I don't think it's right to disable perk progression on high player count servers while the various kf_level* maps are running rampant.
Yes, high player count servers made it easier to build up weapon damages for perks and make it more likely that each wave will be completed, but there are MUCH better solutions than simply cutting it off cold.
To that end, I offer a simple proposal:
Allow high player count servers to have perk progression, but have certain alterations in place to keep things fair.
First: The maximum active specimens should be floored to scale with the maximum player count.
A normal 6 person server can have 32 active specimens, which would be proportional to about 220 active specimens on a 40 person server. Servers that can't handle that much load would be forced to reduce the player counts, but that's an acceptable loss.
Further, have forced spawns past 6 players - in other words, while specimens will never spawn where a player can see on a 6-or-less server, as player counts go up that goes from being a hard rule to a preference.
Second: In order to prevent easy perk leveling have high player count servers account for HP scaling, such that (by way of example) removing 73% of a fleshpounder's HP with a shotgun always results in the player's shotgun damage counter increasing by 73% of the base hitpoints of a fleshpounder on that difficulty level.
For a 40 person server, that works out to the perk counters going up by only 3.3% of the damage a player does.
I believe that these two changes would be more than enough to offset the benefits that come from playing on a high-player server.
As far as commandos getting stalker kills goes, the increased difficulty in killing each stalker combined with the bloodlust of the other players makes it on-par with normal maps as far as perk-leveling goes.
For the various achievements associated with the long mode and suicidal difficulty I would like to note that these things do not need to be granted in these cases. While players DO actively complete perk objectives on high player count servers, they are NOT actively striving for the kind of accomplishment that comes from their achievements.
Does this seem like a fair and reasonable proposal?
Yes, high player count servers made it easier to build up weapon damages for perks and make it more likely that each wave will be completed, but there are MUCH better solutions than simply cutting it off cold.
To that end, I offer a simple proposal:
Allow high player count servers to have perk progression, but have certain alterations in place to keep things fair.
First: The maximum active specimens should be floored to scale with the maximum player count.
A normal 6 person server can have 32 active specimens, which would be proportional to about 220 active specimens on a 40 person server. Servers that can't handle that much load would be forced to reduce the player counts, but that's an acceptable loss.
Further, have forced spawns past 6 players - in other words, while specimens will never spawn where a player can see on a 6-or-less server, as player counts go up that goes from being a hard rule to a preference.
Second: In order to prevent easy perk leveling have high player count servers account for HP scaling, such that (by way of example) removing 73% of a fleshpounder's HP with a shotgun always results in the player's shotgun damage counter increasing by 73% of the base hitpoints of a fleshpounder on that difficulty level.
For a 40 person server, that works out to the perk counters going up by only 3.3% of the damage a player does.
I believe that these two changes would be more than enough to offset the benefits that come from playing on a high-player server.
As far as commandos getting stalker kills goes, the increased difficulty in killing each stalker combined with the bloodlust of the other players makes it on-par with normal maps as far as perk-leveling goes.
For the various achievements associated with the long mode and suicidal difficulty I would like to note that these things do not need to be granted in these cases. While players DO actively complete perk objectives on high player count servers, they are NOT actively striving for the kind of accomplishment that comes from their achievements.
Does this seem like a fair and reasonable proposal?
