I think the two problems are somewhat related. Pub player hears of TG somewhere, tries to log onto the only server with players on it, can't get on because it's prime-time and it's full (although it looks like 2 slots are open to them). They drift on elsewhere. TG #2 never even shows up as an option because there's nobody there.

When I first found TG, it was before the 1st patch and one of the issues back then was that 64-player ranked servers seemed to always have lag issues. I just avoided 64-player maps whenever possible out of habit, and had learned the 32-player versions well. I read about TG somewhere, having played on some other teamplay-oriented servers, and really liked the 48 players on the 32-player maps that TG ran on server 2. I'd only go on server 1 when server 2 was full - which was actually quite common back then. Server 2 would be 48/48, and server 1 would still have at least a few slots many nights.

I ended up playing on server 1 more as I joined the community and started playing on password nights, but would still move over to #2 if #1 was full. Seemingly overnight #2 went from having a decent number of players to being almost totally dead ALL the time, so I'd just wait til I could get on #1 - which I can now do all the time as an SM.

If we had the current dynamic of a full #1 and dead #2, I might not have stuck around here. Considering I tend to be close to the lead in deaths every round, you guys would really miss not having me as a target . Seriously though, back then we'd have over 100 people playing - now we always have 62 or less (not counting the private server, which isn't really a factor to pubbies anyways).

Why is this a problem? Server #1 is often not full at times it used to be, which can diminish the gameplay a bit. If we had a regular nightly player base of 110 or so instead of 62, the odds of at least one of the servers being full are that much higher. With 2 populated servers, that's that many more SL's and CO's that are getting on-the-job training, too.

I bet the urban maps would be a big hit, considering the contempt many of my fellow groundpounders have for the aircraft at times. I know I'd play that somewhat often at least. I think we need to try something, as I think if we can get #2 seeded with 25 or so players regularly it'll draw some fresh me....er, new blood to the community as a whole. Nobody is going to log on if there are only 5 people on there - even the dedicated TG'ers will probably just keep refreshing to see when a slot is open on #1. I think it'd be much better if both servers had enough people for meaningful games.