PC Gamers: What needs to be done to stop the population drop?

(Shiv) #21

i dont feel like i am playing a game that is for a community. I feel like i am playing a sp game where allies and enemies happen to be humans… humans that never buff -_-

there is no chat after a match. Thats just stupid. the cinematics are dead space which i am forced to watch over and over. simply being able to type something or start a convo about the match in that would probably help.
Voip defaulting to off and appearing to be really hard to setup for global just feels so wrong, i WANT to talk to people, all the measures put into place to make it easy for newbies to play make it hard for me to feel like i belong. There is no server loyalty to me because there is no server with some muppet yapping who i want to play with again. text chat somehow feels wrong because all the voices are so automated.

Its like… matchmaking… without voip… and decent stable pings… which is wierd.

(Sabayon) #22

[QUOTE=Shiv;329832]i dont feel like i am playing a game that is for a community. I feel like i am playing a sp game where allies and enemies happen to be humans… humans that never buff -_-

there is no chat after a match. Thats just stupid. the cinematics are dead space which i am forced to watch over and over. [/QUOTE]

Would be cool if they could implement chatting during those scenes that we must watch over and over.

(riptide) #23

[QUOTE=Smokeskin;329824]Comprehension fail.

Assume you and I are equal in all areas except for aim - yours is better.

In game X because of this, you win 80% of fights.

In Brink, you win 60% of fights.

Both X and Brink rewards good aim.

In a game that penalized good aim, you would win less than 50% of fights because you had better aim, all else being equal.

It is quite obvious you’re not being penalized, on the contrary. Maybe you feel entitled to dominate based on your aiming skill alone, and you’re offended that Brink doesn’t offer you this gratification to the degree you’re used to, making it feel worse than it actually is? Because saying you’re penalized for good aim, that’s some hyperbole.[/QUOTE]

I do understand what you’re saying however you are penalized because aiming at the head is less effective than aiming at the middle chest. A lot of players are going to naturally snap aim to the head. They are now penalized for having been accustomed to bullets going where you aim directly.

Instead Joe shmoe kills you because he can’t aim for the head.

Let me explain you have pixel perfect reaction and the split second your reticule lands on the side of my light body head you fire. Well you just missed- likely more than 50% of your bullets.

I can’t aim for anything that small… I go for the easy target center mass. I’m hitting 80% of my bullets because of the larger target not counting body size.

I win, you lose.

Either way they need to make headshots count for more or make guns more accurate on the first few shots.

(wolfnemesis75) #24

The chatting does get cut off in the cutscene transitions which is annoying. Party Chat is a way around this, but I know, not a true fix. Gears of War has this problem in the map cycling too…may be a matchmaking thing. It’d be nice to be able to keep talking.

(Shiv) #25

on the 360 party chat is a way round this… this thread is specifically for pc, in which there is no way of communicating during the cinematics without steam chat or external voip softward like teamspeak or vent… which is stupid.

(Tetra) #26

What needs to be done:

  1. Invent and use a time machine to travel to before this game was released
  2. Find all the people who gave the go-ahead for Brink to be released
  3. Slap the **** out of said people while repeatedly yelling at them, “This is garbage! Work on it for, at least, another 2 months!”
(Overgear) #27

[QUOTE=riptide;329841]
Either way they need to make headshots count for more or make guns more accurate on the first few shots.[/QUOTE]

TF2 only has headshotting for 2 classes and ADS for only one of them. It was fantastic as I could actually move around and not worry about where I was shooting at someone.

Some people like headshots but they already do more damage than a body shot.
Some people don’t like headshots or iron sighting all the time. It’s a preference

(StillBatusBrad) #28

To answer the Op, the same thing as the consoles need to happen to save Brink…

Lobbies
Maps
More modes

&

Lobbies
Maps
More modes

& Etc

Rinse and repeat until the arrival of Brink 2 - CTF is a must, as is a flow of new fresh maps. Brink is brilliant, but becomes a bit…samey quite fast. Bot imbalance fixes would should the offline gamers some love, too.

(riptide) #29

[QUOTE=Overgear;329864]TF2 only has headshotting for 2 classes and ADS for only one of them. It was fantastic as I could actually move around and not worry about where I was shooting at someone.

Some people like headshots but they already do more damage than a body shot.
Some people don’t like headshots or iron sighting all the time. It’s a preference[/QUOTE]

They also have rockets and nades that kill(or near enough) in 1 shot. Regardless of where you hit oh and random crits too as well as all kinds of mini crits.

(slengteng) #30

I agree that post-round chat is critical. Not being able to have any reaction to the outcome is so stifling and it’s really weird that it’s not in there considering the Quake Clan background of the Splash Damage founders.

The Radeon performance issues aren’t helping either I’m sure.

All of that said, Quake Wars had a small community and I put in over 500 hours into that game and had a blast (and there were loads of threads just like this fretting over the decline of player counts for that game as well). Sometimes smaller communities of dedicated players are more fun than huge communities, especially with a game like this that plays best when everyone playing is well familiar with maps, objectives, and strategies.

(EnderWiggin.DA.) #31

Brink was sunk by the (somewhat clueless) critics and obvious bugs imo. Also there was some obvious misunderstanding or overselling of the singleplayer experience. On the gaming sites I visit, people were definitely looking for that ET feel but were put off by the bugs, bot AI, and the imbalance with some sections of the maps. Looking forward, I think the best thing SD could do would be to fix the bugs and issues that get noticed by 90% of players.

I mean things like:
-the sound bug (fixed)
-The crazy text bug
-the crouch stand animation sillyness when hacking
-sticking to other players
-improve the SMART targeting system for medic and covie
-bot AI
-balancing some of the maps/objectives a little better

Then have a free steam weekend or free steam day. People will buy the game or they won’t. Game releases during the summer are usually pretty poor. Therefore, SD could be aggressive to try to resell their game as being polished and deserving a second look. But they have to deliver that polished experience to the vast majority of players that try the game for the first or second time.

I have no suggestions for the console versions because I haven’t played those versions and I don’t know/care what is wrong with those versions.

(legend123) #32

More news. The population of Brink just barely hit 3500.

quick summary:
17,000
9,000
7,000
5,000
4,000 (a few days)
3,500
I wonder where this will go :expressionless:

(Smokeskin) #33

[QUOTE=legend123;330377]More news. The population of Brink just barely hit 3500.

quick summary:
17,000
9,000
7,000
5,000
4,000 (a few days)
3,500
I wonder where this will go :|[/QUOTE]

Don’t read too much into it. I am sure some people tried and didn’t like it. But lots of people just aren’t playing every day anymore, which is natural.

For me in my normal “gaming cyclus”, on average I probably play every other or every third day. The first few weeks of a game I like as much as Brink, I play every day unless RL really throws stuff in the way. Last night the gf went to bed early and I watched a movie by myself - two weeks ago I would have played Brink, no questions asked. I’ve even been skipping my MMA sessions to play Brink :\

Am I tired of Brink? Certainly not. Am I looking for other games to play? Certainly not. Brink is the game I play when I play games. But I have reached the point where Brink has to share my time with other activities like working out, watching movies, reading books.

I expect that a lot of happy Brink gamers will be doing the same, dropping from every day to every 2-3 days, which of course will put a big dent in the number of daily players.

Not everyone routinely plays the same game every day, you know :wink:

(Vlane) #34

Why in the *****ing name of Odin would I want to have those stupid lobbies in a PC game?

(dazman76) #35

[QUOTE=DrpPlates;329683]Brink is not a PC GAME- its a console game… plain and simple…
cant fix that… :([/QUOTE]

I’d be hard-pressed to call this view an invalid one :frowning:

It’s such an odd, cold and disconnected place to be. One of the stranger decisions made, IMO. Why hide it, and default it to off on servers? Surely not to avoid “idiot chat”? End-of-round chat is great, if only to say “GG” and complement people on kicking your arse repeatedly. I don’t see a valid reason for doing this - and what with the poor VoIP implementation, I wonder if SD want us to communicate at all?

Anyway, my main ones:

  1. Multiple (optional) binds for buff/revive/use command post
  2. Multiple (optional) binds for buff/revive/use command post
  3. Multiple (optional) binds for buff/revive/use command post

Please SD, un-console-ify Brink just a little bit for us? :slight_smile: The mistakes that happen due to this one-button-does-everything are truly horrible, and it’s difficult to see how this cluster**** made it through internal testing… Attempting to revive one of a group near a command post is an exercise in futility and frustration, and often death - my team has lost an opportunity to turn a game around at the last minute, because of this problem - it doesn’t do much to encourage people to keep playing.

It’s more than weird, it’s absolutely wrong :frowning: And with ET:QW as a shining example of how to get this right… /cry. I’d be back playing ET:QW right now, but not all of my Brink-buddies own it. If they did, I’m sure they’d be just as disappointed as we are - but at least they’d have something they think is worth playing. At least a couple of them are shelving Brink - mostly due to the ATI problems, but not limited to that.

(Kendle) #36

For me the game has no soul.

What does that mean? I don’t feel like I’m playing with other people (sometimes of course I’m not, they’re bots).

  • In-game text chat is poor, being squashed into a small box on the side and lost amongst the way too busy HUD.

  • No between round chat to trade GG’s (or insults)

  • Default VOIP settings which lead to it not being used.

  • No vsays.

It’s hard to form an understaning or any form of relationship with other gamers when your means of communication are so limited.

On top of that …

The things that make Brink a console game rather than a PC game, as listed and repeated over and over in the PC feedback thread like the ‘F’ Key and Server browser etc.

(fearlessfox) #37

Sure, I’ll have to do it later when I’m home. Remind me via PM and I’ll send you my saved list.

Trust me, there are tonnes of great places to play with skilled regulars still.

(legend123) #38

More bad news guys. Monday 4000 peak, Tuesday 3500 peak, Wednesday 3000 peak…

This is sad and unless SD DOES SOMETHING FAST this game is doomed!

(zicogja421) #39

[QUOTE=Kendle;330417]For me the game has no soul.

What does that mean? I don’t feel like I’m playing with other people (sometimes of course I’m not, they’re bots).

  • In-game text chat is poor, being squashed into a small box on the side and lost amongst the way too busy HUD.

  • No between round chat to trade GG’s (or insults)

  • Default VOIP settings which lead to it not being used.

  • No vsays.

It’s hard to form an understaning or any form of relationship with other gamers when your means of communication are so limited.[/QUOTE]

This.

Plus:

-Need to replace do-it-all use key with weapon and item bank
-Need to make shooting more interesting, because it seems very bland and unpredictable
-Need to implement first-person spectating and demo support
-Need to improve sound localization
-Need to allow for much more complex UI and graphics customization

These are all must-haves in my opinion. If these aren’t all addressed, I can’t really see myself playing this game too much longer, although it is kind of fun to pub for a few maps. But for competition, I’d rather go back to playing ET, which is MUCH more PC-friendly and has much funner movement and shooting.

(crazyfoolish) #40

[QUOTE=Smokeskin;329824]Comprehension fail.

Assume you and I are equal in all areas except for aim - yours is better.

In game X because of this, you win 80% of fights.

In Brink, you win 60% of fights.

Both X and Brink rewards good aim.

In a game that penalized good aim, you would win less than 50% of fights because you had better aim, all else being equal.

It is quite obvious you’re not being penalized, on the contrary. Maybe you feel entitled to dominate based on your aiming skill alone, and you’re offended that Brink doesn’t offer you this gratification to the degree you’re used to, making it feel worse than it actually is? Because saying you’re penalized for good aim, that’s some hyperbole.[/QUOTE]

The man speaks the good word.

Anyway the more skilled player will nearly always win a firefight in Brink.