Caleb the Fluffy Puppy 0 #1 Posted June 3, 2012 I've played on Stocks #4 for a few years now and, aside from a period where the server was crashing frequently, its always been full. I've been away from the game for a few weeks, but now anytime I sign in there is only a handful of real players and plenty of bots! Did I miss something? Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
H7YCH 50 #2 Posted June 3, 2012 Yeah, it's summer. LOL Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Zephyr 14 #3 Posted June 5, 2012 I can think of two possible reasons. Diablo 3 is definitely one of them. The other reason could be the unskippable video ad which somehow displays even though HTML MOTDs have been disabled. I know the sudden dropoff in players happened around the same time. I, for the moment, actually still pay to play here, yet I have to watch ads. Its very frustrating. 1 Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Nano 7,892 #4 Posted June 5, 2012 The dropoff started with a Valve update that changes map priorities for quickplay, which was 2-3 weeks before the full screen ad. D3 also came out at that time. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Barbaro 466 #5 Posted June 6, 2012 Or it could be people are being scared away by a certain Billmers' indecent exposure. XD Try inviting friends, people will usually not join an empty server, the bots help some but still needs some human. And moar heavy. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Zephyr 14 #6 Posted June 6, 2012 I guess the server was still mostly full by the time of night I start playing up until the full screen ad. I know I don't like it, and I've heard a lot of complaints about it. The dropoff started with a Valve update that changes map priorities for quickplay, which was 2-3 weeks before the full screen ad. I didn't know about that. Could you elaborate? Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Nano 7,892 #7 Posted June 6, 2012 I didn't know about that. Could you elaborate? It was an unadvertised change by Valve, so I can't. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Zephyr 14 #8 Posted June 7, 2012 One last complaint about the ads. They crash my game. Four times in a row, I crashed about 3 seconds into the ad. Other servers worked fine, but the one ad crashed my game every time I tried to join. Clicking continue still loads the ad in the background, so that didn't help. I had to actually click the ad (to prevent the video from loading) to join the server. I don't really see a need to support the servers with donations anymore if I'm forced to wach and click on ads. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
randomoutsider 1 #9 Posted June 11, 2012 That's weird. I have heard others talk about the video ads but never seen them. Send Mana an email/PM? Stock4 does have less players now-a-days; I just go into Harvest and spawn camp until everyone rage quits. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
NeoDaReaper 3 #10 Posted June 12, 2012 One last complaint about the ads.  They crash my game.  Four times in a row, I crashed about 3 seconds into the ad.  Other servers worked fine, but the one ad crashed my game every time I tried to join.  Clicking continue still loads the ad in the background, so that didn't help.  I had to actually click the ad (to prevent the video from loading) to join the server. I don't really see a need to support the servers with donations anymore if I'm forced to wach and click on ads. Me too. I've been playing TF2 on Valve servers only. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
