tarmander13

ATR's 48 Player Rush is probably the best server I've found in my ~1.5 years of playing BF4 religiously on pc.

However, the fatal flaw of the server is its lack of population. I don't play BF4 every single night, but I play most nights and it seems as though it's only more than half full a couple nights a week. I, as well as many friends whom I've met on this server, would certainly like to see the server full more frequently.

Obviously, the guys at ATR know a thing or two about creating successful servers, but I'd like to throw out a few suggestions to fuel the conversation:

Drop maps that kill the server.

In theory votemap should eradicate this problem, but unfortunately since so few players participate in the vote it only takes a few newbies to pick a map that's sure to drain the player count. I think the most logical course is to eliminate maps as they are organized in DLC groups, which will both remove the bad maps that kill the server and will make the server available to players who don't own that DLC. From what I've seen, the Final Stand maps in particular are pretty fatal; Dragon's Teeth on the other hand offers maps like Propaganda, Pearl Market, and Lumphini Garden which players tend to stick around for. I'd like to see what other server regulars think about this, but please keep in mind that just because a map is your favorite, we're better off saving the maps that help with population- it's better to sacrifice your favorite rush map than not play at all.

Ultimately, I think removing some of the map options in order to maintain population is a profitable sacrifice.

Shift to official for a few days.

I hate playing on official servers (mainly due to hackers), but right now, following some crazy BF4 sales, there a lots of new players who probably aren't aware of the ATR rush server. Given that there aren't many other NA rush servers, setting as official should introduce tons of new players looking to try rush to the server, who will hopefully continue to play there after it is reverted to a ranked server. I don't think hackers will be a problem, as there's almost always at least one ATR admin playing on the server when it's populated and they should be able to handle any situation like this.

Change the default map.

I believe that currently, when the server restarts the first map is Dawnbreaker. This certainly doesn't help encourage players to join when it's empty or lightly populated, as this map is sub-par for low player counts. Shifting the default map to Operation Locker is, in my opinion, the best option. Even if in a 48p match Lockers is an absolute clusterfuck, people love playing that map and Lockers servers in general tend to attract players more than large maps. Additionally, it's much more bearable to play lockers than large vehicle-focused maps in lower player count games, as it still offers plenty of action and dying doesn't entail a long, boring run from deployment up to the mcom-s. This will encourage players to stay in the server if population drops, rather than leaving to find a game offering more action.

If anybody else has suggestions, please leave them as a reply. The goal is to get this server populated, whether it's using my suggestions or not.

Thanks for reading,

~tarmander

Hello all, was just playing on the ATR 32 player conquest small server. There was a hacker present not picked out by punkbuster, his ID is Mr_RaG3Qu1t

Here's the battle report: http://battlelog.battlefield.com/bf4/battlereport/show/1/802672078404434176/1773908670/

This player takes no damage from bullets. He did die once, I'm not entirely sure how that happened. He are links to my POV with very apparent hacking:

http://plays.tv/video/583a2e1069e1bc49bf/hacker-clip2

http://plays.tv/video/583a2dea00483c58ca/hacker-clip-1

I hope that ATR Administration will view this and a proper course of action will be taken.

Also, couldn't find a specific area of forums for ban request/ player reporting, hopefully I'm in the right place

Thanks!

~tarmander13

Domination is my favorite game mode. And, seeing as ATR hosts one of the few DOM servers regularly populated in NA, I'd say that's my favorite server. According to your plugin, I'm ranked 19th on the server so clearly I spend quite a bit of time there.

I recognize that turning it to a mixed mode and official server was probably done to help with server population. However, like tonight, the server is populated but there are only conquest small maps in the rotation. I noticed the map lineup has been changing around a bit so I assume this isn't permanent. I think you should keep dom in the mix no matter what other game modes you are running on the server. The server will maintain its population, and if people want to play dom or conquest or rush they can vote for that in the votemap plugin. But taking dom out of the rotation completely is definitely a huge bummer for server regulars and fans of the domination gamemode.

TL;DR: please keep a few dom maps in the rotation at all times so the domination lovers and server veterans have somewhere to play

Thanks for reading.

~tarmander13