Killing my fun in pub.

[MegamanEXE]

That is a really long post, I actually read it all too. afk

-24

+1 for literacy

[bandcampgirl]

I am so sick of the levis ruining pub all the time!! wtf is wrong with staff?

Also very sick of megaman too

[Davey Jones]

Just bring the original pub map back. That will solve all the problems
New pub map keeps getting worse and worse, base is so cluttered with random walls and holes (that are blocked for some reason with that stupid red brick), it makes no sense at all. And if pubbers get a feel for the original pub base, they will be more inclined to participate in ?go base since it will be familiar and not a base they have never seen.

[Zeebu]

hey steve

[Spock!]

The best and most simple way to even up the LT is to allow Warbirds to buy Anti-Warp. That would basically solve the problem.

Amen.
Live Long and Prosper.

[Steep]

who wants to terr if every wb can have anti? cure is worse than disease

[MegamanEXE]

You could say "who wants to terr when every spid can have anti" and see what's wrong with that. AW is available to every spid, but I don't think I've ever been antied. I'm one of the apparently very few people that uses it. Just because it's available doesn't mean that everyone will use it.

Also I don't think that they typical player that mains wb in pub even knows what AW is, much less how to use it effectively, or would want to stop killing (gasp) to use it.

Anyway I don't think that putting AW on wbs would help that much. They still can't run fast enough to catch LTs and the energy drain combined with afterburner for chasing would mean that a WB could give chase for 0.2 of a second before having to fire.

Since the map dev guys are going spastic with making useless changes right now, how about re-instuting pure pub? It would do a lot more to help promote basing than changing the tileset or moving the flag.

[Zeebu]

the wb wouldnt start with it, but to buy it wouldnt be a bad idea.

[Spock!]

the wb wouldnt start with it, but to buy it wouldnt be a bad idea.

Thats what I said.

You can often catch LT's in some little hole/indentation/wall, so it takes them a second to get out. A second is all it takes.
So, thats that.

[qan]

Just wanted to say, reading this thread, and have the ability to make necessary code changes, or suggest things up the right channels if there's a consensus about something that should be done in pub (because I also really thing pub's important).

Was thinking, what about bringing back voting in pub? If you want to stop levis for a time, vote to stop them. Then, next hour, it falls back to the zone default, and you can vote against them again, if you want?

[Rab]

could cut the bottom half off the map
- less room for noobs
- easier to learn what to do
- harder for levs to green

[Spock!]

could cut the bottom half off the map
- less room for noobs
- easier to learn what to do
- harder for levs to green

Another simple yet (maybe) affective idea.

It will also have more action, as there is lots of space to run around without seeing anybody. This will bring noobs into the action faster, thus, they get addicted faster.

[DKFett]

could cut the bottom half off the map

- less room for noobs
- easier to learn what to do
- harder for levs to green

I agree with this!

Another simple yet (maybe) affective idea.

It will also have more action, as there is lots of space to run around without seeing anybody. This will bring noobs into the action faster, thus, they get addicted faster.

Because, clearly, there isn't nearly enough addiction going around.

[qan]

Does anyone have an opinion on allowing voting in pub? We had a system like this active at one point in time... I remember that some people were abusing it, though, so I think we disabled it. No reason we couldn't fix those bugs, though, and get it running again.


So: if we had a working voting system, and it enabled new settings for, say, 1 hour, after which they would revert, would anyone object?


If it sounds like a good idea, what things would you like to be able to vote on?

A few things I can think of off the top of my head that we could toggle on/off:

• Levis
• Levis allowed to attach
• Priv freqs
• Weasels
• Warping into base at round start
• Forced warp (everyone is warped into base at round start ... except for levis)
• Start a special game mode, such as kill-o-thon or pub hunt (actually, which reminds me... why not have "nemesis" features for certain ships? Someone kills you X number of times and they become your nemesis, and if you get revenge on them, you gain a little bonus $?)
• Distension (hrr hrr hrr ... I kid)
• ???
• Prophets!

And note that we could require different percentages of people to enable each particular option (70% of players required to disable levis, while we'd need 80% to disable private freqs... as an example), as well as include votes for reverting back to the original settings before the time is up (which would probably require a smaller majority, since the original settings would be considered the most "correct"). So this way, we could maintain plain old pub, while allowing the odd change or two if it's popular enough at a given time. Probably still have the code, somewhere...

[bkgmjo]

dear qan,

the idea of voting in pub is nice in theory but will just cause heavy abuse (multiclienting, calling in ppl from other arenas just for the vote, messing as spectator without actually playing and so on...).

also with alternating pub every hour people would just get confused and annoyed, spam ?help and leave the game. it would also lead to levi-haters or levi-lovers staying away depending on settings. this total fail pure pub episode of tw perfectly showed that permanent changes have a heavy impact on player population as you currently can see as the results of random unplanned map messups too. also, just think about the ragequits when ppl get thrown out of their ships or freqs randomly...


if we want to reactivate pub(s) we have to look back at what actually killed them. and thats not lts or priv freqs as those have been there when i could still choose between 8 open pubs. the problems with those are symptoms, not causes. but then again, what is the problem? pretty obvious to me when comparing to tws golden times:

• first of all, the game is getting old. back in the day there were no facebook games, barely any other mmos and the graphics were cool. what can we do about that? pretty much nothing, unless we find very motivated ppl to create a new client.
  
  
• the community is none. we have many small communities from twd players over lt players to staff, to upper staff and even there we have groups hating each other. decisions are NOT based on any community voting or whatever for years now. very few people see themselves in almighty positions and make choices for players not caring about the results (not all i know, but this is what mainly happens in staff). the best display of this is right here on the forums. hidden staff sections and a dead player forum area. a result of forming elitist groups and allowing public forums to become flamewars places where nobody actually picked up ideas and even the majority of posts from staff here is offensive nonsens. what to do? include the community into the game and regulate bs talk (thats actually the job of a forum mod, just in case you guys forgot)
  
  
• all groups of players are given their own playgrounds. we have twd for squads, ?go base for basers, ?go duel for duelers, ?go elim for deathmatchers and and and. most of them hosted 24/7 by automated bots. sounds great huh? the absolute contrary it is. ive talked about this to an experienced game community manager who didnt know about tw (their company handles more than 500 online games) and she was amazed this game is still being played. there are a few golden rules in community management of which some are:
  1. do not split players into too small groups
  2. do not make groups too big
  3. keep the flow (which relates to carefully watching that players can level up or step down a little without groups being too distant from others)
  
  in late 90s and early 2ks those rules were followed, not anymore. we give the 3 duelers a place, the 10 ppl who want to play as squads, the 4 lters. the 5 elim guys and so on and then watch how all of them whine that nobody is online while player count actually states 100+ ppl online. also we allowed those isolated groups to become such professionals in their area that new players need a long time to even try and challenge. there is no medium level anymore. changes? i know im gonna get hating for this but... the hell shut down those 24/7 events(twd included) when player count is so damn low. most of them cant even be played then anyways because simply nobody is there to play them. rotate them, host them manually like years ago or make them events like all others. place twd on weekends(maybe even just one day of weekend) so players know when to meet up for it and dont put every single player into its own arena.
  
  
• a good staffer is who hosts events. i wonder if the majority of players knows there are quotas for new staffers to match. you get score for hosting, answering help calls and so on. nice idea but faulty. or did you see many actively playing staffers in pub lately? they assemble in twd and events to collect their score, answer questions without knowing the answer to collect score, host the same 10 events over and over and over to collect score while there are hundreds of maps on the server, hold pointless meetings and discuss over each other. point is: staff today is put in place to take care of staff things, not player issues. its not all staffers like that, some are working hard, trying to get things done and rip their asses off to help the game but as in every place a few weak spots ruin every endevour. if you are staff and not motivated to do anything anymore thats fine, its all voluntary and we thank you for what you have donated, but if this motivation is gone then follow dock>s and priitks and others good example and retire, axe yourself and dont stand in other peoples way just to feel important. and while you are at it you might as well remove mod rights from all those millions of VIP mods who just abuse data about other players and dont help anywhere. seriously, if you do not play this game anymore and just chat or afk, your oppinions on how players should play are bullshit.
  
  
• we time events on late sunday evening, american time. do i have to mention it is night time in europe by then? or even early morning sometimes? even staff meetings often happen at american evening times during the week, after midnight european time. is this what you call global community? europeans are actively excluded from the game and staff that way. no surprise euros leave. and just in case you do not realize... every leaving european is one less player, one less of "new player x's" countryman that could make him stay. ive seen groups of germans, dutch, english, fins, swedish, italians and others suddenly leave completely because ppl of their country werent seen anymore. getting new players whos native language is not english and who struggle to learn is pretty hard that way.
  
  
• finally, pub is ruined by people who do not know pub. if you really read all of this you might understand the following problems:
  • pub changes are made by staffers who never play pub
  • pub changes are put in place and nobody cares about effects. just to mention some:
    • the small weasel still ruins every basing game, steals flag and lames like mad, ruined the fun for terrs and levs and everyone who went for high bounty in base, forcing them all to private freqs and other arenas
    • the alernating map often results in 5 active basers defending 5 entrances
    • the buy anytime anywhere idea is only good for laming and powers up levterrs too much
    • the streak idea and kill-o-thon encourage heavy laming
    • the auto-freq-balancing makes everyone who likes high bounty, including levs and terrs go to private freqs to avoid it, it also does not check who is baser and who is spawner. this does not work to make teams even
    • the new maps that came in place made more players leave than come in. nothing got reverted
  • a pub that is starting to become fun is systematically ruined by events hosted to collect quota score
  • cheating and rude talk in pub is almost completely ignored by staff. saying "jew" can result in a netban though
  • good warbirds are drawn away by ?go elim
  • good terrs, spiders and sharks are drawn away by ?go base
  • good javs are drawn away by ?go javduel
  • all squads are drawn away by twd
  • probably lots more

now why do i put all this in a whine about being unable to handle a lt thread? because those levterrs are merely a symptom of all the idiocy that went into the development of this game. levterr players are players who want to team, players who want to play in pub, and players who enjoy the challenge. they have no place to run to like all other ships. but then again there are barely any skilled hunters anymore. levs in general are so pushed to be on private freqs that i dont see why they would bother helping the pub freqs. they get punished with losing their bounty on freq shuffle, they get lamed by some weasel when they finally made it into base to defend, they get teamkilled by those dozens of javs that cant aim or tk on purpose. they dont have teams to defend them anymore because all those teams are drawn to subarenas. how are people even gonna learn to baselev that way? for all of you who whine about "some lev newb blowing up base", maybe you should have played in the 90s when people were happy to have a defending lev in base or a levterr on their freq to assist basing. and most importantly my favourite part in the game: you could always hunt skilled enemy lts. today we have like 3 or 4 of those left. cant be such a task to handle. at least i manage to get each of them in a few minutes and im not very good at aiming.

if you want to blame broken pubs on anything, make it be the small weasel and bad staff decisions that led to heavy imbalances in gameplay, not some well thought ship settings that made this game grow supreme over all other zones.