In praise of large servers

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Comments

  • dePARAdePARA Join Date: 2011-04-29 Member: 96321Members, Squad Five Blue
    edited March 2014
    42 slot servers saving the community, best joke i ever heard.

    They saving it by introducing these to all new players?
    - Rubberbanding from hell
    - Clusterfucked games with zero balance

    NO

    Every player new to the game become a wrong impression of performance and balance.
    These servers killing the playerbase and i dont understand why UWE isnt filtering these hacked servers out of the serverbrowser.

    And the only reason why this server is so "successfull" is cause players joining servers with players on.
    If there would be two 20 slot servers with 2 spots free each instead of one 40 slot with 4 slots free, the would play on one of the 20 slot.

    But i think i can calm down cause after 2,5 years of succesfully hosting a NS2 server i know one thing for sure:
    All these home hosted servers disappear after a while.

    Lets call it "Natural selection"
  • VetinariVetinari Join Date: 2013-07-23 Member: 186325Members, Squad Five Blue, Reinforced - Shadow, WC 2013 - Silver
    Do we actually know for a fact that new players join uber-sized servers first? (This is not a rhethorical question. I'm seriously interested.)
  • MartigenMartigen Australia Join Date: 2002-11-01 Member: 2714Members, NS1 Playtester, Contributor, Reinforced - Onos
    dePARA wrote: »
    42 slot servers saving the community, best joke i ever heard.

    They saving it by introducing these to all new players?
    - Rubberbanding from hell
    - Clusterfucked games with zero balance
    I said:

    "As many of you have confirmed, larger servers get seeded over small ones."

    This refers to the 18, 20 and 24 players servers as well as 32 (it's out there) and 42. The former don't have performance issues.

    It's interesting, too, don't you think that despite Woozas having performance issues at 42 players, that it's constantly packed none the less? What does this tell you? Read on.

    These servers killing the playerbase and i dont understand why UWE isnt filtering these hacked servers out of the serverbrowser.
    You're not seeing, or you're choosing not to see. I'll try and explain this again:

    Players choose to seed large servers. That's what they want to play.

    And guess what? When people keep coming back to play the game they want to play - on these large servers - by this very definition the servers are serving the playerbase.

    If everyone thought 18 player servers were the only way to play, then the larger servers would never seed.

    Disagree with me all you like, it's right there in your server browser every evening when you sit down to play.

    If there would be two 20 slot servers with 2 spots free each instead of one 40 slot with 4 slots free, the would play on one of the 20 slot.
    So your desire is to force people to play on servers that you like to play on, the 20 slot ones, instead of the servers they want to play on, the 24, 32 and 42 slot ones.

    How is it you get to decide how other people play their game?


    Everyone who has posted with vitriol regarding the large servers needs to take a step back and just think on this a moment:

    The type of NS you want to play is not the same as other people want to play. Fortunately, there are server sizes to accommodate all tastes. And just as well, otherwise we would have an even smaller community. So, again, if anything you should be thanking the hosts of larger servers.



  • dePARAdePARA Join Date: 2011-04-29 Member: 96321Members, Squad Five Blue
    "How is it you get to decide how other people play their game?"

    The rules of the game decide how players have to play a game.
    And the NS2 rules has 24 slots max.

    The rules of soccer for example defines 2 teams of 11 players.
    You can play it with 60 players and 5 balls. But is this real soccer?
    No.

    By following you logic cheating must ok for you then.
    If players want to play THERE game with an aimbot, noone is allowed to ban them?
    Hey its there game and they can play it however they like.

    But wait, if i buy a game on steam it is not my game. I only bought the rights to play it.
    Damn, another rule called "steam" tells me how to use a game.
    What a terrible restricted world.

    Games like Titanfalls (good or bad game doesnt matter in this case) has proven that restricted rules are working and UWE should do the same.
  • Omega_K2Omega_K2 Join Date: 2011-12-25 Member: 139013Members, Reinforced - Shadow
    I feel like hacked player count servers are just the start. Nosteam, fake player & redirect servers next? I don't even know why these are always tolerated in the list.

    Regardless I agree with joshhh, 24+ should be hidden from the browser, though I'd go as far as only allowing it with a mod, as in card capping it at 24 in the lua files (like with a simple variable), so people still easily change it if they want just with a mod.
  • VetinariVetinari Join Date: 2013-07-23 Member: 186325Members, Squad Five Blue, Reinforced - Shadow, WC 2013 - Silver
    edited March 2014
    joshhh wrote: »
    Careful Martigen. Your starting to sound like king.

    Anyway, No one giving criticism actually cares about the actual number of players. Sure it may be imbalanced but whatever. To each his own. The problem is strictly regarding new players to the game. We don't want their first impression of NS2 and of spark engine to be a rubber banding jungle of terrible performance. We want their first impression of NS2 to be on a server with a good tick rate that shows them the game can be stable.

    Note that neither Wooza's server nor the 32p server that's floating around in Europe, too, are tagged as rookie-friendly. I don't really understand why you all assume that those servers are rookie-magnets and -killers. You are assuming
    a) New players will (mostly) choose a sole 42p server over a multitude of lower count servers (even if it's not a rookie-friendly one);
    b) New players are dumb enough to not understand that the single 42p player server is not the norm;
    c) New players are dumb enough to rate their NS2 experience solely on this single server.

    (Hence why I wonder if we actually know for a fact that these servers kill off rookies.)

    Also I want to note that 24p servers are, again, worse. Those server are not strikingly obvious the wrong size; however, they suffer performance problems as well. I think those drive newcomers off primarily.

    edit: I haven't checked, but I think there aren't actually any (or, at least, many) rookie-friendly servers over 20p in Europe.

    (edit2: Don't get me wrong. If those big-scale servers prove to really scare away newbies, I'm strictly against them. But currently, I'm sceptical.)
  • VetinariVetinari Join Date: 2013-07-23 Member: 186325Members, Squad Five Blue, Reinforced - Shadow, WC 2013 - Silver
    edited March 2014
    dePARA wrote: »
    "How is it you get to decide how other people play their game?"

    The rules of the game decide how players have to play a game.
    And the NS2 rules has 24 slots max.

    Fair point. Though, does that mean the game is meant to be played on 24p servers? It's certainly within the rules, but I'm sure you could have an interesting discussion about that on these forums. (Hint: Most will tell you it should actually be capped at 20 or 22.)
    dePARA wrote: »
    The rules of soccer for example defines 2 teams of 11 players.
    You can play it with 60 players and 5 balls. But is this real soccer?
    No.

    That's not a well-chosen example; Do you really want to tell us the rule of a game can't be altered with the affected players' consensus?
    Tell that the kids on the street who play soccer football with one goal and 10 players (or even without a goal).
    Or the countless D&Ders with homebrew rulesets.
    Or the players of the combat mod.
    dePARA wrote: »
    By following you logic cheating must ok for you then.
    If players want to play THERE game with an aimbot, noone is allowed to ban them?
    Hey its there game and they can play it however they like.

    Yeah, wait, you are jumping to conclusions here. (And you wrote "THEIR" wrong.)
    Of course they should be banned. It's not like they set up new rules for the game, but instead they gain unfair disadvantages through abuse by changing the game's rules only for themselves.

    Compare:
    A) A server which runs a mod (take combat, for example). Every player joining the server now has to play by the mod's rules.
    B) A server which runs no mods. One player, however, uses an aimbot. While all the other players play by the game's rules, he does not.

    The important difference is that on the one hand, you have a whole bunch of people who decided to play the game in a different way, and on the other hand you have, well, a cheater.

    These two cases are fundamentally different, so it's not like "by following [Martigen's] logic cheating must [be] ok then", so please stop claiming he said things that he clearly didn't.
    dePARA wrote: »
    But wait, if i buy a game on steam it is not my game. I only bought the rights to play it.
    Damn, another rule called "steam" tells me how to use a game.
    What a terrible restricted world.

    1) "Steam" is not a rule.
    2) "But wait, if i buy a game on steam it is not my game. I only bought the rights to play it." Honestly, I did some quick research, and I can't find a good source clarifying the property situation of software (specifically steam games). That's why I ask you: Can you back that up with a source?
    3) Steam does not tell you how to play a game. It's not just no rule, it doesn't have to do anything with the way you play your games. You are probably referring to Valve Anti Cheat (VAC). VAC does not force you to play a game a certain way, it just ensures that you play the same game as everyone else on the server. (Otherwise, mods would be downright impossible.)
    4) Really, the only restriction steam makes here is about copyright.
    dePARA wrote: »
    Games like Titanfalls (good or bad game doesnt matter in this case) has proven that restricted rules are working and UWE should do the same.

    1) Titanfall has earned a fair amount of criticism about the bots and the limited playercount per team.
    2) Just because it works for one game doesn't mean it has to be done in the other. ("Games like Battlefield have proven that large-scale battles with dozens of vehicles attract lots of players, so UWE should do the same to fight the decreasing number of players")


    Please note that this post is not about whether Martigen is right or not, but only about your poor argumentation and the fact that I wholly disagree with you.
  • cooliticcoolitic Right behind you Join Date: 2013-04-02 Member: 184609Members
    edited March 2014
    Omega_K2 wrote: »
    I feel like hacked player count servers are just the start. Nosteam, fake player & redirect servers next? I don't even know why these are always tolerated in the list.

    Regardless I agree with joshhh, 24+ should be hidden from the browser, though I'd go as far as only allowing it with a mod, as in card capping it at 24 in the lua files (like with a simple variable), so people still easily change it if they want just with a mod.

    It isn't considered "hacking". Modding is a better term.

    If someone wants large servers, let them. But I agree with josh that new players shouldn't experience these kinds of servers till they play normal ones a bit more.
  • SaltlickSaltlick Join Date: 2013-01-03 Member: 177347Members, Reinforced - Shadow
    New players aren't children. If they can't tell by the server list that 24+ slot servers aren't the norm, they should be able to tell once they join. If these people lack the awareness to figure out that 16-18 man games are ideal, maybe they're not the players you want populating the 16-18 man servers anyway.
  • maD_maX_maD_maX_ Join Date: 2013-04-07 Member: 184678Members
    The Eliteest ramblings in this thread are far more detrimental then any server performance. Do you seriously believe that server performance is scaring people away. PC performance, learning curve, and lack of match making... Sure. While 40 player servers and combat may have noticable rubberbanding, no "new" player will notice it on a 24p server.

    If anything the skill ceiling is lowered in high player count servers and should create a more inviting experence where they arent losing it for their team. But all that aside i guess this forum is dead, aside from a cool exo mod, i havnt seen anyone do anything but bitch about server size, crap coms, and general elitest things.., good thing the only people who read this are the 20 elitest... Unfortunatly the game will probably die shortly too
  • VetinariVetinari Join Date: 2013-07-23 Member: 186325Members, Squad Five Blue, Reinforced - Shadow, WC 2013 - Silver
    @joshhh, you disagreed with my second last post. Would you care to explain your train of thought? Because frankly, I don't understand.
  • HivelordHivelord Join Date: 2003-06-21 Member: 17567Members, Reinforced - Shadow
    I've had a go on Wooza's.. the performance wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be. Of course when everyone is in the same room the tickrate bombs hard, otherwise some good laughs and the server actually does alright for how many people are on it.
  • dePARAdePARA Join Date: 2011-04-29 Member: 96321Members, Squad Five Blue
    edited March 2014
    After my post i played 3 rounds on that server. Never did that before.

    You remember the rookie waves after the free weekends? You remember the lemming marines running around in packs large as possible no matter the other side of the map has zero marine presence?

    Welcome to the 42 slot server.

    So, yes. 80% of the players on this server are rookies with less than 10 hrs gametime.

    Wave after wave of skulks die in minefields on the right side of the map while a lemming train of 15 roll over the left side of the map.

    These where the worst and laughable games i ever played.
    During the 2nd round someone was asking: Is this laggy for you also? ( this was one of the spare funny moments)

    Maybe i wrote THEIR wrong (english isnt my native language, im sure your geman is better than my english) but this server is a joke.

    And to the steam rule thing:
    http://store.steampowered.com/subscriber_agreement/english/
    This is the source to the "steamrule" you agreed after installation.
  • VetinariVetinari Join Date: 2013-07-23 Member: 186325Members, Squad Five Blue, Reinforced - Shadow, WC 2013 - Silver
    edited March 2014
    dePARA wrote: »
    Maybe i wrote THEIR wrong (english isnt my native language, im sure your geman is better than my english) but this server is a joke.

    In case that's sarcasm there: Yup, I'm pretty sure my German is better than your English. It's, in fact, my native language.

    That aside, that was pretty much what that post was not about. If you feel offended by it, I will edit it out.
  • joshhhjoshhh Milwaukee, WI Join Date: 2011-06-21 Member: 105717Members, NS2 Playtester, NS2 Map Tester, Reinforced - Supporter, Reinforced - Shadow, WC 2013 - Shadow, Subnautica Playtester
    @joshhh, you disagreed with my second last post. Would you care to explain your train of thought? Because frankly, I don't understand.
    joshhh wrote: »
    Careful Martigen. Your starting to sound like king.

    Anyway, No one giving criticism actually cares about the actual number of players. Sure it may be imbalanced but whatever. To each his own. The problem is strictly regarding new players to the game. We don't want their first impression of NS2 and of spark engine to be a rubber banding jungle of terrible performance. We want their first impression of NS2 to be on a server with a good tick rate that shows them the game can be stable.

    Note that neither Wooza's server nor the 32p server that's floating around in Europe, too, are tagged as rookie-friendly. I don't really understand why you all assume that those servers are rookie-magnets and -killers. You are assuming
    a) New players will (mostly) choose a sole 42p server over a multitude of lower count servers (even if it's not a rookie-friendly one);
    b) New players are dumb enough to not understand that the single 42p player server is not the norm;
    c) New players are dumb enough to rate their NS2 experience solely on this single server.

    (Hence why I wonder if we actually know for a fact that these servers kill off rookies.)

    Also I want to note that 24p servers are, again, worse. Those server are not strikingly obvious the wrong size; however, they suffer performance problems as well. I think those drive newcomers off primarily.

    edit: I haven't checked, but I think there aren't actually any (or, at least, many) rookie-friendly servers over 20p in Europe.

    (edit2: Don't get me wrong. If those big-scale servers prove to really scare away newbies, I'm strictly against them. But currently, I'm sceptical.)

    New players are "dumb" in the sense they have no idea what do to or expect when first loading ns2. I honestly don't care about their thought process. All I want to do is prevent new players from joining a clusterfck server like Woozas for their first experience. I can break it down for you...
    a) New players will (mostly) choose a sole 42p server over a multitude of lower count servers (even if it's not a rookie-friendly one);
    New players do what experienced players do... they filter the server browser by population and pick a server. Woozas server, when filled, appears on top of this list. Does that mean they will always choose it? No. It does mean its one of their first options though.
    b) New players are dumb enough to not understand that the single 42p player server is not the norm;
    Their new. How would they know what the norm is.
    c) New players are dumb enough to rate their NS2 experience solely on this single server.
    Most gamers rate their views on a game over the first few hours of experience... even if it is only on one server.

    TL:DR
    I don't care about Woozas server in the slightest. I just don't want it showing up in the server browser by default for new players. Its not hard to understand.
  • VetinariVetinari Join Date: 2013-07-23 Member: 186325Members, Squad Five Blue, Reinforced - Shadow, WC 2013 - Silver
    I have to admit that sounds plausible. It's still assuming that most players don't think a server with double the playercount than every other server is odd, though ;)
    It probably boils down to how stupid/intelligent one thinks an individual is...
  • BobRossTheBossBobRossTheBoss Join Date: 2012-12-31 Member: 176824Members
    edited March 2014
    What makes me hate huge servers is not the rubberbanding, or the newer players, or the sheer size of the teams causing a clusterfuck. It's the combination of all of those aspects. There's nothing more "fun" than possibly rubberbanding into a pack of of 5+ marines as a higher lifeform. It's even better when the AA goes up and half or more of them grab GLs/Flamethrowers then endlessly spam them down hallways or all over the walls, making the rubberbanding even worse.
  • IeptBarakatIeptBarakat The most difficult name to speak ingame. Join Date: 2009-07-10 Member: 68107Members, Constellation, NS2 Playtester, Squad Five Blue, NS2 Map Tester, Reinforced - Diamond, Reinforced - Shadow
    joshhh wrote: »
    TL:DR
    I don't care about Woozas server in the slightest. I just don't want it showing up in the server browser by default for new players. Its not hard to understand.

    The server is doing nothing wrong, if anything it's a sign that people wish to play with more players as opposed to the small playercounts the game has been stuck with. For public games 32 players is generally regarded as the minimum, it's not the server's fault the game had to downgrade the playercounts.
  • dePARAdePARA Join Date: 2011-04-29 Member: 96321Members, Squad Five Blue
    "For public games 32 players is generally regarded as the minimum"

    This thread trasforming into an farce.
  • justbob333justbob333 Join Date: 2013-03-01 Member: 183502Members
    Well now, if the player is so stupid as to see

    1 42 player server
    VS
    25 16-24 player servers

    And not understand that somethings up with that 42 player server.
    Goes and plays on 42 player server and doesn't talk to people or read/overhear how different this is vs a lower player count server
    Thus damns the game because of all this, well I don't think much is lost.



    btw 6vs6 in titanfall is what made me decide to not buy it. I really thought EA finally found a way to get Me to download origin too, until that.
  • KanehKaneh Join Date: 2012-12-11 Member: 174783Members, Squad Five Blue, Reinforced - Shadow
    The server is a laggy shithole.

    some people like shitholes.

    all the power to those people. I'll go actually play the game instead of lagging around. This shit boggles my mind.
  • SUPER_SARSSUPER_SARS Join Date: 2013-02-13 Member: 183039Members
    justbob333 wrote: »
    btw 6vs6 in titanfall is what made me decide to not buy it. I really thought EA finally found a way to get Me to download origin too, until that.

    Between players out of their Titans, grunts and spectres it doesnt have the empty map feeling.
  • CCTEECCTEE Join Date: 2013-06-20 Member: 185634Members, Reinforced - Shadow
    Kaneh wrote: »
    Hey guys starting tomorrownight on http://www.twitch.tv/ggKaneh:
    24 HOURS marathoncast of cool pubplay at Wooza's, by me, GGKANEH!

    Be there for this unique event!

    Awesome dude!
  • VetinariVetinari Join Date: 2013-07-23 Member: 186325Members, Squad Five Blue, Reinforced - Shadow, WC 2013 - Silver
    The server is doing nothing wrong, if anything it's a sign that people wish to play with more players as opposed to the small playercounts the game has been stuck with. For public games 32 players is generally regarded as the minimum, it's not the server's fault the game had to downgrade the playercounts.
    For public games 32 players is generally regarded as the minimum
    32 players is generally regarded as the minimum
    32 players
    minimum

    Seriously, What The Hell?? Which twisted world do you live in??
  • PaajtorPaajtor Join Date: 2012-11-09 Member: 168634Members
    ...yeah but, no but

    5xce4859qpsj7unfg.jpg
  • IeptBarakatIeptBarakat The most difficult name to speak ingame. Join Date: 2009-07-10 Member: 68107Members, Constellation, NS2 Playtester, Squad Five Blue, NS2 Map Tester, Reinforced - Diamond, Reinforced - Shadow
    The server is doing nothing wrong, if anything it's a sign that people wish to play with more players as opposed to the small playercounts the game has been stuck with. For public games 32 players is generally regarded as the minimum, it's not the server's fault the game had to downgrade the playercounts.
    For public games 32 players is generally regarded as the minimum
    32 players is generally regarded as the minimum
    32 players
    minimum

    Seriously, What The Hell?? Which twisted world do you live in??

    500 player servers or bust. :P
  • DC_DarklingDC_Darkling Join Date: 2003-07-10 Member: 18068Members, Constellation, Squad Five Blue, Squad Five Silver
    I wonder if the autojoin puts players on 42 slots?
    Also YES rookies never understand. Hell, many of the so called non rookies dont understand.

    * They do not realise a game is running a mod. (sewleks balance mod comes to mind. (even though its stated ingame AND inload that its a modified version)
    * They do no realise large player count = not standard.
    * They do not link large server with a bad server rate.

    List can go on and on.

    I will agree that there will always be people who want the 40+ clusterfcks on servers. I agree some rookies will stay despite all the issues of large servers.
    Many however will claim bad experience and leave. (Thankfully, many will also try a lower server if you convince them the lag is due to server size)
    (as a side note, official servers being bad with their rates isnt helping either!)

    What we need is simply a off/on option to show any nonofficial 24+ server. With a little warning saying '24+ slot servers are not supported' or something.
    If people want to play on 24+ by all means, let them. But lets please tell them that chance of lag is increased. (note I said chance of lag, not guarantee. If you somehow get a 40+ to run lagfree, gratz to you)
  • IronHorseIronHorse Developer, QA Manager, Technical Support & contributor Join Date: 2010-05-08 Member: 71669Members, Super Administrators, Forum Admins, Forum Moderators, NS2 Developer, NS2 Playtester, Squad Five Blue, Subnautica Playtester, Subnautica PT Lead, Pistachionauts
    edited March 2014
    it's not the server's fault the game had to downgrade the playercounts.
    So they hack the exe in order to provide a broken experience to new players, instead??.. [-(

    That's like saying "It's not the driver's fault that there was a slow speed limit due to a school zone" after running over a crowd of children..
  • justbob333justbob333 Join Date: 2013-03-01 Member: 183502Members
    Holy massively mismatched scenarios batman.

    Running kids over vs OMG LAG

    Am I misinformed that uwe meant this game to be very mod friendly, as a nod to the origin of ns1?


    On a side note, what percentage of the people complaining about lag, are just running on connections that would lag, or machines that would turn into slideshows on a 16 player server as well.

    The games been on sale for 1$ quite often, no surprise someone with a bargain brand laptop got it on a humble bundle months ago, forgot about it and one day looking through the steam library gives it a shot.

    I know I have at least 30 games from various humble bundles I've not touched cause I got the bundle for an other game.
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