Indie games are almost always niche products with low but dedicated playerbases. Besides the occasional spike from releases/steam sales/free weekends, playercounts typically level off in the couple thousands range. NS2 is no different nor is it dead or dying.
The problem is ns2 had the potential to get a much bigger playerbase.
Like I said on another forum, 80% of a game playerbase, and it is specially true for a fps, are casuals.
Casuals run on casual configs, 2/3 years old rigs.
The performance since release has improved for the 1000 players that run on a OC'd at a minimum 4ghz cpu but for the 200 000 casuals it got from 30 fps to 40.
Let's look the minimum system directly from UWE
OS:
Windows 7 32/64-bit / Vista 32/64 / XP
Processor:
Core 2 Duo 2.6 ghz
Memory:
1GB for XP / 2GB for Vista/7
Graphics:
DirectX 9 compatible video card with 1GB, ATI X800, NVidia 8600 or better
This does look casual?
Well guess what, with this kind of rig you will never exceed 30 fps in the game.
NS2 is marketed by UWE as: "A fast multiplayer fps".
I run it on a i5 3570k at 4.3 ghz with a gtx660 and in front of a hive with 2 crags 1 lerk 1 skulk in the mid game i get 50ish fps.
Wich is literally console gaming performance and wouldn't bother me if i was playing on a tv with a pad. <- LOL
They included an infestation system that every single smart players disables, they included thousands of light sources that were removed in a big part for competitive gaming and the maps are totally over detailed when you see that for exemple tram is nearly bigger outside than inside <- LOL
At that point competitive gaming on this game is pretty much pay to win, where basicly div1 is about having a minimum 800E rig and a raw aim at 15% <- LOL
If you think it is not dying you are delusional, since january the game lost again 1000 players, let's stop drinking the fanboys kool aid and start giving facts please.
It's not just about niche gaming, this argument makes me laugh, as soon as it started dying UWE fanboys didn't stop spouting it, minecraft is a niche game developped by 1 guy, 27,067 56,970 Football Manager 2013: managing a football team isn't that niche enough for you?
So why dont we all go and PLAY NS1 AGAIN .. cause that is the better game in every single aspect whichever way you want to look at it .. except for graphics maybe .. although i dont like the new models .. and in comp play you dont really care bout the graphic anyway !
But yeah UWE has put way to much effort into looks and that is killing 90 percent of the current PCs. .. and yes i mean playing with less than 60 fps IS KILLING THE PC !
Greets !
And yes my rig is nice enough(i7 3770@4.9GHz with a GTX680 OC'd and 16 GB 1033 Rams) but i would still prefer to play NS1 if there was any kind of NS1 still going on, because that was tailored to comp play 8) !
From the beginning of the PAX Free Weekend/Sale (on a Thursday Night):
Also, sandboxes games are not particularly niche anymore. The success of games like Garrysmod show the popularity of genre. Notch was simply the first one to cash-in on that growing popularity. Football Manager is sports related games and those sell like hotcakes. Just look at the endless series of "Madden" games....
On the other hand, how many commercial FPS/RTS games can you list? Nuclear Dawn? Savage 2? Natural Selection 2? Its a small list in a niche genre.
It's not just about niche gaming, this argument makes me laugh, as soon as it started dying UWE fanboys didn't stop spouting it.
And again you try luring the argument into this, so i won't develop this point any further.
You ignored the facts i gave while i know you are an intelligent person, please be honest:
If they totally removed the infestation system what would it change from the game?
From my point of view it just adds another hassle to the allready extremly annoying alien commander, the marines still hit the rts not giving a fuck to the cyst as they should.
Cyst explosion? Good COD marmelade effect on your screen to slow the game down breaking their own definition of "fast multiplayer fps".
Again terrible development choice.
I don't want to get into an argument with you about the rest of your post, and I agree with some of what you're saying, but this just isn't true. Having a decent computer is a requirement, of course, but you don't need to spend 800e to do well. For example, I know that Tane, who is IMO the strongest marine player in the world right now, plays on a fairly old computer.
You should also be very careful with how you use ns2stats. The accuracy stat is completely meaningless because good players spend a lot of bullets shooting the air to find drifters, and a lot of other "actions" which count as "misses" even though the player isn't actually trying to hit aliens, which will drastically lower your "accuracy". None of the top players actually have a "raw aim at 15%".
I'm not going to defend every design choice by Charlie/UWE because I have my own criticisms. However, I think its folly to say that the game is being held back by feature X or problem Y, as those are different for each person. The only exception is performance, since if you can't play a game smoothly, you'll very likely to not play it at all.
But to put this all into perspective, NS2 is the most successful FPS/RTS game. Ever. I love the genre but I have no illusions that its not a niche. The vast majority of gamers just don't play FPS/RTS games.
I understand your point but the fact is the design choices totally destroy the performance.
Infest, polys, maps, particles etc...
Now i'm gonna talk about something this community might find totally false but still it's my point of view and i want to say it.
NS2 is not defined as a fps/rts hybrid, for me it's a fast fps first.
Why?
Take a shit comm give him Tane, Fana, Skuggan, Wiry, king-yo or any good rines he can win 80% of his games, now take Scrajm give him some baddies, he will lose 80% of the games.
Every single frag movie on ns was exactly like in any fast fps movie: PoV of some good actions from some good FPS player.
Not a single commanding highlight because what defines ns to me is chasing a fade through the whole map with a fucking jp hmg / chasing your duel opponent with your lg (q3) / chasing the enemy capper while skying and nade boosting yourself (tribes) etc...
Once again i understand it's an hybrid but it's still first a fast fps where personnal skill overcomes korean apm piano bullshit.
Though I do sympathize with your point. NS2 is primarily a FPS, but the RTS portion does play a not insubstantial role. You can't remove the comm without crippling a vital part of what makes the game different and interesting from your standard FPS.
Design choices do affect performance, but that doesn't mean you can't make the game perform well with them. I don't know what went into the decision to release NS2 this past fall, but I would have personally preferred to see the game delayed to further increase performance. UWE's certainly gambling on the hope that people will give NS2 a second look in the future after performance has been improved. Only time will tell if that was the right choice.
