Ideal Server Size?

Helio

<div class="IPBDescription">whats the right number?</div> For public servers, I've found 18 to be the right balance. Any less then that and the aliens get increasingly difficult to defeat, but any larger then 18 and the marines resource multiplier gets out of hand. I was curious what the people who run the servers thing.

Bigtoy

<!--QuoteBegin--Helio+Jan 22 2003, 07:43 AM--></span><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> (Helio @ Jan 22 2003, 07:43 AM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'><!--QuoteEBegin-->For public servers, I've found 18 to be the right balance. Any less then that and the aliens get increasingly difficult to defeat, but any larger then 18 and the marines resource multiplier gets out of hand. I was curious what the people who run the servers thing.<!--QuoteEnd--></td></tr></table><span class='postcolor'><!--QuoteEEnd-->
12 is optimal, and then only on server friendly maps. Of course I only say this becuase I am running a linux server..... <!--emo&;)--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/wink.gif' border='0' valign='absmiddle' alt='wink.gif'><!--endemo-->

Lightning_Blue

I have found good balance with a 16 player server.

Zdrone

I currently have 3 servers up. 2 running at 18 slots and 1 running at 30.
With 1.03, the 30 person server is a bit difficult for the aliens. Usually the only way for them to win is for the Marines to have an inept Commander at the begining of the game.
Having said that, I actually have quite a bit of fun on the 30 person. Its almost better from a learning perspective as you tend to get lost in the shuffle and less is expected of each person.

I personally play on my 18 person servers for the most part although time (and wife/baby) do not permit me to play that often. I tend to have great fun on the 18 person servers and with a half decent team on both sides, I've had vicious battles that last up to 2 hours with 2nd and even 3rd hive aliens being beaten.

I think its personal preferance. If you like tight teams, with more tactics (typically), I would go for a smaller server. A larger server seems to promote a mob mentality and plays more like CS in a way.

SuicideDog

I think 16 is perfect for a pub server. FYI, I know OGL, and UGL matches are 6v6, and I think its the same for CAL. With a 16 person pub and 1.04 beta, the win loss ratio for each team is just about even on my server. It's all about skill of the players, teamwork, and timing.

tlarmon

I prefer an 18 player server. Thus, I host a 20 player server, with 2 spots that are reserved (and not always full).

So it's usually 9v9, which is about as high as I like to go. At once time I tried 24maxplayers on my server, and while the server took it fine, it was just too many people in the game itself.

cracker_jackmac

7v7 (14 for those who have trouble with math)

is best gameplay AND the server stays fuller longer it seems.... 6v6 is better game...but when 4 ppl leave or so, the server kinda empties out. But with 7v7, 4 ppl leaving is recoverable it seems.
But really it depends on what the players like (i don't like 10v10 servers, but tahts just ME)

Narfwak

I agree with everything cracker said. I ran my server at 14 players initially becuase of the 1.0 lag issues; later, soap (pieceofsoap) persuaded me to change it to 18. I'm too lazy to check what it's at now, but I want to go back to 14, as I felt that was more balanced. Life gets too crazy with more than seven or eight people on a team, especially for the marines. I also like the small maps more (I'm a big fan of bast), and small player counts work better on small maps (duh).

Sirus

You said it LB. 16 is perfect if you ask me.

cracker_jackmac

to each his own really.

Epoch

My server is 6v6 (12 max) and the Kharaa win over 75% of the time. Maybe we just have bad commanders, I don't know. Anyway, I think 8v8 would be my preferred size, and I would run that if I could (I might be able to someday).

It seems that anywhere from 6v6 to 9v9 is the best.

Caucasian

16-18 Players is very server friendly for Win32.

Nupi

I'm also hosting 12 players in my server, that is the maximum i can do connection wise <!--emo&:(--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/sad.gif' border='0' valign='absmiddle' alt='sad.gif'><!--endemo-->. Both teams seem to have equal changes to win, if they work together alot, at least marines have to be working closely together.

XLII_Wintermute

In general, the more players you have, the better it is for the marines. They work better in teams covering each other's backs etc than they do singly.

There is a distorting effect if either team gets 9 players or more. They get double resources. This is ok if both have 9, but if one has 9 and the other 8, then the one with 9 has a massive advantage. This is a good reason to either have 16 or 20, but not 18.

Lots of players causes more stress on the server which is the cause of a lot of the laggyness on some NS servers. If this happens you may want to lower your limit.

Grimm_Spector

<!--QuoteBegin--bigtoy_j+Jan 22 2003, 07:48 AM--></span><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> (bigtoy_j @ Jan 22 2003, 07:48 AM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'><!--QuoteEBegin--><!--QuoteBegin--Helio+Jan 22 2003, 07:43 AM--></span><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> (Helio @ Jan 22 2003, 07:43 AM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'><!--QuoteEBegin-->For public servers, I've found 18 to be the right balance. Any less then that and the aliens get increasingly difficult to defeat, but any larger then 18 and the marines resource multiplier gets out of hand. I was curious what the people who run the servers thing.<!--QuoteEnd--></td></tr></table><span class='postcolor'><!--QuoteEEnd-->
12 is optimal, and then only on server friendly maps. Of course I only say this becuase I am running a linux server..... <!--emo&;)--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/wink.gif' border='0' valign='absmiddle' alt='wink.gif'><!--endemo--><!--QuoteEnd--></td></tr></table><span class='postcolor'><!--QuoteEEnd-->
change your settings, I know of various linux servers that run great, even on hera with 14, 16, and 18 players, public.

So, it's not just the fact that we're running it on linux boxes alone, there are ways to fix it mostly, I get ping under 100 mostly on the 14 man, and nothing about 128 on the 18, except on hera where I get maybe 5-10 ms worse.

So, if you need some advice on server optimization, check some of the other posts.

Grimm Spector <!--emo&::skulk::--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/skulk.gif' border='0' valign='absmiddle' alt='skulk.gif'><!--endemo-->