why do people not play empires?

I think paradox is right about Vipers. As an admin should you really just ignore the nextmap that is gonna run off all the players but than just ban or kick people. That is being a shit admin. Lets just remove maps that are not fun to watch and ban vets.

 

Lots of people are willing to pay for a server, but they all know that their server will get hate the second it shows any competition towards Viper or EPIC. Well, maybe it's different now that Viper and EPIC are competing for players. Come to think of it, if EPIC sets up a server in America, or endorse one to be made, the game (the server game that is, not empires itself) could be changed forever. It would have to be controlled though because if this game get's another monopolistic group controlling all of the servers *cough* G4TC *cough* then it will fail the same way.

 

trickster make a new server in america
...
profit by destroying viper server.

 

I prefer sticky someone and watch him blow up the nearby tank.

 

I could get a US server, and it could be the best, most well set up server in the world.

It will be empty the entire time. It will never get populated. It's just not worth it. If we had a release, and we had the players to support it, I would just get another server, because the cost per month isn't really noticeable for me. But that doesn't mean I want to waste it, and it would be wasted, because the server would be empty in the current Empires player climate.

I really want to emphasise this: I do not think VIPER is the problem. I believe the problem is the players that just happen to have made their home on VIPER, mainly because I'm far too unfriendly to allow that kind of shit on EPIC. If people really, really want another US server, then I'm happy to set up a partnership similar to how the EU server is done, but I think it's entirely futile.

You have to understand, I have no reason to compete with VIPER. VIPER is run as the only server on that box, if it's empty, the box goes to waste. EPIC however, is run on a server with 2 NS2 servers which are basically full 24/7, the Empires build stuff, Teamspeak 3, TF2 MVM servers and whatnot. I have no reason to compete because it makes no difference which server is populated to me.

Or it didn't, until the scripts were removed. Now, I need EPIC populating just so I can get some actual feedback and work on balance. But if VIPER was running the scripts, then it would make no difference to me if VIPER was populated for 1 month straight. And by no difference, I mean I wouldn't care.

I just want to play Empires, and I want to play it in an enjoyable way. The players who sit in VIPER bitching and ruining the server, prevent me from doing that, and that's what makes me a sad panda. On EPIC, it's not a problem, simply because I can ban them, and I don't have to justify my actions to anyone, because it's my server and I can do whatever I want. As a result of this style of running the server, EPIC is empty.



One thing I do disagree with is the way maps are handled. It's all very well saying "get rid of shitty maps" etc, but that's so subjective. When you start whittling it down like that, you end up with about 15 maps that acutally get played. The fact is, some maps are more popular than others, but every map has someone who likes it. It's the bad maps for you personally, that make the good ones more enjoyable. That's why I have over 60 unique maps in the EPIC mapcycle. Because I want variation, not stagnation. Some people will quit when a map comes on isn't liked by them, but that's the culture these days. People used to be more accepting, but I'm not bowing to that. I'll tweak the cycle, I'll work on the order, but I won't whittle it down to 20 maps which I know won't empty the server, because that's just bullshit. People put hours of work into these maps, and they deserve to be played. And so they fucking will if it's up to me. A loud minority want to play the same 10 maps over and over again, research the same Chemistry tree every round. That's what I just won't have on my server, or any I host. It's not fucking cool.

 

Yes I am angry at the fact that maps are excluded on viper. If people want to play it and vote for it. Let them. But no viper excludes a bunch of maps cause the specpires people don't like watching them. Blah! They don't even play.

 

So sad, thought you were actually offering to call out people on their bs

One thing I always found fun was the amount of north american players who wouldn't play on a uk server because it was too laggy. I have to admit I found that kind of funny since I learned to play on an american server and i've found Empires to be very forgiving. I understand west coast players, but I never really thought east coasters should have a problem... but I guess that's a different direction for this conversation.

 

West side, Satellite Internet, 250 ping to Epic and I don't complain about it. Just look at Sgt. Security, he almost never complains about his 300 or so ping and still tops the kills. When I see that, I think "Well, I sure as hell don't have any reason to complain".

As it is though, I already call out people on bullshit. I don't need to extend an offer to to that

 

The amount of hostility to Vipers & Vicki in this thread is uncalled for. It is one thing to disagree but so much is so bitterly personal and rude.

The game varies very little based on damage plugin, chutes, turbo or a handful of maps you may not like. Likewise if you are not breaking the rules you shouldn't have a problem regardless of who the admins are (and I suspect more prominently, if you happen to like them)

All the problems are related to the community itself and people are the same whatever server they play on. It just so happens that they all choose to play on Vipers.

That said there isn't really a community anymore - not in the real sense of the word. Only a bunch of bitter naysayers with nowhere else to go vs. a handful of good people who are still interested in actually playing the game and a smattering of random new comers who are universally disgusted by the way people conduct themselves towards one another.

Its the jaded & negitive attitudes of the few that can find fault in anything that will eventually proliferate and kill off the rest of the playerbase. It just isn't a nice place to be anymore

 

1. Not enough experienced players to have good matches.
2. Good matches being one in a hundred.
3. Spending more time policing the server and dealing with stupid drama than actually playing the game.
4. Finding another game that offered a much larger time invested / fun ratio.

 

I agree trickster I too admonish the players who bash you and Epic on VIPER, no need for such crap. It doesn't help the community at all.

Also if you were upset about the scripts being remvoed you should have told me. If you need them on VIPER to help the community I should have been told. I had no idea this upset you. I am happy to put them back on seeing it will help you and the mod. So when online message me with a link to the latest ones

 

It's obvious that we need to have a 3rd sever where both the VIPER and EPIC haters can play in. I'll look into getting the 420 server in the middle of the Atlantic.

 

We need a tutorial map that is better than the current. Players should be forced to play the tutorial map before joining a server. (I know, I'm trolling)

 

I'm going to make my own server with blackjack and hookers and no-one will be invited. I'll play Silk & Terminator's maps 24/7 all on my own vs bots which will eventually become sentient.

However over time the bots will have played so much Empires they will become uber trolls and I will have to ban all of them.

 

Well most of the time you can play empires but if any one of the 10 admins that don't play log in and you break a rule. You be baned mo fo. It is the rules. We viper admins don't admin each other. So we can ban people who rub us the wrong way and just say they break the rules. Yah we rock. :mad: :confused: :eek: :dead_imp:

 

Whilst it upsets me, the point is, I will be far more upset when the release comes, and as I said, Steve_UK, eth0, and others who got those scripts removed, will start bashing the developer team, and obviously more specifically me, because they're imbalanced, even though they're the ones that prevented them from being balanced. That's what I find really, really unacceptable. They caused the problem, and yet they'd blame others.

But I've seen Craig's post in the testing forums, so I'm hoping we can sort this out and prevent that situation from happening.

 

Break the rules, get caught, and you'll get banned. Basic stuff, but that is indeed how it works.

 

I already spoke to steve about this, tonight, as for etho, I just need to be told when he is on and doing it so I can take action.