It's funny really, how I'm of almost the opposite opinion than Chadz. For me, MP native brought to me something that I thought was missing from SP, the ability to be a simple soldier. In native SP, no matter if you're a pauper or a king, you're always a commander, and mid-late game, you don't get to fight as much if you want to progress. The thing is, I don't want all that focus on me.
Sure, more character customization would be nice for native (that's what drew me to cRPG for the week or so that I played it, and from a modder's perspective, it's art), but not at the cost of grinding for it. Unless cRPG has changed drastically, no matter what extra features are put on it, at it's core, it still grinding, whether it's for equipment or for ability.
And that's why I jumped to PW Mod, there I could roleplay the faceless soldier. What's the problem? There's only one active server, and that's an EU server. Why? I don't know, but I will say that cRPG fills up servers (hex-edited to contain 100-200 players) in a disproportionate way, not only in comparison to Native, but to all other mods as well, and this is what really pisses me off. Why should I have to deal with servers populated under-par or mods that never reach their full potential because one mod is keeping them all? Why should the work of other modders not reach it's full potential because one mod is sucking up a disproportionate amount of people? Heck it would be okay if we had a larger community, but we don't. So now people like me who honestly tried cRPG and were not fond of it have to deal with a lack of people to play with.
Also, you said there was no successful native clan competition system? I don't think that's native's fault. I think that's the fault of the clans who end up squabbling because each clan has it's vision of what should be happening and the host didn't have the balls to say "Shut up and play; this is the way this is going to go down, if you don't like it, your loss." Why did it turn out different for you? You're a mod-dev, you have a certain authority over your mod (charismatically), and you are the only one who could really give an integrated system, ie. you don't have to say it.
Likewise, have a look at K-TIT, that seems to be moving along rather nicely. Sure, it's not purely clan-based, but a lot of teams are composed from one clan only.
Phazey said:
Now take cRPG. Every night, almost every round, people strategize, teams organize and people kinda have to stick to some sort of a plan. Simply because: if the other team successfully play a tactic, they have to counter by also using a tactic and playing as a team.
And you think this doesn't happen in Native? You'd be surprised what a simple "Cav, hold back for a second and rape em in the back when we get there" in battle mode, or "let's group up and hit the side door" in siege can do. I see it on a daily basis.
@Arch, you do have a point, but I will say that in the NA, we don't have the choice to find a regular TDM or DM server. We have 2 regularly populated battle servers, and a siege server. I miss TDM and DM, and a lot of others do too, since sometimes, you'll see a TDM server skyrocket from 0 to full. Unfortunately, it dies out later on.