ATAG Dedicated Server is up!

[AbortedMan]

Originally Posted by ICU_DIE535

I think ALL the ATAG guys are Awesome. The work they put into these missions and the help they give has no equal anywhere else in this commun ity. If something god forbid ever happened to cause the ATAG servers to go down I would be very depressed, and upset because I look forward to flying, fighting and talking to the people on their servers.

I have been killed, had my plane blown in half or lost an elevator, aileron just flying low over Hawkinge or the British territory and I didn't like it much. But thats realistic to me and it's the chance you take flying low. I didn't cry about it because I understood what would happened if I did it.

As far as vulching goes it is realistic and a part of war. I love it when a group of British fighters comes to France to vulch at Pihen or what ever because it just means that I don't have to fly across the channel to get a kill, and those battles are the most fun in my opinion. Sure I get shot before take-off or shot right at wheels up but, I get back in a plane and go after the guy who shot me, to make them pay.

Some people just can't stand being p/ked right after take-off and have to cry about it.

Thats my two cents.

I'm not too concerned about getting vulched myself, never really happens to me as I don't put myself in that position. What I do concern myself with is we have about 100 square miles to fly and operate in with various tasks and activities yet most of the time 75% of the people on the server are only interested in the 1 square mile that contains Hawkinge.

[bw_wolverine]

Here's my position:

ATAG's main server offers something you can't get elsewhere online at the moment; consistent high bandwidth connection game server where you are pretty much guaranteed to encounter human enemy opposition in the air using the channel map. That's great. Whether people hover around Hawkinge or meet at angels 18 over the channel is a matter for people to decide on their own.

There are other servers out there that offer other options. If you want more structured missions and raids of a historical nature then try ACG's offering. Want instant dogfights then try the Repka stuff. 71sts server is wonderful as well when it is available. The reason I think we all get in knots over ATAG's style of play (mostly unstructured with symmetrical objectives - just my description of it) is that it has the appearance of "the only game in town" due to its regularly being the only highly populated server out there.

I'd love to get the ACG sever onto a fibre line in North America to guarantee good pings and bandwidth but I can't afford to. I'd love to code up my perfect mission but I don't have the time to get familiar enough with the mission builder to do it. Even then I'm not convinced that server ping or mission type are the issues when it comes to server population.

I don't think the current situation is perfect for anyone. Hopefully when the game is patched up to a point where we start gaining more pilots than we're losing then we'll start seeing a higher proportion of players who are willing to gather regularly for a different gameplay experience. In turn that should allow more servers to prosper and take away the problem of having to decide whether to log into a server that has 30 players on or a server that has 0.

[ATAG_Doc]

Is the channel command on yet or still testing?

[ATAG_Septic]

Originally Posted by AbortedMan

I'm not too concerned about getting vulched myself, never really happens to me as I don't put myself in that position. What I do concern myself with is we have about 100 square miles to fly and operate in with various tasks and activities yet most of the time 75% of the people on the server are only interested in the 1 square mile that contains Hawkinge.

I'd like to see some evidence for that assertion, the 75%. I'm not saying you are incorrect you understand. I'm no expert on percentages and statistics.

As for me, I fly red and blue about equally, fighters and bombers and I rarely find myself there.

Septic.

[ATAG_Septic]

Originally Posted by ATAG_Doc

Is the channel command on yet or still testing?

It's up on Wolf's pc for testing, despite the high pings from here it's very playable

Septic.

[ATAG_Bliss]

Originally Posted by bw_wolverine

Here's my position:

ATAG's main server offers something you can't get elsewhere online at the moment; consistent high bandwidth connection game server where you are pretty much guaranteed to encounter human enemy opposition in the air using the channel map. That's great. Whether people hover around Hawkinge or meet at angels 18 over the channel is a matter for people to decide on their own.

There are other servers out there that offer other options. If you want more structured missions and raids of a historical nature then try ACG's offering. Want instant dogfights then try the Repka stuff. 71sts server is wonderful as well when it is available. The reason I think we all get in knots over ATAG's style of play (mostly unstructured with symmetrical objectives - just my description of it) is that it has the appearance of "the only game in town" due to its regularly being the only highly populated server out there.

I'd love to get the ACG sever onto a fibre line in North America to guarantee good pings and bandwidth but I can't afford to. I'd love to code up my perfect mission but I don't have the time to get familiar enough with the mission builder to do it. Even then I'm not convinced that server ping or mission type are the issues when it comes to server population.

I don't think the current situation is perfect for anyone. Hopefully when the game is patched up to a point where we start gaining more pilots than we're losing then we'll start seeing a higher proportion of players who are willing to gather regularly for a different gameplay experience. In turn that should allow more servers to prosper and take away the problem of having to decide whether to log into a server that has 30 players on or a server that has 0.

What it offers is missions designed to work with lots of players. IE - we've constantly changed missions and figured out what works for a larger audience. We've been lucky to have the population as our own beta testers essentially, but I have no doubt the population we have is because we do fix problems and constantly improve. Some of the missions have had 1000's of changes. I'm fairly confident the other servers would be at square #1, where we started at, if they started filling up. This isn't meant to be a bad thing, it's just, like I did early on, I thought I had the greatest mission in the world, then soon found out what I had to do to start allowing more people to join it.

You can make some really good historical scenarios when you have 5 people flying it. You soon realize what types of problems go on when you have 20, then 30, then 40, till 100 players. Again, we've been fortunate to have a population as a test bed to be able to figure out what works and what doesn't. But this is no BS when I tell you missions can run great with low amounts of people, but will go to absolute crap when they fill up unless you know just how much you can push it. I've joined other servers and seen some real nice historical escort stuff and the likes, but immediately thought to myself, "this server couldn't have 20 players join it" simply because what they were trying to do with certain amounts of AI and objects I've tried long ago.

Unless there's been some magic wand out there that has helped people magically figure out how to get missions in line with player numbers (IE - what works) I think most other hosters would go through the same ordeal we have for well over a year constantly working around the issues. The bad part for the other hosters is they don't really get a chance to see these issues until there's some sort of player base join. I'm pretty sure the SOWC has helped Farber figure out just how unhistorical # of bomber flights you can have etc., with a good amount of players. I think he even said he tested himself with large groups everywhere and it worked great. I saw the SOWC and a few people weren't able to join, many had slide shows etc. Now this isn't any sort of jab, it's just that Farber probably now has more of an understanding of what you can do online as he keeps the campaign going. I imagine it's as disappointing to him as it was to us long ago when we were 1st trying to do this sort of thing. So I'd wager a guess that people flock to the server quite simply, because the missions work for that many people, as good as one can expect in the current online state.

This isn't a jab at any server hoster btw, I just think they'd all have to go through the same growing pains and enlightenment we did once we started getting players. Making the missions work is what has kept them IMO.

@ Doc - Channel Command is in the rotation

[ATAG_Doc]

Originally Posted by ATAG_Bliss

@ Doc - Channel Command is in the rotation

Thank you! You made what could possibly be my last day alive great! Many TANKS!

[AbortedMan]

Originally Posted by ATAG_Septic

I'd like to see some evidence for that assertion, the 75%. I'm not saying you are incorrect you understand. I'm no expert on percentages and statistics.

As for me, I fly red and blue about equally, fighters and bombers and I rarely find myself there.

Septic.

Just an observational guesstimation...everyone that plays on ATAG knows to go to Hawkinge for a guaranteed quick fight.

[Warhound]

Channel command up and running right now, just started!
come try it out.

[SlipBall]

Is anyone here using the ts plugin-volume control...I can't seem to un-pack it even as administrator.
http://addons.teamspeak.com/director...ous/page3.html