swalk says

The game isn't dying, that is just an excuse some people make up so they can feel better leaving.

wall of text.

Benjibb says

swalk says

The game isn't dying, that is just an excuse some people make up so they can feel better leaving.

wall of text.

It's pretty simple, the playernumbers we have at the moment is the core playerbase, those numbers are fine, the spikes you see on the graph are new people popping in during sales and then leaving again due to lack of interest or whatever. As long as we have the core playerbase(people that play the game again and again and again), the game is NOT dying or dead. I would only call a game dead if there are no active teams playing matches and no players(or next to none) playing public. That is by far not the case with this game, hence why it is outright stupid to say that the game is dying/dead. All it does is scare people away from becoming part of the core playerbase. It's a fairly small community yes, but not a dead one.

To mention the signups for season 6 and comparing them to season 5 is laughable to say the least, from what I know season 6 won't start for another month, lots of time for more teams to sign up. Many teams haven't decided whether or not the will sign, when the signups end you will likely see quite a few more teams, more akin to season 5, but likely with with a bit less players, like we've seen practicly every single season with the exception of season 4(due to interest spike after NS2WC).

we have 17 teams signed up at the moment and I actually believe that in the next 4 weeks probably 15 to 20 teams will register. And most likely 10 of them in the last week. That's how it was last season

Actually guys, I don't care about player numbers. Neither do i care about how well this game is coded or not.

You have to work with the stuff you got.

So, what I care is what can we do to bring new players to the game or to the competitive scene.

A thing, which always seems to bother people is the inactivity during off-season. Usually there are some kind of tournaments in-between, we have seen Nations Cups, Custom-Map-Cups and Draft-Tournaments.

Not long ago there was a big discussion about a ladder in the season or in the off-season, to give players something to do at all times.

There is also the Gather-System in place, which is more or less used. Actually I don't follow it much, because I had some unpleasant experiences there.

Off-Season is weird, because there are some teams, who want to continue playing, while others are on halt. Even within a team, there are usually people who'd like a break, while others are bloodthirsty for more NS2.

Anyways... here is a suggestion for off-season, which might(!) be relatively easy to implement. It's a combination of several of the above ideas. Something like a draft-tournament, but smaller and regularly - very close to gathers actually, but with a fixed time and a scoreboard - not for teams, but for players.

Here is how it could look like: Choose two days one on the weekend (let's say Saturday) and one during week (let's say Tuesday). Every week on 20 CET (EU) and 20 EST (NA) and 20 WT (weird time, or whatever you guys down there in Australia use) on both days people can log on the system. 20:10 you make the cut and check how many players there are. Pick a number of team-captains and start drafting people into an even number of teams of 6. The rest gets distributed over those teams.

Now each team gets randomized against another. They play 2 maps and had a nice evening. Furthermore you - as a player - get a point for each round you participate (on the bench or not. See below), every round you win get another point. Commanders could be counted separately. Points can also be displayed separated by time-zone of the gather (on weekend-day like Saturday you could actually play three times in a row... each contributing to another stash of points for you).

Put those points into the NSL-profile. Widen the Profile with an info on preferred life-form(s) and "can command"-boolean. Put this info together with team-belonging into the overview, from which the captains pick from, so they can easily see, who they are dealing with and are not stuck with 5 Fade-Players.

If you want it more social and a learning experience for new players or div3- players, add some incentives here: People could vote after the 4 rounds (anonymously) on the most helpful player in their team. Give him an extra point.

If there is a problem with players too often leaving those games, increase the team-size to 7 and insert some ruling that every player needs to play at least 2 rounds.

If too many people have to leave after some rounds, such that no more rounds can be played, no big deal. See you again next time. In the long run, the good players, will accumulate more points, and the always-show-ups as well.

And, if you want to get funky and make a spontaneous tourney, like the Nations Cup or an Allstar-Game: you just pick those people directly from their Rankings into that teams.

During Seasons you don't necessarily have to stop it. But maybe reduce it's timing to weekends.

Ah and yes, of course you could also give out all kind of glory and honors: Highest ranked Player of the Year, Month; Best Fade EU; Most Helping Player of all Time; Shooting Star Commander; Most Active Player of the friggin' World,...

Im sure the "thirsty onos seeding machine" has already a comp mod pub server running and mr "i love the game so much" is just waiting that people filling all of his servers.

Feel free to seed it.

You know what, I made second testing server on my machine that is suppose to be used for match/gather purpose in the future, told few players and I already see people there every night. Maybe with the reputation I can run comp mid+ level pub server, something like 50/100+h on hive or your profile. If some people help me seed it, we can have high quality say 16 slot pub server for veterans to kill each other instead of stomping on rookie servers since there is about 3 non-rookies servers seeded every night and totally full. Yeah let's do that.

Sad, hilarious accusations because I can not post in a topic without bringing up how unfair it is that my server died and other lived on

We need to have a public discussion about what can be done and what cant and why and can anyone help?

You may have read my post which zefram locked in which he explained that he had no access to web code and had no one to fix a blinking google widget. Like, serial zef? how many web coders play ns2?

I feel the similar feeling across ns2, sadly we need to have discussions publicly and bluntly so we can actually get some information. Just look at wasabi's reply! This is the most positive statement ive heard from the CDT in months and it took this thread to hear it...

So many dedicated and talented members in this community who could do great things but i feel they don't want to reach out and try to apply for a role in the community which just ins't there.

idk know the solutions are other than some form of re-shuffle.
Like i said we need fresh blood in the ensl willing to recruit people to help work on comp mods (no alien commander mod possible?) constant community updates and liaising with the cdt on any and all news.

The other part is like herakles said (omg agreed with him twice), there are players in lower division who got the potential to play much better, but the current system doesnt allow them to improve.
(...)
Without the ability for lower teams to challange better teams (constantly) in a league system there is no way for them to improve.

Had a lot of fun on comp mod thirsty onos server tonight. I like the 8v8 with 8 spec format. I also thought the skill level was pretty high and communication was great with people willing to give info and form cohesion to pull off some pretty nice plays.

Tudy proposed something like draft tournament. He proposed 2 days a week. Even if I think it's way too much, for me once a month is even fine or 2 per month

I really would like to edit highlights video every weeks on the season but need ppl to tell me "this action on this cast need to be in it" cuz I'm not a "cast watcher".

Also, what about the SWS mod. People had a lot of fun with it. If someone maintains it, we even could make some event on it (like draft and other things). Sometimes I'm tired about playing NS2 even with comp mod