Are all epoch servers suffering right now?

[Hooch]

We went into the top 12 servers not long ago, opened a 2nd server and that seems to have contributed to our decline.

 

I am considering just dropping 1 server and attempting to keep the other server going and populating with the players from the other server.

[vbawol]

We have never gotten allot of publicity, I see every day that players are still just finding out about DayZ Epoch. Some even find the mod only after playing DayZ SA.

 

Some other mods have had much more PR than we have, how many PC Gamer articles did dayz origins get and how many did we get?

[MGT]

We went into the top 12 servers not long ago, opened a 2nd server and that seems to have contributed to our decline.

 

I am considering just dropping 1 server and attempting to keep the other server going and populating with the players from the other server.

 

Sure fire way to kill a community - Divide it, we get asked daily to open a 2nd Chernarus server but we've seen what it does.

[MassAsster]

We have never gotten allot of publicity, I see every day that players are still just finding out about DayZ Epoch. Some even find the mod only after playing DayZ SA.

 

Some other mods have had much more PR than we have, how many PC Gamer articles did dayz origins get and how many did we get?

 

Very true,  it's a very underground mod. It's really a shame because it's a damn fun mod to play. Personally, I only have a running server because I like to screw with things and see what I can push/break, but I honestly only play with friends- We don't host it to play with other people, that being said If anyone want's to join they are more than welcome (and we did pick up a few regulars), but it's here for me and my buddies to play together.

[Flosstradamus]

We have never gotten allot of publicity, I see every day that players are still just finding out about DayZ Epoch. Some even find the mod only after playing DayZ SA.

 

Some other mods have had much more PR than we have, how many PC Gamer articles did dayz origins get and how many did we get?

[cen]

Sure fire way to kill a community - Divide it, we get asked daily to open a 2nd Chernarus server but we've seen what it does.

[Hooch]

Yeah seems that way Cen, I have asked our community what they want to see done and a few have suggested a different map on 1 server. Panthera maybe....

[DrScandalous]

Yeah seems that way Cen, I have asked our community what they want to see done and a few have suggested a different map on 1 server. Panthera maybe....

 

Back up the old server on a hard drive, start fresh. Worst that'll happen is that you end up reverting back to the old one. Sounds like a win/win! (A server I played on did that with Cherno and had great success when starting fresh with Panthera)

[Razorman]

We go for mods a plenty & edits to buildings etc, numbers steadily increasing again since standalone came out, regular players everyday all good.

[Sofabear]

Huge hit lately in players. Any suggestions on keeping the player base up?

Well our server has been up and down for a long time. But what i've done is basically appeal to one type of Epoch player, which is the builder. We have a no pvp server with some A.I on fixed areas + mission spawning from time to time.

In my experience to keep your server busy all you have to do is.

-Nice and active admins (help when needed)

-Good community (People tend to come back because the community is nice to interact with)

-Some action (A.I bases, Admin hosted Events etc)

-Not give anything to new players (let them loot)

-Good trader prices + items.

 

With this formula our server's been up for 5 months now. 20+ steady players everyday, sometimes lower.

[maxpayne25]

Well our server has been up and down for a long time. But what i've done is basically appeal to one type of Epoch player, which is the builder. We have a no pvp server with some A.I on fixed areas + mission spawning from time to time.

In my experience to keep your server busy all you have to do is.

-Nice and active admins (help when needed)

-Good community (People tend to come back because the community is nice to interact with)

-Some action (A.I bases, Admin hosted Events etc)

-Not give anything to new players (let them loot)

-Good trader prices + items.

 

With this formula our server's been up for 5 months now. 20+ steady players everyday, sometimes lower.

[Mercules]

Part of the issue is that Epoch has a very bad reputation among the community. Things people hate about Epoch:

1. Safe Zones - They think EVERY server has safe zones and a lot do, some that don't are strictly PVE and that turns them away immediately. You see, I and my friend are not big into PVP, but we see where it's place belongs in DayZ. Removing that means all interactions with other humans boil down to, "Hi... how are  you?" "Oh good and you?" instead of wondering how things might go, if this person is going to shoot or talk. 

2. Money - They think you can buy anything you want. On many servers this is true because the owners and admins simply restock everything. So instead of searching for NVGs I can just kill cows and sheep, cook the meat, and sell it till I have the cash to buy NVGs. Then you have the servers where even things you normally can only loot like padlocks are on traders so you really don't have to look around. 

3. Base Building - They look at everything being perfectly safe, not realizing you can break down bases. Safes themselves make them right but the drop in safe size helps a bit. Basically they don't like that you could be killed and regeared in 10-15 minutes with your spares of the best gear in the game. This wouldn't be as big an issue except a LOT of servers make it very easy to gather things and money so we can all have really nice things and a lot of them.

Basically, the "No PVP/starter bases for donations/Safe Traders/tons of vehicles/AI Missions" servers have turned them away from a great mod that is difficult and fun. Because you all have made it so much less difficult. It ends up being fun for a couple weeks and then gets boring. 

[Tobias Solem]

Well, safezones never was a part of our plan, nor buying your way to the game.

We use tougher loot tables, and while there are ways to making cash, all the lucrative items are rare or very expensive.

 

The problem is that it's hard to stick out when there are so many thousands of servers, we don't use the shit hosts like ViLayer/Dayz.st, etc. - we have our own server cluster.

Comparing a dedicated octacore running Epoch on a ram drive with 95% of the servers out there is just not remotely possible. 

 

But again, it's hard for people to know. They play Epoch on one shitty dayz.st-server and then get turned off from the mod for that reason too. :/

[peipo118]

First : the hosts are not saying anything about the quality of the server. They might jot be as fast as your fancy pancy "server cluster", but people will be just as happy there as anywhere else. I myself run a full dayz.st server that i can afford, i know about some performance problems, but i most certainly know a lot more about scripting and server management, and player interaction than many, many others out there. If your server is good, it is because of good admining, good ideas and a lot of effort you have put in it, not because you run an octacore processor.

So the actual challenge is to stick out, not with performance but with new ideas and a gameplay feeling that is better than on other servers. As a conclusion to this long post : players come and go, some seek PVP and easy money/vehicle war fun servers ; others seek the hardcore experience. Do one thing or the other, but do it well and you will have players . It is as easy as that, no need for ads, no need for donator shit, no need for youtubers promoting it (allthough that might give it a push).

Cheers and have fun with Epoch!

[MGT]

Part of the issue is that Epoch has a very bad reputation among the community. Things people hate about Epoch:

1. Safe Zones - They think EVERY server has safe zones and a lot do, some that don't are strictly PVE and that turns them away immediately. You see, I and my friend are not big into PVP, but we see where it's place belongs in DayZ. Removing that means all interactions with other humans boil down to, "Hi... how are  you?" "Oh good and you?" instead of wondering how things might go, if this person is going to shoot or talk. 

2. Money - They think you can buy anything you want. On many servers this is true because the owners and admins simply restock everything. So instead of searching for NVGs I can just kill cows and sheep, cook the meat, and sell it till I have the cash to buy NVGs. Then you have the servers where even things you normally can only loot like padlocks are on traders so you really don't have to look around. 

3. Base Building - They look at everything being perfectly safe, not realizing you can break down bases. Safes themselves make them right but the drop in safe size helps a bit. Basically they don't like that you could be killed and regeared in 10-15 minutes with your spares of the best gear in the game. This wouldn't be as big an issue except a LOT of servers make it very easy to gather things and money so we can all have really nice things and a lot of them.

Basically, the "No PVP/starter bases for donations/Safe Traders/tons of vehicles/AI Missions" servers have turned them away from a great mod that is difficult and fun. Because you all have made it so much less difficult. It ends up being fun for a couple weeks and then gets boring. 

 

Couple of things, the majority of player prefer PvP, this is after all a shooter game based on a mil sim. We have loot easiliy attainable and god mode to players at traders.

We've a player base with many players that have been with us since day 1 as we run the mod with balance, ie prices reflect the vehicle/weapon.

 

Want a popular server, ask the players what they want instead of your belief of what you think they want.

 

We've never given any gun or map on starting loadouts

We've never given away gold/bases/anything to entice new players

 

tl;dr, ask the players what they want and let them play the game instead of playing some of it for them with loadouts/free bases etc.

[Geryon]

There are various factors that contribute to lower populations.  These are from our antidotal experiences.  First off we are hosting our epoch servers on a dedicated box with staff experienced in IT or with a software development back.  Most of us are doing this mainly because it's fun fiddling with servers and hosting.

 

Now reasons why we lost population:

 

Things in our control:

 

·         Domes protecting bases with no decay.  This attracted a lot of builders when the server started.  We were never a high population server but we attracted a lot of PVE type players.  However players eventually got bored and lost interest.  The fact that there was no real possibility of loss took away long term game play

·         The dedicated box has enough juice for multiple servers.  We created other servers too early.  This fractured the server community.

·         The server was sending mix messages.  We were builder friendly but there were several groups that were real pros at squad based PVP.  The activity of these players drove out the builders.  This is our fault and not the players for introducing mix messages.

 

Things out of our control:

 

·         There are too many servers.  There are many reasons that go beyond this topic

·         Not enough players.  Many have moved to Dayz SA and other alpha games.  Dayz in arma2 might have reached its epoch.

·         Other server providers do a better job on content, see things in our control.  It doesn’t matter if you have an uber box to host.  You need unique content, you need historical player base and once that momentum rolls it’s hard to stop.  It’s amazing how much players will tolerate with a server running under 5 server fps simply to play with 40+ players.

 

Sorry long 2 cent opinion.

[Sofabear]

Do I see AK47 as a startweapon in your server description? :D

We have no starter weapon. :P

[Sofabear]

Part of the issue is that Epoch has a very bad reputation among the community. Things people hate about Epoch:

1. Safe Zones - They think EVERY server has safe zones and a lot do, some that don't are strictly PVE and that turns them away immediately. You see, I and my friend are not big into PVP, but we see where it's place belongs in DayZ. Removing that means all interactions with other humans boil down to, "Hi... how are  you?" "Oh good and you?" instead of wondering how things might go, if this person is going to shoot or talk. 

2. Money - They think you can buy anything you want. On many servers this is true because the owners and admins simply restock everything. So instead of searching for NVGs I can just kill cows and sheep, cook the meat, and sell it till I have the cash to buy NVGs. Then you have the servers where even things you normally can only loot like padlocks are on traders so you really don't have to look around. 

3. Base Building - They look at everything being perfectly safe, not realizing you can break down bases. Safes themselves make them right but the drop in safe size helps a bit. Basically they don't like that you could be killed and regeared in 10-15 minutes with your spares of the best gear in the game. This wouldn't be as big an issue except a LOT of servers make it very easy to gather things and money so we can all have really nice things and a lot of them.

Basically, the "No PVP/starter bases for donations/Safe Traders/tons of vehicles/AI Missions" servers have turned them away from a great mod that is difficult and fun. Because you all have made it so much less difficult. It ends up being fun for a couple weeks and then gets boring. 

1 = About the safe zones i can agree with. Ofc i run a no pvp server, so i don't need safezones, but if i would have had a pvp server i wouldn't put it in. PVP means PVP everywhere. Also i can agree with in the long term human interaction becomes a bit boring in a no pvp enviroment, but i've experienced that as long as you as an admin keep the players busy by events etc, they really don't mind the no pvp and look forward for events.

 

2 = I agree here also, in my server the economy is really off balance ;P, but i haven't added anything to traders, as i feel people have to look for stuff also.

 

But i wouldn't say No PVP servers turn people away. In my experience, i've played on a lot of epoch servers, both pvp and no pvp, and most of them are shit because of rude admins\players, don't get me wrong, i don't mind smack talk at all, but on some servers, the admins would rather support the guys in their "community" then new players, turning them away. But of course DayZ SA and other games are also reasons epoch servers are experiencing downtimes atm. Arma 2 dayz mods are soon dead anyways, just wait for SA to improve and Epoch for Arma 3(or whatever engine they go with). Just my thoughts.

I run my server because i just like to fiddle with server stuff eventhough i have little experience with that, but hey i learn everyday.