How can we save the Nordinvasion Population

[evildan]

I'd like to express my opinion on how we can improve Nordinvasion as more and more people seem to leave or don't want to play as each day passes.

Here's a few  things I believe we can do to get people more interested in playing.

This is mainly for playing the archer/infantry classes as cav is a lot easier for hardmode.

Hard Mode -

#1 The usual population for hard mode in US time is around 3 or 4 people during the week. I have seen many different people try hardmode but they end up dying within 30 seconds of the map start and end up leaving and never coming back leaving me to solo the next 4/5 rounds. YES this is meant to be challenging but challenging enough that only a few people will play and the rest quit or dont play? maybe we should make it better/easier to play here? or do we all need to respec to Knight be patient and get to the higher waves as this seems to be the only viable class you can get far with on hardmode without finding a choke point where people can hide behind shields.
#2 If the mode continues to be this hard all you end up with is people looking for that one choke point on each map and then play that map over and over and over untill the spot gets nerfed and taken away.
#3 The Commando class seems to be the best class to play in normal mode and the worst in hard mode , it needs maybe a damage or armour increase to make it viable for this mode and balance it with the other classes in the game. Like, really if you get 5 battle priests or  5 einherjars on top of you then you don't have any chance as a commando. Knights can circle and kill easily and snipers can kill from distance by kiting.
#4 The Jotnes/Valkeries crush through shields needs to be nerfed unless it is intended that 3-4 jotnes can kill 16 people with ease as they are too hard to defend against.
#5  More Solutions to help hard Mode -Nerf the damage of some of the Nords to make it more balanced, make the stronger waves in hard mode have a lesser spawn rate as they can seem impossible to defend against.
#6 More time in between certain rounds to be able to heal and restock due to the difficulty and get ready for the next wave.

Normal Mode -
#1 Allow players over level 39 to receive loot again on normal servers (i.e. legendary drops) this would make more people want to play as they have a better chance of getting  legendary weapons and the beginners of the game able to reach the higher waves and receive more xp. (i think %99 of the population would agree). At the moment I believe most of the normal servers rarely reach wave 12 unless a few commandos are there out of the kindness of their heart trying to help new players.
#2 Bonus xp for players still alive at wave 4,8,12,16 etc.

Maps -
Could I suggest more maps with open space, cover and maybe some kind of choke points as this is all the player base seems to look for, if the maps dont have this in hard mode people will just not play them and leave. It is nice to try them for a challenge but lets be honest the player base will just quit and not play rather then dying right off the bat if there is no choke point.
More maps with 1 or 2 points of good defence  would be popular where a team of 5 or 6 could defend a Castle door or a keep tower being sieged. Lake has alot of potential if the spawn of Nords at the back of the map would be removed and the Nords would all spawn from the beach front and attack from 1 or 2 ramps and a keep door it could be popular instead of being surrounded from both sides with no where to kite your enemeys and die eventually. The Jeldan map without the Legendary room if the nords just attacked from the spawn at the bottom of the hill and the one from the top was removed, it would be played and enjoyed.
I fear unless  certain maps are changed to have certain qualities then the population will just keep playing the same maps over and over.


I understand the developers want this to be challenging and not easy. But players just don't want to die over and over in wave 1 of hardmode and wave 9 of normal mode they won't stay for the challenge they will leave and play other games. It becomes increasingly frustrating not seeing more then 3 or 4 people in hard mode US time outside of the Swadian Town  as most are not capable of achieving anything outside of this map that is soon to be changed. I really enjoy the game but I would hate to see the game lose more people. I am in the biggest US guild scarlet Blade and can get far with certain people on weekends using good teamwork but the rest of the week I am left solo and bored in hardmode a lot of the time due to the population. I would like to see if other players agree/ disagree and more opinions. Lets make this game fun again!

[Malong]

/signed

[Le Fox]

got to pretty much agree with everyone point he makes, you go on hard mdoe snipers have 70 - 100 kills with 1 death commandos have like 12-60  with 3 deaths, and knights dont even need anyone else on certian maps would love a little buff to the commando

[Sepsis]

I too Agree that many of the ppl i used to play with have left due to boredom or lack of a goal or excitment. Gaining legendarys and crafting items is a major drive to play, but on hard mode its difficult to get a group and when were by ourselves on normal we dont reap benefits for getting to the later waves. This is a great mod, but it seams we loose ppl as soon as they hit 42, they feel that theres nothing left for them.

[nolat]

I agree with the above.  Or make Hardmode feel like there is an element of progression by making the bots easier to kill but reducing the exp obtained from it.  If Hardmode for lvl 32+ feels like normal mode for lvl 1-39 where we can progress to a certain round (such as 12-16), I am sure that hard mode will be alot more fun to play.

[RoseFlower]

I totally agree!!!! =D

[Freland]

I agree with everything the original poster said.

[OneEyE]

First of all we need a Hard mode survival guide. The most people play with the wrong tactic. They think the are a hero or what ever. Rushing headless into the nords ... They forget the rule number one "Dont kill the last" and whipping all other player. Its always the same. You complete wave 8 and 2 or 3 noobs join and destroying all progress.

#6 More time in between certain rounds to be able to heal and restock due to the difficulty and get ready for the next wave.

Rule number one: Dont kill the last, until all healed and restocked ...

#3 The Commando class seems to be the best class to play in normal mode and the worst in hard mode

Alone we are weak together we are strong. We can heal us. We can shield and we can use Polearm behind the shielder. We can use a dynamic shieldwall that moving backwards. We can get the strongest weapon in this mod, the dreaded warpick. Its deadly with a dynamic shieldwall. There are many strategies for us to success. 2 or 3 skilled Commandos can reach wave 8 without a problem on the most maps. Okey some maps are still rubbish for hard mode mostly the tube maps but the most are useable. For example mountain map is still the worst map you can get. You get a arrow in your brain but you still cant see a archer with all that fog. Only the headshot bots can see you  ???
But i totally agree the classes and especially the hard mode needs some fine tuning.

[clickeverywhere]

I agree that these things discourage players from continuing this mod. Even as the leader of the largest NA house, it's often difficult to get a good group of players together. Adding to that is the fact that our best players have extremely varied schedules, so getting a group of strong players together is even more difficult. If the player population deteriorates any more, progressing in hard mode will be but a distant dream. This is, of course, not completely the fault of the difficulty itself. It has to do with player attitudes as well. People want to be able to kick ass on their own and the difficulty prevents that, forcing better team play. But the problem is that the difficulty is set at such a high level that even when working as a team, one has difficulty advancing.

Even while using what the devs probably deem as cheesy tactics such as shield walling in town, we are wiped by Valks and Jotnes with their crush-through. Also, taking into consideration that they require 4-5 headshots from snipers to kill, it would be next to impossible for a commando to take on even one of them alone, as blocking is insufficient, and one false move results in death. If, by pure chance, you were to manage killing one Jotne, there are at least 3 spawning per player.

Though this is probably just a result of narrow-mindedness, the only other viable team-play alternative I can think of is having knights kite the wave while archers sit back and fire (a tactic that would not net much assist exp for both parties). Having commandos in such a group would be pointless, as they wouldn't be able to do anything the knights could not do better. The same applies to the shield wall tactic -- a knight in a shield wall would be able to do nothing better than a commando could. These two play-styles would exclude one class no matter what. 

The solution would be to either reduce the number of enemies spawned, or reduce the capabilities of each enemy spawned. The latter would make hard mode more like normal mode, and because of that, I do not recommend it. The former, I believe, would be the better solution, though some enemies could certainly use some rebalancing even with reduced numbers. As it is now, one has to play making very few mistakes for an extremely long period of time to complete a wave. If there were fewer enemies, you would still have to play as close to perfection as possible, but for a shorter time and with more breathing room.

Apologies for the long post. It is quite a rant, but regardless of the difficulty, I do very much enjoy this mod and appreciate the work the devs have put into it. I am certain that better things are yet to come. Perhaps this post will move the mod in a better direction.

P.S.: While I am writing on the topic of balance, I'd like to reiterate that normal mode huscarls and veteran huscarls could use a nerf, they are deadlier than their hard mode counterparts.

[Glitch]

Hard mode is....too hard. Especially when there's a low number of players.