I don't believe the lack of players is anything to do with the maps or weapons.

People just want a game they can install, fire up and play, but most can't seem to play FS without having to take a lot of time and trouble trying to get the mod to work.

Servers crash and PCs crash to desktop, or even worse, freeze. Then you you they can no longer play vanilla 2142 either! At this point, you lose everyone who was only casually interested.

Install the 1.1 patch and you can't get past 'Deploy'. By this stage, you've lost most of the players who were initially well up for FS...

A few will still be keen enough to download the full 1.1 version (and I know several players who have tried and failed to download an uncorrupted version of this file), and fully reinstall everything – I'm in this category. They also come on here to read up about it, then make the necessary tweaks to avoid the bugs (like switching the audio to 'Software).

They find some improvement, but not enough. Servers still crash, and PCs still crash to desktop and freeze... I've had FS freeze on every map since installing 1.1.

Sorry, guys, I love what you've done and I'm grateful for your efforts, but I'm not a beta tester and I've had enough of pressing the power button!

Mmm... vanilla!

Yep, totally agree with this. First Strike is not the first MOD to be released where you might get a few teething problems with installation. Don't matter how much it is tested, because of people's different machines, applications like Anti-Virus etc running, there are  always going to be some problems - guys, we are using PC's and not consoles!

In both vanilla BF2 and BF2142 I have had CTD and other problems - mostly this was overcome by lowering graphic settings, especially Dynamic lighting / shadows (I currently have this off).

Finally regarding empty server issues. Twice this week I have started playing on empty / low servers which have filled up within an hour. The first time I joined an empty server to try out some new settings for vehicle control. Within 5 mins someone else joined and we had a good 1 v 1 battle - within an hour a 7 aside game was playing On the second occasion, I joined a server with 2 players already on - that turned into a 10 aside game.Not sure how long it took to get there, as was too busy enjoying myself to notice!

Point is, a 1 v 1 match can be lots of fun, think a bit like predator movie, you are like old Arnie up against the  predator trying to hide and reach your objectives while he tries to hunt you down. Or when I play, I am the Hunter