Where is everybody?

[-RIP- Luhgnut 10]

Trying to figure out what's going on lately. Twitter is full of Arma2/OA peeps, armaholic shows many many downloads, servers are free (for the most part), game is excellent,

But servers are empty. Tons of em out there, but it's a ghost town.

[KeyCat 131]

I can think of quite a few things but main thing is probably summertime in northern hemisphere equals to hot to play, instead drinking something cool by the waterline. Thats where I was past week while on vacation ;)

I'm sure things will be different when the fall starts to kick in!

/KC

Edited July 20, 2010 by KeyCat

[ryguy 10]

Maybe people don't like playing the missions that servers tend to run and the lack of variety.

[andromedagalaxe 10]

Don't most people play in clans? public servers have had a few full rooms last weekend but .. I am not a huge multiplayer guy. I got turned off from the clan experience with mandatory practices from other games. I want to play when I want to play. If there are clans like that I would be interested but looks like ping is too high for a majority of the servers out there for me. Even many of the low ping ones tend to be laggy for me, so I don't play much MP.

I have had a few good ones in OA, but I'm also getting tired of domination.

[Nicholas 5]

Most of the servers are clan based, and they keep playing the same thing over and over, by doing that it gets old thus losing players. As Keycat said, it's also summer so many people are out and about in the nice sun. I go camping and fishing a lot during the summer and have a lot of other things going on. During the winter I just stay at home a lot, which gives me much more time to play games.

[Iroquois Pliskin 0]

So many servers run Domination, there is absolutely no variety.

[Sim.M 48]

We do missions when we have enough people on comms and in the server. Most of our members are fed up with Domination (hell I was in Arma1), so we look at other missions to play, we just leave the server running with Dom when we aren't on it.

Look for the 7-75th Ranger server. We usually have a few guys on during the evening (pacific time), but as others have mentioned; its too hot to sit on the computer!

[galzohar 31]

On Zeus last gaming night (Sunday) we had like 20 people join all of a sudden saying they were glad to find a server running something other than domination... Try it on Thursday again 19:30 (type "Zeus" in filter).

[metalcraze 290]

Many people usually play coops in the evening so many servers will remain empty for the biggest part of the day. Organized coops isn't something you can run 24/7 but they are more than worth it - so basically find a few servers/clans you really like to play on/with and stick with them. Random public servers usually don't provide the same experience anyway.

[TangoRomeo 10]

but main thing is probably summertime in northern hemisphere equals to hot to play, instead drinking something cool by the waterline.

Yepp.

It´s 0145 a.m., outside temp is 24°C, room temp around 28°C (attic apartment). Last couple of weeks we had daytime temps closing 40°C in Germany.

[ryguy 10]

Central air FTW :nener:

[CarlGustaffa 4]

@7th_Serf: So maybe you should take off Domination? Ref galzohar. I don't mind a good game of Domination, but good games of this variation doesn't exist on the public scene (for the most part, a couple of exceptions do exist, as long as their admins are present and rule with an iron fist) where everything is left on default and invites to rambo gamestyle.

So typically I'm looking for coop servers with expert (like) settings not running Domination. All veteran servers I have tested run with 3rd person and crosshairs (they just kill the mood and experience for me, so I just leave). I only found one, and the guys denied me joining for not being able to join their TS server (my computer is borked in ways I don't understand) - fair enough I guess. So knowing how Domination plays out with the typical CoD playerbase, even though there were tons and tons of servers running it with plenty people on board, I went back to the editor instead.

[Sim.M 48]

@Carl; we have 3rd turned off, on veteran mode all the time (not sure about crosshairs but I never use them so wouldn't know). Domination is fun when you have 4 guys and do secondary missions, or want to practice recon and vehicle ID (part of our training). So we use it for that. We do use TS3 and most of us have our radio volume turned down so we can't even hear folks if they use VOIP...

My unit tries new missions out nearly daily so if folks see us up and running they are welcome to join in (but we do like to use voice comms...even if you don't like talking).

Filter for 7 and you'll find our Operation Arrowhead server.

[jeza 5416]

Yer the heat must be a factor, my room gets about 35deg's last time i looked as the comp blows its hot air at me! but next to window helps. As for server missions, tbh a rarely go on servers during the day as mostly its all domination, which is okay but when its hot and playing a game mode that does not inspire me i tend to just go play SP or coop with fellow members on user made missions. I'm sure the lack of activity is due to holidays, the heat, and maybe not everyone has OA yet, things are picking up though interms of more people playing BIS games, as i saw in pcgamer mag that OA won editors choice which can only be good for the community expanding. But server wise bought a small 12-15 slot server in 40a for oa the other day so will be running it on veteran and be doing variety of modes so hopfully we can fill it up! :)

Edited July 21, 2010 by Jeza

[tacticalnuggets 24]

Many people agree that the main problem for low mp numbers is addon diversity. BIS is implementing a addon management and maybe some kind of download system if i recall correctly.

[Seitan 8]

main thing is probably summertime in northern hemisphere equals to hot to play,

I'm sure things will be different when the fall starts to kick in!

/KC

That's the main reason here. Home is too hot. PC gets too hot. My ass gets too hot. It's not fun to play when you are dripping sweat in front of your PC. When you can go out by the water and have a cold beer.

I'm sure it gets busier when the dark depressive fall sets in here at the north. :)

[L3TUC3 32]

Many people agree that the main problem for low mp numbers is addon diversity. BIS is implementing a addon management and maybe some kind of download system if i recall correctly.

This. As a mp newb it's a pain in the behind.

Servers are running with an addon you don't have, you're running an addon the server doesn't like, or the server drops you because you're not running A2/OA/CO properly (yay steam :mad:). It's off-putting.

Currently I'm picking a server, setting the addons right for it and cross fingers to join. There's no simple hop on and play unless you accidentally clicked a vanilla server.

Also, all the servers seem to run the same mission and game-type.

[Flightster 10]

We've found that there are a lot of people that installed OA in the Arma II folder, while our server has a seperate folder for OA.. Thus making it impossible for people that installed OA in the Arma 2 folder to see our server.

BI should really fix this, and make it so that all servers are visible without having to install it in a certain way.

[AntalopeAUT 10]

Ey mates...you know what I heard lately from a friend on TS3 ?

Sweat saves Blood....

Interpret as wanted.....

Sometimes the BierAIG plays nicely sorted Domis...and most of the time one of the regular players or a member of the Bier-Community is administering the whole mess from the tower down xD

Edited July 21, 2010 by AntalopeAUT

[galzohar 31]

Are you sure you don't see the server only because you're running CO and the server is standalone OA? Because I haven't really noticed a difference in the server list regardless of if I run CO or standalone OA (I can run both since I have steam and games are installed in different folders), but then again I didn't thoroughly test this and I do have the games installed in separate folders.

[-RIP- Luhgnut 10]

Thanks for the responses. I've been in a clan or two, and they were good, with no complaints. But Everybody running Domination or a small variant is quite old. Then again, when I had my own server up and posted quality MP maps, nobody played them. For whatever reason. I signed up for the AAS map server circuit but have yet to find a single game running.

[galzohar 31]

The main problem is that people don't generally join empty servers. I'm sure I don't. The only game modes that give the player anything to do when he's alone on the server are those that you keep seeing servers running.

On Zeus when we actually had enough people to get the server to the top of the list (when you sort by player count) all of a sudden ~15 public players joined (within ~20 minutes), making us reach a grand total of 45 players. Shows you people do want some variety, but they're not willing to sit alone on a server and wait for people to join just so they can see nobody is joining.

[Flightster 10]

Are you sure you don't see the server only because you're running CO and the server is standalone OA? Because I haven't really noticed a difference in the server list regardless of if I run CO or standalone OA (I can run both since I have steam and games are installed in different folders), but then again I didn't thoroughly test this and I do have the games installed in separate folders.

I meant that they're unable to join the server if it's standalone OA, it will kick them off.. Basically you're only able to join servers that are CO if you have it installed in that fashion, or vice versa.. Which is pretty stupid, if you ask me.

[terox 316]

I meant that they're unable to join the server if it's standalone OA, it will kick them off.. Basically you're only able to join servers that are CO if you have it installed in that fashion, or vice versa.. Which is pretty stupid, if you ask me.

This is not correct.

I run Zeus

Zeus is currently running standalone OA. Signature verification is turned on and the server is also running a serverside addon pack

I personally run Combined Ops and I plus every Combined Ops and OA standalone client in the community can join and play on the server.

If you are having an issue then it is either your client install/firewall problem or you are trying to join servers that are runing addons that you do not have or some other criteria such as verifysignatures, equalmodrequired etc etc.

You would have a connection problem is the server was running a Combined Ops mission and Deadfast's or SbSMacs tool had been used to enforce Combined Ops and your client was standalone OA

Edited July 22, 2010 by Terox

[BCA Cat Toaster 10]

Luhgnut;1692362']Thanks for the responses. I've been in a clan or two' date=' and they were good, with no complaints. But Everybody running Domination or a small variant is quite old. Then again, when I had my own server up and posted quality MP maps, nobody played them. For whatever reason. I signed up for the AAS map server circuit but have yet to find a single game running.[/quote']

Just had 78 players on our AAS-Server half an hour ago, a new record. If you´re US-Based the AAS-Armacalypse is running fine as well. Checkout www.advanceandsecure.com for server activity on the right side of the page.