other game types; they just give up and join so they can at least play for a little bit. I know I'm guilty of that often.

[Daisy-Fan]

i'm up to see some DM+ with some sweet Weapons set, i remember there was a Basement RC90 tournament setting once on the previous version, was kinda cool.

[TheHTCViveGuy]

I am going to have to be straight honest with you with Daisy-Fan's issue. I completely agree with his argument. Out of the 3 populated servers they all only host arsenal. After playing the same mode for pretty much about 6-7 months it gets absolutely boring and dull. I mean, there is so much more to this game then one mode. Yeah, the mode is fun for a couple of rounds but after that it is quite enough. I do not understand why. I mean, the mode is challenging but there are so many other attributes to the game that people need to experience. I do however agree that server owners can do what they want with their paid server but I find it quite stupid that you have so many options to choose from but you only pick the same everytime. That to be frank is not what GoldenEye is and or was. Arsenal was not even in the original. I am all for custom and new content because it keeps the game interesting and breathes a new experience each time but when you continually play or do the same thing day in day out it becomes mind numbing and is no longer fun.

[Daisy-Fan]

Well you can log and get some DM around for sure. but its rare to get a lot of people to join for most of the time, in my experience as far it does. But yeah not everyone will join, especially if you been playing that HL2 mod for years. Also most of the time, players just leave the server for been getting rekt hard. so i may go easy next time perhaps.

[Waluigi-Brain-Squeegee]

It is definitely annoying logging into the game to only see people playing Arsenal and LTK, I actually used to love playing Arsenal when I first started playing Goldeneye: Source, but when you log in every day and it's just Arsenal and LTK running it gets pretty boring after a while. I'm actually after just hopping in an empty DM/CTF/MWGG etc. server with one of my friends just to be able to play something else for a bit, yeah sometimes people do join and play for a bit, but a lot of them don't stick around very long when the server isn't very populated, most just move on to a Arsenal or LTK server that has a lot of people in it. So I would love to see more people start playing all the other games modes more because it was a lot more fun when all the servers were somewhat populated and you never had to just join an Arsenal server just because no one is playing anything else. That was what made me stop playing for a while until recently, and I'm only really still playing all the time now because I want to play some Goldeneye, and don't usually have a choice of anything but Arsenal or LTK, so I just play those servers because there's never usually anything else on the go.

[CptLima]

For example, just the other night there were 3-4 Arsenal servers populated, an LTK, and two Turbo LTK's.

There was one TDM server going with a couple people in it, so I joined it. After a few maps, we had it up to 14-16 people - it was a lot of fun!

Then the server admin popped in, changed the settings to Turbo LTK Anti-Grav, and within 2 rounds half the people had left. By the next map I left, too... and of course, there were no DM games the rest of the night, even though I sat alone in a low-ping DM server 1/16 for half an hour...

It's frustrating. When I really want to play, I'll wait as long as I can or play Team Arsenal if there's one going, as it's better than Arsenal, at least... but ultimately, if I just want to log in and play for 20-30 minutes, and I don't see a DM/MWGG/TDM/CTF server going, I immediately log off, which I'd rather not do.