Server Changes, my thoughts.
just voicing some thoughts, figured i would share with the CS crew.
Time to drop the servers back to old skool ICONZ servers.
2 servers, both 16 or 20 players. Default map rotation. 20 mins per map.
No ingame rank available other than the mani based 1.
FF ON, this is a major draw-card for ICONZ. DD24/7 is hurting ICONZ more then it is helping.
Trust me when i say this, if you build 2 QUALITY, default rtation, FF on servers, the numbers WILL come back. Its time to go back to quality basic then catering for the ICONZ 'elite'
With ICONZ on the possible backdoor, look to be pro-active and make some changes that could benefit the community with numbers.
If you do go back to 2 vanilla servers, you need to have a pop up ingame message every 5-10 mins about the forums, this is easily added via mani setup.
Way back when I was involved with CS and Iconz, I fought black and blue to get back to our roots of good quality servers, the day we (ICONZ) went to HLSTATSX was the day quality dropped.
summary
2 x 16-20 slot servers.
FF ON
Default Map Cycle
NO INGAME STATS, drop HLSTASX and either use the inbuilt mani stats or Psychostats (the only true skill based stats)
http://www.psychostats.com/downloads/ if stats HAVE to be used.
More in game advertising.
Way back when, ICONZ used to be one of the busiest CS places around, in game and in the forums. You could be waiting for 20+ mins to get into one of the full servers. None of this 24/7 dust crap and non stop spawn camping, people played to pwn and win, not to rank up like whores.
Yeah losing ranks might lose some people, better to lose some and gain more in the long run, then to keep your slice of the pie so small that no one cares who or what you are. Make ICONZ the CS force it USED to be!
end of ramble, have a good one.
Cheers, G