Joint Operations - What do you think killed it?

[crossmr]

I don't know how many people played this, but I was thinking about it the other day. Whenever I think about FPS, I think about this game and wonder what caused it to fail. It was arguably one of the best FPS available at the time and still has features that other games have yet to match.

One of the most basic things this game had that no one else has done is 150 player servers. I played on some when the game was in its prime and they were great. No major issues or any game killing problems. I always wonder why people get excited when a game announces a 64 player server these days..

It also had an abundance of vehicles. They had some popular island maps that had all kinds of things on it. Tanks, armored cars, jeeps, bikes, etc. Attack choppers, giant ferries for moving those tanks and armored cars from island to island, giant helicopters for also doing this, they had small attack boats and even rubber rafts that a loan sniper could grab and head out on. One of those most interesting things was seeing a giant heli take off with a couple gunners a tank and a jeep with a machine gun in it in the back. Landing and having 10 players disembark on those vehicles and attack the enemy. This was a game that rewarded genuine teamwork and it was hard to survive without it. You weren't getting that tank to the next island all by yourself.

Snipers had a purpose in this game..this wasn't some 10 foot shooter with snipers bunny-hoping around. You could set up as a long distance sniper as a sniper should.

I remember at the time everyone was going to other games and I could just never understand it. Anyone else have fond memories of this game and wish they'd do a #2?

[TheEn|gma]

Re: Joint Operations - What do you think killed it?

Joint Ops was a fantastic game, it really was. One of my favourite FPS games of all time and like yourself anytime I cast my mind back to think about great times spent in front of the PC this game is always amongst those memories.

I think it's apeal was of such variety in the gameplay and the almost limitless ways of playing each round.

I suspect it's downfall was down to a few seperate things. Firstly poor marketing at least here in europe meant that the userbase never really expanded that much post release, most of the players were people who had played DF: Black Hawk Down online and moved onto Novalogic's next creation.

The above kind of ties in with my next point that BF2 with better pre-release hype and marketing stole a lot of the userbase from Joint Ops and these are people that simply never returned to JO.

Also for me I can't go back to Joint Ops for the hackers, it's a serious problem. I don't recal getting so blatantly hacked against when I played it religiously but I went back a few times to JO/JOE and to be honest it ruins the memory of the game for me.

Novalogic are working on Delta Force: Angel Falls, who knows how that will turn out perhaps this will be Joint Ops 2 die hard fans like myself (and you by the sounds of things) have been waiting for all these years.

[crossmr]

Re: Joint Operations - What do you think killed it?

I really wonder what the current limitation is on server numbers. If 5 years ago Novalogic could do 150 player server..why can't anyone do that now?
We should be having massive battles..
instead we get these games released with 32 player servers, and its like the second coming anytime someone announces 64.

[Wolff818]

Re: Joint Operations - What do you think killed it?

My son and I played it for several years and then uninstalled it for COD, etc. The other day we both reinstalled it (there are a lot of people still playing it with the IC mod). The game just came out again 3 weeks ago with both the game and expansion on the same disc. For some reason, however, neither he nor I can host. Keep getting the same 3234 error code from NovaWorld.

[[RC]1|Pte.Colber]

Re: Joint Operations - What do you think killed it?

Well it may be dead as an overall public game since nova cut down the amount of servers available and alot of people want to go play with the better graphics and newer vehcles.

But as you can see this is an ingame shot from 8/23/09 with 159 players battling an AAS style map for an hour in our 9 hour battledays at
www.Internationalconflict.com We run the units with muti-language speaking from English, russian, Czech,French, and German. We have 2 organized armies with a chain of command and the UN members who are admins and police of the ingame and out of game actions.
Virtually hack free environment the armies police their own because noone wants to think they werent just better organized than their opposition. The recent update from Novaworld removed the kill cam so snipers have a purpose again as well as special operations teams.

So if you still have it dust it off and reinstall and come join the fun. we have been averaging 150+ players for at least 5 hours of the 9 hours 3 weeks in a row.

[[SA]4|Pvt.PcSniper]

Re: Joint Operations - What do you think killed it?

Even with the public numbers startin to fall the tournament is steal goin strong. Ive been in the tournament for about 2 years and its stronger then ever. So if you have the game give it a try and stop by : www.Internationalconflict.com

[[Retired]Moshe]

Re: Joint Operations - What do you think killed it?

I'm not really sure I understand. Joint Operations is not dead. I can still go on anytime but late EST (1am+) and find a server that has as many or more than the limited amount of all the current games. Hacking is a problem in any game, not so specifically Joint Operations. The hacking we see in JO is tolerable, meaning the significant advantage most hackers get in other games doesn't seem to exist in our lovely five year old game. Depending on the map, the game is very objective oriented, and most of the time these objectives are impossible to overcome without cooperation - an attribute most if not all hackers do not poses.

Then you have our tournament which I have been spending my Sundays on for four years. For nine hours we play Joint Operations with a consistent amount of players that reaches above 150. In no other FPS game have I been able to speak with players from literally across the globe. I have played Joint Operations and have gotten to know players from Canada, Mexico, Aruba, Ireland, United Kingdom, Netherlands, Finland, France, Spain, Portugal, Italy, Israel, Belgium, Malta, Denmark, Russia, Australia, Czech Republic, New Zealand, and Japan.

I have gone to every game that came out after it, and I found myself every time back.

[[SA]3|CNE.Timhawk]

Re: Joint Operations - What do you think killed it?

JO's not dead :)
If you don't believe us, come and join us next sunday. It's going to be a "funday". We'll use it to stress test some maps but also to allow new players to try the tournament.

[[UN]TA|Big Rog]

Re: Joint Operations - What do you think killed it?

We are having a fun day this week
(sunday 06-09-09 10h00 to 19h00 est.)
if you have the game it's your chance to come and have a test run ....come to our TS before sunday and ask if you can join the fun as a guest on either army...
even better ...just join an army:thumbsup:
if you don't have the game...it's just too bad...
you might want to start shopping for it

[Beav=OTF=]

Re: Joint Operations - What do you think killed it?

JO is definitely not dead, we in the IC tournament are seeing more and more people join up lately to be a part of the largest JO community in the world. We have 250 man servers and we are seeing our numbers on battleday reach as high as 159. The numbers are actually growing as veterans that left when COD first came out are returning because they miss the large scale battles and the comradeship that they find in the tournament.

So the end all of it is that its not dead. Find your disk and join us for some very intense battles!

[[SA]3|1Lt.SloWWalk]

Re: Joint Operations - What do you think killed it?

Its an old game but not dead indeed. The game just got a new update with some adjustments. You can play it on higher resolutions, no killcam. Im not surprised if they will launch new updates in the future.

So if you ask me i think JO is going better they also made a new feature against cheaters and the last months they are cleaning the servers. There are not really a lot of cheaters anymore especially not in the IC tournament.

For everyone who still has it i would say install JO again and have a look, offcourse also look at the IC tournament. This is played on the IC mod and this looks good and plays also very good in high numbers, we are still waiting to reach 200 in the 250 player server.

[[UN]TC|X]

Re: Joint Operations - What do you think killed it?

Well I can certainly understand where crossmr is coming from. In it's original days the game was segmented into three zones of play (US, Europe and Asia/Africa) which was probably a very bad idea seeing how little marketing Novalogic is known to do. They have finally ended that folly 5 years later by melding all of the servers into one.

As far as it being dead... well I think there are plenty of people who would beg to differ. There is without a doubt more action to be had in JO than in any of the early versions of the "core" FPS titles. You will not have a problem finding a game in JO like you would in CoD2. Let us not forget either games like Unreal Tournament... that is what you can call dead.

Why is JO not popular? That is actually a very easy answer; FPS gamers by majority are game hoppers. They are spoon-fed rehashed platforms yearly and follow the marketing buzz between them. The new CoD is timed to fill the gap between the NEXT new Battlefield... flip and repeat. And there is nothing truly innovative to be found in any of them. You will be given two or three new bells and whistles sure but that will be it. Novalogic games were never made in that market and thus their games are populated by a different following.

Other factors exist of course. One of the most important being the numbers. The numbers are JO's greatest strength and it's main weakness. When you have 100 players it is the most interesting gaming experience you have ever seen. Without those numbers the game feels far too big. Maps must be made in two forms because of it, large and small. A large map made for 100+ people simply is too boring with only 30 people while a 30 player map with 100 people just turns into chaos. Because of this the game requires an organization that cannot be easily garnered in a public setting.

So what keeps the game alive, 5 years later? Us. The dedicated, die hard players who know that fancy flash and shiny objects do not make a game great... players do.

So crossmr, if you still have the game come by and see us. I promise you that you will have that feeling again. That invitation goes out to anyone. This Sunday we will be allowing players to join in on our game simply by coming to our teamspeak and checking in with the UN Embassy. Any TGN member only has to go to the International Conflict tournament forum and join through Gteamspeak. We hope to see you there.

[UN]TC|X
IC Tournament Chairman

[[TS]5|Rec.TmAn]

Re: Joint Operations - What do you think killed it?

In my opinion JO is not dead, it is still one of the best FPS games released to date. Long live JO!

[Hendrix]

Re: Joint Operations - What do you think killed it?

Jo is everything modern games should be. Large scale, vehicles and teamwork (well, somesime). If DF:AF has amazing graphics and similar gameplay to JO it will probably be the best FPS ever made.

Sadly, JO is dying if not dead, there are few who actually play it as before, the only place you can get a decent round is in IC.

[{CA}2|Sfc.Slam]

Re: Joint Operations - What do you think killed it?

This game is absolutely alive. Sometimes I wonder if Nova wishes it weren't, but that's how it goes. Rumor has it that Angel falls would be on the Unreal Tournament game engine. If that were true then the possibility of the current version being improved is a great one. Right now I can find no other FPS that moves as fast, or allows as much freedom on maps that this one does. Graphics are not everything. Unless you have the playability, ballistics, freedom to roam where ever on each map, then you are cheating the public out of a choice FPS. COD4 has a great look to it, but it plays too slow and doesn't have nearly the freedom to roam that JO does. BF2, again, looks great but is too slow and the ballistics suck compared to JO. Not too mention we can play well over 100 people in a server. It was only until recently that the IC tournament dropped down from a 250 man server to 200 man server. There was a time we thought we might be getting those kind of numbers, but then Crysis and COD4, and a few other games came out with the new graphics technology and most FPS players went to check out those games leaving JO behind. Time to come back folks and join an army at International Conflict. Let's see how many players this game can really handle. The game is selling for around 7-20 dollars US. If you look real hard you can probably get both JO:Typhoon Rising and JO:Escalation for about $10 US, in the Combined Arms pack. Then download and install the IC mod and you are ready for some serious battles. Any questions, come to International Conflict.com, register with our forums, get on our TeamSpeak and we can help you get set up. Make no mistake people, Joint Operations is the ONLY full scale multi player fps game out there that can service 160 players or more at any one time. Don't believe me, come and see us. Hope to see you out there.