Server mods

[KiraMama]

If TLDR pops into your head, SKIP TO BOLD. Thanks <3

 

So... Just mentioning a few thoughts that have been popping up. Experienced all of the issues mentioned below, today. Felt like typing this up cause my lappie crashed in the finale.

 

ISo, I'm sure regulars will agree there are a few more subtle ways of griefing, thus I wanted to ask a few questions for some server possibilities.

 

First and foremost, a lot of the time on this server the score is mad lopsided. There are epic games here and there, but because of the load issues that happen and people getting switched out with new people that just randomly join, generally a few things happen.

 

Anyway, on to the annoyances,

 

Spitters <- These suckers can make or break a game within a minute, even with everyone at full health. However, some people don't get the spit die concept(and helping the team). Regardless of how many people are playing, it always takes longer to recharge than to respawn. I personally consider this griefing the team, as it really screws up opportunities to wipe out another team, especially if yours is losing and u need to stop the point gaining.

 

Thus 1. Is it possible to have an autokick function enabled on a person when someone has spit after recharging says twice in the same life? That's still screwing up a team, but every once in a while that first recharge isn't all that harmful. Most regulars voice chat this, but a lot of the time, people don't listen.

 

Next. Team switching. Not going to point any fingers(several regulars do this), but it's really ridiculous to play a game to the finale and see your teammates switch because the other team has a few more points(and they want the win record, etc), or the last round was pretty bad. What's worse is when it was someone that was griefing the last round, etc.

 

So, brings me to my next question. Is it possible to disable switching + possibly kick those that have been in the game since the beginning after a certain point. Or idk, any other ideas? Generally makes me want to kickban someone permanently when I see this. It's definitely not helpful and the wrong attitude when playing. There's plenty of epic comebacks that happen on this server. Not possible when you have people that know how to play switching all over for points or cause their buddy just joined the other team.

 

Next err... Blatant griefinggg. So, a few of the newish regulars it seems have mentioned this was on other servers, and frankly i think it's an epic idea. If anything out of this post gets considered, this should probably be it. Rushing. there seems to be a feature on some where if someone is rushing way ahead and their team is behind, it automoves them behind the last person in the group. Is this possible to implement on this server? Though, with possibly a few clauses in there, where it let's it happen say if everyone is down, etc. It's just ridiculous for some random to join, rush, gives the other team 26+ points. A minute later u get a tank or two attacking you, the end. Then they quit game cause no one saved them.

 

 

Kthx. Feel my post was just a rant/slightly incoherent. Kinda brain-dead atm. Thanks for your time ;o Any input appreciated. Just feel there's a few blatant issues with some of the games.

Rawr~

[samurai nightling]

K heres my thoughts.

 

As far as spitters go, are you saying people dont like when someone stays a spitter for more than 1 recharge to continually spit, and that people who are spitters should spit once or twice then rush in and die to give it up to a new person? If this is what I'm getting out of it, i wholly disagree. If someone gets a spitter, and they have an advantage point, then let them keep it and keep spitting. No one should be forced to give up an infected just because 1 person or even the whole team says so. They got it, they keep it til they die. Spitters usually die fast anyway, they have little health, and take forever to move after a spit, so if someone can spit more than 2-3 times, bravo on their part because they just accomplished what about 10% of players can even do.

 

Next, team switching is a problem. People like to win, even if it screws over the last round, and i agree that anyone doing this should not be. As far as totally disabling team switching, I don't know if that is such a good idea because what if it gets to be like 10v4, then no one could switch to even it up even if they wanted to. This is a problem though that may require more thought.

 

As for the rushing thing where it moves the person back, I think its a great idea. There would have to be a lot of rules in place in the plugin though to make sure that only happens at the correct times. Sometimes rushing ahead is the best/only option, but not always and not very often. I could see this being a good or bad thing, we would need to find the plugin that does this and test it extensively and probably tweak it before implementing it into the server. Jackie is getting a lot better at sourcecode and crash is also very good from what I've seen. This may be doable.

 

Thanks for the input though. This is what makes the server better all the time is opinions and observations from the people who play in it regularly. Keep playing and we'll keep trying to make it the best server we can

Edited June 17, 2011 by samurai nightling

[KiraMama]

Thanks for the response, nightling. If tldr again.... go to bold ;D First part is more so rant.

 

Hmm. The advantage point is fine in very few cases. Teams move around. Unless there's some spot that people are just stuck at, the spitter would need to move. For example, Hard rain elevator area is a perfect spot. Generally, people die, but you do have people that don't from time to time, and it really makes a difference. The real issue I think is this. Recharge time > respawn time. Regardless of where someone is spitting from, they can keep spitting from that same location as long as it isn't spawn blocked, and it keeps the infected in the rotation. Spit and dying takes 10 seconds. Spitting 3 times in one life is like 1.5-2 minutes. It's easy to do if you hide, but that's a killer amount of time. Even a notice like -DIE AND RESPAWN- hitting someone's screen when they use it would be helpful. Literally seen people use it 5 times in one life and still have under 100 damage(day before initial post). It's kinda like the tank. Yeah, you can use it, but it auto switches you if you're not doing damage to the survivors. Anyway, the spitter thing is mostly just a rant on my part. It's really annoying when there's 2-3 people down and people recharging on a roof somewhere. mah tank~~~~

 

Anywho, as for the team switching. Disabling it completely would just be evil. I more so meant like a temp disable for those that have been playing that campaign since the beginning. So if it's dead center finale, and you've been playing since the first map, then they(specifically the ones that have been playing the whole time) should be blocked from switching. Might be too much of a hassle coding wise though.

 

On a side note... There are a few really epic players on the server. Anyway, some combos of players can really make it a brutal ending for one team. Has anyone ever thought of making an autofunction to counter this. As in. The teams are 10vs10. But say in the case of one-sided massacring the other team, have some ai function kick in to make it more challenging for the winning team. For example. Third map and the score is 300 to 2000. Autodisable two survivors and add 2 infected. ;D Makes it 8 vs 12. And vice versa. for like a map, to get the score more even.

 

Sounds crazy. Or better yet. Have a perk feature for a team that's getting massacred. And i'm leaning towards this more, as to not have people who are switched mad tinkled. Have a notice pop up for all players, saying something like, dunno. -The infected have mutated- come the start of the next area in the campaign. So losing team infected get a boost in power for a round or two, in cases of say a 600-700 point gap(that's enough to warrant it, right?). So say, 1.5 damage? And maybe a touch more life for tank on that round. And possibly another perk when they are survivors. With a -The survivors took steroids- notice. Everyone starts at 150 health, and heal items more potent for that round. This would make it tougher and at least give a bit more of a chance to those with barely any hope of winning. Plus this would make it better for those that have rushers etc, but can't get the other team to scramble. Points would definitely even out at some point. Sounds whack, but... could be fun? ;D

 

Thanks for the read, if you survived it~

[crunchyorphan]

I understand the logic behind all these issues, and I agree with the rushing complaint, but at a certain point, so many people play on this server because it's a fun, balanced mod. If things started to change left and right I think it would make the games complex and tedious. That's my 2 cents.

Also, what many see as a lack of skill on one team is really just a lack of teamwork, imo, and mods and changes or not, if a team does not help incapped or disabled players, and they do not heal each other, they are not going to win. Why punish the team that is doing it the right way?

There seems to be no end to server population, so something is dramatically win about the server, I would hate to see it be thrown off kilter. Did I use that expression corectly?

Edited June 17, 2011 by crunchyorphan

[crasx]

As far as teamswitching I agree that it is a huge problem. I have sent jackie a couple ideas but I think we need to decide as a community on what to do about it.

I am guilty of switching to the winning team because mine sucked so much, but I have gotten better at this and it is easier when there are other regulars in the game that help you relax.

 

I suggest disabling switching to the winning team if the score is over a certain threshold (or maybe just in general?)

 

Another thought, though not practical... is that when one person screws you over it suddenly becomes 9 or 8 v10 which isnt too bad, but the infected will slowly cut you down to 5v10 which is kind of ridiculous and not the way l4d2 was intended. In a normal 4v4 when 2 people die the round is pretty much over, however this is kinda disproportionate to a 5v10. A solution to this would to only allow a certain number of infected to spawn based on the number of survivors. ie: 5v7 or 6v8. Another option could be to raise the respawn time

 

idk, what do others think?

[KiraMama]

@crunchy Yeah, the kilter expression is used correctly ;D

 

You're right about it being a balanced server. It's one of the reasons I kept playing in the beginning. Guess the ideas are a bit too out there, and screw with the draw for regulars. I mostly posted cause those issues happen more than say, teamwork. And some point games need a touch of help... >_>

 

@crasx

 

disabled in general might be a bit unfair. Maybe after halfway? Somehow i read over nightling's comment about people wanting to switch to make it fair. Autoscramble in some cases? like when the game is 10 vs 3? I remember playing on this one rpg server when the gc one was full. It had levels for each character and auto-scrambled if there was a huge overall difference. Wasn't a bad idea since level = perks. But something similar could help when half a team rages.

 

anywho, about the balance after dead people...I'd think the most that could be done is increase spawn time. It'd be extremely irritating to not even be able to spawn because they have less people. don't think many would appreciate that. a few extra seconds though people could probably deal with.

Edited June 17, 2011 by KiraMama

[RadioKnight]

Kira: Levels? Perks? Thats exactly what I wanted to avoid when I first started playing on this server. That stuff just overcomplicates the game. Please, for the love of god, dont implement anything like this.

 

 

Really, this game isnt fair by nature. Crippling the Infected team for doing their job well? Thats ridiculous. If someone screws their team over by suiciding or refusing to move up, thats not cool, but if someone is confused or out of line, it up to their team to cover them and help them out. Its part of the game.

 

Ill write some more in this when Im more awake and had some breakfast.

[KiraMama]

Kira: Levels? Perks? Thats exactly what I wanted to avoid when I first started playing on this server. That stuff just overcomplicates the game. Please, for the love of god, dont implement anything like this.

 

 

Really, this game isnt fair by nature. Crippling the Infected team for doing their job well? Thats ridiculous. If someone screws their team over by suiciding or refusing to move up, thats not cool, but if someone is confused or out of line, it up to their team to cover them and help them out. Its part of the game.

 

Ill write some more in this when Im more awake and had some breakfast.

 

Mah badddd. Wasn't suggesting levels, just mentioned something i saw on one of the servers. The temp massacre boost was just a thought, but it goes against the reason most of us even play on the server, so scratch that. Still think there are some issues though that could be dealt with, without messing up the balance. Like rushers.

[samurai nightling]

Yes there are some issues we can probably still touch up on, and I'm sure we'll get plenty of ideas and possible fixes. It's just a matter of when does it go too far, and when should we just accept and like the server at the point it has finally gotten to.