Multiplayer lacks players

[Grubbegrabben]

Hi,
I think this game is superb. I especially like the multiplayer part. However - where are all the players? It takes *forever* to fill up a game. I'm playing from Sweden and play online from around 22.00 (CET - Central European Time). Are there more servers than those listed? Or is the multiplayer feature something that most people dont bother with?

Happy Gaming - and go *online* to play!

/Grubbegrabben

[bert_the_turtle]

You're probably just impatient or like odd game types nobody else likes The server stats say there's about 200 games played on the dedicated servers alone every day, and your online time lies well within the prime time. Five minutes should be the longest time you have to wait around then.

[mmaestro]

We should be fair here. That is not many. 200 per day is only barely over 8 per hour, assuming things average (they probably don't) you'd assume only one game going at any given time. That's not so good.

I would suggest jumping onto any server you see, because I've sat around waiting, decided I was sick of it, and gone onto servers, and once there was one person waiting, other players who were also clearly sitting around doing nothing filled the game up in less than 3 minutes (just long enough for me to get more wine). Join something, if you're sick of doing nothing. It totally works.

[NeoThermic]

We should be fair here. That is not many. 200 per day is only barely over 8 per hour, assuming things average (they probably don't) you'd assume only one game going at any given time. That's not so good.

The 200 per day figure was quoting just one set of servers. In the past 4 days my servers have served 1462 games. That's 15 games an hour, and considering most maps take 10 minutes means there's enough players. That's just my servers. That's at least 2924 players assuming all games were 2 player, and it could be as high as 5848 players considering that 4 player maps are in rotation.

Then consider that my servers are not the only ones hosting games. You've got the Multiwinia-Ladder.Net servers and the Dedwinia test server. You've also then got all the games that players host themselves. I assure you all you have to do if you want a game is join a server during any of the major peak times and it'll fill up within moments.

NeoThermic

[RabidZombie]

I assure you all you have to do if you want a game is join a server during any of the major peak times and it'll fill up within moments.

... and if not at peak time, within no more than 10 mins.

[Lithilk]

To be honest, I've even got games at 8am GMT.

[elexis]

Thats probably Australian Peak; 6pm AEST

[Pinky]

Oh, is that when our peak is?

[elexis]

There actually isn't really a 'peak time' for Australian players. Most uf us prefer to play australians because of the reduced lag but we usually have to settle with UK and US prime times because of lack of players.

[spacebug]

Is it just me or are there only ever 7 or 8 games in the multiplayer lobby at a time?

[Cyan.]

I have times there is nobody online, so we all now there has been complaints abuot this before and yeah it sucks, not so long ago there were lot's of demo players but now we have had that, it feels like we are gone back to normal, wich is not much in my opinion, or atleast not so much as I would like. But then again there isn't really much we can do about it so forget asking and just play more often!!

[TomCat39]

We should be fair here. That is not many. 200 per day is only barely over 8 per hour, assuming things average (they probably don't) you'd assume only one game going at any given time. That's not so good.

The 200 per day figure was quoting just one set of servers. In the past 4 days my servers have served 1462 games. That's 15 games an hour, and considering most maps take 10 minutes means there's enough players. That's just my servers. That's at least 2924 players assuming all games were 2 player, and it could be as high as 5848 players considering that 4 player maps are in rotation.

Then consider that my servers are not the only ones hosting games. You've got the Multiwinia-Ladder.Net servers and the Dedwinia test server. You've also then got all the games that players host themselves. I assure you all you have to do if you want a game is join a server during any of the major peak times and it'll fill up within moments.

NeoThermic

Your number of players count.... Is that not assuming the same players are playing games over and over and over? Or is that assuming the players are playing at least 5-7 games a day(50-70 minutes not counting in between game waits)?

You can't assume players are only playing one game and then new players are playing each and every time.

If you aren't thinking players are playing multiple games a day then your player count is really bloated.

I end up waiting many minutes on the dedicated servers when trying for CTS and KOTH games virtually any time of the day. Especially weekdays after 5pm @ -8 GMT. But even today (Saturday) during morning and afternoon hours, lots of "pvt" server/games going on, but the dedicateds rarely filled up and I had huge waits to get players to play against. You'd think the weekends would be busier.

I can totally understand the OP's concern from being there. Not just looking at numbers in a log.

With this game it can be annoying not being on a UK schedule. It seems the majority of players are in that time schedule.

[The GoldFish]

Also, Lich King. Its release has been fealt globally o_o

[rainingblood]

Also, Lich King. Its release has been fealt globally o_o

This game is like the Great Plague... I lost my brother beacause of it He went to the dark side of gaming !

[moth]

Anyway, have fun analysing the stats I've given you, it'd be fun if they could be used for some actual purpose instead of just being there for the sake of going "ooh the numbers".

Knowing when the peaks are is useful. Firing up Multiwinia and finding no-one to play against not nice. Thanks to your graphs i at least know what to expect depending on the time of day. I was actually about to ask you if you could provide usage vs. time of day graphs, but thought i ought to just have a quick look around the ladder site first...

As for us fixing the problem, there are two things we can do - play more, and persuade more people to play!

moth