What brought you into Red Orchestra?

[Nightingale]

I made this poll because I wanted to estimate how the RO2 playerbase would respond to a cold war conflict or fictional conflict game with RO2's engine.

I got into the Red Orchestra series because the game mechanics, realism, and focus on PvP infantry gameplay appealed greatly to me. No other game has features like weighing magazines to estimate rounds left or clinging to cover in order to drop a grenade just beyond the other side of a wall.

The setting and historical accuracy I am somewhat indifferent to. Personally, I think WWII settings generally make for poorer gameplay. Bolt action rifles were extremely outdated compared to things like the MP40 and SVT, and only stayed in service due to limits in manufacturing technology and infrastructure.

 

[Proud_God]

Weird poll is weird. I got into RO the mod because it looked like a kick-*** no-compromise WOII game.

 

[DAT]

Been here since 2005 so I cant remember that far back!

 

[GrimReality]

I'm not sure you're asking the right question, and I really don't think you're asking it correctly.

The game engine, the Unreal3 engine, has nothing to directly do with realism. The engine gives the developer the foundation of a game... it's graphics, physics, and basic functionality. How the developer uses that engine will determine how real or unreal (pun intended) the game will be.

Besides, asking a RO2 player if he/she likes RO2 for the realism.... well, my impression is that most RO2 players don't think the game is realistic enough, so how do they answer that question?

I think, if you're looking for a better and more accurate poll result you should go with these poll options:

Question: What aspect of the RO series is most important to you?
Game Engine (graphics & physics)
Arcade Gameplay (unrealistic)
Tactical Gameplay (realistic)
Historical Accuracy

 

[Zetsumei]

The thing that brought me into RO were a few things.

Teamwork, back when i started playing RO in 2004, i found a form of teamwork and freedom in Red Orchestra that i had last felt in Return to castle wolfenstein. A big part of this for me was the cap system where every cap could be capped at any point during the map, but that you just had to get enough people in a certain cap zone to be able to initiate such an event (you couldn't capture alone). The tension of trying to sneak in somewhere and take an objective and then having to wait for a few more guys to be able to start capping was just awesome. Sadly that cap system was later removed, allowing a single person to capture a zone, which in turn resulted that people could too easily capture everything which forced the capzones to be capped in order.

Red Orchestra public play for the biggest part died for me with the release of RO:CA beta 3.0 when the cap system was changed. Then when Roost was released you could always see the current state of every capzone on the overhead map, and could see how many enemies were in the capzone when you entered. This removed the tension of being in a capzone as defender and not knowing whether there are or aren't enemies inside. Tension of not knowing what the enemy was doing was one of my great likes about Red Orchestra.

I still kept playing RO but as teamwork was killed off in public play I then focussed on competitive play where you play with a team you know against another team that knows each other so you get good team play anyway.

As beside teamwork the gameplay itself attracted me to RO, as a previous UT instagib player, RO felt quite similar in giving the tension of having one shot. Miss that one chance and you're out. The tension of your life possibly ending at any point made the gameplay a thrill for me. Without the gameplay becoming hide and seek as other popular one life games.

Battlefield in my opinion had maps that were so big that the gameplay on them was not sculpted anymore. Just a map where people try to obtain points making every map to me feel exactly the same. With RO every cap zone had a distinctive feel, and every map was like a different game mode on its own for me it truly hooked me.

RO didn't have crosshairs but as a counteractive measurement weapons had full accuracy. Where most games had a big cone of fire, if you saw someone in RO you could pull off a shot and kill him if you had enough skill to do so. A lot of things weren't so much easy to learn or pull off, but it was possibly to get good with weaponry at any range.

RO was for me one of the first games where I felt it had something similar to achievements. Not like modern day achievements, but playing the game for a week could allow you to become twice as good as the week before that. When you kill with one shot, a small difference in being able to aim quicker or more accurate got a huge effect on your outcome. And with the small community you could easily see that after a week of play you simply got loads better than people that you played about even with. All in all in very short time frames you could really improve loads and loads with the game, quicker than I've ever had in any other game.

In the end where other games had cone fire, RO had sway, recoil and later on free aim. Where in other games you had to go crouch to hit something in RO your sway just increased. In other games past a certain distance weapons simply got too inaccurate to be able to hit anything, in RO it simply became really hard to hit anything due to the before meantioned sway, and on top of that travel time and bullet drop.
Overall where often things were left to chance in other games, in RO it was more like it was simply made difficult, but not impossible. And over time you were able to control all individual systems and aspects and truly master your gun play. In the end It made me feel like I was in total control of my character's doings. Especially since unlike Roost it was possible to interrupt animations by doing something else like running away.

When I first played RO2 i was quite happy with some things, like the gun handling and ability to interrupt things. I felt that in a sense with the gunplay I was more in control again of my character and less distanced. Which is why my initial reaction to RO2 was awesome.

However after a while I found out that the complete set of systems didn't seem to work together in its magical way any more. Even after 100 hours It didn't seem like I could control my character the way I intended. I wanted to zoom and instead sprinted, I wanted to prone but could not do it together with being unable to consistently interrupt actions. And free aim in ironsight that made it feel as if I was playing with mouse acceleration on.

But worse than never feeling of being in control of my character. The gameplay seemed to have changed as well. Long range gameplay seemed to consist of nobody going out to the capzones, or trying to gain objectives but instead of people trying to take potshots from somewhere save as if it was a ww1 trench simulator. Where as in close range, people could just instantly run and fire. The recoil of the MG seemed higher when deployed than when firing from the hip.

In the end while there was something clear I felt when i played RO2 for the first time that gave me something similar to the mod. It just seems things went too far and at this time all the magic for me is lost.

 

[Nightingale]

The game engine, the Unreal3 engine, has nothing to directly do with realism. The engine gives the developer the foundation of a game... it's graphics, physics, and basic functionality. How the developer uses that engine will determine how real or unreal (pun intended) the game will be.

You are right. I messed up the poll. What I intended to say with the term "game engine" were the new features like rotating MG bipods, first person cover system, and so forth. Sort of like the "game engine" that TWI made using the Unreal game engine.

Too bad I can't reset the poll and revise the options.

 

[Panzer Jager '43]

Game design brought me in, especially since I was an RO1 fan. However the game engine itself gave me considerable performance problems and sadly my interest in RO2 died. Only with the recent patch has performance become slightly better and borderline playable, but it's still not enough, and the performance issues from beforehand had already ruined the experience for me.

I don't know if I'll ever seriously get into RO2, but I still want to care about it. I know Tripwire releases exciting updates for their games for years, so I'm hoping my interest will be rekindled, and that by then I will have a better PC.

 

[McTash]

Simples. Some other clan members swore by RO1 and BF3 is a pile of. Having seen the longevity of RO1 via people on xfire I await the sdk with baited breath.

 

[Damo]

Things that got me, and kept me interested in RO1 from 2004-2011:

Game-play (playability, large online battles, combined arms, unique theme)

Hardcore realism (on a level only really seen in and topped by Operation Flashpoint)

Time period (always been a big history-nerd when it comes to WW2)

SDK allowing for Maps and Mods (Countless awesome maps, and Darkest Hour mainly for the tanks and features, the Western Front is my favourite of all)

Skill level, tactics and bolt actions (you couldn't just play the game and be good at it within an hour which you can with most games these days - taking down enemy infantry at 400m with a bolty was so satisfying)

Map design and size (some amazing maps giving brilliant gaming for years on end, often having an openworld-sandbox feel to them)

Long drawn-out battles (meaning opposing sides having to adapt to changing tactics and battle conditions, some of my best rounds lasted an hour)

I pre-ordered RO2 expecting the same kind of plus-points.

Things that are making me play RO2 less and less:

Game-play (riddled with bugs from the start and still suffering, lack of team work and solid tactics, very odd design choices, poor optimisation, the fact it's so similar to games like CoD means RO2 is not unique imo - regardless of environment and time setting)

Hardcore realism (almost non-existent in my opinion, a long list of complaints as can be found voiced by many on the forums)

Time period (The setting is great, though some weapons appear to have had their histories re-written)

SDK allowing for Maps and Mods (As good as non-existent thus far, but it's coming..)

Skill level, tactics and bolt actions (For me, many aspects make RO2 too easy, there's little skill needed in many scenarios, tactics are formed and used rarely and there's still a distinct lack of people using bolt-actions which has various knock-on effects for gameplay)

Map design and size (Frankly, some terrible maps were shipped with RO2 and I can only hope the new DLC's will rebalance this. The fact they're still altering maps this late after release says a lot. Not what I was expecting pre-release)

Long drawn-out battles (Again, almost non-existent. You can have them, but rarely. Lock-down is a ridiculous feature)

And a long list of other things I've not mentioned in this already-too-long post.

That's not to say I don't enjoy RO2 at all, but I can understand why so few people play the thing these days. I don't play as much as I thought I would pre-release, and I probably won't until TW or a talented group of modders can right the wrongs.

 

[Dirtybandit]

I was brought to ro2 because it was stating its historical accuracy...I was disappointed. (the game is still fun)

 

[Sensemann]

I visited my cousin, he showed me RO and his first question was: Do you recognize something? - No - No cross on the monitor.

Then I played for like half an hour on his computer and it totally hooked me. I was good at MOH and CoD, but in the 30 minutes I played, my k/d ratio must've been 2-30 or sth like that.

The next day, I bought Unreal Tournament and downloaded RO. Since then, this and Arma-series are the only shooters I paid for. (no, never used illegal copies, just played at my brother's place or friends).

 

[GeneralGinger]

I actually found my way here from the Killing floor commercials of RO. It was harsh and unforgiving unlike the usual Cod and other shooters that i played.The community is also one of the big things i found too, always ready for a good discussion despite being in the thick of things too.Bullets were actually bullets none of this cone blarg.Between this and the Crysis multiplayer, nothing has yet to even compare to them. All shooters have to go up against the feat that RO has set up for me, and none have yet to come near it.Happiest purchases i have made to this day.

 

[r5cya]

i first started playing ro1 because my rifle range is only open three days a week. the game had the same thing i have a safe full of. mosins! so i bought it and never looked back!

i got over 1,500 hours on ro1 and 420 on ro2 not counting the 160 i put in the beta. i love the game.

 

[Merin Redplate]

Well, I started off with Killing Floor and liked it. I then noticed TWI had another game called Red Orchestra, so I bought it.

 

[plex]

What brought me to RO2? well...
The fact that its for PC only and not a console port.

When i bought it, At the time i thought TWI was good dedicated developers and would make an AWESOME game..

I think it still has potential, but currently i am unhappy with:
- Bullet Reg
- Ping
- No SDK
- Bad squad system

Hope it gets better.. i love this game otherwise.

 

[NikolaiLev]

I got into RO1 because of the brutal realism. Historical accuracy is a bonus, but I wouldn't mind fictional setting for another game.

The Eastern front, in Western media, is kind of like an obscure war in that few things talk about it. In that vein, I was hoping RO2 was going to be about another obscure war, preferably involving Russians. Like the Soviet war in Afghanistan. I was mildly disappointed when RO2 was still about WW2, especially about only Stalingrad, but I'm satisfied with it at this point.

 

[Elysium]

Come to think of it, I can't remember how I got into RO.

 

[SnowyOak]

For one thing, it's a TWI game and I'm more then happy to support such amazing developers. Call me a fanboy, but their games have always been great and they're one of the few developers left who really work with the community every step of the way.

Secondly, I got into it for the great gameplay. Every video I saw hyped me up for it; a tactical shooter with amazing weapon play and really great maps. With the way guns were done in killing floor, I knew they would be solid in RO2.

As for realism and the WW2 setting goes, it's somewhat secondary for me to the gameplay itself. I find it very interesting and I actually think it's quite realistic but I buy all my games for fun and historical accuracy is less of a selling point.

 

[Don Draper]

*1 shot kills
*Iron sights
*Prone a game where it was actully used
*Map set out with cap zones

 

[Vyllis]

This: Game Engine & Historical Accuracy

Unfortunately actually... er.