When I look at the portal servers, I find that there are either some really popular ones while the rest barely have 1-2 people.
I was wondering how do the popular server manage to attract so many more people. What do people usually look for in portal?
Probably hardcore/extremely customized servers or all-out warfare servers with specialists available on all maps.
Most likely the big servers don't have XP restriction - other cool mods which are generated by using rules restrict XP and people wouldn't even join.
The other issue is the missing ecosystem for mods ingame I think.
There is no way to store and host favourite experiences or do matchmaking on them.
matchmaking on custom experiences might help getting servers filled instead of heaving multiple empty ones.
The first two days after launch, were some of the best. Buggy as heck, sure . . . But I could host a 1942 only sever with bots, get full XP, and after about 30 minutes the server would be full of people. Of course they snatched that away from us real fast. Now, most people see a 128 server for 1942, with only 2 people in the server, and don't even bother joining, its not worth the time to sit around and wait for 20 more people to join.
If only DICE would allow bots . . .
I honestly thought BF2042 would have a progression system similar to Battlefront II, where you could lvl up rank up, and progress your character no matter if you played multiplayer or co-op.
Sadly without AI to help populate the server it's hard to populate a server (in NA) that isn't hardcore.
AI is needed to attract and keep players for many experences. Even if it was forced to use the same AI settings as aow. They could also use bots in restricted xp and switch the server to full xp one enough human players join.
