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Liking what I'm seeing

Private Who?

Grizzled Veteran
Mar 18, 2006
721
139
Texas
I like the direction ROHoS is headed in. It's been a tough slog, and I know I've done at least my share of griping. I've also done my share of saying when I thought TWI was getting it right, and I've stuck around.

Not too long ago I stated in a post that ROHoS did not feel like a game that really captured my imagination like OStfront did, at least not in the same intense way. Years ago I would be driving home from work wondering how I could do a better job of attacking or defending a certain point on a certain map, and it just wasn't that way with HoS.

I think that is beginning to change, and like I've been saying all along...for me at least...

IT'S THE MAPS.

It started with Bridges and Winterwald, and kicked into really high gear with the new version of Rakowice. The first time I played Rakowice I couldn't get it out of my head for two days. Rakowice without clown cars: BRILLIANT. The maps don't have to be ports or updates of old maps, but I think it's quite clear that RO players know what a good map does well. Not that all the stock HoS maps are pure trash, but many of them really just don't stand up to some of the new stuff.

A while back I decided I had had enough for a while, and went off to do other things and play other games. I played DoD:S again, CoD4, CoDWaW, flight sims, etc. I especially like CoDWaW Tactical Crouch servers. Those can be fun, and the pace stays slower than your average CoD game. All of those games can be a lot of fun for what they are. But none of them offer a fraction of what RO does when RO is at it's best.

'At it's best' is sort of an interesting clause though. I read these forums very often, and I see a lot of the same themes week to week. The striking thing is that many of these themes are not dissimilar to what you'd find on the Ostfront forums in 2007: people wishing the game was just a little bit different one way or the other to suit their taste. We have to recall that RO was never an easy game. It was frustrating. You got killed for almost no reason from places you couldn't see. A few rifles in an entrenched position could hold off your attack for an entire round (recall Tula Outskirts). Not everyone was a team player, especially on full 50 player servers. People just wanted to sit back and shoot bolts at far off targets. In 2007. Does any of this sound familiar NOW. Yes. Yes it does. Did it make RO:Ost less fun at times. Yes it did. Does it happen in HoS the same way? Yep, sure does. Nightly.

Do any of these facts make either ROOst or ROHoS any less than two of the very best FPS games ever made? Not for one second. Adapt. Learn the game. If it gets to be too much, play DoDS for a night. That will set you straight if nothing else will.

How many here recall what a very MIXED blessing it was when the player cap was raised from 32 to 40, then 50? And then The Wild Bunch went off the deep end with 64 player servers. Of course there were maps that couldn't handle it, not to mention servers that couldn't. The game grew. We adapted. New maps came in that were more suited to 50 and 64 players.

Part of my impatience with Tripwire was due to the fact that I, and many others, spent YEARS waiting for HoS. We spent years building up expectations in our minds that, to be blunt, were not met immediately upon release. Yes that sucked...but Tripwire has, in the main, stuck with HoS. It's turning around for the better and right now is a great time to be an RO player. If you are a community mapper, I salute you. Thank you for your work, and please continue to provide this vital service.

So...if you are one of the new players who've just gotten into this game via Humble or the Tripwire sale: WELCOME. And remember this: it might not be easy every day, but it pays off to take a broad, long view of things. Just doing that alone makes it easier to see that RO is hands down the best thing going in video games right now. And it has been for years.
 
I agree tenfold. The maps really made this game livable. I was bored of those stock maps 30 days after release. Only Red October, and Commisars were ok. What was even worse is that we didn't even get SDK support from day one. But **** when that first custom map came out I was so excited, then more and more came out, Bridges blew up quite well, showed everyone what great amazing fun moments you can have in RO2 on larger more diverse battles. All these amazing maps really put excitement into the game and gave some breathing room for TWI :p

Even now we have I think 14+ custom maps? I can never get enough of them. They are fun and last a long time in terms of replayability. And seeing all the nice [WIP] map threads and the WIP Thread gradually teasing me with more content, it's a nice thing to have. Content is what is needed in the game right now honestly. RS will dump loads of content to us (and give that content to the amazing mappers too) and hopefully we can get some vehicles by that time as well. I'd like more weapons though

tl;dr: Custom maps saved the game, can wait for more content.
 
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