TheVille

So I think we all know already that people tend to leave at the end of a round, but there's something else I've noticed for quite a while: even more people leave if the map reloads. This seems to be specific to TV6. On TV7, they seem more tolerant of map reloads.

Anyway, I'm thinking that in order to try to reduce the number of mass exoduses, maybe we might want to increase the map time limit to 5 hours or more? Or maybe just remove it altogether?

doesn't that mean that scores will be the same for a long time? New players joining might not enjoy constantly being so far behind in points

It does indeed mean scores won't reset. I think we need to strike a balance between having it not reset too often ('cause people leave), and not waiting too long (because some people stay longer than they otherwise would, knowing a reset is coming). Also, as PV said, it helps keep the points more visually similar, since there are people who care deeply about that sort of thing.

I don't mind it but i've noticed there are quite a few competitive players and they would likely end up abandoning playing on our servers if they had to put up with that, obviously there would have to be a reset at some point and definitely not for a 5-8 hour period as i think that might be too long.

It just happened again. Was 24/24 players with 15 minutes left, now it's 5/24 with 1 hour and 54 minutes, so I can only surmise that the reload killed it.

Having the servers not die is very important to keeping them healthy because seeding them multiple times in the same day contributes a LOT to seeder burnout. I think there's a good number of people who are willing to seed the servers once per day, but when it becomes 3-4 times per day it gets to be too much.

We do seem to have a decent population who will join the server if it has 18+ people on it, but if everyone leaves at once, these people won't join unless it's reseeded, and we can't be tapping the same resources again and again to reseed the servers. If, once the servers are full, they die after two hours, that hurts them a LOT.

It also hurts TV7, because if everyone is working themselves to death seeding 6 multiple times per day, they're not going to seed 7 at all.

If we can't increase the time limit, maybe we could instead replace it with an auto restart on map end after a set period of time (without a reload)?

Another thing that may have occurred at the same time. Supper/dinner time for most people.

Just watched it drop for 24 to 10 on reload. Then, within 4 minutes, it was down to two people including me. This in the middle of prime time.

I'd intended to seed 7 at this hour, but will instead focus on refilling 6.

There could be something contributing besides the map reload

black_and_blue wrote:If we can't increase the time limit, maybe we could instead replace it with an auto restart on map end after a set period of time (without a reload)?

I wonder if something like this would be a good compromise. We could extend the map time but automatically reset the scoreboard after a predetermined amount of time.

well the other big factor is the re-scrambling of the teams

As long as the server remains stable, I would keep the map timer as long as possible. I don't like it myself but keeping servers full is more important.

I don't think map restarts would be particularly helpful or harmful, really. They may cause a mini exodus a I don't believe many people are really too worried about those score disparities the way they used to be - this is how servers are these days.
There are little scoreboard plug ins I've seen elsewhere that show top scores for both teams at the end of the round - that would probably be more beneficial to server population than building in periodic map resets.

Plinko wrote:There are little scoreboard plug ins I've seen elsewhere that show top scores for both teams at the end of the round - that would probably be more beneficial to server population than building in periodic map resets.

+1

My poor fiance would never top the score board. She'd be so disappointed - she was so happy the other day when she got to the top by out lasting the players above her.

We did a score reset last night which cleared everyone's scores without restarting the map. If we can do that periodically that should help.

OmgOhnoes wrote:My poor fiance would never top the score board. She'd be so disappointed - she was so happy the other day when she got to the top by out lasting the players above her.

Wait...what?!? What on earth possessed her to say yes?


Last night Black and Blue reset the server, but it did not change the map, which caused a real quick start from square one for scores and map stage. It didn't have that reload screen that I think is the kiss of death for a server at times. I extended the map time twice last night when it was really late in the hopes of keeping the server full. It seemed to work as the people we lost were replaced by new folk joining and the server was going well when I had to leave around midnight my time.

As BaB and I were talking last night (perhaps with Scorch? One of the regulars...) the main thing that will keep the server full is a solid base of regulars. I've seen more people with 1000 for a score than usual, but more encouraging is the number of people last night who had scores like 1200 or 1400. It shows people who came to visit and returned to play. Good sign I hope.

Also been real happy with the number of regulars who have swapped teams when things seem out of hand/unbalanced. Several have been the voice of reason when you get rolled on stage one and supported/encouraged folks to look at class comp and communication.