Originally Posted by jepzilla

I, for one, was being sarcastic about 24/7 2fort.

One option that would require some scripting would be to set up the second server as a fallover server. Same set of maps, but disable subscriber reserved slots on the servers if there is more than a certain threshold of subscribers on (say, 25%-50%) and the other server has open slots. So in off-peak hours people can still get on to play on the 'full' server but during peak hours get subscribers to seed both server, rather than concentrating on the busy one and leaving the other to wallow in obscurity.

Right now during peak hours it's a common to see almost the entire server wearing -F- tags (and the few non -F-s are regulars). There's more than enough people to fill two servers, given some prodding. Just have to avoid ghettoization of one of them.

Originally Posted by jepzilla

Well what happened with BF2 was the automatic reserved slot system. Before, reserved slots required manual kicks so it was often easier to join server 2 if there was room. As soon as the auto-kick was created, the population of server 2 died as there was no incentive for the regulars to populate it anymore. In 2142 there were two servers running different game modes too, but the Titan server never really took off because even those people who preferred Titan to Conquest still would join the Conquest server rather than seed the Titan. It's actually a very simple calculus: given the choice people would rather join a busy conquest server than an empty Titan server, even if they'd rather play Titan. Later we tried having a small-maps server, which similarly failed to attract any population.

More servers (and hence slots) is awesome and what is needed to grow the community, but trying to make both active by differentiating them is a good idea only in theory. It's one that we've tried before and it hasn't worked in the past. Differentiation isn't sufficient, because a good game of a less preferred map or game type is better than spending an hour seeding an empty server. One server will become a 'boutique' server which people occasionally play small games on, late in the evenings, when a group of people decide to do something different from the usual faire. It will be popular at first as it is new and shiney and people are interested in it, but as the novelty wears off the server population will trend down, towards my prediction. Ultimately that means no extra slots, no more non-subscribers being introduced to the Focused way, and less diverse gameplay because the popular server only plays half the maps.

This is why I'm going to repeat my earlier suggestion. Write a script to monitor the servers, and if one has open spaces and the other has over a certain threshold of regulars/subscribers (like, 30%), disable reserved slots. Hell, I've never worked with the hl2 engine before, but I'll do it if someone can walk me through the parts I'm unfamiliar with.

Originally Posted by icky

If you think you have a good proposal, state it and support it. The decision to put custom maps on the second server was carefully calculated based on input from many people, and not arbitrary at all.