I hate to disappoint but you are completely wrong here....
We have never run Manikala with 3 rounds on any of our servers and as for Krasnyi Oktabr and Lyes Krovy these maps are very popular on our servers.
1.) Check your rotations again. Pretty sure that on the Old Glory server, I saw Manikala running with three rounds. I know it was one of the TWB servers, though.
2.) They may be popular, but that's probably more of a holdover from the 32 player days. Personally, I find them to be unbearable nadespam fests and full of run'n'gun lunacy. They just aren't built for 50 players. Your opinion may differ. That's fine.
We take a keen interest in all our server rotations and set them up so that players will have a wide and varied choice when playing on our servers.
Good to know. Might I suggest that you more carefully craft the rotations. Just because a map is popular doesn't mean the map is good with 50 players. You guys consistently have full servers. Take advantage of that and run maps that are designed for 50 player servers and AREN'T suited to only 32 players. Or don't. Do whatever you want, really. It's your server, after all.
You state "I can't find as many places to get a decent game, especially when the only populated servers are playing stuff I have NO desire to play."
So please don't confuse you tastes with everyone else's, just because you do not like a map it does not follow that everyone else does not like it.
I wasn't confusing my tastes with anyone else's. I didn't say "Everyone hates these rotations". Obviously they're my tastes. All I can speak of is my own tastes or observations on what other folks are saying. I haven't seen other folks say much on the subject, outside of this thread, but that's also not going to stop me from voicing my opinion.
We recently added Lazur final and hope to be able to add more final version maps in the near future.
Good to hear. Like I said, though, think carefully about adding maps and try to make sure that what you add actually suits 50 players. Most of the original infantry maps were not designed for 50 player gameplay. In fact, several of them, in my opinion, play dramatically worse with 50 players than they do with 32. Krasnyi and Lyes Krovy are two prime examples. Others seem to scale reasonably well (I think Kaukasus does pretty well, for example, as do Basovka and Stalingrad Kessel).
Ask yourself what kind of gameplay experience you're looking to create on your server. If you don't have a coherent sense of what style of gameplay you're looking for. Personally, I'd rather appeal to a more narrow set of tastes than to take a shotgun approach and end up not pleasing anyone or pleasing everyone only about half the time. You may have a different attitude.
Anyway, it doesn't really matter. You guys will do what you do, as will the other server admins. People will play the game or they won't. Personally, I'll play the game if I'm in the mood and see a fun map on, or I'll just go play something else.
My point with all of this, though, is that I think running a server takes a LOT of forethought and careful crafting of the gameplay experience. I think it's best if a server identifies early on what kind of experience they want to offer, and caters to that experience rather than just being a shotgun approach. I think TWB is in a unique position as running probably three of the most consistently populated servers. I also think people go there because that's where the bodies are, and if they don't want to play Arad, Danzig, or some other 24/7 server, pretty much their options are becoming increasingly limited.
You might be able to make more people happy with the servers by orienting them differently. IE: a fast-action, close quarters meatgrinder server for one, a combined arms "Berezina" style server for another, and maybe one other mix 'n' match server. I'd also strongly advocate turning map voting back on (but perhaps setting a high number of maps to be played before being allowed to play one again). This will prevent folks from saying "Oh christ, not THIS one. I'm out of here." Forced rotations work better with servers running either the cream-of-the-crop maps that EVERYONE loves, or that are advertised as offering a specific kind of gameplay (IE: "All CA, all the time!").
But again, it's your servers, so do what you want. Like I said, people will play there or they won't. I don't expect you to change things to suit my personal tastes, but again, that's not going to stop me from expressing my opinion. Also, I don't think the server rotation issue is unique to you guys. My issues with server map rotations apply to many servers out there.
