I've started my own Team Fortress server and it's been very quiet Are bots (the official Valve bots) helpful or unhelpful in this situation? Most players don't seem to like playing with bots (even if it's just until the server fills) but leaving the server empty seems like an even worse idea.
Edit: For the record. My server is totally honest about using bots. The bot quota is set low so that players have something to do while the server fills and the Valve behaviour is kept – that is the server has a "bots" tag and the Bots appear with "Bot" for ping. Fake players are an immediate Blacklist for me.
Best Answer
Welcome to the catch 22 problem of getting a social service up and running. People will come back if people come back... how to start the cycle to begin with?
Most server farms fill in the maps with bots, without advertising this in the server browser. That's really awful, especially because you tend to have dumb, but accurate enemies. Bots can be remarkably human like (they don't have to chat after all), until they fail utterly (I screamed at my teammates stuck in the spawn room in stage 3 of cp_egypt for half an hour before realizing the obvious truth.) you can usually tell those servers from others because they have 23/24 players online, always, to make the game (and donating) inviting.
So the niche of filling a server with bots is filled, and so are the 24/7 servers niche, the achievements niche and the idle niche. What TF2 needs is more actual TF2 servers.
I have been regularly playing on the servers generously run by the ATF clan. Why?
The server is run in the US, so I have 170 ping. This is quite annoying (using any shotgun or melee weapon is an exercise in frustration) but do I really care? Shit, I'm actually playing the damn game. That's all I care about.
Now. What can you do to make a successful server?
That's it. Now you have a decent vanilla server where you're playing the damn game with your friends. Embrace your guests and make them want to come back, not for access to a clan or servers or whatever, but because you're playing the damn game. Then play the damn game.
Congratulations! You'll have built your little loyal happy community on the internet.