chuba and haste summarized it pretty well for me
i still think the game has an infinite amount of potential and we're finally stepping (albeit sometimes diagonally) on the right path
just hope a player influx is gonna happen soon cus halo's around the corner so i might vanish off the face of the earth for a few months
Well - game can feel like a second job, IRL takes precedent. Groshyr makes a good point that other games are probably better for iRL.
And it's very straightforward to make factions and entire houses very much alive, just takes a lot of work. The game needs more Megs Creeds Slappys etc. that constantly come up with ideas to make people play the game. People need to take responsibility to generate activity, but sometimes really if the same effort would be pointed towards IRL one has to wonder why not direct that it that way instead.
@Chuba
PvP is outdated and can't compete with modern games let's face it - people log off from people like Chuba because they have zero chance at success and in any modern game him and a newer or even above average guy would never meet even in PvP setting. The PvP game landscape has changed over recent years, almost every game has some sort of matchmaking and disco can't compete unless there's good will of people that matchmake manually. Which most of the time there is not. Some ace guy got even offended that I would even suggest to oorp PM to balance sides before meeting, and don't join signup events that can be roughly balanced, so there's that.
In most modern PvP games it's normal to hover around 45-55 % winrate ratios as the matchmaking manipulates the games that way (well I have experience with Dota2 mostly), regardless of skill level. Disco doesn't have that = PvP will be always second fiddle long run as weaker guys and groups and entire player bases on one side get constantly roflstomped and start avoiding fights sooner or later.
Here is my perspective of a player who quit (hopefully, for good) a few days ago having given away all the stuff I had:
The nature of modern gaming in life. When one comes home after work and has some time to spare for gaming in between family and home chores, one usually wants action here and now because of the limited time slot available. Hence popularity of session-based games where you auto-queue, get the teammates, fight for half an hour, repeat it 2-3 times and call it a day. This is also one of the reasons MMORPG as a genre are losing interest of the playerbase. naturally, logging Disco with 20-30 players online dispersed over all the game everyone minding their own business cannot offer instantaneous dopamine gratification. You either have to pre-arrange meeting friends on Discord (and because of already mentioned busy life it is easier said than done) or be looking for action for half an hour or longer which you could be playing something else.
Boredom. Despite objectively improving gameplay, there is nothing new the game can offer me. I was never a PvP fan on disco yet I had my share of PvP. I traded too and enough to be hating trading/mining to the point I have earned all my last assets of over 4 billion by PvE missions only. Logically, missions are also boring after so many of them. POBs as well (may they be cursed). RP can be a good fun yet most of the RP one sees after a few years of being here is familiar tropes, quite predictable and following patterns (if not some lesbian fanfiction called character development). I don't judge here the RP of others - whatever grinds the gears of the fellow players and keeps them happy/engaged. Just saying most of the stuff has been seen/done in some forms and is taken as more mundane than interesting. Basically, there isn't much the game can offer.
Buddies have left. When I joined disco I quickly formed a circle of people I enjoyed interacting and playing with either on discord or in game. With time, more and more of them left, leaving a bitter crippling feeling of "survivor" disco-addicted syndrome. Groshyr's leaving probably marked the end of an era for me with most of my old team gone. Surely, with the right attitude and activity it is a no biggie to form new bonds. But not with the emotional burnout which is the next point. (P.S. Kudos to all my buddies if you ever see it - you made my gaming here a memorable experience).
Burnout. The game simply is wearing on you. I cannot speak for the rest of you, but the longer I stayed, the more tedious the game became for me. Despite the growing skills in PvP or RP engagement, regardless of how popular or niche the faction I was playing was - it was getting more of a chore rather than entertainment to log in on this forum or in game. Each faction I made/joined required more and more efforts from me with decreasing fun output. I wouldn't say the quality was decreasing, at least from the feedback available. Yet, it just got tiresome. I tried playing alone with no faction, just a random nobody in the void of space - was equally boring, tbh, especially with no faction buddies to interact with in conditions of generally empty server. So I guess I burned out which had an impact on all activities in the game. Surely, staying away for some time and then returning can partially mend the burnout but every time this feeling will eventually return, each cycle taking less time for it to grow on you than the past.
Drama/Hate/Hostility, whatever you call it. I guess, everyone here has encountered judgements like "X faction sucks! / Y player is a lolwut! / Z circlejerk is elitist/consists of noobs" (continue ad infinitum). I am also guilty as charged of that. Having reflected of my own standing on this, I regret being overly critical of people/factions, especially the ones that I did not even interact with. I guess, Disco has the feature of bringing up the worst in you at times. I did not particularly enjoy being on the other side as well (karma is just in this case) - my recent attempt to RP a separate local character with focus on specific RP interesting to me for some reasons faced ooRP hate. I do not judge the people who did not like it - it is within their right, still ridiculing the person behind the RP is a bit counter-productive, I guess. Regardless, it leaves you with a bit sour feeling which might not be as impactful as the other reasons above yet contributing to the whole ordeal.
(This one is specific). Time zone. Located in East Asia, the prime time for me coincides with dead server. Logging in at 3-4 AM for more or less active server/event is obviously not the answer.
This will conclude my small rant. I hope it will be insightful to some of you. I also wish you all best of luck on disco or in other activities! Cheers for the fun time here!
(08-02-2021, 07:25 AM)Gardarik Wrote: Here is my perspective of a player who quit (hopefully, for good) a few days ago having given away all the stuff I had:
The nature of modern gaming in life. When one comes home after work and has some time to spare for gaming in between family and home chores, one usually wants action here and now because of the limited time slot available. Hence popularity of session-based games where you auto-queue, get the teammates, fight for half an hour, repeat it 2-3 times and call it a day. This is also one of the reasons MMORPG as a genre are losing interest of the playerbase. naturally, logging Disco with 20-30 players online dispersed over all the game everyone minding their own business cannot offer instantaneous dopamine gratification. You either have to pre-arrange meeting friends on Discord (and because of already mentioned busy life it is easier said than done) or be looking for action for half an hour or longer which you could be playing something else.
Boredom. Despite objectively improving gameplay, there is nothing new the game can offer me. I was never a PvP fan on disco yet I had my share of PvP. I traded too and enough to be hating trading/mining to the point I have earned all my last assets of over 4 billion by PvE missions only. Logically, missions are also boring after so many of them. POBs as well (may they be cursed). RP can be a good fun yet most of the RP one sees after a few years of being here is familiar tropes, quite predictable and following patterns (if not some lesbian fanfiction called character development). I don't judge here the RP of others - whatever grinds the gears of the fellow players and keeps them happy/engaged. Just saying most of the stuff has been seen/done in some forms and is taken as more mundane than interesting. Basically, there isn't much the game can offer.
Buddies have left. When I joined disco I quickly formed a circle of people I enjoyed interacting and playing with either on discord or in game. With time, more and more of them left, leaving a bitter crippling feeling of "survivor" disco-addicted syndrome. Groshyr's leaving probably marked the end of an era for me with most of my old team gone. Surely, with the right attitude and activity it is a no biggie to form new bonds. But not with the emotional burnout which is the next point. (P.S. Kudos to all my buddies if you ever see it - you made my gaming here a memorable experience).
Burnout. The game simply is wearing on you. I cannot speak for the rest of you, but the longer I stayed, the more tedious the game became for me. Despite the growing skills in PvP or RP engagement, regardless of how popular or niche the faction I was playing was - it was getting more of a chore rather than entertainment to log in on this forum or in game. Each faction I made/joined required more and more efforts from me with decreasing fun output. I wouldn't say the quality was decreasing, at least from the feedback available. Yet, it just got tiresome. I tried playing alone with no faction, just a random nobody in the void of space - was equally boring, tbh, especially with no faction buddies to interact with in conditions of generally empty server. So I guess I burned out which had an impact on all activities in the game. Surely, staying away for some time and then returning can partially mend the burnout but every time this feeling will eventually return, each cycle taking less time for it to grow on you than the past.
Drama/Hate/Hostility, whatever you call it. I guess, everyone here has encountered judgements like "X faction sucks! / Y player is a lolwut! / Z circlejerk is elitist/consists of noobs" (continue ad infinitum). I am also guilty as charged of that. Having reflected of my own standing on this, I regret being overly critical of people/factions, especially the ones that I did not even interact with. I guess, Disco has the feature of bringing up the worst in you at times. I did not particularly enjoy being on the other side as well (karma is just in this case) - my recent attempt to RP a separate local character with focus on specific RP interesting to me for some reasons faced ooRP hate. I do not judge the people who did not like it - it is within their right, still ridiculing the person behind the RP is a bit counter-productive, I guess. Regardless, it leaves you with a bit sour feeling which might not be as impactful as the other reasons above yet contributing to the whole ordeal.
(This one is specific). Time zone. Located in East Asia, the prime time for me coincides with dead server. Logging in at 3-4 AM for more or less active server/event is obviously not the answer.
This will conclude my small rant. I hope it will be insightful to some of you. I also wish you all best of luck on disco or in other activities! Cheers for the fun time here!
without 5 and 3, it's quite the same. i can't be royally damned to play a game with everything i do backfiring in hopes to generate activity for myself. Except in this case, i haven't quit. i'm just taking a break until more things to do come. Frankly i've seen what this mod is capable of,and it does have more potential than it's being given for, but when it's the same repeditive pvp event and lackluster determination to find people to go around to do things with, without having to contact through another social medium to set up a playdate and not to mention in the wrong timezone for activity? Kinda a killer mood there. I've achieved finally what i've wanted after almost 6 years and now what? i've driven the barge which was my ultimate goal, but until i find something tasty to sink myself into - i'm going to sit back and watch. I want to play discovery, i have a good time with people. but when it's torturous having to try so hard and more than i normally try in a day to day basis just to get the space sim fill, it's practically impossible. Hell, i'm a person who HATES pvp with a passion, but it even got to the point i tried to not use dual novas like i normally do, and use normal guns after 5 and a half years of playing this game like a normal person ( ping reasons ), and still not a thing. I'm not making a blame game out of this, it's just frustrating and pointless to try right now and it wears me out mentally just trying.
Yeah number one is a big deal - you click a button, wait 5 minutes and are in action 5v5 etc. With balanced teams and know you will win around half the time in the long run no matter what skill level you at.
The systems are getting more and more sophisticated, faster and better at making people have incentive to play by manipulating their winrate in modern games. It's just the way it is and because of 5. Is hard to mimic e.g. manually by leaders of hostile factions cooperating a balancing sides with skill difference taken into account.
Some good points brought up there with 2-4,6 too, many are what I see mentioned by guys in my factions that don't log as much. 6. Being an issue always
Posts: 829
Threads: 67
Joined: May 2020
Staff roles: Story Developer
I love Freelancer (that's why I am still coming back) and especially RP aspect in it. That keeps me engaged and willing to try. I also like the work of the devs in their quest to make Disco more enjoyable mechanics wise and I think that they did a great job given our options.
So, what's the problem you may ask if everything looks nice and dandy? The answer is lack of interesting encounters for me. I am a large fan (or nerd) of RP, I've run a lot of tabletop RPG games, I have played other MMOs on RP server, etc; and I like to develop my characters.
If I can predict that 90% of my ingame encounters will be '/1 /2 /shoot', I can play it only for a limited time before I get bored of the same things over and over again. But that's just my point of view and I completely understand that other people are okay with that and all power to them to keep this interesting project running.
The main issue for me is general lack of story arc. It feels that most, if not all, factions just exist in here and are bound to their territory and established lore. It feels static and meaningless. It feels like wasted opportunity given the fact how violent FL universe is and how many option story-wise it offers - Economy crashes, stock market crashes, rising tensions between Houses, diplomatic and military incidents, accusations over the media, ultimatums and similar things can be done for unlawfuls. They are mostly ruthless criminals after all and such environment is rarely static. No political entity is seizing initiative to further their geopolitical goals (or astropolitical goals?).
If such things already happen in game, they are barely visible for casual observer. The goal of any storytellers, no matter the RPG form, is to make environment and story interesting for player characters first and foremost. Given the fact how most of the Freelancer PvP servers died already - I believe that Discovery's main focus should be good and compelling story to keep players engaged, backed by balanced and fun gameplay.
At some point in time you look at the online number and go "Oh, it looks like it is too early. I will log in later."
And then never do.
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PSA: If you have been having stutter/FPS lag on Disco where it does not run as smoothly as other games, please look at the fix here: https://discoverygc.com/forums/showthrea...pid2306502
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The game is fucking boring. I made the chars but there's nothing to do. I don't have one char in every system so if people are 30 mins away from my ships I'll just log off and do something else. If I made the journey; after every minute of me not being there the chance of activity dispersing increases, and if I even got to the system they might be in some obscure location I don't know about.
I took large breaks from the game and can't PvP the way I used to, I don't want to spend all day in conn so finding equal competition is rare. And when it does happen and it's over it can take hours before I get another fight.
Things in systems keep getting moved around to where I'm tabbing in and out looking at online nav maps. Which makes travelling tedious. I get that the mod is called "Discovery" and there are lots of cool things to discover. But after finding the two easter egg systems in vanilla FL I'm done with discovering. I want to discover some interactions
I guess everything boils down to the sad player count
I'd spend hours on 4.85 disco because building up ships for interactions was meaningful. Now events and combat situations have to be planned in advanced to get anything interesting in the server to happen
I genuinely used to hate the forums but now I find the forums more interesting than the game because at least things happen here.