Is it just me or are the servers empty?

[ToxicHeart 34]

So I've been playing DayZ for three days and I love it as much as I always thought I would. Bugs, glitches and all. The one thing that actually gets on my nerves consistently. I can rarely find a server with more than 5 people on it. 

(At least that as a ping consistently under 60)

I've assumed it's just my geographic location... south-eastern US. But I'm curious if that's not just how it is for most of the servers...  

(I usually see one ore two with 30 people or more... but the signal is FAR too weak for me to play on)

[Toxmose 15]

For my region (Europe) the majority of servers have indeed max 7 players on them, although there are quite a few that are nearly full as well. I look for anything with a ping lower then 100 and then I choose the one with the most players vs best ping.

Maybe you have some filter active which is hiding servers for you?

If not, then I guess you need to figure out when the best moments are to play DayZ in your region. You can find a pattern in the moments with a lot of players on and moments with almost nobody on...

[Tigermonk 140]

this is called DayZ... people are kinda fed up with it atm.. so A LOT of players simply put in to the sidelines and don't play.. resulting in less active members... I see the same in my current community... 100 active players.. average server occupation of 10-12... 
as soon as they fix all these broken/half dead features and make the game run better.. chances are people will come back to the game... but only time will tell ;)

Edited April 13, 2016 by Tigermonk

[BeaverProductions 441]

I play on about 10-15 private servers and cant get into most of them as they are 50/50

 

UK/EU servers

[GuyRandomMan 54]

5 hours ago, ToxicHeart said:

So I've been playing DayZ for three days and I love it as much as I always thought I would. Bugs, glitches and all. The one thing that actually gets on my nerves consistently. I can rarely find a server with more than 5 people on it. 

(At least that as a ping consistently under 60)

I've assumed it's just my geographic location... south-eastern US. But I'm curious if that's not just how it is for most of the servers...  

(I usually see one ore two with 30 people or more... but the signal is FAR too weak for me to play on)

REALLY?!? I live in the middle of Texas and all the servers are either completely full or empty.

[Tigermonk 140]

2 hours ago, edoian said:

I play on about 10-15 private servers and cant get into most of them as they are 50/50

 

UK/EU servers

'private servers' thats the keyword don't you think.. if their 'private' their probably owned by active/large game communities.. and not B.I. public.

[ToxicHeart 34]

Man I'm a bit envious of you guys. I suppose I'm putting too much priority on the signal strength, but I really don't want to lose a gun fight over lag of all things. 

Still, 10 - 15 players sounds exciting... nerve-wrecking... but exciting!

[pilgrim* 3514]

10 hours ago, ToxicHeart said:

So I've been playing DayZ for three days and I love it as much as I always thought I would. Bugs, glitches and all. The one thing that actually gets on my nerves consistently. I can rarely find a server with more than 5 people on it. 

(At least that as a ping consistently under 60)

I've assumed it's just my geographic location... south-eastern US. But I'm curious if that's not just how it is for most of the servers...  

(I usually see one ore two with 30 people or more... but the signal is FAR too weak for me to play on)

 

If anyone knows any Honest Public Servers in South-Eastern US, please tell ToxicHeart

and the reason for that - I'm going to explain in the following REAALy LONG text

thanx:

[pilgrim* 3514]

Well - firstly the number of players has dropped off at the moment - you can see this just by looking at he stats or by looking at the usual comments these days on the forum. I know server-owners who are playing some other-brand game more often than they are on their own DayZ server.

(-) General reasons:

This is partly because of the negativity and player boredom - after 2+ solid years of DayZ - plus after all the bad attitudes and arguments about waiting for the next patch. Old players have dropped out, and new players coming in are often wanting full-action FPS KOS fighting games, so they complain, they think the map's too big, and they don't take the time to wonder what DayZ is really about - they want to spawn with 1000 rounds and don't want to go looking for weapons and they sure don't want to do any damn fishing..(but they bought the game anyway).

That is not everybody, not all newcomers (no insults intended, ok?) - but there is a strong element of "we want this game to be like other FPS games, so do it, what's wrong with BI?"

Also there is a long-time ongoing problem with the way the server system is run. The Server Providers strongly want out of the original agreement with Bohemia. And many players have understood that the server "rules" are NOT enforced at all. This topic was not allowed to be mentioned (ever) on the forums until recently and threads were insta-banned for speaking of it. Now talk is "tolerated"  but too late, and nothing foreseeable will change this situation.

Together, these two things (the new dissatisfaction, public "exploit-servers" and the large growth of member-only private servers) have altered the game very seriously from its original aims and concepts. The game has changed: One example - Death and your gear were major game elements, now they are a joke for 70% of players. And if 70% play in a certain way - then that IS the Game.
 
 So a lot of players are put off and play much less, OR some have moved to safe private membership-only servers. Also a large mass of the players who still play are using the "server-exploit" as a normal play style. And I said, the way the majority play IS theGame. (Check out GTA to see what I mean).

AND (just so it is said)  BI will not ever host their own "official" servers after 0.1 and modding arrives. This will not happen, they don't have the structure and there will not be any miracle). So we will see 'vanilla' public servers shutting down, and modded private serves multiplying, until they go the same way as they did in the original Mod. Also, If ( i say IF) BI opens modding to 'outsider' server owners the Big 5 SPs will close down all the "official servers" immediately. BI can not replace those.

(1)

OK we start with something simple: Gameservers do not like daylight players.
I count 79 Gameservers "official servers" across Europe last month - all run 24/24 on local time - so after 6 pm (1800h) these are ALL DARK. So you play their "official" only weekend and you stop at 6pm, or you just don't go there.

The same goes for USA and the rest of the world - all the Gamesevers "official" public servers are set to be night for ALL THE TIME that most people play (all peak playing hours worldwide)
I think it is a smart move that Gameserves have done this to make SURE that EVERYONE who comes home from School or comes home from Work can only play in COMPLETE DARKNESS on all the Gameservers' Public DayZ servers in the world.
And I wonder that SP does it? What are they aiming for? Is it to discourage players from "official servers" ? Because Gameservers don't get paid for those (the cash comes out of their own pocket).
After 6pm they have 1-3 players max per server, on every one of 70+ servers in Europe. Same for the rest of the planet.

Note - Gameservers are the first SP so far, to say in public on their site that: They do not enforce any"rules" at all about anything that happens on any of their servers. They state that is NOT their problem, they say 'complain to the server owner.' That's written in black and white. So complaints about unfair server moderators to them, are ignored [their statement]. Officially they are NOT listening.
This the SPs attitude, officially openly stated now by one of them, and common knowledge..

So...

Now let's mention the public servers (not the "official" severs) just standard public DayZ servers:

(2)

There are a hell of a lot of public 'kick-servers' with only1-3 players on them (you join=you're kicked). These are now about half of the public servers. Sometimes you're lucky, the admin isn't around to kick you by hand and you can even stay in for an hour or so (but at popular gaming hours you'll be kicked in 30 seconds to 5 minutes). Because these are not "real" clans (in my opinion they are just kid exploiter gangs of maybe 2 or 3 players) they usually have only a couple of players online.

Sometimes there's an auto-kick running (now there are a lot of those) on the public server, so you'll be kicked as soon as you try to log on. Those are popular and easy to install. Some do it just to have a whitelist for their own "piss-off" server at a lower price than paying for a private server. But mainly "clans"  do it to loot farm - So usually when you see a public server in daylight with only 1or 2 players, you WILL be kicked. (2 times out of 3). It is a loot farm.

Most players know this and don't bother to log on except to known "good" servers, it wastes too much time.

The third thing that public administrators also do is turn OFF the public server when the admin is not playing (he can do that). So he only turns it on for a couple of hours when he's online. I know one server with only one player - ever - (I notice HIM because I don't like him, OK?) There are others.
He comes on line a couple of hours max on friday night to loot up before he goes to play "look-at-me-I-dont-care" on the other public servers.That's like getting your instant load-out to play Battlefield. He turns his public server off behind him when he goes out to play the public hive. That way his 20 tents and all his loot is safe till he wants a new load-out.

OK

Now - Add all that in with this - There are two or three in Europe (and really only a handful worldwide) of 40/40 public servers or 40/40 private 'open' servers tht anyone can join.. and including them if you work out the average on ALL servers you get a usual evening server load of around 7 players.
So 15 players is already a LOT of players on one server, and there are not so many of those that will let you in. (Also remember -  for every server with 15 players, there are between five or seven with 3 players or less).

So there's an explanation.            What to do about it?

- Play a private server (with the same people every week, if you like knowing everyone on the server)
- Take your chance with the low-medium pop public servers (risk getting kicked every 5 mins, or just not ever getting in)
- Play always in the dark on the 100 nighttime "official" servers with your gamma turned up forever, or play fair in the dark all your life (but you won't meet many folk)
- Play on daytime"official" servers but know that all your tents, stashes, cars will vanish any time the SP re-hires the server (it's automatic so you'll get no warning)
- Play the 40/40 servers full of mil-gear guys who die and gear up again in the time it takes to log back to their "exploit server"
- Find an Honest Public Server - run by honest mods - there are very few, but there are some around. They may not have a lot of players (depends) and as I said 8-15 is already truly high-pop, statistically. But they play DayZ how it was intended

***

Hope that helps you a little - sorry to be boring (again). I did a lot of statistical work since early last year on server populations, peak play hours (worldwide) and checked on the enforcement of server rules, and how many "server exploit" kick servers run regularly, how many admins and friends run those, how they remain anonymous, the average size of an 'honest' clan and an 'exploit clan', and the number and populations of private servers.. ya know.. I checked the SP's and how many people worked for them, how much they pay to hire their servers (they don't own any of their own) how many instances of DayZ they ran, how they deal with "official serves" and why those are not reliable, how they answered e-mails, what their staff job descriptions were, I went through the hacker sites and blogs, I checked on auto-kicks, I searched the whole web for any players who had been banned or sanctioned for Anything except BattlEye violations..  etc, etc.. And researched and took advice how could you sanction a moderator (the SP client) if you wanted to? BI can't do that. I spent a long while finding out how difficult that is, and why no one is trying, and if they did try - why they fail.

This is investigative journalism and math - because the guys who are pulling these stunts, and there are a LOT of them, have redesigned DayZ to be the way they like to play it - they know how and why, they can get away with it and they enjoy doing that, AND not one of them is going to talk about it or admit it on this forum.

Result is - quite a few players still have subjective fantasies about what is really happening - and some - even one or two forum mods - still claim (in public) that they refuse to believe these facts are true.

xxPILGRIM

 
 :)

___________________________________________________________________

173.199.94.27:2302    <<  = THE HELPY HELPERS: FOR MERCY OR MAYHEM  >>    
Play on an honest public hive server.  Enjoy

 

Edited April 14, 2016 by pilgrim*

[☣BioHaze☣ 7337]

36 minutes ago, pilgrim* said:

-snip-

xxPILGRIM

 
 :)

 

 

Brilliant, one of the best posts I have read in a long time.

Thank you so much for having the patience and dedication to go through all of that.

I 100% agree with you on all fronts.

I would love to hear a BI staff member address this post point by point but I feel it will never happen.

MAYBE, just maybe, the inclusion of the new AI spawn system will be the first in a succession of changes that will make it increasingly harder for these people to turn Vanilla DayZ into another FPS and they can go play some grab ass abomination mod off the public hive.

[S3V3N 1402]

It depends on when you play and what region. At weekends my regular server is almost always at 40/40 players. During the week and early in the day, that same server can have 2-5 people playing; it can even be completly empty. In the later afternoon it usually fills up, but rarely goes over twenty. But maybe you should try checking at different times and look for servers in your timezone (I join a server in Dayz and then google its name to find out where it is located).

I also play on public servers more, but the private servers seem to fill up more reliably and often have a lot of regulars playing.   

BTW - great post Pilgrim! I read if after posting and it pretty much explains it all. I feel pretty happy now that at least my server choice wasn't completely shitty and somewhat lucky. I've not made half the horrid experiences other people have. Somehow Dayz seems to have a strong Swedish community; or at least servers hosted there. I like playing on these. Often met great people online and been able to already build decent camps for the public.

I DO think that after the game has all its nooks and crannies (or most) kinked out, we will see a big change in player behaviour. I dislike it, but I almost agree with the people, who KoS. It's hard to go into Dayz and be inventive all the time. Plus, after you tried and got shot over and over again, it feels like giving up for now and join in the gunplay is the way to go. I understand the motivation, but what I dislike is often the attitude of these players. They don't even try. I've been in so many situations, trying to gesture or straight on surrendering and still I got shot. And most of the people won't talk, until after they shoot you. It's frustrating, because they don't get it. At some point we'll play this game at least partially together and bounce into people more than once before dying. I want this game to feel...long. I remember that Epoch mod had a "days survived" timer. And I was incredibly happy at one point, when my character had: "28 days survived". Needless to say, I soon got too afraid to lose my precious record and avoided all encounters. So that's not the perfect solution either, but I do want to have this feeling of a journey. My characters already last pretty long often. But I'm not playing very long sessions at the moment and am basically just checking my camps and looting on the way. It's not the journey I was hoping for, yet.  

Edited April 13, 2016 by S3V3N

[ToxicHeart 34]

Pilgrim. I can not thank you enough for taking the time to write all of that out for me. And for the effort it took the investigate it so thoroughly, even if that wasn't for my sake, in particular... you have such an interest in DayZ that you looked into it on your own and that both amazes me and makes me happy that someone else is so thoroughly interested in the game and it's well-being. 

I have hope for the game... despite most of the problems that have cropped up from one bad situation to the next... this game is pretty much the game I've waited on half my life and I think the player base I see on the forums. (Whiners and KoS guys included) can keep it from devolving into trash in the long run... 

Edited April 14, 2016 by ToxicHeart
grammar fail

[pilgrim* 3514]

23 hours ago, ToxicHeart said:

;;//..

Thanks for that reply ToxicHeart. I appreciate it.

 

Spoiler

 

Hey, you touched me with that  "I love it as much as I always thought I would" - Good Game.

DayZ can take you from 'looks-like-nothing-happening' to a heart-stopped jolt of adrenaline rush that I never experienced in any other game. Total fear/flight/fight reactions, anxiety attack, and shock. You must maintain a controlled level of paranoia all the time in the game. You need to learn to aim, hide, move, survive, and kill. suddenly either a reaction-time decision or death, and behind that - planning and cunning and prediction and any experience you can get. There is nothing fair in this game. Expect anything - totally anything - at any time. I find that amazing.

A while ago - if I hadn't played for a couple of days I would almost not want to press the log-in button, you know?  - because I knew the whole experience would start again and, hey I'm nevous .. Am I sure I am ready to face it ?
My girlfriend notices - she'd come in and say "Hi,"
I'd say "Hi. " (that's all)
She'd say - "You're acting stressed - are you playing THAT game again?

oh yes

I hope it always stays the one-off unique game that it started out, and never slides towards being similar to other games. In a mass market people tend to buy what they already know.. I hope that never happens.
DayZ should always teach them what they don't know about gaming, not ever give them stuff they already played.

Good luck - Enjoy.

=============================
just saying - stuff to do :
You can play on a high ping - set your max ping on the list to maybe 400, just to see what's out there.  Even try out some higher pings, you can only die (right?). Boneboys (a mod here) always says he can play DayZ with ping 300 and no problem.
It's also fun when you're a freshspawn (OK you died), because now you have no worries, you can run straight into the middle of town in your pants and see what happens, maybe find a body fully kitted out just lying there. You can punch out a guy with an AK when he's not expecting you. Or go talk to real crazy strangers. When you have any good kit of your own then you have more to loose, you play differently.
And outside town, in the woods and villages, the framerate is higher, if there are fights they are often one shot, surprise encounters, sniping, or hand to hand - no streetbattles. In the sticks you can camp, loot, hunt, observe, learn to find your way around the map, go through villages instead of big places. There is plenty to see and find out. There are tourist guides on this forum, as well as advice.
Also - 7 people on a serve is already totally enough to be definitely dangerous - you'll be surprised how often you turn up in the same place, even when you look for a place no one will go - there's probably two other guys doing the exact same. Or you can try to predict where they are and go look for them - bring a scope or binocs. Or take a hunting tour, and at the same time listen out for car engines. See if you can find their tent (there will be at least a couple of tents somewhere around, that is certain)
And you can play on a full server and never see anyone for hours..True.

 

 

xxp

Edited April 14, 2016 by pilgrim*

[ToxicHeart 34]

That's actually EXACTLY what I was planning. I'm waiting until I have to respawn again, but I had come to the same conclusion... next time I respawn, why not find a higher pop server and just go see what's what... you hit the nail on the head with the sentiment that if I don't have many items, than I have very little to fear... 
Seeing you advise the thought shows me I'm on the right path, I almost look forward to my next death... though not enough to jump off a building, I'm sure someone will take care of the pesky living part for me soon enough...

[pilgrim* 3514]

12 minutes ago, ToxicHeart said:

That's actually EXACTLY what I was planning. I'm waiting until I have to respawn again, but I had come to the same conclusion... next time I respawn, why not find a higher pop server and just go see what's what... you hit the nail on the head with the sentiment that if I don't have many items, than I have very little to fear... 
Seeing you advise the thought shows me I'm on the right path, I almost look forward to my next death... though not enough to jump off a building, I'm sure someone will take care of the pesky living part for me soon enough...

There are a couple of lead-ins that might give you ideas - there is more in Dayz than meets the eye, some of it takes a while to find out

a couple of these links are a little dated, but they will give you some thoughts:

Check out Tatanko's brilliant guides to 'Wilderness Survival' and 'Hunting'(links above) - to name just one - and browse the beginners-New Players- section for solutions to questions you'll be asking by next week, and tips, and glitch warnings, and solutions, and cunning tactics.. AND look at Odin_Lowes photos to see DayZ like you never saw it before, through the eyes of a top photo journalist (an art  war reporter?) - and Gews for totally accurate technical ballistic and weapons info .

that's only 3 of the highly original players around here. There are more on the forum worth checking out. You will appreciate them.

Edited April 14, 2016 by pilgrim*

[ToxicHeart 34]

if I didn't have such nice gear at the moment I'd probably give it a try now, though it's a little past naptime for me at the moment. I'm just waiting for my video to upload so I can show off my first hostile human contact and my blind luck in killing him lol...   hopefully tomorrow something interesting will lead me to joining a high pop server

[S3V3N 1402]

14 minutes ago, ToxicHeart said:

if I didn't have such nice gear at the moment I'd probably give it a try now, though it's a little past naptime for me at the moment. I'm just waiting for my video to upload so I can show off my first hostile human contact and my blind luck in killing him lol...   hopefully tomorrow something interesting will lead me to joining a high pop server

You know you can make a new character on any private hive, right? If you play public server you can jump between all the public ones, if you play on private servers, you can play only there (with that same gear). If you play 1p you can only play 1p, same goes for 3p-servers. So if you are afraid to lose any gear, you might as well start a new game on one of the other server types and keep your geared character for later. Don't forget the servers you played on though, or it can take a looong time to figure out, which ones it was ^^

[ToxicHeart 34]

I do know that... and i have a public and private character... but I've only found the one private server to play on... most of the others that have decent signal tend to kick me out as soon as I join... 
soon I'll be looking for private servers with a less strict ping criteria though...   should be interesting  :3

 

[☣BioHaze☣ 7337]

9 hours ago, ToxicHeart said:

if I didn't have such nice gear at the moment -snip-

Rule 1 of the standalone is there is no standalone.

Rule 2 is never get attached to your gear. ;)

[ToxicHeart 34]

Oh I'm not THAT attached. Just attached enough not to go on a blatant suicide mission.