Luring players

[GhostTown]

So what have you found as the best way to get players to join your server?

Word of mouth? The way you name your server? or the places you post info about it?

[Axle]

Good admin that ban asshats. Promoting a non KoS attitude, but still being able to pvp freely in military/trader cities.. Respectful PVP'rs.

 

If a server can't enforce these things I will not play on it. It's that simple.

[Mercules]

That sounds about right. I don't want an environment where there are no threats but at the same time I would like to be able to interact with the neighbors once in a while. One of the servers I play on I was killed going to a very high loot area. Guy who shot me looted quick then found out where I spawned on the coast and dropped me off near my body when he was done. I was complimenting him since I had the eerie feeling someone was around but couldn't spot him and he was patient enough to wait and snipe me when I hit the open. He wasn't actually camping it either, he was on the way there when he heard my Mozzie but because of size and quietness of the thing he couldn't pinpoint my landing. Well, I also tend to land in cover and circle. So he had to wait until I went for it. It was a nice clean kill, broke my leg on the run and then I THOUGHT I was in cover as I thought I had his angle but apparently just enough stuck out he got me. 

[Axle]

But as far as getting a constant player base, mostly word of mouth and great service when a person does show up. Be helpful but not intrusive.

[AngelEyes_666]

Start a website. Create a playerbase. Advertise in forums. Create a stable server that appeals to the mainstream of Epoch but also has something new or different that seperates it from all the other servers. Get good admins. Have fun.

[Eegore]

  I find that lying about the server features in the server name helps draw people in.

 

  Then deny the lies and blame the Epoch Devs while promising a fix on the next reset.

 

  Give out lots of free guns and gold each reset to distract people. 

 

  When you notice a decline in players just change the server name and add new imaginary features, like "Jet Packs" or "Copper Re-added"

[insertcoins]

Just open up the server and never do anything with it, ever.

[GhostTown]

Haha xD

I get some players join but I notice alot of people join and disconnect like a sec or say later in the logs.

 

Im guessing its just version mismatch or something.

[Wesley]

Try to have some regular players playing, help them figure things out, be consistent.

Offer some thing original.

[MGT]

Be unique and don't overdo the scripts and whatever you do, don't offer players free gold/guns or spawn them with a map or deployable bike from their toolbox - Players want to play the game, they don't want you to play half of it for them.

[Radiix]

Be unique and don't overdo the scripts and whatever you do, don't offer players free gold/guns or spawn them with a map or deployable bike from their toolbox - Players want to play the game, they don't want you to play half of it for them.

wise words.

 

make them "play" DayZ. Make it hard, make it a survival game.

[Mercules]

wise words.

 

make them "play" DayZ. Make it hard, make it a survival game.

 

Yep... I tend to stick around when there is some challenge to a place without it being overwhelming. 

Recently I played on a server where they added in AI and then tweaked them. I had a tiny little base built in what was a castle tower that you normally couldn't access because the entrance was well off the ground. However I had sold enough vehicles/guns over a week to buy a Little Bird and then used that to land on top. From there I put up a door in a Cinder Wall. Eventually I built a walkway and ladder to get into and out of it at ground level. I had a Shed and Safe inside and had built up various levels with wooden floors. 

At first the AI wasn't horrible but then something happened. Inside my base occasionally AI would agro on my while they passed my tower. How they ever saw me I will never know. The Zombies that spawned around the tower didn't agro as I was high enough up they didn't really notice me. AI, however, would notice me and start shooting through the arrow slits. I think they would just spray the arrow slits and the ricochets would bounce around until I was hit. Several times I ended up with broken legs or unconscious. I couldn't shoot back either because I could never get them lined up through the slit without being instantly hit even when I was across the room. The final straw was when I had traveled back from the coast yet again, recovered my body, yet again, and had accessed my safe at a weird angle while crouched to avoid getting shot and AI must have spawned in the area. Next thing I know, "You are Dead." Something to the head through a weird angle. I got back to my body, laid on the floor to recover my gear, logged out, and haven't been back since.

I noticed that server ended up with fewer and fewer players on each evening. It was challenging, but got WAY too challenging. Either the AI had weapons that were too powerful or they tweaked the accuracy and agro range up to high, or something but far too many times you would just die even though you were in what should have been cover.

Make it challenging but not killer. Don't hand things to players. If you want to give them a boost don't hand them their favorite gun, instead give them something nice like a Kobra AK that they will probably swap for something else. Don't give them a "Starter Base" kit that is full of Cinder Blocks and Mortar, instead give them some wood walls and something like Bulk Sandbags. Don't put Combinations locks on the vendors but maybe give one out to each person who logs in to your server and sticks around to build a base, just one. 

If, as players, we don't do ANY work for it we grow board. If it because a lesson in how to gear up and get back to your body before server restart anytime we go anywhere on the map we get frustrated. Somewhere in the middle is where people will come and stay.