Bear with me here, this is a fresh idea that I'm looking for feedback on.

I recently started a 200+ hours Captains Server, one of the biggest things I keep getting from the comp players that hop in for a round or two is that I need to decrease the team sizes to 8v8 with some spectator slots. As much as that makes sense, I've got a similar number of people telling me to increase the server size so they can play. So that server's going to stay unchanged.

But all this talk spawned an idea. If the NA comp community is interested, I'd be up for setting up and maintaining a second server that's running either 7v7 or 8v8 with say 4 spectator slots and CompMod. The idea being that this would be a server for comp level players to come and play NS2 in an environment that isn't a 12v12 or 10v10 storm of people who don't really know much of anything. And they could accomplish this without setting up a Pug, gather, or scrim. Furthermore they wouldn't get banned for having ridiculous aim.

I think someone else's server did something similar with the spectator slots, wherein a game would get going and people could only play if a team dropped below 8 players. So theoretically there's always a guy waiting to play when a player has to leave, keeping things going.

This would also double as a place for experienced Pubbers who are interested in the comp community and such to come and play with people of your caliber in a compmod environment.

Here's the issue: I can manage the costs of the server I have set up now, and its demand is demonstrated daily. But I want to know if people will actually play on a server like this before I set it up. Ideally, I'd love to have some people say they'd be willing to contribute to keep such a server afloat, perhaps the age old reserved slot incentive?

If 20 slots costs $35 a month, and I'm selling reserved slots for $3 a month, I'd be totally willing and capable of doing this if like 4-5 people will grab a slot.

What do you guys think? If I build it, will you come?

You are awfully close to gathers and pugs are in that setup. I have no clue how it will turn out, or if people will just strait up choose pugs and gathers before such a server.

However - When i go public, I dont expect anything from the team - mostly I just mute everyone, as i have come to learn that people in pubs are mostly spewing **** most of the time. A competitive public server almost seems like a paradocs, but ´HBZ Heidis ZiegendFarm did succed in making a server, with a higher skill level than other servers typically have.
I think my point is, that you can't really make a server with high skill level - but you can make it into that. If such a server pops up (like 18 slot ? ) I personally would choose that. Marines are typically going to win on such a server (lots of aimpower vs. silly alien teamwork), so captains mod would be quite silly.

Thats my two cents - Good initiative, but a bit misplaced :)

Ixian says

You are awfully close to gathers and pugs are in that setup. I have no clue how it will turn out, or if people will just strait up choose pugs and gathers before such a server.

But the simple fact that there's one or two extra players per team compared to pugs/gathers makes it way more casual which I think is what a lot of players want.

And yes, I'd love if there was a 2nd server. I think it could work since there's less players per server so there'll probably be enough to fill both servers.

This has been tried in the past.

Sometimes it's minorly successful like with Gibs' Gorge Hut and other times it's terrible. I think that it's something directly related to the activity in the competitive scene and awareness you make - word of mouth is helpful as well if players like your server for X reasons. Performance, mods etc.

Seeding a single server is hard enough. A second server with a lower player count still wont work long term unless the people who regularly play on your server seed it as well which isnt likely to happen. Like some have said, it has been tried in the past. Server will be fun for a week till people stop seeding it.

I still believe you should cap the server at 8v8 instead of 9v9. (7v7 just doenst work in pubs. 8v8 seems to be the golden number) IIRC it's currently capped at 9v9 and has 2 extra slots bringing it up to 10v10. HBZ had a 8v8 environment and many still believe it was the best pubbing experience for the year or two it was up. It allowed for a pub environment to still feel a bit more tactical while incorporating a bigger emphasis on playerskill.

The reason many of us like lower playercounts isnt because we want pubs that are 6v6. The reason 90% of comp players pub is to get some practice in (well... as much as you can in a pub.) The higher you raise the playercount, the less actual individual skill is involved and less teamwork is needed. The game essentially turns into a giant game of Risk where you roll a dice and whoever has more units in a room wins the engagement.

tl;dr... a new server probably wont work. Hard cap the playercount at 8v8. Add spec slots to your existing server so people can wait in server for the next game (similar to what TG does on their captains games).

Just for info:
The HBZ server was @ 18 slots for around 3 years. Its still up but i changed the slotammount to 16 to shape up the more comp orientated pub character.
All this time the server was was well known for high level pub play but since 2 month it is empty most of the time.

With the game losing more and more players there is no real high level pub anymore and every server who tried to fill this role failed within the last 2 month.
High level servers are populated for a few rounds and then they are empty again.
I think most of the clanplayers are tired of pubbing and NS2 in general and play other games between there PCWs.