Reserved slots on Tactical Gamer and Voogru
CrazyEddie
Join Date: 2013-01-08 Member: 178196Members
Join Date: 2013-01-08 Member: 178196Members
I don't know anything about these two fine organizations other than they run NS2 servers, and for that I am quite grateful for the valuable service they provide to the community. Kudos; I encourage them to keep up the good work.
*Redacted* letting me connect to their servers, load up the maps, enter the ready room, and then get kicked because the supposedly empty slots that appear in the server browser are actually reserved slots. *redcated*
The OldF.Net Geriatric Ward guys do it right. When all the non-reserved slots are filled, the server gets passworded. I know not to bother trying to join, and in fact don't even see it in the first place when the default filters are on.
Tactical Gamer, Voogru: please start doing the same thing.
*Redacted* letting me connect to their servers, load up the maps, enter the ready room, and then get kicked because the supposedly empty slots that appear in the server browser are actually reserved slots. *redcated*
The OldF.Net Geriatric Ward guys do it right. When all the non-reserved slots are filled, the server gets passworded. I know not to bother trying to join, and in fact don't even see it in the first place when the default filters are on.
Tactical Gamer, Voogru: please start doing the same thing.
Comments
When sever is full and a reservee joins someone (usually the newest) is booted.
So it only takes effect when the person who reserved is actually ON the server.
Not the case here?
There is no official implementation of reserved slots. There are at least two different implementations done by independent mod authors. In at least one of them, the server browser displays (for example) "16/18" slots, but if you try to join and take one of the last two slots AND are not one of the reserved slot owners, then you get kicked shortly after getting to the ready room.
This is very, very frustrating. It's polluting the server list. And like pollution in the real world, it affects everyone EXCEPT the people running these servers.
No reserved slots/kickvote/motd/official "unstuck"/randomteamvote/mapvote... but hey, we're getting gorge tunnels...
If you're a server operator using reserved slots, enable the passworded option in DAK when the number of public slots has been exceded and inform your reserved slot holders of the password. That's it.
If UWE can't write up a reserved slots implementation anytime soon then the least they can do is provide a custom message field when disconnecting clients for modders to use.
Fair enough. My apologies to all for the strong words. Let it be noted that this particular method of reserving slots sparks strong emotions.
Please fix your ####.
Ha. I was in that game. Not what happened at all.
Yup, me too. I see "Voogru Hive" on my list and I simply ignore it.
Servers aren't people, and stating provable facts isn't defamatory.
*edit* "it's up to the server owners"
I think they're a good idea in practice however they're implemented poorly in the NS2 world. Being a member of TeamInterrobang, their TF2 servers handle reserved slots like this.
The server is 24 slots and 24 slots can be filled by anyone. If someone with a reserve slot wants to join when the server is full, they would have to connect via console such as 'connect server.name.com' to get around the UI not letting you join (due to being full (24/24)). Using this method, it allows the server to be filled to capacity without people being kicked from spec/team select/ready room after they join which is the most frustrating part for me with NS2 res. slots.
So basically, it would find the last person who joined that did not have a slot and kick them with a reason of "Kicked for reserve slot". The thing that annoys me the most, as i pointed out earlier, is that when I join a server, I expect to play. If it lets me connect then kicks me after I get into a ready room just to leave an empty slot open, it annoys me. Let it kick me once someone wants to join that has a slot. Don't just leave an empty slot laying around.
Now granted the UI could use some improvement to help this along. Add server to favorites by IP, copy and paste into the UI and console, a way to force connect from the "Waiting for slot" queue window (with the possibility for the server to still reject the connection due to all of the slots actually being filled).
--- Above content was copy and pasted from the other res. slot post I replied on ---
That being said, I'll consider looking into making a DAK plugin to allow people to join up to the max player limit and 'kicking' the last player who joined without a slot if the server is at the max limit. This method has the benefit of not requiring people to remember the password and/or the password getting out however it has the downside of people needing to type (since copy and paste does NOT work in console or the main menu ui at all) 'connect server1.host.com' in the console to connect if the server is full and you wish to connect with your reserved slot.
So if the server is 23/24 and a non reserved slot person joins, it will become 24/24. If someone with a reserved slot wanted to join, they'd enter the stuff in console to join and it'd enumerate through the list of connected players and select the last person who joined and kick them and allow the reserved slot person to continue connecting. Likewise if the server was 22/24 when the non-reserved slot person joins, and the 24th person to join was a reserved slot. The next reserve slot who attempts to join would bump the 23rd person as they were the last to join without a slot.
Any thoughts on this?
The ideal way to implement is to block entry on the server browser screen. A 24 person server with 20 pub slots, all full (no reserves online) shows 20/20+4 on the server browser and only those with a reserve slot are allowed to connect at all. Ideally the queue would still work for public slots as well. With 2 reserve players online, it would show 20+2/20+4 on the browser. This also has the side effect of making servers with reserved slots very easy to spot and avoid if that's what you want.
In the end, it's all up to the server admins and the people that do or don't join the server. I think it would be a good thing if server ops announce reserved slots in the server name so people know on which servers they can expect to be removed at any time.
That said: I would never want to join a server where I might get kicked in mid-game to open up a reserved slot. If we had blacklists, I would add such servers to my blacklist.
My complaint is that they show up in the server browser as "not full" but non-reservees can't actually join. Even worse, you have to connect and load the map before discovering that you can't join.
Furthermore, my point is not that I don't like reserved slots or that I don't like their servers. I have no problem with either. My point is that they are polluting the server list with servers that appear to have room but are actually full from the public's perspective. The way that these three organizations are running their servers is doing a disservice to everyone who plays NS2.