Whats with all the empty servers??

BeerHunter · Post by **BeerHunter** » 2007-08-18 13:15

I scan the PRM servers and see so many sitting there empty night after night with a few (TTP , TG etc.) full or nearly full all the time.

These empty servers are costing someone a sh** load of $$'s to keep up yet are hardly ever used it seems.

Bodes the question.. are there simply not enough PRM players to warrant all these servers or do the servers simply have a bad reputation and players are avoiding them One ot two possibly but so many?? Unlikely.)

Maybe these server owners would be best served by donating to support an already existing server (a fraction of the annual cost of keeping their own server open).

Most major server owners offer side benefits to supporting members such as reserved slots so that you always able to get on and play.

Just a case of economics.

Post by **Duke** » 2007-08-18 13:22

Ive noticed this too, but thats just the way online gaming is isnt it? Theres always gonna be the popular servers which are fully manned 24/7, and theres always gonna be a few empty ones too. Dont really know how you'd rectify the problem tbh. Maybe if the server admins gave their server a bit more publicity?

Post by **UK_Force** » 2007-08-18 13:44

Dont forget the Release of POE will take people away to try their Mod Out

Some of which will not come back TBH

But as said - thats Mods, and Onling Gaming

.

Metis-M · Post by **Metis-M** » 2007-08-18 14:14

People join mostly that servers which are populated, i cant see any not populated sever, i filter them out automaticly, i think many do same.

Or some join servers if they know on that server people will come cause its always so, "tradition".

If your server dont have that "tradition" so make your server populated by urself and/or cooperate with a clan from ur land or neighbour. They get rights there and u a server with people, when the is server populated other players will join it at time....

It also good have popular maps or try to run for infantry maps or other style people would like but other servers dont have.

Its good to have a popular stats system and playable rules.

Its also good to think about the first map, kashan desert is not very good for that because to big for few people come first on the server.

Then its good when only some people on the server to run first maps for 16 or 32 on a 64 server, few people can have fun, after server get more people then run 64 people maps.

A name of the server should be good to remember and maybe say something to people.

My 1 cent.

Post by **Duke** » 2007-08-18 14:19

I also think if you start up a server, its good to already be known in the PR community or at least have some known friends who can come on and play it. Also, good ping is crucial. Ive seen some brand new EU servers come up and be populated straight away due to the stupendous ping (60% of the server had under 50)

Expendable Grunt · Post by **Expendable Grunt** » 2007-08-18 15:19

That and school is starting up for some people.

Wolfe · Post by **Wolfe** » 2007-08-18 15:48

"Seeding" a server from 0 to populated is very difficult to to. It requires 3 major things:

The clan must have a large member base so that the number of players who are actively playing each night is at least 10.
Members must stay on their empty server for extended periods, fighting the urge to leave and join an already populated "happen'n" server.
Public players must see, join, and return to your server on a regular basis through the following
- The server must have at least 30+ players during peak times every night without exception.
- The server ping must be low
- The server must be admin'd well
- The server settings cannot be lame (kick vote, map vote every 2 seconds)(poor map rotation).

The longer a server has appealed to the masses, the less of a factor the above points become. This is why TG is constantly full; they have a long-standing core of players many of whom are paying to play there so it's their first choice. These players attract more players, and the cycle continues.

Also, there seems to be two magic numbers when seeding a server: 10 and 30. This means that most people will not join if there are not at least 10 or 30 people playing. This also works in reverse... if the server populated falls below 30 or 10, they'll leave. The more people leave, the more other people leave too and this usually happens at the beginning of each round as people decided if it's time to quit or if they don't like the map.

PR is a cool mod, and I think many clans have at least 1 person who can shell out the money for a server thinking "yeah we should have our own server" then have it lay empty most of the time because their members are playing elsewhere.

Post by **MAINERROR** » 2007-08-18 16:29

Exaclty the same problem. My clan is about one maybe two weeks old and we have a PR-Only server cause we are a PR only clan. Our server is located in germany and when the server was started the first time there were many ppl. on it but there was a problem with the autobalance and i had to restart the server. Now it is very hard to get 10 players on it cause my clan is very small (atm we are just 2 ppl).

And i dont know how to get it more popular.

blud · Post by **blud** » 2007-08-18 18:51

Simply put, PR is not popular enough to fill all those servers. There's no problem, nothing is going wrong, and there is no way to fill up those empty servers, period. (I mean there are ways to empty out 1 and fill up another, but you still result in the same amount of empty servers.)

Metis-M · Post by **Metis-M** » 2007-08-18 19:58

MAINERROR wrote:Exaclty the same problem. My clan is about one maybe two weeks old and we have a PR-Only server cause we are a PR only clan. Our server is located in germany and when the server was started the first time there were many ppl. on it but there was a problem with the autobalance and i had to restart the server. Now it is very hard to get 10 players on it cause my clan is very small (atm we are just 2 ppl).

And i dont know how to get it more popular.

You need more people in your clan, there is a big enough base of german players, also some from austria. I dont saw a pass of them, but I think so.
I would play on your server (64?) if it has also ABR stats, im not so important, but i think other would do it.
Your problem are 2 TB servers and one from POE2(w-worms....).

1.
You should try to propaganda other germans join your clan, maybe there some want have own clan and server. Maybe u should make own website, about your german mountain clan.

2.
If nothing help you can try another thing, there guys from rangers-pl, merge two clans rename server to rangers-eu or german-polish brigade (sounds not bad), so yuo will get more clanmembers, a real clan. These guys play a lot as i saw on f.Ex. Game Monitor, there also enough other players from poland would, as patriotic all polish are, join such a server, when there play people all other players also from germany will come for sure. So you can get a german-polish or polish-german server (some maybe can german or speak english).

3. You can try get more members at this forum, here is a clan section where also clans with poor homepages recruit, so why not you?

At least you want a full server and not pay for nothing (empty server), so i would try these or other ideas, maybe u will get in the future.

And i would always try to stay on the server, it can be hard, but only if there some players most people will see your server, dont forget the option in menu "populated" many have on.
Also good mapcycle and no kicks from server for idiotic reasons like negative score and so on.