Until NS2 will let TG "lie" about the amount of actual players, this will continue to be the policy. We also wish there was a way to put a customizable kick message. All of the custom code (non-published) addons are made in house by a dedicated group of guys. There is only so much our devs can do within NS2. We host a 16 person server with 4 slots for members to join. That is why it shows 20 people.
Anyway, I became a supporting member at TG after I got tired of wasting my time on random servers because people didn't want to listen to each other. I pay $9/month to help keep the lights on a server with a great tic rate. In exchange I get a guranteed slot on the server and don't have to worry about getting kicked. Not only that the community speaks for it self. While many of us feel bad when someone gets kicked, if we didn't have the $$ we wouldn't have such a great server or maybe no server at all.
Peak hours we can see the server populated by all supporting members. We do captains games (dodgeball style team selection).
Lastly as with any development there will be bugs and downsides. Though it is a small price for advancement.
Until NS2 will let TG "lie" about the amount of actual players, this will continue to be the policy. We also wish there was a way to put a customizable kick message. All of the custom code (non-published) addons are made in house by a dedicated group of guys. There is only so much our devs can do within NS2. We host a 16 person server with 4 slots for members to join. That is why it shows 20 people.
Anyway, I became a supporting member at TG after I got tired of wasting my time on random servers because people didn't want to listen to each other. I pay $9/month to help keep the lights on a server with a great tic rate. In exchange I get a guranteed slot on the server and don't have to worry about getting kicked. Not only that the community speaks for it self. While many of us feel bad when someone gets kicked, if we didn't have the $$ we wouldn't have such a great server or maybe no server at all.
Peak hours we can see the server populated by all supporting members. We do captains games (dodgeball style team selection).
Lastly as with any development there will be bugs and downsides. Though it is a small price for advancement.
There's better ways to do it, DAK mod does it better. Sorry.
Solarity, thanks for your comments. I hope your devs come up with a better way to do it, one which doesn't involve making the server look available to the public when it's actually full to the public.
Perhaps the DAK password-when-public-slots-are-full method would work for you. Perhaps your devs can adopt a similar approach in their own code.
Solarity, thanks for your comments. I hope your devs come up with a better way to do it, one which doesn't involve making the server look available to the public when it's actually full to the public.
Perhaps the DAK password-when-public-slots-are-full method would work for you. Perhaps your devs can adopt a similar approach in their own code.
If NS2 gives the ability to set the players online manually, we just might.
The devs have brought up issues with setting passwords. I make comments and ask question, though I am a believer of not biting the hand that feeds you.
I want to stress that my OP was not about getting kicked mid-game, or about reserved slots in general. It was specifically about the method that Tactical Gamer, Voogru, and National Gaming use to implement reserved slots.
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.
Did you ever consider to express your thoughts to these organizations rather than on UWE forums, where it has been stated multiple times that server ops are welcome to run their servers how they see fit?
And for the record, and with full disclosure, I am in favor of a password on servers when the desired number of slots are filled. This is how my server was set up, until I decided to pay for supporting one of these three organizations rather than a server because NS2 just didn't catch on enough to suit me with the prior community.
it has been stated multiple times [on UWE forums] that server ops are welcome to run their servers how they see fit
Indeed. However, I think it's a mistake to welcome server ops who run their servers in a manner which disrupts the usefulness of the server browser for all other NS2 players. And I came to the UWE forums to express my opinion to the NS2 community at large at one time, rather than to each of the several separate offending server ops individually several separate times.
Frankly, thats fine they can run their servers how they see fit, but if their quality of players is down the toilet or nobody plays there, I don't want to read about it
Hi, I recently started playing NS2. I hadn't played any NS1, but I had heard of it and seen friends playing it in the past, so I gave it a go. I jumped on some random servers and was impressed by the gameplay, but teamwork was very much lacking overall. A lot of kids running around on their own mission while commanders seldom unifying the team to push one area. Potential that could be realized.
Now, let me say that I had been already a member of Tactical Gamer for almost a year at the time I started playing NS2. I was not aware of their server when I started playing NS2, but was approached by a TG member who asked me if I had NS2. I told him that yes I did and he asked me why he hadn't seen me on the TG:NS2 server. I was surprised that I hadn't seen it and decided to give it a shot. Good choice. Like every other title TG plays, we really took the reigns in NS2 in terms of a present community, developer support, and solid gameplay tactics and teamwork. I now play NS2 almost every night because I am impressed at how good our server is.
Let me say that in short, the route we have chosen to have 4 of our 20 slots reserved is working best for the community. The UWE developers are rumored to be adding support for properly displayed slot numbers and also kick messages that are more detailed, but until that happens, I think our server will stay the same.
In regards to getting kicked from our server in the middle of a game, active community members can actually gain priority over public members, so there is an incentive to play at our server regularly. You don't have to pay. Paying is for people who want to see the TG community at large strive. If you are interested on playing on a consistently populated, developer supported (cool mods like captains games and also WinOrLose, which is very interesting), and teamwork focused server, then TG is the right place for you. Come by and check it out.
Hi, I recently started playing NS2. I hadn't played any NS1, but I had heard of it and seen friends playing it in the past, so I gave it a go. I jumped on some random servers and was impressed by the gameplay, but teamwork was very much lacking overall. A lot of kids running around on their own mission while commanders seldom unifying the team to push one area. Potential that could be realized.
Now, let me say that I had been already a member of Tactical Gamer for almost a year at the time I started playing NS2. I was not aware of their server when I started playing NS2, but was approached by a TG member who asked me if I had NS2. I told him that yes I did and he asked me why he hadn't seen me on the TG:NS2 server. I was surprised that I hadn't seen it and decided to give it a shot. Good choice. Like every other title TG plays, we really took the reigns in NS2 in terms of a present community, developer support, and solid gameplay tactics and teamwork. I now play NS2 almost every night because I am impressed at how good our server is.
Let me say that in short, the route we have chosen to have 4 of our 20 slots reserved is working best for the community. The UWE developers are rumored to be adding support for properly displayed slot numbers and also kick messages that are more detailed, but until that happens, I think our server will stay the same.
In regards to getting kicked from our server in the middle of a game, active community members can actually gain priority over public members, so there is an incentive to play at our server regularly. You don't have to pay. Paying is for people who want to see the TG community at large strive. If you are interested on playing on a consistently populated, developer supported (cool mods like captains games and also WinOrLose, which is very interesting), and teamwork focused server, then TG is the right place for you. Come by and check it out.
Unlike priceline I stumbled into the server when I left a game since some trolls were kicking the comms during the low % kick requirement, then building a bunch of Armories. I left and happen to join TG and was immediately surprised about how coordination there was as well as some impressive come backs. After getting kicked a few times I became a supporting members. In addition to that some other guys I played with on other servers ended up joining as well. It is nice to have coordination like WoW, though no where near the time commitment.
No matter what there are going to be people who are never satisfied, enjoy the game where ever you play.
If you wish to visit our forums, please feel free. We wouldn't mind seeing you there, CrazyEddie!
Thanks for the invitation, and your thoughtful post here. I'm certain that the TG community is a fine group of fellows and your servers a joy to play on. I only wish that you would be more considerate of the rest of the NS2 community by not disrupting the usefulness of the server browser.
Frankly, thats fine they can run their servers how they see fit, but if their quality of players is down the toilet or nobody plays there, I don't want to read about it
CWAG, you know more than most that lots of people play there, the NS1 servers were always relatively packed. Can't say much about quality, you always get randoms from day to day. TGNS aint CAL-NS. Still fun though. Come back sometime and try it out, there are some pretty good people on there.
It's working well for the TG community. It's a detriment to the rest of the NS2 community.
What I was getting at is that you should really take this up with UWE, as they have given us limited control to display and inform players what is going on when they join our server. Same can be said regarding the kick message.
Indeed, that's good news.
Perhaps if you encouraged them, these features could be added sooner, as they might see them as higher priority.
Alas, that's a shame.
Again, this is due to UWE in the end. Not us. We have very specific reasons for running our server the way we do. I'm sure if you were in the server administrator's shoes you would have made the same call.
Thanks for the invitation, and your thoughtful post here. I'm certain that the TG community is a fine group of fellows and your servers a joy to play on. I only wish that you would be more considerate of the rest of the NS2 community by not disrupting the usefulness of the server browser.
We are more than considerate, it is due to the "usefulness" of the server browser that makes it look like we aren't. That's why I invited you to our forum or our server, so that we could further explain our situation to you. So please, do not misconstrue Tactical Gamer's actions or my words.
As always you are welcome on our server or our forums,
PricelineNegotiator
That's why I invited you to our forum or our server, so that we could further explain our situation to you
So wait... why can't you "further explain" whatever you want to explain... here?
Anyways, the serves listed could just switch over to a passworded Reserved Slots which is implemented on many servers. It's less disruptive and more applicable to the server browser. I've yet to hear a reason why that's been written off.
Because multiple people in our community, and also outside of it use shortcuts to launch their game to the server. Having a password on the server would make it tiresome for the members that pay for the server (those who would get the password). The password may change sometimes, users wouldn't know whether or not to use their shortcut since the server may be 15/20 or 16/20 in a blink of an eye, and so on.
The bottom line is we wait for UWE to support what you guys want: for our server (and others) to display the true amount of players on the server and also the customizable kick message.
Not SureJoin Date: 2013-01-06Member: 177758Members
Wow guys, I gotta say .. really? It's that much of a problem? I figured it out the first time I was kicked, and now I only join that server if it has less than 16 people.
Having a password on the server would make it tiresome for the members that pay for the server (those who would get the password).
Thanks for the explanation. I'll note that it's tiresome for everyone else who plays NS2 to deal with the fact that the server browser is unreliable thanks to server operators such as yourselves.
It's tiresome to remember that some of the servers that show available slots don't actually have available slots. It's tiresome to remember which servers have this odd quirk and which ones really are open when they say they're open. It's tiresome to remember how many slots each of these different falsely advertising servers actually do have, so you can decide whether or not to try connecting to them (and do bear in mind that each one has a different number of fake slots). It's tiresome to connect to a server, load the map, and then get kicked because you forgot that this particular server was one of the ones that advertises fake open slots, or you forgot how many fake open slots this particular server has.
Wow guys, I gotta say .. really? It's that much of a problem?
It's certainly not one of the top issues facing the game, no. It's a minor inconvenience at worst. But it's one that the server operators could address themselves, if they chose to. Instead, they've decided that imposing a minor inconvenience on everyone else is an acceptable cost for avoiding a minor inconvenience to themselves. This is an understandable decision, but a disappointing one.
Again, in my opinion you're making a very good case for your argument, but as I mentioned before, if you're not even willing to address issues to admins through their server related forums, why do you think they would they even consider addressing your concerns?
Addressing issues or giving suggestions regarding the server browser in the UWE ideas and suggestions forum might also give you some results.
I'm going to go ahead and agree with CrazyEddie on this one. The ultimate solution is to develop software that better suits the needs of server operators, but that solution is not yet here. In the mean time server operators should respect the rest of the community and not pursue strategies that involve, essentially, sending false information to their server browsers and wasting their time. Full servers should appear full on the list.
I also have selfish reasons for wishing TG in particular would change their system. Solarity is a friend and I'd like to be able to play with him on his favorite server. On most popular servers you can queue for an open slot if you are willing to wait a bit. TG's reserved slot system makes this basically impossible. The solution, I suppose, is to buy a reserved slot on their server. However, I am reluctant to donate money to an organization that behaves in such a fashion, even if I enjoy the company of their players.
None of this is to say that I have any problem with the concept of reserved slots. I know server hosting costs money and that one of the ways you convince people to help with that cost is giving priority access to people who contribute. I'm not some entitled freeloader who believes he is owed the same privileges as paying members. However, I think that server operators who opt for this system would be wise to question whether it is even serving their own purposes. Some people who might otherwise have ended up as contributors could be driven off entirely.
i thought reserved slots used to work the same way back in ns1? also every other goldsrc mod iirc, using the admin plugins.
i think it's only irritating because ns2 takes quite a while to load (think 2 minutes for me) and the server only kicks you after you've fully loaded, whereas if you were to join a ns1 server with a relatively good computer, the loading speed is significantly reduced, leading to a kicked message in about 15 seconds (thus less complaining).
it's like being forced to watch a meaningless youtube video for 2 minutes compared to 15 seconds, lol.
i think passwording the server is a very good idea. smart guy, whoever thought that up.
While I like the suggestion of having an odd number, though when we get the server full of supporting members it doesn't kick them so it will fill up to 21 in the case we have a full server, so 1 team would have extra.
I am flattered what you said Iguana, though it is hard to play elsewhere as many other servers lack the maturity, skill, and coordination of TG. We use to play at a lot of servers, until I found that one. A few of my pre-TG friends are now supporting members []/Luch and Anton.
Also one thing to note about the TG community, while we have a lot supporting members in NS2. The money doesn't only go to our server. If a few people in TG want to host a server for a new game, then we can start a new dedicated server up for that group. If it is a popular server and enough supporting members play on the server, they will keep it up.
If I were to guess the TG developers might not want servers to "lie" about the amount of players on the server as some people would take advantage of that artificially seed their server.
Sometimes I am not a big fan of the reserved system as it makes it harder to play with IRL friends who only really play with me and not on their own. As they don't play that much it makes it not such a great deal to pay the membership fee. In some cases I do need to go to different servers to play with IRL friends.
Tactical Gamer has clan members, and admins that routinely rage quit losing games. This on top of their McGyver reserve slot system makes their servers no longer a play choice for me.
They had some good people too, but it's the bad ones that burn you out.
Thank you for everyone, who has brought their concerns in a mature fashion to our attention. We are speaking about some of this to our admins. If you want to give more feedback, feel free to join our forum.
As it appears a troll has hijacked this thread with slandering remarks, I will no longer be active in this thread.
Thank you for everyone, who has brought their concerns in a mature fashion to our attention. We are speaking about some of this to our admins. If you want to give more feedback, feel free to join our forum.
As it appears a troll has hijacked this thread with slandering remarks, I will no longer be active in this thread.
I wrote of my experiences. Things that actually happened, fact. You insulting me, and flagging my post is genuine trolling, not imagined trolling as in your case regarding my post. Grow Up.
Thank you for everyone, who has brought their concerns in a mature fashion to our attention. We are speaking about some of this to our admins. If you want to give more feedback, feel free to join our forum.
As it appears a troll has hijacked this thread with slandering remarks, I will no longer be active in this thread.
I wrote of my experiences. Things that actually happened, fact. You insulting me, and flagging my post is genuine trolling, not imagined trolling as in your case regarding my post. Grow Up.
This is not the place to talk about how you do not like our server members. This thread was created to discuss the reserved slot system. Please refrain yourself from creating a conflict within this thread, as it is not necessary or appropriate.
Thank you for everyone, who has brought their concerns in a mature fashion to our attention. We are speaking about some of this to our admins. If you want to give more feedback, feel free to join our forum.
As it appears a troll has hijacked this thread with slandering remarks, I will no longer be active in this thread.
I wrote of my experiences. Things that actually happened, fact. You insulting me, and flagging my post is genuine trolling, not imagined trolling as in your case regarding my post. Grow Up.
This is not the place to talk about how you do not like our server members. This thread was created to discuss the reserved slot system. Please refrain yourself from creating a conflict within this thread, as it is not necessary or appropriate.
This is an open forum, and I believe I was speaking on topic. I spoke both of good and bad experiences, not exclusively one over the other. I wonder if all the people flagging my posts as trolling are part of a group of some sort...
Comments
Pretty much. Frustrating to join then get kicked, and doubly frustrating to get kicked mid game so I just avoid servers like that in the first place.
Anyway, I became a supporting member at TG after I got tired of wasting my time on random servers because people didn't want to listen to each other. I pay $9/month to help keep the lights on a server with a great tic rate. In exchange I get a guranteed slot on the server and don't have to worry about getting kicked. Not only that the community speaks for it self. While many of us feel bad when someone gets kicked, if we didn't have the $$ we wouldn't have such a great server or maybe no server at all.
Peak hours we can see the server populated by all supporting members. We do captains games (dodgeball style team selection).
Lastly as with any development there will be bugs and downsides. Though it is a small price for advancement.
There's better ways to do it, DAK mod does it better. Sorry.
Perhaps the DAK password-when-public-slots-are-full method would work for you. Perhaps your devs can adopt a similar approach in their own code.
If NS2 gives the ability to set the players online manually, we just might.
The devs have brought up issues with setting passwords. I make comments and ask question, though I am a believer of not biting the hand that feeds you.
Did you ever consider to express your thoughts to these organizations rather than on UWE forums, where it has been stated multiple times that server ops are welcome to run their servers how they see fit?
And for the record, and with full disclosure, I am in favor of a password on servers when the desired number of slots are filled. This is how my server was set up, until I decided to pay for supporting one of these three organizations rather than a server because NS2 just didn't catch on enough to suit me with the prior community.
Briefly, but I decided against it.
Indeed. However, I think it's a mistake to welcome server ops who run their servers in a manner which disrupts the usefulness of the server browser for all other NS2 players. And I came to the UWE forums to express my opinion to the NS2 community at large at one time, rather than to each of the several separate offending server ops individually several separate times.
Now, let me say that I had been already a member of Tactical Gamer for almost a year at the time I started playing NS2. I was not aware of their server when I started playing NS2, but was approached by a TG member who asked me if I had NS2. I told him that yes I did and he asked me why he hadn't seen me on the TG:NS2 server. I was surprised that I hadn't seen it and decided to give it a shot. Good choice. Like every other title TG plays, we really took the reigns in NS2 in terms of a present community, developer support, and solid gameplay tactics and teamwork. I now play NS2 almost every night because I am impressed at how good our server is.
Let me say that in short, the route we have chosen to have 4 of our 20 slots reserved is working best for the community. The UWE developers are rumored to be adding support for properly displayed slot numbers and also kick messages that are more detailed, but until that happens, I think our server will stay the same.
In regards to getting kicked from our server in the middle of a game, active community members can actually gain priority over public members, so there is an incentive to play at our server regularly. You don't have to pay. Paying is for people who want to see the TG community at large strive. If you are interested on playing on a consistently populated, developer supported (cool mods like captains games and also WinOrLose, which is very interesting), and teamwork focused server, then TG is the right place for you. Come by and check it out.
If you wish to visit our forums, please feel free. We wouldn't mind seeing you there, CrazyEddie!
http://www.tacticalgamer.com/natural-selection-general-discussion/
See you on the server,
PricelineNegotiator
Unlike priceline I stumbled into the server when I left a game since some trolls were kicking the comms during the low % kick requirement, then building a bunch of Armories. I left and happen to join TG and was immediately surprised about how coordination there was as well as some impressive come backs. After getting kicked a few times I became a supporting members. In addition to that some other guys I played with on other servers ended up joining as well. It is nice to have coordination like WoW, though no where near the time commitment.
No matter what there are going to be people who are never satisfied, enjoy the game where ever you play.
-Solarity
It's working well for the TG community. It's a detriment to the rest of the NS2 community.
Indeed, that's good news.
Alas, that's a shame.
Thanks for the invitation, and your thoughtful post here. I'm certain that the TG community is a fine group of fellows and your servers a joy to play on. I only wish that you would be more considerate of the rest of the NS2 community by not disrupting the usefulness of the server browser.
CWAG, you know more than most that lots of people play there, the NS1 servers were always relatively packed. Can't say much about quality, you always get randoms from day to day. TGNS aint CAL-NS. Still fun though. Come back sometime and try it out, there are some pretty good people on there.
As always you are welcome on our server or our forums,
PricelineNegotiator
So wait... why can't you "further explain" whatever you want to explain... here?
Anyways, the serves listed could just switch over to a passworded Reserved Slots which is implemented on many servers. It's less disruptive and more applicable to the server browser. I've yet to hear a reason why that's been written off.
The bottom line is we wait for UWE to support what you guys want: for our server (and others) to display the true amount of players on the server and also the customizable kick message.
It's not super complicated.
Thanks for the explanation. I'll note that it's tiresome for everyone else who plays NS2 to deal with the fact that the server browser is unreliable thanks to server operators such as yourselves.
It's tiresome to remember that some of the servers that show available slots don't actually have available slots. It's tiresome to remember which servers have this odd quirk and which ones really are open when they say they're open. It's tiresome to remember how many slots each of these different falsely advertising servers actually do have, so you can decide whether or not to try connecting to them (and do bear in mind that each one has a different number of fake slots). It's tiresome to connect to a server, load the map, and then get kicked because you forgot that this particular server was one of the ones that advertises fake open slots, or you forgot how many fake open slots this particular server has.
It's certainly not one of the top issues facing the game, no. It's a minor inconvenience at worst. But it's one that the server operators could address themselves, if they chose to. Instead, they've decided that imposing a minor inconvenience on everyone else is an acceptable cost for avoiding a minor inconvenience to themselves. This is an understandable decision, but a disappointing one.
Addressing issues or giving suggestions regarding the server browser in the UWE ideas and suggestions forum might also give you some results.
that's rare... wish more servers did that though...
I'm going to go ahead and agree with CrazyEddie on this one. The ultimate solution is to develop software that better suits the needs of server operators, but that solution is not yet here. In the mean time server operators should respect the rest of the community and not pursue strategies that involve, essentially, sending false information to their server browsers and wasting their time. Full servers should appear full on the list.
I also have selfish reasons for wishing TG in particular would change their system. Solarity is a friend and I'd like to be able to play with him on his favorite server. On most popular servers you can queue for an open slot if you are willing to wait a bit. TG's reserved slot system makes this basically impossible. The solution, I suppose, is to buy a reserved slot on their server. However, I am reluctant to donate money to an organization that behaves in such a fashion, even if I enjoy the company of their players.
None of this is to say that I have any problem with the concept of reserved slots. I know server hosting costs money and that one of the ways you convince people to help with that cost is giving priority access to people who contribute. I'm not some entitled freeloader who believes he is owed the same privileges as paying members. However, I think that server operators who opt for this system would be wise to question whether it is even serving their own purposes. Some people who might otherwise have ended up as contributors could be driven off entirely.
i think it's only irritating because ns2 takes quite a while to load (think 2 minutes for me) and the server only kicks you after you've fully loaded, whereas if you were to join a ns1 server with a relatively good computer, the loading speed is significantly reduced, leading to a kicked message in about 15 seconds (thus less complaining).
it's like being forced to watch a meaningless youtube video for 2 minutes compared to 15 seconds, lol.
i think passwording the server is a very good idea. smart guy, whoever thought that up.
I am flattered what you said Iguana, though it is hard to play elsewhere as many other servers lack the maturity, skill, and coordination of TG. We use to play at a lot of servers, until I found that one. A few of my pre-TG friends are now supporting members []/Luch and Anton.
Also one thing to note about the TG community, while we have a lot supporting members in NS2. The money doesn't only go to our server. If a few people in TG want to host a server for a new game, then we can start a new dedicated server up for that group. If it is a popular server and enough supporting members play on the server, they will keep it up.
If I were to guess the TG developers might not want servers to "lie" about the amount of players on the server as some people would take advantage of that artificially seed their server.
Sometimes I am not a big fan of the reserved system as it makes it harder to play with IRL friends who only really play with me and not on their own. As they don't play that much it makes it not such a great deal to pay the membership fee. In some cases I do need to go to different servers to play with IRL friends.
They had some good people too, but it's the bad ones that burn you out.
As it appears a troll has hijacked this thread with slandering remarks, I will no longer be active in this thread.
I wrote of my experiences. Things that actually happened, fact. You insulting me, and flagging my post is genuine trolling, not imagined trolling as in your case regarding my post. Grow Up.
This is not the place to talk about how you do not like our server members. This thread was created to discuss the reserved slot system. Please refrain yourself from creating a conflict within this thread, as it is not necessary or appropriate.
This is an open forum, and I believe I was speaking on topic. I spoke both of good and bad experiences, not exclusively one over the other. I wonder if all the people flagging my posts as trolling are part of a group of some sort...