Why this server is dying

[Drox]

The following is a rant filled with opinions and concerns;

 

 

Why is ZE dieing is probably a question everyone has been asking themselves for the past couple of months now. As a player for years I have seen escape in its highest times and its lowest times, right now its at one of its lowest that I have ever seen. The reasons for this probably vary from player to player depending on what they enjoy and hate about the server but I'll go through some of the reasons that I feel why escape is dieing.

 

1. The Maps

 

The're some maps that are on the server that are usually a instant server killer at times, strangely enough sometimes its even classic maps. With noblock on every map on the server why should someone stick around for a bias blackmesa or sst where the cts have the upper hand the whole round (Unless the zombie tags a shit load of people quickly). Also there are maps that seem popular but are greatly overplayed to the point where people just leave the server (Maps like paranoid, final fantasy, voodoo, ect). Even though people believe these maps to be popular they also wear out our player base to the point where thats usually all they play.

 

Classic maps that were broken is something else that is hurting the server, although with noblock in place most likely having these maps wouldnt matter anyway which brings me to my second point. Although I would still like to see these maps fixed, even by our own mappers without uploading to FPSbanana (Since they get pissy about redone maps without creator permission).

 

2. Noblock

 

From what I understand (Or from what I have heard) is that noblock is in place because somehow having block glitches all the other maps? Or doesnt work with ZR? Im really unclear why this is, but I can tell you its boring as heck. I can agree it cuts down on the blocking and glitching problems in the server but at what cost?

 

There is no flavor to the gameplay, when I beat a map I dont feel I accomplished anything when 20 other dudes were pretty much inside me or nearly next to me doing the same stuff. The part of escape that was always exciting was who made it and who didnt, it made escape fun. With noblock usually everyone makes it unless they are just bad or mess up somehow before getting to the end which is rare for the regulars.

 

All in all for noblock, its a virus thats killing escape slowly and silently. Some may not agree but its a plague for this server that isnt fun for every map, for the ones that do need it (For teleports and what not) I can understand but not all our maps need it.

 

3. Uniqueness

 

What is unique about our server nowadays? I remember back in the day we had interesting skins for admins and donators, even the zombie skins had atleast 2-3 random skins. Now its 1 skin for every zombie and its the crispy zombie skin which is a bitch to see in dark maps. We have nothing that makes us stand out from any other escape server, nothing. This is a problem, I hope we can figure out something to correct this but right now we are just another zombie escape server who adds flavor of the month maps to try and attract players.

 

 

Conclusion

 

These are my main concerns right now that I can think of, the server is dieing folks. How can I tell? http://www.gametracker.com/server_info/72.26.196.150:27015/ The highest number playing today was barely 30, and it barely last pass half an hour on a weekend. This was the same server that would be almost full the whole day everyday and only downtime was early morning my time (On weekdays and weekends, school or not). Anyone who thinks this server is doing ok must only play on it during this time because right now 9pm est on a sunday it has 0 players. Even during school days this server was populated, so school being back in business isnt a excuse Im willing to use or accept like others might in this community.

 

If you want this server to live on, then lets start working on some of these things that can be worked on to improve this server. I know some things are limited because of this crappy zombie reloaded mod, but those other escape servers are doing something better then we are. So if we want to carry on the zombie murder tradition then we cant allow this server to die off.

 

/endrant

 

Feel free to add your own input or counter opinions if you have any.

[Coffee Crisp]

Thanks for the criticism, I'm trying my best to improve it and adjust it to appeal to the players of the present. I just made a thread about it in the AO section a couple hours before you made this thread and I'll probably be gradually moving it down admin sections to get everyone's input, from AO>EC>CA>SA>DON>finally Announcements/here.

 

So far, I've been thinking of the following

 

-Zombie skins, admin skins, donator skins.

-Map rotation clean up.

-Noblock/block maps

-possible return of Zombie Mod

-Fixing the vehicles so we can get maps like spacestationflee/atix_helicopter back.

 

If you guys have more you can post it here, and I might merge the original thread in the AO section later. Thanks.

[Kiwi]

I think the highest priority is to get zombie mod back up. I don't think there's a point in changing things until we get that.

[Metal]

I think SG just needs a restart.

 

Close servers for 1 week, repair and reorganize.

Than reopen with EVENTS!

[Lucid]

Source is just dieing in general.

[Chainedlord]

Thanks for the criticism, I'm trying my best to improve it and adjust it to appeal to the players of the present. I just made a thread about it in the AO section a couple hours before you made this thread and I'll probably be gradually moving it down admin sections to get everyone's input, from AO>EC>CA>SA>DON>finally Announcements/here.

 

So far, I've been thinking of the following

 

-Zombie skins, admin skins, donator skins.

-Map rotation clean up.

-Noblock/block maps

-possible return of Zombie Mod

-Fixing the vehicles so we can get maps like spacestationflee/atix_helicopter back.

 

If you guys have more you can post it here, and I might merge the original thread in the AO section later. Thanks.

 

Zombie Mod, as in Escape and Napalm together in one ?

[Im a Jackass]

People just dont play css any more CS Is played more now on the top 10 list of games on steam being played

[Drox]

Source is just dieing in general.

 

I dont know if I would say that, looking at the server list there are still very populated servers but the thing with css is most people play it when they get burned out or bored with something else. So if something good or new comes out that attracts most peoples attention then thats where it goes but css still survives off people playing it to get away from other shooters or games.

 

Zombie Mod, as in Escape and Napalm together in one ?

 

ZM was the mod we use to use on escape and napalm, after the major update it broke and has been MIA since then. We use Zombie reloaded instead of Zombie mod atm.

[EvilShadow98]

Ever since that big update for Source that came out back in June, overall population of Source did decline a pretty good amount. It might seem like a lot of people still do play Source, but it is not nowhere near as much as it was earlier this year. Reasons why are because admins of a lot of servers got lazy to update or fix their servers after the update, veteran players hated the change, and/or newer anticipated PC games have been coming out as well. I would love to see our CSS servers get filled up like they once were, but something different needs to be done to attract players again.

[(von dutch) delta force 8]

new skins is a must, I remember adding steamgamers to my favorites list a few years back because of the great skins it had

 

also back then the map rotation was just plain better..