Is the end near?

[Simon]

Hi everyone,

I've dropped by Avalanche a few times lately to find it... quiet. Too quiet. Taking a look around the numbers, it's looking like there's only 3-5 hours a day now that anyone is online (7pm to midnight or so). We sat around the 3-5 rank for servers for a while, and it's dropped down to 16.

Is there anything happening on the Avalanche server that I may be able to help out with? Or is it quite simply just the dying days of DoD?

There's no intention to change the server or switch it to anything else, still. We're riding it out with what we've got. But just curious if there's a bunch of rule breakers who are causing issues to make this drop happen, or if it's progression of the game.

Although looking at the Steam Charts, it looks like the average number of DoD players is dropping each month as a whole...

Hope all of you are well - I haven't gotten to game so much lately, but, DoD:S still retains a space in my heart.

 

[renegade9182]

Lately i haven't had a lot of time to play because just been busy with work as well as things going on in my personal life however, I am going to offer my two cents here based on my own personal observations, this is honestly just my theory here so take it with a grain of salt just want to offer my perspective.

1. Our server that we love is starting to die a little bit day by day i believe because a lot of people who play here seem to believe ego has "hackers" on its server, and decides not to do anything about it, so since it seems to be a reoccurring issue in their eyes they choose not to play on the server and take their gaming elsewhere.

2.I understand people who play here have a right to do as they choose and play whichever side they please, however there are certain players that only play axis, or only play allies, and when the wins begin to accumulate for either side people start to leave and instead of switching sides to even up the teams, they simply stay on their preferred side, to the point that the server begins to die. My point is if people learned to play both sides, we would have more balanced games, and the server wouldn't die so quickly and maybe with the balanced game players would want to come back and play on the server more often.

3. As for rules breaking I have seen it done before on the server, happening more frequently then i can remember with so little admins being on the server. Again i do not play very often anymore so i am not there to see it happen all the time but based on the brief time i play i can only imagine how bad it is when i am not around.

Anyways like i originally said these are just my theories on the subject so take it as you will. Also i hope everybody in the ego world is doing well, and i hope with this thread being made we can get the avalanche server back to its former glory!

 

[Cubey]

I am speaking from about 7 to 8 years of experience here and being involved with so many different servers and trying just about everything from all members ideas. Whatever you choose to do, and your Leadership decides, has already been done, many many times before, not just on your server, but on other ones too.

Unfortunately, the problem comes down to mathematics: the rate in of players coming into the server - the rate out of players leaving the server. You need the rate to be positive. You cannot really change anything about the "rate in". I tried everything, on all other servers before, and this number cannot be increased.

However, we can focus on getting the "rate out" lower. Again, a lot of things been tried in my experience, and the one thing that actually worked, and eGO implemented this back in 2014/2015 when it had an Anzio server was to manipulate the time to cap. I believe there is a module for this program somewhere in the eGO archives that manipulates the server's capping time. The cap-time is restored when the server reaches a certain baseline level. Fewer players extend the capping time.

The idea is quite simple. The main reason why players leave is because their team loses quickly. Not because they get killed a lot. This is an interesting observation about server population leaving. As long as their team is winning, or fighting back, players do not care as much how they are doing individually. If I was to kill a player 15 times in a row, and their team is winning, they will keep on playing. If, however, their team loses repeatedly every 2 minutes, they are soon to leave.

Thus, at this point in time the server needs to find ways to minimize the "rate out". For the "rate in" is varies with time of day. If you notice you will observe that on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, the right in is much higher. So at least take that to its advantage.

 

[Simon]

1. Our server that we love is starting to die a little bit day by day i believe because a lot of people who play here seem to believe ego has "hackers" on its server, and decides not to do anything about it, so since it seems to be a reoccurring issue in their eyes they choose not to play on the server and take their gaming elsewhere.

Are these actual hackers or is it just the usual players who are old comp players that play very hard and seem too good?

2.I understand people who play here have a right to do as they choose and play whichever side they please, however there are certain players that only play axis, or only play allies, and when the wins begin to accumulate for either side people start to leave and instead of switching sides to even up the teams, they simply stay on their preferred side, to the point that the server begins to die. My point is if people learned to play both sides, we would have more balanced games, and the server wouldn't die so quickly and maybe with the balanced game players would want to come back and play on the server more often.

I certainly understand this and, I'm guilty of it myself - I tend to lean on Axis heavily.

3. As for rules breaking I have seen it done before on the server, happening more frequently then i can remember with so little admins being on the server. Again i do not play very often anymore so i am not there to see it happen all the time but based on the brief time i play i can only imagine how bad it is when i am not around.

Yes, we have VERY few admins now, and I'm not sure how active we all are currently. It's a small pool of people now.

C Cubey I will bring that plugin up to Glue and see if it still exists and could be checked into - I agree, people capping out extremely quickly can be a real killer for the server when it has a low population and is trying to fill up. Yeah, DoD is definitely not getting new players - it would be nice to retain what we have for a bit longer.

 

[oden12]

just a thought you could try and fix the wall where the axis are entering the celler at the top, players can see the axis players comming and know when to jump out or wait and shoot mite just clear up a lot of walling hacks accusations

 

[Simon]

just a thought you could try and fix the wall where the axis are entering the celler at the top, players can see the axis players comming and know when to jump out or wait and shoot mite just clear up a lot of walling hacks accusations

That’s part of the map, isn’t it? We can’t just modify valves map.

 

[Cubey]

That?s part of the map, isn?t it? We can?t just modify valves map.

It is also the result of the graphic driver. Some people would not see it depending on which one they have.

 

[Simon]

It is also the result of the graphic driver. Some people would not see it depending on which one they have.

Since it’s a game issue on a valve map, sort of out of our control then. Doesn’t sound like something we can fix.

 

[Ratfire]

I stopped playing DoD:S years and years ago but saw Alicia's post a while back and have been dropping in and out of the Avalanche server whenever I have a free moment to make sure there was an admin available.

In the 30+ times I've dropped in in the last 6 months, I think I've thrown out maybe 2 verbal warnings and never needed to actually go further than that. Every time I've been on it's generally been very well behaved, often older gamers, just looking to play an old game.

I'd actually hang out a little longer but for me 24/7 Avalanche just gets too repetitive. My 2 cents is that it's just a sign of the age of the game that the pop is dropping. Plus 2 or 3 times now the server has been down or randomly disappears from my favorites list and doesn't appear in the server search, so seems like that's not helping the rankings either.

 

[Simon]

I stopped playing DoD:S years and years ago but saw Alicia's post a while back and have been dropping in and out of the Avalanche server whenever I have a free moment to make sure there was an admin available.

In the 30+ times I've dropped in in the last 6 months, I think I've thrown out maybe 2 verbal warnings and never needed to actually go further than that. Every time I've been on it's generally been very well behaved, often older gamers, just looking to play an old game.

I'd actually hang out a little longer but for me 24/7 Avalanche just gets too repetitive. My 2 cents is that it's just a sign of the age of the game that the pop is dropping. Plus 2 or 3 times now the server has been down or randomly disappears from my favorites list and doesn't appear in the server search, so seems like that's not helping the rankings either.

I do very little admining when I'm on too. Unless the admin being on is scaring people into behaving, lol.

Haven't seen any downtime though... that would be news to me. Avalanche has definitely been a bit played out... too bad the other servers lost traction some time ago. I miss Kalt!

On a side note, very nice to see an old face popping in. Hope all is well Ratfire.

 

[ufd152]

I agree but with new rules etc....people are leaving, sad

 

[Greedo]

1. Our server that we love is starting to die a little bit day by day i believe because a lot of people who play here seem to believe ego has "hackers" on its server, and decides not to do anything about it, so since it seems to be a reoccurring issue in their eyes they choose not to play on the server and take their gaming elsewhere.

Yes, there are a lot of inexperienced players calling veterans like "Player/Cubey" a hacker. They get frustrated and mad that he isn't banned and probably do not come back.

Also yes, players leave when they start losing. It disappoints me that these players give up so easily, rather than trying to consider every possible strategy available to deal with the current "losing" situation. It's not always about skill with the mouse(aiming). Of course mouse aim is incredibly important. Anyways, it's often just about using your head and common sense. Which is why, if the community could really promote better play and teaching, that could always help and sustain players. This is outside the realm of what we ask admins to do. I'm just saying this for people who play, consider being positive and helpful. If you stay silent and let the inexperienced people befuddle themselves and lose repeatedly, its not in their favor anymore to keep playing on the server. And for your sake, you WANT them to stay so you can keep playing TOO.

A lot of people do not know of the medic command or how to bind it to a key.
Some don't know about dropping ammo.
etc, etc, etc
But they ought to know, and learning stuff engages the player. And feeling engaged is what video games are about.
Most people(emphasis on most) want to get on a server, feel engaged with their team and feel significant and finish with a meaningful and earned experience.
They do NOT want to just hop on the server, talk to no one, fail at the game, lose a bunch, and then log off. Because that is sad.

 

[Adorable Miracle]

Yes, there are a lot of inexperienced players calling veterans like "Player/Cubey" a hacker. They get frustrated and mad that he isn't banned and probably do not come back.

Also yes, players leave when they start losing. It disappoints me that these players give up so easily, rather than trying to consider every possible strategy available to deal with the current "losing" situation. It's not always about skill with the mouse(aiming). Of course mouse aim is incredibly important. Anyways, it's often just about using your head and common sense. Which is why, if the community could really promote better play and teaching, that could always help and sustain players. This is outside the realm of what we ask admins to do. I'm just saying this for people who play, consider being positive and helpful. If you stay silent and let the inexperienced people befuddle themselves and lose repeatedly, its not in their favor anymore to keep playing on the server. And for your sake, you WANT them to stay so you can keep playing TOO.

A lot of people do not know of the medic command or how to bind it to a key.
Some don't know about dropping ammo.
etc, etc, etc
But they ought to know, and learning stuff engages the player. And feeling engaged is what video games are about.
Most people(emphasis on most) want to get on a server, feel engaged with their team and feel significant and finish with a meaningful and earned experience.
They do NOT want to just hop on the server, talk to no one, fail at the game, lose a bunch, and then log off. Because that is sad.

This is where you educate them and tell them how Cubey normally plays and then they start killing him which helps them to feel better Just saying there are two sides to the coin, basically once you know where he's always going to be, they tend to catch on fairly quickly with a little help.

I haven't been able to play based on moving house, having my mother here, and a serious of other things that all have come after another. Hopefully after may things will be calmed enough I can sit down a bit, I have popped on now an again and no one is around.

 

[=B52F=|[TNG] monster]

People need to buck up and put their big-boy pants on. Playing against someone like Player is both challenging and fun, challenging to find new strategies to kill him and awesome for your score. Killing people better than you is worth points and getting killed by them only takes a couple points from you. On this server getting killed by some rando who just joined is far worse than getting killed by Player. I've been +100 over on kills before and still been down points because when good players aren't on, kills aren't worth much and everyone takes from you. I'd rather play against Player or other good players any day.

 

[Adam]

We've had countless ban requests on Player, none of the evidence pointed to them being a hacker.

 

[Simon]

We've had countless ban requests on Player, none of the evidence pointed to them being a hacker.

Most of the regulars know that. It’s new people who don’t know the old comp players, then start the hackusations

 

[WHODAT]

I'm a POS. I love playing DOD- it's the only game that really, really gets my juices flowing, but I haven't been around much... Combination of work and taking classes at night trying to scrounge together a second degree. I'm going to start getting back into it for the good of mankind.

As for Renegade's comments about teamstacking, I don't think he's too far off track. I actively join the losing team always because I like to feel the heat, but that's just me... I don't think it'd be a terrible idea to add a team-scrambing plugin that could be triggered by majority vote and/or when a single team has won 6-7 consecutive rounds. Not so extreme that we're constantly auto-balancing, but offset enough that it would happen when really needed.

As for hackers... We do our best and we get the majority of them. Honestly the game is so old that whatever hacks are still floating around are usually picked up by smac. The wallers can be hard to spot but it's also on the players to reach out to us when there's a problem so we can do our job. Maybe throw a few more auto reminders in chat that admins can be reached directly in our teamspeak/discord and put a link to it front and center in the motd... the & msg isn't entirely as effective anymore; if there aren't admins in ava then there most likely aren't any in the other servers.

Nonetheless, this is a good conversation to have. Constructive criticism, recommendations, and ideas are the best way to get the ball rolling again!

 

[MacDj]

The game is getting old and its been quite some time since steam released a new version of DOD:S.... I mean I am 32 and I've been playing DOD since I was 13 lol. Before it was even on a Source engine..... ohhhhh the good ol' times when I used to kick Artimus's butt.

 

[Boyle]

The game is getting old and its been quite some time since steam released a new version of DOD:S.... I mean I am 32 and I've been playing DOD since I was 13 lol. Before it was even on a Source engine..... ohhhhh the good ol' times when I used to kick Artimus's butt.

You kicked my butt a few times too you "old" man

 

[kYuKi]

Oddly enough, there are still servers for 1.3, and I've find myself playing it once and a while as well to just get a taste of the old days.