Like I stated before this server has been running since late 09. In that time we have held weekly events and have made a real effort to invite people who are fun to play with and will bring in others who are like minded.
There are no shortcuts to having a popular server and while quickplay helps, what helps even more is having a solid admin team or a group of friends or regulars willing to sit in the server during its slow days. One of our weekly Events is friday night frags and it's a time where we play the stock popular maps of team fortress 2, nothing else changes from any of the other day but we put out a group events and we all make an effort to be there at the same time. Having a good community goes a very very long way insuring a popular and fun server, unfortunately like I said there are no shortcuts to this. At least that I found out! On Jul 12, 2011 1:36 PM, "Ryan Morrison" <rddt...@gmail.com> wrote: > I'd love to know how your server is filling. Quick play is enabled on mine > but it will never see players. I believe Valve has servers in New York which > I'm losing out to (mine is in New Jersey). > > On Tue, Jul 12, 2011 at 2:51 PM, doc <drga...@gmail.com> wrote: > >> I've been running a 24 man Vanilla server since late 09 and what I've >> learned through this server (and my many other servers) is there is no >> shortcut to a great community. Recently we've turned on Quickplay and >> I'm having second thoughts about it just because my server is now >> filled 100% of the time, hard to find a slot! >> >> We also have a fair amount of (good) custom maps on our server, and we >> also run a weekly event (Alpha Test Tuesdays), to test new custom maps >> people are working on (and we let anyone test free of charge!). Sure >> during the times we are on a custom map the server may not fill up as >> readily - but that's when having a good community comes into play. Put >> up a steam group for your server, and actually invite people you see >> coming back now and again. Over the last year or so we now have enough >> people in our group to keep the server ready to go all hours of the >> day (mostly). >> >> Also it's a broken record but TF2 is "designed" for 24 players, so >> with the glut of new servers I can see it might be harder to fill up a >> server that has increased_maxplayers, especially on de_jeepathon2k or >> whatever custom map you're playing. >> >> >> What I'd like to know about the quickplay system is how the grading >> goes. I know I can see how well we're trending, but are there any >> plans in the pipeline to have more server reporting tools re: >> quickplay, available? I'd like to see how I rate with other servers, >> how much further we have in CRUSHING THE COMPETITION IN FUN. >> >> On Mon, Jul 11, 2011 at 3:53 PM, Sir Jake <can_kic...@hotmail.com> wrote: >> > >> > Very good points, another thing that would be wonderful to see is having >> the score board it self support 32 players not sure why this was not put in >> years ago. >> > >> > As many people here have said 24 slot servers just fail after any type of >> roll or map change as sometimes half the server can leave in just a few >> minutes and then it just dies off. I noticed this a lot when we tried our >> servers with only 24 slots. >> > >> >> Date: Tue, 12 Jul 2011 01:32:19 +0300 >> >> From: i...@ics-base.net >> >> To: hlds_linux@list.valvesoftware.com >> >> Subject: Re: [hlds_linux] A few more TF2 quickplay answers >> >> >> >> I see a slight problem in one thing. While the custom map is on, any >> >> custom map, unless your server is extremely popular at any time of the >> >> day, it will lead to drop of players aka lack of players. Not everyone >> >> wants to play custom maps or download a new one because they still have >> >> slow connections, some of them. Situation regarding people's online >> >> connections has improved in past years but thats still the case for >> some. >> >> >> >> But anyway, as the quickplay does not drive traffic to these servers >> >> that do not run particular maps on, it's an issue at late time of the >> >> day and early on when the servers are just filling up. This isn't a >> >> major issue right now, but after couple of months, it could be. At this >> >> point, either the server has to change through configs to run regular >> >> maps or stay empty untill more people are getting into their games. >> >> Would you join to empty server, from which you need to download a map to >> >> play or a cp_dustbowl with 22/24 players on? I'll give an comprehensive >> >> example. Got 2 servers running custom maps, the one that is very popular >> >> and the other that is not as popular as the other. Also i have 2 >> >> "quickplay" enhanced ones that fill up first and stay populated last. >> >> (now that things have actually little quite since the first peak when it >> >> was 24/7 full for all). >> >> >> >> So the ones that run custom maps, empty first and get filled up a bit >> >> later as soon as map changes to some quickplay supported than the ones >> >> that are running settings that quickplay is wanting (unless the regulars >> >> play late, like friday, saturday). If you see where i'm going, it's >> >> pretty frustrating to change mapcycle so that you get traffic driving >> >> in, despite how much reputation the server has. 6 000 000 reputation is >> >> more than enough but it still doesn't make me any happy, no matter how >> >> much there is if the players aren't getting in as long as there are >> >> custom maps at certain time of the day. >> >> >> >> This is not a huge issue now but quickplay makes people wanting to have >> >> run basic maps to get their servers filled. So who will want to run >> >> custom maps, no matter how good they are if that results to empty >> >> servers. It's pointless to make every community map official too. I know >> >> this quickplay is there to make people more happy as some people run >> >> pretty bad server mods and such but how about adding some options to it. >> >> Like into the quickplay search window. "Allow custom maps" and "Allow >> >> more than 24 slot servers". It's more harder to get 24 slot server >> >> running custom maps to stay populated than 30-32. I know over 24 slot >> >> isn't exactly preferred but what can you do. People want what they want. >> >> Quickplay is great to fill up servers but i'd like to see that only as >> >> addition to existing way - if you have basic regular players on a >> >> server, it gets filled but quickplay could be used to fill up the rest >> >> of the slots. It works like this but only after the certain penalties. >> >> >> >> Just some thoughts that came out 1:32am to my mind. >> >> >> >> -ics >> >> >> >> >> >> 11.7.2011 19:24, Fletcher Dunn kirjoitti: >> >> > Just a few more answers to commonly-asked quickplay questions: >> >> > >> >> > All of the quickplay deal-breakers are tested on the client at the >> moment of quickplay searching. You can flip them on and off and start/stop >> receiving quickplay traffic. >> >> > >> >> > The reputation system is an input to the quickplay scoring system, not >> the other way around. Doing quickplay-illegal things does not affect your >> reputation. If you have a thriving community playing custom maps, you are >> building your reputation. If you suddenly turned the server into a >> quickplay-eligible one, you would be just as good of a quickplay server as a >> server who had been vanilla the whole time. >> >> > >> >> > But to repeat: the reputation system still needs some tuning, and is >> only a small part of the total quickplay score. It's mainly designed to >> help avoid sending traffic to really terrible servers. >> >> > >> >> > Quickplay, with its minimal set of options, is currently targeted at >> totally new players. However, we know that some experienced players use it >> and have had fun playing maps they haven't played in a while. (Or just >> beating the heck out of noobs.) Sometimes it's just fun to spin the wheel. >> We have considered a "medium" search mode, somewhat of a cross between the >> raw server browser and the one-click-no-options quickplay. No timeline or >> promises, of course. >> >> > >> >> > We get *huge* value out of good server operators. While we do want to >> control new players first impressions of the game, the goal is to have new >> players find all the diversity out there and get into a community so they >> can kill each other in the way they most enjoy. Having a set of servers >> with known characteristics is good, to ensure that if you want to play you >> can always find a server with a good ping, etc. But keeping all the traffic >> on generic servers that we have to maintain and host is not really a huge >> win for us. >> >> > >> >> > I would post these answers to the FAQ and just send a link, but the >> details are of course subject to change without notice. :) >> >> > >> >> > Hopefully most of the big quickplay questions are answered. I'm >> working on a lot of game server related stuff, so I'll probably be on these >> lists again. >> >> > >> >> > Cheers, >> >> > Fletch >> >> > _______________________________________________ >> >> > To unsubscribe, edit your list preferences, or view the list archives, >> please visit: >> >> > http://list.valvesoftware.com/mailman/listinfo/hlds_linux >> >> >> >> >> >> _______________________________________________ >> >> To unsubscribe, edit your list preferences, or view the list archives, >> please visit: >> >> http://list.valvesoftware.com/mailman/listinfo/hlds_linux >> > >> > _______________________________________________ >> > To unsubscribe, edit your list preferences, or view the list archives, >> please visit: >> > http://list.valvesoftware.com/mailman/listinfo/hlds_linux >> > >> >> _______________________________________________ >> To unsubscribe, edit your list preferences, or view the list archives, >> please visit: >> http://list.valvesoftware.com/mailman/listinfo/hlds_linux >> > _______________________________________________ > To unsubscribe, edit your list preferences, or view the list archives, please visit: > http://list.valvesoftware.com/mailman/listinfo/hlds_linux _______________________________________________ To unsubscribe, edit your list preferences, or view the list archives, please visit: http://list.valvesoftware.com/mailman/listinfo/hlds_linux
