Starting a new Rust server and its intrinsic difficulties. - Rust

So here I am, I've bought a new rust server. Great, go me right? Wrong. I've noticed a particular trend, people buy servers, start at 0 players, and remain at 0 players for a long while. This got me wondering, how exactly do new server owners attract players? Original content? Alright, so I've tried that, modifying scripts, writing my own small ones (not exactly a pro at lua, nor do I post any) - with the idea that fresh content will bring in the players. Wrong again. So I did some server hopping on the more popular servers, only to come to the conclusion that traffic attracts traffic. Yep that's right. People decide to join a server because of its population, first and foremost, next, they look at the mods. The problem here is that a majority of the Rust community seems to like "easy mode" or "instant gratification" Rust, no struggling, no grinding, just give me it and gie me it now. I came here to ask the Facepunch community what their ideas were to starting a successful server. So community, what ARE the things you look to, first and foremost, in a new Rust server? What would get you to join and stick to a server? Please, no advertisements, this is not meant as some sort of ad to my own server, nor anyone else's. I'm just genuinely curious as to what makes a successful server, and why servers die out every so often, out of the blue. Regards, Rusty84t.

When im looking for new servers my #1 thing I look for is whats in the name. Your server could be the best server ever but your name needs to catch my eyes. I love seeing things like last wipe date. Active admin.... stuff life that and seeing vanilla. I personally hate heavily modded servers and prefer a vanilla server any day and vanilla servers are what keep players playing and is the most reliable in my opinion.

I concur, high population attracts traffic. It's the first thing I look at when joining a new server. I've played too many new servers with low population that ended up dying off and left me practically alone. Contrary to what most newbies tend to think, having a giant base without any threat of it being raided is insanely boring. It's like playing The Forest using veganmode. Did that for 15 minutes. Never again.

[QUOTE=Master00Snipe;45461447]I concur, high population attracts traffic. It's the first thing I look at when joining a new server. I've played too many new servers with low population that ended up dying off and left me practically alone. Contrary to what most newbies tend to think, having a giant base without any threat of it being raided is insanely boring. It's like playing The Forest using veganmode. Did that for 15 minutes. Never again.[/QUOTE] Agree with you 100% on this. Since the legacy dead end and the announcement of the reboot, my server is generally low pop most of the time but also has population spikes. The trend I see is if I get a night where about 10-15 players are in, there is a much greater likely hood that more new players will connect, which in turn attract more players. Its pretty much a numbers game. When things tend to die down to low pop levels, the players that are left either stick around or light off for greener pastures. In most cases they say they like the server and the way I run things, but find it's generally too quiet for their liking. I don't mind as usually as soon as the pop picks up they hop back again, and I don't expect them to sit in the server and be bored, but at the same time, It would only take a smallish group of players sticking around for a night or two to attract more players in - double edged sword. Expecting this all to turn around though post reboot release. ATM the tact has changed to find ways of keeping the stayers in the server occupied, whether its by epic build kits, building a submarine in the water or other PvE type events until we have enough players to re-gear as a PvP server again. My advice to OP is to stick with it, be a fair admin with a good set of rules and be patient as it takes a little while to build a loyal player base if you don't have extra resources like dedicated websites and similar for your server.

I want a server that has accountable and online admins, remover tool (so many times I was raided and pillars or random ceilings were put) and foundation-base protection. If you had a way to prevent sleeping bagging that would be great. I am willing to play on servers that average 15 players. I don't like servers that put loot boxes in places that are not vanilla. Also I really dislike admins that come into my base and check my boxes and admins that will ask you if you want any item to research it or admins that will teleport players when they ask for it. If you use fake-players to make people connect I will never play there. I do not dislike starter kits but if there is an auto-kit AND a number of times you can get kits I dislike it (I like traveling with suicide) but it's okay if you put some kind of 24h cooldown for kits. I don't like servers with megaloot or shit that gives you 250 wood per pile etc. That's what I look for in a server.

[QUOTE=vachon644;45462487]I want a server that has accountable and online admins, remover tool (so many times I was raided and pillars or random ceilings were put) and foundation-base protection. If you had a way to prevent sleeping bagging that would be great. I am willing to play on servers that average 15 players. I don't like servers that put loot boxes in places that are not vanilla. Also I really dislike admins that come into my base and check my boxes and admins that will ask you if you want any item to research it or admins that will teleport players when they ask for it. If you use fake-players to make people connect I will never play there. I do not dislike starter kits but if there is an auto-kit AND a number of times you can get kits I dislike it (I like traveling with suicide) but it's okay if you put some kind of 24h cooldown for kits. I don't like servers with megaloot or shit that gives you 250 wood per pile etc. That's what I look for in a server.[/QUOTE] Nice points. I don't think any player would like an admin that pops into your base and sniffs through your boxes, that's just shit, same as if they offer to give you items or be a teleport taxi service. To me that really takes away from the Rust experience. It's always the squeakers that request that type of shit, that IMO are not mature enough for this game in the first place. I love to chit chat with my players but generally leave them to sort their own shit out between other players unless they specifically request me to mediate or ask my advice, or if i see that a rule has been broken from the content of their conversation.

Wipe date, Current Pop/Max Pop, Active Admins (They better actually be active), Vanilla / No Durability

location is huge too, when I got mine I couldn't find shit that was on the west coast....so i picked up a west coast server. sure enough other people were looking for a west coast server too ;)

Catchy name, don't over do it with plugin's and please for the love of god don't give me an overpowered starter kit, the first thing I check on the server is the starter kit, if it doesnt have one awesome!, if it doe's no more then a stone hatchet and some food please. Also, while vanilla may be popular on the most part, its mostly populated by greifers and hackers who know they can get away with it as the admin's have no plugins such as oxide or oxmin. Other then that, I don't join server's with less then 10 people.

[QUOTE=vachon644;45462487]I want a server that has accountable and online admins, remover tool (so many times I was raided and pillars or random ceilings were put) and foundation-base protection. If you had a way to prevent sleeping bagging that would be great. I am willing to play on servers that average 15 players. I don't like servers that put loot boxes in places that are not vanilla. Also I really dislike admins that come into my base and check my boxes and admins that will ask you if you want any item to research it or admins that will teleport players when they ask for it. If you use fake-players to make people connect I will never play there. I do not dislike starter kits but if there is an auto-kit AND a number of times you can get kits I dislike it (I like traveling with suicide) but it's okay if you put some kind of 24h cooldown for kits. I don't like servers with megaloot or shit that gives you 250 wood per pile etc. That's what I look for in a server.[/QUOTE] This is the type of player I am trying to reach, apart from Face punch and cramming my server name with a list of attributes, I believe Mr.Newman (I shall refer to Garry as such in the Rust Sub forum, for its humorous value) might want to offer a description section in which attributes may be listed, or, perhaps a tagging and filtering system. Rust servers and other unofficial server repositories offer such, but their traffic too, is limited. Side note: I am honored to have such a pleasant amount of quality replies. I thank you all for your current and future input in this thread. :)

First I look at the population/ping 50 people at peak 10-20 at lower times is most ideal. Second is when it was last wiped, not joining a new server unless it was very recent. I guess third would be mods, the only one I really care about is no durability, but lower crafting time is also nice. Once I finally join a server I just run around naked and see how built up the server is. If it was wiped in the past day or so and there are already 20 story 4x4 bases and full groups of kevs, chances are I'm going to leave and not come back. Same goes with if half of the server is just one group dominating everyone else. Air drops being at a balanced rate is also important, I prefer them to drop at certain server population points instead of random time intervals, although the most recent server I played on had it set to 50 so there has only been one air drop in the past week so one group is dominating because they have explosives and no one else does. That server quickly died. That was a bit more than I meant to put but I play with 2-5 people and that is what will make or break a server for us.

[QUOTE=Apachewolf;45470336]First I look at the population/ping 50 people at peak 10-20 at lower times is most ideal. Second is when it was last wiped, not joining a new server unless it was very recent. I guess third would be mods, the only one I really care about is no durability, but lower crafting time is also nice. Once I finally join a server I just run around naked and see how built up the server is. If it was wiped in the past day or so and there are already 20 story 4x4 bases and full groups of kevs, chances are I'm going to leave and not come back. Same goes with if half of the server is just one group dominating everyone else. Air drops being at a balanced rate is also important, I prefer them to drop at certain server population points instead of random time intervals, although the most recent server I played on had it set to 50 so there has only been one air drop in the past week so one group is dominating because they have explosives and no one else does. That server quickly died. That was a bit more than I meant to put but I play with 2-5 people and that is what will make or break a server for us.[/QUOTE] I'd say random times are far more effective for air drops, lets the little guys get the drops while the big groups are sleeping. No Durability is a must though, either that or something that increases tool durability by around 10x so it doesn't break twice every gathering run but rather breaks once every 5.

[QUOTE=Malexion;45470488]I'd say random times are far more effective for air drops, lets the little guys get the drops while the big groups are sleeping. No Durability is a must though, either that or something that increases tool durability by around 10x so it doesn't break twice every gathering run but rather breaks once every 5.[/QUOTE] Removing durability generally worsens stuff. Kevlars never dent, and m4s never require some thought prior to using. Shooting offers no incentives not to do so. I have it turned off, though I prefer a medial setting like 0.35 or so.

If you'd like to add me on Steam I'd be willing to chat with you about this, I've been running our Rust Survival server for 5+ months and we have been in the top 5 on [URL="http://toprustservers.com/"]toprustservers.com[/URL] for a long time. [URL="http://steamcommunity.com/id/upsetstarship"]My Steam profile[/URL] [URL="http://wwofr.com"]wwofr.com Rust community[/URL] - UpsetStarship

Be a well known player for being good so people can trust your judgement when someone is actually hacking. Or just organize a time/day for all your friends to join at once for 30minutes to get a number to attract new players. You can also try the Russian way with giving your server a fake # of players in it to attract new members.

From my experience I feel like everyone who comes into your server needs a little bit of special attention, meaning that i personally go to them and have a chat, make them feel like its their home. So in the early stages you will have to be in your own server a lot. Every single person who joins you, even if it is for a few minutes, you have to welcome them. Even if it only means they will stay for 5 minutes longer. Also as mentioned before, the name of your server is really important. Will it catch peoples eyes? Does it have interesting things in the name already, because thats the first way for people to know anything about your server. Wipe date is important! And having a good ping is a nice one too.

[QUOTE=Grim Reaped;45494262]From my experience I feel like everyone who comes into your server needs a little bit of special attention, meaning that i personally go to them and have a chat, make them feel like its their home. So in the early stages you will have to be in your own server a lot. Every single person who joins you, even if it is for a few minutes, you have to welcome them. Even if it only means they will stay for 5 minutes longer. Also as mentioned before, the name of your server is really important. Will it catch peoples eyes? Does it have interesting things in the name already, because thats the first way for people to know anything about your server. Wipe date is important! And having a good ping is a nice one too.[/QUOTE] I have done the welcoming thing, I can attest to it helping out a lot. My admining remains fair and noninvasive. I have to work on the server title, as suggested. Ping wise, a Canada East server should fair well. I have removed the hardcore mod and reverted to a previous successful setup. We will see how it goes.