Gathers?

[RafiPZ]

Ok so i've been playing Soldat for a while now and have never tried to play a gather. The only thing stopping me though is probably the fact that parents call me every now and then and I have to go AFK, and I wouldn't want to ruin someones game. My question is this: How pissed do people get at you when you pause a gather, and how long do people pause the game for on average,  .

[PQ]

Pausing is not bad if it's not for more than 5 on the total gather.
So you can't just add, play, pause, eat lunch, go back and play.

An average game has a ~2 minute pause and contains 6 players. So the average player pauses ~20 seconds every gather.

[xurich]

Commands to pause the game are implemented in gathers for a reason. They're expected to be used.

That being said, avoid excessive pausing as much as you can because it really begins to irk people if you overdo it. Just as much, try not to stay gone for very long if you do pause as people tend to lose patience after about a minute or so.

As long as you don't pause 2+ times for 5+ minutes every gather, you'll probably be OK, but you might get yelled at now and again. Give gathers a try and see how they work out for you.

[RafiPZ]

Sounds cool, thanks. And it's not like im going to afk every game so I guess I should be ok.
How long is a gather?

[xurich]

A gather usually consists of two or three 10 minute rounds. Counting the time that it takes to get into the server and organized between rounds, usually 25-40 minutes.

Here's a list of the latest gather lengths in #sna.gather:

(2:18pm) (@Elizabeth_V) Gather on server 0 ended after 44:34 minutes.
(3:13pm) (@Elizabeth_V) Gather on server 1 ended after 42:14 minutes.
(3:52pm) (@Elizabeth_V) Gather on server 0 ended after 36:49 minutes.
(5:05pm) (@Elizabeth_V) Gather on server 1 ended after 27:48 minutes.
(6:09pm) (@Elizabeth_V) Gather on server 0 ended after 24:42 minutes.
(6:48pm) (@Elizabeth_V) Gather on server 1 ended after 26:09 minutes.
(7:16pm) (@Elizabeth_V) Gather on server 0 ended after 27:43 minutes.
(7:32pm) (@Elizabeth_V) Gather on server 2 ended after 6:48 minutes.
(7:38pm) (@Elizabeth_V) Gather on server 1 ended after 27:32 minutes.

You get the idea!

[Keldorn]

Wow. Gathers are very long. I'm assuming those are CTF games. So are there 3 CTF matches in the Gathers you showed?

(I suddenly feel like English was my second language...wait..it is.)

[Platehead]

Umm, there's usually 2, sometimes 3.  The thing is if a team wins first map, then it's very likely to win the next too, because of the player skills (obviously).  But sometimes the losing team makes a comeback due to silly map choice, mucking around etc which prolongs it to 3 games.  That's about 30 minutes (10 minute matches for more even games), with an extra few for plans, pauses and in general getting the game together.  I reckon the 6:48 one was where the server failed, or a player failed to come, or some issue leading to everyone quitting the server and regathering.

[Furai]

Recently gathers are getting worse and worse. People just quit in the middle of it with no particilar reason, it's really annoying...

[Shinobars]

If a person quits a gather without much reason, then they should end up reported and banned for a set amount of time. Generally, I find that gathers lose their appeal when SCTFL rolls around (during which scittiffiling (<- official verb form of SCTFL) is a better use of Soldat time). Although, playing more than a few gathers a day can get quite annoying due to the fact that some real 'tards will add to gathers every so often.

[Sir Jeremy]

#sna.gather (North American)
#aus.gather (Australian and New Zealand)
#soldat.gather (European)

Those are the three places were most gathers are played.  Although soldat.gather is european it doesn't mean NA players can't play on them.  It will just be more laggy.

Hope to see you sometime!

[Snow]

Ok so i've been playing Soldat for a while now and have never tried to play a gather. The only thing stopping me though is probably the fact that parents call me every now and then and I have to go AFK, and I wouldn't want to ruin someones game. My question is this: How pissed do people get at you when you pause a gather, and how long do people pause the game for on average,  .

This has been my issue too, which is why I haven't been in gathers yet. Except in my case it's my gf who will usually wait until I'm midgame to come into the room and nag me about something for a good 5 minutes. I love her to death but GRRR!

It's nice to know though that there is the ability to pause.

[STM1993]

It's nice to know though that there is the ability to pause.

The problem is that the other players wouldn't be too happy though.

[SpiltCoffee]

It's nice to know though that there is the ability to pause.

The problem is that the other players wouldn't be too happy though.

Depends on how long and how often you pause. If for really long periods of time or frequently, other players tend to get agitated. If it's just to pick up the headset you knocked off your head because you were so furiously playing (lol), then it's ok.

[demoniac93]

Fortunately enough on the numerous occasions that U play gathers I happen to come at good times. When I first started out gathering, I played on sna.gather cause I didn't even know about soldat.gather....So naturally my ping there was 250+ sometimes which would annoy some players, yet others were really friendly, and kind enough not to give it any attention.

 But on some of my recent gathers on soldat.gather I've faced more and more whiners (Kids playing soldat to insult others...) and believe me it can get really annoying to have someone start trolling around in the middle of the gather when you are trying to see the team reports...Not some random racist comments or other kinds of insults.

[kzya]

But on some of my recent gathers on soldat.gather I've faced more and more whiners (Kids playing soldat to insult others...) and believe me it can get really annoying to have someone start trolling around in the middle of the gather when you are trying to see the team reports...Not some random racist comments or other kinds of insults.

Agree.

[scarface09]

Depends on how many pauses you make lol. If you pause many times but for a short period heaps of ppl get pissed. If you pause once for a long time...people get pissed for having to wait. Best to try and avoid pausing because it gets people angry!

[excruciator]

I know sna bans people if go afk too often or go afk for no reason.

[Sir Jeremy]

I know sna bans people if go afk too often or go afk for no reason.

#sna.gather also banns people for fun.  And they'd have to be afk for like 5 minutes before anything happens.  Usually you just get a sub.

[jerich]

the solution to all the gather problems...dont gather period, you might think it's organized, but its probably much easier (and way better) to just get a mix scrim going with your friends instead of random people from different continents, time zones etc.

[demoniac93]

the solution to all the gather problems...dont gather period, you might think it's organized, but its probably much easier (and way better) to just get a mix scrim going with your friends instead of random people from different continents, time zones etc.

Unless, (In my case for example...) you live in a country that's far from any servers...(Jordan, middle east)
So I have an average ping of 150 on American severs. And 100 on European servers. That's when a gather might help avoid whiners about lag, even if just a few of them.