"Do you remember the last 2 years at all?"
Yep - and I remember how the dev team eventually got cowed into doing what the clannies wanted anyhow.
Things were pretty good until the last two versions as a result.
Now try and remember the response the dev team always gave. That's right, it was "We want to make the mod more attractive and approachable in order to attract new players".
Puh-leeze - there's a difference between lip-service and accomplished event.
IF they truly wanted to make the mod more attractive, then why does one REQUIRE 9 different binds to do in WFA what a player could do in WF with only one generic bind?
IF they were "making it more attractive to newbies", then why did they cave in to the clan-laden screams for a stronger gunner back when 3.1 came out, and then cave completely in the shitstorm back when they suggested a small spin-up may be added to the chaingun?
"It never delivered the popularity they thought it would."
Nor did any other mod in that time, save for the CS-clone Urban Terror.
"Now, we get a couple of pro-clanner versions in a row, people like me actually enjoy pubbing again, and what do you want to do? Go back to the old way that wasn't working."
Working for you, and a very select number of other clannies. So - Now the clannies are all happy! They can now hit the pubs and own everything they see with the greatest of ease! Fuck the newbie! Make 'im PAY his DUES four times as hard as we ever had to!
Tell you what: Come back a year later and tell me how big WFA has grown because of it. I strongly suspect that it will wither and die.
"What does it take to convince you that dumbing down the mod doesn't work?"
No one is asking to give the newbs a free ride here. OTOH, seeing them get fucked harder than ever isn't exactly a way to increase the mod's size, is it?
But wahey - go for it. Let's continue to watch our beloved dev team suck the clannie dick, and see exactly where it leads us... Lots of other mods have fallen to the same phenomenon, so why not WF?
You know? I've ceased to give a shit. I'm tired. I'm burnt-out on the whole FPS thing. I hit pubs and watch a plethora of pro-star bots (I wouldn't be suprised at the number of clannies who do rely on hacked files just to cut it) and 'tweaked-to-the-nth-degree' players devouring newbs with barely working configs, like so much breakfast. I watch packs of aliased clannies sit in spec just to join the winning team, or pretend the phrase "teams!" never showed on their screen. (Don't get me wrong... there are still honorable players out there who do even 'em up, but they're few and far between.)
And now - Weapons Factory Arena has become Cap-Fest Arena. There is no strategy anymore, just a race to see who can rack up the most caps in a single bound, and if your team has more newbs than their team, you're gonna get raped, period.