Map list schedule

[captainsnarf]

The counter to not rotating more often is - the shitty maps drive away some players. Like tonight, I have no interest joining Blockfort-MEGA which has been going for like 40 minutes now.

[pooty]

The counter to not rotating more often is - the shitty maps drive away some players. Like tonight, I have no interest joining Blockfort-MEGA which has been going for like 40 minutes now.

You and me both. I joined after that. I immediately thought... well there's the wrong kind of variety.

He is a good admin who does not talk nonsense without physical evidence.

Thank you for the vote of confidence...
And no I did not say Ankeedo did that. It was other players in the past. And I am not talking about getting on and actually playing. Its map cycling where its a new map < 2 mins repeatedly. People are more than welcome to play matches solo, and even explore maps. We aren't looking at one day playerX cycle through 5 maps exploring, but when that happens 2-3 times a week its a problem.

I don't think I updated the limit? Happy to put it to where ever.

But at least keep the Maplists...

And I'll say it the occasional admin's choice.

I admit I get bored on maps with standard vehicles now too. YEAAAHx10 and I have even advocated for some new foot weapons on a map or two, still waiting to see those.

Working on it. I need to basically go throught the code or they won't work right with standard weapons. I'll put this at the top of the list... maybe I'll have time this weekend...plus I like the RMD Shotgun better than Crowdpleaser...

if you want a map to get more play on this server just make it a randomizer.

Mostly true, there's a few exceptions...(MB for one, mostly the DM maps). Our player base favors maps with more, lots vehicles usually, Valarna being an exception.

It doesn't need to go wild and super OP either, I can almost hear Blackwood complaining, but even on good maps like Nevermore for example, everyone knows the strategies based on what vehicles are there -- say the stains waste the flyers you start thinking about the next map. And you lose that figure it out on the fly fun.

So along those lines, there's a couple of things:
- Its fairly easy to randomize maps. Vehicle mix is the hardest part but that doesn't take much effort to change.
- We have the traditional randomizer based on node pairs, so mapper designates a pair of nodes and they get same random loadouts.
- We also have Randomized factories, where only certain vehicle spawns are random -- but don't sync with each other (its a list and can be sequential or random)
- We have ForcedVehicleFactories - always same vehicle even if rest of the map is random.
- You can use both, eg. Dria features two Raptor type random factories--so you always get them at the cores, but rest is node based random.

This would allow for some potentially different mixes:
- All node based random -- this is what most Randomizers are.
- 80% standard loadout, with rest Random Factories -- this potentially gives teams different vehicles so needs to be carefully managed
- Cores get standard layouts, with key reward nodes being random, eg. get a random levi type say on Severance. Or a heavy tank spawn, where you might get different heavy tanks (Heavy G, Classic Mino, Hurricane, HeavyLink etc.).
- Other Factory settings, the sequential (this is used on ChainsIsle for the Wraith/Cicada/Draco flyer spot).
- Can even make it so somethint spawns just once -- once its dead its dead .

It won't always be an even loadout with some of these, and its already been shown that's not necessarily going to break things if done well (eg. Dria)

[Rhamp]

The main issue isn't that there aren't any good maps besides junk/dria/minus (there are, I'm not sure why this is such a concern), its that the stains don't want to play something they don't know. If given the choice, they'd always vote for the same shit, which is why the map limit should be increased. This won't be a Tuesday situation unless the stains vote for literally every version of junk/dria/minus in one day, which if that happens it's their fault. If we need more maps like Tek-Randomizer, I'm happy to keep making them, but I don't see the point if they always lose to the junk/dria/minus spam. Tek is not a bad map and gets played regularly, but usually only after all the junk/dria/minus maps were played. I'd rather have a primetime game of Tek than a primetime game of junk/dria/minus. Tek is designed to handle a full lobby without players being forced to grab a worthless vehicle or camp a vehicle spawn, unlike junk/dria/minus.

I remember this being a debate before where the consensus was that it would be preferable to have a few less players and more map variety than more players and only junk/dria/minus. I remember a game of Hyperblast with only ~10 players that was the most action-packed close games I've ever played on the server. No dead weight on either team, everyone trying their best to try and outplay the other team, no being forced to camp a vehicle spawn to carry. If more games were like that, I'd be playing way more and wouldn't be bitching on the forums so much.

[Enyo]

I remember this being a debate before where the consensus was that it would be preferable to have a few less players and more map variety than more players and only junk/dria/minus.

I've debated this point many times too, but the general consensus seems to be more players regardless of ability is better than a server with less but quality players. Unfortunately, we've ended up with about half of a busy server being mediocre players (stains). Unfortunately, many of those are longtime players that either have no interest or zero ability to become more effective players. We started a How to Play Better thread, but not sure how often any noobs actually look at it.

But what's the alternative? The only one is to have two servers, an "elites" invite-only server (PW protected) and a noobs/stain server open to anyone. But then you're splitting literally the last remaining highly populated ONS server on the planet... I don't count CEONSS, they're never busy and it's 90% stains. Historically every time popular servers split into two, one or both ended up dying. I don't think we want that to happen, so the consensus is more players are better regardless of quality.

The down side to this is the good players like you get bored with the same maps and end up playing less or moving on. But I don't get the Dria/Junk/MTMU hate, they're all very good maps. I honestly like them better than Tek, which is a good map but definitely not better than those classics that everyone seems to want.

[4Doors]

I agree; splitting the server simply to segregate the hardcores from the normies/newbies would be suicide.

Normies/newbies aren't going to look into learning other maps unless doing so is within arms reach (easy to access) and made appealing to them (they would want to go out of their way to learn a new map). I played around with the UTStatsDB data of maps and matches; the top 5 maps by matches played (all variants combined)--Minus, JunkYard, MasterBath, Dria and Torlan--make up about 42% of all matches logged. These 5 are also the only maps that've logged > 100 matches (HSH is 6th place with 95).

My spontaneous idea for expanding the map frequency of the server is perhaps the creation of short 3-5 minute Youtube videos that explain the layouts and strategies of selectively-chosen maps (those that are high-quality but under-played simply due to lack of player-base interest). These can be linked into a forum thread, and the forum thread link could be referenced in a *concisely-worded* announcement on the screen when players first join the server. This same announcement with the thread link could be in the MOTD/AOTD section of the Escape menu too.

In my perspective, it's not much different from advertising new features/updates of a popular product. Something simple like "New maps added! Check the forum for more information! [forum link]".

[pooty]

Maybe the simpler solution, is just having the admins force a map often. Most of the admins know which maps are decent but unplayed. We have a great match on TAL last night for example, but isn't played often. And keep the Tuesday Maplist, but and I know people love their Dria/JY/Minus repeat loop, but there's plenty thats good, Nevermore, MagicIsle, TAL, and whole bunch more...

Also, several of us are happy to change up maps, but its really difficult to get them right with out real world play testing... which never happens if its Dria/JY/Minus all night.

[Rhamp]

That's why increasing the map cooldown limit seems to be the best option. The stains still get their junk/dria/minus fix so it doesn't turn into Tuesdays, the server doesn't go empty due to a hard restriction on the available maps, and a bigger variety of maps get played. Don't get me wrong, I actually like junk/dria/minus, just not every single fucking night. Playing the same stuff gets boring, no matter how good the maps are.

[captainsnarf]

Longer cooldown - "Boo, all the 'good' maps are greyed out. Admin can you force Dria?" (yes this happened)

We can try it again, but what we really need is new players

[pooty]

"Boo, all the 'good' maps are greyed out. Admin can you force Dria?" (yes this happened)

More than once.
Here the stain version of good maps are HSH/Dria/JY/MinusTMU

I think the next time someone asks me that, I am going to pick an obscure map and force it.

[captainsnarf]

The admins have come to a consensus and agreed to remove the Tuesday map list. It has not been very popular and we thought we could try other ways to introduce some variety.