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[]HP[]HAWKEYE

Posted 9/12/2009 12:47 PM (#91820)
Subject: Thoughts\ideas on how to revive HP

Extreme Veteran

Posts: 399
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I'm sure this comes as no shock to anyone that all the HP servers have been struggling to get players for quite some time now which is why I wanted to create this thread. What I would like to do is have everyone post their thoughts\ideas on what they would like to change about the HP servers. I would also like to ask everyone that you please not turn this into a thread where we all end up arguing with each other. If we do that nothing is ever gonna get done and the HP servers are only going to continue to die. There is no such thing as a stupid idea. Every idea is welcome and every idea should be looked at in a serious manner.

Thank you.

SeegSter

Posted 9/12/2009 1:16 PM (#91823 - in reply to #91820)
Subject: RE: Thoughts\ideas on how to revive HP

Goomba King

Posts: 504
500

Location: Mn

[]HP[]HAWKEYE - 9/12/2009 11:47 AM

There is no such thing as a stupid idea. Every idea is welcome and every idea should be looked at in a serious manner.

Words of wisdom right there.

We are still on for Tuesday Rotations. Unfortunately I will be out of town on business the next two Tuesdays, but Emily and Pierce should be there. The focus right now is to stay consistent, so players will know what to expect. For those that like the occasional rotation, it will be planned out now, so they know when to come, and players that just like good ole depot can choose to join in, or stay away Tuesday nights.
Not being on a level 3 connection is also being looked into, which should help.

[]HP[]HAWKEYE

Posted 9/12/2009 1:20 PM (#91824 - in reply to #91820)
Subject: Re: Thoughts\ideas on how to revive HP

Extreme Veteran

Posts: 399
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Personally what I would like to change about the HP servers is.

1. Move COD1 Dawnville to COD2 as a 24\7 Ste Mere Eglise server with a 60 min. time limit and a score limit of 1000 and set the max number of players to 32. I know we had a Ste Mere Eglise server before but in all honesty I think Dawnville needs to be updated to a newer game and I think that would be the most logical way to do it.

2. I would love to see us bring back our UO1 rotation server and run an all maps rotation with a time limit of 20 min. and a score limit of 250 and set the max number of players to 24.

3. I would like to change our COD4 24\7 Crossfire server over to an all maps rotation server with a time limit of 20 min. and a score limit of 3500 and set the max number of players to 24.

MetallsturM

Posted 9/12/2009 2:12 PM (#91825 - in reply to #91823)
Subject: RE: Thoughts\ideas on how to revive HP

Veteran

Posts: 172
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Location: London, Ontario, Canada

Not being on a level 3 connection is also being looked into, which should help.

Great to hear it's been looked into. I know this has been making an impact on the amount of players in last month. Many of my HP friends, particularly from my part of the continent - MN, WI, IL, MI, OH, NY, Ontario and Quebec are always affected when we don't have Level3, and have to rely on 'Global Crossing' and other assorted garbage hops to get to the server. It doesn't just give us a higher ping, it causes too many problems to list here while in game. As a result many regulars have stopped playing, just as they did last time we lost Level3.

[]HP[]HAWKEYE

Posted 9/12/2009 3:35 PM (#91826 - in reply to #91825)
Subject: Re: Thoughts\ideas on how to revive HP

Extreme Veteran

Posts: 399
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One thing about our UO2 Foy server I would like to see changed is the max number of players. I would like to see that number pretty much cut in half to 32 players max. Sometimes having a 64 player server can have a negative effect and actually scare potential players away which I think maybe part of the problem.

Other than that though I wouldn't change anything else on that server.

Naughtyboy - UK

Posted 9/12/2009 8:22 PM (#91827 - in reply to #91826)
Subject: Re: Thoughts\ideas on how to revive HP

Regular

Posts: 61

Location: London, England

Hawkeye, I understand why you made your point about the 64 player limit, but we have had many games on Foy that have consisted of 43 or 44 players. With a maximum limit set to 32, what would we have done on these occasions...lost the additional players over the 32 slot limit to a rival server? I really don't believe players joining will get turned off when they see 8 players on a 64 slot server, they are more likely to be concerned with the fact that there are only 8 players there, not the difference between actual numbers and total capacity!

On injecting new life into the servers at HP. I last week opened a thread on the case for a UO Foy [Without Tanks] server. It has to date received 94 views (ok fine!), but only 2 replies!! I had previously believed this particular suggestion had not been raised before on the forum. But came across a post today by SoulScourge (link below) which had tried to do exactly the same thing (but with a better response from players!). So the idea's have been out there before, but the status quo remained. I support what you are trying to do here, but in my recent experience, too many players will say "great idea", "I would play there if it existed" when talking in-game. BUT! don't think to follow up their thoughts by posting their support on the subject in the forum thread. This needs to change, how do presidents get elected if nobody bothers to vote for who they support? They don't!! Good luck with this one, sorry I've got no additional ideas for your post...I'm tapped out by mine...lol

Naughtyboy

http://www.happy-penguin.com/megabbs/forums/thread-view.asp?tid=740...

Edited by Naughtyboy - UK 9/12/2009 8:24 PM

[]HP[]HAWKEYE

Posted 9/13/2009 11:59 AM (#91830 - in reply to #91827)
Subject: Re: Thoughts\ideas on how to revive HP

Extreme Veteran

Posts: 399
100

I understand your point about not wanting to lose people to rival servers but 64 player slots is to much and it does scare potential players away. I remember back in Dec. 07 when we first moved our servers to the new boxes that was when we set Foy to 64 player slots and I remember playing there around Xmas with 50+ players on the server and people were complaining that it was to chaotic and to laggy. So what ended up happening was people started leaving and I don't blame them.

By leaving it the way it is your only going to end up losing more players than you would if you lowered the player slots to a more reasonable level. Even if we didn't want to lower it to 32 at least lower it to what Foy was originally known for which was 40.

Hawkeye Pierce

Posted 9/13/2009 12:38 PM (#91831 - in reply to #91820)
Subject: Re: Thoughts\ideas on how to revive HP

Drags Cryo into everything ...

2000

Location: Henderson, NV

Hawkeye, I have to disagree. HPC has been 64 player max since day one. In the height of the game's popularity, we were standing room only night after night after night. Having played UO as well as RTCW, I can tell you that the gameplay is substantially faster and more chaotic on RTCW, yet people had to "wait in line" to play to the extent that AFKs were routinely kicked, (not sacrificed to the fire gods) to make room. I do not believe that seeing Foy listed as a 64 player capacity is a deterrant.

[]HP[]HAWKEYE

Posted 9/13/2009 12:40 PM (#91832 - in reply to #91820)
Subject: Re: Thoughts\ideas on how to revive HP

Extreme Veteran

Posts: 399
100

Besides our main competition is LW and hes another one sitting there with an insane number of player slots scaring potential players away which is why I also think that by us lowering our player slots to a more reasonable level we can draw some of those people into our server.

Edited by []HP[]HAWKEYE 9/13/2009 12:44 PM

[]HP[]HAWKEYE

Posted 9/17/2009 12:24 PM (#91919 - in reply to #91831)
Subject: Re: Thoughts\ideas on how to revive HP

Extreme Veteran

Posts: 399
100

Hawkeye Pierce - 9/13/2009 12:38 PM

Hawkeye, I have to disagree. HPC has been 64 player max since day one. In the height of the game's popularity, we were standing room only night after night after night. Having played UO as well as RTCW, I can tell you that the gameplay is substantially faster and more chaotic on RTCW, yet people had to "wait in line" to play to the extent that AFKs were routinely kicked, (not sacrificed to the fire gods) to make room. I do not believe that seeing Foy listed as a 64 player capacity is a deterrant.

You honestly don't see 64 players as a deterrent? All I can tell you is what I witnessed on Foy shortly after we increased it from 40-64 player slots and what I witnessed was people starting to leave due to the fact that there were to many players in the game hence making game play to chaotic and to laggy.

MjrBuzz

Posted 9/22/2009 6:11 AM (#92049 - in reply to #91820)
Subject: RE: Thoughts\ideas on how to revive HP

hyperactive member

Posts: 244
100

Location: Florida

Hello all,

I have been away from HP for some time now due to a combination of a few reasons. Although I never post, I have kept up with news from the forums. I miss everyone and look forward to a time when I can frequent our servers once again.

I have been with HP for over 5 years and have seen a multitude of changes from our community. My thoughts around server attendance are very opinionated and may step on a few toes. Server attendance will not be fixed by making gimmicky moves such as removing tanks or changing player limits. What we need to do is root cause why attendance has fell. There are 3 pinnacle changes that, in my eyes, have resulted in the demise of our beloved community.

1. New Servers: The new servers were installed Nov 07. These servers offered promises of meeting expansion needs and fixing an impending hw failure and was successful in that sense. The problem is when we upgraded, we also moved the servers from Texas to Toronto. Although this move helped pings for our friends across the oceans, it substantially increased pings for players in the US. While HP players globally were always dedicated enough to play through any ping, lets face it most visitors were from the US. When casually searching for a game, people sort by ping, and thus HP fell lower on their list. We received a lower influx of casual visitors and thus slowed the application pool. We have also changed IP addresses over 4 times since this change. We always lose players after every switch.

2. COD4: As much as I enjoyed the game it had one un-noticed flaw. It would not allow our official member tags or name colors. We never successfully addressed this problem or presented any consistent solution. HP members were not consistently represented by tags and it removed an element of our representation. COD4 also removed the option to have colors in your name which rendered our red tag/gold tag status useless. I understand we do not believe in hierarchy, the red/gold tags served their purpose. Red taggers would play a server consistently to increase their name recognition and hope one day to get their golds. Lets face it, it drove member attendance.

3. External Games: Our community has dabbled in games that HP is not a part of for many years now. I have watched us over the years shift focus towards CS, QW ET, L4D, & TF2. The only difference is where we eventually moved back to our HP servers. Over the last year we have spent more time on these games and less on our own. Our servers will not survive without us playing on them. Membership is not created from low pings and tanks or flaks or maps... Membership is driven from the community and its representation as a group of great individuals.

Which leads me to my final point. Our games are getting old. Many of us have become bored with them. I will be the first to admit it. This is the reason why I enjoyed L4D for months, this is the reason I have picked up some games that is not multiplayer. RTCW has a strong following based on its leading server status for the last decade. COD, CODUO, COD4 servers have lost too many players/members and has no recognition. The players who still play these old games now have their favorites and it appears HP lost the battle.

I don't know what I can recommend to save our servers. The damage is done and I am glad someone decided to mention the communities current state. I took a few minutes to make a graph of our Membership application status page. As you can see below if we continue our current state, we have a dismal future ahead. Everyone needs to shed off naivety, understand where we are headed, and each take personal action to change. I know I am not the poster-boy for member presence, but these are points needed to be made.

Unless changes are made, our only hope is for strong representation in MW2. Even then, unless we make changes, it will share the same fate.

Buzz

(Player Page Activity.jpg)

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PissedWookie

Posted 9/22/2009 9:22 AM (#92050 - in reply to #91820)
Subject: Re: Thoughts\ideas on how to revive HP

Pwnt by a Hobbit

1000

Location: Upstate SC

Couldnt have said it better buzz. I noticed when I returned from my WoW stint that the HP community I had returned to wasnt near the same as when I left. Our community is more fragmented than ever. The guys that are around are in different servers, joined clans, changed games, etc...

The no color deal really peeved me, the reason for killing color all together is totally ghey. They killed color because people were setting their name colors to look like a teammate when theyre actually an enemy. Instead of fixing the 2 colors they killed them all together. It wasnt so much the red/gold tag but the creativity in name coloring that I love to see in CoD1. Even better would be to have our 'ears' from RTCW.

But youre right we have to focus toward the future thats why im happy to see another go at CoD 5. Sure theyve spurned the hell out of the gaming, modding, and mapping community. But even as stock I think its a very enjoyable game and could hold its on out there for a while, its no RTCW but I just dont see a lot more they can do with it everything you need is there.

And youre right if we dont play on our servers what kind of message does that send? People are bitching because the servers are empty but they themselves are going somewhere else to play. I think were going in the right direction with the Game Nights. In the past weve had enough players on a server to build its on player base without us needing to baby it. Were not even close to what we were 3 years ago and its going to take a TEAM effort if were going to claw our servers back to the top.

So:
1. Bad call.
2. Screwed by the games and patches, I dont think theres anything we can do about it. I would love to see color back.
3. We had the server space and the idea was it was worth a shot, but we had too many servers going in too many directions for HP to truly represent.

SS Hauptman Meyer

Posted 9/22/2009 10:21 AM (#92054 - in reply to #91820)
Subject: Re: Thoughts\ideas on how to revive HP

Extreme Veteran

Posts: 549
500

Location: Church of Illumination

Well said Buzz. I agree with everything you have said.

[]HP[]HAWKEYE

Posted 9/22/2009 12:09 PM (#92055 - in reply to #92049)
Subject: RE: Thoughts\ideas on how to revive HP

Extreme Veteran

Posts: 399
100

First of all I would like to thank you guys for not letting this thread die. Second I completely agree that simply changing player limits is not going to have a huge impact. It's a small step at best.

As you said most of our games are getting old which is why I made the point about moving COD1 Dawnville to COD2 as a 24\7 Ste Mere Eglise server. Granted COD2 is also an older game but obviously it's not as old as COD1. The way I see it is it's better to have Dawnville on a 4 year old game than it is to have it on a 6 year old game.

One fatal mistake I think HP made aside from all the IP changes was in shutting down it's rotation servers because a majority of the people who used to play there never really cared much for our 24\7 map servers and we lost some of those people as a result.

In all honesty I think our best chance to make a comeback and have a fresh start is in COD MW2. However in order for us to do that were gonna need to get our servers up and running the day it comes out because if we don't were only going to end up losing players to other servers.

I really don't have anything more to add. Except to say lets learn from our mistakes and move forward.

The punisher

Posted 9/26/2009 3:12 PM (#92164 - in reply to #91820)
Subject: Re: Thoughts\ideas on how to revive HP

Location: Jokers neighborhood looking to kick some ass!!!

One other thing I think HP servers are up against is the Console vs. PC gaming. Face it the consoles have become affordable and their on line play more accessible over the last few years.Half of the Dawny nublets are on Xbox 0r Playstaion . HP to me is more about the people, I will pick up TF just too see if I can hook up and play something with HP regulars. I was really hoping the new wolf would be that game but that failed epically. COD is an old game -- and the new versions are OK at best. My 2 cents. Thanks.

[]HP[]HAWKEYE

Posted 9/26/2009 5:44 PM (#92166 - in reply to #92164)
Subject: Re: Thoughts\ideas on how to revive HP

Extreme Veteran

Posts: 399
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Your absolutely right.

The whole console thing is something I've been talking about on these forums for quite some time now and I truly believe consoles are the main reason HP is struggling. I myself don't even support the PC as a gaming platform anymore and I can't tell you how many people I've come across on my PS3 who have commented on my HP tags and then start talking about how much fun they used to have on our PC servers. So obviously people are moving to consoles. That's a fact.

Hawkeye Pierce

Posted 9/26/2009 6:01 PM (#92167 - in reply to #91820)
Subject: Re: Thoughts\ideas on how to revive HP

Drags Cryo into everything ...

2000

Location: Henderson, NV

Bottom line, in my opinion, is we cannot afford any more changes: IP addresses, data centers, ping providers, server settings. Everything needs to be left alone.

MTL_killer

Posted 9/28/2009 1:43 PM (#92214 - in reply to #92167)
Subject: Re: Thoughts\ideas on how to revive HP

Elite Veteran

Posts: 872
500

Location: Montréal, Canada

one thing that could help HPC also : shorter respawn times !! ... 29 sec for axis and 26 for allies are quite long respawn times .. those times were good for a full server , but now with the smaller crowds , maybe 5 sec (or even up to 10 sec) shorter respaws for each sides could help ... nobody likes to sit and wait when they come to play (you can get like 10 more min of gameplay in 1 evening) ... and at the same time, the matches could last longer because more dynos can get disarmed ..

i know that on another server , that i cant name (cough cough ecgn) , they have 10 sec for allies and 20 sec for axis .. on beach map

L@ser C@ts

Posted 9/28/2009 8:33 PM (#92219 - in reply to #92214)
Subject: Re: Thoughts\ideas on how to revive HP

Extreme Veteran

Posts: 302
100

mtl i think ecgn's spawn time is too quick. i think the spawn time is fine as is. if it were shorter, the enemies i killed could quickly respawn and re-attack. but i do understand the issue with few players on. perhaps there is a setting that when X amount of players are on, the spawn time can be changed to Y.

George W. Hitler

Posted 9/28/2009 9:44 PM (#92220 - in reply to #92219)
Subject: Re: Thoughts\ideas on how to revive HP

Extreme Veteran

Posts: 519
500

Location: Napping in the Axis Elevator

I still like the idea of paying players to play.

Server would be full 64 players 24/7 again.

Yeah... yeah... I know... shut up, George.

[]HP[]HAWKEYE

Posted 9/29/2009 12:16 PM (#92225 - in reply to #92220)
Subject: Re: Thoughts\ideas on how to revive HP

Extreme Veteran

Posts: 399
100

George W. Hitler - 9/28/2009 9:44 PM

I still like the idea of paying players to play.

Server would be full 64 players 24/7 again.

Yeah... yeah... I know... shut up, George.

Shut up George.

I suppose that would be one way though. lol.

nOOb-lOOps

Posted 10/2/2009 2:01 AM (#92322 - in reply to #91820)
Subject: RE: Thoughts\ideas on how to revive HP

Regular

Posts: 57

Location: Isla Noobular

Easy, just send out recruitment emails:

Request for urgent business relationship

First, I must solicit your strictest confidence in this transaction. This is by virtue of its nature as being utterly confidential and 'top secret'. I am sure and have confidence of your ability and reliability to prosecute a transaction of this great magnitude involving a pending transaction requiring maximum confidence.

I am an intellligence official in northern Nigeria who is interested in recruitment of agents for retrieving funds which are presently trapped in Nigeria. In order to commence this business we solicit your assistance to enable us to transfer into your account the said trapped funds.

The source of this fund is as follows; during the last military regime here in Nigeria, the government officials set up online fps (first-person-seminars) where they colluded and awarded themselves contracts (which were grossly over-invoiced in various ministries). The present civilian government set up a contract review panel and we have identified a lot of inflated military contract funds which are presently floating in the central bank of Nigeria ready for payment.

However, by virtue of my position as an intelligence official, I cannot acquire this money in my name. I have therefore, been delegated as a matter of trust by my colleagues of the security council to look for an overseas partner, an agent, into whose account transfer the sum of US$21,320,000.00 (twenty one million, three hundred and twenty thousand US dollars). Hence we are writing you this letter. We have agreed to share the money thus; 1. 20% for the account owner 2. 70% for us (the students) 3. 10% to be used in settling taxation and all local and foreign expenses. It is from the 70% that we wish to commence civil business.

Furthermore, we request your aid in continuing the investigation and retrieval of trapped funds. Specifically a location at IP 74.113.70.51:27960. There you must blend in and participate in activites as you monitor the discussions for further government funds. Again, we have agreed to share the money thus; 1. 20% for the account owner 2. 70% for us (the students) 3. 10% to be used in settling taxation and all local and foreign expenses. It is from the 70% that we wish to commence civil business.

Please, note that this transaction is 100% safe and we hope to commence the transfer latest seven (7) banking days from the date of the receipt of the following information by telephone/fax; 234-1-7740449, your signed and stamped letterhead paper. The above information will enable us write letters of claim and job description respectively. This way we will use your name to apply for payment and re-award the contract in your name.

We are looking forward to doing this business with you and solicit your confidentiality in this transaction. Please acknowledge the receipt of this letter using the above telephone/fax numbers. I will send you detailed information of this pending project when I have heard from you.

Yours faithfully,

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Hawkeye Pierce

Posted 10/2/2009 8:39 AM (#92324 - in reply to #91820)
Subject: Re: Thoughts\ideas on how to revive HP

Drags Cryo into everything ...

2000

Location: Henderson, NV

MISSBOT

Posted 10/4/2009 11:24 PM (#92373 - in reply to #92324)
Subject: Re: Thoughts\ideas on how to revive HP

Location: Zombieville

we need to rename ourselves to H499y_93ngu1n we L33T B4d 4ss MF

Edited by MISSBOT 10/4/2009 11:25 PM

Dodgy Bugga

Posted 10/6/2009 5:43 AM (#92387 - in reply to #92373)
Subject: Re: Thoughts\ideas on how to revive HP

Veteran

Posts: 127
100

Location: in a chair that needs a pillow

Free steak knives anyone?

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