I'm annoyed like fuck by this. Basicly the whole issue is like this.

People are joining server 1, and dont look any further. The whole day everyone is pounding on server 1 trying to connect, rather then just connect to the next (empty) server, and wait 5 minutes till its filled.

We currently have the extra spapoint rewarding system, but it doesnt seem to pull off what we want. With as result we offering ALOT of space for people to game on, but not a single soul who wants to spend 5 minutes alone in a server, no, they rather wait half an hour joining the only full server (WTF???!!!!)

In CS we could force connecting people onto another server, but VALVe blocked this in the source engine.
So, we'll have to try and find a differant solution... But what?

People are just dumb sheep sometimes, grrrr

to make you happy ill be joining a empty server now

we're mainly dependent of our members for this. Members who go play tf2 or have the time/space/computer power to idle should be alert to what servers need filling. If you see an empty server go idle on it or play on it and when it get's filled hop on to the next one. For servers 1 to 3 it doesn't take that much time anyway and after half an hour I'm sure you can pick any of these 3 to play a full server game on.
If you really want to do something for the community you could try and get the others filled as well.

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M.A.S.K. , is the mighty power that can save the day

The only thing I can think of is trying to make people more aware that there are another 6 servers, either in the text or on the page at the beginning where you join a server. I know its up to people to still read these but it seems that maybe a problem is that they do not know there is other servers. For instance when I was playing the other day a few guys were typing "where the f*** are the arena maps" with me having to tell them we had them on different servers. Getting people to join these servers is one thing but like you say, waiting until other people join is a different story altogether

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You'll Feel A Little Prick

i am everytime joining empty servers but the other guys are not !

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Yeah thats a problem for me as my laptop computer power will not allow this as my work involves reading Adobe PDF's and I do not have a desktop but when I play in a morning/mid-afternoon I will join empty/nearly empty servers to try get them filled if my time allows this but I really wish non-members would just have the common sense to realise the snowballing (not rude) effect of a server filling up is VERY quick

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You'll Feel A Little Prick

Other guys been non-SpA members I hope you mean because there are alot of SpA people who go to empty servers, esp. mornings/early afternoon

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You'll Feel A Little Prick

well I usually start on empty/half empty servers and play for a couple of hours and the server usually fills up fast indeed. But I am not willing to fill up a server to enjoy the game and then going to the next and wait ffing again. So everytime I stop playing and later start playing again, I usually pick the next empty server.

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Da boyz need themselves a Nob they do

That is indeed the way to go. Basicly, when a server is full, just pick the next one and have your game session there to the end. Someone els will join the next server etc.

I am just so surprised that when i check the logging to see 10 people queued up for 1 server, were we have many more were the gameplay is identical....

What we could need is one of those fancy /server commands that show you all SpA servers.

That'll spread the new users of SpA to other than one of our servers.

That wont solve it all but i'm sure it might be handy.

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^.-
motherfuckin rabbits ejaculating sunshine

#1/6, #2/6, you get the idea.


And what TheWeirdo said.

huh, what?

I think he suggests renaming the servers? Or... I have no idea... ^^

By the way - perhaps we could test this plugin? It's ye olde redirecte only players have to accept!

http://forums.alliedmods.net/showthread.php?p=535645

Perhaps a map-changing plugin as well? E.g. this one?

http://forums.alliedmods.net/showthread.php?p=570384

As you can see I'm a big fan of solving problems with plugins although I'm fully aware that they might cause problems. ;-)

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War does not determine who is right - only who is left. - Bertrand Russell

I've came past both plugins before but i believe this won't be the solution... Once players are in, their not voilentairly going to switch again after being queued up for ages.

Also the auto-map plugin comes with too much issue's to be a proffit.

Well - we can still try the first plugin (voluntary redirect) and see if that works...

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War does not determine who is right - only who is left. - Bertrand Russell

I try to help fill servers when I can, but with school starting again I don't have any time in the mornings to help fill~
But I help where I can ^_~

i could always try to idle when im at school or sleeping

For the last couple of weeks I tried to fill up the servers almost all the time. When I was playing in the morning or in the afternoon I joined an empty server. And then after 10 minutes or so the server is full, i play a bit there, and then go to another empty server. There are of course moments that I had enough with running around on my own, so that I joined a server with more people on it. Also I like to play with other Spa members sometimes, so that's why I join a full server. Normally in the evening all the servers are full so no problem there I guess? I don't really like the "nobody does it" in your post Saint. I think you logged on on the wrong moments... Ofcourse I know you don't mean everybody with nobody but I am a girl and girls always take things personal, I know.
But school is starting next week, won't be able to play as much now in my vacation. Especially not because I'm going to start another study on the university next to the one I am following there already. So can't help you guys out on that moments anymore, sorry about that.

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I miss my pownie

Increase SpA point award if you're the first person in the server. You get less if your second, third and so on.

Bad idea, u can join earn the points and leave.

Such implementation would require a complex algorithm which checks if you are on the server for at least a certain period, just to prevent picking up the bonus.

Second how would you determine what the reward would be.

Third, SpA point IMO will only affect the regulars who actually do something with them, most of the time it is a person who comes across 1 or 2 spa servers while doing an internet search and then bookmarks these servers. Which means that these people don't visit the site, nor will they be affected by spa points.

I was the same way, the first month I only had 1 (there were 3 back then I believe) in my favorites, for which I queued to get on. Later I joined the site and learned there are more servers.

So basicly what you want to do is make people aware there are more servers, the current message of the day you get probably does not attract the amount of attention you would like, since this page contains info about the other servers, yet most people, most likely just hit enter and skip it for reading it at all.

So to come to my conclusion for this round.
Getting people in the other servers will be quite a challenge, as you will need to find a way to make these people aware that:
- There are more SpA servers
- Servers will run full quickly once joined

Apart from that, they must also be willing to join an empty server, which a lot of people don't like to do too. And apart from that I don't think the SpA point system is an answer to this issue, I think the spa points are merely a reward for the regulars who play quite often and who contribute more than the average player, they will not fill servers.

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"Why do it simple, when there is a hard way..."

I'm sorry, i know ofcource that some people do it, but it was more aimed at non spa-members (hence is being posted publicly). What i see is regulair players attempting to join a server for over 30 minutes untill they finally manage to get it. And that kind of makes me wonder, wtf...

You mention some valide points there. We already have something going in the dev section to advertise all our servers. I thought that the current motd and website ads ingame should be sufficiant to make people aware of the other servers. Judging by the amount of people visiting our website you could pretty much say that alot of people who were in one of the servers also has visited our website.

There are a LOT of people with reserved slots so it's really silly to just keep waiting for (insert long period of time) and not get in o:
People should just enter other servers, but yeah I agree that some/lots of people probably don't even know we have this many servers

Probably - it's not the first time we see people unable to correlate even the simplest of facts, e.g. that if there's a Server #1 (or #2 etc. depending on which they are playing) then there are probably further servers as well. ;-)
If they're joining through the server browser all of them should be pretty close together when it comes to ping times and even closer together if someone sorts that list by name. ^^

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War does not determine who is right - only who is left. - Bertrand Russell

when i join 1 person spa server it's always SaintK waiting.i'm waiting but no one else joins

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"I have come to shut this thread down. If I see anybody posting in here from now on, I will kill them.
In cold blood.
Thank you for your co-operation."
[SpA]DrMcMoist

/server ftw forever.

Come on. Give it a try

I'm no pr0 on plugins, but one as simple as this one can't lead to many bugs... can it?

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^.-
motherfuckin rabbits ejaculating sunshine

And then there is this second issue.

2 of my classmates also have TF2, and we enjoy playing together. So mostly when we got out to play we had a look at our list to see which server had at least 2 spots open -> this way there was a certain garantee that we would all be able to join. However we never went on a completely empty server though which I admit, but the idea behind this is that we don't like to be on there and wait for players, we want to go right off into action.

Nowadays I also have purchased a reserved slot, and when I go and launch TF2, the first thing which I do, is check my "friends" tab to see if I got friends playing and then go on the server, something using the reserved slot. If no friend is playing I have a look at my favs list to see which games have at least 8 players on them.

And the things I now put up here, will not only apply to me.

Any way after having read the issues you put down here, I'm not to bad to fill out an empty server(which imo is 6 or less players) and get it crowded from time to time. The only but in this part is, that my patience on an empty server quits as soon as I'm more then 10 mins offline.

Which was the case this morning on the arena servers, so basicly after 10 minutes I just used my reserved slot to get into the crowded server 1.

So hope this explains more how I think about joining servers and having fun on servers, and I think I am not the only one going about joining servers like this.

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"Why do it simple, when there is a hard way..."

Ye, but that is what reserved slots are for At one point thought it will run out again (or not, depends on the amount of points you get trough earning/donating). I do feel thought if your part of a community, and like to play there, and would like to have a choice on what map, or mode you play, you'll have to put some effort in to get multiple servers going.
i also dont ask people to join one server, then go to the next when its full, but you could at least every now and then join a empty server when your playing early on the day. If everyone does that, there wont be any issue whatsoever in were to play.

Please realize -> idling is evil.

I usually just go for the (mostly) full servers, but on rare occasions when there are only empty servers left (and I don't feel like using my reserved slot) I might consider joining a empty server, or I used to anyway... That brings me to the point - I don't even look at the SpA servers that have only 1 player in them since I know it' an idler (saintk 99% of the time). Don't get me wrong, I don't mind playing 1v1 for a few minutes and waiting for the server to fill but when there is a person on the server and I join I expect to play. There were even occasions when there were 2 or more SpA members on the servers and I would join expecting to have a good game just to find out I was "alone" on a server.

I hope you get my point - it isn't helping - those that want help fill the empty server will join one and wait to play, those that join a server that has players will most likely leave when they realize they are "alone", and might even feel a little bit cheated. What I hate the most is that sometimes (in the night) the half of the servers in my server list that show up non empty are really empty (idlers or plain lying about player count) - the first thing I'd like to do in those occasions is delete the server from my servers list forever.

Ok, now a constructive suggestion - the first player to join the empty server should be able to *change* the *current* map (for a really small amount of Spa points). Sometimes, just looking at the server map is enough for me not to connect to a server. This might motivate larger groups of people to join a server at one (eg. clans and groups of friends - sometimes you want to play with a few of your friends and you just can't find a server that fits you - problem solved. Or you want to play a good game of dustbowl/gravelpit - find empty SpA server, put dustbowl, connect, wait 2-3 min till enough people join and play). This way people might even start looking at what SpA servers *are* empty - I know I would. And it might really help the custom map server - it'll never get filled if the rotation is stuck on some obscure map (goes for the rest of the servers too if they're stuck on a weird map due to SpA points usage)...