Vanilla over Mods

[Melugo]

To start I want to say that I know this is kinda more to do with mods than 'nilla but I wanted you guys opinion on it, I get to talk to enough mod-players every day so I hope no admins object.

I'm a modder for Point of Existence 2 and I've been depressed to notice that recently the number of people playing all the BF2 mods has decreased significantly. It's still pretty high but a lot of our players have moved on to 2142 and most of the people left playing BF2 seem to be playing vanilla. This was never the case for the earlier battlefield games, almost everyone still playing them plays mods.

I'm simply interested, is there a reason that you still play vanilla rather than a mod? It's a sort of opinion poll I guess, I'm trying to improve our mod and give advice to other modders and I realised I don't know what the community thinks :P any light you guys could shed on the matter for me would be great, cheers,
Melugo

[DOGGiE52]

Re: Vanilla over Mods

IMO it's all about the stats and the points. People tend to get very pleased when they achieve high scores in a round and they know it will add to their stats...

[Chris_Redfield]

Re: Vanilla over Mods

Let me first start up with saying that POE2 is the absolute best MP game Ive ever played, next to SWAT4. I really do enjoy that mod and I can see that a lot of the work has been done to make players to combine resources to create a well working force. POE2 is miles ahead of BF2 and certainly BF2142.

As for why. The reasons are simple. POE2 is a mod, not a new standalone game. Its great, its good, but people will always pick XgameX3 over XgameX2mod if you know what I mean.
Secondly, most games do not create a sense of history. BF2 stats system is like excess luggage that keeps you in one place and wont let you go.
Thirdly, a lot of BF2 players have developed friends and connections who stick to BF2, making those players to move to a new game or a new mod, a tough decision.
Lastly, POE2, although amazing, did not provide a different enough gaming environment to be a true "next step", which is why a game like BF2142 will be considered a mod by a lot of others.

[Melugo]

Re: Vanilla over Mods

I love ya Doggie :P www.PoEStats.com you just made me feel the last 8 months work were all worthwhile lol,
Melugo

Edit: Cheers Chris, a lot of what you say makes a lot of sense, I'm more interested in the people who still play BF2 though, I've come to the realisation that anyone who's moved on to BF2142 is a lost cause :P your last point means a lot to us though :S

[Chris_Redfield]

Re: Vanilla over Mods

On the topic of STATS. As sad and fvcked up as it may sound, if you would have created a stats system similar to BF2, and allow stats transition option, youd have a lot of people staying on POE2. The sad and bad kind of people :P.

[Melugo]

Re: Vanilla over Mods

Hehe, that's my job :P I'm a bad people magnet (ie stats website webmaster and stats tracking code developer) :P btw what do you mean by stats transition?
Melugo

[Chris_Redfield]

Re: Vanilla over Mods

Hehe, that's my job :P I'm a bad people magnet (ie stats website webmaster and stats tracking code developer) :P btw what do you mean by stats transition?
Melugo

Maybe this is from my bad use of the Inglis language.

What I mean is, creating the same stat-unlock-rank-award system for POE2 as for BF2 and let people have an option to use the stats from BF2 to set the starting point for POE2 stats, if you understand what I mean. Remember, I said it was a low and fvcked up thing to do that would make me throw up. :laugh:

[troybob]

Re: Vanilla over Mods

mods just came out too late in the game.

that and EA/DICE do nothing to spread the word. When DC was around - EA put an article on their website.

I love PoE, but DC released every 3 month, and lot of new things were added each release. Trauma worked VERY hard each day to get things done.

I just don't think that many of the mod teams for BF2 are as organized as trauma was for getting things done in a timely manner.

[Mekstizzle]

Re: Vanilla over Mods

I'll be blunt with you. I quit PoE2 because i really hated the maps. They were all the same except the odd no vehicle map. Just throw in a pile of tanks in some random rural location and throw in planes if it's 64 player and done. Not my cup of tea. Plus alot of mods have balance issues, we know that vBF2 is pretty unbalanced at times but in some mods i've played it's been quite bad.

[CATIA]

Re: Vanilla over Mods

IMO it's all about the stats and the points. People tend to get very pleased when they achieve high scores in a round and they know it will add to their stats...

^^What he said + I would like to add the unlocks.
All you have to do is look at the thread titles in these forums, 75%+ is about stats/ranks etc..

[mwillin0000]

Re: Vanilla over Mods

im not a point whore and im not worried about my medals and KD and stuff, but it adds motivation to the game. also, i assume that i am speaking for alot of people when i quote "if it ain't broke, dont fix it". im sure a ton of people would like it if they tried it. as for the people who dont play it anymore...ive noticed a significant drop in vanilla after 1.41 too

[Melugo]

Re: Vanilla over Mods

I guess we're doomed from the start in this environment then :P the mods come out too late and with too few features ^^ anyway, I'm glad there's a positive feeling about the mod, cheers guys,
Melugo

Oh and by the way we have got DC-style stats tracking but none of the new BF2 ingame unlocks and ranks stuff, our die-hard community isn't keen on stats whores :P

[imported_Apostle]

Re: Vanilla over Mods

In my opinion, there is a couple of things.

Firstly, for anyone that doesn't score highly, like me, and you've still got something left to achieve in BF2, then you'll still play. I don't care what anyone says about stat's and awards, it's part of the game and it's fun.

Second, I still enjoy BF2 too much to really play anything else, even any other retail games.

Third, keep the mod' fun! Don't overcomplicate it [Edit: But don't under complicate it, ex. 2142!!]. I find the best mod's are the simple, imaginative ones. If you're making a mod' about modern combat, for a modern combat game, well, it almost defeats the object. The mod' I've enjoyed the most so far is Battleracer, which is a simple idea, but very very fun to play.

[Merciless-]

Re: Vanilla over Mods

I installed PoE2 when it came out, but unistaleld it the enxt day.

Reason: The maps, they all felt very similar, mostly just open fields and farms, no urbans, no high elevated areas.

I'm also a sniper, and whenever I layed down, there was always huge amounts of shrubbery ALL OVER and I couldn't see, and on the maps that you could snipe a little....Bad fog/not much good sniper spots, the maps were litterly just.....small hilsl and farms

[$kelet0r]

Re: Vanilla over Mods

I've fallen in love with Project Reality - the realism and teamwork appeal to me over flashy graphics (POE2) and it is turning into what I had hoped BF2 would be.
Shame more people won't a) download it or b) stick with it and reject the stats and points farce