Why are the servers empty?

[Wedgewood]

This game absolutely blows me away and I can see from the comments in the community that I'm not the only one.  I try to play as much as possible however it gets boring just doing laps by myself and I'd much rather play online and ride with other people, not just competitively but also for fun.  I usually check the servers before I play and sometimes I decide not to play because they are empty, and I assume other players do the same. 

My questions is why are the servers always empty?  It's a successful beta so far with many players, yet they are not seen online unless it's a scheduled race.  Are people choosing practice over online in order to chase their own ghost to improve their lap times, not playing online because of the core crashes when several players join one server, or just not really playing the game that much?

This game takes motorcycle sims to a whole new level and I'm honestly baffled by the lack of players. 

[𝖙𝖋𝖈]

I've often wondered the same mate.. It's the same with the forum though, see 'who's online' and you normally see 5 or 6 people, names always changing and yet nobody seems to want to get involved. A real shame.

I work weird hours so the race series was a good way for me to schedule in some online riding, and the spare time I get on the pc I'm normally making something for mxb instead of actually playing it lol..  That's my excuse anyway.

[PizzaChet]

In my experience with servers for PiBoSo sims you see all empty servers, shrug and join one anyway and that's when people show up. The core crash when someone joins is a real frustrating hurdle that is probably the reason the servers are so barren most of the time. We'll get there soon enough.

[Asdrael]

Well i think it boils down toa few things. Some player related, some games related.

The games is still in beta and has zero advertisement from the debs, but also close to zero visibility on twitch and YouTube. We have no race replay, no live steam, no hot laps highlights. The word is simply not spreading.

Then there are some games issues, netcode being the major culprit (included warps, core.exe, no collision and deformation because of stability issues). I personally hate online play with no collision.

And then, if someone is motivated enough to try and go though this to play online, he 99% of the time will fail to find a suitable server. We need in order of priority:
- complete display of the server list, with the servers running tracks you do not have displayed but in red, with the possibility for the host to add a link to DL the track;
- same in orange for bikes, and black when you miss bikes and tracks
- track rotation being displayed for each server
- mouse over the server to have a list of people playing by name, possibility for friend list and filters.

Those are todays basics.

[PizzaChet]

I ran 72 laps online on Holjes the other day and was waiting for others while I kept trying to lower my PB. Only by a tenth or so, but it was worth it. 

[StoneRider]

omg

[loinen]

I think because of ugly netcode. I'm in mx sim until things get better.

[Vortex_Damien]

meh......yes and no.

yes it needs improved very very badly

no, in that, this is still very very enjoyable to be online with others and race, despite the circumstances. I still find it way more fun than mxsim anyday.

agreed and i started playing sim in 2011/12

[𝖙𝖋𝖈]

I've not played more than the sim demo but that was enough for me

[Ruubs]

I've played Mx sim since 2009. I still love it, but getting tired of all the yougher kids (yes even yougher than I am). Racing isn't as fun as it was in 2010/2013.

I also feel like Mx Bikes is WAY more realistic. Yes, it has bugs which make it less realistic. But overall the feeling that I get when I load up a track and ride around is great. I've done one GTX race and I loved it! It was like I was actually there.
My dream is that everyone gets VR goggles and good mics. Piboso then has to add in voice chat (+ make it sound like it's coming from inside a helmet) and then race. Or I could just ride irl.. but I don't like to get hurt, and that doesn't happen in Mx Bikes. At least not yet.

[Asdrael]

We need force feedback in the form on electric clamps on some body parts to make the VR experience complete.

tbh, I am not playing a lot those days because I have other stuff going on. But when I do, I am on, and usualy there is already some on the server or other people join after a bit. /wave wedgewood the other day

[Ruubs]

We need force feedback in the form on electric clamps on some body parts to make the VR experience complete.

YES! I was actually thinking about this too. Max made controller vibration in one of his plugins, didn't he? So making force feedback in the form of electric clamps will be possible, wouldn't it (Just really curious if it is..)?

[loinen]

meh......yes and no.

yes it needs improved very very badly

no, in that, this is still very very enjoyable to be online with others and race, despite the circumstances. I still find it way more fun than mxsim anyday.

I played supermoto not so long ago with 7 guys, was cool but they all came together and left together as well after setting their hotlaps, so no race
The main thing I dislike in MX Sim is its bunch of weird stability settings which affect your ability to whip\scrub and driving style a lot and they are not related to real life\bike riding in any way, they are just in game help, I did some very hard work to find a good combination, that's damn annoying. So, I'm looking forward to Mx Bikes improvement coz it seems to be more balanced, easy to adapt and, yes, more fun because of more good features.