Anyone bugged by the trend towards more XP and less gameplay

(Cyber-Knight) #1

Does it bother anyone that more and more servers are becoming 6-10 map campaigns? Or servers that have unlimited XP carry over?

Do people just play (and continue to make) these servers cuz they can’t get the joy of getting dual pistols in 3 maps or something?

I just find it annoying that xp whoring seems to be a bigger priority over good gameplay. It becomes increasingly hard to find 3 mappers. And it is impossible to find Stopwatch and Objective servers anymore (and the stopwatch and objective servers I find have unlimited xp carry over)

I also find it annoying how ppl RELY on their XP to play games. A good player should be a good player regardless of how much XP they have. An FPS game is still an FPS game.

I remember I had this one Field Op teammate (i was axis on Rail Gun), and we were being semi-spawn raped. And for a large portion of the round, the Field Op was just feeding ammo to 2 mortars, who were obviously n00bs cuz they had like 1 mortar kill the whole round. I was trying to convince him to throw airstrikes and push some of the spawn killers back instead of feeding these n00b mortar guys who were not killing anything. He responds to me “LOL, I’m just trying to get to a level where it actually counts!”. I thought that was so retarded cuz he NEEDED to be a level 3 Field Ops to be effective. And the next round on Fuel Dump, he barely even used his MP40 and relied entirely on support fire for kills. He didn’t even get level 1 Light weapons at the end of Fuel Dump.

Maybe these XP reliant players somewhat bug me, since I am an RtCW player who already knows how to play “under-levelled”.

(amazinglarry) #2

I completely agree. The only reason I need my light weapons skills up there is because if I join the server in the latter end of the rotation even mediocre players can kill me pretty easily because of the higher accuracy of the guns (due to light weapons skills). But if I’m equal in light weapons skills than chances are I’m going to take them out first. No biggie though, I’m usually level 4 light weapons in the first map of most pubs.

PUGS are where it’s at!!! :clap:

(SCDS_reyalP) #3

I had a player telling my team not to try to win, so they could get more XP.
:banghead:

I TKed him. :moo:

(=TAC=Chron) #4

i got a 3map campaign, original 6, etpro with regular xp parameters

64.191.133.46
Tactical Annihilation

drop by some time…(ps. trying to drum up a little usage)

(Spark) #5

Yes, Cyber-Knight, I hear you. :frowning:
I wonder what went wrong that so many people switched away from the the way the game was meant to be played (three map campaigns), which worked much much better IMO. Nowadays, when I play on publics, I usually leaver after one or two maps, unless it was an objective or three map campaign server (which is rare). There was a lot of hype about six map campaign servers, I don’t even understand why, and now it seems hard to find anything else.
It’s not bugging me a lot since I’m not mainly a pub player, but still…
Someone please revert this trend.

(rgoer) #6

I think this problem will be eleviated when some really, really, really high quality third-party maps and custom campaigns start coming out. Maps and campaigns that are so undeniably great that they become a part of the “standard” set. That is to say, I think that three-map campaigns are sliding a little bit (as far as popularity goes) because, right now, there are only two choices: North Africa or Central Europe. When some new campaigns get out there, you’ll see the three-map return to glory.

(Kendle) #7

Don’t even get me started :angry: I think you’ve hit the nail on the head, too many people now have convinced themselves they need the XP in order to perform, but don’t seem to realise the other team have the same XP whoring opportunities, so what’s the point?

I refuse to play on servers with more than 3 maps per campaign, I just wish they’d state the fact in their sv_hostname so I didn’t have to join them only to leave again straight away.

But my beloved ETPro server is back (see sig) and even better it now has XP fixed at level 0 for everything! Not that ETPro is the solution per-se (it has XP carry-over as well as fixed / disabled XP at the server Admin’s discretion), but hopefully, as it’s now the de-facto mod for competition, we’ll see more and more Clan servers switching over (which will be Stopwatch presumably as well).

In the meantime just try finding for a good Stopwatch server and stick to it.

(Wraith2k3) #8

because, right now, there are only two choices: North Africa or Central Europe

You know it’s really easy to create your own campaign right? You don’t have to use those two. The problem is that server admins dont make 3 map campaigns with customs for some reason, it’s always 6 or more. However theres noting stopping you from doing it.

(rgoer) #9

Oh come on, don’t patronize me–of course I know how trivial a task it is to create a custom campaign file. You seemed to have missed my point, though: there are only so many things you can do with the six original maps before people start to get bored. When there are more maps available to us (and I mean more maps of the same caliber as–if not even greater than-- SD’s maps), that boredom won’t be an issue.

(Kendle) #10

Er, yeah, not sure what you’re getting at there?

Are you suggesting that instead of discussing on public forums the map rotations of existing public servers we should all go out and rent our own servers and make our own custom Campaigns for them? (cos of course we can all afford to do that, right?)

Or are you suggesting that admins of existing public servers should organise custom maps into 3-map custom campaigns? If so, I’d agree.

However I doubt it will happen. Admins seem to want to string as many maps as possible into a single campaign so as to horde as much XP as possible, making the game an un-playable spam-fest by the time you get to map 4 or 5 (if not sooner!). It’s ruining the game for me and my list of fav servers is now getting smaller and smaller.

(SittingDuck) #11

We run 2 three map campaigns back to back like vanilla ET, however we have a 6 map campaign available ONLY through the voting menu (It plays once and then goes back to 2 three map campaigns).

I notice that a lot of people prefer the 3 map campaigns…and then there’s the n00bs who come on the server and whine about it not being a 6 mapper…these are usually the guys who get pwned in oasis, but do fairly well in Goldrush (Higher XP means they can try now!).

If you’re lookin for the standard rotation visit our server:

)KwK(Recruiting
66.98.131.172:27960

20 player server, 18 slots open to public.

(Sick Boy) #12

This is so stupid, a mortar should /kill himself if he runs out of ammo (yeah yeah I know lots of people don’t agree :banghead: )

Mental note: I really got to visit one of these great servers Kendle is always talking about :smiley:

(funkPig) #13

I don’t know, I find xp whoring to exist everywhere. Sometimes it’s worse on a 3 map server because they have gotten used to the high levels of xp and that is all they do.

(Wraith2k3) #14

Or are you suggesting that admins of existing public servers should organise custom maps into 3-map custom campaigns? If so, I’d agree.

Thats the one :smiley:

(Kendle) #15

They’re getting harder to find I tell ya! The only 2 servers I’m getting a decent game on these days is the 2 in my sig, but then when I’m on them I have the power to sort out trouble-makers, so maybe they’re just as chaotic as everywhere else when there are no Admins around. :frowning:

(lennyballa) #16

When greece is done, i start on a map with the idea of desert fortress, but then in a city (in desert/oasis style). Then, me and marko release a campaign with Desert Temple, Greece, Carnage and my city map. Or should it be 3 maps?

(Watchers Eye) #17

Or they could, you know, whip out their pistol and try to kill some more of the enemy.

:banghead:

I love when they just stand around waiting for ammo; I guess they forgot about their sidearm.

(FreeRangeChicken) #18

Anyone bugged by the trend towards more XP and less gameplay

I’m severely disturbed by the trend toward Windows XP! :smiley:

There should be more penguin boxes out there…
Chickens, Penguins… it’s all good. :drink:

(Mjolnyr) #19

The worst drawback of ET’s XP system does reveal itself, when a player question me “why don’t you delay railgun firing so that I can earn more XP”. That makes me sick (so I kick that dickhead out of my server immediately). As a RtCW player played for almost 2 years, I just barely cannot tolerate those XP-maniacs who focus on their damned rank gaining but not mission accomplishment. Even worse, I’ve heard another story: Allies refused to put the gold crates onto the truck in GoldRush map, because they want to “play for XP”, that is, they occupied the bank courtyard and slaughtered respawned Axis constantly, till the end of the round. Allies lost the GoldRush round, but they earned plenty XP. In RtCW, this damned thing won’t happen anyway, but in ET, it does occur.

An unready one wrote a ridiculous reason why he needs an extended-campaign server: “for those skilled ones, you can easily get promotions… blah blah blah, but please think of others.” Well, perhaps he is really too sluggish to recognize any good gameplay, so he can only focus on rank promotion. Sadly, his skill won’t allow him to earn XP as fast as others. Finally his only consolation in ET world relies on a 12-map-campaign server, there he and his fellows wear helmets with 3 stars, and play their silly games day by day.

6-map-campaign? 10-map-campaign? Well, they are not bad news for me, actually. We need this kind of servers to contain those unlearned ones, headless tourists, XP-maniacs, so that the rest, who want to focus on mission accomplishment and gameplay, can expect better games on other remaining “normal” servers.

(O2.iceman) #20

Whilst I agree with everything in this thread so far, about the xp whoring on pubs etc, it’s kinda funny hearing RtCW’ers spout about it, when the exact the same thing happens/happened in RtCW with the 1337 players simply playing for k/d ratio instead of completing the objective.

How many times (in RtCW) do you see people /kill when they’re about to get panzered, spawn camp or go rambo medic just for a nice shiny k/d ratio.

What i’m getting at, is that you’ll find XP whores, k/d whores, in both RtCW and ET and you have to learn to accept it in pubs.

Clan matches are where it’s at, when you actually do want to complete the objective.

The whole XP system of ET promotes the XP whoring so you can’t really blame people for taking advantage of it.

But when RtCW’ers suggest that in ET everyone should be locked on level 2 stars or something, there’s always a mass reply of “stop trying to make the game like RtCW, go play RtCW if you want that”.