The devs of this game make it so you cannot play.  They put in so much spawn delay and side lock delay that the game is unplayable.  For a given 10 minutes of play you will spend 20 to 30 percent of that waiting at some screen waiting for a timer to go down before you can go onto the next delay.  It is incredible for a game that has nobody playing it they limit gameplay and fun.

I remember when that was implemented. It was done to balance sides. If one side out numbered the other it would put you in a spawn timer. If one side had a spawn timer the other did not if memory serves me well. I think it was done so that many would not Zerg a out numbered force.

Originally posted by vladiko

I remember when that was implemented. It was done to balance sides. If one side out numbered the other it would put you in a spawn timer. If one side had a spawn timer the other did not if memory serves me well. I think it was done so that many would not Zerg a out numbered force.

 Yup, thats what my memories are serving me too, unfortunatly with the decreasing amount of total players the balancing becomes more difficult as less players are in game.

Big problem of SD is to fight frustration with frustration - so it is a loose / loose situation:

Underpopulated players getting overwhelmed by overpopulated side = underpopulated side is getting frustrated and log in less.

SD annoyes the overpopulated side and makes players log into game less.

The overall outcome simply is, the game is loosing players and balancing will become even more difficult.

Its a big difference when having 100 vs. 140 players in game - or 1000 vs. 1400 players - the imbalance looks the same in the first picture, because its in both examples a 1 : 1,4 ratio. But on the other hand, defending towns with having 1000 players online for a side is much easier then defending the same towns with 100 players - or just divide the numbers agin by 2:

50 : 70  That means, as less overall players in game as more players getting bored.

I am all for giving the underpopulated side some other kind of "advantage" to even out the imbalance of players numbers instead of creating another frustration due to SD.

1) Cater for people who likes instant action, and shoebox shooters in order to try and increase your player base.

2) People who likes instant action and shoebox shooters will NEVER enjoy this game due to the graphics just not being up to date

3) Loose all your original players who liked and loved the initial concept

4) Then you now have to implement stupid stuff like spawn delay because you now no longer have players enough for it to not matter (ie. low low player base volume makes player imbalance to have a larger impact)

5) Start loosing even those few players you are left with

6) Game over (in my view in a few years, CRS are persistent buggers and will keep the game alive even with the current 20 guys vs 20 guys on a 3.9 million sq ft. map - WTFG!)

Originally posted by Szyporyn

1) Cater for people who likes instant action, and shoebox shooters in order to try and increase your player base.

2) People who likes instant action and shoebox shooters will NEVER enjoy this game due to the graphics just not being up to date

3) Loose all your original players who liked and loved the initial concept

4) Then you now have to implement stupid stuff like spawn delay because you now no longer have players enough for it to not matter (ie. low low player base volume makes player imbalance to have a larger impact)

5) Start loosing even those few players you are left with

6) Game over (in my view in a few years, CRS are persistent buggers and will keep the game alive even with the current 20 guys vs 20 guys on a 3.9 million sq ft. map - WTFG!)

 Very true!

The only reason the devs will believe that all changes the´ve made to the game is based on the fact, that the idea of the game is still unbeaten by other games. No wonder, every new player will like the game because its still unique and THE Milestone other multiplayer online games settled in this specific timeframe (WWII sim) still cannot even come close to it. So each new player will like it and will stay for a periode of time - and is stating good comments about the game. No wonder, because they didn´t know how much more fun it was before some years ago.

Many many players who played for long years just dissapeared in silence. There is only a tiny minority of long term players left - untill they turn their back to WWIIOL too. The devs maybe are quite happy with the new short term players, because they are still catched in the first periode of playing and because of it, they like everything of their "new game the´ve found". But that doesn´t reflect what are the problems and why so many long term players have left.

Long term players simply are expecting a much greater amount of fun, which was coded out during the past years. Okay, the long term players also are falling under the aspect, that each game will become some kind of boring when the "upgrades" doesn´t hold new contains for them.

There are two major reasons, why the game struggle - the few changes which was made in the past few years wasn´t good changes - yes, they favoured the "instant action kiddies" instead of trying to keep their "Core long term players" in the game.

Looking at the dev-cycles of "upgrades/patches", their last stage (1.31) will harm the game more than it will benefit from it. Okay, the 1.31 will improve the graphics a lot, but at what costs? How long now they didn´t implemented a new pact at all? - For too long!

The excuse "because its a small dev-team" can only be partially  accepted. (It was the devs decision to decrease the size of the staff and it was their decision NOT to implement new contains into the game and therefore let it become kind of boring to their long term customers)

Of course, the graphic-update is long needed and long overdue, same as a rework of the HC-game - its always a bad thing, if the majority of players are depending on a minority (of map-movers). Who is willing to pay for a game in longer terms when depending on just the mercy of some HC-players? In that addition, how does long year-players who know pretty well the game will feel, when depending on relatively "green" HC-Officers?

Yeah, i know the usually sentence: "join the HC!" - But how many long term players have even left the HC because of the "political boot licking behavior" inside the HC? To depend now on just "newbies" doesn´t make the situaton any better. It also doesn´t  help much to the game at all, when devs just like to "relax" in the flood of good comments of relatively fresh players instead of listening by far more to the dwindling voice of their long term player base.

Another reason can be seen in some comments of the devs in the past (like: - its their game which they need to fill the bowl of rice for feeding their families - ...) which very often just had a bit too arrogant attitude.

Well, as long as the rats don´t notice, that they are ruining the game by themselfes, i doubt there will be much hope for the game in a longer term. This will continue as long as they are changing the game into a shoebox-shooter. Unfortunatly, with the changes the´ve made in the last few years, i strongly believe, that the have crossed the line where they never will be able to correct (undo) some changes and now only can somewhat delay the dying of that fine game.

Only a fool will expect that all issues with low population will get fixed with that miraculous 1.31 "wonder-patch" which already took them more than a whole year to implement it. Wondering how long it takes untill they are coming up with somewhat long faces, because the playerbase doesn´t increase to expected numbers.