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Please save the Aussie community!

Butts

Member
Dec 28, 2015
20
1
Hi guys, I just wanted to make another thread as a build-on to the thread I made last year about the catatonic Aussie community. This is an personal appeal to anybody who might want to listen about how much I miss this game.

We are dead. Fully dead. At 8pm on weekends one is lucky to see 20 players on. I haven't even launched this game in Steam for OVER 6 MONTHS, as we have no players. I don't even log on Steam anymore, because RO2/RS was the only game I cared to play (besides a tad bit of Insurg/PAYDAY 2).

With RS2 around the corner, I think the idea of an RO2 freebie might make good sense. It would certainly breathe some life into the long-dead RO2, and get everyone super hyped for RS2. I have 900 hours in RO2, and no other shooter I have ever played is half as interesting. Not one manages to be nearly as fun as RO2. All of them feel samey, vapid, laggy, and have dumb arcadey mechanics (bullet spread, bullet-sponge characters, hitscan detection, etc...). I say this because I have been trying to play some other shooters after RO2 died, and I cannot enjoy any of them.

Please, please, please consider the idea of putting up RO2 as a freebie. I miss this game so much. If I were an oil sheikh I'd buy thousands of copies and give them out for free to make sure this game wouldn't die. But it is dead, and it will stay dead forever unless Tripwire does something about it.
 
As Lemonater has just told me:

Red Orchestra 2 is the game that everybody owns but never plays.
3 million copies sold. Sticks them at about 70th on the list of most sold steam games of all time. And there's over 35,000 games on steam. 300,000 of those copies are from the 24-hr free period.

And yes, the game is super cheap. It's only 5 dollars. The fact is that everybody owns, but nobody plays. And nobody plays because even new buyers launch the game and see... No one playing. So they never play again. So one needs somehow to get a message out to all those ex-players to launch the game, yes? I fail to see any convincing way an individual could get the message out to all those ex-players to play the damn game again. We have an Aussie community page with thousands of members, but only a handful (say 50) are actually engaged in the community in any meaningful way.

But a big announcement that the game is free... Everyone sees that, and everyone decides that it's a good idea to play. Sure, you could probably achieve the same things with Tripwire putting out messages saying 'play the game, lads'. But that's wouldn't make sense. Tripwire has already proven it possible to give the game away for free.

If Tripwire wants to put an announcement somewhere on steam saying that there will be an RO2 'game night' on a certain day, that just might do it. I support that idea entirely. But at the same time, if you ever want a community to exist for this game in Australia again, one needs to take a drastic measure. We are deader than dead. Nobody plays.
 
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I'd play more, and I used to love the Aussie servers even from over here in the USA, however many gaming acquaintances are no longer around, especially from ROOST, AND, here is the big one, most servers only play stock maps. If you have been playing since the game came out, those maps, while good, are just so TIRING to play. You just don't have all those custom servers out there anymore keeping things fresh. And playing the game to just rank up stats and weapons never meant or did a thing for me (and I feel if you need to add that stuff, you failed a bit at creating the game).
And also, looking for news on the forum these days with the new 'layout' has turned into a chore.
 
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I'm not quite sure what the OP is grasping for. The initial lament is the low participation of Aussie players? Then the final plea is to make the game free? Surely the price is reasonable enough that Aussies can afford a copy. People, including Aussies can play the game if they wish. Look at the number of international servers available round the clock. And many of them are full. The only problem I see is that there might not be a lot of regional servers in the area of Australia, but there are some in Japan. And if you have 20mb/s ~ 40mb/s broadband, even the North American ones should be playable. In the final analysis Aussie can enjoy the game if they wish. My server is in Atlanta, and I see Russians playing there. What's the problem?
 
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G_Sajer;n2277048 said:
if you have 20mb/s ~ 40mb/s broadband, even the North American ones should be playable.

I live on East Coast Australia, have a 30mb/s connection and get 200ms (minimum) latency to West Coast USA. Unfortunately, nobody could consider that playable. I presume if you see Russians playing they are just there to see what American servers are like.

The argument I'm making here is that yes, the game is cheap. The game is dirt cheap. But there are plenty of dirt cheap, good games out there that nobody plays. They have no incentive to play. Putting the game up for free is like a big 'PLAY ME' message to all owners and would-be-owners. TF2 was langouring when it went free on a permanent basis. It already had a huge number of owners (like RO2), but few players. The same was true of RO2 in 2014 when it went free for the first time. Lots of owners who simply never played the game.

Why did they never play? Same issue TF2 had. Lack of new content. RO2 has hardly gotten any new content over the years. Few servers run custom maps. So if you want continuous players, you need regular sales, free weekends, etc... The fact is that we are at a critical mark (as we were in 2014) where those options are no longer keeping servers afloat. Everyone has a 'I won't play because nobody else is playing' mentality. Nobody wants to spent 3 hours bot farming. I reiterate the point that the game being free has more of a mental effect in inducing players to play the game. Even if only 100 people downloaded the game in a 24-hr free period, server numbers would shoot miraculously. A big announcement like that is a beckon for players to play.

Anything short of such an massive impetus breeds the 'I won't play' mentality.

So basically there are 3 options:

1. Let the game die. No sales, no free weekends. Game eventually dies worldwide.
2. Half-ass it. Put sales and free weekends so the game subsists (without ever flourishing), and allow players from North America and Europe to be able to get games (due to naturally larger playerbases there).
3. Save the game. Make it free for 24hrs once again. Let it flourish in large regions, and allow it to subsist in smaller regions such as Oceania, South American, etc...

I stress the fact, TRIPWIRE HAS NOTHING TO LOSE FROM MAKING THE GAME FREE TEMPORARILY.
 
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Butts;n2277083 said:
I live on East Coast Australia, have a 30mb/s connection and get 200ms (minimum) latency to West Coast USA. Unfortunately, nobody could consider that playable. I presume if you see Russians playing they are just there to see what American servers are like.

The argument I'm making here is that yes, the game is cheap. The game is dirt cheap. But there are plenty of dirt cheap, good games out there that nobody plays. They have no incentive to play. Putting the game up for free is like a big 'PLAY ME' message to all owners and would-be-owners. TF2 was langouring when it went free on a permanent basis. It already had a huge number of owners (like RO2), but few players. The same was true of RO2 in 2014 when it went free for the first time. Lots of owners who simply never played the game.

Why did they never play? Same issue TF2 had. Lack of new content. RO2 has hardly gotten any new content over the years. Few servers run custom maps. So if you want continuous players, you need regular sales, free weekends, etc... The fact is that we are at a critical mark (as we were in 2014) where those options are no longer keeping servers afloat. Everyone has a 'I won't play because nobody else is playing' mentality. Nobody wants to spent 3 hours bot farming. I reiterate the point that the game being free has more of a mental effect in inducing players to play the game. Even if only 100 people downloaded the game in a 24-hr free period, server numbers would shoot miraculously. A big announcement like that is a beckon for players to play.

Anything short of such an massive impetus breeds the 'I won't play' mentality.

So basically there are 3 options:

1. Let the game die. No sales, no free weekends. Game eventually dies worldwide.
2. Half-*** it. Put sales and free weekends so the game subsists (without ever flourishing), and allow players from North America and Europe to be able to get games (due to naturally larger playerbases there).
3. Save the game. Make it free for 24hrs once again. Let it flourish in large regions, and allow it to subsist in smaller regions such as Oceania, South American, etc...

I stress the fact, TRIPWIRE HAS NOTHING TO LOSE FROM MAKING THE GAME FREE TEMPORARILY.

That magical thing that makes the world go round, so yes they do have something to lose, it's called money. 5$ is still 5$. I wouldn't be surprised if the game itself garners more than 10,000$ more (which is probably a pretty big low-ball.) I also don't see how it going free would make people who own the game want to play more. I see it more as a turn off because then you'll get all the players you don't want playing the game, which makes for an admin's nightmare. Suffice to say the least is not something I or any admin of a server would want. You also see regular complaints on the steam forums of the game being free during a weekend. Most veteran players will not play the game during that time, or at the very least the most vocal ones will not.

On the topic of the game being dead:
Game isn't dead, just in your area, well because you live in the middle of an ocean. I also don't see where you're getting the 'I won't play because nobody else is playing' mentality. Game has a steep learning curve, and is not the typical FPS much less WW2 FPS. Which results in a turnoff to the average player, it is more or less a niche appeal to a degree. You'll get the players like me or others who have 100s if not 1000s of hours in game, but there aren't many.

On the topic of latency:
200ms latency isn't terrible we have regulars from Australia who play on our NA servers. Hell even Lemonater who is in New Zealand plays on BloodBath. Also the Australian/NZ Server's Players/Regulars were particularly hostile to new custom community made content be it maps or mutators.
All and All I see it being a geographic problem. Because it isn't dead in the EU or in NA.
 
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Beskar Mando;n2277098 said:
All and All I see it being a geographic problem. Because it isn't dead in the EU or in NA.

This is literally my main statement. This is about saving the Aussie community. And if you want to make any generalizations about why there aren't any players then that's fine. I will reiterate again. Australia is dead. This thread is about players in Oceania.

But there are really only three reasons applicable to the region in terms of why we are languishing.


1. If you ask Lemonater, he'll tell you that a high botcount server by a reputable community running Bridges 24/7 killed Australia because many of our players are drongos who want to smash bots all day. This goes back to the 'I won't play' mentality I mentioned before. (If you weren't clear on that, it refers to the fact that Aussie servers are soooooo slow to fill that if you jump on at 2pm, you might be playing until 5pm before finally all the bots are gone. But if no one jumps on at 2pm you never get rid of the bots. So the totally anti-bot players like me never jump on). That high botcount meant that vehement anti-botters (which made up every half-decent player) would never jump online, and 20 blokes would smash bots all night.
2. If you ask Cat in the Hat or prominent players from the AUSNZ RO2 community, server drama killed the AUSNZ server (and since AUSNZ was pretty much the only server, the region dies with it).
3. If you ask me, (and I have been saying this in the Aussie community for over a year) what killed the region was lack of players. Dead simple. And the game needs to be revived. Aka, smash that freebie on there and save us all.

I don't blame you for not agreeing with me. Very few people seem to agree with me, tending to call me optimistic.

I will say again. 200ms is unplayable. Anything over 120 is unplayable for a rifleman. I could probably play with 200 as an MG, though I wouldn't have a good time doing it.

Also, NB. Cat in the Hat and the AUSNZ server was at the forefront of community-made content for the game. We loooooooooooooooved our customs.
 
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Well, ok. If latency is an issue you can't overcome, I understand. But honestly, I've played on German servers at pings approaching 200 with no appreciable problem. It would appear then that the issue from an Aussie perspective, is technical, and not a shortage of players or servers. There is no time of the day or night I can't go to North America or the EU and find a loaded RO2 server. As for the Russians, they aren't just curious. They've been the bulk of my midnight~dawn clientele for years. They're a major reason why my GT ratings are in the upper 50 percentile.
 
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hey guys. guess who was right? :)

RS free for 48 hours, and we currently have 4 full Aussie servers!!!

Hopefully that will keep up for a little while, and also convince a lot of people to jump onto RS2. Thanks based TW for saving the game, at least for a little while. even if it will drop off a lot when RS2 comes out
 
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