Would changing wipe day to Monday change the dynamic of the weekly population decline?

It would be an interesting change. That last week before the wipe half the people are going crazy with all their pent-up C4, while the other half have left the server knowing that there's no point. Moving it closer to the weekend -- when lots of us have additional free time to play -- might encourage more epic "final stand" type battles, and thus higher server population.

Update hits on Thursday. The developers then have some time left to quickly fix any problems that may have come with the update inbefore the weekend actually hits. Every1's having a blast on the weekend. I put [I]No[/I]. Why? With Monday wipes, the hardcore clans/groups will get a massive advantage in the early days of the wipe cycle. And that leaves the rest quit as they will have to deal with them each evening. Once the weekend arrives, most have quit the server as no1 likes to being camped from massive towers while you farm for your base. I think even the groups/clans will quit as there's no1 left to kill at the weekend. With Thursday wipes, the casuals get to rush their base up on the weekend while the big clans are busy building aswell. The decline starts as the big groups finish building theirs and start to raid the small ones. Each time a casual logs in to see their base raided, they quit until the next wipe. The more the big groups raid, the less players stay closer to the wipe. In both cases, the only ones left are the big groups with their treasure which they typically use against other big groups inbefore the wipe.

[url]https://playrust.com/devblog-48/[/url] [quote= devblog 48]Remember how we used to release patches on a Friday and then changed to Monday. Well, we’re changing it to Thursdays, alongside the devblog. The problem with Friday updates is that we lose our weekends because we’re fixing bugs.. and in turn that ruins your weekends of playing Rust because bugs go unfixed, or we patch while you’re playing – restarting servers and in the worst cases wiping. The problem with Monday updates is that we tell you what’s in it on Friday. If there’s going to be a wipe then playing over the weekend feels like a waste of time – because all your progress is gone on Monday. And no-one really wants to jump on the dev branch because the dev servers are unstable as we need to wipe a lot when testing. So it’s good for no-one. So we’re trying Thursday. Close enough to the weekend to give everyone something fresh, far enough away that we can patch any game breakers. We’re moving the devblog here too – because that just makes good sense.[/quote]

I understand and remember that, I just don't think Thursday updates work out any better than Monday updates.

[QUOTE=Thulf Waatu;50532491]Update hits on Thursday. The developers then have some time left to quickly fix any problems that may have come with the update inbefore the weekend actually hits. Every1's having a blast on the weekend. I put [I]No[/I]. Why? With Monday wipes, the hardcore clans/groups will get a massive advantage in the early days of the wipe cycle. And that leaves the rest quit as they will have to deal with them each evening. Once the weekend arrives, most have quit the server as no1 likes to being camped from massive towers while you farm for your base. I think even the groups/clans will quit as there's no1 left to kill at the weekend. With Thursday wipes, the casuals get to rush their base up on the weekend while the big clans are busy building aswell. The decline starts as the big groups finish building theirs and start to raid the small ones. Each time a casual logs in to see their base raided, they quit until the next wipe. The more the big groups raid, the less players stay closer to the wipe. In both cases, the only ones left are the big groups with their treasure which they typically use against other big groups inbefore the wipe.[/QUOTE] The key to fixing this and retain both the hardcore 24hr and the casual players interest is to give them both something to do. Give the clans some big project to aspire to, inter server raiding etc.. and the small group/solo peeps like me enjoy hiding and sneaking, but it is a pain when you get raided even when you know its coming. These people need a better method of hiding...I've been saying for a while a massive barren (baron!) extension to the main map would solve that side.... the big clannies have little reason to go there other than to pick on the little guy which is a waste of time as they're busy with their big projects