Once again thank you for being the voice of management Miller. I truly do respect this about you.
- I do feel you guys are letting the server die by not implementing some major change. I'm speaking from experience watching the mainly CTF server I play on go from its last breathes to respectable matches each evening. I have seen what worked there.
- Aside from some modding, I do not see these changes. Rotation has been relatively the same, extensions do not seem to be too popular, Market clears the server, kicks are still being hurled out like the full server days (more on that later). Small changes for sure, but I don't see anything major.
- I'll agree to the size of flag space on Market and comparison to Berlin, but very much disagree with how often that map becomes "intense" with low pop. If we're talking a 40 player night with tickets staying about the same the whole match, then by all means run the tickets out instead of the timer. Consider one thing with extensions though... I think its fair to say many long time players are well out of their teens and into a life of jobs, babies, and responsibility that prevents hours of gametime each night. If you are constantly extending low pop large map games, you are killing any chance of someone with little time jumping on as there is likely only small windows of playtime available. Low pop small map and CTF would be more attractive for someone who only has time for a match or two.
- I don't expect you to make graphs. I have no idea if there is tool available on your end to show population (similar to gametracker?) I will agree with you 100% that Market was the seeder years ago, but now all I see is people bailing when it shows up.
I won't name the admin in this story as the person is irrelevant. But just yesterday ex pack day was coming to an end and the admin asked "aghelia or vanilla?" only one person answered "vanilla". Market shows up, decline in population. I find it crazy to think a person figures Market would be on par in popularity with a once a week map. Anyways, if there is no easy tool to back the claims then so be it.
- I am honestly pumped to see you say you're willing to try. Thats all you guys can do is try and see what works and what doesn't. I think you have a modded Stalingrad with warehouse mains and a Berlin without tanks and nades. Try throwing those into regular rotation for a bit. Or better yet, try Berlin in Market's place as your go to for a bit.
- I might be reading your post wrong, but it sounds like we have polar opposite opinions of CTF. CTF, to me, is suited for a low population. I play on a mainly CTF server and speak from experience here. You start on CTF and once you grow to a sizable population, that is when the large CQ maps come out. You once mentioned something in one of my CTF threads about not having admin around to babysit these matches. C4 on flags and glitching while holding the flag happens on a rare occasion nowadays and I think its easy to handle when an admin isn't around (which your coverage seems to have greatly improved). When they have time, have Posi or Squirrel toss some barbed wire behind glitchy walls, crates, in hangars, etc. As for C4, regs are there to call it out and anyone who wants to help can spawn as an engineer to remove said C4. That is a group effort from the community, not just an admin's job.
- I will take your word for it that suggestions are being considered and implemented. I've said it before and will say it again, I think you should stick a Mod Suggestion thread to collect these ideas and periodically jump in to let us know "hey, we changed X on X map..."
- I see you struck out my kicking comment but I think thats something to discuss. I know why you have your no drugs, politics, etc etc etc rules. But these are not significant reasons for kicking. Anything impeding gameplay, sure, warn or kick. But having somebody auto kicked for saying the word "Obama" should be reconsidered. As stated before, there is no player base left to fill this void. I completely understand your reasoning for the rules, but maybe it is time to loosen them up a bit. Do note that I do not consider this a significant source of player drop, but could certainly help keep the numbers up a bit sometimes.