GC Inflight Announcement

[Unclean]

I'm not gonna lie, Laz... I didn't understand either of your posts this morning at 2am.

 

<--was this you last night?

<--and you now?

[stutters]

moved to chit-chat, email sent.

 

[strangefamous]

Gosh, I leave for a while and stutters runs the place into the ground... psh.

[stutters]

Gosh, I leave for a while and stutters runs the place into the ground... psh.

And to think, if it wasn't for me dating crazy beth, you would have gone to her wedding and met your fiancé. Play more css and we'll call it even.

[ThruX]

I will try and surf the forums more often.

[samurai nightling]

Well, I'm glad that this stuff is being brought about. I remember the days that even an "oh my gosh"(substitute gosh with god, because even in here thats still not tolerated) in the server got u a kick. Due to work i know i havent played much CS:S in the last few months, second shift really hinders the multiplayer aspect of gaming. I would hop on the server and be the late night GC guy from like 1:30am to 4am eastern but there's no need, no one ever plays that late in the server so i end up playing my PS3 or something. I really really miss playing CS, but working and seeing my gf after work nearly every day kills the CS time. Once i ever decide to leave this place and move in with the gf, i think I'll have alot more gaming time, at least just around the early afternoon and midnight times. Anyone ever on really late when i am that wants to start the server up late?

Edited November 24, 2009 by samurai nightling

[Sandbox]

Hi

 

So! This is all good stuff to keep talking about. The health of the css server is important. I hate seeing GC empty. Playing anywhere else just feels wrong... With all those the good points made in the original post, I'd like to agree with two of them real quickly:

 

The objective to bolster the CSS numbers and the "sorta kinda competitive(ness)".

 

In an effort to sound informed I'd like to refer you to the steam stats pages where you can see that CSS consistently pulls a peak of nearly 100 thousand players on a regular day. One might suggest that you could tap into those players to ramp up the numbers of players on GC. This does likely mean that peak times will have the server bursting at the seams but you do need a player pool to help fill up the server during all hours of the day. Ah, "Tap into those players, that's all very good but how?!" one might whine. Well this hands us off to the next part "sorta kinda competitive". As you might already know, competitive play in CSS has the noteworthy requirement of owning a copy of CSS. Participating in events in any way you can is a good way to reach players you know will respond. Sure not everyone, but you'll get a better reaction than at the supermarket. Hardfought drove a lot of it's activity on being a competitive atmosphere, having a competitive team, selling crappy tees or mugs and doubly so by hosting competitive lan events. GC already has a lot of those elements existing and could reorient them to attract new players with a great deal of success. As good a suggestion as any.

 

So there it is

 

Sandbox

[Piku]

Of course, none of this will apply to Lunk who is the first to acknowledge that he cannot be banned and that we should just deal with it or go to another server.

That's basically what I've done, and what several unnamed have done as well. Cheers!

 

You cannot have a 'gaming community' that isn't moderated and left to the dregs like Lunk. I'm not left

wondering why the server is empty all the time.

 

The map rotation is garbage. It's disheartening to hear 'go to the forums and make a map recommendation'.

If you're going to have this long, drawn-out process of updating the map rotation, make the rotation be

20 maps instead of 5. Even 'bad' maps have their place in a rotation just to break things up. If you

enact a vote system, 90% of the players are going to vote for the same 5 maps every time. Move through

a larger rotation with voting only occurring occasionally.

Edited November 24, 2009 by Piku

[stutters]

guys, the points in this thread apply to everyone, including board members. i'll back up justified actions.

 

piku, i appreciate your input, but how is "go to the forums and make a map recommendation" a long and drawn out process? not everyone can change the map rotation, so posting in the forums makes sure those people can see it and act on it.

[boiler]

Good lord, all of these goings-on makes me want to reinstall steam, send SJ $40 (for that one "favor" thing we won't mention) and ride in to help clean this mess up.

 

<shakes fist at real life>

 

gaming time just gets so sporadic when you have important stuffs like work/marriage/mortgage to take care of.

 

If we can make that list of things happen, I'll bet things can get back on the right track to bring back that lovin' feelin.

[strangefamous]

Gosh, I leave for a while and stutters runs the place into the ground... psh.

And to think, if it wasn't for me dating crazy beth, you would have gone to her wedding and met your fiancé. Play more css and we'll call it even.

 

This is true, I'd say were even. If it wasn't for me pawning the stats off on you, and introducing you to GC, then you wouldn't be here. EVEN!

[Piku]

guys, the points in this thread apply to everyone, including board members. i'll back up justified actions.

 

piku, i appreciate your input, but how is "go to the forums and make a map recommendation" a long and drawn out process? not everyone can change the map rotation, so posting in the forums makes sure those people can see it and act on it.

 

It is a long drawn out process because that's how it's been handled. My point was not that people shouldn't go to the forums and

make map recommendations, it was that the map rotation needs to be fixed *now*, and not wait for 20 recommendations, and have

back-and-forth dialogue, etc, etc. Just get on there and fix it.

[stutters]

should i pick 20 maps at random, or do you have specific input? the maps that i used to know to be popular aren't cutting it anymore.

[Bewildered]

should i pick 20 maps at random, or do you have specific input? the maps that i used to know to be popular aren't cutting it anymore.

 

My recommendation: Go to the retro server forums, find the last map cycle vote and set it to that. Then we can discuss. I can link you to it in a minute if I don't get interrupted with real work

 

I think this was the last one: http://gamrs.co/forums/index.php?showtopic=36755

Edited November 24, 2009 by Bewildered

[Piku]

should i pick 20 maps at random, or do you have specific input? the maps that i used to know to be popular aren't cutting it anymore.

 

Rotate in some of the maps that come with a default server installation. Some of them aren't all that 'popular', but if people are on and

playing, people aren't going to leave just because one map isn't their favorite. Every map can't be de_dust2. People aren't

on because there's 5 maps rotating and no one is on. Also keep (and add more) the cpl maps. They're well-done maps.

 

I don't think I've seen anything other than dust2, cpl_mill, season, office, or aztec run on gc in the last couple months, with the

obvious exception being custom map night. The vegas map has come up a few times. It's not a bad map.

[stutters]

cool, good feedback. i'll see if i can find the old rotation, too.

[stutters]

i could only find the current rotation and this one from like last january:

 

de_dust2

de_season

de_cbble

de_losttemple_pro

cs_italy

de_cpl_mill

cs_office

de_inferno

de_nuke

de_cpl_strike

 

ok, i maybe changed it a little, but is that a reasonable starting point? also disabled voting...i think.

 

was:

 

de_cbble

de_cpl_mill

cs_office

de_losttemple_pro

de_inferno

de_dust2

de_season

cs_italy

de_nuke

de_aztec

[Piku]

i could only find the current rotation and this one from like last january:

 

de_dust2

de_season

de_cbble

de_losttemple_pro

cs_italy

de_cpl_mill

cs_office

de_inferno

de_nuke

de_cpl_strike

 

ok, i maybe changed it a little, but is that a reasonable starting point? also disabled voting...i think.

 

was:

 

de_cbble

de_cpl_mill

cs_office

de_losttemple_pro

de_inferno

de_dust2

de_season

cs_italy

de_nuke

de_aztec

 

I'm not sure you need to disable voting entirely. Allow rockthevote so that if everyone totally hates the map it can

be switched off of. Also, the map rotation above is basically what's in place. Add in 10 or so more, and spread out

the server populating maps (dust2, aztec, etc).

 

Having admins on that are willing to change maps manually to things that aren't often played will also help. If you've

got 20 players on that have been playing together for 3 or more maps, if you change to something that isn't viewed as

the best map in the world, they probably won't disappear, and it will break up the monotony of playing dust2, season,

mill, nuke, losttemple, in that order over and over.

[stutters]

here's the full maplist. pick your 20 and post back (keep in mind you can't have the same two maps in one rotation):

 

aim_ag_texture_city_box_tower

aim_deagle7k

aim_fallen_city

aim_xgb_cg_texture

arghhh

awp_crossing

awp_onspace_PGW_v2

cs_assault

cs_atafaris+

cs_churchS

cs_dracula

cs_haste

cs_italy

cs_kismayo

cs_militia

cs_night_ambush_v2

cs_office

cs_pipeline

cs_sprint-trading

cs_stormynight

cs_thunder2006

d6_clan_ville_nx

de_3rdstreet

de_absurdity

de_acid_b2

de_alivemetal

de_aos_base_s0

de_apollo

de_arabic

de_arcticstorm

de_aztec

de_bahrain_beta

de_beersheba_conflict_final

de_beroth_beta

de_boston

de_cbble

de_cittadella

de_coldshell_css

de_complexo_v2

de_contra

de_cpl_fire

de_cpl_mill

de_cpl_strike

de_crackshot_B3

de_dam_facility_fixed

de_damaged_beta

de_deltamill2

de_dust

de_dust1

de_dust2

de_dust2_mariostyle

de_dust2_night_br

de_dust2_night_fix

de_fireholl

de_glacier

de_highhouse

de_inferno

de_kavazar

de_kings_alpha4

de_losttemple_pro

de_losttemple2

de_mario_world_style

de_museum_beta1

de_NewportBeach

de_nightfever

de_nuke

de_nvbase_b4

de_paradigm

de_pira_legos

de_pirakropolis_b2

de_piranesi

de_pirateparty

de_port

de_prodigy

de_promhoz_b3

de_pulley

de_roma_aimstyle

de_rush_v2

de_russka

de_sandblast

de_saw

de_scud

de_season

de_siena

de_slummi_beta

de_snowcapped

de_sonic

de_splinter2

de_sunstroked

de_tergiversate

de_terminus2

de_thematrix_11

de_tides

de_train

de_tropicwasteland

de_tudor_tws

de_vangogh_s

de_vegas_css

de_vertigo

de_vertigo_css_day

de_villa

de_westcoast

de_winery_final

de_yacer_v3

dm_piazzaverona

gg_alfheim_v1

gg_alleycat

gg_aztec_arena_final

gg_beacn_redux

gg_churches_x_final_fixed

gg_conan

gg_deagle_sandblasted

gg_labrace

gg_madman

gg_minesweeper_ggn

gg_mnc_fortress

gg_natus_final

gg_office

GG_PUNISHMENT_NVIDIA

gg_rustndust_high

gg_sandy

gg_temple_arena

gg_trash_metall

gg_trenches

gg_vc2_inferno

gg_village

gg_woods

he_dodgeball_s

he_eastla

ka_airdrop2

knife_futureday_alpha_two

nobeloffice

scoutzknivez

[Piku]

here's the full maplist. pick your 20 and post back (keep in mind you can't have the same two maps in one rotation):

 

 

Just from the list above (there are other good maps not already on the server):

 

cs_italy

cs_office

de_aztec

de_boston

de_cbble

de_contra

de_cpl_fire

de_cpl_mill

de_cpl_strike

de_dust

de_dust2

de_inferno

de_losttemple_pro

de_nightfever

de_nuke

de_piranesi

de_port

de_prodigy

de_scud

de_season

de_siena

de_tides

de_train

de_vegas_css

de_villa

 

These, of course, would need to be re-ordered. Just took from the order you supplied.

Also: Add a gungame night. Maybe Sunday? Or, how about a gungame hour, or hours? You could change up the map rotation daily.

[Piku]

here's the full maplist. pick your 20 and post back (keep in mind you can't have the same two maps in one rotation):

 

 

Just from the list above (there are other good maps not already on the server):

 

cs_italy

cs_office

de_aztec

de_boston

de_cbble

de_contra

de_cpl_fire

de_cpl_mill

de_cpl_strike

de_dust

de_dust2

de_inferno

de_losttemple_pro

de_nightfever

de_nuke

de_piranesi

de_port

de_prodigy

de_scud

de_season

de_siena

de_tides

de_train

de_vegas_css

de_villa

 

These, of course, would need to be re-ordered. Just took from the order you supplied.

Also: Add a gungame night. Maybe Sunday? Or, how about a gungame hour, or hours? You could change up the map rotation daily.

 

One quick edit here: People are going to inevitably whine about de_dust, or prodigy, militia, etcetc. The easy way around this

is to shorten the rotation by a few maps, and change up a few of the positions daily. For instance, have the 3rd map on the

rotation rotate between prodigy, dust, militia. That way you see these maps less frequently, but they still get played and thus

help to make the more popular maps, separated by more filler.

 

You might also consider making the maps rotate faster. People are less inclined to leave a map that isn't their favorite

if it's going to change relatively quickly.

Edited November 24, 2009 by Piku

[Jibbajabba]

A quick input from a non-admin, I have been playing CSS on GC for two years now and love it. I enjoy CSS but like playing with GC members more. I think you guys are on the right track with slowly getting more gc community events going. You will always have some that are in it for the game but I think most people get on the GC server for the people. Where else can you get AWPed by M2, get shot in the face with a TMP by FirstMonk, get a "nice job" comment from Dragonfire or laugh their behinds off listening to Goofus Maximus's comments. That being said regarding the game itself I will put in my two cents (I am sure most of these have been noted earlier):

 

1.) Map rotation is too limited (how many times can we play dust 2 and mill? I see you guys are currently looking at addressing that)

2.) Players who insult others need to be permanently banned regardless of whether they are an admin or who they know

3.) A better job needs to be done to balance teams to make games more competitive, maybe it is just me but there seems to be an increase of blowouts over the past few months (for example if four of the best five players are on the same team, someone move to the other team to help balance it...I know this subjective but most of us recognize who the best players in the server generally are)

4.) Initial Inertia....I think there is a tendancy for people to not join unless there is a number of people in the game (8+ usually). I am not sure if there is a concrete way to address this other than encouraging people to jump in when they can even if it is for a short time. Another option would be to increase each sides bots by one or two, maybe that will give some incentive for people to join when the server has few people in it.

5.) Experiment with a few more theme nights? Of course it may take more admins but obviously custom maps night is a big hit. Perhaps a hour/two hour gun game slot, no scope slot, etc. Maybe a fun CSS GC season tournament? Have some teams of six or eight, make sure it includes all level of players, not necessarily "the best on the server" and make sure the teams are somewhat balanced. Have it be more of a fun activity instead of super competitive (although there will always be some competitiveness). Kind of like what we did at fragfest this year for example. Just throwing some ideas out there...

[Piku]

A quick input from a non-admin, I have been playing CSS on GC for two years now and love it. I enjoy CSS but like playing with GC members more. I think you guys are on the right track with slowly getting more gc community events going. You will always have some that are in it for the game but I think most people get on the GC server for the people. Where else can you get AWPed by M2, get shot in the face with a TMP by FirstMonk, get a "nice job" comment from Dragonfire or laugh their behinds off listening to Goofus Maximus's comments. That being said regarding the game itself I will put in my two cents (I am sure most of these have been noted earlier):

 

1.) Map rotation is too limited (how many times can we play dust 2 and mill? I see you guys are currently looking at addressing that)

2.) Players who insult others need to be permanently banned regardless of whether they are an admin or who they know

3.) A better job needs to be done to balance teams to make games more competitive, maybe it is just me but there seems to be an increase of blowouts over the past few months (for example if four of the best five players are on the same team, someone move to the other team to help balance it...I know this subjective but most of us recognize who the best players in the server generally are)

4.) Initial Inertia....I think there is a tendancy for people to not join unless there is a number of people in the game (8+ usually). I am not sure if there is a concrete way to address this other than encouraging people to jump in when they can even if it is for a short time. Another option would be to increase each sides bots by one or two, maybe that will give some incentive for people to join when the server has few people in it.

5.) Experiment with a few more theme nights? Of course it may take more admins but obviously custom maps night is a big hit. Perhaps a hour/two hour gun game slot, no scope slot, etc. Maybe a fun CSS GC season tournament? Have some teams of six or eight, make sure it includes all level of players, not necessarily "the best on the server" and make sure the teams are somewhat balanced. Have it be more of a fun activity instead of super competitive (although there will always be some competitiveness). Kind of like what we did at fragfest this year for example. Just throwing some ideas out there...

 

I agree with everything here except one thing. There should not be more bots. If 6 people are on, I'd rather play 3v3 without bots, than 4v4 plus a bot on each team.

That's my own personal preference though. I think the focus should be on getting people to want to play on the server, not how can we draw unsuspecting people to join

the server.

Edited November 24, 2009 by Piku

[Jibbajabba]

I agree with everything here except one thing. There should not be more bots. If 6 people are on, I'd rather play 3v3 without bots, than 4v4 plus a bot on each team.

That's my own personal preference though. I think the focus should be on getting people to want to play on the server, not how can we draw unsuspecting people to join

the server.

 

Understandable, I just find it less entertaining to play 2 vs 2 or sometimes even 3 vs 3 and would prefer a few more targets (human or bot) in those games. Playing preference I guess.

[stutters]

I enjoy CSS but like playing with GC members more.

amen. that's why i'm here. there's plenty of other people on the interwebs running servers. if i wanted just a css experience, i'd go the lazy route and pub around.

 

 

1.) Map rotation is too limited (how many times can we play dust 2 and mill? I see you guys are currently looking at addressing that)

2.) Players who insult others need to be permanently banned regardless of whether they are an admin or who they know

3.) A better job needs to be done to balance teams to make games more competitive, maybe it is just me but there seems to be an increase of blowouts over the past few months (for example if four of the best five players are on the same team, someone move to the other team to help balance it...I know this subjective but most of us recognize who the best players in the server generally are)

4.) Initial Inertia....I think there is a tendancy for people to not join unless there is a number of people in the game (8+ usually). I am not sure if there is a concrete way to address this other than encouraging people to jump in when they can even if it is for a short time. Another option would be to increase each sides bots by one or two, maybe that will give some incentive for people to join when the server has few people in it.

5.) Experiment with a few more theme nights? Of course it may take more admins but obviously custom maps night is a big hit. Perhaps a hour/two hour gun game slot, no scope slot, etc. Maybe a fun CSS GC season tournament? Have some teams of six or eight, make sure it includes all level of players, not necessarily "the best on the server" and make sure the teams are somewhat balanced. Have it be more of a fun activity instead of super competitive (although there will always be some competitiveness). Kind of like what we did at fragfest this year for example. Just throwing some ideas out there...

i'm with you on all but #5. mookie is really the only person running the actual server that's running css. setting up events takes 1 part technical ability, 1 part time commitment. we get a lot of people who are interested in events, but a real lack of people willing to throw in the skin to make it happen. this isn't a callout to anyone in particular, but just the reality of recent history.

 

 

re: bots

bots don't show up in the server browser player count, so they're only there for people in the server waiting for more to show up.