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MG Points Reloaded Servers need a revival...

Discussion in '[L4D2] Points Reloaded' started by TJ, Dec 16, 2011.

  1. TJ

    TJ MG Donor

    MG PR servers are dead lately...

    I know there are some new games like Skyrim and MW3 that have taken a lot of MG members attention; but I've never seen the PR servers so empty like this before. At the time of writing this, there are NINE people playing vs (all on Sao Paolo). I remember a time when I had to wait 10 minutes to find a space on ANY MG server. Especially VS; it used to be so difficult to get into a match on VS because the servers were always full. These days, its so easy to find an EMPTY server. For awhile, during the new guild system addition, the servers were live and full. The guilds brought a lot of activity to MG, but the excitement of guilds seems to have passed; and still, no guild wars :? Now, many of the servers are dead and empty. I dont know if its a phase or maybe there's a really good reason why so many of the servers are empty lately, but its just something I feel a little concerned about. Afterall, I and many others donate to MG and therefore we (or at least I) care about what goes on with the servers.

    If I could put my own OPINION into it, I blame the boosters (specifically the 10x). Yes, I understand that the boosters generated a good amount of money for MG, but at the same time, they took a good amount of fun away also (for me at least). And before I continue, there are others who have expressed to me similar feelings towards these new boosters (like Atreyu and Oceandriver). There are various reasons why the new 10x boosters MAY have been a mistake. First of all, the 10x boosters helped me and many other players skyrocket to level 210. Sure, this seems great and all, but after getting to 210, the fun of leveling up is gone. Honestly, after I got to level 210 (and my guild was already maxed level by then too), my play time for l4d went from 60hrs/wk to 6hrs/wk. There's nothing to be gained now (at least there wasnt, but I did supreme down to lvl 201 for fun :P ). And that was part of the fun of MG and leveling: gaining new upgrades/skills. Even when I was lvl 200 and maxed everything (which I achieved before 10x boosters), there was still some fun in being one of the few lvl 200s on the server. Maybe I'm being mean, but I used to enjoy kicking noob ass. Now, there's either no more noob asses to kick (server full of lvl 200+) or too many noob asses (server full with players under lvl 150) lol... The second reason why I think 10x boosters were a mistake was because they became like a mini-richkid package in that either you felt like $30 was worth it or you didn't. Thirty dollars is definitely a steep price and not many people felt it was worth it, so even though they worked hard to get to their high levels, low levels passed them with ease just like the people who got the ACTUAL rich kid package back when it was available. It made it seem unfair to those who actually worked hard to get to their level. Remember when having maxed sticky goo used to be envied? Now, it's easy to have both teams with 3 maxed spitters (82%) on each.... Third reason: GUILDS. Guild max level is 20 and I believe there are two or three that are at that level already and many that are close (thanks again to the 10x boosters). And not only are these guilds at that level, but the guilds also own ALL of the buffs (even the many which still arent working properly). Now that the guilds are at max level, what's next? We are still waiting for buffs like Detect and Antigloo to be fixed and we still don't have a guild wars server for guild wars. There are discussions of new features to add, but we still are waiting for the promised features from before to be delivered. I think the 10x boosters enabled us to level our guilds toooo fast. Most of the promised guild stuff isn't finished yet, meanwhile, many of our guilds are already maxed or close to the max...

    So now the guilds are at maxed level and many of the players in these guilds are at maxed level.. Now what?
     
  2. atreyucore

    atreyucore Senior Member

    Its true the only vs server thats actually full is sao paolo now. EU LA and chicago is usually empty now. Its come to that point where i actually join coop servers cause they are the only servers thats full sometimes just cause it has ppl to talk to.
     
  3. Chocobo

    Chocobo <span style="color:#66CD00">Moderator</span>

    Well I somewhat agree with you here. I was actually thinking about this in the shower the other day, as MG dominates my thinking. I found a few possible solutions I think would help:

    1. A COOP custom server - We used to have one before, but some maps had problems, yet it was really fun. Sure you had to download some maps, but it gave new life to playing on MG servers.

    2. A Custom VS server - Same as the first, which we also had before with "Questionable Ethics" map. That was also really fun.

    3. HD back - I know HC said it will come back eventually, but still. I found myself playing HD just because I love LOTR, not bc I wanted a reward. The thing that killed HD was the admins had to be there to slay everyone and people had to rejoin. If we could have a HD server with less rewards and easier to get HD tickets, that would add some life to MG.

    4. A balance between regular COOP and extreme COOP. Right now, I feel like regular COOP is too easy for me. I don't even try at anything and I still live. However, I go to the extreme server and I could be by every singe teammate and I die every map. No, not becuase they didn't try to help me, because when I smoker or hunter gets me, I'm dead withing 2 seconds. I just feel like regular is too easy and COOP is too hard. We need a balance.

    Ehh, feel free to disagree. I was just thinking about this in the shower.
     
  4. marvel

    marvel Head Administrator Staff Member

    You're right it has been more quiet the last weeks, but we always have quiet periods especially in the holiday months. Don't forget that a LOT of big titles came out, like Skyrim, MW3, BF3, SR3, Assassins Creed etc etc. L4D2 on the other hand, has nothing new except for the mods.

    I mean look at the list and see how many 20-player servers are full, like 4 or 5 at the time of writing:

    http://www.gametracker.com/search/left4dead2/?&sort=c_numplayers&order=DESC

    The ones that are full are communities with one or two servers, we have 17 servers so that's another issue in quiet periods, having too much servers and having people scattered around these servers, I rather have one server on 20/20 than 4 servers on 5/20.

    So I don't think you can blame PR because new features are constantly being added. And the boosters, well, how many people have the 10x booster? Only a really small percentage of the players has it.

    I agree with Choralation though that we should do more events, maybe bring back helms deep. Give new players more of a chance to level up. The thing is that everybody has been so busy with their private life (which goes for me as well) that MG became to 'static'. It's just everything of the same all the time.

    I will focus on that this weekend and see what I can do :)
     
  5. Collector

    Collector <img src="http://mgftw.com/leadweb.png" />

    lets bring back a custom event server i say :)
     
  6. VON_BOCK

    VON_BOCK Guest

    I would love to see a survival mode VS server :wacko2: If that is even possible.
     
  7. Raised in Hell

    Raised in Hell Senior Member

    If HD is still bugged then i suggest we should just release a normal PR Helms Deep server without any reward or any ticket needed to start the map so anyone can join at any time without admins having to slay everyone because there won't be any challenges or reward until HD is fully ready so people can play a PR survival map for fun.

    As for Coop, I agree with choco that normal coop is too easy and you can just stroll through the campaign with ease and extreme is difficult with players who are not that high levels but before, normal coop used to be full because people wanted to get to level 210 so you couldn't find a slot to join the coop server but now even they r empty which could be for either of these two reasons or both:

    1) Players have reached maximum level and don't feel the need to spend hours and hours playing this game
    2) People have started playing other games like me :)

    As for VS, i will just point out the spitter aspect of the game. I remember when 75% spitter goo was max, only few people had that upgrade so the game was fun for those who had it and agony for those who had to go through the spit and didn't have it but now many people have the 82% spitter goo which makes it difficult for the survivors. If the infected team has 2-3 strong spitters then you sort of prepare yourself mentally for a spit rape as soon as you open the safe room door and step out. Yes you can heal yourself and run out so your immune to any damage for 7-10 seconds but in tight corridors, ladders or elevators, you will still get raped by the spitters. I don't know what can be done to solve this issue because as the levels increase so do the skills and upgrades :pray2:
     
  8. joerve

    joerve Senior Member

    I thought to myself in the summer, look how busy MG now in the summertime is, that promises busy times especially in
    the winter season when everybody is inside and the days are short.

    Unfortunately the big game companies had the exact same idea by releasing all toptitles in the fall. (very smart)

    There is just a lot of competition, and then you have the left for dead 2 which has been milked in every possible way, it just a recepy for empty servers.
     
  9. luizlf

    luizlf Junior Member

    Interesting observation. Indeed, the "guild" has brought a little excitement, but at the same time lost grace. To me, left me a bit of enthusiasm to play, to get the "veteran pistol", outcast, last but this is ironic, a gun, be up to 1500 damage.


    Previously, before the guild was funny, you come running through a map with a smoker. Today, a shot of her fifths of hell hit you.


    Here in Brazil, still see some players still L4D2, for the acquisition of powerful hardware for new games, unfortunately, here in Brazil, there is a very high tax burden for imported electronics.
     
  10. Nort

    Nort Junior Member

    Heres my input.

    Normal coop servers are way too easy, even for low lvl players IMO. Bring back the shamans, supreme shamans & knight tanks, remove there insane rewards for defeating them, increase there % chance of spawning, make it so at least 2-3 tanks spawn every map, bring back Helms deep, create a survival server, increase the Lvl cap but without the need for another liquid enhancer to go beyond lvl 210, increase the hunters damage, tone down the spitters ability to earn bounty, raise the % chance of of a player getting paranoid status but remove the paranoids regeneration ability allowing for it to be defeated, make the Vs smokers toung longer, increase the jockeys jump height, remove the defib penalty in Vs, increase jimmy gibbs zombies to all campain lvls, increase riot police to all campain lvls, tone down veteran pistols damage (even with 80% metalized skin, a charger can be 1 shot killed by VP) so yeah tone down veteran pistols, almost everyone has them and ONLY uses them.
     
  11. Ami-Lilian

    Ami-Lilian MG Donor

    The custom coop server was fun when it was active, would be nice to see it back.
     
  12. Archangel

    Archangel Junior Member

    I think tanks spawning every map is a nice idea
     
  13. VON_BOCK

    VON_BOCK Guest

    I have to agree with Nort. Bring back the custom tanks so they will randomly spawn on normal coop. Lower the reward for the shaman that spawns on normal coop.
     
  14. Raised in Hell

    Raised in Hell Senior Member

    Spawning Shaman, Knight etc on normal coop again with less reward will make the normal coop server full of high levels again who still need points, stones and gems so that still doesn't solve the extreme coop server problem for which this update was created because normal coop servers would be full whereas the extreme coop servers would be empty.
     
  15. Nort

    Nort Junior Member

    Raised in Hell, your missing my point.

    Remove the insane rewards suvivors receave from defeating shamans, supreme shamans, knight tanks on Normal coop servers,

    My suguestion
    Normal shaman rewards 10,000xp & 1000pts & 3 gems & 1 enhancement stone.
    Supreme shaman rewards 25,000xp & 5000pts & 10 gems & 3 enhancement stones
    Knight tank rewards 21,000xp & 4000pts & 7 gems & 2 enhancement stones

    Extreme coop, rewards stay as is they are now due to the difficulty of defeating these tanks IS extremly HARD.

    So for the pros who want the big payouts, this should encourage them to play on the extreme servers.

    But same with normal coop and extreme coop, the % chance of these tanks spawning needs to be increased.
     
  16. joerve

    joerve Senior Member

    Well, we can make up or change anything, and it will just have a temporary effect. If I look at myself for instance, havent played left for dead in 3 months, because Im really, utterly bored by it.

    I think its even suprising it lasted as long as it did. Its time for l4d3.

    Maybe when people get bored with all the new stuff out there they return to L4d2.
    Because Im still convinced part of it is the competition.
     
  17. Zsoka

    Zsoka Senior Member

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  18. Ping

    Ping Guest

    I agree.

    Out of a total of 12 hours today, the COOP Points reloaded server has only been 4 or more players for like an hour. This seriously is getting really annoying when i have the time but i can't earn EXP because there is only 1 or 2 people in the server. VS is active quite alot, but most of the time it's like COOP - dead and empty, or it's just not worth playing because the little amount of players makes it bad.
     
  19. luizlf

    luizlf Junior Member

    Honestly.


    BR game much on the server, as you know, always low level players. The main criticism and veteran pistol, ridiculously, that in any normal server, this weapon is worse than a punch. You lose all grace the game.


    If a gun is to have "special", continue the sale of ammunition in special STORE. But not in guild.
     
  20. -GothaX-

    -GothaX- Member

    Well definitely more maps is a must, and i think increasing the stats, even a little for the SI, would make the game more challenging and fun.

    As people said, extreme coop is too hard. Decrease the damage by 40 pct of what each infected does, namely SI

    Put more tanks. I do not want to see this kind of s***

    Tank 1 - Arm Damage - 60, Fire immunity - 70 pct, HP - 15,000
    Tank 2 - Arm Damage - 80, Fire Immunity - 90 pct, HP - 25,000, Possible chance of Earthquake even when there are no incapacitated survivors
    Tank 3 - Arm Damage - 95, Fire Immunity - 100 pct, HP - 37,500, Possible chance of Earthquake even when there are no incapacitated survivors

    You get the point, i do not want an upgrade of the same tank, it would be much more fun if there were tanks like

    Tank 1 - The rock he throws is electrized, you start by loosing 30 hp and the hp loss decreases by 10 every second (so in total you loose 60 hp). He can summon lighting to the place where he is and do surrounding damage of X. There will be a short warning for this. Has weakness for explosions but is slightly stronger against bullets. This tank has 45,000 HP.

    Tank 2 - He can go into his "Lava" state where he is immune to all damage. Twice a map, he can activate another one of his states where his speed increases by a percent every 5 seconds. This state lasts for 1.5 minutes. Setting him on fire will only heal him for 350 HP for every second he is in the area of the fire caused by the molotov. This tank has 30,000 HP, and can summon regular tanks.

    Tank 3 - This tank has high immunity to bullets. If survivors set him on fire/bile him, he is under that effect for 30 seconds, and in that state he is a crazy madman, doing earthquakes all the time. His speed is very high, and he has regeneration - 100 HP per second. This tank has 20,000 HP, and 10 seconds after he dies, he releases an explosion so strong it will kill survivors in 50 meter radius instantly, even if lvl 210.

    Tank 4 - This tank isn't very strong, but he can call up to 4 normal tanks every 4 minutes. He has 15,000 HP, and whenever one of the tanks he summoned dies, he gets 5,000 HP (his HP can go above 15,000). Rarely, he can summon up to 2 non-normal tanks, alongside his two normal tanks.

    Tank 5 - This tank is the second hardest tank in the game. He can teleport to a survivor's location, his punches bile the survivors, his rocks, when they explode, cause the survivors it hit to be biled, and also on spit. This guy has high speed, and his punches will do 180 damage per hit (So even for the highest levels it will take 2 hits to get em). This guy has 65,000 HP, but he has weakness to Bile jars. Each bile jar thrown will last for 2 minutes, and the infected hitting him will do double damage.

    Tank 6 - Strongest tank in the game. Only roots can summon this tank. It combines the powers of all tanks. His rocks will electrize you, get you bile'd and spit on. His punches will automatically incapacitate you. It will take 2 punches at most when you are incapacitated to kill you. He can enter the lava state, summon lighting to his place and damage the surroundings with it and teleport. He has fire and bile immunity. He summons a regular tank every 1/1.5 minutes (to give survivors a chance to use def's on teammates), and his earthquakes are very strong and often. This tank has 100,000 HP, and will bring huge rewards.

    What do you guys think?
    Also, for regular SI, or even survivors, let em choose between Power/Speed/Survivability modes, and have enhancement in those areas.