Is it time for a second TOPS server?

[Brian Lemans]

Moving this to the Discussion folder.

I’m wondering what others think in terms of a second TOPS public server, as the popularity of this game seems to be growing and there is more often than not, a queue to play on TOPS.

In the past, I’ve seen gamers become fickle and turned off by unprepared growth or interest in an overcrowded, online server and while I realize there are costs involved (and this game is may be niche) isn’t this also an attempt to promote the product and get more people interested?  I also realize by splitting into two servers, there's potential to thin out one of the others, but still...isn't it worth a shot to see?

I don’t know the answer, hence my question, hoping to understand this more.

Thanks for anyone’s input.

[DejFidOFF]

1 minute ago, Brian Lemans said:

Moving this to the Discussion folder.

I’m wondering what others think in terms of a second TOPS public server, as the popularity of this game seems to be growing and there is more often than not, a queue to play on TOPS.

In the past, I’ve seen gamers become fickle and turned off by unprepared growth or interest in an overcrowded, online server and while I realize there are costs involved (and this game is may be niche) isn’t this also an attempt to promote the product and get more people interested?  I also realize by splitting into two servers, there's potential to thin out one of the others, but still...isn't it worth a shot to see?

I don’t know the answer, hence my question, hoping to understand this more.

Thanks for anyone’s input.

There are another 2616 public Vintage Story servers to choice. Why will devs run another TOPS?

[Brian Lemans]

Good point, that's fair.  There was something I liked about the vanilla, sort of "we're all here" experience of the TOPS server, and something about no mods, everyone is listing a server with different mods, etc. added and this is the default, vanilla experience.

Edit: I've been looking through the other servers available, and given there are so many available, @DejFidOFF is there one you can recommend that is vanilla?

And I've thought of even more reasons since your reply.  

1. Official server of the game dev

2. No Whitelist so there's an element of danger with anyone being able to log in

3. No need to join a Discord community

4. This offers a free online community with no additional monthly fees - many of the online communities need income to continue providing their services, while there's nothing wrong with this, I pay for enough services already and would prefer playing the official

5. Again, listing Vanilla as most of the ones I've seen so far have additional animals, crops and cooking mods - personally I like to play the vanilla game first so that when I do incorporate mods, I know if they're worth my while and understand the value they bring

6. The official servers are usually the most populous - this is a huge deal vs playing with 13 people in a community that charges $15.00 a month to play

Edited May 12, 2025 by Brian Lemans

[idiomcritter]

It might be nice to have official servers representing the different playstyles...

Standard <---- the current server

Exploration

Wilderness Survival

Homo sapiens

Creative Building

as it is, when the current server is full, an I really need a VS fix, i hop onto TUPS, its vanilla, and very low attendance.

Edited May 13, 2025 by idiomcritter

[Never Jhonsen]

2 minutes ago, idiomcritter said:

i hop onto TUBS

I haven't heard of TUBS, what is that one?

The Unofficial . .. Bpublic Server?

Also, I agree with you on wanting one for each world type. Although the chaos of the creative one would be wild to see, for sure

Edited May 13, 2025 by Never Jhonsen

[idiomcritter]

4 minutes ago, Never Jhonsen said:

TUBS

ugh, nimble finger dislexia... its TUPS, good catch, edited the mis type, thx

(the unofficial public server)

Edited May 13, 2025 by idiomcritter

[Never Jhonsen]

I was fully ready to believe that TUBS was real I didn't know there was a TUPS either

[Brian Lemans]

Checking out TUPS, thank you for mentioning it!

[LadyWYT]

Agree with other posters here, there are other server options to pick from. I'm not sure just adding another server fixes the problem either, as you'd need people to opt for the new server instead of the old. I would say though that having a server queue isn't necessarily the worst thing ever either...kind of depends on how big the queue is at any given time and how many players the server can support. If it can support a lot of players and there's always a long queue waiting to get in, then I would say it's a problem and worth potentially opening a second server.

[Brian Lemans]

All good points.  I think the tough part of the queue is the in-game, day-night cycle.  If you wait 8 minutes in the queue, you’ve possibly lost a good amount of day, of course I guess the same could be said for burning through the night as well.

But if you’ve only got 30 minutes for a quick gaming session, to check your crops, trees and resin, you’ve used up close to 30% of that time waiting to play.