Noobs Only Server
|DFA| Havoc
Join Date: 2009-08-07 Member: 68375Members, Reinforced - Shadow
Join Date: 2009-08-07 Member: 68375Members, Reinforced - Shadow
DFA hosted a noob only / rookie training server for the last free weekend and it was a huge success, so we're doing it again for the birthday sale. Players with more than 100 hours of game time are encouraged to command or spectate in order to coach, but are not allowed to play in the field. So far Reckoning and I have been trying to monitor and remove vets who think it's fun to curbstomp the rookies, but it's a lot of work and I'm about to leave for a trip to California, so we could use some help.
First of all, if you're an experienced player and you don't want to command / spectate, kindly just stay off the server. If everyone did this, it would make our jobs much easier.
Second, we need more people who ARE willing to comm for a bunch of rookies and help them learn. This can be a frustrating task, but I find it's much easier when you take a different approach from the norm: The main goal is not victory, it's to create the best gameplay and learning experience for the new players. Be patient with them and don't get invested in the outcome of the game. You are there to teach, not to win.
Thirdly, we need folks to keep an eye out for the aforementioned rookie-stomping vets. Simply initiating a vote-kick may be sufficient in some cases, but when it's not we need people to either contact a member of DFA so we can jump in and ban, or just a few people who are interested in hanging out in the server for prolonged periods that we can trust and give admin powers to. If that appeals to you, post here or contact me on steam and we can work out the details.
Thanks!
First of all, if you're an experienced player and you don't want to command / spectate, kindly just stay off the server. If everyone did this, it would make our jobs much easier.
Second, we need more people who ARE willing to comm for a bunch of rookies and help them learn. This can be a frustrating task, but I find it's much easier when you take a different approach from the norm: The main goal is not victory, it's to create the best gameplay and learning experience for the new players. Be patient with them and don't get invested in the outcome of the game. You are there to teach, not to win.
Thirdly, we need folks to keep an eye out for the aforementioned rookie-stomping vets. Simply initiating a vote-kick may be sufficient in some cases, but when it's not we need people to either contact a member of DFA so we can jump in and ban, or just a few people who are interested in hanging out in the server for prolonged periods that we can trust and give admin powers to. If that appeals to you, post here or contact me on steam and we can work out the details.
Thanks!
Comments
I absolutely love comming all noobs.
If you are bad to the point of being comparable to a rookie, then I'd give you a pass. If you notice that you're getting an inordinately high KD and singlehandedly skewing the balance of the games though, I would expect you to move on at that point.
We are not doing anything to weed out 'non-team players', as that's too subjective and would require a much higher level of scrutiny. It's also the case sometimes that the rookies are just too overwhelmed and confused to keep up with chat and team coordination efforts.
Just go in expecting the worst, and you may be pleasantly surprised. Even if you only get through to a few people, it's worth the effort.
Yeah, those are the guys we've been trying to weed out. The number of vets and comp players that have been stomping on this server is frankly staggering. The ban list is already huge, and we're only a few days in.
I would however rethink your 'no vets on the field' rule, as I was using my 800 hours to keep the game balanced even if someone else wanted to comm. For example if someone else wanted to try comming marines I would give him instructions and build stuff, and in the event of a veteran alien coming into base to eat the comm and IPs, I would help defend. On the other hand if I saw a lone ground skulk just wander in, I would just give him a couple pistol shots to ward him off. I basically only played with the pistol / axe unless the marines were losing badly due to skill stacked aliens at which point I turned it up a bit and tried to even the game out. So in that case I was unfortunately insta-killing noobs but the alternative was to let the aliens with the stacking vets cause the game to become very one sided.
On aliens I would usually just go gorge and provide a support role and give the khamm advice, and help defend base from a lone marine axing down 60 res worth of upgrades because nobody else on the team was paying attention.
If I ever found myself getting too many kills and causing the game to start to sway too heavily, I would literally just stop attacking and dodge around until I was killed by the noobs. My whole goal was to try to keep the games balanced while teaching players how the game works. I got a lot of thanks from noobs and I think it worked really well to teach players as a comm and on the field, if done correctly (aka not farm kills to show off).
Exceptions can be made under the right circumstances, and I've already cleared a couple people to do essentially what you're describing, but most people just find it too difficult to switch off their ego / combat ability and end up with a ton of kills and frustrating the other team.
Mainly what we've been doing when monitoring is just keeping an eye out for abnormally high KDs, then warning or banning as needed. If you can restrain yourself sufficiently and you aren't significantly throwing off the game balance for the rookies, then by all means carry on.
Poor choice of words :>
I would definitely keep the rule, and more importantly... *actively administrate*, "Players with more than 100 hours of game time are encouraged to command or spectate in order to coach, but are not allowed to play in the field." IMHO, the game will be ruined by even a moderately experienced player (even if they are trying to "hold back", I think that they will still be enough to sway).
I'll try and command sometime, and keep in mind what you said, "Just go in expecting the worst, and you may be pleasantly surprised. Even if you only get through to a few people, it's worth the effort."
But I do agree with currently. If you are hosting a pure rookie server, maybe consider taking off the rookie tag to your main servers.
-Just a thought
And to alleviate all concerns, it was actively moderated the whole time I was there. There was an admin who would warn (and then kick if they didn't listen) anyone with 100+ hours who was not speccing or comming. Most of the veterans who came in didn't realize the rules and quickly stopped playing once they were told. There was a veteran who was bored speccing so he let him play, but only using pistol/axe/gorge without bilebomb. Things definitely remained well-controlled the whole time.
We also ran a server that was intended to be 'elites only', the antithesis of the noob server, so that vets and pros would have somewhere other than rookie friendly servers to play. It never got used though, people would rather jump into rookie servers and stomp than be the ones to seed. The more time I spend monitoring the noobs only server, the more apparent this becomes.
I think that UWE should have implemented both rookie only AND rookie friendly servers from the start, as well as increased the rookie duration to at least 50 hours. That way the rookies who prefer a trial by fire can immediately jump in with the vets in a rookie friendly server, and those who want a less brutal learning curve can get a feel for the game while playing against other rookies first.
One stipulation I would like to add is that we should really only have one coach per team, either commanding or in a handicapped support role. Any more and we're just taking slots away from the rookies who are supposed to be learning. By that same token, we should also try not to have a ton of spectators in at once - if you see there are already a number of vets on hand to coach, try coming back again later.
Thanks again for all the help.
Infantry Portal.
I don't wanna end up being banned
And sorry for the post spam
I was a skulk doing nothing but defense and helping the commander (with a score of like 14-7) and got banned, even when I specifically told them I was only on the server helping the rookies.
I could of went and dominated the other team but I didn't. Even when the marine team had some player going like 40-1.
Cool server.
You can safely assume that 40-1 marine got banned too. The only times we've allowed vets in the field, we've stipulated that they have to play as a no-bile gorge, or a marine using a pistol and welder only. To my knowledge, warnings have also been given out before almost every ban, giving the vets a chance to comply or communicate before removal. Monitoring is a lot of work though, and we've had to split the job between several people, so while you shouldn't have been playing as a skulk in the first place, it's possible that your attempt to communicate your intentions got missed, and I'm sorry for that.
On a somewhat related note, I've decided that allowing vets to play in the field even with restrictions is causing too much of a problem / grey area, and we're going back to a hard stance on command/spectate only. Rookie commanders can be coached by spectators if need be, or they will simply have to learn how to command another time.
We're working on getting an motd to announce the rules at load and at regular intervals. After that's in place, admins will stop giving out warnings and will simply ban vets playing in the field on sight.
@Runki
The rules are simple: Players with more than 100 hours in-game should command or spectate only.
IP Address: 71.201.65.186:27019
I'll be sure to jump in and command!
Two questions :
Is it okay if I keep encouraging people to use their mic /communicate? I'm big on that, especially after the many many PAX games I've tutored.
Also, if someone wishes to learn to command can i become a welding only /heal spray only player who walks them through it?
That was me. As Havoc stated it's been a full time job finding, warning and removing.
This is typically the warning we give. Granted I only gave about 4 min for you to make a move, but it gets old when we are just ignored.
-Reckoning