So, what did happen to Foundry? I am a regular there and it just died and remains dead. Sometimes I send out invites to come play if there are enough other regulars online and we can get it to come back to life briefly, but then it dies again.
Is it the Valve server change? That occurred a while back and Foundry did fine in the month after that change. What happened more recently? Or is it just bad timing?
eGo servers are the best and the talent of the regulars on Foundry made it a fun 5 CP map. Now every time I log on there is no one there and even if I go wait around it still never fills up and I end up leaving after a while to play somewhere with active players.
Is it the Valve server change? That occurred a while back and Foundry did fine in the month after that change. What happened more recently? Or is it just bad timing?
eGo servers are the best and the talent of the regulars on Foundry made it a fun 5 CP map. Now every time I log on there is no one there and even if I go wait around it still never fills up and I end up leaving after a while to play somewhere with active players.
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Short answer, yes, the valve server change back in January fouled us up good, along with pretty much all the other communities as well. All the quickplay folks get funneled to valve servers and the rest are starved for players.
I've noticed that Foundry is probably the fastest (after Egypt) to empty out after being filled. Possibly due to ragequitting? I'm not too sure, to be honest.
Can't be ragequitting, since Harvest is doing just fine being the koth map it is and that minis are all throughout anyways.
Unless, of course, we're not counting the time I was target practice for a market gardening Solly and pocket Medic whom I won't recall their names.
It probably has the longest rounds of any of the eGo maps. With 5 CP and some back and forth pushes I have played in one game with 12v12 that lasted around 45 minutes.
For many people that might be enough to move on to another map.
Also, it has sudden death (which is great IMHO) and anyone that dies early on gets to watch while everyone else fights. This often encourages people to move on to another server. But I think it is far more fun than "stalemate -- you are all losers".
It just stuns me that back in May/June Foundry was 2000 spots higher in the server rankings than it is now.
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I know how you feel shaPOW! Foundry is what I would call my home server, but with the way work has been this summer, I just have so much less time to be playing.
I sent you a friend request. It is from Loki! since this shaPOW! account has been taken over by my son. I still only have this login, but both of us have donated stuff to eGo.
I added you to my friend list so I can send out invites if I notice people active but not on foundry -- my own little FFTF I guess.
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August 21st 2014
Hightower: Rank 644 (+0)
Dustbowl: Rank 807 (+0)
2Fort: Rank 988 (+0)
Harvest: Rank 1011 (-50)
Egypt: Rank 1996 (-30)
Foundry: Rank 2818 (+0)
Snowplow: Rank 4173 (+0)
2Fort moves to 3rd.
Harvest moves to 4th.
Not sure what happened today.
Hightower: Rank 644 (+0)
Dustbowl: Rank 807 (+0)
2Fort: Rank 988 (+0)
Harvest: Rank 1011 (-50)
Egypt: Rank 1996 (-30)
Foundry: Rank 2818 (+0)
Snowplow: Rank 4173 (+0)
2Fort moves to 3rd.
Harvest moves to 4th.
Not sure what happened today.
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Double check those now, I think this was due to me taking the servers down literally about 20 minutes ago. let me know! for now I must sleep
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No change yet, I'll keep an eye on it though and update them if it changes.
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It probably has the longest rounds of any of the eGo maps. With 5 CP and some back and forth pushes I have played in one game with 12v12 that lasted around 45 minutes.
For many people that might be enough to move on to another map.
Also, it has sudden death (which is great IMHO) and anyone that dies early on gets to watch while everyone else fights. This often encourages people to move on to another server. But I think it is far more fun than "stalemate -- you are all losers".
It just stuns me that back in May/June Foundry was 2000 spots higher in the server rankings than it is now.
Sudden death has always been appealing to me and I can understand why some people might not like the concept if they've never truly enjoyed it or experienced it and like you mentioned could definitely deteriorate people from playing on that rotation.
It probably has the longest rounds of any of the eGo maps. With 5 CP and some back and forth pushes I have played in one game with 12v12 that lasted around 45 minutes.
For many people that might be enough to move on to another map.
Also, it has sudden death (which is great IMHO) and anyone that dies early on gets to watch while everyone else fights. This often encourages people to move on to another server. But I think it is far more fun than "stalemate -- you are all losers".
It just stuns me that back in May/June Foundry was 2000 spots higher in the server rankings than it is now.
This is what I speak of:
08/21/2014 - 12:30:25: Team "Red" current score "5" with "6" players
08/21/2014 - 12:30:25: Team "Blue" current score "5" with "7" players
08/21/2014 - 12:30:27: "toffin2<72><STEAM_0:1:18005397><>" setup "cl_language" (value "english")
08/21/2014 - 12:30:29: "Pacific rim job<44><STEAM_0:0:88872444><Blue>" say "gg"
08/21/2014 - 12:30:33: "Rosen<43><STEAM_0:1:55836092><Blue>" disconnected (reason "Disconnect by user.")
08/21/2014 - 12:30:39: "Zytjok<73><STEAM_0:0:14522032><>" requested "playerinfo" (value "67")
08/21/2014 - 12:30:39: "Zytjok<73><STEAM_0:0:14522032><>" entered the game
08/21/2014 - 12:30:40: "(Dead Puppies)The Anime Pirate<24><STEAM_0:1:5970950><Red>" disconnected (reason "Disconnect by user.")
08/21/2014 - 12:30:42: "Zytjok<73><STEAM_0:0:14522032><>" setup "cl_language" (value "english")
08/21/2014 - 12:30:43: "Rusty Dust Bunnies<52><STEAM_0:1:32627303><Red>" disconnected (reason "Disconnect by user.")
08/21/2014 - 12:30:44: "falconwfo<51><STEAM_0:1:94992077><Blue>" disconnected (reason "Disconnect by user.")
08/21/2014 - 12:30:46: "Rainbow Warrior<68><STEAM_0:0:42470691><Red>" disconnected (reason "Disconnect by user.")
08/21/2014 - 12:30:54: "Zytjok<73><STEAM_0:0:14522032><Unassigned>" disconnected (reason "Disconnect by user.")
08/21/2014 - 12:31:07: "Orange Four-Sided Triangle<57><STEAM_0:0:57207798><Blue>" disconnected (reason "Disconnect by user.")
08/21/2014 - 12:31:47: "<+AMF+><59><STEAM_0:1:28443847><Blue>" disconnected (reason "Disconnect by user.")
08/21/2014 - 12:32:39: "Pacific rim job<44><STEAM_0:0:88872444><Blue>" disconnected (reason "Disconnect by user.")
08/21/2014 - 12:33:17: Team "Red" current score "5" with "3" players
08/21/2014 - 12:33:17: Team "Blue" current score "6" with "3" players
08/21/2014 - 12:33:24: "Pandawaffle does 360's<40><STEAM_0:1:9567200><Blue>" disconnected (reason "Disconnect by user.")
08/21/2014 - 12:33:28: "Cordial Citizen Cern<34><STEAM_0:0:43031239><Red>" disconnected (reason "Disconnect by user.")
08/21/2014 - 12:34:11: "toffin2<72><STEAM_0:1:18005397><Red>" disconnected (reason "Disconnect by user.")
Maybe about 10 or 15 minutes ago, it was a full server. Most likely these were steam rolls. Unfortunately with the limit history of RCON, I can't go back to where it was 12 v 12. But it'll be in the logs.
Of course, steam rolls will kill any server if they keep happening, but Foundry seems more prone to them, in my limited experience.
I don't know about this particular log or even games during the daytime since I can't play at that time due to work. The few times I have been home sick from work and playing were quite different experiences on any and all servers compared to playing in the evening though.
I don't recognize any of the names in that log and didn't see too many "e" tags either so it looks just like players dropping in to check out the map or get a foundry achievement perhaps?
The regulars on foundry call a scramble if it is a rout in their game from my experience. And I personally switch to the losing side mid-game if it is an obvious roll and there is a spot available on the losing team.
Due to this I haven't seen that many rolls on Foundry in the evening or weekends in the past. I don't think this was a problem pre-May of this year for the year(s) that foundry has been on the rotatio.
IMHO I run into lopsided teams much more often on maps like Skial Badwater or payload maps. Or even more so on the valve maps where all it takes is a heavy and a medic working together to rout an entire team.
Hightower type maps no one even tries to win so it is tough to see lopsided games there.
I don't recognize any of the names in that log and didn't see too many "e" tags either so it looks just like players dropping in to check out the map or get a foundry achievement perhaps?
The regulars on foundry call a scramble if it is a rout in their game from my experience. And I personally switch to the losing side mid-game if it is an obvious roll and there is a spot available on the losing team.
Due to this I haven't seen that many rolls on Foundry in the evening or weekends in the past. I don't think this was a problem pre-May of this year for the year(s) that foundry has been on the rotatio.
IMHO I run into lopsided teams much more often on maps like Skial Badwater or payload maps. Or even more so on the valve maps where all it takes is a heavy and a medic working together to rout an entire team.
Hightower type maps no one even tries to win so it is tough to see lopsided games there.
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Because people are bad at vidya games!
I am only half-joking. Foundry (and to a lesser extent, Egypt) is a very easy map for offense to win if the 'defending' team is inept. Having three spies and four snipers will not result in an instant loss on a PL or KotH map, but that sort of team is a death sentence on Foundry. Instead of rallying or switching classes, people get fed up with the incompetence and leave (or decided they will go be a l33t sniper somewhere else). There are also some pretty scary regulars on Foundry, and if I was getting stomped by the likes of Lelouch or Yellow Cellphone I might want to get the hell out of dodge too.
The kicker is, on Foundry, even if you don't have the steamroll, you get a stalemate, and it is very common to see players leave during that time. So you either have one team be clearly superior and people leave, or you see the teams be too evenly matched, and then people leave. Either extreme results in AWOL pubs.
To add to a factor already raised, Foundry rounds are long and very much so. Playing on Foundry for any significant amount of time is an ordeal and most people stay until the end of the round (as opposed to, say, 2Fort). To paint a picture for you, imagine it as one step down from Black Mesa in terms of the back-and-forth you can find there. Players on Foundry are consequently more likely to leave en masse because they have been playing for quite some time contrasted to any of our other 24/7 servers.
That last paragraph is certainly true. Any 5 CP map is more prone to stalemate/sudden deaths than PL just by its very nature. PL has a time limit that is reached and there is a winner or loser.
5 CP will result in infinitely more stalemates. And very few players like playing for 20 minutes to have a tie or watch other people play in sudden death once they die.
I of course use that sudden death watch time to go make more jarate.
I agree. I think I mentioned in an earlier post about a game that went on over 45 minutes not too long ago.
That is how you get the foundry achievements. Some of them are impossible without incredibly long rounds (killing at least one opponent as each of the nine classes, winning a round in which the opponent was capturing your last CP, etc).
Many people have had enough of a map after playing through one of those epic rounds.
I looked on reddit and found this thread from February:
http://www.reddit.com/r/tf2/comments/1wx9zu/a_look_at_our_small_community_server_stats_over/
Some of the quotes from an admin of those servers:
'The new QP update makes seeding extremely difficult. It used to be that if you got up to 14-16 players and waited a few minutes, you'd start getting QP connects (wait time dependent on QP rank).
Yesterday I got one of our more popular servers up to 18, and it still took 15 minutes to get more than one QP connect at a time.
More frustrating is the time between QP connects. Even our most popular servers have started randomly de-seeding when a handful of players all disconnect at the same time.
We're one of the most popular ad-free communities too. I hate to imagine what it's like to be in a smaller community right now."
"Yeah, you just summarized the two main problems. Even when you get a large group of members to populate a server, it still takes a very long time to get it filled through quickplay. And even after you get it populated, after even just a handful of people leave, the server just dies out."
"Well, we have been doing that, but like I mentioned we only have been getting a small handful of quickplay players compared to before. It takes a much longer time and a larger group of regulars to populate a server compared to before. And the bigger problem is that after we've populated them, unless all the regulars stay on the server for several hours, the server dies out quickly.
I guess the main problem is we don't have enough regulars to populate all our servers at once. If nothing is going to be changed soon, me may consider taking the Barnblitz server down."
http://www.reddit.com/r/tf2/comments/1wx9zu/a_look_at_our_small_community_server_stats_over/
Some of the quotes from an admin of those servers:
'The new QP update makes seeding extremely difficult. It used to be that if you got up to 14-16 players and waited a few minutes, you'd start getting QP connects (wait time dependent on QP rank).
Yesterday I got one of our more popular servers up to 18, and it still took 15 minutes to get more than one QP connect at a time.
More frustrating is the time between QP connects. Even our most popular servers have started randomly de-seeding when a handful of players all disconnect at the same time.
We're one of the most popular ad-free communities too. I hate to imagine what it's like to be in a smaller community right now."
"Yeah, you just summarized the two main problems. Even when you get a large group of members to populate a server, it still takes a very long time to get it filled through quickplay. And even after you get it populated, after even just a handful of people leave, the server just dies out."
"Well, we have been doing that, but like I mentioned we only have been getting a small handful of quickplay players compared to before. It takes a much longer time and a larger group of regulars to populate a server compared to before. And the bigger problem is that after we've populated them, unless all the regulars stay on the server for several hours, the server dies out quickly.
I guess the main problem is we don't have enough regulars to populate all our servers at once. If nothing is going to be changed soon, me may consider taking the Barnblitz server down."
