Never understood why people enjoy large player counts, who the hell wants to be apart of a zerg mentality. Your individual actions have nearly no bearing on the result, you are simply a number and if you mass numbers at the right spot, right time, you win.
Although I suppose for that exact reason of why I dislike it, people will like it. They can submerge themself in the numbers making their failures not stand out
My lack of skill isn't a 20% penalty against my team. That's why I like bigger servers.
Never understood why people enjoy large player counts, who the hell wants to be apart of a zerg mentality. Your individual actions have nearly no bearing on the result, you are simply a number and if you mass numbers at the right spot, right time, you win.
Although I suppose for that exact reason of why I dislike it, people will like it. They can submerge themself in the numbers making their failures not stand out
I find the benefits of a larger slot server for PUB games out way the downsides, servers don't die as easy from leaving / afk players.
Also I feel there is less pressure on rookie players to perform, which should result in new players enjoying the game more + higher % people sticking with the game.
I can't see why big servers and small servers can't peacefully co-exist with each other.
Small player base, if people are playing in the big 24 player servers then there just isn't enough people left over for the smaller ones.
Also I feel there is less pressure on rookie players to perform, which should result in new players enjoying the game more + higher % people sticking with the game.
My lack of skill isn't a 20% penalty against my team. That's why I like bigger servers
Yeh, as I said; drown out peoples failures by obscurity with numbers. It certainly isn't for the balance or gameplay because its terrible at that number.
I can't see why big servers and small servers can't peacefully co-exist with each other.
Small player base, if people are playing in the big 24 player servers then there just isn't enough people left over for the smaller ones.
Ehh... smaller servers exist, its just more people enjoy, and there join, larger servers for reasons like @tom_bmx stated.
I wonder how much of it is people joining servers that size because they like it compared to people joining those servers cause it all that is available.
I can't see why big servers and small servers can't peacefully co-exist with each other.
Small player base, if people are playing in the big 24 player servers then there just isn't enough people left over for the smaller ones.
It's a little thing called choice / freewill, if people want to play in bigger servers and leave the small servers to the pro's or choose to play on them when they get better themselves, that's their choice to make.
A big part of the reason (other than performance being so demanding) why the player base is so small is because rookies feel too much pressure and stress from elitists like yourself.
It's a game, games are meant to be enjoyable and stress free, that's their primary function to facilitate for most people, only a minority play for absolute skill and domination.
Yeh, as I said; drown out peoples failures by obscurity with numbers. It certainly isn't for the balance or gameplay because its terrible at that number.
You're not being forced to play on the big servers so stop moaning, lol
I've seen plenty of NS2 elitists / purists around the forums that say they won't play on anything past 16 so unless all they do is sit on a forum moaning all day instead of actually playing the game, i'm sure the fate of the small servers is secure although i can personally vouch the UWE official 16 man servers have stayed empty for a very long time, way before the 30+ servers came along.
The games player base has been on the decline for a long time, these bigger servers actually give ns2 more of a chance of securing a much larger player base and thus eventually filling the smaller servers with a much needed injection of new blood instead of having an entire list of empty servers.
As long as big servers keep the lag under the control and the smaller servers are still available, people will have a widechoice of game play styles to enjoy and hopefully more people will become long termers by sticking around long enough to want more challenge and populate the smaller servers.
This game deserves more players, i'm hoping the continous game performance improvements combined with these new wave of bigger servers allowed to exist because of the said improvements will achieve this as for the last couple of months finding decent european servers has been an on going struggle.
dePARAJoin Date: 2011-04-29Member: 96321Members, Squad Five Blue
Im sure that admins of 24-32 slot servers didnt have one of the following in mind:
_ Best game experience for the players
- Best possible performance
32 slot servers help to be the number1 server @Gametracker. Thats the only reason people hosting servers like this in my opinion.
And thanks for proven this with the gametracker-link in your siganture DarkflameQ
LokiJoin Date: 2012-07-07Member: 153973Members, Forum Moderators, NS2 Playtester, Squad Five Blue, Squad Five Silver, Squad Five Gold, NS2 Map Tester, Reinforced - Shadow, WC 2013 - Shadow, Subnautica Playtester, NS2 Community Developer, Pistachionauts
edited June 2013
Bigger servers tend to be more fun and feel a lot more like NS1 for me atleast. They can be a real test of your commanding skills trying to organise to so many people to do things. There is far more chance on bigger servers to players to actually listen to you as a commander (in pub games) instead of ignoring you and going off all rambo style like on smaller servers so nothing ends up gets done.
Sure you say skill does not matter and it probably does not but who cares? its not a competitive match just random pubs who want to play on it.
It is far more chaotic but who the hell does not like chaos? walking around a corner in to a wall of teeth or pack of gorges (likewise as aliens in to marines). You get a sense that you are really trying to fight over a section of the map instead and people will go back there to help defend rather than avoid it as they know there is a fade / few skulks there. There is saftey in numbers!!!!!!!!!!
This server along with the now defunked onosbar 32 has actually got me playing the game again outside of the scc playtest sundays
Im sure that admins of 24-32 slot servers didnt have one of the following in mind:
_ Best game experience for the players
- Best possible performance
32 slot servers help to be the number1 server @Gametracker. Thats the only reason people hosting servers like this in my opinion.
And thanks for proven this with the gametracker-link in your siganture DarkflameQ
Or... 24+ player servers are hosted because people actually enjoy playing them.
Do you guys who are arguing in favor of 24-32 player servers understand that the reason they are "popular" is because they are often the only option people have? With a community this small, people are forced to join whatever servers have players in them. That does not mean that large player count servers are preferred.
Do you guys who are arguing in favor of 24-32 player servers understand that the reason they are "popular" is because they are often the only option people have? With a community this small, people are forced to join whatever servers have players in them. That does not mean that large player count servers are preferred.
This argument can go on forever; do you not realise that the community is small because small servers can and do easily depopulate when the losing team rage quits? (which they often do).
I've seen happen time and time again over the past 6 months, even 24 man servers can completely empty once a losing team rage quits from getting their asses served.
I've never seen a 32 man server depopulate, they are pretty much constantly full, a real struggle to get a place, that speak volumes...
Do you guys who are arguing in favor of 24-32 player servers understand that the reason they are "popular" is because they are often the only option people have? With a community this small, people are forced to join whatever servers have players in them. That does not mean that large player count servers are preferred.
You're saying that people are forced to play in 32 player servers because they are the only ones available with free slots and an active player base?
I've never been in the situation where the only server I could join was onos bar, that's ludicrous.
dePARAJoin Date: 2011-04-29Member: 96321Members, Squad Five Blue
So you are on a mission to save the overall playercount with your 40man server? You really think these servers needed to save the game?
Hell, never heard more nonsense like that before.
24-32 servers are one reason why playercount is dropping.
Cause its horrible to play there. Nothing more to say.
Do you guys who are arguing in favor of 24-32 player servers understand that the reason they are "popular" is because they are often the only option people have? With a community this small, people are forced to join whatever servers have players in them. That does not mean that large player count servers are preferred.
You're saying that people are forced to play in 32 player servers because they are the only ones available with free slots and an active player base?
I've never been in the situation where the only server I could join was onos bar, that's ludicrous.
Having no choice of what server to go on that is not 100+ ping when in the EU is not a rare occurrence.
So you are on a mission to save the overall playercount with your 40man server? You really think these servers needed to save the game?
Hell, never heard more nonsense like that before.
No, i think servers of all sizes co peacefully co exist together without all this hate.
24-32 servers are one reason why playercount is dropping.
Nah, you're way off, i've already gone over what i believe is killing the game in my previous post so i'm not going to repeat myself.
24-32 servers are a problem, because they leech the players from the smaller sized servers. People rather join a 31/32 slot server than a 0/18 server, because they don't want to wait forever to play, even though they actually know it is going to suck and will leave frustrated.
It might not be a problem, if the player base was bigger and everyone could choose the server they actually like to play on, but that's just not the case and you are practically forced to play on those servers eventually (or not play at all). That is why 24+ slot servers are hurting the game and they can not coexist with smaller sized servers.
Even if all the servers changed to 16 player, all that will achieve is a quicker end to the game, all the vanilla gameplay servers will just be half full to completely empty.
We live in an PC gaming age of consistantly popular 64 player Battlefield servers and 500+ Minecraft servers.
All evidence points to the fact that the majority want and enjoy bigger games.
Even NS1 had massive servers that everyone still raves about.
I think the only reason why NS2 started with such low player numbers is because that was the best they could do optimisation wise during development, with only 7 staff members creating not just a game but a new engine, there had to be some draw backs at launch and i believe an engine optimisation limit of 16 players was it.
I could be wrong of course but it's the only thing that makes sense to me because NS1 had huge servers, why go backwards?
Hell i use to play 32 player games of Quake 3 back in 2002.
Frankly, 16 players is pretty much pittiful in todays day and age.
It's still fine and dandy for tournaments and clan matches but not for public.
The irony is Descent actually plays very well with 30+, in fact i would go as far as to say it was designed for it.
If the next map from Unknown is just as huge, then we'll know for sure what direction the developers want to go in.
But going from the size increase of Descent, i'd safely say they are aiming for bigger servers in the future, it's the only way to reach the same popularity that NS1 reached.
Another interesting fact i've noticed is that the majority of custom maps for vanilla game play are all huge as well.
Jambi is both beautiful and massive, again i think this speaks volumes, people want bigger, they want more.
You guys can keep your small servers that easily depopulate and brag about how skilled you are for easily picking off lone marines with your over powered 2 swipe kill fades, i've said my piece.
LokiJoin Date: 2012-07-07Member: 153973Members, Forum Moderators, NS2 Playtester, Squad Five Blue, Squad Five Silver, Squad Five Gold, NS2 Map Tester, Reinforced - Shadow, WC 2013 - Shadow, Subnautica Playtester, NS2 Community Developer, Pistachionauts
Exactly people do not want to join an empty server, if they do they sit around an wait forever to the point where some people join they might get there arses kicked. It is hard to fill servers I know I do it you just need 4 or 5 people you know and the server will fill. It is keeping those players on the server (18player server here) when they / us / we are losing most people just rage quit thinking omg it will hurt my imaginary stats. However I doubt most people will join a 24+ player server expecting it to suck
All size servers can exist in unison and I believe originally the game was intended to support 32 players. Hell back in alpha compared to what it is now 6 player games were total lag fests so yeah people cant really use that as an exuse for 24+ player servers to exist as the engine improves things will get better we have all watched this happen.
You have to remember we are all individuals and not everyone will share your point of view. Accept it these servers exist and unless UWE come out and out right ban these (which I seriously doubt they will) eventually you might find more of them popping up as time goes on.
But from seeing some of the comments on the larger server threads you have to think why people might avoid smaller servers looking at some of the posts / responces.
if ns2 is so much about teamwork, how is running by yourself welding an extractor by yourself and building a powernode by yourself on a offical ns2 server concidered more fun than having 5 mates holding eachothers back guarding vents and entrances while building and expanding shit together only to get overrunned by a swarm of aliens, blowing mines and stuff up with another 5 gorges rushing in as backup? imagine building 50 clogs and 15 hydras in dockings bar, what is the INDUVIDUAL-skill-oriented-cry-over-kdr-player gonna do against THAT? mab NOTHINGH becouse he should propably never join a random 40 man server furst place. but for thoose who just want to have fun together in a game with constant action and things happenning all around the map where frequent 20 jatpacks vs 10onos+10 gorges battles is going down and can go either way, then you can go ahead and join tom_bmx´s server.
i mean...if i host a 2vs2 server that is so against the original concept of ns2 just becouse i wanna try some new stuff out for an evening, is anyone FORCED to join it? i dont think so, or are they maby forced to even make a topic about how bad it is for everyone that it exists? it is essentially just one extra server to click on.
how is 20vs20 server tom_bmx hosted any different? if that would be the worst server in history of anything no one would ever join it right? i think there is a reason why its constantly full.
And if it IS full then everyone flaming on this post can peacfully go join an officail ns2 6vs6 or whatever they have and enjoy themselves. How can 40 people enjoying themselves in the same place and in the same server affecting the entire community negativly? you think thoose players would even join a server with 12 player limit if you FORCED it on everyone? or would they simply do something else if the game stopped to be fun. The more people, the more fun. i cant wait for the upcoming 64 man server
Exactly people do not want to join an empty server, if they do they sit around an wait forever to the point where some people join they might get there arses kicked. It is hard to fill servers I know I do it you just need 4 or 5 people you know and the server will fill. It is keeping those players on the server (18player server here) when they / us / we are losing most people just rage quit thinking omg it will hurt my imaginary stats. However I doubt most people will join a 24+ player server expecting it to suck
All size servers can exist in unison and I believe originally the game was intended to support 32 players. Hell back in alpha compared to what it is now 6 player games were total lag fests so yeah people cant really use that as an exuse for 24+ player servers to exist as the engine improves things will get better we have all watched this happen.
You have to remember we are all individuals and not everyone will share your point of view. Accept it these servers exist and unless UWE come out and out right ban these (which I seriously doubt they will) eventually you might find more of them popping up as time goes on.
But from seeing some of the comments on the larger server threads you have to think why people might avoid smaller servers looking at some of the posts / responces.
What a wonderful post, i enjoyed reading it.
I really don't think these nay sayers have actually tried to keep a server populated, even with 24, it's one of the hardest and most time consuming things to do.
I only started launching servers because i was sick of all the AFKers, spectators and waiting room campers in the majority of servers at the time (2 months ago).
Thank life for the Shine mod, i just hope it gets fixed soon, build 250 broke it
its actually quite smooth already when many of the people got good pings
love it how he started the server and it was 0/40 then in 5 minutes we had 40/40
its propably instantly populated becouse of how horrible 40 man servers must be, and how un-fun it is to play on it and how everyone that owns a copy of ns2 is automaticly FORCED to join on the 40 man server lol :P
24-32 servers are a problem, because they leech the players from the smaller sized servers. People rather join a 31/32 slot server than a 0/18 server, because they don't want to wait forever to play, even though they actually know it is going to suck and will leave frustrated.
It might not be a problem, if the player base was bigger and everyone could choose the server they actually like to play on, but that's just not the case and you are practically forced to play on those servers eventually (or not play at all). That is why 24+ slot servers are hurting the game and they can not coexist with smaller sized servers.
Really? So if that's the case, back when the game was released and all those 16 player servers were filled all the time as well as the bigger ones, why are they now empty and the 24 and up servers still going? What's your explanation for that? I'd love to hear what kind of logic you can put to how bad these servers are that still draw players. And to be honest, everytime I see a server browser screenshot I do see smaller servers still running with people on them, so saying they can't coexist is pretty silly really.
ScardyBobScardyBobJoin Date: 2009-11-25Member: 69528Forum Admins, Forum Moderators, NS2 Playtester, Squad Five Blue, Reinforced - Shadow, WC 2013 - Shadow
The biggest reason I find that larger playercount servers get populated is because they are at the top of the list when you sort by size. People want to play in servers with other people, so they start at the top of the list and join the first one with an open slot most of the time.
i played on the 50 man server, horrible server tick rate, lag spikes and with so many people on each team so easy to drop a hive in seconds the hitpoints of structures simply arent designed to have so many people potentially shooting at them
also many evolved lifeform deaths, you go round a corner as a fade and see 10 marines in a tight corridor they will drop you in seconds before you even have time to react
The biggest reason I find that larger playercount servers get populated is because they are at the top of the list when you sort by size. People want to play in servers with other people, so they start at the top of the list and join the first one with an open slot most of the time.
That's not the point I'm making. As I said, at the beginning there were PLENTY of full 16 player servers, far more in fact then 20-24. So what happened? Sure 24 players grab players by being at the top, doesn't mean we're going to RETAIN them tho. People stay if they enjoy it, they leave if they don't. That's a pretty simple fact wouldn't you say?
We live in an PC gaming age of consistantly popular 64 player Battlefield servers and 500+ Minecraft servers.
All evidence points to the fact that the majority want and enjoy bigger games.
This comparison is flawed on a massive scale.
Battlefield was designed with huge player counts in mind and has its maps scale properly by restricting certain areas and objectives if you play with less players. With 64 players you get to play on a larger map than with 16 players. The game is also symmetrical, so they don't face the problem that balance shifts in favor of one faction if the overall player count rises.
In NS2 can marines just spam fire down a corridor and be sure to have killed half of the enemy Skulks just by accident before they even get close. Structure HP doesn't scale either, so a bunch of marines can just rush a Hive and tear it down instantly with focused fire. All of these are problems that BF doesn't have to face.
Minecraft couldn't care less about how many players exist on a server. It doesn't have any negative impact on the game's balance because the world is just so huge that you can easily expand as the population grows. It gets harder to coordinate things when there are too many people, but in the end everyone is still doing just what he wants anyway. It's not a PvP game, so it's fine.
ye there is million of 16 18 20 22 28 and even 32 servers out there, but this post is about how 1 server, yes ONE server hosted by tom is leeching all of your so called the epic 6v6´s?
it can only hold 40 people so do you really expect your smaller server experience being improoved by this server being down? "they leech the players from the smaller sized servers"
more can join in on the fun, more can engage together and use the buddy system to take down single or multiple targets, on a server this of this size you are never safe! that is what i love about it, you have so much to do and there is never a dull moment when the commander rely on you run by yourself and build 4 powernodes and 4 rts but pause and run back half map to defend something and run half the map back to just keep mouse1 pressed in for 6 minutes traight...SHIT GOES DOWN and you better be prepared whither you are in their base or even your own!
The biggest reason I find that larger playercount servers get populated is because they are at the top of the list when you sort by size. People want to play in servers with other people, so they start at the top of the list and join the first one with an open slot most of the time.
I started a second server there where about 20 servers with 16-20 players and free slots.
Yet my 2nd server when from zero to 36 in about 5minutes, so people joined the one with 36 cap over other servers even when it has like no players.
Comments
We've had 68p and 128p over here in australia.
Much better than 20-50p tbh.
My lack of skill isn't a 20% penalty against my team. That's why I like bigger servers.
I find the benefits of a larger slot server for PUB games out way the downsides, servers don't die as easy from leaving / afk players.
Also I feel there is less pressure on rookie players to perform, which should result in new players enjoying the game more + higher % people sticking with the game.
Small player base, if people are playing in the big 24 player servers then there just isn't enough people left over for the smaller ones.
Yeh, as I said; drown out peoples failures by obscurity with numbers. It certainly isn't for the balance or gameplay because its terrible at that number.
Ehh... smaller servers exist, its just more people enjoy, and there join, larger servers for reasons like @tom_bmx stated.
I wonder how much of it is people joining servers that size because they like it compared to people joining those servers cause it all that is available.
A big part of the reason (other than performance being so demanding) why the player base is so small is because rookies feel too much pressure and stress from elitists like yourself.
It's a game, games are meant to be enjoyable and stress free, that's their primary function to facilitate for most people, only a minority play for absolute skill and domination.
You're not being forced to play on the big servers so stop moaning, lol
I've seen plenty of NS2 elitists / purists around the forums that say they won't play on anything past 16 so unless all they do is sit on a forum moaning all day instead of actually playing the game, i'm sure the fate of the small servers is secure although i can personally vouch the UWE official 16 man servers have stayed empty for a very long time, way before the 30+ servers came along.
The games player base has been on the decline for a long time, these bigger servers actually give ns2 more of a chance of securing a much larger player base and thus eventually filling the smaller servers with a much needed injection of new blood instead of having an entire list of empty servers.
As long as big servers keep the lag under the control and the smaller servers are still available, people will have a widechoice of game play styles to enjoy and hopefully more people will become long termers by sticking around long enough to want more challenge and populate the smaller servers.
This game deserves more players, i'm hoping the continous game performance improvements combined with these new wave of bigger servers allowed to exist because of the said improvements will achieve this as for the last couple of months finding decent european servers has been an on going struggle.
_ Best game experience for the players
- Best possible performance
32 slot servers help to be the number1 server @Gametracker. Thats the only reason people hosting servers like this in my opinion.
And thanks for proven this with the gametracker-link in your siganture DarkflameQ
Sure you say skill does not matter and it probably does not but who cares? its not a competitive match just random pubs who want to play on it.
It is far more chaotic but who the hell does not like chaos? walking around a corner in to a wall of teeth or pack of gorges (likewise as aliens in to marines). You get a sense that you are really trying to fight over a section of the map instead and people will go back there to help defend rather than avoid it as they know there is a fade / few skulks there. There is saftey in numbers!!!!!!!!!!
This server along with the now defunked onosbar 32 has actually got me playing the game again outside of the scc playtest sundays
This argument can go on forever; do you not realise that the community is small because small servers can and do easily depopulate when the losing team rage quits? (which they often do).
I've seen happen time and time again over the past 6 months, even 24 man servers can completely empty once a losing team rage quits from getting their asses served.
I've never seen a 32 man server depopulate, they are pretty much constantly full, a real struggle to get a place, that speak volumes...
You're saying that people are forced to play in 32 player servers because they are the only ones available with free slots and an active player base?
I've never been in the situation where the only server I could join was onos bar, that's ludicrous.
Hell, never heard more nonsense like that before.
24-32 servers are one reason why playercount is dropping.
Cause its horrible to play there. Nothing more to say.
Having no choice of what server to go on that is not 100+ ping when in the EU is not a rare occurrence.
Nah, you're way off, i've already gone over what i believe is killing the game in my previous post so i'm not going to repeat myself.
It might not be a problem, if the player base was bigger and everyone could choose the server they actually like to play on, but that's just not the case and you are practically forced to play on those servers eventually (or not play at all). That is why 24+ slot servers are hurting the game and they can not coexist with smaller sized servers.
We live in an PC gaming age of consistantly popular 64 player Battlefield servers and 500+ Minecraft servers.
All evidence points to the fact that the majority want and enjoy bigger games.
Even NS1 had massive servers that everyone still raves about.
I think the only reason why NS2 started with such low player numbers is because that was the best they could do optimisation wise during development, with only 7 staff members creating not just a game but a new engine, there had to be some draw backs at launch and i believe an engine optimisation limit of 16 players was it.
I could be wrong of course but it's the only thing that makes sense to me because NS1 had huge servers, why go backwards?
Hell i use to play 32 player games of Quake 3 back in 2002.
Frankly, 16 players is pretty much pittiful in todays day and age.
It's still fine and dandy for tournaments and clan matches but not for public.
The irony is Descent actually plays very well with 30+, in fact i would go as far as to say it was designed for it.
If the next map from Unknown is just as huge, then we'll know for sure what direction the developers want to go in.
But going from the size increase of Descent, i'd safely say they are aiming for bigger servers in the future, it's the only way to reach the same popularity that NS1 reached.
Another interesting fact i've noticed is that the majority of custom maps for vanilla game play are all huge as well.
Jambi is both beautiful and massive, again i think this speaks volumes, people want bigger, they want more.
You guys can keep your small servers that easily depopulate and brag about how skilled you are for easily picking off lone marines with your over powered 2 swipe kill fades, i've said my piece.
All size servers can exist in unison and I believe originally the game was intended to support 32 players. Hell back in alpha compared to what it is now 6 player games were total lag fests so yeah people cant really use that as an exuse for 24+ player servers to exist as the engine improves things will get better we have all watched this happen.
You have to remember we are all individuals and not everyone will share your point of view. Accept it these servers exist and unless UWE come out and out right ban these (which I seriously doubt they will) eventually you might find more of them popping up as time goes on.
But from seeing some of the comments on the larger server threads you have to think why people might avoid smaller servers looking at some of the posts / responces.
i mean...if i host a 2vs2 server that is so against the original concept of ns2 just becouse i wanna try some new stuff out for an evening, is anyone FORCED to join it? i dont think so, or are they maby forced to even make a topic about how bad it is for everyone that it exists? it is essentially just one extra server to click on.
how is 20vs20 server tom_bmx hosted any different? if that would be the worst server in history of anything no one would ever join it right? i think there is a reason why its constantly full.
And if it IS full then everyone flaming on this post can peacfully go join an officail ns2 6vs6 or whatever they have and enjoy themselves. How can 40 people enjoying themselves in the same place and in the same server affecting the entire community negativly? you think thoose players would even join a server with 12 player limit if you FORCED it on everyone? or would they simply do something else if the game stopped to be fun. The more people, the more fun. i cant wait for the upcoming 64 man server
I really don't think these nay sayers have actually tried to keep a server populated, even with 24, it's one of the hardest and most time consuming things to do.
I only started launching servers because i was sick of all the AFKers, spectators and waiting room campers in the majority of servers at the time (2 months ago).
Thank life for the Shine mod, i just hope it gets fixed soon, build 250 broke it
love it how he started the server and it was 0/40 then in 5 minutes we had 40/40
its propably instantly populated becouse of how horrible 40 man servers must be, and how un-fun it is to play on it and how everyone that owns a copy of ns2 is automaticly FORCED to join on the 40 man server lol :P
Now I just start the 40 1 person sits in it, 5 mins later it's populated lol, plus it stays populated far far longer.
If it's populating that quick people must be joining for the gameplay of a larger server.
Really? So if that's the case, back when the game was released and all those 16 player servers were filled all the time as well as the bigger ones, why are they now empty and the 24 and up servers still going? What's your explanation for that? I'd love to hear what kind of logic you can put to how bad these servers are that still draw players. And to be honest, everytime I see a server browser screenshot I do see smaller servers still running with people on them, so saying they can't coexist is pretty silly really.
also many evolved lifeform deaths, you go round a corner as a fade and see 10 marines in a tight corridor they will drop you in seconds before you even have time to react
That's not the point I'm making. As I said, at the beginning there were PLENTY of full 16 player servers, far more in fact then 20-24. So what happened? Sure 24 players grab players by being at the top, doesn't mean we're going to RETAIN them tho. People stay if they enjoy it, they leave if they don't. That's a pretty simple fact wouldn't you say?
This comparison is flawed on a massive scale.
Battlefield was designed with huge player counts in mind and has its maps scale properly by restricting certain areas and objectives if you play with less players. With 64 players you get to play on a larger map than with 16 players. The game is also symmetrical, so they don't face the problem that balance shifts in favor of one faction if the overall player count rises.
In NS2 can marines just spam fire down a corridor and be sure to have killed half of the enemy Skulks just by accident before they even get close. Structure HP doesn't scale either, so a bunch of marines can just rush a Hive and tear it down instantly with focused fire. All of these are problems that BF doesn't have to face.
Minecraft couldn't care less about how many players exist on a server. It doesn't have any negative impact on the game's balance because the world is just so huge that you can easily expand as the population grows. It gets harder to coordinate things when there are too many people, but in the end everyone is still doing just what he wants anyway. It's not a PvP game, so it's fine.
it can only hold 40 people so do you really expect your smaller server experience being improoved by this server being down? "they leech the players from the smaller sized servers"
more can join in on the fun, more can engage together and use the buddy system to take down single or multiple targets, on a server this of this size you are never safe! that is what i love about it, you have so much to do and there is never a dull moment when the commander rely on you run by yourself and build 4 powernodes and 4 rts but pause and run back half map to defend something and run half the map back to just keep mouse1 pressed in for 6 minutes traight...SHIT GOES DOWN and you better be prepared whither you are in their base or even your own!
I started a second server there where about 20 servers with 16-20 players and free slots.
Yet my 2nd server when from zero to 36 in about 5minutes, so people joined the one with 36 cap over other servers even when it has like no players.