BUSHIDO PRESENTS
Understanding "Spool-Up"
or, 'why are stuff servers so consistently popular?' when selecting a server, players have a tendency to choose servers that already have other players present. even the most misanthropic, lonely-type players will choose popular servers over unpopular servers, because in that case at the very least they will have other players to pour their misanthropy and loneliness all over. this is a simple fact of life, and probably stems somehow to basic human nature.
and also the fact that they're higher on the server list.
in situations where servers do not have enough players present to attract players faster then players leave, they are in a state which is referred to as the
spool-up period. servers in this state are often noted to fluctuate in player count, but it should be noted that this count usually hangs around the 4 or 5 player mark, and will drop randomly. in order to break spool up, usually all you need to do is
break the 6-player threshold, and stay there long enough to attract more players. the comparison i usually make is to an engine- in order to get any power, the engine must have enough energy from an outside source (in this case, a starter motor) to suck in enough gas to get in rolling; after which point it will use the energy from the present gasoline to suck in
more gasoline.
as such, there is a way to essentially skip the spool-up phase- simply have enough players on the server 'artificially' to attract players from the server list. drag them in from external sources, like your RTB friends list or steam- they can usually return to what they were doing before soon enough, after enough players have joined to make sure the server is self-sufficient even after they've left. you could, alternately, build a fanbase for your server- a naturalized solution that also makes use of the RTB friends list's feature to alert people to when you are hosting. in this instance, players are simply alerted to when you first start hosting your server, and are prompted to join by an RTB dialogue, allowing your server broad coverage and allowing it to attract players
despite spool-up.
so in other words, yes- spool-up is a real pain in the ass, but you can in fact kill it with the power of friendship
or with high-quality server content
or slave labor
whatever floats your boat, really.
