Do you play during the week? What would it take to start a game on our servers?

[Armadillo of Doom]

I've had mixed results with playing games during the work-week. I set up the events, post a few announcements, yet the turnout is always pretty crappy Recently however, moderator Youme simply mentioned in chat that he was gonna start a game. And bam! Twice in one night, got a full house. Admittedly it was on Hydro, which always draws a crowd of people specifically looking for Hydro. Still, it's a better start than anything I had. So I'd like to know if you guys would prefer last min. pickup games, or if there's a better way for us to get together on weeknights.

1. Do you play during weeknights?
2. How long? (average)
3. Are you willing to hang out on the TF2M servers for a few hours?
4. Do you prefer last min. notice or something that is planned?
5. Will you stay to play the custom maps?
6. What if I promised to bring punch and pie?
7. Would you like to do anything special during these nights? Please give exampes. e.g. low gravity, everyone vs. admin., melee only, etc.

 

[Sgt Frag]

I work out of town so that limits my week nights a bit. I tried to get on that one night you were having interweb issues.

I generally don't 'look' for events outside of map testing, just play servers I like. I have a hard time hanging around waiting for something to happen. I could be mapping instead and running hammer/tf2 at the same time.. well...
I had to restart tf2 in the middle of my map last gameday because my virus scan had my harddrive going mad. I windowed out to desktop and couldn't get back to the game

mmm...internet punch and pie, hard offer to pass lol

7 is the key I think. probably would make/break the event. While I don't mind messing around and having fun I don't go out of my way for it. When I wanna play I wanna play.
I can dig melee rounds. Sometimes on a fav server we play arena and everyone goes random. I guess low grav could be fun a bit.
Probably too much screwin around and I'd leave.

 

[MrAlBobo]

1&2.usually about 3 hours if I have nothing better to do...and thats something like 5-8 mountain time
3. Depends if there is a reason to
4. Doesn't matter
5. Also depends, there are some maps I absolutely hate, and customs tend to not bring in teh random people, and small games can be very boring
7. No...usually I end up leaving as the mic spam is exceedingly annoying, melee can be fun...as long as it doesn't last too long. but others just cause people to not stay after they join

 

[uma plata]

1. Do you play during weeknights?
Yep. Usually get on around 9 Pacific

2. How long? (average)
2 hours

3. Are you willing to hang out on the TF2M servers for a few hours?
Absolutely

4. Do you prefer last min. notice or something that is planned?
I crave structure in all things

5. Will you stay to play the custom maps?
Of course! I'm always looking for customs in the server browser. Quality maps can be hard to find sometimes

6. What if I promised to bring punch and pie?
mmmmmm....pie. Don't tease

7. Would you like to do anything special during these nights? Please give exampes. e.g. low gravity, everyone vs. admin., melee only, etc.
Naaa, I like the vanilla game. But I wouldn't try to ruin anyone else's fun if they wanted to mess around

 

[GrimGriz]

1. Do you play during weeknights?
2. How long? (average)
3. Are you willing to hang out on the TF2M servers for a few hours?
4. Do you prefer last min. notice or something that is planned?
5. Will you stay to play the custom maps?
6. What if I promised to bring punch and pie?
7. Would you like to do anything special during these nights? Please give exampes. e.g. low gravity, everyone vs. admin., melee only, etc.

1. Yes, consistently.
2. Varies greatly.
3. No, either playing with friends or trying to build up regulars on my own server.
4. Planned.
5. Wouldn't be there, sorry.
6. You'd be a liar.
7. Gimmicks are gimmicky.

Also: I call dibs on Tuesdays and Thursdays 7-8 p.m. pacific.

Your biggest problem right now is that the server maps and maplists are horribly ill-maintained. When I looked the other day, one of the "tf2maps" servers was running Meridian B2, and the other was Meridian B4 (well after the release of B5).

Additionally, I think you'd do well to realize we are a community of mappers...trying to get us to stop mapping and play for the extended periods of time necessary to build a user base is extremely unlikely. Your best bet would be to piss all over what I'm doing and start doing the 'extended playtime' events yourself...as the members have shown they'll support an hourlong playtime every couple of days.....of course, that'd be a pretty dirty thing to do to me.

Now, I know you don't consider my server a tf2maps server because I won't give just anybody full admin (though I do give people who have their maps hosted there a lower level of admin)...but in all fairness I think my server is a server for this community.

Unless you get some sort of volunteer to do the pain in the lass maintenance of maplists, voting lists, nominating lists, admin lists...and all the hoops I jump through...I can't really back you trying to fill up the gameday servers during the week instead of mine.

 

[[O]]

1. Do you play during weeknights?
yes
2. How long? (average)
2-3hrs??
3. Are you willing to hang out on the TF2M servers for a few hours?
yeah, but with the freedom to go on and off.
4. Do you prefer last min. notice or something that is planned? no preference. combination of both?
i'd prefer a combination of both. planned ones, so i can guarantee at least one testing event per week and pick-ups to catch some pure gaming events on stock and/or final custom maps.
5. Will you stay to play the custom maps?
absolutely. thats what we're here for. to see ideas and play somethign fresh.
6. What if I promised to bring punch and pie?
thrown in some [PG13ers look away] babes as well and im in!!
7. Would you like to do anything special during these nights? Please give exampes. e.g. low gravity, everyone vs. admin., melee only, etc.
yes, theme nights would be great.
BUT i personally do not like melee, nor low grav or anythign that messes with normal gameplay]
preferably themes like different ways to cut the team or custom only nights or stock maps with score count or a honest to goodness hydro night [coz that map just doesnt end and i want to see someone win that before i die]

 

[Ida]

1. Do you play during weeknights?
Yes.
2. How long? (average)
When I first sit down to really play, it's usually 2-3 hours. If I just pop in for a quick game, less than one hour.
3. Are you willing to hang out on the TF2M servers for a few hours?
Yes.
4. Do you prefer last min. notice or something that is planned?
Anything will be ok.
5. Will you stay to play the custom maps?
Of course.
6. What if I promised to bring punch and pie?
Sure.
7. Would you like to do anything special during these nights? Please give exampes. e.g. low gravity, everyone vs. admin., melee only, etc.
No thanks. I like to play vanilla TF2 or nothing.

 

[StrafeHunter]

1. Do you play during weeknights?
Usually, its currently school holidays so every night.
2. How long? (average)
Any good server I can find until people are on the Knifeback Mountain server
3. Are you willing to hang out on the TF2M servers for a few hours?
I'd look forward to it!
4. Do you prefer last min. notice or something that is planned?
I don't really mind
5. Will you stay to play the custom maps?
As long as they aren't too bad!
6. What if I promised to bring punch and pie?
I'd be there instantly
7. Would you like to do anything special during these nights? Please give exampes. e.g. low gravity, everyone vs. admin., melee only, etc.
4 heavies vs everyone else scout with only bats is fun.

 

[Sgt Frag]

Additionally, I think you'd do well to realize we are a community of mappers...trying to get us to stop mapping and play for the extended periods of time necessary to build a user base is extremely unlikely.

I think Grim hit the nail on the head here really. Between playing and mapping as I do now I don't have time for RL. Summer is coming, the mountain bike is being tuned... I have 2 betas to finish, a contest (turning into a 5 point cap) and a ctf underway.

I really think the only way to have a tf2maps.net server is 'custom ONLY'. We are a community based on custom maps, so running stock maps is counter intuative.
(I can actually see them being available and played or cycled some, not much though).

I really think the issue is finding a way to dig into the player base who likes customs. It can be hard to do. I know a couple servers (at least 3) that run customs and have a great player base, but each is completely different.

1: custom map rotation that almost never changes - serious players (^)
2: huge custom map rotation - lots of goofing, mic spam (2f2f), getting extremely laggy lately
3: lots of customs, rtv, serious but fun players (cC)

I like all three, but alot of people only like one of the three. I think that has more to do with the player base as each server offers different appeal.

I think tf2maps.net server needs to find its 'appeal'. Something unique (like custom maps) that will draw players to it. I know this is basically what you are asking so I don't know why I am stating it

 

[kwagner]

1. Do you play during weeknights?
Since I started mapping? Hardly ever.

2. How long? (average)
When I do? An hour at most.

3. Are you willing to hang out on the TF2M servers for a few hours?
During the week? Probably not. On a weekend? More likely.

4. Do you prefer last min. notice or something that is planned?
Planned AND at a convenient time is best. However my schedule varies a lot lately, so that time isn't consistent. I've got no good answer here. Sorry.

5. Will you stay to play the custom maps? Yes. When I have time I'd love to check out others custom maps. Especially if it's on a game day with multiple maps passing through.

6. What if I promised to bring punch and pie?
Pie is NEVER a bad thing.

7. Would you like to do anything special during these nights? Please give exampes. e.g. low gravity, everyone vs. admin., melee only, etc. Maybe have a spot light map for an hour each night? Say, 9-10pm (6pm pacific.) Post on Friday what the next weeks maps will be. (Ex. Monday: Cumulous; Tue: Battle Of Gods; Wed: Arroyo; Thur: Undermine; Fri: Cashworks.) That way, if it turns out I have an hour to spare, I could drop by and see what's on tap?

 

[VelvetFistIronGlove]

1. Do you play during weeknights?
Rarely, maybe 1-2 days a month. Mostly I play on weekends.

2. How long? (average)
If I do play on a weeknight, it's usually for 2-3 hours.

3. Are you willing to hang out on the TF2M servers for a few hours?
Probably not (see above).

4. Do you prefer last min. notice or something that is planned?
No preference.

5. Will you stay to play the custom maps?
Yes.

6. What if I promised to bring punch and pie?
All the better.

7. Would you like to do anything special during these nights?
I prefer stock gameplay; I don't have an issue with 'fun' modes, but prefer notice so as to avoid the 'fun' modes I don't like (e.g. low gravity).

 

[AntonJ3000]

1. If it's before 1 at night gmt +1
2. 0.5-4 hour, varies on lag
3. On the EU yep, on the US maybe.
4. Planned + Notice
5. Yeah custom ftw
6. I'll slap you with my slap chop
7. Melee

 

[Connect_Four]

1. If I'm not mapping, yup
2. 1-3 hours
3. Sure, it's nice to be around intelligent people that share a common hobby with me
4. Planned
5. Yes, it's always nice to see and experience other people's work
6. I would like a sandvich, but that's good enough
7. Mods are always a good change from the norm, so yeah. Plus, playing common maps(Valve maps and popular customs) with different modifications is always fun.

 

[[O]]

i stumbled upon that old thread about hydro and how its hard to get a full server.

perhaps one of those themed gamedays can be a hydro dedicated event. perhaps once every two weeks ? [i have no idea what the interest level for that map is here at tf2maps]

 

[captainAngry]

I have been told by many people that my server is one of the best custom maps servers around. We have a steady stream of regulars and have no problem getting people to download and stay for custom maps. I update my map lists weekly and do my best to keep map versions up to date.

I think trying to build a server around events won't work. It's like watching T.V. when it is on vs watching it via TiVo. People want stuff when they want it, not on the time you want it.

You have a core group of users here but map makers, in my experience, play less then others. This is simply because a serious map maker will spend a lot of their time making maps. Since their game time gets cut down, they don't want to sit around for 20-30 minutes trying to get a game going when they want to play.

Build a successful server with regulars and work in your events. You need the users before you have the events. I run a new map play test every week all day Monday and Tuesday. The amount of people on my server doesn't really change when I am doing the event and I would venture to guess most people don't even notice there is an event going on. If your server always has the amount of people you need for an event, you don't have to worry about getting people for it. When I didn't get enough people rating maps during my play test, I just made the play test longer and shorten it when there are less maps to test. The users don't care, I don't have to announce anything, and I get good data.

* 245 Maps
* 1827 Unique Contributors
* 8423 Ratings

That said, seeding a server is always going to be required to start it up. I'm sure you have a whole bunch of people in your friends list immortal. When I was trying to get my server going, I sat in my empty server by myself every single day and asked my friends to come play with me. If I am testing someones map and we want more people, I post a message in the TF2 maps steam chat.

People join servers for different reasons and the fact that everyone makes maps isn't necessarily enough to make your server everyone's favorite. The regulars on my server are almost ALWAYS on my server. They aren't looking around for new servers to play. They found a server with people they like where they can have a good time and they stuck with it. Figure out what you wanted when you look for a server and gain a following, then get this community to join for events.

It's also worth note that two of the people in this thread trying to help became regulars on my server after using it to test their maps. It's probably related more to the community of people we have in our server than anything else.

It's probably also worth note that I spend at least as much time managing my community and two servers as you spend managing this beast of a community so you will probably need some help.

 

[Armadillo of Doom]

Looks like captainAngry just won the internet . Seriously though, you raise some very good points, and a lot of stuff I hadn't considered. I think 'beast of a community' is fairly apt, lol. I appreciate the info m8, and don't be surprised if I come asking you for advice later

 

[Shaar]

1. Do you play during weeknights?
Yes
2. How long? (average)
Depends really. normally about 4 hours or so, provided I'm not mapping or anything
3. Are you willing to hang out on the TF2M servers for a few hours?
I'd be willing provided there were people on the servers
4. Do you prefer last min. notice or something that is planned?
I dont really care, provided that it brings up something fun
5. Will you stay to play the custom maps?
of course. I prefer custom maps, they bring something different to the plate
6. What if I promised to bring punch and pie?
Depends on what the pie is >:O
7. Would you like to do anything special during these nights? Please give exampes. e.g. low gravity, everyone vs. admin., melee only, etc.
Again, I dont really mind whats on, provided that its fun for all of us and we can have a laugh.