Thread: Communtiy....

I always liked CCG's placements, but Id rather see the stary trader location be put at novy.

yeah krom I think you'd have to jump into an arma 2 epoch server to see what sheriff is talking about.

It is a large area, very well defined impossible to kill or be killed inside of it..( well not impossible ) plenty of room to drive in vehicles and congregate.

It is really the open area and guns not being able to kill you, centrally located that makes all the magic happen. If your at stary your probably already somewhat geared and could fight if you needed to. so people are more likely to group up or allow you to join them on whatever fun filled festivities they have planned that night. where as on the coast whats the point two fresh spawns are just going to kill each other hoping to get what the other one has. They would do it at stary too but since you can get there and be relatively safe from insta death it is more likely lines of communication can be opened.

CCG Arma 3 Overpoch had little trader cities. I visited the ones at Klen and Stary Sobor. And the meetup and conversation thing is 100% on. In my brief time on CCG i met a few players, some were dicks, some were cool, but i never would have known that before actually talking to them. If we did a zone with 3 or 4 traders of different goods and a large "safe area" i think it would help retain the population that finds us.

advertising to get people on the server in the first place

IMO, go with what the mod has given us.

3 safe zones. @ the 3 spawn points.

Have server rules that enforce these and only these areas. Currently our server rules protect about what feels like 10-15' from the spawn, which is where the god mode is active. Suggesting rules that expand to include 100m radius around the zone.

I agree with the old a2 system were great. But to go to something like this, we are customizing the map and have our coding team spend time on this instead of IMO more import things like @mas and armed vehicles.

Also, random connects will have no idea about these areas or the rules surrounding them. As it sits the general community gets/accepts the existing safe zone and understand/expect a certain amount of safety in the 3 spawn zones. This is where people would naturally go to meet people or "be safe". IMO we don't need to reinvent the wheel on this. Just redefine our server rules on the spawn/safe zone radius. Problem solved, all reasons for doing so satisfied, move on.

First off, thank you for writing this. Your dedication and leadership to and in this community really shows here. The way I see it there are multiple factors as to why the server has been stagnant the last few days.

While it may not be the reason why I have been absent for a day or two, I believe most important factor when attracting and keeping new players is Mod quality and name recognition.

Over the last week, I've played this mod on TPG's server for more hours than I care to mention. I've seen many new names come and go. A few days ago I noticed CCG finally got a US server up... And its full. I looked at the player list and wasn't surprised to find many familiar names. Even now with 40/60 players, there is a handful of people that I've seen actively playing on the TPG server at some point. So why didn't they stay?

While TPG runs a mod close to / if not nearly identical to overpoch. CCG was the first to do it in A2 and have made a name for themselves. Naturally, people are going to stick with what they know and have become comfortable with. This alone is responsible for initial population of their server. There mod also has small bonuses to it, mainly the MAS weapons pack. While this means jack shit to me, to a new person, this could be the deciding factor.

On top of having more, they have the ability to make the necessary adjustments needed to keep the majority of people happy. For instance, according to their forums, they have completely removed the stamina / fatigue system. While I don't know if they had the epoch devs permission to do such a thing, they went ahead and did it. While I know somethings are unchangeable, I wonder how many things have been adjusted on CGGs server that differs from TPG (ex. Chopper immunity, loot %'s ect...) Its always the little things that make a players experience more enjoyable.


That being said, there is an aspect to this game that no modification, name recognition or adjustment can touch, and that is player interaction. It can make or break the sandbox survival genre for a lot of people. Player Interaction alone, is why I started playing Day Z (the original mod) and have come back time and time again to play it in it's new forms. Getting into battle is a fucking rush, but none of that matters if you don't have a group of awesome personalities to experience the rush with.

Sadly for me, It is also the reason of why I have been absent for the last few days. While I completely understand, agree with and respect everyone's opinions on "groups" and limiting their sizes, I have found myself in kind an awkward position. It's Almost like being the last kid picked on the team, and then when your finally picked, you get picked by the team you didn't want to play for anyways. (No offence to anyone).

My own ambitions and feelings aside, I want to address something you said that hit home for a player like myself.

Originally Posted by SmokenSherriff_

Ace and I's conversation turned to well even though we are trying to keep our group small and trying to be friendly to all players in general maybe we still need to split up and both form new groups with people that are solo new players to the server.

What can/does that solve? Well it may make 2 new groups, it does take Ace and I apart which we enjoy playing together hurting our enjoyment, but in the big picture it really makes just 2 groups helping 6 to 8 players hopefully pulled into the community and putting their roots down here at TPG. Does that really solve much? That is putting the responsibility of server growth as it apply's to the factor of retention, on the backs of individuals. Should it be there? Is Krom and Scott's group or Nom ready to split and go make friends with the new players as they come and start a group from scratch? It may put a dent in our problem but is there a better solution?

When playing with a group, it is the personalities in that group that directly dictate an individuals experience. I would have never stuck around at TPG had I not encountered some of the more dominant personalities that have resided here over the years.

Specifically speaking about the people I've met playing Dayz / Epoch, there are a certain few of you that tend to take charge, and when you do, create some of the most memorable gaming experiences I've ever encountered. Whether it's Ace's ability to see and dominate all aspects of the battlefield or Sheriff's blind courage and willingness to put it all on the line, or even Blonde and Texan's smart ass comments and demands for perfection. That is why I'm here, and that is why I'm taking the time to respond to this. To hell with trade zone restrictions! You guys made my experience possible, and none of that would have happened outside of this community. While splitting groups and starting new ones with new players may disconnect you from your current enjoyment of the game, I guarantee it would keep the new people coming back for more. The only thing to determine is whether or not to make that sacrifice.

Enough discussion about trade zone rules and restrictions. Let the devs figure that out, What TPG needs to do is figure out how to do some minor coding and most important of all, figure out how make each players experience a TPG experience.

GL

Originally Posted by Rooster050

What TPG needs to do is figure out how to do some minor coding and most important of all, figure out how make each players experience a TPG experience.

. . . and there it is in a nutshell.

Ace got me into A2 Overpoch, then A3 Epoch . . . a lil more than 3-4 weeks ago. I kept seeing all my Steam friends playing Arma2/DayZ & when I happened to catch a sale for A2, I bought it, loaded up the mod to see what all the fuss was about. I had watched a couple of DayZ introductory videos, but it still didn't make complete sense to me.

I loaded it once, played for 10mins, had a swarm of zombies on me & no way to deal with them. I didn't know how, but I threw like 10 flares or something trying to one action. I was just trying to test my config. I gave up for the night & the next night, I loaded it up, Ace immediately messaged me & said "a lot of TPG'rs are playing Overpoch on CCG", gave me a link on how to get Overpoch installed, and I connected. I've been here ever since . . .

I truly love TPG & want to see it succeed. We had an amazing CS community & when CS:GO launched, it really divided the masses, but nothing beat that 10v10 CS:S Pub. I'd love to see A3 take off like that.

I know that 2 servers are out of the question at this moment, but if we could get the pop to fill 2, then you'll have a couple of tough decisions to make as which group(s) move over to help nurture the TPG environment there too. Here's to having to make tough decisions . . .

There is a ton of TPG former regs that "just dont think Arma is for them", bullshit, Laygo is prime example. We need to pull them and they need to try it, aint all of us over here cause the game sucks. We all have similar tastes and they need to just try it.

Vafa, Gideon, Raush, Pimp, Scotzo, Mebad, Master Magus, Mafia, 3.89, B.S. Bravo, Special K, Chronic Cough, Bunni, fly, Big Boze, Felix, Duddy, Hitch, Greyvee, Fragraptor, knee of justice, MasterBlaster, Mad Mardigan, Rob, Agent, Flame, Abitar, on and on.....

We need them to try this at some point soon! I know they will like it.