Where are all you BN players?! We must bring it back to its original glory! I find the point system better in BN, and players of ALL tiers can play together!
Come play with me~ and all the other secret BN players out there!
Why don't people play?
Where are all you BN players?! We must bring it back to its original glory! I find the point system better in BN, and players of ALL tiers can play together!
Come play with me~ and all the other secret BN players out there!
Why don't people play?
"I don't see anyone playing, so I won't queue myself up to play" is probably the gist of it.
as fun as I find BN, latency issues are especially apparent in BN because it's such a timing-based game.
People who have a feel for it know that if they're running 'on the same tile' as someone else on their own screen, then according to the server, they're actually running -behind- them, meaning that if the other person drops a bomb, they'll rubberband backwards and get trapped 'unfairly'. It's a weird thing to be playing in a way that betrays what the client shows you. It's also kind of frustrating to think you're standing behind a wall just to rubberband back into a blast's path.
While dealing with connection issues is actually something people have to do through the entire game (ex: gunslingers leading their bullets ahead), it's really bad to have to deal with it in BN because it's so precision/timing based.
Also, Lockdown's way flashier. I remember coming back from my first huge hiatus from SK (I left in the middle of the original BN craze, when mod calibrators were 50 tokens and sold for like 50k each) and came back to a mostly-dead BN, avoiding LD out of spite. In the end, LD feels more suited to the 'action' feel of the game, and the different class mod options and fast paced gameplay are like whole new worlds and playstyles to explore. BN, despite the skill arguments, seems to have a bunch of randomness to offset the 'skill' factors (items don't come from destroying boxes - they just spawn over time), so it eventually just becomes a race for the powerups before turning into 1337 blast chess.
I just find BN really frustrating due to latency combined with some design issues. The issue I'm thinking of is the movement speed boost. It renders anyone who isn't a good player worthless because people with full MSI can trap you by placing a bomb behind you, running through you, and placing one in front of you and such. That and latency just makes me dislike it, no matter how BN without bullfeces and latency is.
I log in and check if 2+ players are queuing. If not, then it's off to FSC.
Derp, I play! My homies at Owsla do too! Party in BN~
I am a semi decent player of BN and I have been known to play a game or three so here's my 2 Crowns worth.
Let me start by saying that I agree that there are issues with BN, there is no denying that.
- There's the lagg,
- There's the players that abuse the sticky bug (though I still say its a valid tactic but very annoying),
- There is the randomly getting pushed,
- Aaaand there's the fact that the design could do with a bit of TLC.
But I can't help loving the game :-)
It gets back to the roots of what a minigame should be. Its quick and its fun! (Just like LD)
Its also somewhere rank and gear does not apply and anyone with a bit of skill (and in my case luck) can win a match. When I first started playing BN it will come as no surprize that I was bad. . . real bad, so bad I would wait for Krogmos message of me dishonoring his great coliseum with my lack of fighting spirit at the end of the match and nodd wholeheartedly in agreement :-/
The real problem was the learning curve and that I, as a newer player, usually got crushed by those that had more experience, knew the maps and the tricks to the game. But is that any different than LD? I have literally only started playing LD (since last week) so I am by no means an authority on it but I could say the same.
- In the land of LD latency the man who spams Trolaris and Nitro is king.
- Getting trapped because another player has more speed is not a fun time. . . .This is true. But it is a valid tactic just like spamming the exit of the other team in LD so they can't cap is not a fun time for them. . . .But also a valid tactic. Its all part of the game. There are ways to avoid it in BN though (waves his hands mysteriously)
- In BN, those with full powerups have an unfair advatage to those that are still building or respawned so its a race for power ups. But in LD we you have OP UVs and trinkets that make it unfair for those that have lesser ones or none at all. But its seen as a challenge in LD. Well its the same in BN. Avoid their blasts, turn the tables and crush thier hope of winning with the heel of your slightly charred boot.
As to why there aren't many people on BN I agree with my friend Sieran. Its a lonely day at the colleseum when you're the only one qued, so most people don't bother. I also think the lack of new maps and different match styles has a lot to do with it too. But mostly its because to enjoy it you have to get good and it takes time to get good.
However when you get a match with some of the top players who all play the game differently like Quanstr, Tillybb, Nevermoon, Janica, Muffinmuch, Rating (when he played), Gamaray, Daboze, Novaguardian, Monkeybash, Urhorse, Voltimate, Emerald-Lavendar, Sikamaru, Trying, Pyneappl, Exiia, Weegeftw, Googola, Porschelle, Kupoo, Lovingly, Duckbeak, Beary and many many others who I regularly lose to. Thats when you start to learn how to play BN. Its a lot more than power ups, bugs and spam! Just like LD is a lot more than Gear and OP UV's and spam.
To finish off this novel (sorry about that), I mentioned I sucked when I first started playing (alright lets not dwell on it!) well it was a good friend that I met on the BN circuit that helped me out a lot. His name was VTmoon and its thanks to him that I kept at it.
In an effort to get more people interested in BN I will attempt to pay his kindness forward and offer to whoever wants to give BN a go or just wants to improve, to send me an in game mail and what little I know of BN and its hidden secrets (waves hands mysteriously) I will try to explain.
Either way It would be nice to see more new players :-)
~Sprunket
For your list of players you could have just said any player in the guild Machinists and then listed the others. :P
Really the major problem with BN is the lag, running into bombs that exploded long ago or bombs that never exploded, and pushing/stickying. Still fun though.
The problem is not the lag- everyone has lag. Everyone gets their share of unfortunate deaths that would not happen if they were not half a second late.
The real problem is that... 95% of the playerbase is competent. The rest 5% is training to join the 95% of the playerbase. Then new ones, who did not ragequit after dying 12 times, fill the 5%. Not to mention only half the 5% don't give up and become decent players. -RIP Math-
The numbers are probably off, but that's pretty much what I see. A match is guaranteed to have at least one good player due to the fact that the only ones who play BN are those who do relatively well at it. The said player will just massacre the others cause the skill gap between newbie and average player is ENORMOUS. The other players may get annihilated a few times more just to ragequit after. If they get annihilated more than a few times, they have taken their first step to get better at BN.
Back when I was new to the game, I thought I could trap people well, so I did not ragequit, despite being roflstomped every time by a random person from Sprunket's list, Sprunket, and the others (that's also included in the list). Now I am a decent player who sometimes happens to get a few lucky kills on those guys.
Blast Network is fun. It is even more fun when you get the hang of it.
Yeah teleporting is pretty bad, but I agree with seiran he knows his Bn. If u plaY it enough u get a feel for it. But the main thing that makes Bn sucky is those "good players". Ofc, they are pretty good but mainly they just DON'T DIE. They r u just über careful and don't get in a real trapping fight. They might place a couple bombs down here and there and with their luck, kill someone across the map because of their power ups. One game I literally tried chasing one guy down but he kept running away, and he won because his spamming killed everyone else. Not all players r like this , but u get my point BTW do u recall this - a player putting a bomb down - he sits on it - later he decides his safest move and places another bomb down THAT ISN'T EVEN CLOSE TO YOU and sits on it. And they keep doing it. They'll pretty much never die and that's how they win. If Bn was more based on examining the field and trapping the other within a small area, I bet it would be much more fun
While yes the lag, stickies, latency, and learning curve are all factors, I'd also add the removal of mist/free elevators as well as lack of new BN content as another. When I began playing SK, what drew me to the coliseum was the fact that, after wasting all my mist in some of the most inefficient methods possible (D1 of the arcade 10x ftw :P), afterwords, I would still feel like I would want to do more and the coliseum was really my only option. After a game or two of LD, I quickly realized I was completely unequipped for it and decided that staring at the locker room for 5-8 minutes wasn't for me. Then I tried BN, pretty much had the same result, and after losing the last of my hard earned cr, vowed never to return to the Coliseum again! ... until i ran out of energy the next day. This cycle continued again and again (with the inclusion of LD only lasting a few cycles) and eventually I kinda started picking up some basics (the later inclusion of the spectator mode definitely helped speed it up). However if I were to come into SK today, after suffering such humiliating defeat a few times, there would be nothing stopping me from burying my head in PvE with those unlimited missions and pretending PvP never existed.
As I seem to recall seeing in a similar thread about LD, someone mentioned that players like to play something where they feel they are creating a positive impact for their team or themselves. No matter what stage of the game you are at, trying to pick up BN rarely gives a player that feeling. And as the game is now, unless they need krogmos for pentas or voltedge/blight needle/whatever other coliseum exclusive weaponry they want, there isn't much reason to go into PvP. Usually by the point that a player is looking for such gear, they either have enough gear that they don't feel as unprepared for LD as they do for BN and go there, or they just tolerate whichever, playing as few games as possible with little care to picking up skills for future use. Sure boredom of PvE is another reason, but again by that point, the player usually has acquired a decent arsenal with which they are more comfortable, which lends itself more to LD.
Now sure there are all the old pro's Sprinkles mentioned, but sometimes it can be tough to find enough of them on especially at the same time to get a few good games going these days. And then there are those whose appearance is about as common as finding a true love locket (honestly when was the last time someone saw, for example, Yirumi or Narutomaki?). Sure they obviously have busy lives and other priorities, but the fact that BN hasn't gotten new content in ages surely hasn't helped (I mean, LD got avenue a year ago). If BN were truly to become more popular again, it would almost definitely take some new maps and such to generate some attention. I know their have been threads in the past that my guildmates contributed a good amount to about such ideas, but in the infinitesimally small chance that OOO is looking for some more, I would be more than happy to provide a few more that would be quite simple to implement (wow this turned into an essay O.o)
@Dealing with runners/cautious players
I would agree such players can be frustrating but fortunately there are a few strategies at your disposal to help deal with them. While Sprinkles is a fan of his theatricality and mysterious hand waving, here are a few I can come up with off the top of my head, in case you or anyone else is interested:
-First off and probably the most effective is teamwork. I know, this can be quite rare and tough to develop (especially on short notice O.o), and for the most part BN does empower players to rely on their individual skills to take on opponents as opposed to working together. However, two players coming at the runner from different directions, using area denial to force him to move away from them, can effectively lead to you either trapping or catching him in a crossfire in a corner. Obviously this method requires a decently skilled accomplice and coordination to let them know your intentions and also more likely to occur if you're in a team game (it can also work in FFA if you can convince another player that taking out the runner as he's in the lead is in his best interest).
-Most players have tendencies they rely on and if you can figure them out it can help you to take him down without help. Is there a certain pattern of bombs he likes to place? What direction does he generally move off of bombs he places? If you can discern any such behavior try and use it against them by trapping them. If they are truly just moving directly away from you this can be near impossible to do, unless you're using feints to trick them as to which direction you are going to be coming at them. Alternatively, try placing a bomb out of their camera view, then when you come at them, come at them in a way that will mean moving away from you leads them into the other bombs path. Or, you can try chaining a bomb off of one he placed aimed at where is moving too. This works best if it is done quickly at the last second before his bomb goes off so that it at least has the element of surprise.
-Throw a flawed/grinchlin snowball at him. This isn't going to work more than once at most but if you can get him distracted/off balance you have more time to close in on him while he tries to figure out why he turned into a snowman. This method is a good reason to be stocking up on them now^^.
-The last option i can think of right now as it's quite late, is to ignore the runner and go after the more readily available players/his teammate(s). If you can kill more of them than he can/your teammates, you will win. True this does seem a little less rewarding as you aren't directly killing him (and if his teammate/the other players are fairly new, probably not going to support the cause of this thread of increasing active players... >.>), but if winning at all costs is what is important to you, do what you have to do.
Arguing about BN is done with several paragraphs and without rage? This is amazing.
i don't play because its too boring and most of the time my name pops up on the side it says i suicide, it would still be boring if i dint kill myself as much, they just need to add something to it.
I don't really play it myself since that I don't like how the design of it with SK's slanted 3D look (can't really see if anyone had placed some bombs on the bottom) though the mini map helps a bit since that you can see every player on the board. I played enough Bomberman before to know how it goes, yet It's board is flat and you could see everyone and everything without a small map to show.
Plus, everyone pretty much has lag; enough said.
And lastly, it's just that there's too many people who just don't give beginners a chance sometimes. Immedietly dead within 15 seconds the game started the lil' things. :(
The first time I played blast network I absolutely loved it. It was a new and interesting way to pop and I didn't have to deal with being a "noob" (as bombers are usually called) in LD. There are problems but they are problems that could definitely be solved. I think the developers have a lack of interest in fixing the problems cause NO ONE plays it. I think it should get fixed for those of us who really enjoy it. Hopefully asking to fix it won't get shot down on the suggestion wall like it has before time and time again.
Kinda irrelevant, but most of my kills are counted as suicides. Not exactly fair.