All Activity

balance via mechanics is better than a balance via numbers imo, ofc subject to plugin capability...

In the immortal word of Mr Burns "Excellent"

Exciting! Can't wait to try it out this weekend. Thank you to soda and everyone involved in keeping GC alive.

Changes related to the community balance poll results: I hope you are all excited to see what is changing, have fun this weekend testing these changes and share your experiences and opinions here! Changes will be live shortly after this post, go play! Survivor Pills Results: 66% balanced, 34% too cheap. Proposed change(s): Pills cost +20% (5→6). Drug Pills cost -20% (10→8). Comments: Players who can get a lot of points know pills are abusable. Drug Pills is a great idea, but 10 points is too high to encourage players to use. 8 is more affordable, but still not insignificant to infected players. Tank Heal Cost Results: 75% balanced, 25% too cheap. Proposed change(s): Add tank visible HP bar. Will look as shown: Comments: As most players fall into the balanced category, we don't feel like a change to statistics may be necessary right now. That said, the main issue with tank heals is when it can feel like it is invincible for the survivors - which can be quite unpleasant. This plugin should help reduce that feeling, as survivors (and infected) will now know the condition of a tank, as well as how much impact they are having on it. This doesn't actually change the balance of the tank, but it does provide players with useful information that people may or may not like, so I look forward to seeing what everyone thinks after trying it. Rocket Jockey points & damage Results: 33% balanced, 67% too strong. Proposed change(s): Max Impact damage: -33% (15→10). Max impact distance +30% (1000→1300). Max damage impact point gain 4→3. Fix jockey ride damage per second: 12/13→8. 2 damage per interval, 4 intervals per second. Reduce interval start delay: 1s→0.25s. Comments: Jockeys have clearly been too strong, both for dealing damage, gaining points, and being hard to punish. These changes keep rocket jockeys as a unique player in the infected kit, and keeps them hard to deal with, but brings them to a level where the infected shouldn’t be able to farm them so effectively and reliably. Smoker Effectiveness Results: 83% too weak, 8% balanced, 8% too strong. Proposed change(s): Remove smoker i-frames via plugin. I-frames prevent survivors from taking damage upon smoker grab and release. This results in infected effectively working against their teammates when it happens, and prevents proper chain attacks like hunters pouncing a choked survivor doing no damage (even though it says it does). Movement speed +10% (210→230). Tongue range: +7% (750→800). Tongue hit recharge time: -40% (20s→12s). Tongue miss recharge time: -40% (15s→9s). Tongue miss recharge delay: -40% (2.0s→1.3s). Tongue drag damage amount: +100% (3→6). Choke damage interval: -33% (=0.75→0.5). Drag max speed: +8% (175→190). Drag acceleration speed: +10% (30→33). Comments: Smokers are clearly very weak compared to the other specials, and these changes intend to bring it to a stronger position, making it a more common pick for players who rarely play it, while also enabling players who have a lot of practice on it to have a more rewarding experience. The move speed enables the player to reposition or get to cover quicker after being spotted or having their victim cleared, hopefully without being overkill. The small buffs to many stats intend on improving many quality of life aspects of the smoker, and should give the player more opportunities and variety of how to engage survivors, while reducing easy punishment by survivors. Hunter Max High-Pounce Damage Results: 33% too low, 58% balanced, 8% too high. Proposed change(s): Bonus damage start range: +17% (300→350). Bonus damage max range: +20% (1000→1200). Air travel speed: +5% (700→735). Sky Diver / Parachute: Incapped pounces no longer can count towards the achievements. Max bonus points: +25% (8→10). Bot divide ratio: 0.00→2.00. Incap divide ratio: 1.75→2.00. Less points for pouncing bots and incaps, even less for incapped bots. More total possible points. E.g.: 25 damage on a player → 10pts. 25 damage on a bot → 5 pts. 25 damage on incapped player → 5pts. 25 damage on incapped bot → 2.5pts. Comments: Hunter has been a common pick by many players for its mechanical skill floor and ceiling, but it has not been as rewarding as other specials which have lower mechanical demands. Another consideration for hunters is that they can be killed in the air with relative ease, are deadstoppable, and are not always usable in many areas in the maps which don’t have access to rooftops, or many indoor areas. Thus, the special should be adequately rewarding those who have taken the time to train their skills and take advantage of opportunities to use the hunter. And in allowing high rewards, we also are increasing the distance required to hit maximum damage, encouraging riskier and more challenging attempts by hunter players.

@JackieChan I might be mistaken, but it almost feels like the damage is applied twice. I'd have to actually record it to be sure. It's funny though since it feels worse having a jockey land on you than a hunter, especially considering the jockey is nearly unskeetable and about 2-3x more difficult to deadstop. @swatfishy that's an interesting idea, I certainly hadn't considered something like that. I know I can hit an AWP shot on a rocket jockey somewhat consistently, but it takes either a headshot or two body shots (I think only two) to kill, otherwise the lil dude still landing on you for half your hp bar. I'll have to think about this for sure.

Smokers are indeed painfully weak compared to every other special. Of course they still have use cases even being so weak, but I'd like smokers to actually be fun to play like chargers and hunters are. I'll be posting again following this poll some possible changes to the gameplay of different infected, and the community can decide what sounds good to try.

Smokers need an upgrade - not many players use them because they are so weak by comparison. If they are not going to get extra points for 'smoke damage', then allow them to walk when they have snagged someone.

balance jockey with HS stun or >x dmg stun midair

Is the rocket Jockey damage still 25 or something? I don't remember what number I had settled on after I added it, but don't think I had intended for it to be on par with Hunters. *checks old source code 30 seconds later* Like the genius I am, I hard-coded it at 15 damage. 😒

I struggle with hunter more than rocket jockey which is just weird. Hit box must be different. There was a time when I was landing decent pounces maybe 1/3 of the time. I hope to get back to that, lol.

There are definitely lower heights to get in a 25 dmg pounce , if there's greater heights i think think there should be greater damage but still cap it at a certain point. I also think there should be more points for landing a 25 pounce because it is actually very difficult to hit a moving, full-health target with a good shooting team, it really doesn't take much to shoot a hunter out of the sky for most players. I think to buy a tank heal it should be like 35-40 points, cheaper to heal than to buy another tank still.

Rocket Jockey (pounce) damage should DEFINITELY be nerfed significantly. I’m fine with Jockey players keeping the same number of points they earned. I just need the damage itself to be nerfed. I think it’s ridiculous how your health can go from 90 HP instantly down to 58 HP just because you were unlucky enough to get hit by a rocket Jockey outside (without even factoring the extra damage you take 1-3 seconds later being ridden around). Even with an accurate eye for SI headshots, Jockeys are STILL pretty difficult for me to shoot in the air. As for the rest: Pain Pills are like 5 points, which is a completely fair price. That can be your lifeline when your health is critically low, and have limited points. Tank heals being worth 30 points is also fair. You gotta EARN that tank heal while playing as Infected (whether as a Tank player or as a different SI player). Not everyone is able to heal as a tank anyway with each playthrough. It’s not a cheap price anyway. Smokers? I honestly don’t care. I easily spend the least time playing that SI class out of all the others, so it’s pretty much fine as it is already lol Hunters having 25 as the maximum pounce damage is also fair. It’s not too much health taken away from a survivor, but it’s also not too little health taken away for the skilled Hunter player either. Yea, my main issue is pretty much just the excessive damage that rocket Jockeys make on this server. I’m cool with ambitious Jockey players keeping the same number of points they make even WITH the theoretical nerf in damage 👍

I hope this thing works as I expect 🥴 I'd like to see what people think about a few different topics in the balance of the server in its current state. This poll is set to close automatically on April 12 @ 12pm (unknown time zone). Pretty sure votes are anonymous. The results of this poll will influence where we focus our attention, so your vote is very important!

GC Rules: Preface: There shall be no special treatment to admins. If anyone notices an admin breaking rules and not held to account for it, reach out to any of the Board Members with evidence. Forums: 1. Inappropriate posts, comments, statuses, or pictures should result in posting and commenting privileges being revoked or flagged to require approval prior to posting. a. Includes targeted harassment, obscenity, or other obnoxious behavior. b. Posting privileges should be revoked for up to 30 days, depending on the severity and frequency of the offenses. c. The post in question may also be removed, if necessary. In-Games: 1. Chat language should be family-friendly. a. Same way GC has been for many years, keep it clean. i. Admins shall first warn the offender, if they offend again within a short period (~2 hours), they will have their chat restricted from use for up to 24 hours. ii. If someone has a continuous issue follow this rule, admins should apply the following repercussions after each time: - 1 hour chat restriction. - 1 day chat restriction. - 1 week chat restriction. - Beyond this, we will consider bans or extensive chat restrictions. 2. Excessive trolling (including stacking), griefing, suiciding, harassment, spamming chat, and obnoxious or obscene behavior (inappropriate sprays, racism, sexism, etc.). a. This rule requires some discretion and careful judgement by admins, since some things are fine between friends when it’s mutual, but when it’s one-sided, that’s not acceptable. b. The offender must always be warned once after the first occurrence. i. If it occurs again in a short period (~2 hours), further actions should be taken. - If these offenses are taking place via the in-game chat, the offender should have their chat restricted (aside from commands) using the same guide as Rule 1. - If the offenses take place in gameplay, they should be banned for up to 7 days at a time, depending on the severity of the offenses. # If you can't follow the rules of the game, you can't play the game. Note: Rushing shall be handled by plugins. * In cases where a player intentionally circumvents the system, admins can warn, kick, or ban for up to 24 hours, at their discretion. c. Inappropriate usernames are not allowed. You will be renamed and asked to avoid using such names in the future. i. Failing to adhere to this rule many times will result in a ban of up to 7 days, at the admin's discretion. 3. Cheating. a. This includes macros, addons, software, etc. that provides players with an unfair advantage over others. b. Certain exploits in games can also be considered cheating, such as: i. Attacking from an area where you cannot be hit back, like under the map. ii. Going out of bounds of the typically allowed map. c. Other exploits which rely on individual skill should not be considered cheating, unless enabled by the methods mentioned in (3-a). These exploits include: i. B-hopping (single keypress). ii. Quick-switching etc. iii. Fall damage mitigation using explosives, revives, etc. iv. Ledge-prevention (by holding jump). v. Tank Haymakers. d. The offender should first be warned if the offense is minor. i. Like noticing a player b-hop scripting. e. Cheating should result in a ban of up to 14 days, depending on the severity of the offense. i. Aimbotting and wallhacking would be the most severe. ii. Scripting or attacking from unreachable places are relatively minor. Off-platform / outside of official GC spaces: No rules, go crazy. We believe people have a right to express themselves as they see fit when outside the domains of the GC community. Admin-Specific Rules and Notes: We do NOT punish, kick or ban for: 1. Not using points. a. Try to educate them on it but do not insist they use them. 2. Not buying a tank, witch or upgrade you want them to buy. 3. “Stealing points” by shooting infected or stealing kills as infected. a. Yes it’s bad sportsmanship, but sometimes it’s not on purpose. Just play the game. If a user joins with an inappropriate name, rename them and warn. a. This should not result in a ban 99% of the time for first-time or rare offenders, and especially not a permanent ban. b. Follow the guide of In-Game Rule 2 for punishments. Regarding bot vocal spam: a. Use the /vocalize command to be sure someone is really spamming. If the vocals fill your text field, it might be spamming. Otherwise it is not. Do not kick or ban another admin without bringing evidence to the board for a discussion. a. You may do this anonymously if you wish. Do not argue on the server with another admin.

Hey everyone! This post intends to provide information on what has been going on with GC and what to expect in the future. Change in Board Members (BMs). All previous BMs have been transitioned to GC Alumni, so they no longer shall be expected to be involved in GC, however their contributions in the past ought to be recognized and respected. The one exception here is FlitterKill (FK), who remains as an active BM for the time being, with hopes of fully transitioning things over and offboarding in the future. Cici, Looneypumpkin, and myself have been onboarded with FK's support as the new BMs. For any GC-related ideas, questions, concerns, etc., we are the people to go to, assuming it isn't something that game server admins are able to answer/action. Updates to Memberships. We have been working hard at getting the Membership system back and operational. As of right now, Memberships can be purchased with Paypal only, with options of one month or one year, and you can optionally set it to auto-renew if you would like to. We are working on getting Stripe and Google/Apple Pay options operational as alternatives, so we aim to provide an update in the future on this. We are also working on automating the handling of active/inactive Membership in game servers, in hopes to have a Membership become active immediately upon purchase. This will likely take a lot of work, so I cannot speak to an estimated completion at this time. More updates on this should come in the future. For those wanting and willing to support the community above the regular Membership cost, we are looking at updating the Donations to make this as simple and effective as we can, so please stay tuned. Updates to Forums and Website. As I'm sure you can already see, we have been working on updating the forums both in terms of user experience and relevancy. For visual, this means fonts, colors, layout, etc. are being worked on. For relevancy, this means that many old pinned posts are being archived if they no longer apply, and some will be replaced will updated posts. E.g. Rules will be updated in L4D2 forum soon. We are also looking at the forum structure and relocating or renaming topics and forums as necessary to help everything flow as logical and user-friendly as possible. That's all for now, I hope this finds you all well and hope you are as interested excited about GC's future as I am! Let us know your thoughts and comments under this post as well. Stay safe, healthy, and have fun 😁 If you would like to contact me for any reason please feel free to reach out on this website, or via Discord or Steam.

For context, I was referring to the updates from the server on my net graph while playing. I think we had at least 12 players on, and I was noticing that the incoming updates got as low as 20-30, when on 60 tick you of course are looking to send and receive 60 updates per second. My outgoing updates were solid around 60, as I assume it is for most, if not all players. Note: I was playing with cl_interp_ratio at -1 and cl_interp at 0, which, to my understanding, sets your interpolation rate to some calculation that I can't recall at the moment. I checked the server statistics and did not see anything alarming, but they weren't as informative as I would prefer, so I'm interested if others can confirm or deny having similar experiences.

Wanting to gather what sort of user experience you are having on the GC servers. As we build back up our member base and make improvements, we want to see if it is worthwhile to do any upgrades. Likely not right away but potentially in the future as members sign up again, we can afford some better things on the server. Soda mentioned some lag. I logged on last night for the first time in almost 2yrs and experienced the same. I'm in St. Louis and the server is Chicago, so my ping showed 20-26ms. I was experiencing a lot of lag, sped up animations and sometimes the direction I was facing would suddenly change. Wondering if it is just me or if others see these issues too? Post your experiences related specifically to server function!

1) Server Reserves has been completely updated. That means some of you might be caught out, either not paid, or a gifted membership I spaced and removed. The former you can deal with yourself. For the latter, if you were GIFTED a membership sometime in the last year, hit up the gifter or someone and we can sort that out. 2) Subscriptions to get GC membership and the server reserve. It seems Stripe is spacing on this for some reason and transactions are choking. It could be a bunch of fraud stuff going down or whatever but it feels more like a bug. So for the time being only PayPal for subscriptions. It'll get sorted eventually. 3) When you do get a subscription, be sure to PM Flitterkill (that's me!) your Steam ID so we can set your reserve.

I know we're still at early stages 'revamping' the server so to speak, but one thing that would be useful to have back in the short-term for admins is to 'speak' to server via chat when we can't be in game and deal with naughty people without having to be there, if that's possible? Cheers and thanks for your help keeping GC alive, much appreciated.