Alternating purepub as default pub

[CaptainPoopface]

How about every week we switch between purepub and "filthy" pub (levs allowed, no Roboboy) as the default pub to put people when they log in?

After a decade-long absence from the game, it took me a few weeks of playing to realize that sometimes the pub game sucked ass and had no purpose, and sometimes it was a crazy base-chasing fracas of destruction, terror and mayhem. I much preferred the latter and finally figured out the distinction between pubs. (I'm not stupid, just ignorant.)

I think people tend to prefer the arena with more players in it, which happens to always be pub 0 because it's the default. I suspect purepub could be revived somewhat if people were browbeaten into trying it, or if there were simply more players in it, due to pitting people against their own inertia to go to filthy pub.

I could be wrong, in which case we will see exactly the same distribution of players we currently see between the pubs, with the purepub game dying completely by 11 PM EST like it does now. But purepub is a basing game of constant action, and filthy pub is for:

• spawnkilling people in warbird
• vulching the spawnkilling warbirds
• laming levis
• touring the designated lame bomb-lobbing spots in a lev-terr

In other words, it blows. There is little basing, since the entire contents of the FR can be cleared with a lev bomb or two. I wonder if we could revive some interest in TW pub by alternating between the two kinds of pub. How about it?

[gdugwyler]

In other words, it blows. There is little basing, since the entire contents of the FR can be cleared with a lev bomb or two. I wonder if we could revive some interest in TW pub by alternating between the two kinds of pub. How about it?

Pretty sure this change went in as a way to promote good basing. From what I can tell, it's cut pubbing even more, and relegated the PurePub goal-based game to being only an occasional thing -- particularly during times when there are few players. As the developer of the mode of play it was certainly an annoying change to see implemented... something like a step backward in time, and not in any positive sense. There was once a time players abided levis bombing the base and still went for the flag, but it's been many, many, many years since that was the case and imagining that it will ever come back is a serious mistake in understanding the progression of this zone. Change is necessary for survival. Boredom is contagious.

To implementation, it would be a simple matter to switch the two pubs, and nearly as simple to make the first pub switch back and forth from time to time. Not sure who's lately in charge of the pub situation (I'm about 95% out of all loops these days) but it's worth looking at. Word given, I could throw in the switching between game modes -- maybe once every hour -- over the weekend. One pub could start as pure, the other as free-for-all; every hour they'd swap modes. It would make it more difficult to get your preferred game mode, but then again, if you come in at an off time, it would also ensure you at least get a chance to play the purepub mode if you prefer that.

[Soup du Jour]

I am completely in favour of making the default pub the one that has RoboBoy in it.

In basing, the more people that play (to a certain point), the better the game is because it is quicker and has more action. To have a little Warbird duel in spawn or to lev-bomb an empty flag room only takes 10 people in an arena. My observation has shown that the default pub is almost always more populated and so it should be the basing pub.

A relatively simple method of testing if the general population agrees is to set the default to basing for one week and checking to see how many players are in each arena at an arbitrary time every day. Then, switch the default to "filthy" pub for a week checking the numbers at the same times. If one type of arena seems to be more populated (i.e. if over the two separate weeks, base averages 30 while non-base averages 20), then it would seem that there is a preference for one over the other.

BRING BACK GUANOBOT! :greedy:

[MirrorriM]

That would be a nice change. Moot experimented a bit and switched pure pub to the second pub. Proves that people really do just stick in the default pub

[bounty]

YAAAY LEVI 4 fers all round!!!!

[JD MoFo]

id still go to the levi-enabled room as i'd prefer to be in a room with lev's

[DankNuggets]

For what it's worth, you're right. People stay in the pub they get put in until something pisses them off enough to ?go. Also, basing is virtually non-existant in pub 0. Which backfires on the LTs, because there's no one to bomb in the base. Also, there's on average 10+ people in spec.

I would suggest putting the purepub bot in all public arenas. Just restrict Levis in one of them. People based a good bit (although not as much as in purepub) when the levi pub had a timed game with rewards. There's no point to basing in it now -- so no one does it. There's no point to LTing if there's no one basing -- so less people do that. All that leaves you with is spawn-dueling wbs, and a handful of people in base.

You could make purepub the primary pub, but it would fill up and people would complain b/c they don't want to play purepub in an arena with 14 ppl in it. Also, even less people in the levi pub (no rewards, no LTs, no forced entry).

Another thing that would make it more interesting is if you capped the spec freq at 10 ppl. MrArrogant does an alright (though roundabout) job of emptying ppl in spec, but limiting them right off the bat might help as well. I hope that it doesn't come down to 25% of an arena in spec because of lag, but it's close to that % now, regardless of the reason. just a suggestion

[JD MoFo]

i like your idea Dank.


But the people in charge of changing settings have proven not to give a shit about anything other than their little wim's.

[bounty]

Heheheh believe me no basing does NOT stop us LT people, we goto plan B then which is bombing across spawn and hitting lower safe etc. HARD where all the wbs are swarming and spawn dueling, then taking flag and firing down the main tube out into spawn, then those spawners have to deal with us.

[gdugwyler]

I would suggest putting the purepub bot in all public arenas. Just restrict Levis in one of them. People based a good bit (although not as much as in purepub) when the levi pub had a timed game with rewards. There's no point to basing in it now -- so no one does it. There's no point to LTing if there's no one basing -- so less people do that. All that leaves you with is spawn-dueling wbs, and a handful of people in base.

This sounds like a pretty good compromise. The timed game doesn't interfere with LTing... it's pretty innocuous, really. The best way to do this might just be to toggle private freqs & levis on/off every hour in the first two pubs, with each offering what the other doesn't. That way new players that aren't ?go-capable will get variety, there won't be a dominance of ideology in terms of who gets the main pub, and those that want to LT can still do so by changing over at any time. Furthermore, it should allow more pubbing going on, considering that the appeal is somewhat more limited with basically only the levi-enabled pub available during most times, which to me holds absolutely no appeal whatsoever... that grew old 5 years ago.

[HateTheFake]

i dont like the idea. I would like to keep with the dueling arena and the basing arena. Having flags in both with timers will encourage one over the other. And Make the lev arena boring for wbs who go around killing

[Vehicle]

Put pure pub back in pub 0, I'm not sure why it's not there in the first place? Problems solved.

Oh ya, and make ?go boki the pub map.

[DankNuggets]

?go boki the pub map.

or at least use the tileset