Why are the servers so hard to fill?

[Surf314]

Just curious, I haven't played in a while and when I played today the server was perpetually stuck between 12 and 14 players which was odd because I'm used to it jumping to 24 as soon as it hits 8.

[jdub28]

This may be hot or miss, but the reason I havent been playing much is NCAA football 09. So I guess that game and Soul Calibur 4 have something to do with it

[broonor]

I accept full blame for these shenanigans.  But I have arrived in Arizona, so my server filling (emptying?) skills are once again in working order.

[copulatingduck]

I've noticed lots of servers are having issues with filling lately, not just our own. I blame the pyro updates causing people to burn out on TF2 from shear frustration. For instance, the TF2F servers have been having TONS of trouble filling servers, enough that they've lost 2 of their original 7 servers. That being said, FatGamer's bball server usually fills pretty fast. 

[KarthXLR]

I accept full blame for these shenanigans.  But I have arrived in Arizona, so my server filling (emptying?) skills are once again in working order.

Arizona...^5

[CaffeinePowered]

I blame the pyro updates causing people to burn out on TF2 from shear frustration.

Reference Kor and to some extent myself

The problem we face on #1 is that people usually fill the server with a scrub map like 2fort or Goldrush, and then the next map changes to something like Impact2, well odds are any custom is going to make the server lose half its pop. Now if you fill on a map like Orange_x4, Mach4, Warpath2, you can feel safe switching to almost anything and people are going to download it.

Its jut about the crowd in the server and whether they appreciate customs or not.

[rumsfald]

Just curious, I haven't played in a while and when I played today the server was perpetually stuck between 12 and 14 players which was odd because I'm used to it jumping to 24 as soon as it hits 8.

The word has gotten out that Scotty is back, so everyone has moved on to a new game that is that exceeds his new system specs.

Poor Scotty.

[ScottyGrayskull]

[quote author=Surf314 link=topic=1020.msg26544#msg26544 date=1217547209]
Just curious, I haven't played in a while and when I played today the server was perpetually stuck between 12 and 14 players which was odd because I'm used to it jumping to 24 as soon as it hits 8.

The word has gotten out that Scotty is back, so everyone has moved on to a new game that is that exceeds his new system specs.

Poor Scotty.

[/quote]

They've all moved on to Crysis? :S

[Squishy3]

[quote author=rumsfald link=topic=1020.msg26567#msg26567 date=1217553333]
[quote author=Surf314 link=topic=1020.msg26544#msg26544 date=1217547209]
Just curious, I haven't played in a while and when I played today the server was perpetually stuck between 12 and 14 players which was odd because I'm used to it jumping to 24 as soon as it hits 8.

The word has gotten out that Scotty is back, so everyone has moved on to a new game that is that exceeds his new system specs.

Poor Scotty.

[/quote]

They've all moved on to Crysis? :S
[/quote]no we got advance copies of doom 4

sorry scotty

[Wedge]

Well it's full now... and I Just finished redownloading it.....

[ToiletDuck]

Well it's full now... and I Just finished redownloading it.....

i can confirm this.

[dapngwnman]

It is because I'm not around playing almost like 18/7.

DONT WORRY ILL FIX IT IN A WEEK.

[ainmosni]

For #3 it probably has to do with the weather as well, who wants to be inside playing a game when it's sunny and warm... Outside becomes a lot more appealing...

Allthough it filled up well yesterday... only clearing out on warpath2...

[hawtpawkithero]

I disagree. They fill up quickly as usual.

[Budr]

What Caff said.

[CaffeinePowered]

What Caff said.

Also this week I'm going to test an all custom rotation, you can still rtv to stock, but none will come by default

[Budr]

[quote author=Budr link=topic=1020.msg26622#msg26622 date=1217579511]
What Caff said.

Also this week I'm going to test an all custom rotation, you can still rtv to stock, but none will come by default
[/quote]

I remember you mentioning this the other day. Obviously, I'm wholly against the idea but I did wonder about the option of one custom, one stock server.

[Surf314]

The quality of customs at this point makes an all custom server very viable and customs tend to attract a better class of gamer.  The only issue is that it can make it really hard to seed.

Basically the regulars need to try and organize better on #1 and the admins need to be around for #2 more often.  I think the way to think about it is #1 is mostly the server for us, those that have shown to be awesome and frequent the forums and like to have fun together, whereas #2 is for the pubs and the new people we want to come and try us out and join the community if they meet the basic requirement of not being an asshat.  Obviously this is just a general rule as plenty of pubs will still come into #1 and regulars are encouraged to go to #2 but it will go a long way to socially engineering what everyone seems to want which is a server that is community oriented and one that is very open to pubs.

[Budr]

custom server very viable and customs tend to attract a better class of gamer.

Elitism FTW

[CaffeinePowered]

[quote author=CaffeinePowered link=topic=1020.msg26652#msg26652 date=1217601906]
[quote author=Budr link=topic=1020.msg26622#msg26622 date=1217579511]
What Caff said.

Also this week I'm going to test an all custom rotation, you can still rtv to stock, but none will come by default
[/quote]

I remember you mentioning this the other day. Obviously, I'm wholly against the idea but I did wonder about the option of one custom, one stock server.
[/quote]

Stock's won't be unavailable, you can still rtv to them, the problem Ive just seen in monitering the server over time (and this is sort of an oversimplification) is you have two kinds of TF2 player, those who download customs and those who don't, it can kind of be aggravating when you fill on a map like 2fort/dustbowl and then it switches to any custom, it could be a popular one like labor or mach4, but the server is still going to lose 33 - 50% of its population. These people don't care, they'll play dustbowl or goldrush day in and day out and have fun with just that.

And there are other players that want to try new things, there are players that will join a server just to see what strange custom is playing on it. They either already have a fuckton of customs or will download almost anything. If you absolutely hate custom maps, well then, hunker down on #2 for the week. I want to see how it goes and if people in general like the custom rotation, see if the server attracts more people, ect.

[quote author=Surf314 link=topic=1020.msg26661#msg26661 date=1217603618]
custom server very viable and customs tend to attract a better class of gamer.

Elitism FTW[/quote]

I don't believe thats true at all, the elitism that is. Reference the amount of administrative issues with Server #2 as opposed to Server #1. I don't want to completely generalize because you're going to have good people and asshats in both groups and thats also the reason we have multiple servers, to attract good people on both ends.