I think it's pretty common to tell new or less skilled players that they are stupid and should uninstall the game rather than help them improve. True teamwork is very hard to find around here. I have played with certain people game after game and winning like crazy and playing solid but when I make one mistake and now we lose one game then all a sudden those same mates who were great during wins are telling me I am an idiot and hating on me because we lose one. Watch any replay and read the chat and more often than not it is people yelling at each other telling each other horrible things....people don't know how to lose as a team....this is the greatest team game ever and most people can't understand that. People don't understand that we are lucky to have such a community and such support....there is no love here....everybody hates everyone.

Forgive me if this is the wrong place to post this but I would like to donate to the prize pool so that the prizes are as follows

1st - $200
2nd - $100
3rd - $50

If this is acceptable please let me know how to make this happen. To be clear I am offering to fund the entire prize pool of $350. If the current funding is already in place then I will fund the balance. I don't use discord when I am away for work (near the Arctic circle) so I only use the forum app so please contact me here.

I've been playing this game since 2018 and have logged nearly 4,000 games. A good 2,000 of those are Astro.... Yeah I know I'm pathetic but I like the arcade aspect of it okay.

I played a thousand games of Astro before I ever tried map gen and that's where my bread and butter is now. I've gotten to know the community really well despite not being a discord person. Just playing with different multiplayer map gen games you get exposed to all the different clans and all the high-ranked players and despite a lot of toxicity there is 100x more positivity.

I have been very impressed with how many pro level players, yourself included The Wreck that will play in 1200+ games with professionalism and respect.

One thing that has always shocked me is the makeup of moderation/leadership group. I would fully expect people like yourself and the many other pro level players who have been active over the last 5 years to be a key part in the leadership group of FAF. I don't understand why that isn't the case. I'm sure everyone has different levels of time and effort they can commit to such things but over the past year or so I've started to realize that it's more political than that and it has always had me worry.

As I've said before this game has essentially changed my life. It is the only game I play. It is part of my culture and my way of life. I don't ever want to play a different game. But I'm very worried about the future of FAF.

It seems to me like some moderators don't have the best interest of FAF at heart because they don't understand the game and the community at the level required to have such a role.

I have always wondered what the peak version of FAF is and if we could ever get back there. There are so many updates and changes balance or otherwise I'm just not sure is worth it. I like the changes from a couple years ago that made energy be more important and prevented nukes from being rushed so quickly and slowed the game down a bit because I personally like a more slow and strategic game.

But lately it seems there are so many changes and moderation efforts that seem to go counter to the spirit of the community and the game.

I completely agree with you that there needs to be a standard set for who is in control of this and who makes the decisions all across the board. The pro level players clearly care about this game based on the number of games they play. I'm sure they would play more but as I've noticed it's harder for a 2k player to find a game than it is for a 1200.

I think that the moderators, The balance team, board of directors, every key group that governs this community in this game should be led by the people who play it most not necessarily the people who have certain skill sets. Those people should be under the direction of the people who play it most.

There are a lot of toxic people that play this game a lot so obviously it's not then. But like I said before there are so many pro-level players who log in everyday and play this game and are legitimately good people and treat others well and understand the essence of what this community is because they are immersed in it.

I am not a pro-level player and I went through my stage of being a toxic piece of shit for the first few years of playing but over the past few years I have really chilled out and that's probably because I got a job that has me traveling to the remote places of the world so much where I can't get a good internet signal and now when I get home I appreciate the game so much more.

I feel I understand the game and the community pretty well and if I had more time to commit I would be a great fit on some level. My point is that I'm a great example of the type of person in this community and have played nearly 4,000 games and would be an excellent person to be a moderator if only I had the time.

Take any of my replays from my first few years of playing and you would say the hell with this guy but that doesn't represent who I am now and I'm sure this is the case for many people.

There's probably people that are currently banned that if given another chance they would be excellent community members.

I think there needs to be a complete rethink of how we operate because it's up to us to keep this going. The moderator s that are currently in place need to take a big step back and if you really care then you will support the efforts of the community to keep this thing alive.

Taking this name change rule as an example it is so clear that the community does not want it and your best thing you could have done is revert it and move forward because that's what the community wants but instead you spend however many days or weeks now justifying and defending the decision..... It's low level tyranny...

Give the people what they want... In most cases that is the best way forward for a small gaming.

I'm not familiar with the exact structure of how this is all governed and moderated but again I say there needs to be a serious retrofit of all systems. I've seen so many posts for the balance team makes changes and they are so unpopular but the changes are just defended over and over again rather than reverting them based on the will of the people.

Somehow someway we got to get to a point where the most mature and dedicated players are the ones who make key decisions. I manage hundreds of people in my role at work and the best way to get them to do the job.... The best way for the company I represent to succeed... is to give them what they want.... And all they want when they are at work is to be given the resources they need and the support they need to succeed and they will. Very rarely will I make decisions that go against what the group wants because they care about these projects just as much as I do as their manager. Everyone that works for me is constantly telling me this is the best place they've ever worked and they never want to leave and I take a lot of pride in that because we're not doing things my way we're doing things our way. My senior corporate managers didn't understand it at first but the results speak for themselves. The way of the company has to be the way of the people. I'm lucky enough to have managers that recognize this and they step back and let us do our thing.

If the governing body of FAF needs to have the keys to the kingdom because of legal reasons and irreplaceable skill sets such as coding and all that stuff then so be it but the best thing they can do is take a backseat and let the people who love and care for this and play this the most shape this and build this.

Okay I've said enough. I'm not even going to proofread it.

If you are in a game where anyone builds 8 novax uncontested then you should be very happy when that game ends no matter what team you are on.

@zhanghm18 within the organization I work for we have something in our employee code of conduct called incivility. I'm sure everyone knows what that is but essentially it allows the company to dismiss an individual for disrupting the workforce and bringing down morale. They don't have to actually specifically attack character or be abusive or harassing. Essentially if they are inciting others to have a negative view of the company or are being disruptive in similar fashion then we are allowed to dismiss them for incivility.

I've never been a moderator in any type of online forum but I think a similar clause in the code of conduct should be considered.

In my opinion if certain people only seem to want to be part of this community to tear it down in some way then we don't need them. This would tie back into the topic at hand and would be one less way why certain things suck right now.

@ganima said in The End of FAF:

This thread is very confusing for me. It's very hard for me to tell who is telling the truth.

Its not really about truth or lies its about differences of opinions in which case everybody is telling the truth.

It is clear that there are so many passionate people who are a part of this community and I trust that such debates will make the community stronger and that people who may have chosen to leave will return and help build it further.

I started my FAF career as a -700 after a half dozen games. It was pretty scary but didn't take long to turn it around. I would argue that people who quit FAF after losing their first half dozen or so games didn't really have their heart in it and were going to quit whether their rank said -700 or 300 after such a stretch.

@indexlibrorum said in $350 BigBrain 1x1 Tournament:

@dorset Really cool Dorset! Very kind.

Thank you....but Skrat is putting much more into this than me.

@brutus5000 said in What is going on with FAF?:

Please guys. If you want to donate for the cause of FAF that is fine. But don't donate and expect and problems to be resolved in return. This is not something we can guarantee.

Absolutely understood. I suppose the better term I should have used is support rather than donate... Support can come in many forms, financial, skill set, or even just positive attitude. All I can do is bring a positive attitude and support the developers by not whining and complaining about the state of FAF every time I log on and I am more than happy to donate financially to a game that I care so much about and spend so much time playing.

It's clear from this thread there is no easy fix so I'm not going to expect the few hundred dollars that I donate a year to instantly change that but it might go towards ensuring our tournaments at FAFLive continue to have great turnouts due to respectable prize pools and that the lights stay on so to speak.

As great as my skill set is in my own life and career it is completely useless for what is required here at FAF but it brings me joy to be able to support financially.

The greatest first person shooter game ever created was Battlefield 2142. There never was a game like it and there never will be again. When Battlefield 3 came out the community kept 2142 going.... Right up until the moderators scared everyone away and ruined the fun of it all....FAF has all the ingredients to survive whatever next gen game comes along to compete with it... Unless the people get scared off for no good reason.

It's shocking to me that the moderators can't see from this thread that the will of the people is clear. Just do the right thing and switch it back.

I got one week left in my 7-week shift up north and I get to come home and play FAF for 2 and 1/2 weeks straight while I get day drunk and realize that I can't handle my weed anymore and get yelled at in chat by young RAGErs because I'm playing like crap... but I'm getting worried that there'll be nothing left for me to play when I return.....

Please just do the right thing and switch it back....

@funkoff if this is what you bring to ladder than please just stick to custom games where you can host your own map the way you like. Quitting on people after they have waited in que is selfish and toxic.

I started my FAF career as a -700 after a half dozen games. It was pretty scary but didn't take long to turn it around. I would argue that people who quit FAF after losing their first half dozen or so games didn't really have their heart in it and were going to quit whether their rank said -700 or 300 after such a stretch.

@cocainediesel that would be cool actually in my opinion. If you could order it straight out of the gate the way you want.

@cheerios what do you suggest?

I personally think the game is already too fast. I'd like it slowed down even more if it were up to me. Good thing it's not lol.

@sainserow Thank you. Actually pretty much exclusively only play map gen for the last 2,000 or so games. I hit Astro every now and again because I like the arcade aspect of it. I think you're right though playing some 3v3 would be better than the 6v6 + I usually play.

Not trying to get off topic because I feel it's related so apologies if it leads that way.

I would love it if FAF allowed the option of not having artillery/game enders/novax in a ranked match. That way we could have amazing back and forth battles that would result with such changes to sacu's. I feel like by the time any typical 40-minute plus long match gets to the point where such T3.5 to T4 battles occur at any scale they are overshadowed by multiple t3 artilleries, novax spam and game enders concluding the match. These types of changes that make sacus more viable and allow for the epic battles we all yearn for will be very short-lived because people will always resort to building game enders, artillery and Novax spam so is there really a point in changing anything?

I love the idea of the changes but I just wonder how practical they are considering what typically occurs from the 40-minute mark onward.

I think if everyone is consenting to a ranked match that doesn't include artillery, game enders and novax then it should be allowed as long as land, sea and air and all other units are enabled. I wouldn't want ranked matches that didn't include one or more of the three theaters of war.

Aside from that I think ras sacu should be introduced into Sera... Anytime I'm Sera at the point I want to get ras sacu I end up getting a different engineer off a teammate which isn't the end of the world but we might as well have ras for sera.

These are the thoughts of an under ranked noob with 4,000 games.

I think this might be a hot key combination similar to the cheat menu. Oftentimes in games you'll see it says that a certain player is trying to cheat but all it means is that they're accidentally hitting the key combination that's trying to open the cheat menu for when a person's in sandbox mode playing around. Pretty sure this is similar but don't quote me lol

@thewreck You're still here?.... Why?

And I stand by everything I said. You guys should all sign out and never sign back in again. You would be doing the 99% a huge favor. I guess it's a matter of perspective but in my mind cleaning out the trash isn't toxic. It might be from your perspective but from the cleaners perspective it's the exact opposite of toxicity.

@thewreck I'm not having a tantrum just sick and tired of you and your little group. You're going to try and twist my words because that's all you guys do. You've been doing it for years. I'm not the only one who's tired of you guys.