Payload Stocks Uk

[Parisienne 4]

Dear All,

I have been away from TF2 and Lotus servers for approximately 4 months due to work and have returned in the last 2 weeks. I jumped straight into my usual Lotus server, Payload Stocks UK. Only to find myself surrounded by bots. My initial reaction was "oh well server is empty should be full later in the evening" but that never happened. So it turns out the Server had died during my absence.

So I decided to see why this was the case, tuns out people had requested a bunch of new maps to be added and then it turns out they did not like them so they abandoned the server all together. In fact most of my steam friends are from this server alone.

This was pretty much the only server I would play TF2 on. And to me its a great disappointment that it is no longer properly functioning. May I Request from MANA to do the following 3 changes just for this weekend (29-30/09/2012):

1. Go back to the original set up with 4 maps

-Badwater

-Goldrush

-Hoodoo

-Upward

2. Increase the time limit on the servers to 90 minutes

3. Allow voteskip after the first 20 minutes of the map

This was pretty much how the server was running when I had left. I and a few other steam friends have tried to get the server going back however:

1. The short time limit does not facilitate for a high skill level of players. By this I mean players who join the server when there is less than 10 minutes left on the map, 50% of the time leave as they are looking to play that map for a longer duration

2. When we did get the server to 32 players it was great, however the map vote came up and almost everybody voted to extend after the 5 minute extension Thundermountain loaded up, this instantly cause a drop of 7-10 players. 10 minutes into the map we are playing 7v7 another 10 minutes and we are playing mostly bots.

To conclude, it seems the server did not die due to a short map rotation but more due to the increased map rotation. It does not seem that players like those new maps. Furthermore the short time limits only allows for 3-4 games if the teams are competent.

I plead to MANA and the whole Lotus community to revive this server by making it the way it used to be!

Thanks and Regards

Parisienne

P.S Perhaps barnblitz could make it into the rotation if things turn out well.

[No longer a Sexy King:^) 5,592]

Indeed, the server used to be full all day, now most of the times it's empty.

When i wasn't playing dustbowl i would be on payload, too bad it died a bit.

[darkness-07 115]

2fort uk #1 was a little dead yesterday as well. still good fun

[Mana 3,867]

Payload UK is also a server that gets a big boost through being the first server on our event list. So it's guaranteed to fill up, yet it does not seem to stay full like our other servers.

I made those changes for now, because I was willing to entertain the last idea so I might as well try this before trying my idea.

The problem with rotation servers is that they are harder to fill and keep filled. This is why no other communities have as many (successful) rotation servers as we do. If it fails then I will implement my idea of it becoming a 24/7 server. And this will likely be successful.

Few things to note:

120 was the original time limit, but I put 90 for now.

That was not the original map cycle, but I implemented it anyway.

[Parisienne 4]

Mana, many thanks!

Lets see how it goes!

Well I played a good 4-5 hours on the server yesterday and most of the time it was populated with 24 or more people. Not sure if this will continue, or if it was just the sunday night crowd.

In any case can we keep this settings for this week?

Perhaps we can make a little encouragement for people to come back to the server by making a Steam announcement? That the server settings have been changed.

You know people who used to play on the server and now think its dead may comeback to check the settings out.

[Mana 3,867]

On the weekends it does fill up easier, same can be said for all the servers.

Perhaps we can make a little encouragement for people to come back to the server by making a Steam announcement? That the server settings have been changed.

Not need for that. As I mentioned earlier this server has an event started for it everyday. Which does in fact make it fill up, just the player retention was not very good.

I have also changed the starting map to be the first map in the rotation.

[Parisienne 4]

On the weekends it does fill up easier, same can be said for all the servers.

Not need for that. As I mentioned earlier this server has an event started for it everyday. Which does in fact make it fill up, just the player retention was not very good.

I have also changed the starting map to be the first map in the rotation.

Ok cool, thanks Mana. Played on it last night and it wasnt so bad, a good few hours the server was full.

The player retention is still fairly poor.

[Parisienne 4]

Well looks like the changed has worked. Have not seen bots on the server for a while.

Possibly in the next week maps can be extended to 120 mins. Will have a chat with a few regular players and see what they think.

[Parisienne 4]

Ok guys. Spoke to a few people and 2 things to note:

1. about 60% said they leave the server to skip Hoodoo as the map (and i put it in their words) "sucks balls"

2. The time limit is too short.

on point 1. I have noticed that when hoodoo is on the table the server empties rapidly

And as for the time limit: I do not mind if its 120 or 90 min. I leave this for mana to decide.

But it seems like hoodoo has to go. (which is a shame as I quite like it)

[Mana 3,867]

Ok guys. Spoke to a few people and 2 things to note:

1. about 60% said they leave the server to skip Hoodoo as the map (and i put it in their words) "sucks balls"

2. The time limit is too short.

on point 1. I have noticed that when hoodoo is on the table the server empties rapidly

And as for the time limit: I do not mind if its 120 or 90 min. I leave this for mana to decide.

But it seems like hoodoo has to go. (which is a shame as I quite like it)

And with that the server would pretty much be back to how it was before you started this thread.