Do people still play this mod?

[ZombieHunterCriss]

i been wonder for some time now i seen a few server still run "Master Sword Continued" and all of them have no other players playing on them beside the one i tend to play on.

 

[Monika's_BFFEx0256]

Yeah people still play from time to time, although it's not often. Usually it's during EU hours, but if you play enough you're bound to see a person or two on the [FN] dedicated servers

 

[ZombieHunterCriss]

Well if the EU server tend to get people ill have to find a way to lvl up fast and get good stuff to use as I'm on the west cost servers mainly and im blow lvl 20 right now.

 

[Wishbone]

I play usually play whenever I can, but I usually go on server with people that are running the higher tier maps so I can help them. I'll remember to hop on if I see you on though.

 

[ZombieHunterCriss]

Ok the Spiders are a pain the spitting spiders find me every time even if im not in view of them

 

[Truewarrior]

Yeah, the game is terrible when alone or only with a few players, I join servers only where theres alot of people playing. Keeping up ice shield and having to heal every few hits with too many misses isn't fun when enemies only have you to target. if you want to try the schedule something i'm sure more players will show up

 

[Monika's_BFFEx0256]

It doesn't help, either, that the more players there are on the server the more laggy it gets :?

 

[Wormz]

I justed started to play again since 2013. I played the original Master Sword back in 2004 and it was fun. I like to play the old games I liked back in day, time to time.

 

[zeus9860]

It doesn't help, either, that the more players there are on the server the more laggy it gets :?

^This.

Game is unplayable most of the time with more than 3-4 players on any server, and if you somehow manage to play with that many people you are most likely playing with 2-5 times the lag. Which is why i think it's time to move on and focus on a new engine or something, i originally wanted to see ms:c stay in goldsource engine untill the very end of its lore, the way things are looking, i don't think it is worth it. Unless the lag can be fixed, which i doubt it can be dealt with at this point... Another option would be to rig the game for single player and local MP, not sure if this is a great idea with the game in its current stage (it would be good if it was on steam 'cause more people would play it).

Anyways it's not up to me to decide on that, just voicing my opinion on what should be focused. It just seems pointless to keep pushing the mod further and further down the road when there are issues that make it unplayable or simply frustrating to play as a group. I'm pretty sure nobody likes playing with lag, it also increases the amount of disconnection issues caused when playing (crashing servers and overflowing are a few examples in MSC).

 

[TheOysterHippopotami]

It doesn't help, either, that the more players there are on the server the more laggy it gets :?

^This.

Game is unplayable most of the time with more than 3-4 players on any server, and if you somehow manage to play with that many people you are most likely playing with 2-5 times the lag. Which is why i think it's time to move on and focus on a new engine or something, i originally wanted to see ms:c stay in goldsource engine untill the very end of its lore, the way things are looking, i don't think it is worth it. Unless the lag can be fixed, which i doubt it can be dealt with at this point... Another option would be to rig the game for single player and local MP, not sure if this is a great idea with the game in its current stage (it would be good if it was on steam 'cause more people would play it).

Anyways it's not up to me to decide on that, just voicing my opinion on what should be focused. It just seems pointless to keep pushing the mod further and further down the road when there are issues that make it unplayable or simply frustrating to play as a group. I'm pretty sure nobody likes playing with lag, it also increases the amount of disconnection issues caused when playing (crashing servers and overflowing are a few examples in MSC).

I think the best way to fix this is to start implementing little quests that can be done solo.

 

[zeus9860]

That's not really fixing the situation though, it's more like avoiding it, which is something this mod keeps pulling out of its ass regularly. Also, it could work but what is the point of playing solo if game is rigged to play with people. I would prefer seeing that as a last case scenario.

What i'm about to say might sound harsh to some but it's the reality of things, if the mod went SP style, it would serve no purpose to alot of players, there are better games of this kind out there (despite this being a free mod), not to mention that SP games can be easily pirated and played. Loosing the MP focus on this mod wouldn't be a good thing, it's probably the only way to keep it alive long term. I would likely play it once for the lore and arquive the game, this is what i do with alot of SP games that are lacking replayability or don't support modding.

Imagine what MS could achieve if it was on steam store and had a workshop function where players could upload their content for others to try out. There are a few games that i've played in the past that have done this and decided to patch their old games with community created content (similiar to what we do now, on a lesser scale). There is even this one case where the devs grabbed some people from the community and made them "responsible" for community content in one of their old games.

Just imagine the possibilities if MS managed to get there... It's like what we have right now within these forums except on a larger scale, i would assume that patches would come out more often aswell with the input of more people helping the mod.

 

[ZombieHunterCriss]

So from all of you are saying this game is not made to play alone and the first area the level 5-10 to me the area is not really scaled to them levels and the i was told the i wont be able fight the boss in there alone as that tells me the spider boss is 3x higher level then that area its in a true RPG scales monsters to the area level not where its 1-10 area and throw in a level 50 monster in it that will ruin a game.

 

[zeus9860]

Thats not the problem (the levels). There are quite a bunch of maps that use enemies within a certain level range and then boom, the boss fight is scaled into a higher tier fight (usually 5 levels higher than the recommended level). There are alot of scenarios in this mod that require a little bit of strategy when playing alone or playing new maps, like targetting certain enemies first, doing hit and run tactics or use high damage skills along with magic dots (cold dot slows down enemies, lightning dot slows down enemies a little and reduces their hit chance, fire has no special effect with dot other than damage, poison i believe is the samething as fire except the dot is longer and does less damage per tick).

You can play this mod alone as much as you want up untill you hit the level 45 cap (current cap), the difference in playing alone is that loot will be bad overall, rare drops will be less vs playing in a group, xp rates will also be less, there are quite some maps that use total hp scaling which increases difficulty of the map by adding new enemy spawns or more spawns, or stronger versions of the same enemy you usually face alone. If you manage to find people playing maps that u can assist somehow, try joining them. If you just started playing, it would be best if u focused on training most of your skills up to 20, including spellcasting. If you get some of the tier 15-20 weapons and spells (these are easier to come by), you can assist players with cold/lightning spells, you could ice shield higher level players and heal them too. Or if you feel like you can take on the enemies, grab a weapon and join the fight head on.

Here's some advice, try not to rush the first 20/25 levels, you would be better off training your skills running through all the low-med tier maps (exploring content) while enjoying it. If you can bring a friend or two that are within your level range, do so, it will make the exploring part actually better while improving xp gains and increasing loot to some extent. Once you reach high tier maps (30+), things will change, it's like you go from exploring maps into raiding maps literally. You can still explore these maps on your first few runs, but once u manage these maps with ease, all you will be doing is raiding them in groups to get loot and xp. This of course seems kinda fast paced when compared to what the early game looks like. Again, these maps are best played with a group of friends aswell, that have never done the map before, its like exploring new areas that are deadly to the player. If you go in with a group of old players that know every single spawn in the map, they will clear the way for you without proving much of a challenge towards you, this of course would be boring. Right?

I do believe there was a post made by Thothie after some discussion about maps scaling and whatnot, which he ended up posting a list of all maps scaled in difficulty by using colours to identify the difficulty of the map. I got no clue where that post is, if someone knows where it is, perhaps post it here? It could be used for reference on what maps these new players should be exploring at their level range.

EDIT: Found it: viewtopic.php?f=34&t=9592#p146017

List seems updated too.

 

[Thothie]

That same list is available in game...

• Typing listmaps in console will now generate a list of maps recommended for your current level.
- You can use listmaps <low|medium|hard|vhard|epic|all> to list more maps.

...sans the color coding.

 

[Everquest]

I have not played this for years, at least since the early 2000s. Last time I played there was only one race and one player model to choose- male, although I think you could pick a female gender for story play, but you were one ugly female...

But I only just recently got back into online gaming and purchased HL2 again, this time digitally. However I am not quite ready to rebuy HL1 yet. Does anyone know if you can use the cd key from Opposing Force or Blue Shift, etc.? And would that alone allow access to all mods or do I need the original HL1 key and game which I have, but the key is long used up and lost when Steam first came out.

Once I do get back into it I will definately play this game again. However, at least back in the day, I almost always preferred to play by my self. I never had to worry about sharing any loot or experience, did not have a reason to blame anyone for my death (as in someone swinging their sword repeatedly at a wall or the ground instead of the orcs we were fighting just because they wanted to...) Or worrying about them blocking my entrance to a crawl space. Best of all I could kill as many pigs or bears I wanted with out worrying about being forced out the map because others wanted to go else where. I never had any friends interested in this particular mod so all were strangers and some just annoying. Plus there is something to be said for the lone ranger in the hills or forest.

Also it would be great if it could be a stand alone game or coupled with Sven Co-op. However it should NEVER be considered Sven Co-op. Having it in Steam or SC would have it more in the spot light and more people are sure to try it. But if there are not new dedicated severs to keep up with the influx, those that are already up will be over crowded and people may not even be able to get into their favorite ones. Also I am sure the devs would not want just anybody making content for the game. When I was playing there were cheat maps where you could gain gold easily and either uber gear or use the gold they won easily to buy the gear. Plus their cheat gear and stats would roll over to any other map I assume unless there is a way to block it so it would ruin it for others.

Now imgaine that 100 times worse. It would absolutely destroy the game. In SC it works because each map (Unless the mapper chose to link them in a series like They Hunger, etc.) is completely seperate from the others and there is no stats to worry about and if there are on rare ocassions it last only during that map or server. It does not matter that they made the crowbar deal 100 point damage, because out side that one map, every other map uses the normal low damage dealing one. You can put ridiculous banners in one, some actually quite offensive and inappropriate, while others wont do that. It all needs to fit the theme and hopefully tell the story of Sc.

The devs or those they entrust should make the last and best decision on what can and can not be allowed in the game, most likely being put to a vote. However in saying that, I also hope the devs would appreciate well made maps, extra textures and objects, models and weapons and gear that do not destroy the game. But it is a delicate balance and one I am sure they do not take lightly.

 

[Monika's_BFFEx0256]

Don't make a dwarf char.

Should -really- have had a patch removing dwarves and fixing beargods by now. :?

 

[Everquest]

Don't make a dwarf char.

Should -really- have had a patch removing dwarves and fixing beargods by now. :?

What's wrong with the wee people? 8)

 

[Thothie]

They need... Work. (Although the voice acting is pretty good.)

I shoulda patched that up right away, but somehow I managed to break compatibility with the previous patch within a week or two.

If ya did make one, be sure to delete it before the next patch, or it may prevent your game from loading afterwards.

 

[Everquest]

Dwraves have always been one of my favorite characters in fantasy games. They are real "nut-crackers" to the tallies... But I almost always start human until I can get accustomed to the game. However are these dwarven women "hairy"...

Well I am downloading MSC as we speak, although I will have to play it off of Sven Co-op as another thread mentioned it was possible. I have unregistered copies of Blue Shift and Opposing Force complete with cd keys, (As I recall the cd keys were separate for each, but not sure if I need the original HL to be able to download all the mods.) but my original HL key is long lost to Steam when it first came out.

 

[Thothie]

I think both Blueshift and OP will let you run Half-Life mods. You might be missing some media files, in which case, copy the contents of "Steam\steamapps\common\Sven Co-op\svencoop" to "Steam\steamapps\common\Half-Life\Valve", should let you play online. (Probably, hopefully.)

 

[Everquest]

We shall see, but hopefully. Or as I said in the other thread, I shall try my physical HL1 game again just to see what happens. I remember letting someone use my key before and it would not allow us both in it at the same time to play Counter Strike and the other person bought their own copy, but that may of been before Steam. Since only I have this key and obviously wont be on Steam with two systems at once, maybe it would work again...