Forgotten Soldiers

G'day guys, Having visited your server a few times over recent days, i find it a pleasant, friendly and refreshing place to pass the time.
It is so nice to be able to enjoy some non-standard maps.Please do not take offence to what i am about to say,,but,, Beercourt makes me want to get drunk whenever it comes on, so that i can forget about it
I know some people love it, but if you have played it as often as i have,and many others have, it is the one map that has the ability of emptying a server quicker than you can say,,,,, Niagara Falls.
Have you ever considered,imho, one of the best all round maps,it has it all, great sniping, great flanking options, great spamming, all in all,a great replacement for Beercourt,hehe,,and the name is Bizerte ? Or even Mogadishu, another fantastic map.

Some of you know me from that other popular US server, as Heatseeker.
The name i am now using ,mostly is Cool Hand Luke, though i do still use Heatseeker occsaionally, on special occasions
I have in the past, and still am a member of TOG, but as our COD2 server has been allowed to decline, to basically "dead in the water" status, i do not wear my TOG tags all that often nowadays, though i do still occssionally dust off my TOG uniform if i am playing against other TOG members.
I basically only play cod 2, you cannot beat the uncomplicated and challenging nature of this game.
This is supposed to be a quick ,message,so i will cut to the chase.
I am not posting to tell you how to run your server, but merley to make some comnments on what i have seen on other servers that i have been involved with, and what i have seen that works, and what sometimes does not work, to enhance the popularity of a server.
I know there are pros and cons regarding leaving the vote enabled 24/7, this was an issue on the TOG COD2 server.The vote was disabled,there was usually NO admin presence, this being one of the main reasons that it went belly up in no time.But if you enable vote, and if you even have just a good basic admin presence,, most of the negative aspects of enabling the vote disappear.
If the vote is disabled, and just for example,as was the case last night(my time) Starlight and i were the only ones on, we were on large maps, in TDM mode, and with  only two players,it is unplayable, and in these instances people leave the server.Something you want to avoid, at any cost,yes ? (that is,unles they are cheating )
Though Star and i did have some fun on Colditz Thx for adding that one.
I know that there are busy and slow times, depending on the relative world times for players.But usually, if there are one or two players present,it often makes others join,as we all know.
There are not many servers within the range of acceptable ping limits for many of us, besides the servers that run 60 players at a time.No thanks, full time spamming servers are not my preference.
Where was i ?
Oh yeah, i am supposed to be out the door, on my way somewhere else.Sorry ,gtg..
I can go on,and on, and on some more,,but just thought i would make first contact < hehe.
l8r
CHL   

Thank you for your thoughts, been fun shooting with you too. So far we put up two of your map requests, mp_colditz and mp_anzio, fun maps thanks. At the moment the map rotation is full and can't add any customs without replacing another that has been requesting by someone else. In time, as we replace maps would be glad to check out your other requests.

On the voting part the stock 4. Change Game Type/Map menue has issues with some custom maps not being compatible with certain gametypes and will crash the server if voted on. With the AWE gametype vote menue we can control which gametypes we wan't to allow, TDM/DM but not with the stock 4. Change Game Type/Map menue. We need to figure out how to disable the stock voting without the AWE being disabled.  We agree with you, voting needs to be enabled and will have it working properly as soon as we figure it out. Thanks for your comments much appreciated.

Hey Goodshot,and all FS members.
Thanks for adding a couple of my custom suggestions,,i got a million of em
My belief is that the selection of particular custom maps is also criutical to the popularity of any server.
Some of these maps do run ok with only a handful of players, but some of them they really come into their own when your server has a more constant player level,of say 12-15 players.

I fully understand the reasons for the current vote and map rotation set up..some teething problems,and other  associated considerations. Real life issues,in COD2
I just want to make a comment in regard to your server,,and the possibility that it may become more patronised if a few issues were able to be sorted out.
There are not many servers that are within the ping range of many European and Asia Pacific regions,that are worth playing on,that i can see.
Wing and a Prayer, and your server.
I have been visiting your server more regularly of late, and notice that if there is one or two of us in game,,others will soon join in.But beacsue the vote is not operational,sadly we have no option but to leave
Recently we also discovered that while the vote option is still available on the V2 server, it is not functioning.
As with the V3 server, if one or two of us are on,and we are unable to vote to adapt the game play to the player numbers or map preferences, we will quite qucikly leave,as there is not much point playing tdm on Caen with three players,for example.
This is a pity, as a few of us prefer to play on your server, but we leave because it is unplayable.
I know you are aware of these issues with the vote ,etc,,but i reckon if you are able to address these issues asap, you will find your server's usage grows almost immediately.Wouldn't that be nice ? I for one,and a few other players i know would use your server in preference to all others.
The fact that the server crashes when s&d is called is a bugger. I know the Wing and a Prayer server has an auto reboot if the server crashes, but this is the earlier mod.
I know you guys are fully aware of these problems,and i know they must nag at you, but if you are able to get them sorted somehow, i believe that your server would rock.

COD2 ,the only worthwhile game in town

Hello Paul/CoolHandLuke/Heatseeker,
I get where you coming from, but even without vote on, lack of people on a given map can still be sorted out. Sometimes that means going to ~FS~ Trenches V2 server, as V2 is fitted with really cool custom DM maps.

Usually, people can "vote" and agree to use certain weapons only (pistols/shotguns) or play CTH (Capture The House , 1 of the funniest unofficial game types, as long as it's not forced upon by seriously messed up spawn system). If the crowd is right it can be really fun, sometimes even more fun than playing on a fully loaded server. Both ~FS~ and =WxG= have this kind of people and we can agree on pretty much anything and extend the playtime on any server regardless of the map/gametype. For the most part anyway. When certain map(s) like Caen come, well ... IMHO, Caen stinks for any non-objective based game type, so TDM servers should stay away from it. With custom maps, situation is even more complicated, because you can't know for sure if particular game type works on a given map until you try it in various scenarios and of course, people with different skill level.

Regarding your remark about Trenches V3 and it's "rocking", well ... Trenches V3 already rocks.
People who play there are awesome (yourself included), both as players and as people. However, with more people, Trenches V3 will not just "rock", it will rock & roll Regardless of this ever happening (more regular players frequenting the server), I will continue to support all Trenches servers, although some more than others.

Vote doesn't make or break any server. People do. We already have good bunch of people that make the server great. Wish we had more, but it's great as it is. Not frequent, but when we do get together it's always a blast. Besides, Trenches have always been about quality rather than the quantity. You can't have it all.

Comrade, until we meet again on the battlefield, stay safe and may the force be with you
P.S. Meanwhile, kill all fascists to prevent them from taunting (comparing your gun with a box opener or calling you a perfect target for their machine gunners)

I smell:

Cool Hand Luke 

Hey
on V2 is voting enabled but it is not possible to vote something.
Is there anyway how to fix it?
Thanks

It's not on because some custom maps crash the server if you vote with some gametypes. I would love to have voting enabled and think it would be best but have to remove certain custom maps to prevent crashing and not enough support from clan members to do that.   

Clan approved voting on our Trenches V3 server so it has been enabled. You can vote for any map on the server for tdm or dm gametypes. You can also vote for next map and restart map.