Since last week this is the case. Only on certain hours the server is filled, else there are just some guys hunting achievements. EDIT: This is at the All Maps 1 (I only play All Maps).
Makes sense that it's only on certain hours. Most people, such as myself, have work, or are sleeping for most of the day, so there is usually only about 4 or 5 hours in a day when the servers are full, or even viable for a decent game. The issue is that even during those times when players should be on, the server has been empty as of late.
People are going on holiday aswell those times of year.. don't forget that.. Still sucks that the servers are empy as hell on these days. About a year ago the server were filled with people around this time of year in the weekends.
And don't forget the weather! It has been around 25° (maybe higher) here in Belgium (and probably in most West-European countries aswell) the last days.
Pfft, weather. My 10-14 hour shifts leave me too tired to bother with anything other than gaming. Now everyone, adjust your lives around my work schedule to make me happy. It will make you happy, knowing you make others happy!
Don't forget also the steam summer sale, some ppl (like me, i admit ) bought some game and spent less time on TF2 ^^
Usually I also try to fill the servers as early as possible. But lately I barely did. Losing too much intrest in tf2 and it takes ages to fill because most regulars dont seem to join untill the server is almost full.
Maybe some sort of reward for the early joiners? Nothing game breaking but something like immunity to auto-balance, something along those lines.
I've seen good "compensations" around... For example the first 6 joiners to STAY (allow for crashes, 5 min away from server should not kill 'm) till the server has 20+ players getting a 3 day donator slot, or do a points system for that which they can spend on things like immunity to auto-balance or class limits etc.
Skial's AP points make it even more fun to stick around. Maybe implement something similar cause you know people love end of the round immunity and unusual hats.
`We want jelly on this one, but its not something we can create 1.2.3. dont forget that skial is about profit too.. so they could just hire/get coders with money, we dont have that.
Don't do anything Skial does. They're alright for fucking about for a while but LZ is where you go for a challenge and play against high skill level players. All that ap crap is not something that belongs in LZ but just something small and worth while to get people joining early.
Ahh, the average person is about decent, but I've really only seen about 5 or 6 people I would consider highly skilled. If I join and see Fusou as a sniper, I'm joining his team. That guy is a beast with a sniper, and since I, the lowly medic, have no defense against snipers...well, no point getting my ass kicked and being unable to do anything about it. Always gotta remember the names of the regulars, so you can pick the right team to join. A medic is only as good as his team (and I'm shit at other classes).
well, I admit, I play on skial on the pl_badwater server, but I dislike it on a number of things: not a 32 man server (altho, after playing there I'm not sure I want that anymore, for its very spammy there, but maybe a limit on demo's should do, I've encountered like 6 demo's on there, nothing stays standing for long, and a lot of nadespam without much chance to push) not fast respawn, I really hate waiting, i'm there to PLAY, not wait, altho I do want to see the deathcam to the killer. I play engineer, there loads of players that just take the metal for they are jumping about and even when I stand in front of it they refuse to leave the metal. imunity of killing is thwarting some achievements for ppl, I don't like it. PINION crap, altho they have it "lax" with not having to keep trying to click it away for 30/40 seconds. Most annoying that that pops up when teams are switched and time is running etc. It runs for ~5 sec minimum b4 it can be closed. servers feel really "abandoned" by admins, I see no admins about, no reactions, nada. no moderation as far as I can tell. reasons I do play there: - server is full, day or night - I love badwater as one of my most favorite maps. - Its bout the only (full) badwater server around without REALLY annoying Pinnion crap. (30-40 sec) losing me round time to build up uber as medic on blue or start building as engy on red. - If I want to tell that metal waster the truth in really bad language, I can. I'm used to GTFO and their lax stance in bad language, as long it wasn't racism etc. there is a difference in bad atmosphere and someone getting a proper verbal spanking for being a idiot. Maps I love the most: doublecross Gravelpit, badwater, goldrush (those for engy/medic), most arena maps (for scout) except nucleus and watchtower, 2fort (for just lax sniping never will be good, but meh), also, I'm told that "LZ misses a 5cp map server, like lazytown" by somebody recently. /edit: PS: the edit box is most attrocious with the listing bullets blah, but I guess I'm spoiled with SR's xenforo's GUI editor (altho I do scream at it sometimes too, for messing up with everything). /edit2: I main engy, medic, scout, soldier, pyro and If its a easy plugin for the server, I may know somebody who can write 'm for you.
FYI weve tried other communities' ideas and server types now and then and it failed. Just because skial do something doesnt mean it has the same effect on LZ. Also we may or may not have regulars that play on LZ because we do NOT have certain plugins.