Free Allegiance Forums

Mr. Kltplzyxm wrote:QUOTE (Mr. Kltplzyxm @ Jul 26 2007, 09:42 PM) Don't forget, you can't use hiders on the Squad Server. It's inevitable that squaded players will want to whore from time to time, in which case they need to go to the open servers.

Aye agreed another benefit IMHO of the squaded server, no hiders.

You can be assured that for a different style of game there will be squaded players on the open server rolling under their hider nicks.

noobs play anyways, and honestly, sorry mercs, join a squad, form a squad, we need more incentive to get people into the squad play. Hell, I've tried this before, join a game and just take all the squaddies and CDTs to another server for a match.

there were decidedly less people playing, but the games were ohh so much better.

Mr. Kltplzyxm wrote:QUOTE (Mr. Kltplzyxm @ Jul 27 2007, 02:42 AM) ...It's inevitable that squaded players will want to whore from time to time, in which case they need to go to the open servers....

PsycHosis wrote:QUOTE (PsycHosis @ Jul 27 2007, 07:11 AM) ...sorry mercs, join a squad, form a squad, we need more incentive to get people into the squad play...

Well, looks like if this plan worked out, then the open servers would turn into a pure whoring ground for squaded players who want to let off steam by using hiders and beating down on the noobs and voobs; whilst enjoying 'balanced' gameplay on their own little professional server.

Oh wait a minute, that is Allegiance anyway.. /laugh.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":lol:" border="0" alt="laugh.gif" />

Be in a squad, or be forced to play on tier-based servers which would spit the already thinning player base.

noob server, voob server or decent gameplay server, bah!

Well, that would certainly serve as an incentive to be part of a squad.

gr4vity wrote:QUOTE (gr4vity @ Jul 27 2007, 12:12 AM) ps: I wish I would experience the "decent gameplay" carbon is speaking about. /mrgreen.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":D" border="0" alt="mrgreen.gif" />

Yeah, it's mostly in my head, but there is the occasional moment that makes it all worthwhile.

Mercs are already treated as second-class citizens... Might as well make it official. /unsure.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":unsure:" border="0" alt="unsure.gif" />

In fact, why not go one stage further? Just stop accepting new player accounts! That way you won't have any more pesky noobs contaminating your glorious 24/7 squadded gameplay, long-lost vets will flood back, songbirds will fill the air with their lilting voices, and everything, everywhere will be great. For you.


/sarcasm

TheVoid37 wrote:QUOTE (TheVoid37 @ Jul 27 2007, 07:12 AM) Aye agreed another benefit IMHO of the squaded server, no hiders.

Not true!!
Alot of squad's are paranoid, so they use alot of hiders.
Kill the hiders, stop sucking, and join another server when you get booted.
Eat your newbies like a vet.
Boot your Vet like a Vet.

ps: Calling you opponent commander a pussy will not get you any.

Come get some
Zapper

I was under the impression that "squadron-based" referred to unit grouping, in Echo squadron, for example; not the squads like RT, etc.

bleh, if this goes through I'll probably join a squad for the first time in 7 years.

This topic has raised some excellent points, i would like to add a few cents of my own here though....

First off - I think that it's great that so much interest exists in making alleg games a better quality with less stacking and mindless whoring, but IMO the energies are a little missdirected in a first place, ie, we should expand aleg userbase to those who never heard of it.

I'll now get to my point - We should create a way to derive commercial value from this game, ie, capitalize on the ever expanding userbase.

How - Let's start a gambling operation. (I know, that alleg's EULA cleary saies - you can't make profit off this game) Hear me out: We won't introduce any fees and we won't charge any money from players, it would still be free to play, free to join. What i am talking about is running a bookies on a side, let's say we create a separate betting website, where people would be able to place all kinds of bets on currently going on or scheduled in a future games. Hell, people place bets on cock fights, football (soccer) matches, tennis tournaments, hockey, you name a game and you'll most likely find gambling going on around it. Alleg being a bit all of the above, fits the criteria perfectly. The advantage being that we don't need a stadium or a physical place to organize the games, we don't need to rent catering services and make murchandising/licensing agreements with fast food/drink vendors. All we need is some basic web advertising and we'll see lots of gamblers taking interest, yes we would be exploiting other people additiction, but since it's currently the norm in our society, we won't re-invent the wheel and we won't be persecuted because of it.

So, one might ask - how would a gambling operation attract more fresh blood into alleg ? Simple - the proceeds of the bets would be given out in part to participating players, yep, people would be able to make money playing alleg. Say, some of the income would be diverted into site maintanance / software development / renting better servers with greater bandwidth etc..., the rest would be evenly split between players who were on the winning side, note, that the loosing side doesn't loose anything, but a game, no monetary concerns are present for players. IMO that would provide an incentive for people to join up and get better at allegiance(Think about pro soccer/hocket players...), plus it would totally eliminate "mindless whoring" for the sake of whoring, because the objective of every game would be to win as a team, hence having some side income for everybody. Because of the fact, that alleg games can only be won, if the whole team works towards a single goal - victory, we would over the time eliminate the tendencies of solo-heroships, afterall if one is on a team and the person clearly doesn't work towards the furthering of the whole team's goal, that player would get a boot from the commander in no time, there would be no reason to contend with "whoring for fun 1st and screw the winning/loosing" attitude anymore.

We might need to make some very minor alterations to the code, for example to allow unlimited number of observers/spectators, that are invisible to players, without any in-game influence, sort of a self ripping pod with unlimited supply of o2, that can fly around and thrue ships/bases/alephs at speeds of 500mps or more. Those pods would be filled out with our gambling addicts, so that they would be able to see the game first hand. Plus every game would have the ability to have professional arbitrators/referees, those who would be given the responsibility to ensure fare play and vouch for the fact, that the game was not fixed from the start.

I won't go into more detail now, but if the community feels that kind of approach is suitable, i would be delighted to help out and to let anyone pick my brains. I also have good contacts within gambling industry, casinos/soccer bookies are my regular lunch freinds and from what i hear, they are looking to expand into digital world....

Hell, the marketing slogan should be - Playing allegiance for fun and PROFIT ! I mean, think about it - a Professional Allegiance League, everybody has an incentive to get better.... help your team win and get real cash for your efforts. Even the loosing side can have some money for participating, why not split whatever the winning side would've made into 80/20%, 80 going to the winners and 20 going to the loosers, just to compensate the time spent playing. I can see "TV coverage" from in-game, streamed to millions of people world wide, i can see professional commentators / hosts wanting to cover allegiance tournaments. Even regular pick up games would progressively get better, the newbies who join would have a clear idea why they joined (to make money), the vets would have a very clear incentive to help the noobs on their teams to get better... It's a whole new market we're talking about here... And the best part is - we won't be violating original EULA, the game would always stay free to play, free to join, free to leave. We'll simply have a separate income stream from those who like to gamble.

Anyways, i invite critique and commentary. I don't invite deragatory comments, but feel free to make them anyways.

Cheers.

carbon wrote:QUOTE (carbon @ Jul 27 2007, 03:13 AM) Well, looks like if this plan worked out, then the open servers would turn into a pure whoring ground for squaded players who want to let off steam by using hiders and beating down on the noobs and voobs; whilst enjoying 'balanced' gameplay on their own little professional server.

Oh wait a minute, that is Allegiance anyway.. /laugh.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":lol:" border="0" alt="laugh.gif" />

I was about to say it. /wink.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=";)" border="0" alt="wink.gif" />

carbon wrote:QUOTE (carbon @ Jul 27 2007, 03:13 AM) Be in a squad, or be forced to play on tier-based servers which would spit the already thinning player base.

noob server, voob server or decent gameplay server, bah!

Well, that would certainly serve as an incentive to be part of a squad.

The player base is not thinning atm. The game quality is. It happens quite often that the newbie server is the biggest in the lobby (I remember something like 37newbies vs 15 or something vobbs/vets none prime time). I think the newbie flow will remain quite constant since our training facility's (like the academy, @cdt) who are already excellent will become even better in future (just think about the training videos that we will have sooner or later).

Its now time to target the group of the old veterans who kept the game alive for so many years and make them stay or come back. I am all for supporting new player but we have to keep the "old farts" from leaving as well.

"Be in a squad, or be forced to play on tier based servers" « so what's the difference to the current situation? (Looking for interesting games if you have the choice between newbie-/ main server or the occasional sunday sg) /laugh.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":lol:" border="0" alt="laugh.gif" />

carbon wrote:QUOTE (carbon @ Jul 27 2007, 03:13 AM) Yeah, it's mostly in my head, but there is the occasional moment that makes it all worthwhile.

For many "old farts" those moments are on Sundays only which doesn't really motivate them to be more active during the week. (The results: Games lacking the more experienced players > less variety in tactics, shallow gameplay, excessive stacking if they choose to play against all odds)



Regards
grav@RT /cool.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid="" border="0" alt="cool.gif" />

Two Cents of personal opinion. There is an issue of lower quality game play. I am going to step on a few toes, but I really don't care. It is an issue slowly developing that I have been watching closely. But before I make any comment I must clarify this first. Not one person in this topic or any of the previous topics in other forums is NEWB bashing. Not one.

But over the course of the past few months I have been watching something very close. I will use an example from yesterday. Non newbie server, completely out/sol settings. One team has three players rank 10 and above. Only those three. The other team has a zero for commander and a (2) if I remember right. I ask from the lobby, "just curious, what do you think you are accomplishing here?" (Just in case it was some sort of training session). Not one person would answer. EDIT: ( I can not ever remember seeing those three players in one of the "main games") I did have to giggle, Sheffwill pops in and joins the new team to kick some butt on the voobs. I had to agree if the newb had any tech, Sheff could have taught a good lesson!

My point? Over and over I am seeing over-ranked (8)-(12) players who hardly ever play in regular games. The same stupid settings, the same capship wars for 3 hours, etc. In reality I don't care if that is what they think Allegiance to be. You can't force someone to play "your way". Because of newbie boot settings on the newbie servers they will have four or five small games like this going. Just go cruise when you log in next time.

BUT what is happening we have players who come to the main games with false ranks and suck big time. That is the polite way to say it. I watched in game this week a guy ranked (9) not know how to nan a con. I am not kidding. I am on D on a tech con. And him in a scout. (Me hider) I kill all three figs attacking it. Sup has sliver of hull. I look around, he is a couple thousand meters away jacking around. I literally scream at him to get his butt over there. Incoming figs are not that far away. He goes "huh?" "How do I repair it?" /blink.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":o" border="0" alt="blink.gif" /> This player declared when asked for a nan by the commander he would and he flew with me into the sector.

I think almost everyone here can list similiar examples. Yes they need to learn. (This from the guy who runs the Cadet program) But some people don't give a damn either. So I will support having a server up that is restricted to squad members only. Cadets would be allowed also. Yes there is a wide rank of skill levels in squads. But I would hope it would be safe to say they are improving and learning by being in a squad. I know our newer members in ACE would love to have better quality pug's to improve their skills.

I will talk to TE and Aarmstrong about setting one server up with the title of "SQUADS ONLY PLAY". If it happens I will instruct every single commander and @Alleg to remove any non squadded or tagged cadet from that server that does not leave when asked. Maybe run it for 30 days as an experiment and see what happens.