Hidus

Unfortunately for me the Dallas server offers very poor gameplay (lag spikes, choppiness, etc) so regardless of what maps are running on it I don't see myself spending much time on it.

To put it into perspective I get better performance on european servers (and I am in Canada) than I do on the Dallas server.

It's really too bad because I think the NS maps are great. I would definitely seed them more often if it wasn't for the performance issues.

Zoraster

i think this has been proven a pipe dream. Not that the idea isn't good, but people aren't going to go to the NS server to play when they've got the main one up and running. Especially when the NS server offers maps being offered on the main server. Add to the fact that the Dallas server offers a worse play environment (due to lag and so forth), and you've got a losing formula for it.

Other than concerted efforts such as Frosty Fridays, I don't think you're going to see much action of the NS server no matter what you do with it. This is fine, I think, but if you're serious about getting regular play on NS maps, they'd need to be on the main server.

That said, although I'd love to have some maps to mix up the conquest server, I think in general the rotation is good. Personally, I quite like Verdun. I think due to overplay, I prefer it to Suez.

__________________
|TG| Zoraster | Tactical Soccer Managing

SuperDudeBT

Are there not yet any good maps that have been made by players (unofficial maps)?

UnDeaD77

No one will play custom maps, since they are not ranked.

__________________

Chiefmedicman

This is Chiefmedicman again, what I said had nothign to do with northern strike. I was just thinking it would be nice to random in a map every now and then, to change it up a bit that is all.

FBmantis

I don't play 2142 that much but I've been pretty dissapointing that the infantry only focus in the overall bf2/2142 community has crept into this community. I'll see chokepoint style maps designed for earning points played several times each time I'm on yet its a rarity I'll ever see solid maps like Shuhia Tabia or Sidi Power Plant. It bothers me even more when I know that unlike bf2 vehicle domination is not really a problem. Oh well...points points points...vehicle map?...gah can't earn many points there so apparently its not worth playing :/

I hope the next variation of our rotation sees more vehicle maps.

__________________

Hidus

When the topic of adding more maps/changing map rotation comes up it's only natural that the discussion touches on booster pack maps. Is that ok with you?

Chiefmedicman

Absolutly, that is fine :-)

Pablo

Maps like Shihua and Minsk, heck even Sidi, seemed too slow passed for me. Verdun and Suez are a nice change of pace every now and then though.

Bommando

I feel the same way and this IMO is the one and only reason the NS server isn't full every night. It only takes 10 people to start a game and it fills fast afterward. The only problem thereafter is that it's stupidly laggy and inevitably crashes after the first 2 full rounds. I don't think we'd have any problem populating 2 servers if our second server offered performance as good as the first.

Unfortunately, this is true. I tried to vary the map rotation and just got really sick of everyone groaning on TeamSpeak when a great vehicle map would load. We now have every map except Minsk and Shuhia Taiba in the rotation, so these mystical 'other maps' the OP speaks of aren't as numerous as you would think. I'd like to see Shuhia back in the rotation, but I just can't stand the whining. Minsk is a fundamentally flawed map that provides atrocious gameplay no matter how you look at it.

We will experiment with a mixed Vanilla / NS weekend to see how well that works, but I don't see that being an option in the long run. Testing will tell more.

sc1ence

Are there any interesting player made maps we could load up for a private server night?

__________________

Damonte

I used to feel very strongly anti-Sidi until just recently. And then I found out how effective a well coordinated full squad could be that captures and holds the control point just outside the enemies uncap.

I used to reach immediately for the disconnect switch, but now I happily flip to the engineering kit and pull a squad together to go anti-armor. I've played in a number of games on Sidi Power Plant where the my fellow 3rd folk have been able to put a very irritating crimp in the effectiveness of the enemy by choking off their armor supply chain to the center of the map.

In one particular game instance, we were holding the southern most capturable control point... and the enemy was driving tanks and APCs up to the control point and abandoning them after taking fire from our 100% infantry squad. We promptly captured their unoccupied armor, repaired them, and bolstered our defenses. Someone posed the quote of the night: "What is this? Battlefield 2142 or Grand Theft Auto?"

Summary: Sidi Power Plant and Verdun are what you choose to make of it.

__________________


....

Zoraster

I think it'd be good to get Shuhia back into the mix, but it couldn't be run too often. Back when Shuhia was second in the rotation and got played a ton, I didn't like it much, but if it were used sparingly, I'd say it'd be a lot of fun to play. The problem, I think, is that in order for people to stay and play Shuhia, everyone has to think "cool! I haven't played this in a while!" rather than "oh god. not another round in this vehicle slog fest"

Points don't even occur to me anymore. Score does to some degree (who doesn't like to see themselves on top of the list from time to time), but points themselves are fairly meaningless to the majority of us regulars as we're either at or nearly at the max point anyway. I think the gravitation toward infantry maps is due to the speed at which the game is played rather than the points. In the infantry maps, it's action nearly all the time. In vehicle maps it's a lot about patience, and if you're in a team with one squad full of idiots (or 5 locked single member squads), they'll do a lot more harm than they would have done in an infantry map. That's my personal take anyway.

__________________
|TG| Zoraster | Tactical Soccer Managing

Crux

My thought for the NS server would be to add in a couple of maps that seed quickly, such as Cerbere Landing and Tunis Harbor. That would give you say two popular vanilla maps mixed with 3 NS maps. I reckon that would bring the action level up.

__________________