Idling/Map filling - how to?

[oey192]

Let's leave Valve Maps out of this, seeing as Super88 has already created an awesome guide on how to fill it.

I'm wondering what good guidelines are for other maps.

For example, thanks to Gaming's awesome idling tips, yesterday on blackmesa, there were 6 of us (myself included) idling, and whenever someone hopped on to play, they found that they were the only one actually playing and quickly hopped off.

I think this issue has been raised in the past, but I have never seen a definitive answer. How many people should be idling on a server before you say, "Oh, there are already X people idling on that map, perhaps I should go idle on another one."?

I have gathered from a post Dalsia made that having people on a server (no matter if they're playing or idling) makes the server's rank go up. However, we don't want to have people jump off our servers the moment they hop on (or never join them in the first place) because they know that even if they see 8 people on, they will all most likely be idling.

Note: I'm not accusing anyone of too much idling (because I would be guilty of that too). I'm simply asking where my idling time can be better spent.

 

[Kazoo]

This is an excellent question.

We really should be careful with the idling, or else we could have people avoiding our servers at night because everyone is idling.

Considering we have four servers (excluding events server), we could try and divide the number of idlers by four and have that number per server. But it might be hard to guess how many people will be idling each night...

I'll leave this to the idling experts.

 

[Roker]

I've noticed this problem as well. With or without idlers in spectator you need 3-4 devoted guys to actually be playing for a while before things will pickup. However I do find that trying to actually fill the server with 8 idlers makes it a little easier as people join more frequently.

 

[Dalsia]

I think extensive idling should only be done at night when many people aren't going to play on the server in the first place. During the day only two-three should be idling, and everybody else should be playing. I haven't had time to play today because my grandma came over to visit, but later tonight I'll be actively playing.

You honestly just need 5-6 people on each team playing before the server starts hopping.

 

[Shiznoe]

People usual idle over night when they are asleep but you are right no one gets on because none of them play. I do not know if there is a way to fix that.

 

[ShawnJ]

I was there in Blackmesa yesterday. I went there with high hope when I saw "6 players". But then was disappointed to see all idling. I stayed around for a bit, someone joined, I was hoping to get the server started with 2 active players like we usually do. But apparently he came w/ false promises as well. He noticed 6 people of the players were idling, made an statement in chat about that, wondered if foundary server had more people, and then left. Under normal circumstances, if there's 1 player in BM and it says so...and anyone who joins, is doing so with 100% good heart of starting up the server. But when it says 7 players...most who join are probably looking to get right into the game...and they'll exit at the very thought of having 6 spectators idling.

don't get me wrong tho, those tips are cool for my actual idling idling accout but on gaming account uh idk.

 

[GamingRobot]

Most of the time you only need one idler and one active player to fill the server. Blackmesa is now one of the harder servers to fill.

 

[Dragonhill]

i'm shooting for 32 idlers on mesa.. what say ye?????
<new server record if we pull it off>

 

[Caelestis]

Common sense approach: if you see multiple people who have been in a server for hours with a score of zero, idle elsewhere.

A word on Black Mesa: idlers are nearly antithetical to useful there. Its dynamics are such that it does not attract herds of pubs; it has a particular set of regulars who convene when they see the server being populated. However, when the number of people in Black Mesa is artificially inflated by idlers, the regulars leave, thus ensuring that almost no one goes there to play. I jumped in tonight, believing that 23 people were at play. Suffice to say, I was mildly disappointed that there were only 9 of those 23 in fact playing. So when it comes to Black Mesa, come to play. Yes, having idlers brings people in, but it also turns them out just as quickly when it degenerates into six short rounds of two versus one.

 

[Hans Voss]

I just joined TF2 division and I came to play time to time to black mesa, somedays it was disapointing to see alot of people idling. once I say 13 people the server, decided it was a fair amount to play and joined, they were all idling. anyway, I think 4 idlers are enough unless the server needs to be seeded.

 

[Koa]

sometimes i hae idling becuase it throws off my stats