Declined DUSTBOWL+ | US respawn times

[illimunati]

We had this suggestion before and I thought it was resolved. The respawn times were changed to instant but after reasonable discussion and hearing out from the regulars that play on the server, it was changed back to what it was.
But for some reason the spawn are changed to instant again. The server is broken again, the spawn times made the server less competitive and lazy. It's just not fun.
Unfortunately, I did not renew my donations this time because of the spawn times, will probably not renew it until the server is back to normal. I know there are alot of people who play on this server feels the same.
Please revert back the spawn times to normal, 20 secs for red and 8 secs for blue, let's keep it this way.
This server were always full with regulars but not anymore. The server barely maintains 32 people at prime time.
It will be sad to see this server downhill and all the regulars stop playing. Even if the spawn times changed back to normal in the future, the community will be broken......
Let the people enjoy the server, socialize and destress. Don't let this server community die.
illuminati

 

[Jermaphobe]

Correlation does not mean causation. There can be any number of reasons one server is more popular than another, so chalking it up to respawn times is lazy thinking. Just because it was sunny outside when the server was more full doesn't mean the weather controls server popularity too. Besides, the server was still full for much of the day when times were reverted to default briefly a few weeks ago. I agree having a popular server is a good thing, but the best way to tell what people think of a change is to actually ask the community. This thread may be biased because people who disagree with a change are likelier to post than those who agree, but something like a poll would be a start.

Assuming you are using the team scores at the top of the leaderboard for win rates, they do not accurately show which side wins more often because when the teams switch, so do their scores. I explained that in a different thread but that was ignored.

Ah yes, you know more about Bottiger's own servers than Bottiger does himself, got it.

 

[Major Vezon Dash]

It just requires some more teamwork now to push out at the same time and activate more ubers at the same time. It is just that the players on dustbowl aren't used to this because they are used to killing someone and not having to worry about them for 20 whole seconds.

Imagine teamwork taking place in a 32 person Dustbowl server. You can barely get players to stand on the point, much less push as a cohesive group. Faster respawns will not promote teamwork.

If you want a server to be full 24/7, just close the Dustbowl server and make it your 10th 32 person 2Fort randomizer horsecock server. I am sorry that Skial is too broke to keep the lights on to have to resort to ruining perfectly good game modes.

 

[Beardo]

If you think the server barely maintains 32 people at prime time you are biased. There are more players than ever on the server and it is filling up early in the day and emptying out later at night.

The simple fact is that the vast majority of players dislike 20 second respawns and it is shown by the fact that fragmasters with fast respawns is filled 20 hours a day while ours was filled for 10 hours a day and dropping. Our server was empty at 6 pm EST on old respawn times and that is simply unacceptable. The signs that our last dustbowl server was dying was completely obvious.

This change is making the server more popular again. Unfortunately everyone has their own preferences so it may not seem better to you. Win rates are not that much imbalanced. It is still around 54%/46%.



It just requires some more teamwork now to push out at the same time and activate more ubers at the same time. It is just that the players on dustbowl aren't used to this because they are used to killing someone and not having to worry about them for 20 whole seconds.



It is not instant.

If you recently donated and want a refund, please pm me. This is likely not going to be reverted. This is a change to make the dustbowl server last the next 10 years.

The server is far less active at prime time now. I'm on the actual server every single day, hours a day. I do know more about the population of the server than most. The server used to take upwards of 30minutes for somebody to join. Now, maybe 5minutes. Numbers stay around 14-15vs 14-15 anymore at night as well. If anything these new spawn times are killing the server.

Also do you have no love or desire to please those who donate to Skial? Are there happiness not something you care about? The server was only dropping off during the time period you mentioned because it was literally during the holidays. People have familys. I dont think this change has done anything positive for the server.

The hidden bots with ping have helped a lot though, they make the server come alive earlier in the day, and keep it active more at night. You didn't forget about these did you?

 

[Bottiger]

Correlation does not mean causation. There can be any number of reasons one server is more popular than another, so chalking it up to respawn times is lazy thinking. Just because it was sunny outside when the server was more full doesn't mean the weather controls server popularity too. Besides, the server was still full for much of the day when times were reverted to default briefly a few weeks ago. I agree having a popular server is a good thing, but the best way to tell what people think of a change is to actually ask the community. This thread may be biased because people who disagree with a change are likelier to post than those who agree, but something like a poll would be a start.

We already exhausted every other possibility. We used to have the 3 top dustbowl servers in the world and they all died. There's no other reason for their dustbowl server to be more popular than ours except for the respawn settings. The only other major difference is that they offer pay2win perks.

There is no need for a poll because I can already see through the statistics that this is a positive change.

Assuming you are using the team scores at the top of the leaderboard for win rates, they do not accurately show which side wins more often because when the teams switch, so do their scores. I explained that in a different thread but that was ignored.

Because that assumption would be wrong. I used that as an example before and realized later that it swapped when the round was lost, but we record the real red/blue win rates into a database.

 

[Major Vezon Dash]

Instead of just saying "the stats show that X, Y, and Z"... can you like... show the stats?

I think in general though, Dustbowl as a whole isn't as popular as it once was. Skial basically has the one singular "regular" Dustbowl server with 32 players in the US. Some of us have been looking for other servers to play on since the spawn changes, and they just don't exist.

 

[Bottiger]

Instead of just saying "the stats show that X, Y, and Z"... can you like... show the stats?

I'm not sure why I have to prove the obvious. You can already see with your own eyes that server is filling better.

Also I am sure how else I'm supposed to "show the stats" from a database. I already told you win rates were around 54/46.

You won't believe me until I make a screenshot of it?

I think in general though, Dustbowl as a whole isn't as popular as it once was. Skial basically has the one singular "regular" Dustbowl server with 32 players in the US. Some of us have been looking for other servers to play on since the spawn changes, and they just don't exist.

They don't exist because they aren't popular.

 

[Major Vezon Dash]

They don't exist because they aren't popular.

Then make it another 2fort or Turbine server if popularity is the concern.

 

[potato2222]

I'm not sure why I have to prove the obvious. You can already see with your own eyes that server is filling better.

Also I am sure how else I'm supposed to "show the stats" from a database. I already told you win rates were around 54/46.

You won't believe me until I make a screenshot of it?

They don't exist because they aren't popular.

All I see is a spike at the end of this month. It doesn't seem to fluctuate much from the previous few times it was changed, meaning the recent increase could be from a variety of factors. That's why I suggested a poll. The alternative is to have two servers with the two settings, but of course that would require excessive resources.

The previous existence of multiple servers and their decline is much likelier the result of declining popularity of an aging game and the creation of casual and competitive servers which diverted many players away from community servers over time. When you say you've exhausted every possibility - just because a reason hasn't been thought of doesn't mean it doesn't exist. One other reason their server might be more popular is they had bots join to ensure there were always at least 24 players. This was when I used to play there occasionally, so I'm not sure if it's still the case.

I appreciate you providing validated stats. Do you have the win rate for each stage specifically? Assuming 0.54 is averaged over all three, I and others here would prefer it to be balanced so that the first two stages are a bit favoured for Blu so that third stage doesn't become rare to play. With current settings, third stage gets played only about 1/8 of the time, which is made worse by the fact that these settings prolong the durations of the first two.

 

[Lord_Dio]

+1 at minimum (how i feel if we do have to make a change) stage 1 red 14 stage 2 16 and then stage 3 18 but i would prefer the original server that i donated too. After my donor status is up i probably wont renew because i donated while the server was a certain way.

 

[Beardo]

If these changes need to stay in place, I think the suggestion to up Blus spawn timer to 6 seconds and +2 second to each red spawn time is fair. Its faster, but makes the server feel over all more fun and causal. Instead of just mindless nonsense on the Blu team, which is what it currently is right now.

 

[GOOFii]

I think it's gonna be more detrimental towards the servers health by keeping the respawn times this quick, but only time will tell with that. I would agree with Beardo in that, if you feel that the respawn times need to be changed, a better balance in respawn times would more beneficial. I think their is still a large part of the community that does like vanilla/longer respawn times and to emphasize that point, I would point out skials payload server which is a very popular server. And these changes will likely just push away that community.

 

[Maddo]

I'm not sure why I have to prove the obvious. You can already see with your own eyes that server is filling better.

Also I am sure how else I'm supposed to "show the stats" from a database. I already told you win rates were around 54/46.

You won't believe me until I make a screenshot of it?

They don't exist because they aren't popular.

To be fair, it looks like a good few of the servers are having a bit of an upturn at the end of Jan, this one does seem to be the most pronounced though.

 

[Beardo]

To be fair, it looks like a good few of the servers are having a bit of an upturn at the end of Jan, this one does seem to be the most pronounced though.

Recently bots were added with ping. I believe that is the only reason servers gained more attention. I think this change to the spawn times to Dustbowl have only made the server less active and not to mention only making a ton of regular donates upset. I'm not sure why he can't see that.