Server suggestions

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Pileyrei
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Server suggestions

Post by Pileyrei »

Hello all you UT legends

This topic has been done to death but hey ho, here I am.............rocking on.

I first discovered this awesome game in 2002 where by chance a colleague at work told me to "check out" UT99.
I installed it and the rest is history.

I played amateur for a few years before joining my first clan (smiley).
Thereafter I discovered the TrufF servers and community which was beyond awesome. So many servers. Such a busy forum. It was heaven.

Then TrufF shutdown and Multiplay UK very kindly stepped in and provided a substitute community FREE of charge.

I was made an admin and we carried on.
Over time the community dwindled and finally MPUK confirmed the servers were to shut.

I did my best to keep going by founding unrealsurvivors (cheesy I know) and by providing two servers on my own account.

Whilst I received some great praise the bottom line is our/my community is dead.
It happened so fast. It's like someone literally turned off the light one evening.

So here I am.....trying to keep things goings with TrufF and MPUK in mind.

We have two servers (see my sig)

DM13 - Deck 16 All weapons
DMCTF1 - DM and CTF maps

With the kind help of members Heathcliff and Wiggooo our servers will up for another year.

The DM13 Deck sever will stay.

I need help with the other server.
What to run on it?
Just classic DM and CTF?

So many mods these days!

One year from now if the servers are not busy then I will have no choice to retire them.
Lets be honest, what's the point keeping them going?!

Any suggestions?

Finally, I'd be most grateful if members here would register and post at unrealsurvivors.com to help keep things going.

@Shade and any mods reading - I understand if you delete this post.

Thank you for reading.

Peace

Pileyrei
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papercoffee
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Re: Server suggestions

Post by papercoffee »

Nah... we won't delete it, but rather move it. I think "Clans and Community pages" would fit better.
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Hook
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Re: Server suggestions

Post by Hook »

Sorry to hear Piley :(
You gave it a good start.
(the key word here is "start")

The thing is, you MUST keep participating in a forum to keep it going.
Forum communities are like gardens that You need to attend to often.
You cannot just let a forum function on its own, just like a garden.
It will Wilt and Die if You let that garden stagnate.

You still have time to turn it around, especially with your Servers being renewed.

I myself (one of your top posters) have been posting what I can when I can on your forum.

Ultimately, it is up to YOU mainly, and your members also, to Make it Happen!
I will continue to support you and your forum as I am able going forward.
*My forum Will also help - Use it!*

Let us see what happens now.
Will it wither, or flourish?
=Hook=(Member# 626)
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esnesi
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Re: Server suggestions

Post by esnesi »

Sad, but wisely!

I see the same happen anywhere.
Have to be happy that i still have the availability to play a classicDM or CTF match when i want.

And having the luck that we play multiple games in our community.
There is always someone thats in for a classicDM or CTF.
Having a little regulair group on TS/Discord helps alot.

Searching for people, or occuyping a server these days to get it populair doesnt work anymore sadly.

Website/forums.... are not more of these times, its only alot of work to maintain those.
People join on other group platforms to discuss their gameplay experience these days (discords/telegram w/e)
A forum might only be needed these days when there is an active community playing on the server imo.

It also doesnt help that 3/4 of the scene is active on mostly hidden PUG servers and discords.
Hopefully UT sees a boost in players for a shor while when it turns 20 years :)
Pileyrei
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Re: Server suggestions

Post by Pileyrei »

Thanks for the replies :)

Hopefully I can get things a little busier :tu:
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Feralidragon
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Re: Server suggestions

Post by Feralidragon »

Generally there are only 3 important questions you have to ask yourself in order to figure out if what you're doing has potential for success:
1 - Does it add any value to the player base?
2 - How much of the player base knows about its existence?
3 - How troublesome are they to ingress into?

These questions are always aimed to anything you do, be creating new websites, new servers, even new maps and mods.
If they do not add value or no one knows about their existence or if they're hard to get into, they're generally doomed to fail.
Of course, there are always a few rare times where something that doesn't properly answer those 3 questions, suddenly becomes very popular, but those are rare lucky times and should not be taken as examples, other than what made them popular in the first place (like Battle Royale at the moment, only because a couple of games are extremely popular with it, does not necessarily mean that a BR gametype in UT is a good idea).

What I mean with all this in more straightforward terms is: creating a new forum or website does not add any value whatsoever by itself.
Anyone who wants to discuss about the game will do so here or in already established communities, or on Discord, and a new site only aimed mostly for discussion will only fragment the community further.
The only reason to start one these days is for the owner of that site to get control of the discussions going on and to only get a group going to his/her likings, nothing more and nothing else, and this can be seen everywhere in the community.
So unless such a site actually brings something new and valuable the others do not have already, at most it can only be used for "support" for your servers, like in the case of other similar sites, but not for general discussion.

As for servers, they do add value, especially if you run gametypes or mods which you cannot find in other places, or even if you just run a vanilla server because those became scarce as well (I opened a vanilla server from home once a few years ago just for testing with my brother for a day, and it got instantly populated with more and more players, it came to 10+ players at one point, it was awesome).

However, if they're constantly empty and no one knows about them, they won't get any popular whatsoever, so you ought to advertise them in every site and medium possible: UT forums, maybe Unreal forums as well, Discord, UT Reddit, Epic forums, etc, and advertise them in a way to actually pull players in (use screenshots, videos, anything at your disposal to best demonstrate what you're offering).
Also reflect this on the server name, to make it stand out, and organize some matches yourself to get some players going at the start.

Then there's the cost of ingress, of players actually going ahead and trying your stuff, and it must be the easiest and smoothest experience possible.
So heavy or hard to use websites, big or confusing or too many mods, too many downloads or downloads with no redirect, are things to absolutely stay the hell away from. The simpler and the smoother the better, less is more most of the time.
If when entering a server they have to download 300MB worth of assets, you are loosing most of them right there, even if you deem those assets to be worth it.
The same goes for maps: stick with just a few which are good, quality over quantity.


Having that said however, I personally have plans of my own to address those 3 things in a more global way to aid the game and everyone involved in it (which I announced at the start of the year), because they're easier said than done, and the game is really lacking some critical stuff for things to have the opportunity to grow and be successful, so it's particularly hard to have successful stuff going for this game right now, considering the current state of this game.

But still, the players are still out there, and they can be seen in other servers, still buying the game nowadays, and so on, so if you want to have something to be successful, you just need to walk that extra mile in thinking these through and acting in that direction.
Also, while it's good to listen to the community, do not listen to it too much, many times is just best to go with something you yourself want to do and really like, rather than what the community thinks what's cool, because more often than not, people do not actually know what they like until they see it, they only know what they have already seen.
Pileyrei
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Re: Server suggestions

Post by Pileyrei »

Thank you Feralidragon for the taking the time to write such a well thought out and detailed response - it is greatly appreciated.
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papercoffee
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Re: Server suggestions

Post by papercoffee »

Feralidragon wrote:quality over quantity.
This summarised Ferali's post perfectly.
Too many (and mostly unknown) maps and mods just clog the server.
I suggested already to stick to one mod (or keep it 100% vanilla) ...then make the server perfect. THAT would make the server stand out of the masses of multi-mods-on-bazillion-maps server.
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