Only a few servers

[larmannjan]

Am I the only one are there just not any servers with pr. For coop there is 2 usable ones. For deployment there is about 3-5 that have more than 40 players. Just does not seem like a lot. Also i hear about some 100p server but under the server list i only see 64max.

PS: how do u know if a server has anders sound mod?

[ShockUnitBlack]

Okay. What does this have to do with anything?

[SGT.Ice]

There's a lot of servers, lots of games of coming out. You only notice it because a lot of people aren't filling the servers like they use to and the mass fluctation is very noticeable. People get on more at some parts of the day/week than others.

100P servers are event only & PRTA run.

Servers that run Soundmod usually have Anders or SM (Version number) in them.

CIA & PRTA run them on all servers far as I know.

[larmannjan]

just wondering if i was the only one.

[Brainlaag]

As Ice said, there is still quite a big community behind, there are some fluctuation and we are currently in a period of regression, with also lower gameplay quality. Nonetheless there are still roughly ~300 players playing 24/7 during the week and even more during weekends.

The 100+ player server is still in testing and thus not public. There are events every now and then (primarily made by PRTA but also NEW, etc.) which involve 100+ players up to a peak of 200 players per server.

Don't get discouraged to join a server just because it isn't fully filled, every person more on a server attracts other players, leading eventually to a full server.

Most servers have the SM (Soundmod) in their name to clarify they are using the soundmod. AFAIK the only servers using it are NwA, NEW, USF, PRTA and CIA.

[BloodyDeed]

NEW Era Warfare has SM enabled as well.

[A.Finest]

NEW Era Warfare has SM enabled as well.

Thought you said you'd never actually add it?

Anyway, [USF] has it as well

[Acemantura]

Enable ALL the servers!!!

[SGT.Ice]

Enable ALL the servers!!!

wuuuuuuut

[Ts4EVER]

The problem is that PR's gameplay experience was never caused by any design, but what I would call "community discipline". The PR community decided on a certain set of rules and behaviour guidelines and as long as a majority of players followed those, the experience was intact. But now that this central control seems to be gone to a certain degree, cracks in PR's gameplay philosophy are starting to show.
Imo what this mod needs is a paradigm shift, away from community discipline and towads more focused gameplay. For me, PR was always about 2 things:
- Drawn out long range combat
- Squadplay
For me PR started to err when the decision was made to concentrate on two new gameplay aspects that were imo never well implemented:
- Logistics and above squad-level teamplay
- Huge maps with randomized objectives
Now I haven't played PR in quite a while, but when I last did, the most popular non-insurgency maps were Muttrah City, the big desert map with the bunkers in the middle and the one with the dam.
None of these maps include any randomization of objectives (might have changed since then) and two of them are actually pretty limited in scale. While the odd sniper was always sitting in the mountains over muttrah, most of the map is water and the rest is concentrated around a pretty limited city part, where all the objectives are. The dam map also revolves around a series of bottlenecks due to the rough terrain.
In my opinion the logistics and sandbox elements in PR are a dead end. You basically expect the players to make up their own game and define their own objecives and goals, but without effective central control that is just not possible. A solution could be giving the commander more power, but that would only end in butt-hurt 80% of the time because random public players randomly put in a position of power ends up, you guessed it, random.
So in conclusion: Get rid of the logistics stuff, scale down playable area considerably for the benefit of clearly defined objectives. I don't know how they do stuff in the armies today, but I know that in WW2 a platoon had a frontage of about 400m in defense. Since in BF2 a team has the size of a reinforced platoon at most, I don't see why you need 4km maps. I'm sure a competent scenario designer could easily create 5 or more layers with missions or whatever you want to call them on this map, meaning lots of variety.
PR should not be about "where to attack", but "how to attack". Where do you put the mg to suprress, which avenue of approach do you use to get to the objectives, where does the grenadier deploy his smoke. I'm sure there will be a hundred people under here telling me how much they enjoy playing transport or firebase builder the whole round, but if you look at the state of gameplay at the moment, is that really something most players like to do?

[Wicca]

PR is awesome <3

[Dev1200]

PR Dev's need to do a big recruitment drive to get a fresh team of developers on board to help add in and fix things.

[Pronck]

PR Dev's need to do a big recruitment drive to get a fresh team of developers on board to help add in and fix things.

I would recommend to recruit map updaters, people who update the old but good maps such as Fallujah, Muttrah , Karbala, Kashan, Jabal and other maps so they can be played better. So they make sure there is more cover, and more of a defenseable objective instead of some wide open streets with 5 carbage cans or a hill that looks like a part of the moon.

[SGT.Ice]

I would recommend to recruit map updaters, people who update the old but good maps such as Fallujah, Muttrah , Karbala, Kashan, Jabal and other maps so they can be played better. So they make sure there is more cover, and more of a defenseable objective instead of some wide open streets with 5 carbage cans or a hill that looks like a part of the moon.

Made me laugh on the inside.

The problem is that PR's gameplay experience was never caused by any design, but what I would call "community discipline". The PR community decided on a certain set of rules and behaviour guidelines and as long as a majority of players followed those, the experience was intact. But now that this central control seems to be gone to a certain degree, cracks in PR's gameplay philosophy are starting to show.
Imo what this mod needs is a paradigm shift, away from community discipline and towads more focused gameplay. For me, PR was always about 2 things:
- Drawn out long range combat
- Squadplay
For me PR started to err when the decision was made to concentrate on two new gameplay aspects that were imo never well implemented:
- Logistics and above squad-level teamplay
- Huge maps with randomized objectives
Now I haven't played PR in quite a while, but when I last did, the most popular non-insurgency maps were Muttrah City, the big desert map with the bunkers in the middle and the one with the dam.
None of these maps include any randomization of objectives (might have changed since then) and two of them are actually pretty limited in scale. While the odd sniper was always sitting in the mountains over muttrah, most of the map is water and the rest is concentrated around a pretty limited city part, where all the objectives are. The dam map also revolves around a series of bottlenecks due to the rough terrain.
In my opinion the logistics and sandbox elements in PR are a dead end. You basically expect the players to make up their own game and define their own objecives and goals, but without effective central control that is just not possible. A solution could be giving the commander more power, but that would only end in butt-hurt 80% of the time because random public players randomly put in a position of power ends up, you guessed it, random.
So in conclusion: Get rid of the logistics stuff, scale down playable area considerably for the benefit of clearly defined objectives. I don't know how they do stuff in the armies today, but I know that in WW2 a platoon had a frontage of about 400m in defense. Since in BF2 a team has the size of a reinforced platoon at most, I don't see why you need 4km maps. I'm sure a competent scenario designer could easily create 5 or more layers with missions or whatever you want to call them on this map, meaning lots of variety.
PR should not be about "where to attack", but "how to attack". Where do you put the mg to suprress, which avenue of approach do you use to get to the objectives, where does the grenadier deploy his smoke. I'm sure there will be a hundred people under here telling me how much they enjoy playing transport or firebase builder the whole round, but if you look at the state of gameplay at the moment, is that really something most players like to do?

That is a suggestion outside the suggestion thread.

The overall gameplay as a whole is fine, the maps & such aren't as much of a problem as the team is. If we changed everything that makes PR fun it would cease to be PR. I don't want small maps where I can walk from one end to the other in 1 minute like any vanilla game. I like options, options give me the ability to adapt/improvise. The game is overall designed around large scale combat & improvements are being made to make each of the maps not so ghost towny.

Any game, whether it be about building blocks or conquering an alien world is only as good as it's community. The community is the life blood of any man made entity. Which is why the community itself needs to fix itself or drown.