Map votes.

[torankusu]

Someone suggested to me last night that maybe we could change the order of the maps when the vote pop ups. Instead of having the next map at #4 (or a really popular one), we could have it at the bottom, so that people will be forced to read what they're voting for.

This person said that he doesn't really play in the Hyperion servers because of this (I kind of don't pay attention to this, but he also said because the maps seem shorter). I'm also posting this because I've seen some people make comments like, "Not ______ again" or "it's always the same x maps." As I play pretty often, I feel this way, too.

[Plasma]

Thanks Torank for relaying the info. This is something we hear often, and we're always changing settings around a bit to see if we can add a bit more map diversity without scaring away players that enjoy these "popular" maps. Dave has been modifying the way our mapchooser plugin works a bit, so hopefully, the badwater/goldrush/upwards cycle won't happen too often.

Keep in mind, we've also setup the 2nd server: Payload Votation to be the server with the most map diversity including Payload Races maps plr. The general idea is to have a fixed Payload (and plr) rotation heavily influenced by player votes. Now I know the 2nd server is far from being as active as the Payload server, but we're trying hard to change that. If you want to play other maps, and have some spare time, please feel free to jump on the 2nd server and help us seed. It is quickplay enabled, and usually with 6-10 players on, it fills up pretty fast.

Finally, regarding the "the maps seem shorter" comment, it really depends on the different TF2 communities. Our mp_timelimit (map play time) is between 30 and 35min for most Payload maps. Payload Races (plr) maps are shorter: 20-25min because they usually become long boring stand offs with 32 players. I know some communities have their mp_timelimit really high: 45min+. From personal experience, we've noticed that 30-35min timelimits is a good balance. Players get the chance to at least play attack and defense once, get coordinated and learn to play with each other. One thing I've noticed on very long timelimit servers is teams become very unbalanced after a while. Players on the losing team either switch or just leave, and that means the autobalance plugin has to kick in a lot more. When the map changes a bit more often, teams are a bit more balanced at least in the beginning as everybody loads the map and joins a team. There are other reasons for why we use this timelimit, but we're open to listen to reasons we should change it too. As usual, we listen to feedback and nothing is set in stone

[torankusu]

Thanks Torank for relaying the info. This is something we hear often, and we're always changing settings around a bit to see if we can add a bit more map diversity without scaring away players that enjoy these "popular" maps. Dave has been modifying the way our mapchooser plugin works a bit, so hopefully, the badwater/goldrush/upwards cycle won't happen too often.

Keep in mind, we've also setup the 2nd server: Payload Votation to be the server with the most map diversity including Payload Races maps plr. The general idea is to have a fixed Payload (and plr) rotation heavily influenced by player votes. Now I know the 2nd server is far from being as active as the Payload server, but we're trying hard to change that. If you want to play other maps, and have some spare time, please feel free to jump on the 2nd server and help us seed. It is quickplay enabled, and usually with 6-10 players on, it fills up pretty fast.

Finally, regarding the "the maps seem shorter" comment, it really depends on the different TF2 communities. Our mp_timelimit (map play time) is between 30 and 35min for most Payload maps. Payload Races (plr) maps are shorter: 20-25min because they usually become long boring stand offs with 32 players. I know some communities have their mp_timelimit really high: 45min+. From personal experience, we've noticed that 30-35min timelimits is a good balance. Players get the chance to at least play attack and defense once, get coordinated and learn to play with each other. One thing I've noticed on very long timelimit servers is teams become very unbalanced after a while. Players on the losing team either switch or just leave, and that means the autobalance plugin has to kick in a lot more. When the map changes a bit more often, teams are a bit more balanced at least in the beginning as everybody loads the map and joins a team. There are other reasons for why we use this timelimit, but we're open to listen to reasons we should change it too. As usual, we listen to feedback and nothing is set in stone

Wow, thanks for taking the time to write out that explanation and welcome back!

I see what you mean about if the maps are long and the teams could become unbalanced. I sometimes play on 24/7 ____ servers (or I did more often before) and saw this happening. I'll explain this to people if they ask and/or refer them to this post.

Also, I've been trading a lot this past week (sorry xP), but I won't be doing that as much for a bit, so I'll be around more to help fill up the servers.

[iShank]

If it's possible, we should have 2 different vote pop ups for the two servers. Since Hyperion #1 is so popular, it should be safe to put plr_ maps and even koth_ maps as options 4 and 5. But for the Votation server, I think it's best to keep the more popular maps (like goldrush and upward) as options 4 and 5, not plr maps that may empty the server.  Just throwing out ideas