Map Rotation

[DrkEagle]

So far, I've only been playing on

Badwater
Dustbowl
Egypt
Gold Rush
-recycle-

Can we get some more maps please? Fastlane, Turbine, Upward, Thundermountain, Gravel Pit, cp_well, etc.

[Dave]

We could look into adding more maps. Just remember you can rtv on Rotation. The rtv map list contains more than just the rotation.

[DrkEagle]

Fastlane, Turbine, Granary, Upward should at least be added.

[Hadden]

Those maps may be liked by some, but not all.

In order to keep the server populated; resulting in you having a better playing experience, only those maps which we have tested server population on are in the direct rotation cfg.

Other maps as Dave said can be voted for play.

We may test others in the future.

[DrkEagle]

Where and how are you testing? Upward and Fastlane are very popular, I guess Turbine and Granary can be left out for now. Gorge should be added too. West coast servers in general are very unpopular. If you check, there are very few 32 person, non 24/7 map servers hosted on the west coast. For what reason why they're not popular, I have no idea. I've been playing TF2 since it came out, I've ran a few servers and admin'd in a few bigger communities (just came from Lotus, one of the biggest TF2 communities), so I know what works and what doesn't work on the west coast. It's actually amazing and awesome that you have a most of the time full 32 person rotation server to begin with. I'm not asking to add Pipeline, ctf_well, either Sawmill, Yukon, or any unpopular maps, but as a rotation; Fastlane, Upward, Turbine, Steel, Gorge, Gravel Pit, even Badlands, should be added to the rotation. I know the votemap system is in the works, but a 4 map rotation is very bland, especially when there is no "voteskip" option. Playing the same 4 maps in a hour and a half session or so is boring.

It looks like this is a very new community is a game that's been out for 4 years, just trying to help it out since I like it here so much.

[Hadden]

We always appreciate the input

And yes, we are very new!

[Plasma]

Thanks for the input DrkEagle.
Indeed, we are a new tiny community, started only a few months ago. We spent a lot of time on the Payload server, and not as much on Rotation. We agree, a rotation server with only 4 maps is bland. We tried to have a lot more maps in the mapcycle, and the server was full on popular maps and everybody left as soon as cp_badlands (for example) started.

Dave is working on a dynamic mapcycle. It's not ready yet, but let's try to add 4 new maps and see what happens:
Here's the new mapcycle:
goldrush
upward
badwater
fastlane
gorge
dustbowl
badlands
egypt


As usual, nothing is set in stone.
As for the "voteskip", it is an interesting idea. We don't have a plugin like that right now, but it's something we will consider adding.

[Hadden]

New cycle looks interesting!

Guess I know wherew I am playing tonight

[DrkEagle]

You should def. look into a "voteskip" plugin, the one I know of I think is built into a map vote system. But basically you can set the % of votes in order to pass and how long into the map that you can vote for it. At Lotus, you couldn't initiate a voteskip vote until you were 15 minutes into the map, and I HATED that so much!

I like the look of the new map cycle! I think now that the rotation server has been around a little longer and gained a bit more popularity, I hope these maps will hold the population! I also forgot to mention pl_Hoodoo. To me, it's probably the funnest PL map and maybe throw in cp_Steel too sometime.

[DrkEagle]

I would like to point out how nice the votemap system nearing the end of the map is. You get a 10 second warning that pops up which is a nice heads up, but having the voting options be 5, 6, 7, 8 is so much better than being 1-4. I always hated a random votemap popping up and pressing 2 or something to change weapons, only to vote for something and die cause I wasn't able to change weapons, so props on that!

[Dave]

I would like to point out how nice the votemap system nearing the end of the map is. You get a 10 second warning that pops up which is a nice heads up, but having the voting options be 5, 6, 7, 8 is so much better than being 1-4. I always hated a random votemap popping up and pressing 2 or something to change weapons, only to vote for something and die cause I wasn't able to change weapons, so props on that!

Glad you like it. There is potentially a way to use the F1-F4 keys to vote. I'm looking into it atm.

[DrkEagle]

I think a Fkey option might confuse people honestly and it makes you have to actually look at the keyboard, rather than pressing a option from memory since Fkeys aren't very common most of the time for general use.

[Hadden]

I think a Fkey option might confuse people honestly and it makes you have to actually look at the keyboard, rather than pressing a option from memory since Fkeys aren't very common most of the time for general use.

That's exactly what we want, and what needs to be done.  In order to put a damper on the "hit 4 get this thing off my screen" problem.

Dave has spent a long time working the map plugin and changing the weight of each map.

IE Goldrush has a weight of 72% per vote while Thundermountain has a weight of 68%.  These are just examples of how the plugin works.

We've spent a lot of time putting certain maps in the 4,5,6,7 list with certain weights to maximize player base and experience.  The only obstacle we can not over come is the 4 spam, without ruining player base.

So F1-F4 could just be that solution.

[Plasma]

Right, I agree that using the 1-4 keys to vote is a bad solution. Players just vote accidentally for a map instead of choosing. I guess it might lead to more map diversity, but then why vote?

While the 4-7 keys fix the issue mentioned above, it's not perfect either. For one, it can block weapon switching. You just have to read the chat log for a few rounds, and you'll see players screaming that they died because of the map vote 

As Axon said, we (Dave) have spent a lot of time figuring out a way to improve the mapcycle. Axon gave an example, but it goes deeper than that. The mapcycle is almost self-aware, and we believe in a few days, it will take over the TF2 servers in the world.

In all seriousness, I think the F1-F4 solution is something we should do (or at least try). First, it wouldn't prevent weapon switching; second, it would stop players voting randomly; and third, players might actually read the choices and vote accordingly.

But that requires more changes to the mapvote plugin, so for now, we're not changing anything.

We are testing the new mapvote plugin on Rotation. We'll post more details about it later.