THE LUNAR NEWSLETTER
SPANNING THE MOON TO GIVE YOU THE HOTTEST GAMING NEWS!
April 1st 2009: Issue 4
The Fall and Rise of the Flagship
By Stryper
Back in the day, MoonGamers Omaha TDM 24/7 was the pride of the community. At 44 population, it was full
almost 24/7 and gained a large following and jump started the society we now call MoonGamers. Over the years,
TDM began to lose a little bit of steam and took a back seat to MoonGamers’ other BF1942 server MoonGamers
Mostly Omaha CQ. The server began a very slow death: losing population little by little and plummeting in the
rankings at Game‐Monitor. Eventually, there was little left of a once proud server. TDM was dead. Players simply
weren’t interested in having fun with no variety and the rankings showed it at a miserable 144 on Game‐Monitor.
Some blamed the lack of players on the notion that stat trackers didn’t track TDM maps, only CQ and CTF. Others
insisted that there was no goal in TDM maps and players were interested in capping flags and winning a map rather
than playing in endless melee. Whatever the
reason, it was clear that TDM would have to find a
new strategy if it was to stay alive.
In winter of last year, Admins started taking the
maps all over Battlefield. TDM left its home of
Omaha and toured the world. The strategy
worked… but not very well. Its high point topped
around 80 in the rankings but never stayed
consistently populated despite tireless seeding
efforts by Section8. “Wake and Iwo gave us good
pop... then it just petered out", said then regular
admin Section8. Admins even resorted to
outlandish modded maps including flying jeeps and
super rifles, but the initial buzz didn’t please the
general population and TDM continued to dwindle.
It was only after noticing that Road to Rome (RtR) and Secret Weapons (SW) maps seemed to hold a bit more
population that both Monkey (T_C) and Lin decided to run more expansion packs. The result was another energy
boost as MoonGamers became the unofficial home of RtR and SW players everywhere. Though it was never
intended to become a 24/7 expansion pack server, TDM began to get full and admins kept running RtR and SW
exclusively. The rankings rose, but again, population was too sparse and it began spinning its wheels in the mid 30’s
on Game‐Monitor before sliding back down.
On February 14th of this year, MoonGamers celebrated its 5th anniversary. Sadly, its flagship server was one of its
lower rated servers. In fact, despite the faithful financial support from donors every month, Core was considering
shutting the server down altogether. Monkey took this minor threat as a serious wake up call and dedicated massive
amounts of time to revitalize TDM by returning the maps to vanilla and practically babysitting the server.
After a large amount advertising regarding the 5th Anniversary celebration event on the server, Monkey decided to
increase the population of TDM to 64 players in order to hold the probable surge in players for the weekend.
Despite previous concerns of server lag at that affected many players, TDM thrived over the weekend long enough
to help Monkey consider leaving the population that high as a test. “I had some concern about the lag” said
Monkey, “but the advantages outweighed the disadvantages tenfold.” The surge didn’t rescind. TDM’s rankings
started to climb into the 20’s and teens and no one seemed to complain about the lag.
As they started to run maps on a 64 player server, many population concerns arose that had never existed with 44
players. Berlin and Stalingrad were unplayable, Coral had a limit to the number of planes it could pump out, the
ticket counts on some maps were completely disruptive to holding a population and on every map there were never
enough vehicles to go around. As the problems arose, minor changes began to be made to help the server sustain 64
players with ease. Jeeps were added to almost every map, a second carrier was added to Coral on each side, planes
were added to the axis side of Market Garden and Liberation of Caen and ticket ratios were properly adjusted to
“keep the energy going,” as Section described it. All of these changes were not as drastic as the ones made earlier a
year before, but made to help the large population fit comfortably into the maps.
As of Wednesday March 25th, TDM (now called MoonGamers BF1942) has leapfrogged the MoonGamers CQ server
and is sitting at 2nd place in the Game‐Monitor rankings. As it was originally, TDM is now the highest ranked server
MoonGamers offers. Many admins have poured their hearts and souls into helping TDM get back to glory over the
past year, but none as much as Senior Admins Section 8 and Monkey. “I'm just happy to see both servers back in the
top 10,” said Monkey with a bit of a sigh of contentment. Section added, "It's great to see everyone happy in the
servers now. I'm just pleased that everything's finally going well.” For these men, their modesty is a stirring
correlation of their service. If it wasn’t for these two individuals, the MoonGamers TDM server would probably be a
mere legend right now; and this article, an obituary of a once proud server. Thankfully, TDM has not only lived to
see another day, it has been returned to glory.
Birney’s MoonGamer’s Tale
By Rapid Fire
Q. What influenced you to join MoonGamers?
A. A kick!
Q. What was the first conversation you remember
from TeamSpeak?
A. Jimmy Jammer teaching me to use medic pack
Q. Who was your first idle/ hero?
A. Stan Laurel‐fantastic comic
Birney Asleep on the job again...
Q. Why did you apply to become an admin here at MoonGamers?
A. I grew to love this place, it was and still is the only server i play on. I had so much fun that I was desperate to
somehow help out, but could not afford to donate. The next logical step was to apply for admin and try to make
sure other people had fun.
Q. Why does everyone always say, “Birney loves trees!!!?”
A. I am a paid up, life long member of Greenpeace.
Q. What would you say your greatest accomplishment here at Moon Gamers?
A. I have bad news and good news for you, the bad news is that I will not answer this question, the good news is
that you can quote me on this!
Q. What do you love the most about MoonGamers?
A. All of it. Literally. From bf42, which is a blast, TeamSpeak adds to the game a whole lot more, and the cause thats
where, in certain topics, you get to know the person behind the voice..and sprite
.
Q. What is the best part about being a Sr. Admin for BF1942?
A. My most favorite part is dragging someone of to a separate channel in TeamSpeak and asking them if they are
still interested in being a admin, followed by the "official offer" and than what it will entail. There are pro's and
cons to everything, the cons is that you spend a bit less time in game where the fun is at, and more time working in
the background and in the forums. The working in the background goes down as a pro as well though. There really
are some very dedicated people working in the background of MoonGamers, most players and many admins will
probably never see what it takes for some of these people, both in time and effort, to keep this place running as
smooth as possible, I am lucky enough to see it.
Q. Why do you like to wear that pink dress of yours?
A. I wear the pink dress because Monkey T_C says it makes me look "purtty."
The New Jr. Admin on the Block
By Anonymous Junior Admin, Edited by Newsletter Staff
I have been playing at MoonGamers for three years. Most of this time on the bf42 servers, although I do have cod4
and 2142. I have recently been given the chance to see, and participate in some of the background work that keeps
the servers running smoothly. What can I say but WOW!! We players and regs really do not have any idea just how
much stuff there is hidden from us. Let me explain. Many moons ago(no pun intended) I applied for admin‐ship for
bf42. To be honest, with high school and life, I forgot about it. Then out of the blue a week ago while in TeamSpeak,
a bf42 Senior Admin asked me to come to a "private" channel. In this channel were THREE bf42 Seniors and one
Core member, and all I could think of was "what have I done wrong". I got myself banned when I first came to
MoonGamers, but that was only for a day and besides the guy had team killed me first. Since then I had been
reasonably good, or so I had thought, until I was dragged into that channel. The thing that made me think that
maybe I had indeed done nothing wrong, was the atmosphere in there. They were all laughing and joking and very
relaxed. Out of the blue one of the Seniors asked "Are you still interested in administrating?" I was actually
speechless, I mean WTF, where did this come from? They then explained that they had kept an eye on me for a little
while and they would like me to join the admin team. My first question was "when?" expecting it to happen in a
month or two. "Sunday" was the reply back. That was a day away!! They seriously did not expect me to admin in
two days. Actually, no they did not lol. Admins start with something called "study week", this is the first step on the
way to admin‐ship. I have completed my study week, and am about to hit the servers for real with the Jr. Admin
tags.
Next issue I will let you know more about the transition between player and admin, and if allowed a bit more on
what goes on in the background. Trust me guys there is a lot, and I mean a LOT. I will also post how I am doing as a
[Jr. Admin].
Copyright MoonGamers 2009. All Rights Reserved
Created and Edited by the MoonGamers Newsletter Team.
Interested in joining the team? Additional details are located in the ®eg forums. Certain restrictions apply.