Server Hopping

Angelo85

I have played some FPS games in the past but NS2 has hands down the most Server Hopping I have ever encountered in any Online game (not exaggerating for the sake of an Internet argument here).
It is the single thing I hate most about playing NS2, knowing after one round the Server will loose 1/4 to even 1/2 of the players.

I'm sure other players have noticed this as well. Why do you guys think Server hopping is so common in NS2?

Frothybeverage

Due to people being asshats, and ruining a server.
ie: trolls

Seahunts

Join server 1, notice one team has 3 less players, join team anyway, discover marines in hive shooting skulks the second they hatch from eggs. Get spawn killed 3 times in a row, hit F4, fire up server browser.

Join server 2, New game starting, win, jump through random door, get assigned marine. Game starts, run out to extractor, hit h, wait, wait, wait.... H, h, h, yell on Mic, res please. Run back to base, see robot factory / sentry built... Fire up server browser.

Those are extreme examples, mostly I drift from sever to server when teams are uneven and one side is stomping the other, once I've tried all 4 servers here, I go play hat fortress. Have had very few epic even matches lately.

deathmonger

That's dumb.

john_wesley

It might not be server hopping. I think due to the round based nature of the game people just feel like taking a break and stop playing after a long round (40 min+).

Grizeen

usually rage-quitters. or like seahunts said.

Frothybeverage

I take a break if I have to take a piss, or I wanna go have a smoke.

Calego

I don't tend to server hop very much. I prefer to play a game out, or in extreme cases concede, then play the next game from the start. Mind you, I play on a server where I know a lot of regulars most of the time so that helps. But even when they're not on, I tend to not hop.

So, server hopping could be attributed to a lack of community on some servers?

Res

server hopping like the OP describes means those servers lack a server community (or none of the regulars are on so it has a very small community.

Find a server with lots of regulars and only play on that server.... that is what I do.

MPG|RED HOOK

People are just too impatient or they dont know how to take a loss. Sometimes i do join games where my team has already lost but I will wait the 2 or 3 minutes for my team to lose properly.

Caboose

I'll stay on a server for a few games if the players on said server don't concede every round.

Losing to an unnecessary concede is terrible, it's second only to winning because of an unnecessary concede at being terrible.

I'll usually find another server to play on if concede happens. not always, but usually.

sotanaht

john_wesley wrote: »

It might not be server hopping. I think due to the round based nature of the game people just feel like taking a break and stop playing after a long round (40 min+).

That's a big part of it. Very few people can be expected to do the same thing for more than an hour, so usually after one map (usually two 20-30 minute games) it's time for them to take a break. It's really not surprising when 70% of the players on a server drop at map change (or during a bad loss right before map change), it happens to be exactly the right time to quit.

Apreche2

I server hop only because everyone else server hopped. Don't want to stay in an empty server, want to play now. Because the server emptied and people started a new game, that game will be crap because it started with 4 players. Rather than wait for that game to finish to play again, I'll hop along after everyone else.

|strofix|

Luckily (?) for me, server hopping is a non existent problem because there is only one viable local server at any one time where I am. However, I understand the theory behind it, and would think that a game like L4D2 would suffer as much if not more from this phenomenon.

draktok

I only play with a limited amount of time, often. If the game last 45 minutes, I'm out. You might not notice as much in other games since the populations are larger, and games are usually shorter.

ChitownFreeze

NS2 games last a lot longer than other team-based games with dedicated servers, and they're much more intense. At least, I feel that way. I feel much more involved in a lengthy, hard-fought battle in NS2 than I do in something like TF2 which feels more distant and unattached. So when a bad experience comes up, due to stacking, or some asshat/troll/whatever, I think people would just rather go find another server where maybe they have a chance to get a decent game in.

Res

john_wesley wrote: »

It might not be server hopping. I think due to the round based nature of the game people just feel like taking a break and stop playing after a long round (40 min+).

A number of servers are so popular that even if there are multiple people that leave, the server fills back up within a minute... or in some cases seconds.... the server I play on is like that... sometimes takes 30 minutes just to even get in the server.