Will FP kill the game?

[ruminator]

I mentioned this in an earlier post. For say Captain and above the majority of players are wise enough to use the Fan Patch, this becomes less and less the case at lower levels.

At Master Sergeant level (I know, it 's my own fault for being so crap you could say!) it is almost impossible to find other players on FP thro QS. If you check the games list as well most nights it's full of CRC mismatches. While I enjoy the occassional frag fest of clan matches, I've been brought up on rated 1v1s and that's what I enjoy the most ...

While the FP has certainly balanced the game more (and 1.1 will probably be even better), it does appear to have split a shrinking population. I do think the patch needs to be official to solve this problem. Am I the only one who thinks this way?

Don't get me wrong, the work done on the Fan Patch is great, I just think it needs to be pushed by ESO as "official" to ensure that everyone uses it.

[Soccerman771]

I don't think it will "kill" the game. I mean, I could see myself still playing this game in 10-20 years.

I completely agree that the patch should become official.

[Sun_Tzu1]

This concerns me too. The FP may be the better game, but being able to find a game is more important.

To be honest, I'm a bit torn between clan and ESO. If this clan wasn't so dedicated to the FP I too would go back to the old patch - simply because it's easier to find a match.

Infact, what I've started doing is, if I go into QS and no games come up after a minute or so, I'm logging out, changing patches, going back in and getting a game.

This whole thing reminds me of the VHS Betamax format war. Where Betamax was the better format but VHS won because of popularity, etc.

I think we need to be realistic here. What's the future of the FP? Unless it takes off, I could well fragment the community and therefore not be a good thing. IMO, ESO needs to make the FP an automatic download.

[Aaryn_GenD]

i don't think it wil fragment the community, amount of people wil lstay the same, you just have to switch in order to get games soemtimes.

when i host a game on fp, i see ms and 2nd lietus to 1st lieuts who join it, it doesn't take too much time either.

you'll of course find people who join your game faster on ES 1.01a, but they will leave it as fast again, because of the civs taken etc.

and i think that QS is better for higherranked people, since the competition to gain a higher rank is higher there

the FP won't become compulsory, so just keep switching guys

[cleeduz]

While I agree with the idea and practice of using the FP, it just isn't viable for me to use it on a regular basis. The only time I use it is to play a clan game.

I have tried hosting games with the FP, but no one at my level ever joins, the only players that join are Lieuts++ (I'd stand a better chance of winning against an unpatched Japan player at my level, tbh)


I know that it has been said many times that ESO can't adopt the FP and make it mandatory, per Microsoft, so I know that isn't an option.

The FP will not make me quit the game by any means, it just makes my overall ESO experience a little less convenient. But, if it helps to keep more skilled players in the game and the game active, then so be it.

My $.02

[huGGy]

I think Rumi is right. I don't have that much problems to find a game tho, but i can understand the problem. I see all those CRC - Missmatches for lower ranks, too. With the next Fan Patch the Problem will get bigger, because not everybody who downloaded the Patch will download the other. I think ESO should offer it. Or at least the community has to find a way to link the Fanpatch to the auto update site from ESO.

[Sporting_Lisbon]

You have to use the patch loader to switch to ES 1.01a when you can't find a game. This game would die much faster if there was no fan patch, that's for sure :\

[I__CHAOS__I]

at asian nighttimes, 95% of the games are CRC mismatches, even major and higher ranked players. They need to advertise it better, but those who made the patch are those who have no problems finding games, so they care less i guess.

[hallchr]

I know for a fact that some people like Meast have come back for the FP. It's keeping the game alive longer, even though I don't know why it's dying in the first place.

[deadhanddan]

[quote=""hallchr""]I know for a fact that some people like Meast have come back for the FP. It's keeping the game alive longer, even though I don't know why it's dying in the first place.[/quote] many people grew fed up with glaring imbalances, same time last year indian 10-10/ottoman uber jan rush was hellish to counter, japan at 8 minutes was for all purposes unstoppable, native civs just a pain in the *** to play against (bowriders-bb rushes-wisewoman/messanger age up) , fanpatches are of course fixing these imbalances, but this will be long time before any of it will be enacted , so i'd expect more people to leave this game (those that don't visit sites such as N30 or agesanc) before the next patch(s) are released

[ruminator]

[quote=""Sun_Tzu1""]

Infact, what I've started doing is, if I go into QS and no games come up after a minute or so, I'm logging out, changing patches, going back in and getting a game.

quote]

So, I'm not the only one who's been trying this then ...

[wicked_assassin]

i use the fan patch only for clan games.

[Kaiser_von_Nuben]

I can understand that it is difficult to get non-clan games with the patch. My browser always shows about 75% or more "CRC Mismatch" when I look through it. Fortunately for me, I never play outside the clan anymore, so it's really a non-issue in my case. Still, I don't think the patch will kill the game; after all, it is very easy to simply go out and switch between patches. It's a good thing they made that "switcher" program. Without it, patch "community divisions" would be a bigger problem.

It would be nice if ESO adopted the patch to some extent. Nonetheless, with ES closing shop, I don't know how this will happen. Maybe some employees could come out and say: "We're out of business, but you would continue our legacy if you used the Age Sanc Patch!" Just an idea. They are supposed to care about game balance, and 1.01a TAD is not a balanced package; it is more like a "work in progress," and no artist (or game designer) should be satisfied with that. To fix this game, Spain, TWC civs and the Germans need some tinkering. I welcome German changes; it will allow me to be the only one using them in most games, just like 2007 ::/

[Aaryn_GenD]

everybody talks about the patch dividng community etc., but the dying comunity comes into my mind for obvious other reasons too..

this game is more than 3 years old now, taht's quite a time, last year, TAD is new, but now there is nothing new and there will nothing be , just a more balanced gameplay(i don't say there should be more, 2 expansion packs is great i think, anymore are truly exaggerated)

[DrWho42]

I like the FP and would like to use it more often. However, at the time of night that I play, 11pm in California, there are typically less than 800 players on ESO. Of these, only a few top PR players are using the FP, and they won't play with a lowly MS like me . If I want to play a game, I really have no choice but to use the ESO version.

Balance is of vital importance to the longevity of a game. Any given hour of the day you can find several thousand gamers playing Starcraft- which is over 10 years old! Why is it still so popular? Because it is a fast, fun and well balanced game.

Now I find AOE3 to be a much more entertaining game than SC. I really enjoy the variety of units and strategies that AOE3 offers. However, that variety also makes it more difficult to easily create game/civ balance. Continued patches are the only way to deal with balance issues. However, unless the patches are made mandatory, I believe that it will fragment the players further and lead to a decline in players.

Can anything be done to make the FP an auto download on ESO?

Cheers