Goonhub
11-08-2020, 04:44 PM
(This post was last modified: 11-08-2020, 04:45 PM by Drago156. Edited 1 time in total.)
So I just want to pick apart a few things I think should be answered from an opposing view.
I think I'll start here. As it stands with regards to interactions or conflicts, I don't think population is really the best determining factor of if such things will happen or arise past a certain point and that once you start getting to a point where there's a large amount of information to process, those interactions and conflicts can start becoming less valuable then they would be at say a lower population. You can absolutely still have decent interactions and conflicts with even 20 people, or less! The old RP crew is a very prime example of that and I think at a lower population environment you get to take more advantage of building a story, or narrative, or even some character depth out of these interactions and apply them to future situations compared to higher pops.
As with participation with gimmicks and kind of pulling the second reason why I don't think population is the greatest determinant for conflicts and interactions, it really more depends on the personalities and people you have. You can have 100 people in one place and ask all of them the same single question, and chances are you will get varied responses. Population just increases your chance that someone will be the kind of person that will create or seek an interaction and follow along with it or get others involved.
Now for this. I've mentioned this before but perhaps it should be expanded upon, as it stands currently the overflow server can and often times has a very lackluster population amount ranging most times when I look some where between 20-30 people while the main server can be at well over 85 people. A majority of the time, people (myself included occasionally) will choose the high pop server over the server with dead or lowpop, and this really doesn't help the argument of it really being a per player decision for population count. If you're wanting to play a game and your usual server or area or whatever has well under what you would prefer and the game is suited around multiplayer, chances are you're going to pick a place with more people, even if it's out of your comfort zone, or you're just not going to play at all. That's the biggest issue here is that there should be a balance, otherwise you drive out players by favoring one population size over the other.
At the very least I don't think having some sort of pop-up or notification when people log into the main servers past a population of maybe 65 that tells them about the overflow server is a bad idea, and worth considering.
(11-08-2020, 02:03 PM)Tribaja Wrote: There certainly are different flavors of gameplay that come with different player numbers, but I really don't want the main to be capped. Despite the inevitable chaos that 30 greyshirts will bring there is a certain undeniable charm to it. Maybe it's just me since I play SS13(and DF) mainly for the emergent storytelling that arises from the player interaction between themselves and with the game mechanics. The more players, the more interactions and conflicts will arise.
A high pop also increases the chances that people will join in on gimmicks of other players and this will in turn encourge more people to try more gimmicks that require participation. Like the rage cage with a 100 pop is a very different experience than one with only 60. With 100 pop you can be sure that there's at least 20 greyshirt looking for shit to do and will gladly fight for honor and glory, but I've had a hell of a hard time trying to get even a couple people to fight in the cage with around 60 players. Participation gimmicks rely on population and the larger it is, the better.
I think I'll start here. As it stands with regards to interactions or conflicts, I don't think population is really the best determining factor of if such things will happen or arise past a certain point and that once you start getting to a point where there's a large amount of information to process, those interactions and conflicts can start becoming less valuable then they would be at say a lower population. You can absolutely still have decent interactions and conflicts with even 20 people, or less! The old RP crew is a very prime example of that and I think at a lower population environment you get to take more advantage of building a story, or narrative, or even some character depth out of these interactions and apply them to future situations compared to higher pops.
As with participation with gimmicks and kind of pulling the second reason why I don't think population is the greatest determinant for conflicts and interactions, it really more depends on the personalities and people you have. You can have 100 people in one place and ask all of them the same single question, and chances are you will get varied responses. Population just increases your chance that someone will be the kind of person that will create or seek an interaction and follow along with it or get others involved.
(11-08-2020, 02:03 PM)Tribaja Wrote: I get that people like the experience of what used to be high pop (around 60), but the new high pop is an experience that a lot of people enjoy as well. These differences in gameplay experience should be reflected in the server names in my opinion as that will draw people to try them out more readily. Think of it like this, if you are a new player and have only played on the new high pop of around 90+, going down to 40-60 on a server named "overflow" might seem like a downgrade, which it isn't, it's simply a different experience and changing the names might make that more apparent.
(11-08-2020, 01:30 PM)Sov Wrote: if people choose to connect to the server with 100 people that's the server they wanted to play on. If people avoid the server with 100 people in favor of the one with 50 people then that's our natural soft player cap. The players get to decide when the server is full enough that they want to play on the less populated one, a population limit is just us forcing them to make the call.
Now for this. I've mentioned this before but perhaps it should be expanded upon, as it stands currently the overflow server can and often times has a very lackluster population amount ranging most times when I look some where between 20-30 people while the main server can be at well over 85 people. A majority of the time, people (myself included occasionally) will choose the high pop server over the server with dead or lowpop, and this really doesn't help the argument of it really being a per player decision for population count. If you're wanting to play a game and your usual server or area or whatever has well under what you would prefer and the game is suited around multiplayer, chances are you're going to pick a place with more people, even if it's out of your comfort zone, or you're just not going to play at all. That's the biggest issue here is that there should be a balance, otherwise you drive out players by favoring one population size over the other.
At the very least I don't think having some sort of pop-up or notification when people log into the main servers past a population of maybe 65 that tells them about the overflow server is a bad idea, and worth considering.