yes and no.... a lot of the servers dont perform well with a lot of people on them in this build, so people are staying away + this build has its own performance issues. 186 will hopefully be epic and rally a lot of people back and also be a performance boost to the game as it is now.
<!--quoteo(post=1874929:date=Sep 15 2011, 11:00 PM:name=WasabiOne)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (WasabiOne @ Sep 15 2011, 11:00 PM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1874929"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->yes and no.... a lot of the servers dont perform well with a lot of people on them in this build, so people are staying away + this build has its own performance issues. 186 will hopefully be epic and rally a lot of people back and also be a performance boost to the game as it is now.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
stop stretching the truth
patch comes out, population doubles for a week then goes to what it is now. very few people are actually enjoying the alpha enough to play more than a few hours a week.
truthfully there are only a few servers that dont rubberband when playing, for example the inv servers(they are jacked like crazy).. I think if there were more servers that could handle it there would be more people.
We tried a server for a few days, could only run 12(if even) but as long as we were in it it was still full non-stop even tho it was rubberbanding.
well if your from australia theres only really one server that can run ns2 atm. I always thought the same was the case over on the otherside of the world - only a few servers pimp enough to run it with good ticks.
Server populations jumps up when new patches come out, but its been nearly 3 weeks since build 185 came out.
But this is one patch in particular that has gotten a quicker loss of players than previous patches, since there was a considerable client-side performance hit, with the recent implementation of better player collision, which requires the client to predict the movements of nearby players when the server can't keep up.
While it hasn't been too much of a problem for me since i already had pretty high frame rates, some people on these forums have been reporting dramatic drops, as far as people having 40-60 fps in build 184, dropping down to less than 10 fps. Which would explain easily why people have stopped playing 185 now, when 184 there would usually be a few servers full of people.
<!--quoteo(post=1874934:date=Sep 16 2011, 05:59 AM:name=Heroman117)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Heroman117 @ Sep 16 2011, 05:59 AM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1874934"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->But this is one patch in particular that has gotten a quicker loss of players than previous patches,<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Well, this one and the other three or four times that happened for similar reasons in the last 10 patches or so.
On a more serious note, the Inversion servers are not normal servers. The servers are running desktop boards with unlocked sandy bridge processors that are overclocked. You cannot rent a gaming server anywhere that runs that type of hardware, its just not normal! lol. Tempest has invested a lot of money on building and putting these in a data-center running a beautiful 100mbps (<a href="http://www.invns2.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=3&sid=32e3372c9674b536b4324aed42ad454a" target="_blank">full server description</a>). The data center is almost dead smack in the middle of the US so everyone can play and ping decently to the server in the states.
This build has caused a significant drop in FPS (which UWE is aware and working to fix), so many of the regular public gamers have taken a seat and are patiently awaiting 186. Usually when a build is first released, all the NS2 players come out of the woodwork to test out the new build, then, gradually the active players drops until the next release.
Until the servers and client performance is significantly increased and there are more active maps/server capabilities (such as downloading/map changing/etc.), the active servers will stay as they are for every build until then.
I asked the same thing, and yeah Vizionz and others have hit it on the head. Performance this patch is low so people are taking a breather to not get burnt out in frustration. Some servers are really laggy and drop everyone from game often. Looks like a chunk of the progress list got turned into accepted which means that the patch is coming very soon ( me thinks next week).
<!--quoteo(post=1874988:date=Sep 16 2011, 11:15 AM:name=vizionz)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (vizionz @ Sep 16 2011, 11:15 AM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1874988"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->On a more serious note, the Inversion servers are not normal servers. The servers are running desktop boards with unlocked sandy bridge processors that are overclocked. You cannot rent a gaming server anywhere that runs that type of hardware, its just not normal! lol. Tempest has invested a lot of money on building and putting these in a data-center running a beautiful 100mbps (<a href="http://www.invns2.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=3&sid=32e3372c9674b536b4324aed42ad454a" target="_blank">full server description</a>). The data center is almost dead smack in the middle of the US so everyone can play and ping decently to the server in the states.
This build has caused a significant drop in FPS (which UWE is aware and working to fix), so many of the regular public gamers have taken a seat and are patiently awaiting 186. Usually when a build is first released, all the NS2 players come out of the woodwork to test out the new build, then, gradually the active players drops until the next release.
Until the servers and client performance is significantly increased and there are more active maps/server capabilities (such as downloading/map changing/etc.), the active servers will stay as they are for every build until then.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd--> QFT
This is beta; don't expect the servers to be full at all times. The NS2 community is fairly large at the moment; it just takes time to get to that certain "sweet-spot". I'm sure a good portion of the community is waiting for the next build release; then will start playing again. The first week or two of a build release you'll see the servers a lot more active and then slowly start to die down over time awaiting the next build. This is a repeating process; one that 'may' not end until v1.0.
Server performance and optimization are some of the main reasons behind inactivity. Something you should expect from a game in beta.
endarJoin Date: 2010-07-27Member: 73256Members, Squad Five Blue
edited September 2011
<!--quoteo(post=1874946:date=Sep 16 2011, 06:36 PM:name=Yuuki)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Yuuki @ Sep 16 2011, 06:36 PM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1874946"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->Is there a graph of number of players in time somewhere ?<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
<!--quoteo(post=1874946:date=Sep 16 2011, 10:36 AM:name=Yuuki)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Yuuki @ Sep 16 2011, 10:36 AM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1874946"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->Is there a graph of number of players in time somewhere ?<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd--> I have a stat site running but the data hasn't been updated for a while. I'll see if I can do that now. However I have to add that I moved and I couldn't record during that time and I have yet to see how much I missed.
<!--quoteo(post=1875134:date=Sep 17 2011, 09:17 AM:name=GeneralBowser)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (GeneralBowser @ Sep 17 2011, 09:17 AM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1875134"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->I have a stat site running but the data hasn't been updated for a while. I'll see if I can do that now. However I have to add that I moved and I couldn't record during that time and I have yet to see how much I missed.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd--> Updated, it shows that the number of games is dropping currently, peaks are around weekends & patch releases.
It's expected the next high peak will be at patch release
I also noticed they have renamed the internal map to a dev map haha, so we can't see anymore what it's called ;-)
<!--quoteo(post=1875087:date=Sep 16 2011, 11:43 PM:name=Da5id1an)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Da5id1an @ Sep 16 2011, 11:43 PM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1875087"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->well ive logged onto NS like 10-15 times most times only 2 servers are up with ppl on them
the rest are empty and the 2 that are up are that 1 in aus and 1 other one
both of which i ping for 200+ on so that coupled with the already low fps this game gives at the moment makes it really hard to play and enjoy
need more stable US servers preferably west ^ ^<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->I'm not sure if NS2 uses the Steam server list to populate its in-game browser, I suspect so. In this case it could be due to Steam going a bit wrong. This can be solved, but you need to make a backup before you delete anything. You can try this:
<ol type='1'><li>Exit Steam (so it no longer displays in the taskbar)</li><li><b>\...\Steam\userdata\#user#\7\remote</b></li><li>Rename <b>serverbrowser_hist.vdf</b> to <b>serverbrowser_hist_old.vdf</b></li><li>Open Steam again and perform a Steam server browser search for NS2 servers</li><li>Add one of the results to your Favourites</li><li>Go to <b>\...\Steam\userdata\#user#\7\remote</b> and you should now have a new <b>serverbrowser_hist.vdf</b> file</li><li>Run NS2 and see if you are able to view significantly more NS2 servers in-game</li></ol>
THIS ACTION REMOVES YOUR SERVER FAVOURITES FOR ALL STEAM GAMES. To restore them, simply delete the new file and rename the old one back to <b>serverbrowser_hist.vdf</b>.
--- Rereading this, the issue is possibly just a lack of players, but this is one to keep in mind because it can randomly crop up.
- FPS drop - cause how the endgame is looking right now: group of marines staying around an armoury, around a corner and shooting grenades. they are mostly in dark so they cant see anything Lerks constantly gasing them so they cant see anything shooting grenades to a room around the corner where they cant see anything aliens are mostly invisible, so marines cant see anything incoming teleporting fades, whom they cant hurt, arriving right behind them, where they cant see them, and hitting them while the fade is still invisible, right in the enf of the blink server tick rate is mostly down at this time so, this mess you are experiencing in laggy 7-8 fps
in The other hand: the start of the game is very good, tactical, clear shots and death, hiding skulk in the dark, hydras bloking the way. I am hoping UWE can clear out the end game, to be more "visible".
Comments
stop stretching the truth
patch comes out, population doubles for a week then goes to what it is now. very few people are actually enjoying the alpha enough to play more than a few hours a week.
We tried a server for a few days, could only run 12(if even) but as long as we were in it it was still full non-stop even tho it was rubberbanding.
But this is one patch in particular that has gotten a quicker loss of players than previous patches, since there was a considerable client-side performance hit, with the recent implementation of better player collision, which requires the client to predict the movements of nearby players when the server can't keep up.
While it hasn't been too much of a problem for me since i already had pretty high frame rates, some people on these forums have been reporting dramatic drops, as far as people having 40-60 fps in build 184, dropping down to less than 10 fps. Which would explain easily why people have stopped playing 185 now, when 184 there would usually be a few servers full of people.
Well, this one and the other three or four times that happened for similar reasons in the last 10 patches or so.
<img src="http://img11.hostingpics.net/pics/713607264083700b.jpg" border="0" class="linked-image" />
omfg, that is awesome...
<3
This build has caused a significant drop in FPS (which UWE is aware and working to fix), so many of the regular public gamers have taken a seat and are patiently awaiting 186. Usually when a build is first released, all the NS2 players come out of the woodwork to test out the new build, then, gradually the active players drops until the next release.
Until the servers and client performance is significantly increased and there are more active maps/server capabilities (such as downloading/map changing/etc.), the active servers will stay as they are for every build until then.
This build has caused a significant drop in FPS (which UWE is aware and working to fix), so many of the regular public gamers have taken a seat and are patiently awaiting 186. Usually when a build is first released, all the NS2 players come out of the woodwork to test out the new build, then, gradually the active players drops until the next release.
Until the servers and client performance is significantly increased and there are more active maps/server capabilities (such as downloading/map changing/etc.), the active servers will stay as they are for every build until then.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
QFT
most times only 2 servers are up with ppl on them
the rest are empty
and the 2 that are up are that 1 in aus and 1 other one
both of which i ping for 200+ on
so that coupled with the already low fps this game gives at the moment makes it really hard to play and enjoy
need more stable US servers
preferably west ^ ^
This is beta; don't expect the servers to be full at all times. The NS2 community is fairly large at the moment; it just takes time to get to that certain "sweet-spot". I'm sure a good portion of the community is waiting for the next build release; then will start playing again. The first week or two of a build release you'll see the servers a lot more active and then slowly start to die down over time awaiting the next build. This is a repeating process; one that 'may' not end until v1.0.
Server performance and optimization are some of the main reasons behind inactivity. Something you should expect from a game in beta.
<a href="http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/690/7dns2sgraph.png/" target="_blank"><img src="http://img690.imageshack.us/img690/5721/7dns2sgraph.png" border="0" class="linked-image" /></a>
The blue hitting the roof is a memory leak, which causes a server restart, and the tickrate going above 30 only happens when the server is empty.
Also a note to players on Aus Pure, it will be down probably all sunday tomorrow. Why the ###### inst there a dedicated server forum yet?
I have a stat site running but the data hasn't been updated for a while. I'll see if I can do that now. However I have to add that I moved and I couldn't record during that time and I have yet to see how much I missed.
Updated, it shows that the number of games is dropping currently, peaks are around weekends & patch releases.
It's expected the next high peak will be at patch release
I also noticed they have renamed the internal map to a dev map haha, so we can't see anymore what it's called ;-)
Signature for link btw..
most times only 2 servers are up with ppl on them
the rest are empty
and the 2 that are up are that 1 in aus and 1 other one
both of which i ping for 200+ on
so that coupled with the already low fps this game gives at the moment makes it really hard to play and enjoy
need more stable US servers
preferably west ^ ^<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->I'm not sure if NS2 uses the Steam server list to populate its in-game browser, I suspect so. In this case it could be due to Steam going a bit wrong. This can be solved, but you need to make a backup before you delete anything. You can try this:
<ol type='1'><li>Exit Steam (so it no longer displays in the taskbar)</li><li><b>\...\Steam\userdata\#user#\7\remote</b></li><li>Rename <b>serverbrowser_hist.vdf</b> to <b>serverbrowser_hist_old.vdf</b></li><li>Open Steam again and perform a Steam server browser search for NS2 servers</li><li>Add one of the results to your Favourites</li><li>Go to <b>\...\Steam\userdata\#user#\7\remote</b> and you should now have a new <b>serverbrowser_hist.vdf</b> file</li><li>Run NS2 and see if you are able to view significantly more NS2 servers in-game</li></ol>
THIS ACTION REMOVES YOUR SERVER FAVOURITES FOR ALL STEAM GAMES. To restore them, simply delete the new file and rename the old one back to <b>serverbrowser_hist.vdf</b>.
---
Rereading this, the issue is possibly just a lack of players, but this is one to keep in mind because it can randomly crop up.
- FPS drop
- cause how the endgame is looking right now:
group of marines staying around an armoury, around a corner and shooting grenades.
they are mostly in dark so they cant see anything
Lerks constantly gasing them so they cant see anything
shooting grenades to a room around the corner where they cant see anything
aliens are mostly invisible, so marines cant see anything
incoming teleporting fades, whom they cant hurt, arriving right behind them, where they cant see them, and hitting them while the fade is still invisible, right in the enf of the blink
server tick rate is mostly down at this time so, this mess you are experiencing in laggy 7-8 fps
in The other hand:
the start of the game is very good, tactical, clear shots and death, hiding skulk in the dark, hydras bloking the way.
I am hoping UWE can clear out the end game, to be more "visible".