Discovery's Current Status

[Badperson]

I remember when you had to queue to login to discovery at weekends, player numbers always hitting 220. So much so the server would constantly lag out and crash.

The days when you used to finger bash login button to try and get on the server, however after 4.85 everything changed. Gallia changed discovery forever.

4.85 - 4.86 was when the server population began to die.

On top of that, there were many changes such as ship model changes, economy changes, and basic changes to combat and PvP balance that got many upset, and stuff like that. Many of DIsco's previous veterans have left in fury or have gone because of real life. It won't be very long before this game dies out and becomes a legend that redefined space combat in a way, but we can still enjoy it while it lasts.

[Evo]

It's going down for many different reasons, one which no one would tell you is the fact that some people think they are monarchs here and that people who come here are subjected to their way of thinking and doing things. Yeah I'd say a great number of people left because of a few unimportant self-appointed lemmons who measure fun by how many posts or years they have been here. You probably know who you are.

Ooh passive aggression. Would you like a pumpkin spice latte with that? Let's keep the personal anger out of this ya?

On topic: the dying of disco is mainly due to an aging player base. It's what happens with old games. The generation that played it grows older and moves on in life or just get bored; there's not really a remarkable influx of new players. We get new ones occasionally via moddb, youtube, etc. but that's less than the outgoing.

The only thing that could be done to reverse this trend is reserving some ad space on various gaming sites and more presence on youtube and such. It can be done but it's not free in reference to the former and not easy in reference to the latter. I'd happily make youtube videos if I had an SSD or the cash to buy one but.. Well, broke.

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[The.Outlaw.Star]

Its population has declined markedly since 4.85. In those days we had to wait to get online in the evening. Nowadays - not so much.

In a way i kinda miss that *sadface

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[Thyrzul]

It's going down for many different reasons, one which no one would tell you is the fact that some people think they are monarchs here and that people who come here are subjected to their way of thinking and doing things. Yeah I'd say a great number of people left because of a few unimportant self-appointed lemmons who measure fun by how many posts or years they have been here. You probably know who you are.

Hell yea, so true! Let's form a resistance against these oligarchs, let's fight the B[A]dmins, the B[A]delopers, the B[A]derators, this annoying Thryzzly, and everybody else who does not believe in the power of FIFTY THOUSAND ZONER BONER MARINES!!! Join the resistance today, and make the world change for the better!

Yeah, basically what Laura said, plus those elements of the community who tend to be quite divisive, setting a pretty awful mood quite often. It takes a little bit of experience to filter out these elements, but shouldn't be too hard once you've been around for a few weeks/months already.

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[Lonely_Ghost]

Meh, Disco is still so Disco. Threads, which could creat another tension between members keep appearing like mushrooms after rain.

About topic: Nothing is enternal, even Disco.

[onca]

the dying of disco is mainly due to an aging player base. It's what happens with old games. The generation that played it grows older and moves on in life or just get bored; there's not really a remarkable influx of new players.

^^ This

I'm a veteran player by all accounts, although I never been hardcore at Disco. I've played *a lot* of video games, and I can safely say Freelancer is my all time favorite game. I really do love the game. And I've been at Disco for almost as long as I've been playing FL, and believe me when I say I love this place too.

So I pop back in this place from time to time, because I have a lot of affection for Disco, and I hope to see some old faces, as well as meet some new ones. It is astounding to see the place is still going after 8 years, and TBH, I'll mourn the day they pull the plug. I am amazed at the depth of imagination and technical skill of everyone who has contributed to the mod, as well as the RP of many people on the player side.

But the honest-to-god truth is, I'm bored with the game. That happens. I've played the damn thing to death, the SP campaign, multiplayer, online mods, Disco, the whole damn lot. I've done extensive modding -- and believe me when I say FL is absolutely the *worst*, most horrible game for modding I've ever seen. The modders have done a fantastic job in packing in a ton of new features over the years.. but in the end, it's still Freelancer.

So yeah, now that FL is 11 years old, there just aren't any new players coming on board. Let's face it, everyone who joins this place is a veteran FL player by all accounts, except for those few who just discovered the game. They probably found the the dusty CD in the drawer, replayed the SP campaign for kicks, remembered why they liked it, and stumbled into this place as the only MP server of note still running.

But not to worry.. there is still a thriving community of Doom players for godsake. The underlying gameplay of FL is still pretty damn good, and if Micro-bloody-soft would only release the source code, I reckon we'd see a veritable Freelancer renaissance as it is rewritten to vastly the graphics engine and other features.

Anyhow tl;dr

[Karst]

From the days of 4.86, update 4....sadface.png

Mind you, I think people place the demise or perceived demise of disco much earlier than it should be. Sure, the server almost never hit max players after 86 was released, but until fairly recently (last year at least), peak times were still 150+.
I feel like a big problem was the very buggy initial 4.87 release. It never really fully recovered after.

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[Zen_Mechanics]

And few individuals who were on probation for trolling are also upset.

Yes, I saw today lot of upset people, some are even experts in (passive) aggresivity and spitting at everybody who disagree with them to insane level while also trying to picture this place in the worst way possible. Did I forget anything, dear creator of zoner marines?

But back to OP: there are well known cycles of activity. Recently activity decreased because end of holidays and start of school/university. Situation usually gets better around end of exam time and during Christmas time. Then numbers will again go down until summer begins again.

Generally, server population is going down (from 200 players at evening spikes) for like two or three years for several reason. To name some basic ones - game is getting older and older, people are getting older as well so they leave because they are busy in real life and don´t have time to play anymore because of work and family. We had also technical issues - period of serious problems with hackers and server instability, period of major lag problem (I think there was problem with server hosting) which annoyed lot of people which are focused on fightining. Some people also leave because they become bored or has some major conflict and ragequit. Or got banned because they started behave like...well, bad.

Also there is of course group of those who are not happy with how devs, admins, mods do their job, claiming that everybody except them are doing everything wrong and trying to picture their opinions as facts. Interesting fact is that some of those people stays around for long time just to shout this again and again but they never leave despite they repeatedly loudly said how much unsatisfied they are here.

Just don´t let them to annoy you and find your fun...

Yes, You forgot the pathological need to re- address issues on other figures. That last bit of yours is a little puzzling, For one you reinforce dogma and then tell people to have fun? Sounds like a dictatorship to me, and as about as convincing. I disagree with plenty of things but I don't pick on anyone out of thin air - Yes you are a real saint. Resisting dogma is the best thing I could think of, do you? Unless ofcourse you like being not free.

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Were fools to make war on our brothers in arms.

[Dane Summers]

I wish someone would throw Igiss' storyline in the trash

Especially now with fewer people, the mod needs to shrink

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[Sciamach]

Plot twist:

The Nomad Suncrushers come back and start blasting off systems at random

starting with half of Gallia, along with most of the Gallic Fleets in order to balance the house's military strength against the others.


and then Space Jesus comes and is all like "Aw shit y'all, some whacked shit be happenin' "

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[ sci·am·ach ]
/sīˈamək/

A simple, angry man casually working his way through life on a personal quest to acquire copious amounts of street cred.