I love the idea of rewarding loyal players, but I fail to see a viable solution as most things considered, veterans don't need to be more overpowered than they already are. ?
All things considering, the servers pop is slowly rising...
Of course, if it should fall again, then I guess another overhaul of the server may be in order.
I agree that wasteland should be more deathmatch orientated than grinding simulator.
If I had the devs that could dedicate 100% of their time back in my day I imagined a very different style of wasteland one focused on skill and deatchmatch over grinding.
No survival elements (food/ water/ fatigue~ leads deathmatch focus astray)
Fully coded/ balanced server events (events weren't necessarily balanced back in my day due to lack of coding)
No thermals or unmanned vehicles (leads gameplay away from skill)
Low/ medium tier vehicles & all weapons dirt cheap while high end within reason (perhaps nerfing of particular elements to balance those pesky high-end vehicles)
Spawn with 10k, earn 5k per capture, earn 10k per 20 minutes etc... (everyone rich = more balanced between new & long term players/ skill-based gameplay over grindfest)
2 teams, with no faction bonuses or benefits
Unique 'event' mission files/ server events such as Hardcore (first person only/ no crosshair etc) , tanks only, bolt action snipers only etc...
essentially I envisioned a skill based style deathmatch that attempted to find a balance between newcomers and long-term players. A form of play between fun/ tactics.
Imagine a new player to straya wasteland;
Scoreboard showing veterans having over 50+ kills
exploring money grinding vs item costs
realizing that veterans have quite a bit more cash than they do
getting killed relentlessly by the same veteran/ veteran groups
starting off lone wolf trying to purchase stuff in stores guarded via air/ formidable force
etc...
Pretty off-putting I'd say ?
mmmm perhaps a li'll too much space? ?
The minority has the potential to become the majority.
Not all players have buddies that can team up together to help take down a threat, and for those that try, they are generally fronted with a formidable veteran squad utilizing both vehicles and tactics to their advantage. Yes, you can argue that's the point of the game, but as server owners they have to consider the li'll people. ?