There was a reason for it... HLDS doesn't scale its load in a linear manner - for every player you add, the load seems to grow exponentially. I know 18 is better... the current server just doesn't have what it takes to go the extra mile however. Bah.

That makes me wonder. What are the current stats for marine/alien wins? I know for a fact 6v6 is the balance point for the game, but that's for far more skilled players than we tend to see. Since larger teams tend to favor marines more and more, some departure from that is certainly a good idea, but where do we fall on the average right now?

December's stats:

505 Alien victories
404 Marine victories

...so yet again, aliens have the upper hand.

Aliens always have the upper hand in a smaller gang because their resource flow is so much faster. Even worse, a small game which turns into a large game gives aliens an almost unlimited supply of resources. Since the jiggly server is only 16 strong, and most of the day is not full, aliens usually always have the advantage because of the small games. Also commanding really is hard compared to the free for all alien style gameplay.

16 or 18 are both good sizes imo. an extra person per team doesn't make a huge difference.

Hey thx for the new server JP and MEP. I just came back from RL to play ff and tfc again. Long live Jiggly puff!

zomg EDIT NOTIFICATIONS, oh no, my days of endless post revisions are over

That's 44% though - that's an all-time high for Jigglypuff marines. (Previous recorded all time high was 29% back in May, IIRC)

It's *possible* to win small games (4v4, 3v3) but ye gotta play dirty. I think the fatal flaw with small games is marines still use big-game tactics. In small games, aliens can't both gather nodes and defend their hive at the same time, and unlike the alien base, the marine base is mobile. So the trick is to nail down the origin hive within the first five minutes - even if it means sacrificing the base. The aliens *can* get a second hive going in this time, but if they do, odds are you'll only have one onos to deal with, and he'll be a one-hive onos at that, plus you’ll buy yourself time to play catch-up. (And if the aliens are sporting, you won't see an onos at all - although that also likely means yer up against better players.)
_________________
"The Amer-Indian nation of Lakota declared independence from the United States today. This was among the top 10 stories in Europe, Latin America, Australia, and the Philippines, but not a peep from any major American media outlet on the subject." - Amy Goodman 12/19/2007
Thothie

my best and fairly successful strategy is to relocate to one of the hives while nabbing all the res towers between marine start and the hive, while another marine caps res around the map. Then push to lock down the second hive, if you have decent enough players you can then slowly sandwich the aliens back by taking over the the res.

Marines can get away with some crazy shit in tiny games, unless the aliens have some dedicated gorge hiding away in hive, but I have to say Thoth is totally correct. People play small games the same as they do larger ones. That said, I've always found relocating to one hive and then locking down a second to work pretty well if you've got marines who can shoot at all, too. Turret farming ftl and all that, but enough of them with a HMG popping back and forth between your hives and nothing is going to take them down at hive 1. I still like to bet everything on relocating into the active hive, however. Great fun.

new server? oh man, i picked a nice time to start playing again.

thanks, mr. pink <3

Ya, and if they have a decent understanding of the games mechanics, and how to be a team player or listen to commands then you're set...

wooo co map

is it up yet?

yeah yeah, i was on it for a few games earlier. shiny.

sooo exciting. wish i was around to play on it. I'll have to wait until after I get back from san diego