I've been here over 10 yrs since old Bots(Though not very active) and I am very concerned that the number of online player in a period has been dropping so fast recently. I'm very upset as this is once my favorite game. I do hope that it'd not end up like Bots. I think most of you,being passionate and active, have the same feeling too. Umm...Anyway, let's get down to the business. I'd like to share sth bad in BC I thought of, and it may be a bit offensive to sb, so if you think BC is very good or perfect you can ignore the post
Let's begin with sector. In fact I've been aware of a problem since BC is founded. That is, the difficulty of the maps does not correspond to its level. Generally the games are easier, especially the higher-lv maps(started from 121). It's not good for new players. They can access to a higher xp with less effort on the maps like 126, 172, or 204(now 206), which makes them rely and avoid to try those low lv's which are sophisticatedly designed. As a result, their quality in sector is not good( I mean how they estimate their situation and how they react to accidents, say, a Rorix wanders and see the one concentrating on the other mobs). Also, they can get less joyfulness. Let me share my experience. When I joined Bots long time ago I spent almost 1 yr reaching 100lv but I enjoyed the journey very much. There was no unidirectional training at that time and all the members in the room were to fight together to strive for victory(The mobs were so strong, especially those X8lv's) The most exciting moment must be that the (deputy) boss died and boxes popped out. All ppl ran to the positions to seize them. I always looked forward to body boxes as I wanted to try the corresponding trans of a new body. But BC is different. The new are asked to stay back and wait for xp dropping on their head. The trainers are not so happy either. They did not have to pay so much effort to win the games. It's not a big problem, I would say, until 258 cropped up. 258 is easy and hands out great deal of xp. It was good news to ppl at the moment. They could earn xp and gps efficiently since then. But gradually they got bored and left for other rooms, only to find all are holding 258. Challenge yourselves in hard maps like 219 or 247? You would feel lonely after a few games; no one helps when you are at risks and no one shares the happiness of winning. How about pvp and bvb? There's another problem which will be discussed in the next paragraph. Also, most of the time no one is there. The new suffer too. After they joined BC they would soon found that the best way to lv up is to join rooms and play in 258. They could get to 225 and get the strongest armors within a few days, with their skill barely improved. Maybe they are very good at 258, but they would be at a loss in other maps. Yesterday I joined the room of a 112lv player and there was another 225. The game started in 111lv map. Initially I did not help and just followed their trace until I was taken by surprise. That 225lv got killed. It is an exceptional case, but can still prove the problem is serious. Indeed, they could never feel the delight in the past Bots.
Let's move to pvp. The biggest problem must be that the xp given is not appealing to the sector seekers and there's no incentives for them to play the games(same as bvb). I think most of you know it so I won't elaborate here. Instead I want to talk about the sort of strategies. In old Bots different ppl had their own styles in pvp. And for now there left only 3. The most common one is to raid the others and run away immediately after that. The second one is to wander quickly around sb and wait for him to make an attk; when he fails one can get him with a jump hit. The third is a shield-and-hit game. Ppl stay at a position or wander around sb until one discovers a gap and makes a series of 4 hits to the rivals. Then how about the others? They are out of phase. Not because they are cruder than the 3; it's that the development of BC made no place for them. Originally each type of bots has its own characteristics which inhibit one another. It was well balanced at the start of BC, but as time goes by the max lv increases from 150 to 172, and to 225(non-member); and the armors are much more useful. That made Surge become the big head. I hope you can get the meaning. Surge is now so fast that it can escape from any attk from the trans of ram/patch; it misses so frequently that it can always get free from fateful attks; and their DarkMeto can do certain injuries to the others. These favors those who adopted the first two strategies; and the others, such as camping or waiting for trans to make counterattk, diminish. I rlly appreciated Thank You, a good Holodeck patch player in old Bots, whose style is to walk around and wait his opponents to come very close and meet them with a series of 4 hits. I wonder if he can handle the lag and fast moving surges nowadays. Anyway, that gave rise to the popularity of Flop and Heatsink. Flop has many layers and favors the first adopter and one can push the others so efficiently with a rush or critical attk in Heatsink, which is for the second and third. The other maps are then set aside in the corner
I don't know much about bvb; I am not a smart person. But I do missed the moments that 3 or 4 of us in HK_Killers joined hands together and aimed to beat the rivals
The lack of creativity is what I don't like too. You can see that. The new items released in recent yrs are just the old ones with color changed. For most new sector maps in BC the ideas are also copied from the past with just the color of sites and the mobs changed. 149, 206 and 219 are freshly designed, but only the first has been sophisticatedly designed. It's similar for pvp. Most new maps are from sector or base, and some 'Old' maps are stemmed from the original. Dark Port is the only exception.(I do like it so much). Bvb? There's no addition of maps at all:o. In fact I have come up with some ideas for addition. For pvp the new map can be scattered with the small islands in sector's 186/193lv or the floating buckets in 26/31lv. For bvb the maps can be designed with the elements from pvp, say, a train from power generator hovers round a map; a row of rushing trains from transistor valley is put between the rivals, or some dumps in core dump are set in the middle.
Bots/BC has accompanied me for a very long time. I don't want it to die. I hopes the GMs can make enhancement for the above problems and relight the game again. If you guys have another viewpoints feel free to spek them off. Thank you for your attention, and ignore the grammar mistakes i made
