So basically, AoD isn't populated 24/7 (but it still seems to get a daily high of 12+ average), and I'm thinking we could basically have a recon mode for when a low amount of players are on (say about 1 to 4... or more).
If just one player is on, they can choose any map in the AoD library (you'd probably have to make some special thing that displays a good amount of them at a time, probably in a similar fashion to how achievements are displayed) in which they can explore the maps for as long as they like with no worries (until someone else joins).
If more than one player is on, but not enough players are on for a fun/interesting game, then after the map is chosen, another poll will be taken to see if they want to play it in Recon mode, with the addition of a quick poll every few minutes to see if they want to stay or move on.
If a bunch of players are on, the Recon poll will not show up unless enough people type a certain command (let's say it requires about 40% of online players to use /Recon for example).
How Recon mode will play would be that everyone is in the map's default mode with their default kit, but they can't attack each other or get killed by anything (except for void), players can change to spectator at will, people can edit the terrain as they would if it was actually playing as a normal round, and people can teleport to spawn at will.
The reasons I think this would be nice are as follows:
*Gives people another reason to get on despite no one else being on.
*Allows people to admire the scenery without fear of.
*Makes it easier for people to come up with cool and interesting strategies.
*Allows new players to get familiar with any particular maps other people normally trounce them on.
Only downsides I can presently see:
*People being unpredictable in rude and inconvenient ways.
*Your little secret god weapon(s) will become very easy to find by any one, not just yourself (oh wait, this should go on the list of good things)
Lastly, I'd maybe like to see something like this in RoF, but it's a bit less useful because apart from rising lava and mobs, you don't really have anything to be worried about there.
If just one player is on, they can choose any map in the AoD library (you'd probably have to make some special thing that displays a good amount of them at a time, probably in a similar fashion to how achievements are displayed) in which they can explore the maps for as long as they like with no worries (until someone else joins).
If more than one player is on, but not enough players are on for a fun/interesting game, then after the map is chosen, another poll will be taken to see if they want to play it in Recon mode, with the addition of a quick poll every few minutes to see if they want to stay or move on.
If a bunch of players are on, the Recon poll will not show up unless enough people type a certain command (let's say it requires about 40% of online players to use /Recon for example).
How Recon mode will play would be that everyone is in the map's default mode with their default kit, but they can't attack each other or get killed by anything (except for void), players can change to spectator at will, people can edit the terrain as they would if it was actually playing as a normal round, and people can teleport to spawn at will.
The reasons I think this would be nice are as follows:
*Gives people another reason to get on despite no one else being on.
*Allows people to admire the scenery without fear of.
*Makes it easier for people to come up with cool and interesting strategies.
*Allows new players to get familiar with any particular maps other people normally trounce them on.
Only downsides I can presently see:
*People being unpredictable in rude and inconvenient ways.
*Your little secret god weapon(s) will become very easy to find by any one, not just yourself (oh wait, this should go on the list of good things)
Lastly, I'd maybe like to see something like this in RoF, but it's a bit less useful because apart from rising lava and mobs, you don't really have anything to be worried about there.
