Open letter to Quake 2 fam (servers dying fast)

[ex]

This deeply saddens me.  The servers seem at an all-time low of population.  I really miss being able to have full games at most times of day, but sometimes it will be 11 a.m., 4 p.m., etc on a weekend (!!) and all servers are clear.  I want games to rise again.

I'm wondering, what would be some ways to help reinvigorate the servers?  At least for more mods than just dm (gets old after a while).  Any ideas from anyone would be appreciated, because if this keeps up, there might not be anyone left to play.    

[bvughtoonice]

quake2 was released in 1998?? population has been declining since early 2000s?  i just started playing quake2 again a few years ago or so.. and all the servers seem pretty dead most of the time besides.. DM that seems normal to me.

most players (in north america) probably cannot play until evening/night time  so thats the best time to check q2servers.com

not sure what all mods you are into.. but the Rocket Arena2, Railwarz CTF, LMCTF facebook groups have all been very helpful in getting games going in those mods.. theres also facebook groups for lfire CTF and expert CTF if anyone was looking to get some games going in those mods

if you dont use facebook or dont want everyone on your personal facebook... make one just for quake2.. make a facebook group for you fave mod.. and build it up over time.

whatever mod you want to play.. idle on that server.. wait for people to connect.. send invites via wallfly.  make some small talk with the players who connect try to befriend them.. get an email or phone number, maybe their steam user id to communicate outside of the game.. after some time and effort you will have a list of the players who are interested in each mod.. invite them to play every once in a while. or try to organize some event.

tastytv has a discord channel.. it could be useful for getting some stuff going

what mods do you wish you could play more often?

even though the servers all seem pretty dead 90% of the time... there is always new/old players re installing quake2 and hopping on to play... they probably give up and quit quickly because they think quake2 is dead...  but if someone is enthusiastic enough to meet/greet them when they arrive... they might just come back again... and that old mod you used to love can be revived slowly over time.

Railwarz CTF
https://www.facebook.com/groups/TMGRailwarz/

Expert CTF
https://www.facebook.com/groups/8523743332/

L Fire CTF
https://www.facebook.com/groups/LFire2CTF/

LMCTF
https://www.facebook.com/groups/q2lmctf/

Rocket Arena 2
https://www.facebook.com/groups/Quake2RA2/

L-Fire Euro CTF
https://www.facebook.com/groups/Quake2EuroCTF/

TastyTV discord
https://discord.gg/BKKVNJ4

Quakeworld discord
https://discord.gg/vaudKCC

Quake Universe discord
https://discord.gg/cUE9CxR

Quetoo discord
https://discord.gg/XTZeGgK

overfrag discord
https://discord.gg/u5FU63z

ACME CTF discord
https://discord.gg/njqWMqE

if you dont know what discord is yet.. its kinda like mIRC back in the day but with built in voice chat and you can also send multimedia messages. install it on your phone or desktop... or use it in the web browser.

[Butane]

I love the DM server, but playing Q2DM1-8 can get boring fast. Would it out of the the question to add some of the vanilla server maps to the DM one? I noticed there is a group of regulars that play on the vanilla server but mostly during the daytime. Later in the day the vanilla server is empty with the exception of a few lurkers here and there. Would be nice to merge those vanilla server players with the
DM ones.

I know some vanilla/campaign maps are not ideal for DM but a lot are great for it. Perhaps another possibility is a voting system for maps? One time I 'mymap'ed jail1 on the vanilla server and and few guys hated the map. I felt bad for picking it despite the fact that it was a popular DM map back in the day and still enjoyable (to me) today. But having a voting system would help avoid people clearing out a server.  Another example was when we played FACT3 and there were too many players for such a small map according to some guys which pissed them off.

[Zeppelin]

I love the DM server, but playing Q2DM1-8 can get boring fast. Would it out of the the question to add some of the vanilla server maps to the DM one? I noticed there is a group of regulars that play on the vanilla server but mostly during the daytime. Later in the day the vanilla server is empty with the exception of a few lurkers here and there. Would be nice to merge those vanilla server players with the
DM ones.

Thats was discussed before and wont happen, because the majority of players in DM server only want to play the 8 boring maps! They dont get enough! lol. Also DM server was made for classic maps only.
On the other hand, two days ago we were like 8 ppl playing in vanilla, and after few maps  Q2dm4 came, and suddenly the server got empty! I think im not the only one voting to remove the q2dm maps from vanilla rotation.. everyone complains about it there.

[Butane]

So it was discussed but never implemented and tested? Do the majority of DM players frequent the forums? I doubt it.. that's why I think an in-game voting system would be useful.

And yeah , the only q2dm map the vanilla server should have on rotation is q2dm8 IMHO..  Hehe

[|iR|Focalor]

"It is natural to die." -Lo Wang

Some kind of in-game voting? Meaning what exactly? Creating more work for Quadz isn't gonna solve the attendance problem. It is what it is. And pushing into 2017, what IT IS is a miracle that more than 3 people still play it regularly.

[Barton]

You can already play on vanilla and mutant to play the non-standard DM maps. There is no need to modify the existing DM server.

[bvughtoonice]

is it possible to add maps to rocket arena 2 server?

[quadz]

I love the DM server, but playing Q2DM1-8 can get boring fast. Would it out of the the question to add some of the vanilla server maps to the DM one? I noticed there is a group of regulars that play on the vanilla server but mostly during the daytime. Later in the day the vanilla server is empty with the exception of a few lurkers here and there. Would be nice to merge those vanilla server players with the
DM ones.

So it was discussed but never implemented and tested? Do the majority of DM players frequent the forums? I doubt it.. that's why I think an in-game voting system would be useful.

The DM server's original charter was to play DM1-8 maps only. The server was created because people specifically requested that configuration. And it became popular.

Of course, some players who frequent the server would prefer adding some custom maps. But others prefer it says DM1-8. It's indeed been discussed from multiple points of view over the years.

As a compromise, there are a number of custom maps available on the server, but WallFly spaces them out so that a minimum of five DM maps play between custom maps.

The current 'mymap' list for DM is: aerowalk bloodrun campgrounds dkshaft frdm3 fury grom_dm3 grunt hammer match1 ohmdm3 q2rdm13 rene24 rvndm1 tastydm2 torment trdm04a ven_dm2 ztn2dm2 ztn2dm3 ztn2dm4

I know some vanilla/campaign maps are not ideal for DM but a lot are great for it. Perhaps another possibility is a voting system for maps? One time I 'mymap'ed jail1 on the vanilla server and and few guys hated the map. I felt bad for picking it despite the fact that it was a popular DM map back in the day and still enjoyable (to me) today. But having a voting system would help avoid people clearing out a server.  Another example was when we played FACT3 and there were too many players for such a small map according to some guys which pissed them off.

These days, WallFly skips playing some larger maps if it can't detect enough active players on the server. This was mainly added to help stop some maps from emptying out the server.

On the other hand, two days ago we were like 8 ppl playing in vanilla, and after few maps  Q2dm4 came, and suddenly the server got empty! I think im not the only one voting to remove the q2dm maps from vanilla rotation.. everyone complains about it there.

And yeah , the only q2dm map the vanilla server should have on rotation is q2dm8 IMHO..  Hehe

I suspect it might be fine to remove the DM maps from the default vanilla rotation.

Done.

(They're still available via 'mymap'.)


Regards,

quadz

[Zeppelin]

I suspect it might be fine to remove the DM maps from the default vanilla rotation.

Done.

(They're still available via 'mymap'.)


Regards,

quadz

[|iR|Focalor]

eaux teigh!

[BIG DICK RICK]

ex....you just making a post on the forums is doing nothing.  Try either doing a cash tourney, or what beaver said.  Try doing something instead of asking others to do it for you.  You haven't done anything for this game as long as I've known you, so if you want it to make a comeback etc, DO something about it.

[|iR|Focalor]

Cash tourney? Oh wow. Yeah, but no. That'll get people to play for like, uh... the ONE TIME that you do it, so unless you do it once a week, it ain't gonna help either. Just be glad that ANYONE still plays it, and be even gladder that someone like Quadz actually IS putting up his own money on a daily basis to give people the possibility of playing Q2 on a real server and not just someone's rusty old spare PC merely acting as a server connected to their home wired DSL or even worse, via wifi.

[haunted]

Might as well donate it to quadz opposed to a cash tourney. There's probably  no cash amount that could get me to compete in a tournament. But, if kyuss is around I will as per usual, no matter how long away from q2, no matter how many beverages consumed, on high ping, no mouse, no monitor, both hands tied behind my back, and voluntarily on my deathbed beat him on the only map he knows for free.

Of course I'm joking though. I don't have the time for q2 anymore.

[BIG DICK RICK]

If you advertise it correctly and it's for a decent amount say a couple hundred dollars for the grand prize(just an example, lets not get technical here), you could garner interest.  Q2 is so old that the "millenials" if you will, don't even prolly knows it exists tbh.  You throw a cash prize out there with all these idiots that don't want to work, you're telling me it wouldn't work?  Yes the majority of the people will play the one time and quit, but even if you get a few people that continue to play afterwards, isn't that a win?  Set a date for a month or two away, advertise it across every damn FPS website/forum/chat you can find and I guarantee people will line up to play/practice til the tourney happens.  Since every game that is made in this day and age is garbage, I have a feeling people will get hooked.  Hell, we just did a regular ra2 tourney and look at how many we got to sign up and that was 2 years ago with very little advertising.  Build it and they will come.  Add a "All this is possible thanks to quadz, especially for almost single handedly keeping q2 alive all these years.  Quadz provides/pays for the servers used in this tourney so please donate, any amount will help" at the top and I'm sure people will donate. 

You'd have to have the correct person to drive this though.  Someone who is lazy or is fucking retarded(ex/2d) shouldn't lead it.  And don't stop at one, do multiple tourneys.  I honestly don't think they all have to be cash to keep people playing.  There just needs to be a structured competition and people will continue to play.  Just use the first one to get as many people as possible to return or try q2 for the first time then do a couple or a few without a cash prize, rinse, repeat.