Thinking About..

[200tang]

Hey all, first post here. Great site.

Anyways, I'm thinking about buying a server from gameservers.com (I've heard mixed reviews so if anyone could suggest this or another site that would help too), but I'm afraid of it not being populated as I only have a couple of RL friends that play the game and maybe 5 or so tf2 buddies. Does anyone know if this will be a problem or should the server be fine even though I don't know many people?

Just for clarification I'm thinking about buying a 24 slot server based in Seattle, WA.

Thanks for any info/tips.

 

[grazr]

Welcome to the site. A number of members here run servers, although i am not one of them. If you have the money to requisition a server with little hassle to your income/outgoings and you do desire it then go ahead, a number of my friends have too, although they tend to host competative, league and clan matches on them so they get some frequent use out of them to justify having them; even if they arn't full the rest of the time.

If you do requisition a TF2 gaming server then ask around for a .cfg file that server runners tend to use here, that you might use it.. there are a number of prefered and tried configs out there to help your server out and get a regular player base. Generally the more popular servers run specific maps so that players are not alienated by a gamemode they dislike when a map does end/change.

Unfortunately i can't remember off the top of my head who actually does run a server here.

So you'll have to make do with this greeting and generic jargon.
P.S. Check out the steamchat for more live advice/responses and general discussion. You're probably more likely to get a response about server administration there also.

 

[Gaw]

I prefer www.e-frag.co.uk , it's cheaper as far as I know and they have a forum with lots of helpful people

I dont use it anymore as I'm moving to a real dedicated server as i'm running it across many many games but you should use e-frag if you are a beginner.

 

[DJive]

Ive used gameserver for years and years, and have nothing but good things to say about them.

 

[Krall]

I purchased a gameserver server for TF2 about 6 months ago when they were on sale and never had a problem, it's been great. They have a pretty nice interface to control parts of your server for updates and some mods and they let you control other admins without them seeing your billing info.

The only downside and it's not their fault is I bought it for the same reason as you and I also have a group of friends from a website but no one really plays on it. The hardest part is getting people on it and keeping them there.

 

[Rox]

I have a Dallas server from JustinTimeHosting.com haven't had any problems with it, but like krall said getting traffic on the server is hard work. If me and a few friends join the server then usually people start joining after a few minutes.

 

[MrAlBobo]

but I'm afraid of it not being populated as I only have a couple of RL friends that play the game and maybe 5 or so tf2 buddies. Does anyone know if this will be a problem or should the server be fine even though I don't know many people?

This is why I no longer have a server...its exceptionally difficult to fill a server, especially when you don't have a large friends list and especially when you try to run custom maps. In my opinion there are simply too many servers out there already <_<.

Aside from that I tend to avoid using gameservers, even though the server quality (66 tick) and support isn't bad...(aside from the time they overloaded the host my server was on and it lagged to holy hell whenever more then 18 people joined) I tend to find other hosts a bit more...useful

of the ones ive seen...
magnirack gives 100 tick slots at $1.25/slot but with the discount code 25offlife they go for slightly less then a dollar per slot, being that I have the owner added on steam the support is excellent, the only flaw is that they only have servers in texas

discountgameservers offers 100 tick servers at $0.89/slot, they have servers in several locations including seattle, the problem being that there is virtually no support, so if you know exactly what your doing, then have at it...if not...this might not be your choice

 

[Cerious]

tip: update right after valve updates, so that when players are looking for a server they'll join yours

i can populate my server in seconds with that method

 

[captainAngry]

I run two servers from discountgameservers.com and they are both fantastic.

They say they don't have any support which is technically true, however if you have a question about your server or the status of a recent steam update, I have always been able to jump on the https://www.nfoservers.com/ IRC channel and get support that way.

The site is run by those guys to fill server space. Their servers on https://www.nfoservers.com/ are crazy expensive because they come with amazing support, Ventrillo servers and web servers with anything over a 10 man server or something like that. The servers are exactly the same minus the extras. I havn't had any problems with their servers that I didn't create myself.

Populating a custom maps server is another issue all together. I run two servers and during peak hours for a few hours a day they are close to full. I have built a community of regulars through playtesting maps like crazy and generally giving people what they want. I opened a second server so I could move some of the more unconventinal maps off the main server. That server is now more popular during the day because for about a week I had it running achevement_idle with a reserve slot for all my members. When I went back to the normal rotation people stuck around.

My big problem now is that I want my servers populated 24/7 which is really hard with custom maps. I am planning on opening a third server that will promote a single custom map in a given week, or promote a smaller map list then the 175 map list I am running on my regular custom maps server now. This is where I will run the contest promotion when I do it.

The other big problem I hear from a lot of people is that no one donates ever. I am able to run on nearly 100% donations right now. This is really really hard to do without a community and a community cannot be had without someone maintaining and building a website. In the average day I spend at least an hour reading forum posts, being a general forum moderator (I have a handful of other forum mods) and replying to PMs. On an average Monday (when I add new maps) I spend about an hour and a half in the morning to do that before I go to work. On Tuesdays and Wednesdays (days after play tests) I spend a few hours posting feedback and demos (or just demos if I don't have a ton of time/wasn't on the server). I spend at least half an hour updating filters on my ratings page to mark test maps as test maps each weel. I have to build my main rotation list every Wednesday after the play test since I now have new ratings to base the list off of.

None of that includes time spent maintaining the server itself. Sourcemod plugins will crash the server every few months when valve updates something. People get banned that shouldn't have been. Map downloads break every once in a while.

This is what it takes to build a community. Ask Dr. Pepper and I-D how much time they spend dealing with bullshit each day. If you truely want to have a successful server, you have to be willing to put the time into it. If you want a server for your friends to play on or to run some server mod that isn't out there already then you can probably get away from all the nonsense.




I know none of you will read this but I'm not about to delete it now