03 Jun 15, 05:21PM
(03 Jun 15, 11:44AM)XFA Wrote: The inital loss of players from the transition between 1.0 and 1.1 was due to the very different weapon balance (no where near as good as previously imo) and negative effect that this upgrade had on higher ping players (400ping turned from playable to unplayable).
More importantly is the lack of competitive culture in AC now days (which has also been on the decline since 1.0) has had a far bigger impact on the player base. The competitive side of AC is generally what kept players hooked on the game and if we want more players, I think we should find a way to formalize and centralize the competitive scene.
XFA, you know I love you bud, but I disagree on most of your points here.
I actually think that the 1.1 weapon balance is much better than it was in 1.0. In 1.0, only the SMG and Sniper were really viable at all, Shotgun and AR were pretty much unusable. Now, all five weapons are appropriate in at least some situation.
As for the competitive scene - yes, the competitive scene has certainly declined, but that's only because the playerbase as a whole has declined. For any given game (FPS or otherwise), a small percentage of players will want to play competitively, and most people just want to derp around and have fun.
As others have stated, I think that map restrictions have led to the decline of players in AC. Back in the day, there were probably other 1000 players online at a time, and at least a few hundred of them just played bs_dust2 32 player servers game after game after game after game. Killing GEMAs, and modded servers, and 32-player servers has lead to his decline in the playerbase.