Borderlands: No ping rate displayed on servers... Why?
Author
It's a bit of a ranty topic. So bare with me on this.
I just brought borderlands for my PC. As i'm a fan of co-op FPS's. I've sunk some pretty solid hours into games like team fortress 2 and killing floor.
So to my surprise, dismay and frustration. When you go to the join-game lobby menu the only information you get on each server is it's name and really nothing else.
For most Americans I assume this doesn't pose an issue. Most games are in the USA and therefore ping issues are mute. But for an Australian like myself whose behind a router [ports forwarded..but still] I've found I cannot connect to 9/10 of games on the server screen. I can only join servers near me [servers in Australia]. And with no way to indicate that past the server name. I'm currently screwed.
There is also only a limited and forced number of servers that can be displayed at one time. And there is NO server search feature at all.
My question is: Why do development studios do this? Why do they omit even the most basic of server information like a servers ping number? Is that hard to implement? Games like Team Fortress 2 and Killing Floor have no issues with giving us search tools and ping information. Are they trying to automate and dumb things down for "Joe Average"? or make it consistent with console iterations?
I'm really disappointed because I do enjoy the game. But finding a well running co-op game in Borderlands is an exercise in frustration.
Wow, that is incredibly short-sighted of them. I don't know what recourse you would have besides writing to them and voicing your frustration. Maybe if you aren't the first one to do it they could add it in. It's not like it would be that hard for them to do it.
Because the game was designed primarily for consoles, and they didn't invest the resources into significantly rebuilding the UI for PCs.
Quote:Original post by Cypher19
Because the game was designed primarily for consoles, and they didn't invest the resources into significantly rebuilding the UI for PCs.
I hope thats not the real reason, although it makes sense.
Modern Warfare2 has done something similar (screw PC people), and its a disturbing trend. :(
It's a trend we're gonna have to get used to. You don't get that in left 4 dead either, and Valve has been a pretty PC-centric developer / publisher.
I found Borderlands almost pointless online. First, you have connection issues (forwarding ports for gamespy), lag (user hosted games), and the general gameplay that doesn;t really work for character development (mismatched quests, levels, no online character profile, unclear objectives, bugs, Guild Wars did it much better). It's a shame, because I quite like the game solo.
I found Borderlands almost pointless online. First, you have connection issues (forwarding ports for gamespy), lag (user hosted games), and the general gameplay that doesn;t really work for character development (mismatched quests, levels, no online character profile, unclear objectives, bugs, Guild Wars did it much better). It's a shame, because I quite like the game solo.
As for player hosted games on consoles didnt we try all that crap before?
it was called Wireplay, and it was useless. Internet is not globally good enough to return to that format.
it was called Wireplay, and it was useless. Internet is not globally good enough to return to that format.
Quote:Original post by DesignerWatts
My question is: Why do development studios do this? Why do they omit even the most basic of server information like a servers ping number? Is that hard to implement? Games like Team Fortress 2 and Killing Floor have no issues with giving us search tools and ping information. Are they trying to automate and dumb things down for "Joe Average"? or make it consistent with console iterations?
Most games sell much better on consoles because those are more mainstream machines that, yes, primarily target Joe Average. Because of this it really doesn't make sense to cater to a hardcore PC audience who is probably about 1% of your audience (keep in mind that game budgets have skyrocketed to the point where millions of sales are required to break even).
When you're targetting Joe Average on consoles you supposedly "need" to use match-making because apparently people are too dumb to use server browsers (which I find extremely hard to believe. See: Counterstrike).
The thing about match-making is that it sucks. Matchmaking barely functions for many people, only working well in certain regions/ISP's/network setups and when certain amounts of people are playing and when certain amounts of people aren't playing (yay, server overload). Because of this, match-making systems are rarely going to put people in matches with good pings, especially in a peer-to-peer system.
If you were to show pings what you would get is a bunch of people complaining about how the shitty matchmaking can't find good games, whereas if you simply hide the ping altogether you can leave people in blissful ignorance. 250+ ping? Two bars! Hey that's not bad? Waiting 15 minutes for a game after three disconnects? Well it could be thirty, and you could not be connecting at all. I guess the system is good! Thank god we don't use server browsers anymore.
Quote:Original post by jackolantern1WE HAVE A WINNER!!!
I don't know what recourse you would have besides writing to them and voicing your frustration.
Most of the time these mistakes are just that --- honest mistakes.
Schedules are tight. Some screen don't get much attention. QA gets busy with crashes, desyncs, console product violations, and other significant bugs.
Ping times are nice to know, but they are a feature and not a requirement for the game. The feature is nice to have, but it is invisible during development. As such, it is the kind of detail that is occasionally simply overlooked.
Contact them.
Ask them (NICELY) to put it in one of their updates.
This topic is closed to new replies.
Advertisement
Popular Topics
Advertisement
