Growing interest with the physics

[nifrek]

Nice to see the interest growing, a lot of players seem to enjoy the physics lately, quite a few duels are played with it and even a few 2v2. Funny thing is it all happened without me advertising them or anything for a long time. Or maybe people get to try them on the batcaves because I forgot to put regular physics back a few times ;)

We just have to find a new name for the physics as they should not necessarily be called the same as the league, they're just a different set of "rules". I don't want to name them after Rev's mod in case we ever decide to make changes it would get confusing as they'd still be called the same. Also, NA and Euro players are mixing a lot more lately, so I don't know, maybe find a new name for the league entirely? I'd rather still have divisions for NA/Euro because difference in skill is still quite large and the problems that could be caused by pings.

I'm open for suggestions.


For now I'm thinking:

Regular physics: 4v4tdm (clan based), 4v4ctf (clan based)

New physics: duels, 2v2tdm (team based, ie you can have whoever as your teammate, or have more than one team per clan)

I'm also thinking of 2v2ctf on small maps like dusty but I'm unsure about it. From some games I tried it was a lot of fun.

Whenever/if the league ever gets started, it would probably be better to start with duels and 2v2tdm as the number of clans is still too small yet for anything bigger.

Possible duel map pool:
Soylent
Aggressor
Final_rage
Warfare
Runningman 1on1remix

Other maps considered/unsure about:
Toxic (too easy to control?)
Stormkeep (it's great map when you know it well, but might not be exciting enough)
Evilspace (I'd be against it as it's not a very interesting map strategically, but still putting it here in case)
Bloodprison (very unpopular)


Possible 2v2tdm map pool:
Final_rage
Stormkeep
nexdmlc1

Other maps considered/unsure about:
DarkzoneNANL(very unpopular and needs some work done but who knows)


Any opinions?

[alpha]

I like nanl physics because they enable some really beautiful trickjumps. This alone would make me vote for nanl to become default physics :P

GO NANL

[mkzelda]

For those that don't know, NANL is the North American Nexuiz League. Nifrek had a vision of a league that would use settings similar to QuakeWorld or ChallengeProMode. Around the same time, the "Nexrun" (also in need of a new name, but thats up to Revenant and/or Kojn) project took off and required settings similar to CPM to be somewhat compatible with defrag. Nifrek created a set of physics that satisfied this need at the time, and eventually the name got misappropriated to NANL physics. (Does that sound about right nifrek?)

I like the name NANL for the North American League and I do believe we should have separate leagues because there is no decent way to settle cross-continental play.

The physics do need a new name, but I'm fresh out of cool names. mkzelda was my temporary nickname over a decade ago and I gave up trying to change it. I do think we should have a name that is a unique search engine word though. ;)

Also, when the time comes, I'd like to repack all the community maps and add an alias such as nanldm1 nanlctf3, add %location names, correct mapinfos, competition/video texture packs (one minimal for clean play, one aesthetically pleasing for videos) and more. For that reason, I agree with you that we should keep the number small. I do think bal3dm3 would be a good 2v2 if we touch it up. Same goes for doc's deep drill and towers of doom if he revisits them for some gameplay issues and optimizes them.

[nifrek]

Thanks for explaining/pointing this out mkzelda.

[vbraun]

nifrek Wrote:We just have to find a new name for the physics as they should not necessarily be called the same as the league, they're just a different set of "rules". I don't want to name them after Rev's mod in case we ever decide to make changes it would get confusing as they'd still be called the same. Also, NA and Euro players are mixing a lot more lately, so I don't know, maybe find a new name for the league entirely? I'd rather still have divisions for NA/Euro because difference in skill is still quite large and the problems that could be caused by pings.

I'm open for suggestions.

I like the league name, but the name for the physics do need to change. For the name for the physics, why not steal a physics term? The [url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Standard_Model]Standard Model[/url] has a bunch of cool sounding names, including: Quark, Lepton, Fermion, Boson, Muon, Gluon and Neutrino.

nifrek Wrote:I'm also thinking of 2v2ctf on small maps like dusty but I'm unsure about it. From some games I tried it was a lot of fun.

2v2 is too small for ctf, on some maps it would be impossible to stop good flag runners with only one person.

nifrek Wrote:Other maps considered/unsure about:
Toxic (too easy to control?)
Stormkeep (it's great map when you know it well, but might not be exciting enough)
Evilspace (I'd be against it as it's not a very interesting map strategically, but still putting it here in case)
Bloodprison (very unpopular)

Maybe
Maybe*
No
Yes

*I think if Stormkeep is included Aneurysm should be included as they're both about the same size.

nifrek Wrote:Possible 2v2tdm map pool:
Final_rage
Stormkeep
nexdmlc1

Add Aneurysm.

[valeriyk]

Possible duel map pool:
Soylent - I guess :(
Aggressor
Warfare
Runningman 1on1remix
Toxic - I dunno, I think that it can be possible to turn a game around/keep it close, if you can time either weapon pickups or health/armor pickups and steal it
Final_rage - Good map, dunno why it shouldn't be included ;)
Stormkeep - Good map, can think through a game
Aneurysm, Reslimed - Both these seem to be disliked, I dunno, as long as evilspace and bloodprison aren't in it's all good
nexdmlc1

[IR3uL]

Yeah NANL physics model needs definetly a new name, idk which one but i guess i can think a few, and... idk... but maybe you can change the name of the league too, not everyone is NA. I'm from SouthAmerica (Argentina), there's ppl from Brazil, Chile, and some other south american countries, and don't forget about european players, all of us are starting to mix, so i think is unffair to keep NANL as the official name for the league.
This is only my opinion, and i'll like to hear others =D

[nifrek]

Thanks guys, for some reason the thread wasnt highlighted so I didnt check if there was responses.

IR3ul, I understand what you're saying and I agree. I have to rethink about it, but the reason I first wanted to give the league that name was because I didn't want to deal with ping issues. Meaning, matches for the league would have to be played on NA servers as it would get complicated to always have to play a match on one server, than next one on a different server, etc. but nothing stops anyone from playing in the league no matter where they're from.

I do realize now it's not fair, but when I first thought about the league there wasn't that many players outside of NA that I knew about that would be interested in the league. So I'll think about it.

[vbraun]

After playing a bunch of the 1v1 maps with nanl on, I have a few opinions:

Soylent - just too small when you can move that fast, not enough spawn points.
Stormkeep - the increased speed makes it the right size. Very fun.
Bloodprision - the rocket launcher is much too powerful. Could probably edit it to fix that, but remove it until then.

[nifrek]

Nice, thanks for the feedback.

Well, Soylent I never thought about it until you mentioned it yesterday (i think). I'll see what others think about it, but IMHO it's only a matter of us getting adjusted. I have not really noticed much of a difference, the final frag count isn't that different from matches played with regular physics, but of course that depends on who is playing. Players move faster on it so it's like learning the map a second time. I can understand if you came to this conclusion from playing games against less experienced players or watching a good player who is used to the physics playing against someone who isn't, because it does make a huge difference. I'm not sure if people realize how different the game gets, sure it's more fast-paced but it also encourages them to move around more and not just sit in one place, they need to think faster and relearn their timing. Not just item timing, but also how fast someone can get from one point to another and how it affects their prediction, it's hard to adjust. I'm probably the one having played the most duels with the physics so I can easily see how big of an advantage I can have against someone who is new to it. But they can/will adjust, just like you did.

About spawns, I can see it might seem like it's easier to spawn kill, but the person respawning can run away a lot more easily because of how he can control his movement and change direction quickly at any point (unless of course the other player was sitting in front of the spawn point with the nex, but that's the same thing as with regular physics). Or at least that's how it feels for me, it just seems easier to get away and quickly find the right position to be secure and then start thinking about how I'm going to (try) get control back.

Basically what I'm saying is, once players are used to the physics, it's won't be much different other than the game being more fast-paced.

I agree about Bloodprison, it's a bit crazy, we should play it some more to make sure but indeed I think it breaks the map.

And yeah Stormkeep is fantastic, at first I thought it would be annoying, getting stuck everywhere but it actually flows very well.