jex

Last night we had a great Domination game going. I think there were 15 of us on the server. This left Evo sitting unused and now we may see Domination constantly played on the server (and please update to 2.19, it's been out weeks now ).

The thing is, I think people come on Evo because noone else is on. Let's take an objective look at the coop server. Other than the clunky use of signing in and choosing missions, we have many mission on there that are well out of reach for small groups. Add to this no consistency with mission naming or what the mission entails and it can be a pain. This adds up to a poor experience as far as the coop server goes and with hardly any smaller missions, it then becomes a case of, "well there's only 5 small missions on the server and I've played them all." - I think this is a reason we see little activity on coop games.

Adding to this, we have Evo and Domination. Either one I can just join, and start playing. I may want to play coop games but until 4 people show up, is there any point. So I sit on the server, playing DominEvo and other people turn up. They see me playing and join me. The next guy turns up and the next and before you know it, we're all playing it. At that point I could say, let's play a coop but if I turn up as the 8th guy, that becomes a little harder to accomplish. It's not impossible but not all people want to butt in and break up a game that is going. These two game types are popular because you know what you're getting and can be gaurenteed a nights gaming with it, and you can play it by yourself - this is why we need more mission makers putting out consistant designs.

I think what would help is using a proper naming convention on the mission names, proper use of description field (i.e. "Rescue POW, Destroy truck park, escape" would suffice and help people remember missions they have played). This won't be done by the majority of mission makers but it can be done by us. I am willing to go through each mission on the server, unpbo it and change the names to something more reliable. I'll need them emailed to me or hosted as a rar somewhere for me to DL then I can make the changes, send them back and they can be put back on the server. PM me if ur interested.

Oh and check the "Weekend COOP Anyone" thread

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Jex

tHa_KhAn

Check the Mission Post. Loyal has added many descriptions, etc of the missions. Your prayers have been answered.

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jex

Loyal has done sterling work there (and his format should be used as the naming convention for missions imo) but this still means using an external source and people will need to alt tab out, load up the page, etc - its sad to say, but that's just too much stuff to do for some people these days. I can't think of another game that makes it so difficult for a casual gamer to just get in and play.

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Jex

JAMerica

Both Evo and Domination are JIP and persistent in the sense that as long as the mission is running, you won't loose your mission progress. Domination & Evo are not drastically different from each, but I personally think that Domination plays better due to reasons I have outlined in a different post. I played R&B Evo for about 4 hours yesterday and was quite..er underwhelmed. In the end, what most people are saying is that they would like a change on TG's persistent mission server (TG-Domination will trump them all I'm sure, when the time comes).

This is in contrast to most co-ops that have a goal/time limit and the mission ends when everyone leaves the server.

In short, I believe that the two mission styles should be kept on separate servers. And we should replace Evo with Domination at least for awhile.

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Jamerius (Feral Druid)

tHa_KhAn

That's because this is a borderline simulator and not an all out video game. it's not meant for casual gaming. I don't think BIS puts the focus on accessibility, but more on the flexibility of what their framework can be used for. Some of the missions and mods are incredible if you take a look.

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loyalguard

The final phase of my reorganiztion of the coop mission list will address all of these issues. I don't meant to be a tease (watch it!), but I will reveal some details either tonight or tomorrow on how exactly.

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|TG| LoyalGuard

jex

Yeah I realise that but BIS could have changed a lot of things that would have made things easier, like mission selection and description and the whole menu system needs overhauling. They decided to stick with the outdated menu from OFP. It was crap then and it's crap now but at least that stupid laptop has gone

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Jex

Satmax

I didn't misread your post. Yes, the COOP server has a long list of missions, isn't Domination one of them? Isn't cooperative play defined as a group of people cooperating to accomplish an objective? By your mindset of how the COOP server should be handled, why would it be wrong to suggest (note, I didn't say demand) to play a coop mission? What harm could come to you if you asked unless you take a "no" answer to heart. You said it yourself, that the coop server is meant for "hardcore" arma play (I don't know what that really means...) So, if 12 people were playing a coop mission (besides Domination), and you weren't feeling like joining that mission, you wouldn't feel inclined to ask if they'd like to try a different mission?

By no way am I suggesting that Domination should occupy the coop server full-time, it's an open server. It should be moved to the Evo server and the option on that server to choose between the two.

I also am thinking of others here, like I said before, a lot of people here enjoy coop play on other missions besides Domination. Domination is just a quick fix to get into the action instead of learning and planning how to tackle the other "hardcore" coop missions. I haven't played any of the other missions because I'm unfamiliar with them. This may be so with some others as well. I'm not afraid to ask if others would like to try anything else, we're all on the same team aren't we?

jex

OK then I'm not explaining myself well enough. I have no problem asking to change maps, it sounds like you don't either but we are not the only TG members that play here. Some people just won't ask and once a game is underway, people may not want to change. What if half do andf half don't? The half that do have nowhere to go.

I'm not sure where I said 'hardcore' (I just checked - it was Sticky in his OP) and when refering to coop missions I am talking about the smaller, limited objective based missions which I'm pretty sure I alluded to but not well enough. If Domination is running on one server and Evo on the other, we're basically playing evo on both servers. If somebody suggests changing to another misison, there is no gaurantee people will and the game continues.

As both Dom and Evo are persistent, I think they should go on one server and alternate themselves leaving the other server free for smaller games. I don't think Domination is a quick fix - a mission is a mission and we play it out according to the briefing. In fact, unfamiliarity with a mission is what we want isn't it? I'd much rather have virgin missions on the server than replay missions. Unfortunately, that isn't really possible so the next best thing to look for is replayability and I think that is why Domination is popular because the random nature means you're not doing the same game every time (even though taking cities is pretty much text book stuff). However, Evo and Domination lack the depth that the smaller missions give.

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Jex

tHa_KhAn

I think one quick change(2.19 should now be on the server thanks to panzer) is to start Domination with a smaller range of cities for the mission to be completed. That way the mission ends sooner. Domination is not as open ended and does not have the same applicable penalties to starting over as does Evolution. If the mission ends sooner, there will be more opportunity to change missions. This would make Domination more of a COOP mission and less of a persistent mission with all the benefits of Domination.

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