[UrbanMerc |- Godsend]

some of this may not make sense because i am just copying it from the thread on ntheb old forums.



when me and my partner took control of our server had a similar problem with the players not coming into the server. this was due to the previous owner throwing hissy fits and team slaying and locking the server. the server when i first found it was like WHS USED to be. full all the time, hard as hell to get into. then from the hissy fits and server locks we rarely saw 5 people in there cuz everyone was sick of being abused.


so when we took it over, we immediately started talking about what we could do to make players stay in the server once they got there. i got some very good advise from the originator of the clan name we use. "build the server around the players not the admins". first thing we did was work on the map rotation. we put a bout 7-9 default maps in the rotation and watched which ones stayed full and which ones emptied out on. we ditched the ones people left on. we added statsme and so far people have enjoyed it. and we also got rid of alot of admins who were never around or we didn't know.

we changed the maptime to 25 minutes to keep people from getting bored. we also changed the gravity to 750 so you can jump on boxes. we also changed the server name to reflect where the server is located. this draws more local players looking for a good ping.


then after we did all that me and my partner would enter the server and STAY there until a minnimum of 10 people joined. it worked every single time. within about 30-45 minutes the server was full and stayed that way until late at night. if at anytime the player numbers started dropping we would go back in and stay where until it was full again. we eventually recruited a freind and made him admin and got him to do the same thing in the mornings.it worked every time.



we then moved the server from dallas (its original location) to Seattle and had to start all over. except seattle was alot easier. we already had alot of regs and their pings were better in seattle then dallas so they stayed longer.



right now we still have problems with getting people in there in the morning again. our admin who was doing it before has school now.




now you want some constructive critisism for whs?


1. first of ditch militia. yeah its a fun map but it doesn't draw people and keep them, you need some variety. adding scoutzknives was a good start but even then only 2 maps gets boring really fast.

2. change the name to pdgaming and put the server location in the server name to help attract more local players.

3. be willing to change ANYTHING about the server that helps keep people interested.

4. have a leader who has the time and devotion to sit in the server for over an hour by himself to attract people.

5. stop giving 12 year olds admin. this is one of the main killers of this server. you need to have responsible admins that are willing to work to make this place fun for the players not themselves. they need to be willing to sit in the server by themselves for a good amount of time to attract people also. admins should also be of a fairly high skill level. having admins that aren't very god at the game looks bad. by having admins who are good you encourage more high skil level players to join and then you also get the lower skill level players joining to learn from the high levle players. high skill level admins also make for more accurate bans of cheaters. i can tel you right now HALF the admins here can't spot a real cheater.

6. have a set of specific rules for those admins. there has always been to much confusion as to what admins are allowed to do here.

7. get an irc channel and advertise advertise advertise. you would not beleive how much this helps. there are so many thousands of cs players in irc. we already had an irc channel so i just did a whios on some of them and started idling in some of the biger channels they are in and did serverwide messages advertising the server. some people bitched but i got ALOT of players that way.

8. I know HM isn't gonna like this one but having HM come in and spawn monsters, go invisible, use godmode and all those other little things he does, do not help keep people here. i know its fun for him but its not fun for anyone else.

i don't think having more bandwidth is going to change much. the server lagged a little but it isn't what made people leave.


the lack of leadership and respectable admins i think is the #1 thing that made people leave.you have hooters who in his first week pissed off every one of the admins here enough to slowly stop coming back. you have people like bob and bladderissues who got admin at the same time i did. those people don't inspire confidence in the leadership here from a players point of view. i mean bob was kicking people for saying "damn". bladderissues had obviously only been playing cs for about a month before getting admin. he didn't even know the most basic of commands. and if you look he hasn't been here in months.
of all the admins this server has had I think only a few have actually done well with it.
kitch from what i've seen has always been responsible.
invinc was pretty good.

the key with those 2 is that i don't think i ever saw either of them EVER run a command. to me that is a big thing.



hell thats about the only 2 i can say i have never seen use their admin in an improper way. even hmniq acts iresponsible with his admin. the simple fact that he has commands like fly binded to keys shows he is to iresponsible with his admin.

I can admit when i had admin i probably wasn't the greatest either. I overused csays/tsays. but at the same time i used admin to try to keep people interested enough to stay IE: no scope scouts and knives. the players loved that because it was something different.

the guy who gave me the advise about building the server around the players and not the admins also gave me another good peice of advise that i try to live by.

don't give admin to anyone who asks. if they ask they will be irresponsible with it. we have about 10 admins on our server. most of them were admins when we took it over. everyday i consider wiping the slate clean and starting over because the previous owner gave admin to just about anyone who asked and let me tell you we had some HORRIBLE admins because of it.

i get asked everyday for admin on our server and i deny every single one. 2 things make me consider you for admin.

1. how often i see you in the server

2. your attitude in and out of the server.

if you meet those 2 requirements i WILL notice.


another nice thing about irc is you can see how people act outside of cs. it helps alot in choosing admins and knowing who is mature and who isn't.

my partner has added i think 3 admins since the beginning and i have only added 1. of all the people playing i have only seen 1 person who seemed responsible enough to have admin and not abuse it. so far i have not had one complaint about him, though i don't think he has used his admin at all yet. which in itself is a good thing. 1 of the admins my partner added has already had more then one complaint about him within a 3 day period.

I also go by something you said paul. admins are nothing more then players with the ability to remove cheaters from the game.

we sent out rules to all our admins that state that noone is to use a command unless ABSOLUTELY necessary. no csays, no tsays, no vsays, nothing. to use your power without a good reason is reason for us to take it away.

since we sent out those rules though i don't think i've had a single complaint about an admin doing things they shouldn't.

we don't let them change maps, with a vote or not except on a very rare occasion.


when people come to our server they don't have to ever worry about an admin running a command on them unless they are cheating or excessively annoying. by excessively anoying i mean people like the original *DEAD*. people who do nothing but complain 24/7 and talk crap. most people here probably won't remember him but that guy called every single player who entered the server a cheater and was serious everytime. he would proceed to talk crap afterwards. i think HM eventually banned him if i recall correctly.

[HostMaster]

Thanks Godsend. We will be very strict on what commands admins are allowed to run and when. Master~X is currently creating a list of rules that will be posted on the forums here and kept up to date. Rules for players and rules for admins.

I'll admit things got a bit out of control on the old server, it slowly evolved into that. We are going to do everything we can to ensure we provide a fair playing environment.

[Hostagedown]

Hmm well I can pretty much agree with everything that you said except for a few things. Yes its true that its important to keep people in the server interested in playing on your server but only to some extent. When I come into a server I like to know what to expect (aka we're going to play this level then this level then this one) when admins start scrueing with maps and settings thats when I start to get pissed off. Map votes are alright but for the most part admins need to know the right time when to use there admin and when not to which really just comes from maturity.