Some thoughts from a Newbie

[charlesk]

I started playing Nexuiz a couple of weeks ago. It is my first FPS game (except for dabbling with UT for a couple of hours years ago) so it is all quite new to me. I am an experienced gamer (read: I am old! ) and so I thought I would shared my thoughts in the hopes that some might find them useful.

The Game

The game itself is a lot of fun.. and much more full-featured than I expected for a free game. It was not too hard to set up, and there are lots of maps and modes. There are a few things I'd like to see slightly different, but overall, no complaints.

Except one: laser jumping. Okay, I realize this is a skill and I respect those who have developed it, but I also think it ruins many aspects of the game. CTF, for example, is supposed to be a team-based strategy game, not something won by whichever team has a player who has learned how to move at super-human speed. It should not be possible to zip across a wide field in 5 seconds under any circumstances, IMO.

The Community

Overall, a very nice group of people, I have found. This forum was very helpful to me when I had a problem with clocks showing up due to my router, which I was able to resolve.

Within the game, I also find that most people are quite pleasant. I don't have much experience with this, as I said, but I've played MMORPGs where the average player is childish and abusive, and that's usually not the case here.

On the downside... I sometimes find that the more experienced players are rather merciless on those who are newer to the game or less skilled. I like playing CTF, and I find it rather annoying when there are two or three really good players who are on the same team, and they annihilate the other side with a ridiculous score, rather than one of the better players switching sides to make things more even.

As a new player, I have no problem losing, and in fact I expect it. But it would be good if better players could remember that it's not fun to get slaughtered over and over again.

Servers

I think this is the biggest weakness of the game right now. When I click "Join" I see a long list of servers, but most are empty or just have bots. There seem to be only a handful of active servers, and nearly all of them are in Europe, which can lead to ping time problems for those in other locations.

Again, I like to play CTF, but there only seem to be a couple of servers that are active, and they are often full. When not full, they are dominated by a couple of players which usually makes the game not that much fun. The voting feature also means the same maps get played over and over again.

I even found a server that was for beginners, but when I went in I got my head handed to me on a platter over and over again by clearly seasoned veterans. What is the point of that?

It would be good if there were some way to set up games based on skill level so new players don't become discouraged and just quit. And more variety in servers would also help the game a great deal.

Anyway, my two cents (and more.) Thanks for reading, and your replies welcomed.

[ZyanKLee]

the server-problem you mentioned is in our minds, too.
problem is: servers are set up by players. there is no corporation that runs those server all over the world (as in most MMORPGs are).
so if you are able to (skill, money, time ...) set up a dedicated server near your location yourself, I think there will be some player that would love you for this
I would do this for myself - if I had a chance (mostly money reasoned ...) to rent a root-server over at your location.

[charlesk]

Actually.. I run websites and have capacity on a server I could use that has a good net connection.. but it runs FreeBSD. There are only binaries for Linux and I don't think they are compatible.

[KadaverJack]

Actually.. I run websites and have capacity on a server I could use that has a good net connection.. but it runs FreeBSD. There are only binaries for Linux and I don't think they are compatible.

Sources are included in the Nexuiz zip file, they should compile just fine on freebsd. But afaik there's also a freebsd port for Nexuiz.

[fader]

Actually.. I run websites and have capacity on a server I could use that has a good net connection.. but it runs FreeBSD. There are only binaries for Linux and I don't think they are compatible.

Nexuiz is in ports (games/nexuiz) and its running perfectly well. As the port deals with some portability issues, you better try that in favor of compiling the native sources (which might work too, cause most of the problems are with the client). If you have to do unusual things to run that port on your servers, please drop me a note (usenet01 at blaxxtarz dot de) or file a PR in case you hit any serious bugs (please Cc me, so I can push it - I'm not the official maintainer).

As a side note: you may successfully run the linux binaries too with linuxulator. But thats just not nessessary, cause its an open sourced game.

Final advice: I would try to run the game server within a jail(2) environment so you get an additional line of defence against possible security issues.

[charlesk]

Thanks for the replies.. unfortunately, this is a bit over my head. I haven't compiled anything in years, and if there are potential security risks I can't use my web hosting servers anyway.

[fader]

Thanks for the replies.. unfortunately, this is a bit over my head. I haven't compiled anything in years, and if there are potential security risks I can't use my web hosting servers anyway.

With the ports system you do not have to worry about compilation details. The only thing you have to do is, cd to the ports directory (/usr/ports/games/nexuiz), type "make install" and answer the dialog that pops up with some options (sdl, glx, dedicated). That's it. No need for you to dig deeper into the build process. It's even fetching the sources for you.

On the other hand, if you have absolutely no idea, what the security implications are, its the *right* choice to *not* do anything at all on your production servers. I've seen quite some well hardened systems gone r00ted via some admins private little $TOY stuff.

And just to make one thing clear (and prevent spreading FUD): There is *no* security issue known to me, thats *special* to nexuiz. What I'm talking about are just the usual security considerations you have to keep in mind with *any* piece of software thats installed on a system with a connection to the evil internet. Using jails is just my idea of hosting a gameserver on a production webserver while keeping the risk as low as possible. YMMV

[charlesk]

Thanks for the reply, fader.. but I don't have the instructions on how to compile the code.. I can't find anything named "install" to "make" for example...

[Workaphobia]

The Game:

Yeah, I really do like nexuiz's pace. I never played the original quake, but I understand that nexuiz's style of Val Hala Kilkilkil-until-you-can't-kill-no-more-then-respawn-to-kill-again is based heavily on it. Laser jumping is a very fun technique, and certainly worth learning. I recommending binding a key near wasd to the laser (or use the default of '1') so you can quickly switch, jump, and right click to return to your previous weapon. You can accomplish this in the console with the command ' bind <key> "impulse 1"', interior double quotes included.

The Community:

Nexuiz has among the best FPS communities around, in terms of not being utter morons. I should point out that this is one of the few games where after 90% of my deaths, I smile. This is because the players I compete against are both skilled and honorable. We play nexuiz not to "pwn noobs", but to frag friends.

Servers

If you think the server selection is bad now, you should've seen it back before the American player community was semi-established. The only games you could find were on European servers like stormix, where you have a tenth of a second disadvantage compared to everyone else. For good matches that stay on North American soil, I highly recommend the Standard Deathmatch NY Server for regular matches, and 70mm13's TECH server for outstanding innovative custom maps. On both servers you're libel to find skilled players, but I think fighting on them is a lot more likely to help you improve than fighting on an overpacked lowfps highlag server for new players.

Good luck, and I hope you stick with the game.