Vanilla over Mods

[WesleyS]

Re: Vanilla over Mods

My problem with POE2 was the maps, if I wanted ot be killed by armor, aircraft, and artillary I would play Vanilla. I live for good squad oriented gun to gun combat. The only place to find this is Orel, Fallen and 16 player Dnister Valley. The last of which only lasted 3 minutes because of tickets, while a map like Highway to Hell lasted about 60 minutes and got very boring to me at that point. I really like the guns and those few select maps, had there been more urban type of maps, I and many others probably woudl still be playing rather than karkand, mashtuur, Sharqi, and Jalalabad.

Timing, the mod came out right before 1.40 if I am not mistaken, and 1.40 introduced Infantry Only, which grabbed the attention of a ton of BF2 players.

I feel as if I am playing BF2 vanilla when I play POE2. When I play the Reality Mod I feel like I am in a real battle and I cannot die, and I take precautions like I don't want to die. I want a different feel from a mod that I am going to put a ton of time into, and I don't feel that with POE2.

[Radar-C}{G-]

Re: Vanilla over Mods

Its great, its good, but people will always pick XgameX3 over XgameX2mod if you know what I mean.

I disagree with that statement and here is why. With BF1942, although a great game, which had third party stats that could be tracked online through BFtracker (but admittedly lacked an offical ranking and unlock system), was nearly abandoned by the community when the Desert Combat Mod hit the scene. Desert Combat was far superior in game play and fed the gamer's needs to use more advanced weapon systems. The active Desert Combat servers out-numbered the active vanilla BF1942 server in a very short time and continued its leadership hold even after the release of BFV (Battlefield Vietnam). Forgotten Hope should also get a nod for popularity over BF42.

Even the EA released Road to Rome expansion pack gained enough popularity that nVidia hosted servers moved from hosting vanilla BF42 servers to the expansion pack. But at one point was close to outnumbering the vanilla BF42 servers and probably would have had Desert Combat failed to deliver.

This is why I disagree with your statement that vanilla games are always preferred to their Mods.

The main reason I think most people have not flocked to Mods like POE2 is simply because EA doesn't support Mods utilizing their ranking system. War games, like the Battlefield Series have become more like MMORP games. There are individual goals to obtain which allow players to gain virtual ranks, or in MMORP terms to LEVEL UP and get better weapons. Mods for BF2 can't do that because EA says so.

We can argue all day long about why EA won't support Mods using their ranking system, the fact of the matter is that EA won't support it and since a majority expect to be able to take their soldier (character) from a Private to a Five Star General (Ranking/Leveling), the Mods are becoming a dying breed.

Now there is also the "Next Evolution" aspect as well. What made Desert Combat one of the most popular Mods ever? The fact that Trauma Studios took BF42 to an unprecidented level of game play, or brought it to the next evolution of game play. How many times has a DC veteran prayed for an MRLS in BF2 or to be able to come in with an A10 and rain a DC version of death and destruction in BF2?

For any BF2 mod to be successful it has to be able to be ranked and bring the BF2 game to the next evolution and since the first, EA's lack of Mod ranking, will not change Mods will continue to interest the average BF2 gamers, but alas they will fall back to the I want my ranking/unlock reasons for not playing the Mods. And those that don't care about the ranks are left with empty Mod servers because a huge majority of the community does care about the ranking system and won't join the Mod servers.

That's my few cents...

[imported_Apostle]

Re: Vanilla over Mods

Ah, Desert Combat. Those were the days. I played that exclusively for months, even after Vietnam came out. Such a great mod', totally disappointed when they announced no more versions after .7, but hey ho, EA gave them all jobs (then sacked them later).

Thing was, DC was entirely different from 1942. People enjoyed the step forward, from WW2 planes, to Harriers and Mig's. That's why I think the only successful mod' for BF2 will be the reverse, a WW2 mod' on a modern combat game. For example, Forgotten Hope or Battlegroup 42. PoE 2 took a sidestep, more of the same, yet slightly different. I did enjoy PoE much more on Vietnam, because it was, again, a step forward.