Marathon only matches?

[ReneFighter]

Hey guys! I've played Westwood's command and conquer since 2003 and played until around 2011. I was ecstatic when my childhood friend told me about RenegadeX and I downloaded it right away.

One thing I don't remember too fondly of Renegade is the grueling 5 hour games of under. Running around as a technician with a rail gun camping the front of the GDI base and healing arties is fun for a bit but it gets old quick!

Is this game similar to Renegade after 2010 in that it's only marathon? I've only seen marathon servers fill up the two days I've played and it's highly disappointing. Is the usually how it is?

Anyways thanks for the game! It really cranks of the nostalgia factor!

[Agent]

There are non-marathon servers, such as ConstructiveTyranny and TheMatrixRen, both of which are marked have AOW (All Out War) in their name. EKT servers are generally marathon, and tend to stay active for a variety of reasons, but are not the only active servers. You can also see the Game Length in the launcher after selecting a server (0 means marathon).

Other than that, we're glad you like the game, and I look forward to seeing you in-game!

[Truxa]

EKT for marathon and TmX/ConstructiveTyranny for AoW (30 mins - 45 mins games)

The reason for 1 server to fill up and others are not, is because of the small community as of yet. Most people like the 15v15 - 20v20 matches. Only a few realy like the 12v12 or less matches (easier to sneak in the enemy base with less people)

Some people use "tricks" to lure players into the server, to fill it up. Not going into that though.

As for playstyle:

Marathon can get a long drag, just as original ren, but I have yet to see a match duration of more than 3 hours. Even so, the 3 hours is an exception on the rule.

Generally, when a team loses 1 building, the rest will follow in the next half hour at most. But most matches, regardless of marathon/AoW server setting, wont last longer than 1 hour.

On time-limited servers though, you tend to see more wins through score, even when GDI has e.g. 1 building left and Nod has the entire base. GDI wins by score due to building spam throughout the game.

It's a tactic. Spamming buildings for 30 minutes gives you a huuuuge advantage in timed games. When you loose half your base, you are still ahead and can drag out the remaining 10 minutes camping the last building.

For that reason, I like the marathon servers more.

[RoundShades]

1) There are a variety of development/mod ideas, one close to done as a matter of fact, that intend to make matches more reliably end sooner. This should make marathon less lengthy. The only difference between AOW and Marathon if it works well, will be whether it ends in score in 45 minutes or only ends in base defense, despite that most games should end in 20-40 minutes no matter what.

2) The trick to get players to join a server is less nefarious than described. Basically, with small communities people join the server with already players in it, and some server owners will keep a combo of afk players and few bots each team in a game to make look like the best option to join if other servers are empty and appear somewhat active, and within 1 match 8 people join anyway so it is basically "Fake It 'till you Make It". I neither support nor condone it, but simply muse at how mundane the "trick" is, it isn't like you reroute their choice of server selection to your server, and 60% of the community are experienced players who know they can play with whoever they want, yet somehow making a server appear as 2/40 instead of 0/40 is guranteed to get you 38/40 players within 1.5 hrs.

Really, I can't be that mad about "Fake It 'till you Make It", nor about how it somehow attracts players. I won't lie, what bothers me more, is that we have about 3 active communities hosting servers, all good communities and servers, and yet it takes all 3 of our populations to populate 2 servers, and yet those communities won't cooperate sometimes and one will host 3 separate servers to populate them instead of just 1 and allowing another community to pick up 1, or try to influence members to play on one or not play on the other. Really, we should be cooperating in that area, at the very least so we can have 1 Marathon and 1 AOW server instead of only AOW/Marathon, or even any 1 of the communities hosting separate Marathon/AOW and hosting 2 of the same gamemode.

In that regard, old ren was smarter back when communities had 1 AOW and 1 Marathon.

Also, speculative statistics here, but if servers had 32 players per, we could populate 3 easier, with more players total and more active servers total per any 1 part of the day, even if it were the same 1 community hosting 2 32player servers instead of 1 40player. Also would have less a chance to stalemate Marathons, make AOW grindy score fests, and make progress seem impossible on your own, since it seems impossible to get through 20 people sharing a field together but 16 itself is significantly easier for 1 person to make a difference. This isn't biased, as I prefer 12v12s and others prefer 30v30s but I played a 10v10 pickup game and while it functions it is the extreme stretch of manpower per task to expect from "casuals", and while competitives can make a 10v10 work they can also make a 30v30 work if everyone teams up in 4 man pairs except that casuals are also less likely to do that so you basically instead get a crowded random heap of 20 wandering solo players in field dying randomly to no type of organization at all and a game stalemates on both sides.

If we could get 60 competitive veteran players, and some form of 4-5 man "control groups/squads" with each squad a leader and very obvious color coding to keep squad members functioning as a unit, we could easily have a 60 player game with a vehicle limit of 12 and make it function splendidly. One day this may happen, but as far as unorganized casuals, this game can still be fun with loose teamwork and people just doing what they want in collaboration with what their team is doing (solo infiltrations but calling out your attack to your team so they can tank rush sacrifice to defend your move, or field combat but prioritizing targets that oppose your teammates such as sniping their engineers or countersniping to defend your engineers or even patrolling base while the team is out in field). It's just a great idea to have 32 player public servers for the average casual/newbie in my opinion.

[DoctorB0NG]

...what bothers me more, is that we have about 3 active communities hosting servers, all good communities and servers, and yet it takes all 3 of our populations to populate 2 servers, and yet those communities won't cooperate sometimes and one will host 3 separate servers to populate them instead of just 1 and allowing another community to pick up 1, or try to influence members to play on one or not play on the other.

This. The community benefits when people have a choice of what server to play on. If your choice is Marathon with X mines or Marathon with X mines and you don't like Marathon with X mines, you're in a position where you're not going to enjoy the game nearly as much.

While I personally don't prefer marathon, I realize that others do prefer it, and that's awesome. Variety is the spice of life but currently Renegade-X is lacking options in terms of which servers you can play on and the bottom line is that it hurts the game. Hell, just look at OP. He hops on wanting to play AOW and he can't because the marathon servers have been seeded to high hell.

[Ap2000]

Unfortunately, the non-marathon servers have been pretty much empty since b5 launched.

I don't mind hopping into a marathon session and just play for an hour, but I would prefer the <1h matches.

[RoundShades]

Unfortunately, the non-marathon servers have been pretty much empty since b5 launched.

I don't mind hopping into a marathon session and just play for an hour, but I would prefer the <1h matches.

Not true. EKT Marathon has been the most populated, but CT and TMX have both had whole days they have had a server populated.

If your choice is Marathon and you don't like Marathon, you're in a position where you're not going to enjoy the game nearly as much.

Again, I don't bias, but I can safely vouch, not for someone but as speculation, that Kenz3001 for instance cannot record matches as free and easy as he could in an AOW. I believe I seen him try on several occasions, and he has only once I seen had a lucky break on a match lasting a reasonable time. The rest he played and had to scrap. And while he cannot stay away from RenX, he likely goes days waiting for an AOW before he breaks down and settles begrudgingly on a Marathon.

Now, honestly, rationally he could edit the match recording down to a "Highlights", cutting out uneventful stalemate combat, but if he has to cut out and hour or more of video, don't you think we should cut out an hour or more of gameplay itself? Because the player themself can't just edit out the middle area as they play that hour stalemate in real time.

[Ap2000]

Unfortunately, the non-marathon servers have been pretty much empty since b5 launched.

I don't mind hopping into a marathon session and just play for an hour, but I would prefer the <1h matches.

Not true. EKT Marathon has been the most populated, but CT and TMX have both had whole days they have had a server populated.

Well, it is true when I want to play, which is around 8pm until midnight CET.