Basil: AKA, Ghost-station

[Poorman]

I'm almost exclusively a sybil player, but I really can't help but notice that more often then not, Basil has a severe lack of players in comparison to Sybil.

I'd like to think that people would want to rectify this, as Metastation is massive in comparison to /tg/station, and the comparatively much smaller playerbase certainly doesn't help this.

So why is it so barren all the time. Maybe we can have a real discussion about why there's such a low server pop, and try to amend it a bit.

I doubt it's gonna amount to much, but hey, I see that pop comparison and I get a bit sad. Metastation's not bad, and it certainly deserves more players.

[lumipharon]

Firstly, meta and box are actually very similar in actual size, just a different layout. (Meta is a little bit bigger though)

In terms of pop that's pretty simple.
People join the busy server, most people prefer a more busy server.

Some people don't, they prefer a more laid back server, and basil's great for that.

I remember the badger days, server 1 went down for whatever reason for days, so lots of people came onto badger. Because server 1 was down for so long, even when it came back up, badger was still full of people, while the other was quiet as shit. This only changed when badger went down for a bit.

[Miauw]

We have pop caps, the only thing I'm really prepared to do is send a message and a link to Sybil when a new round is about to start on Basil and vice versa.

If you think Basil is a ghost-station now, you weren't around when NTstation was a thing. Back then, Basil was literally empty all the time.

[danno]

N-not all the time
Definitely ended up empty though.
The weird thing is that back when crossbow hosted badger-1 it was populated like all the time
I don't know what made badger-1 so great but whatever it was got like 35-50 players on it constantly

[Wyzack]

15 players is not great, but i vastly prefer that to the 80 player clusterfuck that is peak sibyl. Honestly the worst part is that we do not often get admins around to break up the long ass rounds with events, and our traitors do not often cause enough chaos.

[Steelpoint]

Low pop is one of the most horrifyingly worse things anyone has to suffer through.

Its either a long two to three hour borefest of nothing happening and no one wanting to call the shuttle, in fact people will just start a conflict over the shuttle just to do something. Or its one Traitor/Changeling/Traitorling singly-handedly killing off the entire crew one by one because there's no one playing Security or the AI.

I would rather have one server with 40 people than two servers with 20 people apiece. Personally however lowpop is only usually a problem in the off hours.

[Nienhaus]

Make it so anytime station pas a pop of 15 or under skeleton and ghosts spawn to scare people.

[Scones]

Having played on both servers for a bit I feel I can give some feedback

Part of the appeal of Basil to what I'd dare say is the majority of it's regular playerbase is the low population. They enjoy the fact that rounds last eons with only 1-2 antags, and pass the time with gimmicks or projects. Personally, that's not my cup of tea, but I can respect that some people seem to enjoy playing to game that way. There is no (and should not be a) way to incentivize play on the second server - The line is very clearly drawn. Slow-paced long rounds with more RP? Play on Basil. More gameplay, less focus on the intricacies of characters? Play on Sybil.

I actually really enjoy weeknight Sybil where we get 35ish players, because that's an ideal 'low' population. <20 is ass. Beyond that, traitor players on Basil are literally the most boring things in the world. You'd think they would go for something interesting but its usually just "emag for my obj" or "shuttlekill my target", and I tried pushing for Double Agents to become a standardized gamemode there to force antag action and interaction. Honest, I don't mean to sound biased against it; I learned to play on Basil. It's just fucking boring because the antags never do anything.

It's just sort of the reality of the people who play there so I'm not sure we can/should try to change it.

[Antimattercarp]

Easiest way to fix this is to switch sybil's map to metastation and basil's to box, the amount of "Muh Box!" that seems to exist should cause the server pops to even out a little.

[danno]

the real problem is that a huge amount of faggots on both servers go "but I don't want people who play on _______!" because they're faggots.

[MisterPerson]

Wrong forum.

[NikNakFlak]

Then get it moved, dont lock it.

[Cheimon]

Easiest way to fix this is to switch sybil's map to metastation and basil's to box, the amount of "Muh Box!" that seems to exist should cause the server pops to even out a little.

I don't see why it would even out.

You'll just get a general migration from sybil to basil and vice versa.

Nobody cares about the fact the server name begins with a 'B' or an 'S'.

[Incoming]

Easiest way to fix this is to switch sybil's map to metastation and basil's to box, the amount of "Muh Box!" that seems to exist should cause the server pops to even out a little.

We tried this before, it doesn't work

[danno]

there isn't a fix unless the cap is lowered to 50-60 players.

[Tokiko2]

Part of the appeal of Basil to what I'd dare say is the majority of it's regular playerbase is the low population. They enjoy the fact that rounds last eons with only 1-2 antags, and pass the time with gimmicks or projects. Personally, that's not my cup of tea, but I can respect that some people seem to enjoy playing to game that way. There is no (and should not be a) way to incentivize play on the second server - The line is very clearly drawn. Slow-paced long rounds with more RP? Play on Basil. More gameplay, less focus on the intricacies of characters? Play on Sybil.

I disagree with this. I am certain that the people who RP prefer mid-pop at the very least because there is nothing to RP about if nothing is going on.

As for the topic, I think that the best thing you can do is join the server if you like the map or something else about it. If the playercount gets to 20, rounds tend to speed up and become more interesting which will probably draw more players to the server.

[Malkevin]

We have pop caps, the only thing I'm really prepared to do is send a message and a link to Sybil when a new round is about to start on Basil and vice versa.

If you think Basil is a ghost-station now, you weren't around when NTstation was a thing. Back then, Basil was literally empty all the time.

This is actually a good idea


Another idea is that if a server's population is significantly higher than the other, new joiners are automatically shunted to the other server.
"But I wannt to play with mah ffrieeends"
Tough shit, make new friends.

[DemonFiren]

"But we don't want the Sybil shitters on our serveeeer."
Is that what you meant?

[Malkevin]

Ah yes the other side of the argument.
To which I say "How much do you pay towards the server"

[oranges]

Easiest way to fix this is to switch sybil's map to metastation and basil's to box, the amount of "Muh Box!" that seems to exist should cause the server pops to even out a little.

The amount of rage it would create wouldn't be worth it

[Phalanx300]

Ah yes the other side of the argument.
To which I say "How much do you pay towards the server"

Dem donations man, power to the people.

[danno]

We have pop caps, the only thing I'm really prepared to do is send a message and a link to Sybil when a new round is about to start on Basil and vice versa.

If you think Basil is a ghost-station now, you weren't around when NTstation was a thing. Back then, Basil was literally empty all the time.

This is actually a good idea


Another idea is that if a server's population is significantly higher than the other, new joiners are automatically shunted to the other server.
"But I wannt to play with mah ffrieeends"
Tough shit, make new friends.

yeah it's not even that these people have friends, but they hate people from the other server
the community is so awful that it's not that they want to play with their friends, but that they don't want to play with their "enemies"

[Not-Dorsidarf]

As someone who regularly shuffles their name on basil every few days, it's amazing how differently you get treated than if you stick with the same character for a few weeks. Metafriending is all-persuasive and real, no matter what people say.

meanwhile on Sybil, everyone is shat on equally.

[danno]

^have to absolutely agree

[Lovecraft]

Artyom split Basil, then killed Basil, and then killed itself.
Someone tell me if I'm wrong but I don't think the population ever recovered from that episode.


I just miss Rigel.

[Not-Dorsidarf]

Artyom split Basil, then killed Basil, and then killed itself.
Someone tell me if I'm wrong but I don't think the population ever recovered from that episode.

Basil pop is pretty much the same as it was before the ntstation debacle (10-15 average, ~20-25 peak times, 5-30 weekends).

It's lower than it was when it was Badger II and we had ass/efficiency, but some of the pre-nt players are showing up again.

[Cipher3]

As someone who regularly shuffles their name on basil every few days, it's amazing how differently you get treated than if you stick with the same character for a few weeks. Metafriending is all-persuasive and real, no matter what people say.

meanwhile on Sybil, everyone is shat on equally.

I'm fairly sure that round-to-round persistent relationships with characters are well accepted within the rules, though.

Take Alfred Keplin for example. Could you ask for a more upstanding officer? If my character sees him over the course of a shift I'll probably wave to him and say hey. Alfred'll still do the job, still arrest Coravin and do his upstanding good guy thing which Coravin'll freely mock a little bit, but might even fight a bit less because hey, Alfred's a good guy and he's not gonna be awful.

Is that bad or is that a bit more like roleplaying and actually having characters interact instead of existing in their own little bubble?

Metafriending is something different, it's when something like this happens:
Erin Wake whispers, "You should ready up on Badger and boink with me..."
And then they'll fight for each other and help each other raid the armory and grief and then go back to ERP over the dead bodies despite the fact that only one's a traitor.

And yes, both have happened and do happen.

[Miauw]

yeah, that's metafriending even if it's allowed.
it affects how you act towards people. people that shuffle their names and appearances wont be treated the same way. it's inevitable.
I play on Sybil when the pop is under 40, else I play on Basil. vOv

things are pretty ok right now, there were times basil was worse, there were times when basil was better.
it'll probably get better at some point.

[Wyzack]

The metafriend reputation is pretty well deserved, but i always make a point of trying to strike up smalltalk with people i have never seen before and include them in shit that is happening. It is inevitable that you make friends with the people you kill and fight and work beside shift after shift

[peoplearestrange]

Ah, the monthly "Basil/badger has low pop omg panic!" thread.

Basil has always had low pop, and if anything the 20-25 players its been getting recently is stable and relatively high. Basil has just become a different sorta play style, its not the manic cluster that sybil has become. It also seems to be a lot more RP based, which personally I like.
I think maybe if people are feeling sybil is too manic then they should be made aware of Basil if they're not already, but otherwise things tick along nicely enough.

I think the one thing that could change on Basil is the cliquishness, some people kinda be kinda hostile towards non regulars in OOC , but I never really see it enter IC so its not a huge issue in gameplay terms, just can feel unwelcoming sometimes.

[PKPenguin321]

hibbles had the right idea to this in his last few weeks of headminning
announce over sybil that you will be running fun events on basil
run fun events on basil
also run box since people will be more willing to play on a familiar map
please don't lynch me

[DemonFiren]

It's April Fools, you're not getting lynched. Yet.

[Kot]

Remember Badger clusterfuck 80 people ministation rounds?
Someone bring that back!