Thread: Rust Server Population and Future

We definitely need to promote the hell out of the server, on the official forums, facebook, twitter, all forms of social media you can think of.

Personally it has not been fun so far. I joined cause I wanted a group to play with, when we were on BMRF, it was fun raiding folks, getting into fights, etc. Now it's like everyone has formed little cliques and some of us are left to fend for ourselves, we're raiding each other, in some cases griefing each others bases. MovingTarget completely quit and left TPG because his base was griefed on our own server, by one of us. I tried talking him out of leaving but couldn't convince him. I myself had to wait like eight hours one day last week for someone from TPG to come blow a wall out of my base because someone griefed me inside of it. Note they didnt even "raid" me, as all my loot was intact they just locked me in for the hell of it.

I play at random times, usually late at night / early morning, and I'm usually the only one online, aside from maybe one other person. While it's nice having all the resources to myself, it also makes it impossible to get raiding material since air drops almost never happen. Then it just turns into Minecraft at that point.

Welcome to the Forums Mav lol. Great first post, more quality than most regulars put it.

I'm wondering how much is it for a month of service....If I can I could pitch in to keep the server up if it comes to that.

Originally Posted by CivilWars

I agree with those things, and we have done some of them, but if we started up a RUST server day 1, and hired all of the people who had it we would still be a low pop server if we couldn't recruit new people, so how do we do that?

The people playing day one post guides/tips/beginner guides/reviews etc. Can't say just that will cause the server to be full, but you might pull some folks in looking for that content, and get them interested in the site and hopefully server (main page links/articles would be great because you can "sell" the server at the end/beginning of the article).

Might be worth (not sure how communication works being I've got a few minutes in the game (I swear I'm going to get back to it and give it a really good go at some point!)), throwing feelers to new connects to see if they are new, and offering to give some tips or whatever. I don't know why many of us joined, I know for me I started playing BF2 on TTP because it was good teamplay (doesn't seem to apply much to this game), and squading up/"talking" with some of the =BSS= guys. Didn't join the forums til an accidental ban, maybe should try that (I kid).

Think I pop in to say this with every game or about lack of people on the site/etc. But still think it applies, have to post thing people want to read to bring them here. If bringing them here is enough is debatable, but at least they are reading something on here and that is better then hoping that when they are picking a random server, it is ours. *shrugs* just my thoughts, and of course it helps to get guides going around release day, but I'm assuming with some SEO, it is still possible to pull off.

Oh the other thing is create some thread that people will have strong opinions on (usually negative is better). I think studies have shown that motivates people (or that just works for voting).

Some ideas to help increase the number of 'random connects' ...

We should post more information in the server title itself. Things like teamspeak (or TS), team play friendly, experienced/active admins, mature players ... whatever we think will best separate us from the pack. Personally when I first started with Rust I was looking for 'mature/team/friendly' as keywords. At the moment there is no filter in-game, but game-tracker uses keyword searches. I'm suggesting we shorten the server title to TPG and use the rest of the space to self-advertise. Can rust++ use a MOTD or whatever to broadcast webpage/TeamPlayerGaming/whatever other info to fresh connects?

The reason I got to thinking about this was that Scott and I ran into a couple of Freshies today. It became clear that they connected to the server because the title told them it had been freshly wiped which is what they were looking for. They were interested in the details of the server and even had a comment about airdrops which I kind of agree with.

Many servers disable the airdrop until at least 10, sometimes as many as 25 or more players. Now personally I love the airdrops and to be perfectly honest, I've received a pretty massive boost from a couple lucky airdrops early on after the last reset. However, as much as I might personally disagree, I think it may be best for the server to increase the limit on the airdrops. Now, perhaps if people are clamoring for an airdrop in chat/forums the admins could sprinkle a few over the weekend or something (can you call them in without a canister so the spot is random?). Anyway, just thought it was a good suggestion that should be shared.

Lastly I'd like to say that although all my encounters with freshies today were typical for Rust (ie 'dontshootmedontshootdontshootme') it seemed to me that generally people were mature and just looking for a fair game. There is a lot of admin abuse and childish players throughout the gaming world. The more we distance ourselves from that kind of bullshit, the more we will stand out from the pack IMHO. I'm not talking about giving every new player a starter kit and a pat on the back. This is Rust after all. I'm just saying that to me the most skilled players are the ones who are able to size up their opponent (even while putting them self at a tactical disadvantage) and choose to engage only if the target is hostile or the combat would be 'sportsmanlike'. To put this in Rust terms: good players don't shoot nakeds in the back of the head while wearing armor.