Is ofp  mp dead?

[mrmax 0]

Hi,

I've been playing OFP since early July last year.  I was one of about 50 early US players that bought the UK version so I could sample this great game.

I've truely enjoyed OFP MP inspite of all the problems that everyone is aware of.

But I have come to the conclusion that OFP multiplayer is dead!

How can I defile the wonder of OFP by declaring OFP MP dead, you ask?

Simple, a daily server check on "All Seeing Eye", reveals the dreaded truth.  There are very few servers available with more than 5 or 6 players.  In the US, Stoner's, has become the main dedicated server with matches up to 30 players.

Prior to Stoner's, Fraghaus was the main server, and now that server is locked.  Following Stoner's, and not in a order

of popularity, but rather what I regularly see.  Radish's up until about 12AM with up to 22 players, MTCO games average

about 10-16 players, Strike's Tact. OP server varies from 6-16, and Karrillions really varys from 2-30 but usually around

10 in the late afternoon.  It is 1am Sat. morning and the count for players are:

Stoner's    =   20

MTCO        =  19

That's it!  All other servers show 1 player.

This isn't an unusual occurance, but a typical server/player count.

39 active players isn't a popular game!

I truely enjoy OFP more than any other game I've played, but OFP may have run it's MP course, a very short course of about 10 months.  Hopefully the new "Resistance" version will breath new life into Multiplayer, drawing in more players.  We can only hope......

What can BI do to help or change this situation?

1. Marketing.   Having rave reviews of your game is only half the battle.

You have to get you product on store shelves.  I was at Fry's the other day, and there wasn't a single copy of OFP or OFP gold.  The floor person didn't even know what the game was.

2. Once you have the game on the shelf you have to come up with ways to keep it there.  It was amazing how many "OLD" games were on the shelf.  Mainly because of new packaging, or new ways to identify the product, etc.

3. Improve the game itself.  I never had to pay another cent after originally buying Halflife, and how many years of fun has so many recieved for their orginal investment?  There has been so many suggestions regarding improvements, I will not even go there, but I'm sure many will agree there is many ways BI can still improve OFP.

4. Be responsive to your customers!  I just purchased another game that has a small dedicated following.  This game has rave reviews, but never had the success of OFP.  Yet in my first post in the game's official forum the developer

responded (replied).  The developer responds to almost every post in the forum.  THAT IS COMMITMENT!  The developer clearly understands that their product has a limited following.  Therefore it is critical the developer maintain the relationship with every customer that is interested in their product.  WHY?  Because when version 2 of that product is available the developer will get tier 2 sales, plus new customers will buy their product, thus higher sales volume.

I hope that I'm wrong and OFP is not dead.  Other game developers are soon to follow BI's  OFP engine.  BI got there first, now does BI have  the stuff to stay out in front of the competition?  Or will a similiar game end up with OFP customers?   It's up to BI!  

Please breath new life into this great game!

[bwenke75 0]

I am just getting into the multi-player side of OFP. And to be honest, I find it pretty hard to get into a game. Just not alot to choose from. I think you might be right......

[camper 0]

Mek mek.

Mrmax, see the servers with 1.46 filter on ASE :D

[UKPUSHER 0]

Theres hundreds of servers on the all seeing eye , also a lot of server owners have chosen to upgrade to 1.60 , like me i notice more traffic on my 1.60 due to the in game server browser ...... i agree though that the most ppl on a server on average is like 3 ppl .

Im hoping when the official upgrade comes out , more and more ppl will use the in game server browser , hence more players , and ppl will get back into OFP online .

BTW for all that dont know about all seeing eye u can get it from here

[WhoCares 0]

1 and 2 should be addressed to Codemasters and not BIS.

3 Ever heard about 'Resistance' (and 'Independence Lost'?!

4 BIS is very responsive IMHO. They don't have to post in each thread. Many questions get solved by other people around here (most notably Avon), so why should BIS say the same again? I am pretty sure, BIS reads most of the threads here (except those with topics like 'Bis, please read' and the OT forum)

Generally, it looks like the MP community is currently split up in those with 1.60Beta and those sticking with 1.46/1.49. I guess, this will be solved with 'Resistance'.

[Hit_Sqd_Maximus 0]

Fraghaus isnt locked, its on 1.60 untill resistance comes out.

[suchey 0]

I think you will see a nice resurgance in Multi-Play in a couple weeks when Resistance is released.

[KaRRiLLioN 0]

You also have to remember that there is a silent majority out there that plays mostly coop amongst themselves, rather than on a dedicated server. I started out that way, but once the dedicated server started looking better, then I tried it, and haven't looked back. I think some players might start trying dedicated servers once Res comes out with the new MP code.

Don't give up hope, you have to remember that this is not a game for the twitch-n-shoot crowd. You've actually got to have some patience to be good at it. =)

[Hit_Sqd_Maximus 0]

I have a question...... if some person is just browsing a gaming store and runs across OFP and OFP:R..... will he have to spend almost 100 dollars to buy it? or will OFP get cheaper when OFP:R comes out.

[Die Alive 0]

</span><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td>Quote (Hit_Sqd_Maximus @ June 14 2002,10:48)</td></tr><tr><td id="QUOTE">I have a question...... if some person is just browsing a gaming store and runs across OFP and OFP:R..... will he have to spend almost 100 dollars to buy it? or will OFP get cheaper when OFP:R comes out.<span id='postcolor'>

I think it's like that with most games that have expansion sets to it. I like it because nicely wraps up the OFP world (US campaign, Russian, and now Resistance).

-=Die Alive=-

[Guest Titanium]

Mrmax. OFP MP is very popular man. You have to understand that a lost of OFP players that play MP are older (16+). That means that a lot of them have jobs. And I've noticed that becuase of this, server don't come alive until about after 50p.m. And Don't run very late because people are tired! Its 1A.M. when you posted this? I dunno, but there aren't a lot of people in any MP game at 1 A.M. You are probably also running a lot of filters. I.E. The version. Not everyone plays on the same versions. Just becuase you don't see everyone doesn't mean that they are not there

[WhoCares 0]

</span><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td>Quote (Hit_Sqd_Maximus @ June 14 2002,17:48)</td></tr><tr><td id="QUOTE">I have a question...... if some person is just browsing a gaming store and runs across OFP and OFP:R..... will he have to spend almost 100 dollars to buy it? or will OFP get cheaper when OFP:R comes out.<span id='postcolor'>

I suppose there will be soon a Platinum Edition with OFP, Red Hammer and Resistance.

[Die Alive 0]

</span><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td>Quote (WhoCares @ June 14 2002,13:01)</td></tr><tr><td id="QUOTE"></span><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td>Quote (Hit_Sqd_Maximus @ June 14 2002,17:48)</td></tr><tr><td id="QUOTE">I have a question...... if some person is just browsing a gaming store and runs across OFP and OFP:R..... will he have to spend almost 100 dollars to buy it? or will OFP get cheaper when OFP:R comes out.<span id='postcolor'>

I suppose there will be soon a Platinum Edition with OFP, Red Hammer and Resistance.<span id='postcolor'>

Maybe a "Game of the Year" edition?

-=Die Alive=-

[grayghost 0]

Personally I prefer playing coop with friends rather than going on a server - I've found some people on servers are unpleasant - heck, I TK'ed someone by mistake (sun in my face, could only see blck silhouette or someone with a gun running at me) ... I get sworn at. Then that guy goes on to TK someone. What the heck?

Similarely I've found that when you go to a team's server (say FAR, but I don't mean to point fingers on any particular team - this is a generalization) you usually get pasted. I really have no desire to belong to any 'clan' or anything of the sort ... so private coop/vs is it for me ... when we get 5+ players we like to do missions in vs (so east and west sides) ... but these aren't ctf/dm maps with respawn. If you die, you're dead! People do a lot less careless charging in with guns blazing this way, and commando misisons become harder.

(For example, youhave to kill with headshots to avoid the other player from hearing his men scream until you're no longer interested in being covert)...etc.

Anyway, just my 2c.

[suma 8]

</span><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td>Quote (mrmax @ June 14 2002,10:50)</td></tr><tr><td id="QUOTE">4. Be responsive to your customers!  I just purchased another game that has a small dedicated following.  This game has rave reviews, but never had the success of OFP.  Yet in my first post in the game's official forum the developer

responded (replied).  The developer responds to almost every post in the forum.  THAT IS COMMITMENT!  <span id='postcolor'>

While I admit we can do thing better .. and we try to improve, let me defend our company a little bit.

I can say that we also responded to almost every forum topic when there was about 10 to 100 forum members. Unfortunatelly responding to over 1 million customers worldwide is simply not possible. There is often more than 20 post per hour in this forum. We still try to read most important of them is possible and respond where necessary, but most of all we try to include the feedback from our customers in our future upgrades. I hope you will be able to see this when Resistance is out, as it contains a lot of features and improvements requested by our fans.

[ralphwiggum 6]

Q: Is ofp mp dead?

A: yes

<span style='font-size:23pt;line-height:100%'>Dead great!</span>

[Vgamer 0]

I seem to have noticed that when playing OFP online there is a lot more lag than there probably should be, which is why it might not be as popular as other multiplay games. Yes, i am 56K, but when i play other games such as SoF2 and various flight sims there is usually very little if no lag at all, while in Flashpoint the lag is horrible. From what i can tell most people use a 56K modem, and trying to play OFP on a 56K is not fun. So, this might be a reason why not as many people are interestered in OFP multiplay as there should be.

And of course some people might be waiting for Resistance to be released before they get back into OFP multiplay, like me in hopes that the new network code will help with the lag problem.

Vgamer

[LBGS_Stewart 0]

alright i am a 56Ker also actuly i live in the UP of michigan if anyone here know where that is they may understand a bit more where i live there is no cable no isdn no dsl. its just not here my connect is 26.6K with a 3K transfer rate. probly by now most of you are probly asking how is he able to play. actuly from my experence of play i can play with 8 people relitivly well. when i am in the ofp lobby i have a ping around 300 not bad i see. honistly there are time when i see cable users have more lag then i do. but i am the excape goat. why i dont know. so in this case i dont think the Ping is that much relivit to the lag then what everyone thinks. but i am not shure what is relitive to the lag but what i have noticed when connection to a game on 1.46 is that my connection gose in strides. like a digial device on and off on and off. when serfing the net its constent i see see that the net is always download/uplading items. but when i am in the game it seems to be pritty constent also. but honistly i dont think there is that much lag in OFP. and i dont think the type of connection a person has, has anything to do with it eather like i said i seen time when i had less lag then a person with "high bandwith." this is just from what i have observed.

[ralphwiggum 6]

as a former 56k user, I sympathize with you guys.

The problem seems to be that OFP uses MS's DirectPlay, which has been criticized for less than optimal performance in games.

with OFPR, you will get better netcode, and hopefully better MP play.

[Rage_Frost 0]

Well for are server their are a couple of things that pushed are Reg's over the side including myself. But not all.

First when the MP BETA came out it was bad really bad and people said this is the net code that well be in Resistance and said to us that they don't want to go through all this patching again and being beta testers for a new game like with OFP and the MANY patches that came with that.

The way I see it now when I go buy Resistance in a couple of weeks the first thing im going to have to do is patch the darn thing or wait even a couple of more weeks for a patch to come out like with OFP again.

In my honest opion OFP was not a totaly working MP game until the last Official patch before this MP beta came out.

It just makes all are players think, not again new net code new game new problems.

So they got burned out quick including myself.

To be very honest as an admin for a server I hate the new mp player selection screen with a pashion.

I dont know maybe it's to flashy or something but it's a pain in the ars to even teams out etc etc.

It seems like everyones ping is lower but takes forever to load a mission each game now.

And the The Biggest complant we hear is NO IN GAME VOICE!!!

with in game voice that brough OFP to real life action for alot of people it made it more then a game but something that could just maybe be somewhat close to real life.

And to tell you the truth their is nothing out their that can sub for in game voice nothing. RW sucks everything else sucks. To be as honest as I can.

All I can hope for is when Resistance comes out with some of the old things that were in OFP, in game voice a better mp selection screen and some official tools without asking for them, for the game then hopefully the game well come back to life like it was once before.

[LBGS_Stewart 0]

</span><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td>Quote (Rage_Frost @ June 17 2002,00:13)</td></tr><tr><td id="QUOTE">Well for are server their are a couple of things that pushed are Reg's over the side including myself. But not all.

First when the MP BETA came out it was bad really bad and people said this is the net code that well be in Resistance and said to us that they don't want to go through all this patching again and being beta testers for a new game like with OFP and the MANY patches that came with that.

The way I see it now when I go buy Resistance in a couple of weeks the first thing im going to have to do is patch the darn thing or wait even a couple of more weeks for a patch to come out like with OFP again.

In my honest opion OFP was not a totaly working MP game until the last Official patch before this MP beta came out.

It just makes all are players think, not again new net code new game new problems.

So they got burned out quick including myself.

To be very honest as an admin for a server I hate the new mp player selection screen with a pashion.

I dont know maybe it's to flashy or something but it's a pain in the ars to even teams out etc etc.

It seems like everyones ping is lower but takes forever to load a mission each game now.

And the The Biggest complant we hear is NO IN GAME VOICE!!!

with in game voice that brough OFP to real life action for alot of people it made it more then a game but something that could just maybe be somewhat close to real life.

And to tell you the truth their is nothing out their that can sub for in game voice nothing. RW sucks everything else sucks. To be as honest as I can.

All I can hope for is when Resistance comes out with some of the old things that were in OFP, in game voice a better mp selection screen and some official tools without asking for them, for the game then hopefully the game well come back to life like it was once before.<span id='postcolor'>

if i reamber correctly the in game voice wasnt adding in the MP beta but is going to be in the final release. if i reamber correctly from the beta forms. so from this i think i can say it will be in there

[Rage_Frost 0]

As I Recall What Suma posted was and dont quote me on this it well be sometime if ever if it well be added to Restiance if the new netcode allows it because their were having problems with that.

And when the E3 show was going on some of the BIS guys came to are server and asked us about somethings we would like to see added or fixed for the MP BETA.

The Thing that came up over and over again was voice.

I recall the reply we received was maybe in the future something like built in RW. takes 45 and points it to head. j/k

[Lt_Damage 0]

Wow.. a lot of strange posts in this thread..

1) OFP is the best game I've ever played. I don't even play any other games now that I own it. Whatever BIS does in the future they have already done something they can look back at with pride. Well done. Special thanks to Suma for all his patience listening to our suggestions.

2) Resistance is being looked forward to by thousands of OFP fans around the world. For those who have helped BIS improve the netcode, thankyou, as they have used your feedback to make the improvements everybody is asking for.

3) Ingame voice means nothing to me, it has nothing to do with the gameplay that I enjoy. I actually am very happy that ingame voice is not supported as it was impossible to manage players abusing it.

4) People who compare OFP to games like SOF2 are morons. I would normally not bother to answer them but have you seen the missions involved in those games? Is the landscape ANYWHERE near as big? Do the bodies simply fade away immediately? Ask the developers of SOF2 why they would expect their to be less lag in their game. They will tell you "because our levels are smaller, missions are less complex, bodies disappear almost immediately, we have no vehicles, our game sucks"

Well if they were honest that's what they would say anyway.

BIS has provided the best support I have ever seen from a game company. The reason our fans are so dedicated is because when there is a gameplay issue, we know we don't have to live with it, we know it will be fixed, this gives us an expanded idea of the lifetime of the product, basically we know it will be more fun, longer, then any other game we have.

SOFII is the most bugged game I have ever played, and Raven Software have not even bothered to release a patch yet, simply blamed all the problems on the player's hardware specs.

Looing forward to all future creations from BIS. Great work.

Regards,

[LBGS_Stewart 0]

maybe you are right Rage but i am just getting my information from the past posts in OFPMP test beta what i have read

[HellToupee 0]

1.6 is great in cars its like single player very few probs i only have connecting probs whick will lock up my internet untill i restart and ghosts but other wise none, the new interface is alot faster and forces people to vote an admin which is good the abilty of the admin to control assigning is good to other than people who dont know what there doing and leave ai on. Support wise ofp has been very good just go to the other forums in their own language u will see many posts of theirs its not easy reading lots and wirting posts in a second language i cant even speak another language. Gameplanets server is very popular with great admin making sure we have many great maps like tank valley, montiac attack operation helltoupee etc, once i tink it got up to 34people but i wasnt there. Also te mods are finally gtting under way with importing there models which i hope sum go retail one day. Mrmax u ask too much of them i dont see u replying to every post i would like to see u try if u did u would reach 100 my in no time.