Originally Posted by Buflak

Throw in larger maps with aircrafts sometimes. A lot of people play poe2/bf2 for the vehicles, infantry only can be a little boring eventually.

Now it's down to two servers, this one and the wattwuermer... they seem to get a good population, often reaching 64 players during the evening, GMT. But the map rotation is always the same, so people usually start to leave around 1 AM, when the boring/night/inf maps start to come.
This would be a good time for the TG server to start off with some larger, popular maps like berezan, h2h, odessa or rolling, to lure the players from there. These maps are at the beginning of the rotation on the WW server, so by this time, people would like to play them again.
There are a couple dozen euro players who would like to play in the night hours, it's just a matter of selecting the right maps to get them to play on the TG server.

And of course maps with aircrafts would be a good way to counter the TGers insane amount of infantry skill, which often drives away new and more casual players.

There is more in poe2 than 6v6 infantry, there are exciting dogfights, chopper vs. mobil aa battles, intense teamwork in the tornado/f18, and a lot more, even when there are only a few people. Sure, you don't get to defend every flag with a nicely dug in squad, but we already did that a thousand times, how about trying something different every now and then?

I kinda disagree with some of the things you said about the infantry maps, but you make some excellent points about map selection / size. Also, thanks for the insight on the playing style of other servers... I've been playing on the Wantmore server for a long time and it's a lot of fun when it's near max capacity. The main difference between the two servers is teamwork. I see a lot more teamwork on the Tactical server than on the Watts server. On the Tactical server, there's a real emphasis on teamwork... and that's what got me and many others hooked. The regulars on Tactical POE server seem to maintain a higher level of accountability and they help offer some really good constructive criticism. That's what really helped me improve my understanding of strategies and enjoyment of this Mod.

Originally Posted by HiTestFest

All of the above are great choices. Even though i would love to see 64p Fallen tonight. I couldnt possibly tell you the last time i saw that map.

64p Fallen! :ThumbsUp:

Originally Posted by COUNTER=OPS

I love this mod!! I agree with HiTest's response. This better not die! I haven't been on this weekend because I'm working NASCAR, but will be right back in it as of this Monday!

NASCAR = your POE driving = makes sense!

Originally Posted by FBmantis

Fellow poe2 diehards, I think we have reached a point where we need to adapt to our situation. Our server is not doing too good... I would like to see everyone stay positive and not devolve into the blame game over why the server is in the state it is.

The admins are also committed to ramping up events. Biweekly scrims and other events(nuke, crazy mod stuff) on some of the off weeks are being talked about. A specific weekend afternoon would likely be the day for these events.

I remember when version 2.5 was first released and the Tactical POE server became an overnight hit and max'ed out most of the day, every day of the week. Most people welcomed the influx of traffic, but some people didn't seem to like or adjust to the change. I think what started the quick decline was due to two technical issues: frequent, annoying, frustrating server crashes AND server not seeding / not visible / not listed (sometimes not even showing up in the "favorites"). So the server would crash and us being the impatient gamers, would switch to another server. I think the worst part was the seeding issue... not seeing it listed is the easiest way to drive people away. It would happen for hours and days at a time. And you know what they say... something like "out of sight, out of mind". Crazy conspiracy theorists might think it was done intentionally to reduce the traffic... because it was never an issue when the server was less busy. Who knows? haha.

When things started slowing down, I thought I'd use some of my free time and marketing skills (whatever that might be) to help rejuvenate this amazing online community. BF2 is the only computer game I (have time to) play and discovering this free POE Mod was icing on the cake. Total cost for such a high quality gaming experience: BF2 $5 @ Fry's. It was so cheap that I actually bought $150 worth gave them all out to friends. Anyway, I set aside a $500 budget (actual cost of gear and shipping expenses; not including cost of labor) to give back to this POE server / forum, in the form of free customized gear / giveaways / contests. I asked (repeatedly) for help and ideas, but ended up getting some flak from (less dedicated) people who thought I was trying to turn a profit or felt some of my methods were disrupting the quality game play. There's simply no profit in giving away that much gear / valuable time, but I do understand that interfering with the quality game play is completely unacceptable. I even had a good point to argue and clear up the misunderstanding, but why bother? By the time Khaerus offered some help, I was already over it, lol. If things worked out well enough, I would have unveiled the next exciting marketing "scheme", but it's probably not ready or interested. Anyway, I might have some free time in the coming month and maybe if there's enough interest in free, customized / personalized gear... then maybe I'll whip up some cool gear, send them off to someone like Khaerus and let him spend a few hundred bux to ship out the gear? Feel free to offer some ideas / suggestions.

Previous posts:
Prizes, POE forum economic stimulus program
http://www.tacticalgamer.com/battlef...im-prizes.html

Invite for Vanilla Server players
http://www.tacticalgamer.com/battlef...on-prizes.html

Invite for highly skilled, teamwork oriented P.R. players, would have made for some tough matches!
http://www.tacticalgamer.com/battlef...ee-prizes.html

TG invite
http://www.tacticalgamer.com/tactica...mpetition.html

Video capture, check link's comments for other people's recommendation for similar or better software.
http://www.tacticalgamer.com/battlef...oday-only.html