Topic: EAW or OP, which is better when fully patched?

[**DONOTDELETE**]

Well, EAW IS dead for me, has been since about 1 minute prior to the installation of OP, since I deleted EAW for an identical, but improved game.

Stand-alone expansion, HAH!

HAND!
 

[Scipio_66]

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Granted, everyone's mileage may vary, but I've always seen more stability on OP dyna servers.  I think the Dyna community would do itself a big favor by getting in there and supporting the OP dyna platform.
 

I'm willing to believe this is true for you, but it hasn't been for me.  My first question on my first OP dyna match was, "Is this much lag normal?"  My second was, "no really, I'm serious.  Stop laughing.  Is this much lag normal for OP?"

I'll grant you the issue has gotten better since OP standard backed off from that rediculous default speed of 9, but the difference in lag and CTD's is still immediately noticeable to me.  <shrug>

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 OP [dyna] has more ...  race slots, etc.

Serious question here.  The above is a reason many people quote for pefering the OP dyna, but is it true?  My understanding is that you can't get more than 8 races on the imperial or the pirate map, and the map interaction bugs still exist.  (At least I have never been able to when experimenting with the OP D2 package.)  Is there any hope that the upcoming D2 patch for OP will address the map interaction bugs?

-S'Cipio

 

[FireSoul]

It happens that I need info on those exact bugs. I think these were posted in the OLD forums at some point, but ..

.. anyways, like in the D2 Experiences forum for the thread that's asking for data.

-- Luc

[Dogmatix!]

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Quote:


Granted, everyone's mileage may vary, but I've always seen more stability on OP dyna servers.  I think the Dyna community would do itself a big favor by getting in there and supporting the OP dyna platform.
 

I'm willing to believe this is true for you, but it hasn't been for me.  My first question on my first OP dyna match was, "Is this much lag normal?"  My second was, "no really, I'm serious.  Stop laughing.  Is this much lag normal for OP?"

I'll grant you the issue has gotten better since OP standard backed off from that rediculous default speed of 9, but the difference in lag and CTD's is still immediately noticeable to me.  <shrug>

Quote:
 OP [dyna] has more ...  race slots, etc.

Serious question here.  The above is a reason many people quote for pefering the OP dyna, but is it true?  My understanding is that you can't get more than 8 races on the imperial or the pirate map, and the map interaction bugs still exist.  (At least I have never been able to when experimenting with the OP D2 package.)  Is there any hope that the upcoming D2 patch for OP will address the map interaction bugs?

-S'Cipio

 

Yes, S'Cipio...as I was trying to say, I assume that there are exceptions to the general rule that OP tends to be more stable in multi-player than EAW.  Given there's a new patch, you may wish to give it another try and see if things have gotten better for you.  In NO CASE have I personally found stability on OP to be any worse than EAW and EAW has the benefit of a few more patches, if I'm not mistaken.

As for your second question, I freely admit that absent a lot of hard work testng server settings prior to an OP campaign going live, you can end up with problems caused by pirates abd the cartel map.  Rook's Tavern 3 managed to be an extrmemely fun campaign with no map interaction problems that I remember AND it had active pirate cartels.  It is possible, so yes, it is true.  Is it difficult to get things configured properly?  I guess so, because I haven't seen too many poeple accomplish it.

Race slot aren't all OP has more of.  It has more ship slots in the shiplist and It has more weapon types.  This means increased modability.  That's a good thing.

I have no idea what is or isn't planned in terms of future OP patches.  I wouldn't hold my breath for another one, that's for sure.  


 

[FireSoul]

You do realize, now that it is know there is going to be another patch, that people's opinions may have to change on this subject?  Once the OP patch is out, I'll let people decide for themselves what they think is best, tho.

-- Luc

[Julin Eurthyr]

Quote:
Yes, S'Cipio...as I was trying to say, I assume that there are exceptions to the general rule that OP tends to be more stable in multi-player than EAW.  Given there's a new patch, you may wish to give it another try and see if things have gotten better for you.  In NO CASE have I personally found stability on OP to be any worse than EAW and EAW has the benefit of a few more patches, if I'm not mistaken.

As for your second question, I freely admit that absent a lot of hard work testng server settings prior to an OP campaign going live, you can end up with problems caused by pirates abd the cartel map.  Rook's Tavern 3 managed to be an extrmemely fun campaign with no map interaction problems that I remember AND it had active pirate cartels.  It is possible, so yes, it is true.  Is it difficult to get things configured properly?  I guess so, because I haven't seen too many poeple accomplish it.

Race slot aren't all OP has more of.  It has more ship slots in the shiplist and It has more weapon types.  This means increased modability.  That's a good thing.

I have no idea what is or isn't planned in terms of future OP patches.  I wouldn't hold my breath for another one, that's for sure.  

Here's my take on the 2 major OP campaigns I've played:

Rooks Tavern 3.  My first major campaign & my first RM job.  Biggest issue was the (perceived) ability of the "Organian Forces", ISC / Mirak / Syndicate cartel, to take and hold conquered space, while the Alliance / Coalition, with no (maybe a few) pirate players were restricted to not being able to raise DV above the hex flip default (without placing lots of bases).
Major Lessons learned that campaign:  Cannot run map with all one pirate cartel allied to everyone.  Started to see and identify other cartel / hex DV issues.  

Slave Girls 2.  Was an Alliance SM (server moderator, initially was not tied to races.  I picked Fed as the Coalition slots were filling up quickly and nobody took the Alliance side... ).  Server was set up where each player had both an empire & pirate account, took care of the hex flipping issues somewhat (needed to send pirate players to soften up an area before the empires swiped it / raised the DV), but was frustrating in that the cartel DVs were hidden by the empire ones...

The speed bug (where Feds & pirates could still jack the game speed up / down at will) did major damage to both servers, and my willingness to play on other OP servers.

After those 2 servers, where players flagrantly speed-bugged me despite my SM tag, I finally decided to play EAW D2, and have been waiting (eagerly) for the dust to settle on OP and the chance to get back in the action there.  Even if they do decide to put my I-torps to the same one-per-turn standard now in EAW...

I do still play OP, single player and LAN games.  I haven't played a single SP EAW game since the EAW campaigns were recompiled.  

[FireSoul]

Then I hope you will try OP again after the next patch. The speed bug has been squashed in 2538. Other D2 bugs are being squashed for this next patch. OP will be be-au-ti-ful after this.

-- Luc

[FireSoul]

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I do still play OP, single player and LAN games. I haven't played a single SP EAW game since the EAW campaigns were recompiled.

Oh. You're welcomed. Then I am glad I took the time to debug them and make sure it all works.
-- Luc

[Wolf2525]

After reading all this, I'm really glad I was able to locate a copy.  I really don't know why I didn't buy it when it first came out.  I kinda regret that now, especially with how much fun EAW has become since I dusted it off.  Still haven't played much online yet, with either EAW or SFCIII, but have been having an absolute blast even in the single player campaigns.

[Cleaven]

It would be cool to create a simple way to install the new modded D2 missions into the the single player EAW for OP campaigns, esp the ones using the config files. There are a lot of people who have never experienced them because editing .gf files is not their cup of tea.

<I don't mean as part of the patch>