26 replies to this topic

[DZComposer]

It has come to my attention that people are getting upset with the team balances lately, namely they feel that the best players always end up on the same team and roll the other team.

Also, people are getting tired of certain maps.

So, I will propose some solutions as well as ask for suggestions on how to deal with this.

Team Balance:
- Auto-scramble at end of round based on difference in average player score
- Auto-scramble before each round
- Disallow players from manually selecting a team
- Auto-scramble based on other parameters
- Auto-Votescramble instead of Auto-Scramble
- Encourage use of !votescramble

Maps:
- Bring back map weekly map rotations
- Encourage all players to use !nominate (it takes seven maps to fill the vote roster)
- Periodically add/remove maps

Also, I have enabled a setting that will hopefully prevent people from jumping into spec to avoid balances/scrambles.

Any thoughts? I am also open to suggestions.

[Robert Monroe]

I'm all for the maps changing weekly. There's so many maps now its awesomely crazy, so as long as we don't do the stupid "theme" weeks we should be cool.

A few maps should be retired for several weeks off the bat. Namely Badwater, Dustbowl, maybe 5Gorge, maybe Mountain Lab. Let's put emphasis on lesser used maps, namely CTF and CP maps. Really as a whole we just play too much goddamn Payload.

["User"]

Robert Monroe, on 31 December 2011 - 11:14 PM, said:

I'm all for the maps changing weekly. There's so many maps now its awesomely crazy, so as long as we don't do the stupid "theme" weeks we should be cool.

A few maps should be retired for several weeks off the bat. Namely Badwater, Dustbowl, maybe 5Gorge, maybe Mountain Lab. Let's put emphasis on lesser used maps, namely CTF and CP maps. Really as a whole we just play too much goddamn Payload.

The only problem with that solution is that maps that are popular in the TF2 world (ex. those you just named off) attract a lot of pubbers to our server. I've noticed after months and months of playing weekly game nights that the less popular maps don't attract nearly the same number of randoms.

This being said of what weight should pubbers have when it comes to determining what maps we use?

[Xortberg]

"User", on 31 December 2011 - 11:35 PM, said:

This being said of what weight should pubbers have when it comes to determining what maps we use?

None, in my opinion. This is, first and foremost, the SF-O server, so if our users aren't having as much fun we should put them above random pubbers. Not to say we should go out of our way to make things difficult for them, but if we switch up some maps, get fewer pubbers, and everyone starts having more fun, then who gives two shits whether or not random TF2 player #46372 saw that we were playing on a map he doesn't like and decided not to come?

[Icy]

Xortberg, on 31 December 2011 - 11:39 PM, said:

None, in my opinion. This is, first and foremost, the SF-O server, so if our users aren't having as much fun we should put them above random pubbers. Not to say we should go out of our way to make things difficult for them, but if we switch up some maps, get fewer pubbers, and everyone starts having more fun, then who gives two shits whether or not random TF2 player #46372 saw that we were playing on a map he doesn't like and decided not to come?

Completely agree. Pubbers, honesty, kind of mess up our games sometimes. I admit, I like the company sometimes if it's a slow night but I just enjoy playing with SFO. I don't care for TF2 nearly as much if it's not on the SFO server, with SFO members.

["User"]

Xortberg, on 31 December 2011 - 11:39 PM, said:

None, in my opinion. This is, first and foremost, the SF-O server, so if our users aren't having as much fun we should put them above random pubbers. Not to say we should go out of our way to make things difficult for them, but if we switch up some maps, get fewer pubbers, and everyone starts having more fun, then who gives two shits whether or not random TF2 player #46372 saw that we were playing on a map he doesn't like and decided not to come?

Icy, on 01 January 2012 - 01:22 AM, said:

Completely agree. Pubbers, honesty, kind of mess up our games sometimes. I admit, I like the company sometimes if it's a slow night but I just enjoy playing with SFO. I don't care for TF2 nearly as much if it's not on the SFO server, with SFO members.

Yeah I'm going to have to agree with both of these POV's. This being said, out of what DZ proposed/suggested I'm going to have to go with:

- Disallow players from manually selecting a team
- Auto-Votescramble instead of Auto-Scramble (preferably at the end of each round).

One of the furry pound servers has the latter option set up and it works pretty well IMO.

As for the map suggestions I would endorse:

- Encourage all players to use !nominate (it takes seven maps to fill the vote roster)

[Gene Inari]

Yeah, pubbers are nice to fill games, but if we all consistently show and stay awhile, we can get a moderately full server on our own and have fun like that.

I do agree we need more gametype variation, all we seem to do is Payload with the occasional CP map thrown in for flavor. We need some Arena, KOTH, stuff like that to break up the staleness and maybe get some members out of their TF2 burnout funks.

[Xortberg]

I haven't played in weeks because it's just been Payload mania for so long, so yeah. If shit starts getting more varied and fun, I'll probably come back and see if I can get back into it.

[Gene Inari]

Perhaps throwing in something a bit more gimmicky; I remember for a brief time we would take the class restrictions to silly levels, like no Heavy week or what have you.

If attracting pubbers isn't a concern and game days are slow and small, why not give it a try again?

[Robert Monroe]

Banning classes entirely is a goddamn awful idea.

[emperoroflylat]

Robert Monroe, on 01 January 2012 - 04:35 AM, said:

Banning classes entirely is a goddamn awful idea.

I concur. Banning classes would cause more problems than it would solve and generally wouldn't do much to help the server.

[Milkyway64]

I'm just sick to death of pushing payload carts and hearing certain users scream when their team isn't rolling the other.

[Icy]

Honestly, banning classes (even for a week) is just a bad idea. It messes up the game.

Could we, perhaps, ban Heavies on 4v4 and below? (Is there a way to do that, I mean?) OR, if not. Would there be some way to ban having Medics and Heavies at the same time on 4v4 or 5v5? (Like, if there was a Heavy and someone tried to go Medic, it wouldn't let you. Or if there was Medic, and someone tried to go Heavy, it wouldn't let you.)

Also, I vote in favor of some Arena, Koth, and also, how about some Orange and ctf_turbine?

And finally:

"User", on 01 January 2012 - 03:12 AM, said:

Yeah I'm going to have to agree with both of these POV's. This being said, out of what DZ proposed/suggested I'm going to have to go with:

- Disallow players from manually selecting a team
- Auto-Votescramble instead of Auto-Scramble (preferably at the end of each round).

One of the furry pound servers has the latter option set up and it works pretty well IMO.

As for the map suggestions I would endorse:

- Encourage all players to use !nominate (it takes seven maps to fill the vote roster)

^Sounds good.

[Milkyway64]

In my honest opinion, heavies are at their worst in a group. In small games they have no backup and can thus be easily focused on and nuked down, exploiting their weakness in relative peace where in a big game, you have to shoot through a ton of his buddies and unless you really catch them all unaware and off guard, it's hard to wipe them. The opposite of this holds true for spies, as smaller games means less cover.

Now, heavy-MEDICS in small games, that's just bullshit.

[Robert Monroe]

Icy, Arena is terrible for our server. It completely disrupts the flow of gameplay, and unless you have a perfectly even count of players, someone gets left out and has to spectate. I love Arena mode, but that's what 24/7 Arena servers are for.

We do need some goddamn KOTH though.

And Orange is the most fuckawful thing to ever disgrace TF2 and if we add it I will possibly quit the server because I literally hate orange that much. It's size is fucking ridiculous and the minimum cover makes it basically just a deathmatch map for fucking Snipers.

[DZComposer]

FYI, We have over 90 maps on the server, including arena maps. Lack of maps is not an issue.

[Icy]

Indeed. We have plenty of maps to choose from. We just need to find a way to visit different ones. It's always maps I recognize (which is only about 25, maybe 30?) when it's time to vote for a new map. Why?

Fix that, and stacked teams, and we're good. I still love SFO TF2, but people have been complaining more lately, and I myself have been having… less fun lately as well.

I always see it like this. Everyone wants to go where the SFOers are. I do too. If I can pick the team that has DZ, I'm set. The opposing team always gets killed. xD
But I suppose that is the problem. DZ isn't a one man team. (No one is) A lot of other good players are usually on his team as well.

It needs to be… balanced. ;p

[emperoroflylat]

Robert Monroe, on 01 January 2012 - 04:55 PM, said:

And Orange is the most fuckawful thing to ever disgrace TF2 and if we add it I will possibly quit the server because I literally hate orange that much. It's size is fucking ridiculous and the minimum cover makes it basically just a deathmatch map for fucking Snipers.

I used to like Orange but I find myself forced into leaving Sniper retirement each time I go there. It really depends on if your team's Snipers can take out the other team's Snipers so they don't harass you at every point in the map(s).

[Robert Monroe]

emperoroflylat, on 01 January 2012 - 07:35 PM, said:

I used to like Orange but I find myself forced into leaving Sniper retirement each time I go there. It really depends on if your team's Snipers can take out the other team's Snipers so they don't harass you at every point in the map(s).

AND THAT IS NOT GOOD MAP DESIGN.

[emperoroflylat]

Robert Monroe, on 01 January 2012 - 10:18 PM, said:

AND THAT IS NOT GOOD MAP DESIGN.

Which is exactly why I don't like going to it anymore.

[DZComposer]

Orange is a spy's wet-dream. An entire team of scoped-in snipers ripe for the backstabbing. Razorback? LOL and use the Enforcer. LOL even harder if the sniper has the Razorback AND the Machina.