Thread: Some Servers Need an Upgrade

I have noticed a lacking in popularity in certain servers and believe a few should have a couple changes in hopes to gain back the server population as some are dying.

For scoutzknivez I think we should make it more like skl servers with a little lower gravity and higher airaccelerate. I believe it would draw more attention to the sk community and more people would play it.

For surf I think maybe we should throw in deathmatch? Those seems to be popular rpg surf deathmatchs or maybe if we threw up a decent surf skill timer server because I know those are pretty popular aswell.

Gungame seems to be lacking as well so maybe make it dm to? Seen some pretty populated gungame dm servers out there.

I believe most of the servers are great but a little out dated and need a little new revamp to help this community grow into what it once was and that was a very active community. It is still active but not like it used to be.

Just some suggestions to help bring more people to our community. If we made certain servers and made them well I could see this community growing even bigger then what it is today.

I definately agree on Gungame, when its deathmatch its more of a race to the top, rather than a fight, also, instant level up might be a good idea

I agree on DM for both gun game and surf! Higher air accelerate and gravity on SK sounds legitimate to me as well.

A few more suggestions in regards to the surf server.

1)Changing it to DM would also involve eliminating round timers for maximum time spent on the map.

2)Since there would be no round timers, Setting a time limit for each map(say around 1hr or so) and a random map vote 10 minutes before the map is about to end.

3)Also Because of it being DM and gaining credits will be increasingly easier i would suggest dropping the starting credits for new players to around 400-500 down from 750.

4)Also an UPDATED RPG mod is severely needed

5)Another mod that goes great with DM surf is the guns mod. With the way that surf servers work, some of the players may not be able to surf to the end of the map to get their guns causing people to get discouraged easier.

6)Also i believe there is a mod or server setting that increases freshly spawned players Health for so many seconds. This would be a necessary mod as well because of the DM setting.

7)And a final suggestion that can be done a few different ways is this, A) when somebody in the server whether it is an admin,regular,recruit or new player donates they get a set amount of credits based on thier donation for the surf RPG. The simplest way to do this would be......Create a new thread under Requests labeled " Surf RPG credits" where players could redeem their credits based on their donation. Once the credits are redeemed the request can be saved in a folder/inbox and then deleted on the forum thread to prevent clutter.

Breakdown for credits gained from purchase or donation:
.50 cents per level
5.00 dollars for 25 levels( .20 cents per level)
10.00 dollars 50 levels( .20 cents per level)
25.00 dollars 150 levels( .16 cents per level)
50.00 dollars 475 levels( .10 cents per level)

NOTE: the prices above are just some numbers i threw together. Each dollar amount is broken down by cost per level. These are just suggestions and if the idea is used can be changed to the increments that NG staff wishes to use.

This is just me spit balling some ideas for the surf server. It has the potential to make the community larger as well as bring in more donators and help us get closer to the 100% mark each month on server upkeep costs.

Sorry for the wall of text! see you all in our servers post comments and criticisms please! I want to see the pros and cons from other point of views as well!

Yea exactly tons of ideas can be thrown around and im sure the community can come up with some new ideas to help increase traffic to the site, which would help the community grow in general an increase donations. Maybe get rid of some servers that are bringing in little to no people and change them to different server types. See if that helps? Cause its pretty pointless to hand almost no body come into a server and you keep paying for it every month.

Originally Posted by FunkyzeitMitBruno

Yea exactly tons of ideas can be thrown around and im sure the community can come up with some new ideas to help increase traffic to the site, which would help the community grow in general an increase donations. Maybe get rid of some servers that are bringing in little to no people and change them to different server types. See if that helps? Cause its pretty pointless to hand almost no body come into a server and you keep paying for it every month.

I thought the same thing about the monthly cost being increased per server that is up and running. However i was informed that the monthly cost is for each server box that runs multiple servers. For instance Dust2 and Office are run on the same box. But i am sure i am not the only one who noticed that we do not always make the monthly donations of 1500 dollars achieving 100% of the server upkeep. 1500 dollars is still a lot of money and this provide another perk for the players of the RPG Surf DM server.

I would also like to add something. If the perk for RPG credits were to be used there would need to be a walk through for new comers on how to donate and redeem those credits.

Thanks for the suggestions guy.. I'll get other management to take a look at these. Try to get more people on the forums to give more suggestions like these. We're a community and we build by getting suggestions such as these.

I dont agree with gun game at all,

love it the way it is, there is not many Normal gun game servers and a lot of people love the basic gun game i just think we need to add more maps again as the what 5-7 we have are * I'm going to be honest* really old and a lot of the good ones where removed....

Just think we should add some more maps to it and get other people to help populate it!!!

As for surf the death match would be a good idea surf DM's are awesome fast passed, but you cant really play skill maps with them tho, as if you make a mistake and fall people will kill them self's so that they can start again..

and scouts knifes i have no idea never really played it gets boring fast for me soo :s

Originally Posted by jimmy_1

I dont agree with gun game at all,

love it the way it is, there is not many Normal gun game servers and a lot of people love the basic gun game i just think we need to add more maps again as the what 5-7 we have are * I'm going to be honest* really old and a lot of the good ones where removed....

Just think we should add some more maps to it and get other people to help populate it!!!

As for surf the death match would be a good idea surf DM's are awesome fast passed, but you cant really play skill maps with them tho, as if you make a mistake and fall people will kill them self's so that they can start again..

and scouts knifes i have no idea never really played it gets boring fast for me soo :s

There are some down sides. however the main goal here i believe is to "appeal to the masses" if the servers are empty because of one setting or many settings then it is not beneficial to the community as a whole. My main concern is how empty the NG surf server is right now. Along with bieng a recruit admin for D2 and helping fill TF2 servers when i can as well. As far as gun game goes i have no payed that much attention to the population of it or for that matter been in there before.

If we can get some more of the people who play on the NG gun game server to post on here their thoughts, ideas and opinions of what is like now and what it could be that would be GREAT!

As far as skill maps go for surf Typically you do not see a Surf DM server with skill maps on the normal rotation or map vote.
If there is a large enough player base that would enjoy a skill surf server maybe the SSA's would put one up and see how it goes?
The main purpose of a Surf RPG DM is to get people to play for extensive amounts of time to try and get their levels up. bonus hp, speed, gravity and long jump typically have no place on a skills surf map.

I suggest trying to get more people to respond that play in these servers on a regular basis to get a larger scope of options and opinions. If you know people who would have great input on this discussion tell them to sign up on forums and post it in this thread!

One thing to keep in mind --- all of the current server configurations and setups **DO FILL** when effort is put into them. There needs to be a new effort put forth to build new regulars, and the servers will again fill on their own. When they are neglected, slowly, every regular that joined moves on or stops or goes to one of our other servers, which keeps others away........We have proven time and time again that these servers can still fill, and will stay full.......When these servers are full, we can discuss adding additional servers with different gametypes-----but I definately will not keep changing the configurations around to this that and the other thing.. If the server wouldn't fill at all, I would alter the configs....But they do, so the object is to get them full and then we can add another one...

EG: Current gungame + another one that runs DM...Now ppl who like both can choose which they want....But if little to zero effort is put into a proven working configuration, why waste managements time reconfiguring the servers every couple months?

We had this same discussion regarding Dust2 - we went through pages and pages of ideas, and changes we could do and this that and the other thing.....We made no changes to the server, but we increased the admin presence and interaction within the server and the server is repopulating..... THAT is the key

While I don't want to exclude or mute you guys from giving your suggestions, I have to lend a light ear towards it until the point that I can't personally round up 5 or 6 people and hop in a server and fill it, and keep it full.

Originally Posted by adamnp

One thing to keep in mind --- all of the current server configurations and setups **DO FILL** when effort is put into them. There needs to be a new effort put forth to build new regulars, and the servers will again fill on their own. When they are neglected, slowly, every regular that joined moves on or stops or goes to one of our other servers, which keeps others away........We have proven time and time again that these servers can still fill, and will stay full.......When these servers are full, we can discuss adding additional servers with different gametypes-----but I definately will not keep changing the configurations around to this that and the other thing.. If the server wouldn't fill at all, I would alter the configs....But they do, so the object is to get them full and then we can add another one...

EG: Current gungame + another one that runs DM...Now ppl who like both can choose which they want....But if little to zero effort is put into a proven working configuration, why waste managements time reconfiguring the servers every couple months?

We had this same discussion regarding Dust2 - we went through pages and pages of ideas, and changes we could do and this that and the other thing.....We made no changes to the server, but we increased the admin presence and interaction within the server and the server is repopulating..... THAT is the key

While I don't want to exclude or mute you guys from giving your suggestions, I have to lend a light ear towards it until the point that I can't personally round up 5 or 6 people and hop in a server and fill it, and keep it full.

Some of the plugins on dust2 should be added. I think there would be less effort required to keep it full and I dont see how small plugins such as a countdown bomb timer would hurt anything. Please upgrade some of the dated plugins. The effort required is adding a plugin and rebooting the box, I know it goes into a little bit more than that, but I know some of the plguins wont affect server traffic.