Dead Men Walking

Oldie asked for new threads branching from the original debate thread, so here goes


The more I think about the more I think the idea of having open public forums might not be such a bad idea. It's at least worth us chewing over.

If I'm right in my assumption that with the new hardware and generous bandwidth we could run a much higher number of servers then we could have a tiered system. We have a number of branded low or non  admin'd servers that anyone can play on as long as they don't actually cheat. They would be branded as dMw public servers (or something) and would be  "our gift to the gaming community" (Penfold can work on the word science and make that sound better :wink: ) We clearly offer these on an 'as is' basis. People come and use them and we get more 'action as a result.We're not responsible for the standards of play and they don't reflect our own way of playing.

But we also offer something else. You like this game? You wanna play with quality payers on a well admined server? Want to join the dMw cummunity? Then we offer access to the 'inner sanctum'. Sign up on the forums, read and agree with the community rules and you now get to play on the real dMw servers.

So in effect the publics become a 'honey trap' for the quaility mature players we want. As long as we make it crystal clear that the public servers are exactly that 'public' and 'unrestricted' and that the real dMw servers are here as well, we could keep the two separate and not undermine our standards or reputation.

I'm sure there are problems with this model but it might be worth a discussion.

Obviously I take no credit for this as it was an idea that was evolving in the other thread. It just might be better giving it a home of it's own.

Quote from: smilodon;283110Want to join the dMw cummunity?

Hmm, not sure what sort of clientelle you are trying to attrack Smilo? :norty:

I think a couple of sandpit servers might be good for drawing in the hoi-poloi, as Smilodon so elequently put it.  Maybe we could have periodic sessions on them where we try and guide the players to play our way? That way we could pimp for new blood?

We have tried this on Dead Men Racing for the past few months, with a Live for Speed demo being setup by Oldie on our server. Jamin has kindly looked after the admin during the period.

We expected and got a lot of hotheads, spoilers and lowlife, but did expect to attract a few potential recruits to dMw.

It was closed down last week as it had attracted no new blood and Jamin decided enough was enough and I agreed with him.

maybe we could get a gun game for cs? that attracts alot of people, although maybe not serious gamers..
just a suggestion :byebye:

I guess the idea is to attract a lot of passing trade and then try to draw in quality people who want somewhere decent to play. If it's been tried with racing without success then maybe it's not such a good idea?

Quote from: smilodon;283145I guess the idea is to attract a lot of passing trade and then try to draw in quality people who want somewhere decent to play. If it's been tried with racing without success then maybe it's not such a good idea?

It was, and is, tried with racing with terrific success. What isn't fully understood is that racers are, for the most part, only interesting in racing. Of all the dMr members we have, I can think of only one that has made a transition to other games. Our servers (whoever is running them) are always public except for special events, there is always well, more often than not, an admin present and they take no er...nonsense. Consequently people, that is good people, come back time and again.
:2cents:

Quote from: Lameduck;283134We have tried this on Dead Men Racing for the past few months, with a Live for Speed demo

Usually, anyone decent leaves the server if idiots are on, if I wore my tag and went on as admin kicking the idiots, the decent people stuck around but they were few and most nights I was on my own and lonely. It would have been a great effort to try and compete against the established good servers. I concluded that we needed four or five good people on most nights to get people coming back, and we already have a server just like that.

Checking the logs showed we did have some regulars but no one ever came and registered on the forums, even the few I chatted with. I think it was down to the nature of the server being free for all that just attracted people who play on free for all servers.

Quality not quantity is how I believe it should be but just to add that I also play CSS and BF2142, I steer clear of organised servers as I just want to run around shooting anything that moves and generally dick about, so free for all servers are where I go, I don't care who runs them and will never visit their forums.

My only experiences of this sort of thing was when we went over to CSS and Boomer was opened to the public, and when BF2 was dish de jour with our public server.
We enforced the rules (with a plentiful supply of new pub admins) and encouraged people to come into the light.
It worked very well, and many good people joined our ranks, some of them are now admins and regulars in different section of the community.

I honestly don't believe that public frag servers (that is what they will be) will serve our cause.
I don't know what the answer is, but I'm sure it's not that.

In it's current form this idea is just giving away a server. There will be little or no reason for them to check out the forum or move to our way of playing.
We need some sort of a lure. For instance mid-way through a popular day a message pops up saying this is now becoming a public TC:S sever and have admins come on for an hour make a song and dance. I don't know. the people will need the kick of seeing mature/tactical play.

What about a tactical gamming newbie night for any section that wants more players?

Each section could advertise on forums etc. as required, have admins on hand, willing deadmen who are happy to help people out, and do what we can to get people into a teamwork kind of spirit.

I have asked this question several times...

Here we go again.

How much can our servers cope with and what is their current load/ usage?

From knowing this we can then prioritize.

If we don't know what they can cope with then surely we shouldn't jump in the deep end and provide public servers that could hamper the performance of our private servers.

From what i have gathered we have high performance kit but is it all at full capacity or is it barely breaking a sweat.

Quote from: GhostMjr;283357I have asked this question several times...

Here we go again.

How much can our servers cope with and what is their current load/ usage?

From knowing this we can then prioritize.

If we don't know what they can cope with then surely we shouldn't jump in the deep end and provide public servers that could hamper the performance of our private servers.

From what i have gathered we have high performance kit but is it all at full capacity or is it barely breaking a sweat.

You have a way with words GM :flirty:

I don't remember seeing several requests for information on server loading and usage but I'll take your word for it that I've been slacking and not providing the information to you. :devil:

Processor/Network wise the servers will take pretty much whatever we throw at them.  We're not so good on memory at the moment but we are already looking to upgrade BA4 to allow us some more head room.  We shouldn't see the servers as limiting what we do, so don't worry about the servers, that's what I'm here for.

Quote from: Whitey;283362You have a way with words GM :flirty:

I don't remember seeing several requests for information on server loading and usage but I'll take your word for it that I've been slacking and not providing the information to you. :devil:

Processor/Network wise the servers will take pretty much whatever we throw at them.  We're not so good on memory at the moment but we are already looking to upgrade BA4 to allow us some more head room.  We shouldn't see the servers as limiting what we do, so don't worry about the servers, that's what I'm here for.

Great thats awesome :)

Thanks for the response Whitey and its great to see our servers in good hands :D

On that basis what games would be good to get cracking with for joe public?

We tried TF2 but due to the lack of community interest this was closed.

Can anyone think of other suggestions for games to spread the dMw name?

dont forget we have modern warfare 2 being released soon, i would think that would be popular game....

Suggestions:

Cod2 (old i know but still very popular with Joe Public)
ARMAII
Flight Sim X (not sure on online popularity)
Red Faction Guerrilla (released soon)

actually its very hard to think of any :blink:

*shys away and crawls back under desk*

Opening public servers needs thought and a strong admin base. If not its just an open server with joe public doing as they like. I think back to nights on servers where i spent more time doing the admin thing than actualy playing the game (no fun at all)

Quote from: GhostMjr;283357From what i have gathered we have high performance kit but is it all at full capacity or is it barely breaking a sweat.

I posted this idea after a chat with Oldie at the LAN regarding how many servers we could run.

The response was "How many do you want?" Hence my suggestion above

Quote from: Sparko;283370Flight Sim X (not sure on online popularity)

believe or not its very popular, online.........
 
but i think there is only  5 or 6 ppl in this community that have a copy. i could be wrong, but its the usual suspects that reply to any fs releted threads.
 
now il2 is another thing, lots of ppl at the lan seemed to have this game and although crap in sp mode this game is awesome on mp mode

Quote from: sulky_uk;283390now il2 is another thing, lots of ppl at the lan seemed to have this game and although crap in sp mode this game is awesome on mp mode

i have il-2 :D

Quote from: sulky_uk;283390believe or not its very popular, online.........
 
but i think there is only  5 or 6 ppl in this community that have a copy. i could be wrong, but its the usual suspects that reply to any fs releted threads.
 
now il2 is another thing, lots of ppl at the lan seemed to have this game and although crap in sp mode this game is awesome on mp mode

FSX actually sounds like quite a nice fit.

i would love to play fsx online with sensable players

IL2 and FSX are 3 year old game. not what I call the cutting edge.
 
 
 
Remember the idea of new game servers are to bring new blood as some of our games are  getting on a bit. There must be something new.

I was thinking more about the possible cross-over demographics rather than the incredible age of the game.

Cross over is great from wow. but any over cross over just moves the same pool of players around our servers.

Unless it is people who do not currently play here.

IL2 or FSX might just have the abilty of getting new blood, only because ppl here dont have it. Quite a few ppl i know from my last clan loved flight sim and played cs:s, but as this is only a discussion.......

Not a game I play myself, but is 'Age of Conan' a popular online game that has a tactical / dMw element? (Just a suggestion :))

dont forget about l4d2 coming out in November.

So is this the name a game thread?

I quite like Barbarian on the Amiga. Can we set up a mame server? Surely the point here is to come up with suggestions that we have a basic base for that we can pull people in. Or pull a new game that is popular elsewhere and see what we can do.

Not just list some maybes..

Quote from: Sparko;283406i have il-2 :D

I have never played it myself, but isn't it the game that just never dies? It seems it is getting reworked and what not all the time :g:I wonder how much of an actual gaming following this has, but it does have one, it could possibly be an idea for a server? I checked it out a bit (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IL-2_Sturmovik_%28computer_game%29) and noticed this:

QuoteThe game was developed by 1C: Maddox Games (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1C_Company) and published by 1C in Russia and Ubisoft (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ubisoft) in the rest of the world, for PCs (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_PC_compatible) on November 18 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/November_18), 2001 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2001). The game has been updated frequently, the latest edition that includes all sequels and patches is version 4.08m.
 IL-2 Sturmovik and the sequels Forgotten Battles (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IL-2_Sturmovik_Forgotten_Battles), Forgotten Battles Ace Expansion Pack (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IL-2_Sturmovik_Forgotten_Battles#Ace_Expansion_Pack), Pacific Fighters (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pacific_Fighters), Pe-2 (http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Pe-2_%28game%29&action=edit&redlink=1) add-on, Manchuria (http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Manchuria_%28game%29&action=edit&redlink=1) and 1946 (http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=1946_%28game%29&action=edit&redlink=1) now contain 347 aircraft, with 256 being flyable. The aircraft covers most major aircraft deployed during World War II as well as some which did not leave the prototype stage.
 The game includes a very stable multi-player feature which supports up to 100 players online over the free internet matching service Hyperlobby (http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Hyperlobby&action=edit&redlink=1). The All-Seeing Eye (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_All-Seeing_Eye) also allows members to host multiplayer games. As of April 2009 the game still attracts over 1,500 online players at peak times.

It is not a game that would go away right away for sure... even though 1,500 ain't much...

i do think FSX is a good idea though, people here may not like it so much or think that it isnt their kind of game but isnt that what we are looking for? some new blood? i think it will bring quite a few new members. not only that the kind of people that play FSX arnt exactly immature and would fit in to the dmw ethos for sure? :)

we could have a "dMw Flying" part of the community :)

I quite fancy a bash at being Biggles.  How would it work as a multi-player game?

not quite sure tbh, sulky is the best person to ask......Sulky? :g:

I think we just choose a place to have a hub (airfield) and we just go from there

http://www.microsoft.com/games/flightsimulatorx/flash/default_sharedSkies.htm

We could have

The dMw Broken Helmets Stunt Display Team or The Deadmen International Airport


Sounds like a laugh :)

Ok i would love to see an FSX server, but this game has very limited team play in it. Yes you can set up a server and play with loads of ppl online, yes you can log onto vatsim and have some guy sitting at his computer doing the ATC for you. Yes you can fly as part of an airline doing trans atlantic routes, but how many ppl are willing to spend the time in front of the computer to do it? The round the world thing i was doing was taking up to 3 hours at a time, i could have just taking a few days off work and done some 8 hr pond hops and dada.. complete, but i wanted it to be fun, i would like to do the round the world thing with other ppl flying as well. A guy in america did it and with the same rules as me where his community decided his next destination but he had to always fly n,w,or s never e, it took him a year, with 2-3 flights a week, but he did it multiplayer and he had fun. So that could be good
 
 
Now IL2 is another thing altogether, you set up co-op missions people pick a side and then you play, you are already arranged into flights. The idea is to get to, or protect a target(sound familiar) and beleive it or not when the inevitable dogfight begins, the teammwork and voice comms between team members is awesome. Highly recommended
 
vatsim
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ai6A7b5XVgQ&feature=related
 
fs multiplayer
 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fTJlQnIMy1M
 
il2 mutiplayer dogfight
 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iY_NAZatxDg&feature=fvw

Quote from: smilodon;283974The dMw Broken Helmets Stunt Display Team

i like the sound of that!, would be great if we got a display team sorted or somthing :D

downloading the fsx server stuff so i can host a game, just when does anyone want to give it a try... and can we use a ts channel if we do?

TS is available of course, feel free to use the dMw TS server.  I've even set up a channel for you.

TL.

Maybe there should be another thread started for this game (if there hasnt already) And a download link :)

Quote from: GhostMjr;283364Can anyone think of other suggestions for games to spread the dMw name?

I have made a thread for that here (http://www.deadmen.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?t=28228)