Thanks for the input Rowan, Glad you guys like the missions. Seems that players either absolutely love them or completely despise them. Anyway, this post/rant isn't directed at you Bud, but it gives me a chance to sound off and explain how things work for all to read.
The system we use has two mission cycles, major and minor, that are designed to run simultaneously. It does allow for the adjustment of the number of AI per mission but unfortunately it shares the same settings as far as loot and spawn points. Had a lot of trouble with the missions overlapping and randomly spawning in at the most inopportune times. What I did to remedy the situation, is turn off the minor missions and run the majors only. Another problem I had, was that with the jacked up number of AI present, two missions at once really put a strain on the server and lagged the AI badly. The ground troops got slow and stupid and the helis turned into noisy balloons. While I probably could put in another separate mission system, the server would take an fps hit and the AI would lag yet even more. I have also decreased the time between mission so there should be another spawn not too long after the loot has been divided up and everybody has replenished their supplies for the next mission
I do understand the desire for something for solo players to do, but the idea of simply getting to lazily snipe a couple dozen AI from 500/600m , completing the mission in ten minutes and collecting the loot all without much chance of getting shot back isn't really realistic. Not to mention it's not much of a challenge, and truthfully is a waste of precious server resources.
What I have done to offset the problem, however, is to jack the number of UAZs and increase their loot significantly. I do know this works because back in the early days of the server before missions, the UAZ AI were the main source of income. Many players had a lot of fun and built really nice bases from the loot. Also be aware that the UAZs spawn back after 10 minutes so there is a never ending supply of them available.
I would think people should have guessed by now that here at Beatnik Bandits we do things a little differently from the other servers around. I know a lot of people have been spoiled by the easy mission loot, but that's not the vision we have for this server's future. I have been involved with several other servers and have watched quality players and good friends drift away after a while out of boredom and lack of challenge. Hippi and I started our own server with the thought in mind of looking at things a little differently and ultimately catering to the quality players and trying things with the server that would hopefully keep the game fresh and challenging longer.
Anyway, hope this helps everyone understand a bit of whats going on. I want everyone to feel free to put in their two cents worth on this topic. I do enjoy the feedback, bad or good,
Thanks,
Sandman
