Why Insurgency's Player Count is Low

[ryan]

Insurgency is a well developed game. I am in no means hating on this game when I make this post, despite being upset with some of the updates in this game (aka the death cam.)

This games player base isn't lacking because the game is bad, it's because the realistic tactical genre has become a smaller and smaller niche over recent years. Games like Squad, Post Scriptum, Hell Let Loose, Rising Storm 2 and anything else that comes to your mind that you'd consider a TRUE realistic tactical shooter is struggling as well.

True tactical shooters are past time now. The old Insurgency was good when it was a trend to play a realistic tactical shooter. The only game recently to do well is Escape from Tarkov, and that's because it had a grindy system that felt rewarding and valuable to players, in other terms it was more of a looter shooter. That is something Insurgency will always lack, a leveling system that keeps players playing because it was never designed to be that way since the original game.

They probably feel some pressure to adjust to what the new demand for games is, which is why we see so many absurd cosmetics now.

It's cool to be upset with some changes to the game, but keep in mind the player base will never make a comeback or change unless the market changes. Personally, I blame games like Fortnite for this.

[prostatic fluid]

One of the main issues is the crappy optimization, UE4 is strange engine, there's a games that was developed on UE4 and they have a really good performance, and then THIS game that can compete with ARK: Survival Evolved in crappy performance issues.

[Bean]

Sandstorm was in really bad shape when it was released, and continued to be in bad shape for a year after that. As a huge fan of OG Insurgency, I kept coming back to check on the game, but it still just ran like crap even though I had a pretty decent system at the time (7600k & GTX 1080).

For a year any hype generated by it's release, sales, free weekends, was always extinguished quickly, likely due to how poorly the game ran (look at the steam charts). Due to this, I always played for a couple hours and put it down disappointed hoping some day that optimization would get better. I would have never suggested the game to any one at the time.

This summer though, I returned again like i normally would every few months to check on the development and WOW. The developers finally did it. This is finally a well developed, decently optimized game. Easily the best shooter out there IMO. I have suggested to all my friends and now 13 of us play regularly. But unfortunately too many people were burned by how poor the game was for a full year before that... I don't blame any one who has decided to forget about Insurgency due to this.

[Ghoolish]

I don't want a leveling system. I grew up playing games that didn't have them and I still don't want them. This game is good for people like me.

[-ExiLe`]

I think the genre is growing again actually, smaller youtube channels are growing and bigger channels starting to cover these games more and more, especially squad.

The cool thing about Squad is that they keep improving and building upon their original formula, without changing or watering it down in any way. They have the balls to do that and it seems to be working. All they're doing is making it bigger and better.

Wish NWI did this too, instead of starting to cater to more mainstream audiences. The mixed bag of features just makes it unclear in what this game actually wants to be and honestly only worsens it's identity crisis. While this strategy might help getting some new players, it also is a sacrifice on the existing playerbase, unpleasing a big portion of it, especially the original fans.

I believe a good product with proper marketing will sell itself. And they have such good base for it.

[Space Force]

Originally posted by frodough:

I don't want a leveling system. I grew up playing games that didn't have them and I still don't want them. This game is good for people like me.

+1
a leveling system.... like CoD/BF? i can assure you people dont play this game to grind for accessories and weapons [and perks?]. i wish i could hide my level in this game because having that displayed is pointless

[ryan]

Originally posted by Space Force:

Originally posted by frodough:

I don't want a leveling system. I grew up playing games that didn't have them and I still don't want them. This game is good for people like me.

+1
a leveling system.... like CoD/BF? i can assure you people dont play this game to grind for accessories and weapons [and perks?]. i wish i could hide my level in this game because having that displayed is pointless

I also agree, I'm just saying a majority of people want something to grind that feels valuable to them to keep them playing. In my personal experience, my buddies who all tried the game said "There is no point to playing this game as I get nothing out of it. It just feels pointless to play."
That is why I believe this game like other tactical shooters aren't popular anymore.

Originally posted by Dangerted.vmf:

One of the main issues is the crappy optimization, UE4 is strange engine, there's a games that was developed on UE4 and they have a really good performance, and then THIS game that can compete with ARK: Survival Evolved in crappy performance issues.

I agree the optimization hurt the games population more then any other factors. I think for when this games all time peak was under 15,000 people that isn't a lot considering their previous title exploded out of no where at some point. I mean, I don't expect their peak to be around 50k or anything, maybe more like 25k but still. I think these games just don't attract people anymore the way they use to.

[Operator Chico]

Optimization and slow updates. Not everyone likes slower paced games. But this game isn't slower paced. And it's definitely not tactical

[Wild colonial boy]

There is a small number of players not because fortnite but because of the bad game design. I don't play PVP because they deleted a lot of content from it and I rarely play PVE because the game is very grindy and there are so few maps.

[Wild colonial boy]

Originally posted by frodough:

I don't want a leveling system. I grew up playing games that didn't have them and I still don't want them. This game is good for people like me.

There is a leveling system.

[Wild colonial boy]

Originally posted by Space Force:

Originally posted by frodough:

I don't want a leveling system. I grew up playing games that didn't have them and I still don't want them. This game is good for people like me.

+1
a leveling system.... like CoD/BF? i can assure you people dont play this game to grind for accessories and weapons [and perks?]. i wish i could hide my level in this game because having that displayed is pointless

I play this game only for cosmetics.

[Wild colonial boy]

Originally posted by Operator Chico:

Optimization and slow updates. Not everyone likes slower paced games. But this game isn't slower paced. And it's definitely not tactical

Yeah, it's actually a CoD without markers.

[Bait]

I'd say that a big plus for Squad and other games is precisely the total lack of leveling. Let the players choose it according to the servers they connect to, and that's it. If the server says noob friendly and you're an experienced player, you'll look elsewhere, and vice-versa.

I:S has actually reached its peak in many months with 1.8, and would keep increasing if it was good enough. I'll argue that what's keeping the playerbase from growing is NWI's habit of messing up on execution, which never bodes well - WW3, anyone?

I, for one, can bear losing to my own incompetence or the opponent's skill. I just can't take it when it's the game's fault, and it happens a lot in I:S. I don't think I'm alone in this.

[Scud Actual]

A few reasons I think the player count is low-
1. The game has been out for a while and people have moved on to other games
2. Optimization, the game is tough on rigs. If you don't have a decent rig, this game won't run at all.
3.The market is flooded with shooters. Both tactical and casual. Gamers are spread across too many games.
4. And finally, the game is only on PC.

[NickySins]

Originally posted by Scud Actual:

2. Optimization, the game is tough on rigs. If you don't have a decent rig, this game won't run at all.

Wrong.

I have an i5 2320, an RX460 2 gigs and 12 gigs of ram. Game gets up to 90 FPS, drops down to 30 when ♥♥♥♥ hits the fan, but i can't complain since i can't play a bunch of other games because of my weak rig.

Anyway, in most maps, i get a solid 60 FPS.

[ryan]

Originally posted by Electric Wizard:

For me it's the weird lack of mod support, the pretty bad optimization, the stale maps and the glacial content. I have been saying since this game was in alpha that it will live or die based on mods and I think that ISS's numbers are proving that point. Don't get me wrong, I'm not one of those kids who thinks that if a game doesn't have 50k+ active players then it's dead, but it's definitely slowed down and to be honest I don't think it ever really had a chance to be as big as it should have. Moving to the Unreal engine was a tremendous ordeal and I don't think they anticipated having as hard a time with it as they did.

Until you made this post, I completely forgot I was expecting mod support for a very long time since they announced Sandstorm. Mod support was incredible on old Insurgency.