The Reason BF# server is empty

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billythekid1
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The Reason BF# server is empty

Post by billythekid1 »

Hi there im new to the forum and have bneen ingame on your bf3 server and liked it alot. Ive noticed a decline in the numbers of late and im wondering why?

Is it map set up?

is it tickets counts?

is it afk players?

is it the game styles CQ,AK etc?

or something else?
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Re: The Reason BF# server is empty

Post by toolman »

The admins have been discussing this as of late and have no solid answers. It seems to be a general consensus that it is a combination of things, but we welcome any and all suggestions that will help us get the numbers back up where they have been.

:)
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Re: The Reason BF# server is empty

Post by i_am_not_your_father »

I have not been playing BF3 at all. Just curious... is the decline true for other BF3 servers as well or just ours? Could it be more of a wider issue with the game itself?

IANYF
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Re: The Reason BF# server is empty

Post by OddJob2021 »

i_am_not_your_father wrote:I have not been playing BF3 at all. Just curious... is the decline true for other BF3 servers as well or just ours? Could it be more of a wider issue with the game itself?

IANYF
Good points. It probably is the case that other servers are suffering as we are. If you really want answers like that just check gametracker.com . However, other servers are still thriving, off of the BF3 community. Most of them are 64 player, which helps with the consistent player loss between rounds. The problem with 64's are small map seem like pure hell and chaos. The main issue is that we need to contort our server because DICE has still not completely fixed the quick-match system. In order to run large CQ the server needs to be XX/48. For small CQ the server needs to see XX/32. So in order to make the normal transition between small->large the server now needs to be manually edited to 48 players. Not only does this require an admin to be aware of this and do it, but the join rate suffers because we lose the adaptive server count. It becomes 32/48 or worse, people leave on map end/change and its 2X/48..... The short is people just have not been on. So many people used to be in TS, we rarely see some people these days, some have been 'afk' for months and more.
It takes a certain number of players to start a server. People that have not been on as often are either A) too busy; or B) tired of the game (even though expansions have been coming, but it could be because the server runs them in a blue moon)
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Re: The Reason BF# server is empty

Post by oldboi »

Just a thought on the problems facing the BF3 server, this is only wat i have noticed from the decline -
People becoming tired of the game (due to newer games ? possibly)
A lull due to the coming festive season (some could be waiting to upgrade or get premium)
A more varied map list (i realize that alot don't have Premium, but just compare Vanilla to the other map lists)
And the skill level of the players (wen you have a few higher level players on the same team, with newer players opposing)

I do realize my location could be wat has me thinking this, the Oceanic servers seem to have more on the 1's that rotate the maps or are not just running Vanilla maps.
Player number size does play a part in the population of servers, but there are 32-48-64 servers an they seem to populate the same with players waiting.

These are just some things i have noticed ...
The other thing to take into account, this is a game an should be shown as a fun place to be, how you do this is any-1's guess.

I have been having fun here for sometime now, an my ping has always been a problem, but it doesn't stop me from coming bak to enjoy ... 8-)
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Re: The Reason BF# server is empty

Post by Nightstalker »

Oldboi.. you are as cool as a cucumber. That is a great outlook.
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Re: The Reason BF# server is empty

Post by billythekid1 »

Like Mr Beaver mentioned in the chat thing about the TS channel and people in there but playing other servers.

It would have been nice if the people in question in TS whilst playing another server would come in and explain why if 8 of them are in there why did they not go into the EA117 server and play espeacialy when they were mostly all on the same server together?

They are happy to use the EA117 TS channel for other servers but not to promote your own great logic.


Basically you dont go to one 2 star restaurant and buy a meal then goto 5 star restaurant to eat it do you.

fuk it why not run a wire under the sea and steal my cable and electricity to run your games of whilst your at it.
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Re: The Reason BF# server is empty

Post by mikeyteh »

Billy,
There are times, like over this past weekend, when we have 10+ people on TS all playing on the 117 server. There were, at that time, 3 people that were not on TS on the server. It doesn't matter how many people are on TS playing on 117 if nobody else joins. Many of our regulars have come and gone because they want to play other maps/DLCs, or want to play on full servers, or get tired of trying to jump start 117 for hours with no results. The reason TS is full everyday is because we are a collection of gamers who enjoy playing together. Our members (and admins) may play on other servers at times, but they always end up back in the 117 server, provided it is not empty.

We are actively looking for solutions to help bring more users into the 117 server. We have made changes, such as map vote and DLCs at times. We are eager to hear more suggestions, but it is simply not the fault of our members using the TS server to play somewhere else.
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Re: The Reason BF# server is empty

Post by OddJob2021 »

mikeyteh wrote:Billy,
There are times, like over this past weekend, when we have 10+ people on TS all playing on the 117 server. There were, at that time, 3 people that were not on TS on the server. It doesn't matter how many people are on TS playing on 117 if nobody else joins. ...
I want to reiterate this to Billy and others reading,

Mikey is absolutely right. People just aren't joining in the afternoon. This past weekend we were strong in TS. We all were on the server having fun trying to get it started. You can check the gametracker. For hours and hours we on TS were the core of the players. Every other player (which were 1-5 different players) was either such a noob that they decided to leave due to lack of skill or they decided to try and stick it out. We stuck around trying to get it started. Some of the core left over the 12 hrs of time we tried to start it. By the end the server was nearly full, oh but guess what, the wee hours = people sleep = no activity on the server, so the server dumped literally all the people at 1am. Now this is a normal occurrence for us, these days it is once in a blue moon to see the server go through the night. This fact alone should tell everyone reading that the server has lost popularity in the BF3 community (not 117 community although it is also the case it seems). The gametracker stats tell the story with graphs. We used to go up/down, up/down sometimes stay up/up through the night, now-a-days we either are flat all day (Spec being the only one in there.. afk every god damn day) or when we try to start the server, it takes a much higher 'activation level' of people to exponentially get people to WANT to join. When people see 28/48 or w/e they are turned off. They want to see 38/48 or 42/48, you get the picture.

The point is we cannot even begin to start alleviating this server problem until we can fix our own internal issue of LACK OF ACTIVITY. I am on TS almost everyday, I see who joins/leaves. You know who you are. Those of you who are slacking, either pick it up or explain WHY you are not frequenting TS anymore. I expect the answers if any will be either A or B in my first reply to this thread...

Oh and PS: That weekend was one of the server's most popular days these past weeks. Really, pathetic.

PPS: If needed I will make a list of all the active 117 players and all the ones who are inactive or come once every month or so.
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Re: The Reason BF# server is empty

Post by TG_jneagu »

I'm gonna make a new thread on possible solutions. But as an outline:
-Temporary Recruitment Program [3months]
-Change of Attitudes
-Clean UP
-Changing of Tags
-Help the owners of the TS, and game servers

Hopefully this idea can help get new people on, especially people planning on getting BF4.
NEW POST HERE" http://www.ea117dcfanfavorites.com/view ... =63&t=4494
Last edited by TG_jneagu on November 20th, 2012, 2:49 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: The Reason BF# server is empty

Post by billythekid1 »

i get it now, I think BF3 killed us as a group.we split up and now we are slighty dispanded. nobody to blame people move on more come. Dc done so well as will bf3 in the future
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Re: The Reason BF# server is empty

Post by TG_jneagu »

yes make a list Oddjob
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Re: The Reason BF# server is empty

Post by Golden3ye »

The thing that really gets me is that when you are trying to start a server the randoms trickle in so slowly you really have to go easy on them or they will get mad and leave. Which means you are not having fun for 1-2 hours then it gets going and you have to get offline to go about your day
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Re: The Reason BF# server is empty

Post by C'mon Son »

Is there any way of changing the TDM # of player to start from 4 to 2?
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Re: The Reason BF# server is empty

Post by mikeyteh »

C'mon Son wrote:Is there any way of changing the TDM # of player to start from 4 to 2?
Not since the latest server patch. DICE switched it from 2 to 4.
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Re: The Reason BF# server is empty

Post by Axel »

It is good to see that this issue is actively being discussed. It totally bums me out to log in and see 0 players on our server.

Despite my 'wolfpack of one' attitude in the game, I will look at getting my TS all connected up again :D
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Re: The Reason BF# server is empty

Post by billythekid1 »

Good on ya bro i miss the fun we all had in our DC years
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Re: The Reason BF# server is empty

Post by OREX »

I don't often voice my opinion but I really think that this is an important subject. So, I am going to let you all know why I leave the server in the hopes that it helps the server population.

By now some of you have realized that I am a total noob when it comes to Battlefield 3 :o . I am struggling along trying to learn the ropes and people have been great at giving me advice. Sometimes the old sponge doesn't suck up the information as quickly as I would like and, I haven't purchased a video card yet (800x600 with everything set to low to get on average 22 - 26 fps) handicaps me even more. This seems to upset some people when I am in game and on TeamSpeak. While they don't specifically refer to my skills being below par they do talk of others who aren't on TS that are either slightly better than I am or around my skill level and not so much in a good way.

The team stacking totally sucks. If you have [117] tags the server tries to place you all on the same team. Most of you are on TS at the same time giving you a strategic advantage, and you are almost all very experienced players. I know it isn't every round that this happens but it really doesn't take that many games of getting your ass handed to you, knowing that the teams are stacked, before you jet off to a different server. Nobody seems to want to jump to the other team.

Right now if I go play on a TDM server or big map server and have a good game I can get into the top 1/3rd on my team. On long maps I can get 40 to 50 kills. Keeps me interested, gives me the kills that I need to improve my weapons and work on assignments. On the 117 server I'm very lucky if I get above the bottom 3rd. Most of the maps, while I have been on, have been slower paced. If that makes sense. One server feels like you are playing dodgeball, the other feels like you are playing chess.

I hope that when I get a video card and some of my upgrading done I will be more competitive and feel good playing on the server. good enough that when I do end up on the stacked winning team I can switch to help balance things. Hmmm, maybe you should just switch me to the winning team to balance things back out... :D lol!
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Re: The Reason BF3 server is empty

Post by watapus »

OREX wrote:I don't often voice my opinion but I really think that this is an important subject. So, I am going to let you all know why I leave the server in the hopes that it helps the server population.

By now some of you have realized that I am a total noob when it comes to Battlefield 3 :o . I am struggling along trying to learn the ropes and people have been great at giving me advice. Sometimes the old sponge doesn't suck up the information as quickly as I would like and, I haven't purchased a video card yet (800x600 with everything set to low to get on average 22 - 26 fps) handicaps me even more. This seems to upset some people when I am in game and on TeamSpeak. While they don't specifically refer to my skills being below par they do talk of others who aren't on TS that are either slightly better than I am or around my skill level and not so much in a good way.

The team stacking totally sucks. If you have [117] tags the server tries to place you all on the same team. Most of you are on TS at the same time giving you a strategic advantage, and you are almost all very experienced players. I know it isn't every round that this happens but it really doesn't take that many games of getting your ass handed to you, knowing that the teams are stacked, before you jet off to a different server. Nobody seems to want to jump to the other team.

Right now if I go play on a TDM server or big map server and have a good game I can get into the top 1/3rd on my team. On long maps I can get 40 to 50 kills. Keeps me interested, gives me the kills that I need to improve my weapons and work on assignments. On the 117 server I'm very lucky if I get above the bottom 3rd. Most of the maps, while I have been on, have been slower paced. If that makes sense. One server feels like you are playing dodgeball, the other feels like you are playing chess.

I hope that when I get a video card and some of my upgrading done I will be more competitive and feel good playing on the server. good enough that when I do end up on the stacked winning team I can switch to help balance things. Hmmm, maybe you should just switch me to the winning team to balance things back out... :D lol!
This is a great bit of information and if orex doesnt mind I'll add to it.

I completely agree with the balancer statement, there is a little hump where we hit about 6-10 players that really REALLY sucks... When you're trying to fill up the server, at this point because on an average day there will be a minimum of 1 afk and while 1 afk might not seem like much that makes the game 5 vs 4.. and then this next scenario shows up, a random player joins... hurray!.... but oh wait they were put on the side with the more players suddenly it's 6 vs 4. well now we're at a situation where it doesn't really matter how good the 4 players are a 6 vs 4 is an uphill battle. One of which that most players find to be unpleasant and end up leaving for the instability alone. And it gets worse. I've seen the balancer put teams together that look like its 8 vs 3... now when this happens ull notice that people start getting auto balanced but that's only the server trying to adjust people as they leave so that one side has things to shoot at. In the end the balancer is currently NOT WORKING PROPERLY, some rounds it will announce that it's balancing over and over SOON but it never actually does anything.

As someone who plays in the server on a daily basis I feel like what I am saying to be true and accurate and with that being said I think some easy changes could turn around this dull dread empty feeling we all have.


First off and I think this is obvious, STOP THE AFK PLAYERS FROM BEING AFK
It wasnt that bad when only spec did it but now with everyone joining in on the faking the server numbers campaign its really not helping at all. It's gotten to the point where 117 members don't even come to the 117 server cause they know it won't be fun. I mean come on how many of you are on TS almost everyday and NEVER join the server unless asked to by the other guys who have been in there for hours already..

~~~ TLDR no more afk players

Secondly, the whole putting 117 people on the same side HAS TO STOP. EVERY game where you guys are on the same side the server dies. You play well yes, this is fine... i get it you wanna play with your friends.. but seriously you guys are way better then the average pub. If you continue to do this you're just gonna end up putting the nail in 117's coffin. I'm not gonna lie when I connect if it's me and lets say 5 pubs against you guys, i just leave i already know i lost the game. theres no point in playing since you guys go ALL OUT on most occasions and I don't feel like sitting through a match that lasts 45 minutes to get 10 kills when you can get 10 kills in 5 minute game of scavenger.....

~~~~TLDR remove the balancer that makes 117 go to the same side, its not needed at all.

Third, i wasnt sure how to approach because its a touchy subject that others feel differently about, but I hope that the general message will be there. GIMMICK GUNS when people are trying to fill the server, please don't connect with your spass 12 using slugs? I mean the gun alone is overpowered from a gamers stand point, how do you think a pub is gonna react when hes dying over and over to the same player thats using something that directly 1 shots from almost any range. With that being said, m416 is right up there with the slugs, while it may not 1 shot I'm sure everyone can agree it's slightly excessive. I know I'm guilty of using strong weapons but 90% of the time it's to counter someone using something even stronger then what I'm using. And I NEED these weapons to even stay alive. If I feel like I NEED these weapons I can only imagine how joe bob feels at rank 20 with half these guns locked and or un available to them. I think we all forget that this game has a massive learning curve and that if we don't help new players we're not gonna save this server.

~~~~ TLDR Don't be dicks and dominate, if you're 5 and 0 against joe bob and you're fighting him again LET HIM KILL YOU, not only will he be happy he got a kill he will be ecstatic to get another one, it will invigorate them to continue on. If you just keep raping them they leave completely demoralized and never come back to ea 117..... 10/10


~~~This is something I would personally like to add since I am on TS and I'm on the server a lot, a lot of the admins are my friends and even with that said they are not doing their jobs. Multiple times people have come to them with suggestions and it gets either blown off as a stupid Idea or they are told to make a forum. So hopefully this forum does not get blown off as complaining.

If you want players to come back they need to be able to connect to the server for the first time and feel like, wow these guys are really fun. I would enjoy playing against them. Well how do you do that. Simple interact with them. It's as simple as an admin message saying hello to a new player that you guys have never seen before. Furthermore You don't have to talk and get to know them but you attleast need to make your pressence known if there was no admin before. That's an easy way to get people to follow the rules as a secondary effect but as a primary it tells them that the server has active admins. MEANING if they run into problems they have someone to direct that issue to, rather then just leaving and finding another server with an admin available to kick that hacker or slay that base camper. You get the idea.

~~Fine tuning, make the server /yell feature announce the website. This is important because I honestly had no idea you guys even had a website until one of you (jay) asked me to post on it. Well if you wait until jay tells everyone about the site we will be here for sometime with the same faces.

Follow through with the whole 24/7 fan favorites... I dunno who the fans are of mixed modes but this isnt the first game to have them and I'm 100% sure we would see more population if the server was dedicated to 1 game mode rather then hop modes all the time. At least then everyone knows what they are getting into.
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Re: The Reason BF# server is empty

Post by Nightstalker »

Hey guys .. OddJob and I had a long talk on TS the other day. And this is just an outsider(me) looking in so take it with a grain of salt if you want but, as I told Jay the other day, I do not see all the emphasis being put on TS when there seems to be other issues. For me here is what I see. TS is a tattle tale. It is showing that alot of people, whether it be admins, regulars or new names are on, but not on the EA server. Now granted some people are on as they have just a few minutes and want to BS. But as a whole one would have to say you are on TS and gaming on some other server.

This I am about to mention I see ALOT!!!! ... Right now I see 8 people on TS and 0 .. ZERO people on the server. How the hell do you expect the server to start when the regulars are not going to get it going? Most of these are members of the forum and have commented on the lack of server activity. If I am misunderstanding something then please say as I know Jay said the intricacies of getting the server on to the quick match list is somewhat crazy, but if no one is willing to start it ... well then it has lost before it ever started.

IMHO you need to make a point if you have 6-8 people on TS, you need to make a conscious effort to get in and get the server fired up. You will never get to the quick match list or whatever it is you need with zero people in the server. I see a ton of talk about what to do but no one joining ... EVEN our regulars. All this to be said I would probably be the 9th person on TS not in the server if I could play BF3 but as I said .. this is just an outside looking in perspective. ;)

I do not know anything about the maps but obviously the DC server has done a damn fine job of lasting on Conquest maps. Other servers that have stood the test of time are conquest. Yes I know you have the occassional CTF server but I can not think of any that were TDM and lasted for too long.

I am not trying to piss anyone off just hopefully adding some food for thought and keep the discussion going to figure out what is going on and what is needed to better the BF3 server. :)
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Re: The Reason BF# server is empty

Post by BoOn »

I take the above post with a grain of salt , but the posts above that one are excellent and well put !
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Re: The Reason BF# server is empty

Post by oldboi »

The thing i recon could make a difference would be to make a rotation of all the available maps and modes, this seems to be popular an the servers have regular player's :11:
This keep's you interested, an will probably help those doing assignments ;)
Cause having FUN is the name of the GAME ... :31:
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Re: The Reason BF# server is empty

Post by Mahui_II »

I agree with Oldboi. Having a map vote with all maps and multiple game modes would be awesome
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Re: The Reason BF# server is empty

Post by billythekid1 »

oldboi wrote:The thing i recon could make a difference would be to make a rotation of all the available maps and modes, this seems to be popular an the servers have regular player's :11:
This keep's you interested, an will probably help those doing assignments ;)
Cause having FUN is the name of the GAME ... :31:
i agree with what Glen just typed. Him and i play alot on oceana servers and they are usually full. they usually play all game modes or have at least 3 modes playing eg AM,CQ,BK etc thinks its not a bad idea to spread it out instead if staying on one..
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Re: The Reason BF# server is empty

Post by Sarge 1/68th Armor »

I bet if I was to buy all the upgrades to get on our server, everyone would would be there just to kill me ;)
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