The state of play.

[xInVicTuSx]

Ok guys, this one is to the community.
But first a little story. I used to play a game called Jedi Knight III: Jedi Academy online, one of the best damn online games I've ever played. It was never insanely popular, and suffered from a problem. That problem was zillions of servers that were always empty and one server that was for some reason always full.
Every couple months or so the chosen server would for unknown reasons change, another one would become popular and everyone would for some reason go there. Now, these servers most of the time, were not that good.

Eventually I stopped playing from no real fault of the game but from the community.
Now, I'm sure we've all played games where the community died out eventually.
But to the point, Boss gamers server is that server. This game is suffering from the same problem.
I know its a beta, but it has nothing to-do with the game itself, its the community.
This is not Boss's fault either, I am very appreciative of the server they provide.

But lets face it guys, it runs neither Frostbite or Clearcut, both freakin awesome maps.
Further, it lags, probably because they set the players to max and its frequently close to full.
How can we as a community solve this problem?
Hard to say, do we have the play time or patience to wait in empty servers?
If so, which ones? How are we to solve this problem?

I know I myself would love to see the other maps played. Hell, I played frostbite for the first time today on a server with 4 people in it, the map was awesome but it was lonely.
What was boss running at the time? Extremity. (nothing against extremity of course... )

THAT SAID. I've seen frequent talk and witnessed myself Clearcut screwing up on load and I assume frost bite does the same. If this is a problem with the maps IT NEEDS TO BE FIXED. If its a problem with crysis.. IT NEEDS TO BE FIXED, even if not by the devs someone has to address it. Those maps are not barely used at all and the hit to the amount of fun to be had with the game takes a serious hit. If this can somehow be remedied by server settings then lets find a solution.

So what do you guys think? Should we all try and agree to go to the official servers instead?
What should we do?
I know myself that I personally do not play this game as often as I could because of this problem.

P.S. oops... If you want to move this to general discussion feel free.

[Colonel Drego]

I think that the main reason Boss is so popular is because of the round length. It is set to 80 minutes, while almost every other server is set to just 45 minutes. Given the size of some maps, when on a server that is set to 45 minutes it can take almost 5 minutes to walk back to base, repair, and get back into the fight. That's one ninth of the *entire round* doing basically nothing, for a single repair or ammo run. On top of that, the 80 minute rounds Boss provides allows for much more opportunity for everyone to get into bigger and shinier equipment. I think that if the official servers and TLL servers would up thier round length, you would see an immediate drop off of Boss's popularity. I suggest 80-90 minute round length, thats plenty of time to get into whatever vehicle you want, and even if you join when the round is half over, you aren't doomed to being in a light mech for the entire remainder of the round.

[Haunted]

I think that the main reason Boss is so popular is because of the round length.

It's not the round length that makes it so popular. It's the fact that its a cracked server.
And that is also the reason, why I never played on that server.

[Reiel]

Actually, both of you are right.

[Colonel Drego]

It's not the round length that makes it so popular. It's the fact that its a cracked server.
And that is also the reason, why I never played on that server.

I highly doubt that. The *only* time I ever go on a short round server is when Boss is full. Back when TLL-TX was 90 minutes, that was the only server I would touch, and I seem to remember it being jam packed almost 24/7. Now it is down to 45 or 60 minutes, and it is deserted, along with almost every other server.

[ratbuddy]

I agree, clearcut worked fine in .1, but someone had the bright idea to make the trees more complicated and double their number for .2. It crushes the server. It should have been reverted right away, rather than waiting till the next patch

[EvilMD]

IMO BOSS is populated because you can play with cracked software AND round length. Having a original I would play on other servers if the round length was increased and they played the other maps that would be great too.

[HAARP]

DDoS the cracked server. Problem solved

[MercenaryMuffin]

I think that the main reason Boss is so popular is because of the round length. It is set to 80 minutes, while almost every other server is set to just 45 minutes

THIS. This this this this this a thousand times this.

I absolutely hate 45 minute rounds. It's so incredibly short. At the 45 minute mark, you're just getting the big, fun Assault mechs. Then you get to take them out once or twice, and the round is over. It's terrible.
With these 80 minute rounds, you've got so much longer to toy around with them. I can't play on a 45 minute server any more.

Anyone who says "it's popular because it allows cracked games" is missing the point entirely. Most people who are playing the Beta are doing so on legit copies of Crysis. That's not the issue. Saying something like "we should shut down the Cracked server" is self-defeating, because when that server goes down, there are no more 80-90 minute servers left. The most popular server is gone. If no one else adopts longer rounds, I will no longer play the beta. It's that simple. Yeah, I wish they would put more maps in the rotation, but whatever.

I think it's a matter of ideal vs reality. In the ideal world, 45 minute games would mean everyone gets along all the time, everyone coordinates attacks, everyone is good at the role they pick for that game. But that's not how it works. In reality, people just want to hop on, get into the biggest mechs they can, and blow shit up with their friends. And you can do that a lot more in a 90 minute round.

[Haunted]

DDoS the cracked server. Problem solved

We could spread the rumor that the cracked server IP is the IP where you can finde mektek.net.... and say mektek only has a DNS problem...

[whitedrake 1FSAC]

I could ask if Fed Sun Server, that does have more maps.. *go to Comunity content forum and download them*  could up the time..

we have a good load for the reg 3 hrs we play at night, but it is open all day for everyone too..

cheers

[~SJ~ Xarg Talasko]

I think Huntress is looking to start adding the custom maps, but I'm hardly a position of authority, so I'll check back once I know for sure. It has been discussed, and for me, (NZ) I get the same latency to Huntress as I do to boss-gamers and tll-tx, so it shouldn't be much/any laggier for you other folks. It's also an 18 player limit server, though I'm not sure for what reason that's intended. I've seen 6-8 per side play fine.

[Incubus 24-7]

hi guys,
yes i think the playing time is an issue, but i only play on boss if i have no other choice (except to wait 'till infinity on any other given server for a second player to show up).
I never played the comunity maps 'cause no server (with players on them) seems to run them. that's really sad because u allways here ppl whine about the few available maps and nobody seems to play those.

plz make up a server (TLL this is for u with about 80 mins of playing time and every available map the comunity made up so far.

over and out

[HAARP]

Maybe the community maps should be included as an extra download in the next release. Only when people are made aware of these maps and can easily download them without searching first will they be played. An extra map-pack in addition to the next MWLL beta (including a warning that "These maps are not provided by the MWLL team blah blah") would solve this problem.

[~SJ~ Xarg Talasko]

I wouldn't mind them being packaged IN the actual release, with a big disclaimer tacked into the installer about them NOT being official MWLL staff made, and that they MAY crash/perform badly or stuff won't build on them - talk to the author about it, because then EVERYONE will have them which increases the map pool available.. and if a particular map sucks ass (performance/stability wise that is, visually they're all nice) then they can be taken off the server list. Beats playing the same 4 maps over n over, imo.