Second -F- server coming SOON! - Page 6

**icky** · 05-17-2008, 01:55 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bulldog

This happened last night. Server one was filled with what appeared to be mostly Pub players while the second server had all of the regulars. Is the second server advertised on the primary server?

It's going to take some time for things to balance out. Most of our core players hit the custom maps server last night to help it get rolling, and I think it was quite successful. The hard part is getting our semi-regular players to know that there is a custom maps server.

Yes, the custom maps server is advertised on the primary server.

**BHack** · 05-17-2008, 01:59 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bulldog

This happened last night. Server one was filled with what appeared to be mostly Pub players while the second server had all of the regulars. Is the second server advertised on the primary server?

No I bet those punks followed us in through steam.

*EDIT* or possibly read the forums.

**Hidus** · 05-17-2008, 02:45 PM

Server 1 was very much watered down last night. I played a round of goldrush then left in frustration. Nobody to heal, nobody to uber. Team full of low quality spies, snipers, and pyros.

**Zoopy** · 05-17-2008, 03:05 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Hidus

Server 1 was very much watered down last night. I played a round of goldrush ...

There's your problem right there.

**Braidedheadman** · 05-17-2008, 03:17 PM

Ok, for the sake of argument, apart from the kind of oligarchical, arbitrary decision making processes that made That other Gaming site become a really lousy place to be, what good reasons do we have for not having a 24/7 server hosting "Map_of_your_choice_here"?

Like Hidus did, I'm sure, I found last night that separating the custom maps from the stock maps across two servers really only accomplished two things: One being it divided the community even as the regulars migrated to whatever server was hosting the highest number of regulars at the moment, and the second being that there was no break in the monotony of some of the more played-out stock maps or no one to play the custom maps with but mostly irritating pubs.

Bane pointed out that for some this may be a good alternative because of their own polarized views regarding custom map design quality vs stock map reliability, and I respect that. Heck, there are some custom maps that I really have to dig down deep in order to find the determination to play through until the next map rolls around. But I'd rather do that than have to disconnect and reconnect between servers in order to follow the crowd whilst the regulars, in true-to-form group mentality (not a slight against anyone, just one of life's curious quirks), move from one novelty to the next. If I want to gun down, fry, or blow-up-and-turn-into-paste SeanchosVibrator, I don't want to have to play ring-around-the-rosy to do it.

The point I'm driving at is that a second server is an opportunity to support more specialized gaming as opposed to supporting more generalized gameplay, something that has already proven to be divisive.

**icky** · 05-17-2008, 03:54 PM

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.

PANDAmonium · 05-17-2008, 09:15 PM

We're still fine-tuning the custom map rotation, I think. I feel like the main problem with a 24/7 anything server is how boring it'd quickly get for most people. While sometimes people feel like they have to slog through a map to make it to the next one they enjoy, for everybody who dislikes the map being run 24/7, there's no reason to join at all. At the same time, repeatedly playing a map, for some people, quickly takes the novelty out of it, which leads to even more people not bothering to join the server in the first place.

XCannon · 05-19-2008, 08:50 PM

So what's wrong with mixing a couple stock and a couple customs, different rotations for each?

**jepzilla** · 05-29-2008, 05:52 AM

Quote:

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.

Quote:

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.

Quote:

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.

At least custom maps have made a comeback to server 1.

**icky** · 05-29-2008, 02:05 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jepzilla

At least custom maps have made a comeback to server 1.

They never left.