The case for Map Rotation

[Arachnyd Profile]

Hello everyone,

I'm sure that some of you will recognize me as one of the many new faces on the server who complain incessantly about the lack of a map rotation. I apologize if I have been rude or annoying, and I figured I ought to come here and post my reasoning behind why I feel like this is something that has to be done.

1. Right now there is literally nowhere else to play RTCW in if you live in North America and want a sub 120 ping. What I mean by that is, there are no other active servers. Since servers become popular largely though circumstance and word of mouth, it would be very difficult to begin populating an alternative server. People will always rather play with a good sized group, even if the map isn't ideal. Given the small size of the community nowadays, jumpstarting a new server would be nearly impossible so long as a popular one is established. Furthermore, the existing empty servers seem to have no admins, which would inhibit growth.

This means that essentially the entire RTCW community is forced to play beach constantly. Sure, every now and then an admin will cycle through a couple other maps, but usually they will change the map after only a single round. This is incredibly unfair to everyone else who loves to play RTCW but is sick to death of Beach.

2. Beach is absolutely terrible for a 64 person server. It is one of the smallest maps in the game. Anything over 35 players and the dynamic gameplay that makes RTCW so exciting begins to grind to a halt. It becomes impossible to cap the documents, and the entire game devolves into an incredibly unbalanced round of Team Deathmatch.

This is horribly exacerbated by the server settings. The ability for medics to swap and pickup dropped weapons ensures that each team is 95% medics with regenerating 140 health. The extra grenades turn everything into a spamfest (and because you cannot disable screenshake like in OSP it is like a constant earthquake). Even worse, the respawn times have been cut in half - making it nearly impossible to take advantage of a successful push. These changes have massively unbalanced the game, changing it from a skill oriented, teamwork heavy, objective based experience to a highly individualistic, spam happy TDM.


Now, I've heard the argument that you tried a rotation before and it "killed the server", but this doesn't seem to be true anymore. Sure, when a map initially changes several people might leave. But if you stick with a map for a couple rounds, other people who are eager to play something other than beach will join up. I have yet to see the server with less than 25 people on it while it is cycling maps (and that instance was on mp_destruction, which is a terrible map). If you rotation between the good maps like Base, Assault, Ice, Village then the server will maintain a good level of activity that will increase as people become aware that there is an option outside of mp_beach.

Another reason is because of the new channel #wolfenstein on GameSurge. This channel was created recently to draw the community back together in anticipation of the upcoming RTCW sequel. At any given time there is around 140 people in there, and it is a very active channel. Many of us (like myself) have not played RTCW or ET in years, and have been drawn back to the scene through word of mouth about this channel. Large numbers of old school players from Cal-O to Cal-I are showing up randomly to reminisce and talk about the new game. Considering the total size of the active community, this represents a good sized injection of people who played competatively and want more then 24/7 beach that is impossible to win.

Please consider giving this another chance (with the patience and possible adjustments for it to work). When you are the only game in town, it simply isn't fair to disenfranchise everyone else just because some people want to play the same map over and over and over again.

[Paco's Gun Profile]

The max player limit should be dropped too, since after 40-42 players join the server it begins to lag so much so that it doesn't stop until the server crashes or is restarted, and half the people leave anyways.

Grenades should be limited to one per person, and flamethrower should be disabled.

Also, why are there max lives anyways... most people don't get skulled and when an entire team gets skulled it's right at the end of the round anyways.

On another topic... why is mastery an admin?

[jim.morrison Profile]

on this topic, I think we should lower lives if you're going to put that into play 20/30 is way too many on beach. And if it counts I f1 rotation.

Thanks for any consideration.

[Twitch Profile]

When you are the only game in town, it simply isn't fair to disenfranchise everyone else just because some people want to play the same map over and over and over again.

If only some people wanted to play beach over & over why is it the only game left in town? Why wouldn't a rotation server be the only one left standing if that was what the majority wanted?

Not that I disagree with your idea... I like rotation. But I think the reason ECG is still around is the reasons that you think make it bad. If there is really such a large group of rtcw players returning and there is 140 people in #wolfenstein at any given time how hard would it be to populate a server from word-of-mouth recommendations?

Remember, this is not RTCW... it is ECGN Shrub.

[Noobimus Profile]

Beach is not impossible to win, and besides who really cares about winning anyway, when im allies sure i go for the docs but thats what makes it fun. Allies get more lives because most axis are just tossin nades and crap. Beach is a great map sure id like a rotation but, some admins do a great job like Ch1ck and change the map for a good time.

Ps:if we have a rotation, no assault plz that map is camp and a/s central.

[Slaughter2 Profile]

I'm with twitch, you guys that are new are very lucky, us admins and only 3's i think, can change the maps...back in the day, Donny (man-at-arms) was the only one that could, and sometimes never did, so if you play a different consider it a blessing. This server was made, and still going strong from beach, and will die with beach. The best thing its fun, after 3 hours of playing it, if your complaining take a week break and and come back to enjoy the easiest to learn, to kill, and finally easiet to win. Its a Noob magnet for one simple fact, my 3 yr old can get kills.........................Simple, and everyone started on beach, with a sniper rifle

No rotation will ever happen here no matter what you guys say, its all about playing simple, and the lemmings will follow

[Slaughter2 Profile]

more threads about it YAWN
http://forums.powervs.com/showthread.php?t=24209

9 years to get on top of hill, only a few sort minutes to fall all the way down
Rotation will destory server PERIOD

[weezy Profile]

I agree with rotation, but slaughter is right.

The only reason ECGN is still alive is because BEACH appeals to the masses, so everyone goes to beach. I'm sure if there were a 24/7 base/assault/tram/ice/sub/village/frostbite/marketgarden/destruction map people would not play on because it requires more skill, (wait they did play they just died because the noobs preferred beach) and besides, everyone likes doing mundane repeatitve shit. It appeals to noobs, you cant argue with that. Also for people who are sick with beach and the 25v25 is crashing their CPU's people migrate to another server and have a 6v6, which is as fun and chaotic, but with different maps, its pretty fun.

Look at it like this, Beach is like "your pet rock", it appeals to everyone, and its simple. SOLD.

If we mess up something that works we are in for trouble. eg noobs leave, no one is on server anymore, and ECGN dies. Similar to what happened to 1.3.

ECGN is at the top of hill because it has beach, god forbid variety. Although god also encourages slaves, inequality, and war, BUT I RAMBLE.

What always is right isn't always what is best.

I've seen something similar happen and it will happen soon, change was requested, and it never happened so players leave. Damned if you Damned if you don't. Just a matter of time before every player has been bludgeoned to death by beach and move on to solitare, tetris, or 1.0. If 1.0 is alive we all will move there and are forced to play deathmatch with fags who shoot 60 percent and have a 30 percent hs acc and also drop reload shit. w/e

[liquidswords Profile]

i agree with arachnyd 100%.

there is no reason to leave it on beach now since older players have started coming back. you can't use the reason anymore that the server will lose players, because that hasn't been the case in the past few weeks. i actually see more players join when different maps are on.

i understand it used to be a beach only server but i do not understand the point of that. why would you only want to play one map over and over? because it appeals to noobs? surely noobs can learn other maps too, it's not like they are any more complicated than beach.

[Slaughter2 Profile]

i agree with arachnyd 100%.

there is no reason to leave it on beach now since older players have started coming back. you can't use the reason anymore that the server will lose players, because that hasn't been the case in the past few weeks. i actually see more players join when different maps are on.

i understand it used to be a beach only server but i do not understand the point of that. why would you only want to play one map over and over? because it appeals to noobs? surely noobs can learn other maps too, it's not like they are any more complicated than beach.

Just don't get it do you?

Beach is king, and the very small fraction of the people coming back, it means nothing, unless you want non stop stacked axis which the server has become as of late..............NOOBS love BEACH, GRASS is GREEN, and WATER is BLUE, get it??

[liquidswords Profile]

beach isn't the king of anything except the wolf test/demo. noobs are just afraid of change. i think you're underestimating your own player base as well, i would hardly call the players coming back a fraction.

[Paco's Gun Profile]

Did you really just say that tram, destruction, and market garden require skill? And 25v25 doesn't crash people's CPUs, it takes up server bandwith which fucks with everybody until they leave, defeating the purpose of having the player limit that high in the first place.

Look at the players that want 24/7 beach... you call them noobs and say that they will leave if the map changes. Well, first of all, there are a lot more people that play at ECGN than the 5-10 people that complain about map changes. Second, perhaps the reason that the "noobs" that have being playing the game for years are still shitty is because nobody ever changes the fucking map. You can't expect to improve if you do the same thing every day.

[jim.morrison Profile]

Paco, I feel those maps do require skill, a different skill then just standing at corners and shooting those that enter. (No, this isn't meant at you) Out of those I feel tram is the lopsided 1 but on destruction you can work both sides w/ just as many kills, it takes finesse to get through the alley ways and doors and then you have so many options on market garden (granted there are enough people playing.)

What I don't understand is how beach requires more skill, I mean the camping is the same, the spam is the same and just like any other map the offense needs to work together.

However I think a rotation could hurt the overall server, I tremendously thank the admin changes < just wish it happened more

[Noobimus Profile]

beach isn't the king of anything except the wolf test/demo. noobs are just afraid of change. i think you're underestimating your own player base as well, i would hardly call the players coming back a fraction.

We live, play, and die with beach get over it, no ROTATION.
. Tram= stupidist map in the world. Destruction= Way to small for 64 slot. Market garden= god damn so big its not even funny.

If we had marketgarden the game would turn into a team deathmatch then it ever was on beach.
just get over it no rotation.

[SavageParrot Profile]

We've had this discussion a thousand times and every time it boils down to the same thing, which is that every time we've ever tried a rotation the server ends up dead.

Players beget players and when the beach lovers leave the server gets empty, no-one wants to join an empty server on their own so the server stays empty and pretty soon you have a lemon.

It sucks but it's unavoidable.