Decreasing playerbase

[Aberiu]

Am I supposed to take that you're glitching in order to deliberately shorten the game in the map?

Nope, I was camping and the match lasted a bit more than a hour.

[Earl_Vencar.:LLS:.]

I think tonight's peak hours have provided evidence against the need to bring back or release more maps:

• UrbanBay - 14 players
• Cicatrice - 18 players
• Duststorm - 19 players
• Serenissima - 13 players
• Beach - 12 players
• Toys - 16 players

Make what you will of the statistics, but for me the mass RQ from Duststorm to Serenissima backs up the theory that a proportion of the existing playerbase just prefer to vote and play the 6 or 7 'top' maps only (Highlander, Downtown, Duststorm, Toys, Asbestos, Campgrounds, Osiris). We all like choice, but the server is already littered with choices and I don't think adding back old versions, or adding more smaller maps, will substantially affect the playerbase. As has already been pointed out, players won't vote for an unknown map (unless it has been specifically advertised as new) over a trusted favourite.

On the other hand we did play a unusual number of 'rare' maps this evening, so we are trying to add a bit of variety.

[iZumo]

Attacking weaker players all the time;
Forcing them to aim when they either don't want to or are not comfortable doing so. Belittling people for their weapon choices. Grading people as spammers or shitters because they play differently. Perhaps let them play as they please.
No action taken. (instead weaker players got handicap in KS and moved even more away from "spammers" and "shitters" i.e. no ammo resupply after being defreezed)

Bullshit. Harassment of weaker players mostly stopped - those who receive shit make themselves targets through constant complaining (one person in mind.) Thaw speed and KS thresholds both use the skill value to be more favorable to weaker players. Pressure from higher skilled players regarding the amount of spam that was going on led to ammo tracking, which existed in regular Freon as well - we just didn't have support for it.

Sorry, but thaw rate & KS adjustments don't really do anything for you, if you get dead easily when being low-skilled player. And what about complete newcomers without much skill? Do they have a chance to catch-up ( = spam away )?

[Aberiu]

Serenissima is a beautiful map but it's very cramped and the layout overall is not very good, lots of badly connected areas where you can get lost pretty easily.

[Azarael]

You moved the goalposts. You stated that no action had been taken regarding hostility of the environment towards newer players. Action WAS taken. Whether or not you agree with the action isn't what is in question.

[Stanky]

I think tonight's peak hours have provided evidence against the need to bring back or release more maps:

• UrbanBay - 14 players
• Cicatrice - 18 players
• Duststorm - 19 players
• Serenissima - 13 players
• Beach - 12 players
• Toys - 16 players

Make what you will of the statistics, but for me the mass RQ from Duststorm to Serenissima backs up the theory that a proportion of the existing playerbase just prefer to vote and play the 6 or 7 'top' maps only (Highlander, Downtown, Duststorm, Toys, Asbestos, Campgrounds, Osiris). We all like choice, but the server is already littered with choices and I don't think adding back old versions, or adding more smaller maps, will substantially affect the playerbase. As has already been pointed out, players won't vote for an unknown map (unless it has been specifically advertised as new) over a trusted favourite.

On the other hand we did play a unusual number of 'rare' maps this evening, so we are trying to add a bit of variety.

The "top maps" are the "top maps" because those are the maps that players like to play... and they are few and far between. The lesser played maps are maps that players may have tried, but have decided they don't really like to play them... and they are plentiful.

Point being, you currently have more maps that players don't have any interest in playing than maps that players want to play. Soooo, my question still stands... how could adding more maps (that players might actually like to play more than the maps you currently offer) hurt?

As I stated in my original post, I was extremely glad to see all of the additional maps, and to see them disappear was very disappointing. I think other players may have felt the same way.

You might want to consider taking a poll of your player base on whether they do/don't want a larger variety of maps? If they don't, I'd be very surprised. I'm done arguing over something that I think is fairly obvious, and I honestly don't understand your POV... SMH.

[Aberiu]

I don't think that having 33 versions of highlander is going to help anything. As for the new maps I guess the problem is that nobody wants to scroll through countless poor quality maps stored on BU or epic forums. Especially considering that screenshots and dl links are usually dead by now.
I can suggest a couple of maps though. Not sure if Aza will bother updating the maplist, but if he will, maybe we can start a thread for people to post map suggestions.

[iRobot]

The LDG maplist is like a foreign restaurant menu. Filled with lots of wondrous things you have never heard of, or have no idea what it is, so you end up ordering fish and chips from the 'classic english' section of the menu.

If you want to have people experience new things, you have to push them toward it. Have a random map day for example.

[Skaldy]

Alternate between a random map, and mapvote.

We can post here about maps that are almost universally disliked, and they can be removed. Then, over time, picking random will become less risky.

[Butcher]

blablabla... Have a random map day for example.

This sounds good to me...