*AuthorTopic: Scramble...  (Read 6858 times)

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myelin

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Scramble...
« on: February 01, 2013, 04:19:19 PM »
hey guys - great server you run here.  just one concern regarding scramble.  i come here to play with friends, and when the server scrambles, many of us leave or quit and rejoin.  any chance you would be willing to reconsider the scramble feature?  thanks

Dave

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Re: Scramble...
« Reply #1 on: February 01, 2013, 05:46:30 PM »
I believe there's a buddy feature in gScramble that we either haven't enabled or don't advertise. It allows you to choose a buddy so that when a scramble occurs, you're scrambled together. I'll look into it later tonight or tomorrow.
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JackCnKing

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Re: Scramble...
« Reply #2 on: February 01, 2013, 09:49:04 PM »
wow, cool buddy system !

Dave

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Re: Scramble...
« Reply #3 on: February 03, 2013, 03:34:15 PM »
OK I've enabled the buddy system. Type /addbuddy in chat or sm_addbuddy in console to bring up the buddy menu. From there, you can select a buddy. When scrambled, it will keep buddies on the same team.

The limitation is that you can only buddy up in pairs.

For anyone using this command, please don't abuse it.

Enjoy!
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JackCnKing

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Re: Scramble...
« Reply #4 on: February 07, 2013, 09:49:30 PM »
Wow nice, thanks for the buddy system!

pilipino93

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Re: Scramble...
« Reply #5 on: March 03, 2013, 03:49:21 PM »
That would be a little op, if say the other team has horrible players and if you have a lot of friends, then none of you would switch and the teams may remain stacked. Just saying, it's a possible outcome

Dave

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Re: Scramble...
« Reply #6 on: March 03, 2013, 05:09:23 PM »
That would be a little op, if say the other team has horrible players and if you have a lot of friends, then none of you would switch and the teams may remain stacked. Just saying, it's a possible outcome
Right, and fortunately I can track the command, so if you see see this happen or if you see anyone abusing the command, please let me know so I can tweak the settings.
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amanderr

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Re: Scramble...
« Reply #7 on: October 29, 2013, 04:18:47 PM »
I'm getting pretty tired of constant goldrush/badwater/upward votes too. I personally like playing the custom maps for variety (swiftwater, beerbowl, frontier, etc) but I've only played them a handful of times on the payload server cause they ALWAYS lose the vote. I don't quite understand why goldrush/badwater etc are constantly voted for when there are servers out there who run Goldrush 24/7.

I don't know if it'd work for the HG payload server (maybe it would need its own server), but an old server I used to play on did a rotation of ALL the types of maps available at the time (not just payload) including many good custom maps and it was wonderful. Variety is the spice of life dudes. A good rotation server with CTF, CP, Payload + more would be really fun in my opinion.

l0ckd0wn

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Re: Scramble...
« Reply #8 on: November 11, 2013, 11:19:06 PM »
I don't know if multiple game modes would work for HG, the Payloads are the one reason I always come back to HG late at night; they always have people in them.

When you start mixing game modes you tend to lose the random pubbers that stay on for just Payload, or CTF or CP.  Generally speaking, (IMO) most TF2ers play to the game mode they like the best and selectively go elsewhere when they want a change.

(-TN-) l0ckd0wn

Wolfpup

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Re: Scramble...
« Reply #9 on: November 12, 2013, 08:57:02 AM »
I'm getting pretty tired of constant goldrush/badwater/upward votes too.

I personally like playing the custom maps for variety (swiftwater, beerbowl, frontier, etc) but I've only played them a handful of times on the payload server cause they ALWAYS lose the vote.

Agreed on both counts.

I think the voting system is kinda broken. Sometimes the only options are Goldrush/Extend map, that's it. Goldrush is one of my most over played maps and I care for it not. I used to love Badwater, but it's so over played I am not liking it as much as I once did.

It would be nice if the vote system could be tweaked in some way to help avoid the same ol same ol, with the occasional newness of a custom map. Maybe alternate between stock and custom maps when voting. I don't know.

All I do know, I'm not happy with the same ol same ol rotation. (Booooring) I even remarked last night in game "may as well just make those maps rotation, remove the vote all together because they pretty much are the rotation 98% of the time". (Admittedly, a number pulled from my backside but it feels that way.)

TF2 is my only multi-player FPS'r and I really like playing with a lot of you folks. I just don't know how much more of the same ol same ol I can stand. Still hanging in there though. See ya in game, hopefully on a custom map for a change.

Plasma

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Re: Scramble...
« Reply #10 on: November 12, 2013, 12:33:28 PM »
To l0ckd0wn: Yes, I think you're right. I would guess for the majority of TF2 players, they pick a server based on the game mode they want to play. Some pick a server because they want to play only one map too (hence the popular 24/7 anymaphere servers). I don't think we'll have a server with "CTF/CP/PL/KOTH!" at the same time. It's too confusing, you lose way too many players at map change, etc... It's probably a bit strange for some, but a lot of players actually like to play the same maps/gamemodes; most don't like change that much. (I'll explain a bit more next)

We could have other game modes than Payload, but that would mean opening a new server. We definitely could do it; we're just not sure if there's an actual demand from our community. We've been focusing on trying to get the Payload #2 server more traffic: I don't like empty servers. Payload #2 (Votation) was too similar to Payload #1, so we're testing different configurations (all talk). If Payload #2 still doesn't seem to get enough traffic, we could try making it a Capture Point server instead. Or again, we could open a new server if there's enough demand for one.

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To amanderr/Wolfpup: I understand you guys are bored of Badwater/Goldrush/Upwards, and yes, these are the most played maps. Badwater and Goldrush are also the most popular Payload maps. We have to run these maps on our Payload servers. We've been listening though: we've added 7 custom maps so far. We've been making a lot of small changes to the voting system to try to promote custom maps more, while slowing down Badwater/Goldrush. It's not perfect, obviously, and in the end it's still a vote. Players have to vote for one of the custom maps. I don't have last months data (Dave might post them later), but overall, custom maps are being played more and more on Payload #1. (We're not focusing on custom maps for Payload #2 at the moment)

The big issue with custom maps is that they're not promoted by Valve. We're a small TF2 community, with only 2 servers, and we rely on the Quickplay system to populate our servers (not as much on Payload #1, but still). Custom maps don't support Quickplay, which means we have to rely on our community exclusively. An empty server playing custom maps is useless. It's a balancing act: we want to play new maps, but at the same time, we have to make sure we get enough traffic otherwise the server is empty and no one is playing. So yes, it means we have to run popular maps more often than niche/custom ones. However, we're still pushing to slowly get more and more people to try these new maps and actually vote for them. Try to search the server browser for servers running "pl_swiftwater" or "pl_deadwood". There aren't many, and most are empty.

Finally, it depends when you're playing. Our voting system is based on server time: custom maps are actively promoted between noon and 2AM because that's when most of our community is playing. After 2AM though, we rely almost exclusively on Quickplay (especially weekdays), and we just can't run custom maps without risking the server dying. It then doesn't matter if we run different maps than the competing servers... an empty server is useless. And nobody will play on an empty server, even if you're a regular/donor.

This is partly Valve's fault, not allowing more maps into the official rotation, not making custom maps quickplay traffic approved, but that's another topic entirely.

TLDR version: We hear and listen to you guys. We've added a lot of custom maps (and we'll keep adding more), and we try to promote them during prime time. However, we also have to make sure the servers are busy and receive enough traffic. This means we must also cater to a majority who likes badwater/goldrush a lot (either because of Quickplay rules or preference). This is especially true during off-hours (late night/early morning).

We have this thread: http://hyperiongaming.org/index.php?topic=499.0 to find new custom maps to add to the list. You guys can suggest new maps here.

Tip: We've added a new command to check the last 20 maps played on the server. Type "!lastmaps" in chat and it will open a window listing all the maps played in the last 12 hours or so.
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Wolfpup

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Re: Scramble...
« Reply #11 on: November 12, 2013, 02:28:39 PM »
Thanks Plasma.

I'm curious why sometimes the server does the aforementioned votes with only 2 options, "map name"/Extend map. Is it a bug or by design?

Plasma

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Re: Scramble...
« Reply #12 on: November 12, 2013, 02:33:07 PM »
I'm pretty sure that's a bug. I'll talk to Dave.
Is it on both servers or only Payload #2?
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Wolfpup

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Re: Scramble...
« Reply #13 on: November 12, 2013, 02:45:13 PM »
Payload #1 actually. I've only really played Payload #2 a bit during the Halloween event. I'm not a fan of all-talk. (It has it's place and can be fun but not 24/7 for me.)


Plasma

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Re: Scramble...
« Reply #14 on: November 12, 2013, 03:01:04 PM »
OK, then it's definitely a bug.
If you see it happen again, can you please report it and give us as many details as possible? (when it happened, which maps are available to vote for, etc...) Thanks.
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