Tf2 Server State/issue/request Discussion Thread

VintagePC

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Hi everyone,
I'd really like to get some feedback from the folks that play TF2 in the servers. Are there any issues or things you'd like to see added?

I've gotten occasional feedback regarding issues, but as nice as it would be, "no news is good news" is generally not a good mantra when it comes to server things, unless they are regularly filled with regular players.

So I'm actively going to reach out and ask whether anyone has issues/requests they want to bring up or discuss regarding how our TF2 servers run. If you're happy with them, please say so too, as it helps give a good idea of how many people are satisfied with things the way they are.

Great servers aren't made and filled overnight, but with your feedback I hope to make them that much more enticing for people to stay and favourite them.

Thanks,
--Vintage
 
One common thing I hear on Dustbowl is that the spawn time seems to be pretty long. Its set at, I believe, 18 seconds right now. Is there any way we could take that down to something like 12 seconds? I think thats still a time that won't break the game speed-spawn wise, but will also make the players happier. Thoughts?
 
That sounds default for RED, and BLU should be much shorter.
http://wiki.teamfortress.com/wiki/Respawn_times#Respawn_Waves

Thing is, if we change those, it completely disqualifies us from quickplay, and that is where I suspect the majority of the Dustbowl traffic comes from.

If BLU has unusually long respawn times, it is a different issue, and the only thing I can do is disable replay; apparently bots may skew respawn times, and the only fix I know of is currently broken.
 
Am I alone is feeling that quickplay is the worst thing that ever happened to TF2? Having to cater to quickplay to help maintain server population just sucks.

It is both a blessing and a curse... in that it brings in new players to keep things from going stale, but it also means the server setup is quite inflexible.

The problem right now, though is that I don't think we have a solid enough base of regulars to risk NOT having quickplay - Just look at servers like 24/7 Doublecross, PropHunt, and Srs Bsns - they don't ever fill up unless there is an event; so while I'm frustrated too, my hands are basically tied.

Heck, even servers like Arena and Payload, which we've actively had people tell me they want back, are still empty.
 
Yea, quickplay definitely brings new people in and I don't think we have enough of a base to stop doing that yet.

As far as the time goes, both sides are currently at that 18 second mark, I'm fairly certain. I can verify tonight when I get off of work.
 
My greater issue with quickplay is that it makes the prospect of finding a core group of players/servers you like to play with/on less important in exchange for the pick up and play feel of a console.
 
Yea, quickplay definitely brings new people in and I don't think we have enough of a base to stop doing that yet.

As far as the time goes, both sides are currently at that 18 second mark, I'm fairly certain. I can verify tonight when I get off of work.
OK, if BLU is at 18 seconds, let me know, and I'll disable replay, which _should_ fix the issue
 
Mm, I think that can be true for some people, but I think a lot of people use it to search for cool places to hang out. I think a sizable chunk of our "regular" base started as quickplay peoples and they landed in a place they liked, so they come back.
 
Mm, I think that can be true for some people, but I think a lot of people use it to search for cool places to hang out. I think a sizable chunk of our "regular" base started as quickplay peoples and they landed in a place they liked, so they come back.

For my long time community it was the death knell since making changes to meet quickplay requirements made a lot of our existing players unhappy and the quickplay style removed incentive for new players to find and get attached to our servers.
 
For my long time community it was the death knell since making changes to meet quickplay requirements made a lot of our existing players unhappy and the quickplay style removed incentive for new players to find and get attached to our servers.

I understand your points 100%. The problem is the regulars we actually do have on specifically Dustbowl all came from quickplay, quickplay is the sole reason it is growing in regulars. This is how regulars generally come about.

1. New server put up with quickplay defaults
2. server sits empty and filles every once in awhile
3. server becomes more frequently populated
4. some clowns end up joining and everyone has a good time one night (people start adding to favorites)
5. server remains unpopulated more often than not, but when population is on the people who favorited jump on to try and have the same good time they did last time. If they succeed more people favorite.
6. server becomes populated more often than not, favorites of the server start increasing a little faster.
7. Regulars frequent the server and keep it populated 80% of the day.
8. Catering to the regulars begins (because we now have a regular population of regulars)


I think we are somewhere between steps 4 and 6 at this point. There are quite a few regulars but not enough to keep things going without quickplay.
 
Oh, I have nothing against your use of quickplay, I was commenting on/ asking about how people actually feel about it and how you pretty much HAVE to use it to successfully run TF2 servers.
 
And I think as more of our regulars on Dustbowl friend eachother, admins, and join the website we'll start seeing more spillover into other VF4 servers. I know some of the people Dustbowl has pulled into the fold were talking about playing on B2B last night too. =)
 
I got my first convert yesterday in PropHunt :) Had a guy drop his tags and change them to VF4.

We now appear to be one of the only TWO ranked prophunt servers in existence.
 
I'll just comment that I was in dustbowl over the weekend and BLU respawn times appeared normal for me, no excessive waiting.
 
Yea, I confirmed that both times were properly set. I am interested though, does changing those times have a negative affect? I think the long times do annoy people sometimes.
 
Thing is, if we change those, it completely disqualifies us from quickplay, and that is where I suspect the majority of the Dustbowl traffic comes from.
You don't even get penalized, it's outright disqualification from QP.
Only other option would be to have a non-QP server with modified respawn times and tell players about it should they not like the vanilla setup.

Edit: From https://support.steampowered.com/kb_article.php?ref=2825-AFGJ-3513

Steam Support Article said:
Servers should be running as "vanilla" as possible. In particular, these server tags (sv_tags) will disqualify a server:
  • friendlyfire
  • respawntimes
  • nocrits
  • norespawntime
  • nodmgspread
  • highlander
  • noquickplay
 
Naw, having an explanation to give them will relieve most of the issues. I wasn't sure what it would do, but having that in my back pocket should settle them down.
 

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