Make CSn great again

[toss]

Hello I never did make an introduction post, so maybe some you don't know me, but I'm toss and I've been a regular on SB1 for about 2 years. Recently I've noticed a pretty worrying trend. SB1 is almost never fully popped during what used to be peak times (6-10 pm est) and when it is, it tends to empty out very quickly. I've never seen SB1 this empty. I remember waiting 10-20 minutes just to get in some nights. I also remember the same thing happening to the Funbox, with the server slowly become less and less populated until it became what it is today, pretty much dead. I don't really know why this is happening, I know a lot of former regulars have gotten bored with the game and moved on (shout out to Ron for getting admin then leaving for Rocket League a week later), and I suspect Overwatch has a big role in this.

As a potential solution to prevent SB1 from dying, I would be willing to help pop the server, along with 6-7 other volunteers around 6 pm est for the next couple of weeks. Also, I've noticed that the tf2 subreddit has turned into a sea of whining babies bemoaning the loss of valve servers. When valve introduced quickplay, it killed most tf2 community servers. With quickplay gone, it would seem like community servers, like CSn would make a comeback, but so far, I have noticed the opposite. There's a huge pool of people that refuse to play casual or mm because they don't like it, or on the basis of principle, or whatever, and I think CSn could fill that void of casual tf2. Because that quickplay has been removed, the only way to get new people into the server is to advertise the shit out of CSn, because they have to connect manually or somehow find the server through the horrific server navigator. If we can get a post that gain traction on the subreddit, we might be able to get an injection of fresh blood into the server. I'd suggest someone making a post advertising CSn and then getting a bunch of CSners to upvote the shit out of it, because it seems like lately the only posts that get upvoted are shitty meme "jokes".

Sorry if my formatting is bad idk how forums work

[Balubish]

So I tested yesterday for funsies even when im taking a break from it to pop and sure it takes a little longer to pop, but invite friends and stay, ppl will come.
Problem I think is that ppl are busy with whatever, summer time, summer sale games, and also valves new game modes. I know some ppl are whores when it comes to ranking, nothing bad about that.
Sure some have probably something to do with the update but when im on I see new ppl all the time joining the server so the update isnt the excuse if you ask me, that shows me that ppl still looking for community servers in the list rather than valves ranking modes.
I just think lately alot of ppl are trying something new, just like myself. Tip, Add every fucking admin and regular and spam invite to join message to all of them and ppl will drop in. Thats how I pop servers.

I promise Toss, when I get back I will make CSn great again, just like before With some help with other CSn:ers for sure.

[Lia_Rein]

I agree with toss. Even if you do pop the server it doesn't stay popped as long as it used to and I think it's because there aren't as many randoms filing in every time a regular leaves. I think the reddit post is a good idea. And yas some more recent admins have moved on to other games atm such as overwatch etc. But we also gave admins like buzz haus and mike trying to pop fairly often. (I find that sending invites to everyone on my fl who's either already on tf2 or showing up as 'online' works better than just making an event) I have also noticed a lot of regulars on my friend list playing casual mode so ya I guess people like it / wanna rank up lol
At the same time I've noticed, and a lot of regulars have pointed out, that gshock is almost constantly popped without having their 'famous youtubers' on to pop it. (Previously it was dead unless a youtuber was on) so I'm not sure what they're doing tohhave it that way? Maybe I can go stealth mode and ask their owner wuts up ; P

[Lia_Rein]

Also gshock is popped veeery early in the day and stays popped for the rest of the day. Maybe they get all the summer kids and then it just keeps rolling?

[TH3_SHAD0W_SAMUR4I]

I agree with Toss. It pains me to look at the list of servers on the website and see sb1 completely dead. I will be willing to help whenever I can, reddit posts or advertising or pops (although it is very late for me where I live) but hey, anything for my buddies. and anything to bring life back into Csn. Yes, a lot of the ex/former regulars have left but we need to stay strong and not let that be the demise of this community.

Gshock and TF Crew have lately been getting a lot of attention recently thanks to Uncle Dane's little message in his video regarding the casual and matchmaking update. I would say it is more of an advertisement in my opinion but he did do it in such a way that it seems to have caused a massive impact on gshock.

I think another thing we can do is bribe a famous TF2 Youtuber into advertising us. Sounds ridiculous? Maybe, but is worth a shot.
/s

When it comes to blaming games, it's not just Overwatch Toss mate, I blame Pokemon GO as well.

[TH3_SHAD0W_SAMUR4I]

Also gshock is popped veeery early in the day and stays popped for the rest of the day. Maybe they get all the summer kids and then it just keeps rolling?

It is, I have played there and I don't see why they wouldn't enjoy playing in CSn (because CSn is far more superior of course IMO apart from the high ping issues for me). We need to find a way to get those 'Summer Kids' into our turf.

[Lia_Rein]

Gshock and TF Crew have lately been getting a lot of attention recently thanks to Uncle Dane's little message in his video regarding the casual and matchmaking update. I would say it is more of an advertisement in my opinion but he did do it in such a way that it seems to have caused a massive impact on gshock.

I think another thing we can do is bribe a famous TF2 Youtuber into advertising us. Sounds ridiculous? Maybe, but is worth a shot.
/s

Ah, didn't know about that.
Not sure about the whole 'youtubers' thing after last time, tho a popped server of fanboys might still be better than an empty one. But looks like some sort of publicity is necessary, where's our marketing guy? lol

Here's that vid shadow talked bout: https://youtu.be/YTWlsToMNb4?t=11m35s It also shows you what their servers are doing. They actually have a server per gamemode. So a payload server, a KOTH server etc. So it's basically like the old quickplay.

[TH3_SHAD0W_SAMUR4I]

Ah, didn't know about that.
Not sure about the whole 'youtubers' thing after last time, tho a popped server of fanboys might still be better than an empty one. But looks like some sort of publicity is necessary, where's our marketing guy? lol

Tbh, I don't think we should worry about misbehaving fanboys atm because at the current state we're in, I think I would rather have a server full of annoying people than a server full of no people. Anyway, I don't think all 'fanboys' are the same, obnoxious miscreants some people make them out to be and we always have Balu for crowd control/fanboy control if things go out of hand (which I highly doubt will happen due to how professional and zero tolerant you admins are).

You're right, we need our marketing guy....or a marketing team!

[Kaiuu]

Active players ( blue line ) showing a sharp downward trend after mym.

Strangely enough I remember a sudden influx of new players in the servers after mym, I think even slaybox 2 was popped, but I'm guessing it was from the reddit post. Guess people stopped looking after it fell off the front page.

[Lia_Rein]

Active players ( blue line ) showing a sharp downward trend after mym.

Strangely enough I remember a sudden influx of new players in the servers after mym, I think even slaybox 2 was popped, but I'm guessing it was from the reddit post. Guess people stopped looking after it fell off the front page.

Yeah I checked gshock's stats and there's was dead for a bit too, but seems to have shot up due to uncle dane I thnk

[TH3_SHAD0W_SAMUR4I]

Yeah I checked gshock's stats and there's was dead for a bit too, but seems to have shot up due to Uncle Dane I think.

Then lets 'negotiate' with Uncle Dane and get him to promote CSn.

[1#Scrub]

Finger still hasent bought a blimp advertising CSn smh

[Lia_Rein]

Finger still hasent bought a blimp advertising CSn smh

I told him, he said some incoherent nonsense about asking Gaben #drunkfinger lol

[Buzz]

A lot of sensible things being said here. I would add just a couple of suggestions, along a different tack. People come to the server for a two reasons - either by random, or through their favourites. The comments above address the former, but how do we make someone put CSn in their favourites? Perhaps a reasonable question to ask is how to ensure that. I would say the quality of play and sense of community (and wonderful admin team...) help that cause, but maybe there are other things we could do to.

I will suggest a couple of things. Some people are put off by the 'no team switching' rule. I understand why it exists, i.e. team stacking, but I personally see it as a non-problem. I've never seen a team stacked due to people choosing their team - it happens via autoscramble, or by people being randomly assigned to teams. I would suggest we reassess this rule, and perhaps rather leave it to admins to identify if team-stacking is going on. Second, what else can we do to make it stand out? I don't know of any specifics, but perhaps some fun plugins, e.g. some servers have a pre-round friendly fire. This is a small thing, but it definitely makes a server stand out. I would be interested in hearing other suggestions.

[Hooked]

Some people are put off by the 'no team switching' rule. I understand why it exists, i.e. team stacking, but I personally see it as a non-problem.

I've said it before, but I've always felt that CSN has some of the most frequently unbalanced teams of any server I've been on despite the auto assign.

Some things that helped fill FAP, albeit temporarily - Invite friends directly like Lia mentioned, even if they're not in the game. Also creating announcements from the Steam group page telling people to help pop. Playing popular maps always helped fill more quickly; for us it was Badwater and Upward that seemed to work the best. Although without a constant stream of random players joining from quickplay/server browser you run into the problem of the server dying quickly like has been happening lately.

[Lia_Rein]

I've said it before, but I've always felt that CSN has some of the most frequently unbalanced teams of any server I've been on despite the auto assign.

Some things that helped fill FAP, albeit temporarily - Invite friends directly like Lia mentioned, even if they're not in the game. Also creating announcements from the Steam group page telling people to help pop. Playing popular maps always helped fill more quickly; for us it was Badwater and Upward that seemed to work the best. Although without a constant stream of random players joining from quickplay/server browser you run into the problem of the server dying quickly like has been happening lately.

Yeah we've already been doing these suggestions

[Buzz]

I've said it before, but I've always felt that CSN has some of the most frequently unbalanced teams of any server I've been on despite the auto assign.

Maybe, but I'm very sure it isn't because of team switching. We all know some admins are very vigilant about this rule, and even with such vigilance teams are quickly lopsided. Note that it is also in the guidance to admins that they should in fact change teams to balance it out. I think encouraging that more (especially now hats aren't at stake) would be good.

[Ron Swansons Stache]

I've said it before, but I've always felt that CSN has some of the most frequently unbalanced teams of any server I've been on despite the auto assign.

Maybe, but I'm very sure it isn't because of team switching. We all know some admins are very vigilant about this rule, and even with such vigilance teams are quickly lopsided. Note that it is also in the guidance to admins that they should in fact change teams to balance it out. I think encouraging that more (especially now hats aren't at stake) would be good.

I've seen this harshly enforced while I take a MUCH more lax interpretation of this rule and I can feel the eyeroll of the people getting yelled at by admins for this. If someone wants to stack a team they'll just wait until autojoin will put them on the team they want to be on, let's not act like we haven't seen people wait in spec until they can 'autojoin' onto their preferred team. I'm not positive if that's affecting popularity in any way but I would totally vote to remove this rule.

[Rumors]

I've said it before, but I've always felt that CSN has some of the most frequently unbalanced teams of any server I've been on despite the auto assign.

Maybe, but I'm very sure it isn't because of team switching. We all know some admins are very vigilant about this rule, and even with such vigilance teams are quickly lopsided. Note that it is also in the guidance to admins that they should in fact change teams to balance it out. I think encouraging that more (especially now hats aren't at stake) would be good.

I've seen this harshly enforced while I take a MUCH more lax interpretation of this rule and I can feel the eyeroll of the people getting yelled at by admins for this. If someone wants to stack a team they'll just wait until autojoin will put them on the team they want to be on, let's not act like we haven't seen people wait in spec until they can 'autojoin' onto their preferred team. I'm not positive if that's affecting popularity in any way but I would totally vote to remove this rule.

I have noticed for a long time people just waiting in spectator to join once they take a look at who is on what team so they join their team of choice. It doesn't really happen unless the map changes though so I have never seen it as that much of a bother.

We should be honest though, CSn has not been bumping for a long time. Most often, I see newer members talking about problems from the last year like popping issues, which was absolutely never a problem when I played on CSn regularly around 2011-2012. When I hopped back on last summer, SB1 was the only server that was alive. A couple years before that I was lucky to get on SB1 or 2, and had to join Westbox 1 or 2 instead. Even the funbox was consistently populated. I don't think its just an algorithm that is the problem. It's also that most new people that are looking for a "new" game aren't looking to TF2. Free to players are fickle as hell and cannot be relied to consistently populate. Those who are invested in TF2 are dwindling, and anyone willing to pay for a new game isn't looking at TF2 as an option. That is very anecdotal, but having played since 2007 launch, I can feel that happening.

I don't really know what can be done to fix it, but I can see what some of the issues are. Valve treating comm servers like waste, a comp mode that should have been implemented years ago when people actually wanted it, being an "older" game, and just a huge variety of other alternatives to choose from besides TF2.

Valve just needs to cut the shit and make games like they used to instead of slapping sad excuses for life support onto last gen games.

[Balubish]

Some things that helped fill FAP, albeit temporarily - Invite friends directly like Lia mentioned, even if they're not in the game. Also creating announcements from the Steam group page telling people to help pop. Playing popular maps always helped fill more quickly; for us it was Badwater and Upward that seemed to work the best.

Dude ive done that for years straight, admins should still do it now. So yes ^^ this is the only way how to pop a server and be patient about it. Problem is to many fancy players demand full server before they join.

Protip!
Rule nr1. How to keep a server alive. Do not play in ur own small world listening to music. Why is CSn great? Cause ppl talk ingame and make it a community.
If ppl shut up and dont talk ingame, you rather play Rust by urself or a random pub server. The whole idea of a community is talking ingame, and no typing in chat doesnt count.

Rule nr2. O wait, that is the only rule needed, everything else is bogus. Just imagine you joining a regular valve server and nobody talks, yes it sucks.

I've been testing on my "off time" helped popped and started a pop and they all succeded, so the problem is to many regulars wont join the server or some admins if the server doesnt have ppl or enough ppl. <-- key issue
I've said it before and say it again, jump on, invite some friends and ppl will come. Blaming lasyness on updates or whatever isnt the thing.

[Lia_Rein]

Dude ive done that for years straight, admins should still do it now. So yes ^^ this is the only way how to pop a server and be patient about it. Problem is to many fancy players demand full server before they join.

Protip!
Rule nr1. How to keep a server alive. Do not play in ur own small world listening to music. Why is CSn great? Cause ppl talk ingame and make it a community.
If ppl shut up and dont talk ingame, you rather play Rust by urself or a random pub server. The whole idea of a community is talking ingame, and no typing in chat doesnt count.

Rule nr2. O wait, that is the only rule needed, everything else is bogus. Just imagine you joining a regular valve server and nobody talks, yes it sucks.

I've been testing on my "off time" helped popped and started a pop and they all succeded, so the problem is to many regulars wont join the server or some admins if the server doesnt have ppl or enough ppl. <-- key issue
I've said it before and say it again, jump on, invite some friends and ppl will come. Blaming lasyness on updates or whatever isnt the thing.

Yeah what you've said is true, server can be popped but it's KEEPING it popped which is the problem :/ Not enough new people replace the ones who leave. I kiiinda agree with the talking thing, especially if new people are talking with you and all too but it's not the same as it was before so not entirely sure if that's enough anymore

[HausOfJoel]

Yeah now getting the server to almost full doesn't bring as many randoms bc quickplay. There really isn't enough regulars to keep the server full or replace those who leave. Usually once a few people leave the server empties on a map change or gets down to 12 and then dwindles down. But I think as I said to help the funservers, there just needs to be a new or bigger base of players for the servers so ALL the servers will be full again. And like penn said, I too used to go on Westbox (RIP) because the slayboxes were full even if my ping was 150 (still not as bad as balubish).

I would also love to see the funservers flurishing again so if anyone has anything they think would help the server grow and become better feel free to let me know. I'm down to add what maps and mods we can to make CSn Great Again.

[Hatred]

I'm still here coming to play a couple times a month though i don't get much time to play. most of the time don't even know the new peoples i see haha but thats okay these servers have always had that welcoming feel even when you get cought up for months at a time. i will keep coming to CSN whenever i have the time to play.


cat paws, Broken

[Balubish]

[XS-Terrain]

Is anyone here good at digital art? I'm semi-decent at it, but if anyone does this often, whether as a hobby or even as a profession, an advertising poster for CSn that we can post on the TF2 Sub-Reddit might be nice. Perhaps even multiple could be created, and uploaded by multiple profiles.