Server Promotion

[DarkCrusade]

Hey there,

I think it would be a great idea if certain servers which are known and liked by a big base of players would be promoted in a way by the game itself. These servers would be shown in a "most popular"-list even if there are no players playing at that time. The idea is that these servers will be joined more often, thus filling up more quickly. Sometimes it is a real pain to look for a server that is not only playable as in gamemode and maplist but played. I can only imagine how many newbies have already turned away because of that.

It really is not much, but the outcome could be valuable to sustain an active playerbase!

What are your thoughts/ideas? Is this idea suitable for Soldat? If not, why? 

[Kaze]

It's a cool idea , i dont know how much work it would take for the devs but yeah this way we could get like every popular servers full and have as much fun as possible. The only inconvenience this would bring is that maybe every players will play in those popular servers leaving many new servers or fun servers empty because they weren't on the most popular site or have been created way after the popular ones , if you know what i mean.

[Bonecrusher]

There should be another tab named 'Recommended servers' or something if you want do actually do that.

[homerofgods]

Sounds good actually. It enables you to just pick a server and start playing pretty quickly.

[Shoozza]

How is this different from sorting the servers by player count and ping?

[GhostRiderSwiss]

yeah, i totaly agree, it wont make any diffrent, the same servers will on top still lol.

The only sense i see... it would make the favorite servers - even more favorite. (well, if that is good is speculativ)

[Kaze]

How is this different from sorting the servers by player count and ping?

I think DarkCrusade meant that even if those servers are empty at time X , people would still know its part of the popular list and join it immediately basically making every server on that list full or rather "never empty". If i got it right :p

[DarkCrusade]

I think DarkCrusade meant that even if those servers are empty at time X , people would still know its part of the popular list and join it immediately basically making every server on that list full or rather "never empty". If i got it right :p

This is exactly what I ment. There would be a separate tab for displaying the list so the full list and the promoted list are subdivided into two categories. The servers listed on the popular list would either be chosen manually by the developers or by traffic. There should be 5-10 servers for every gamemode or you would see CTF servers everywhere which is not the idea behind my suggestion. Maybe we can revive HTF? Time will tell

[Shoozza]

I think having two server lists would be confusing and a unnecessary duplication. Why not improve the current server list instead?

[DarkCrusade]

Why not improve the current server list instead?

This is the sole reason why I made the suggestion. The current serverlist is impractical and inflexible. The final goal should be a server list which is well-arranged and user-friendly. Thinking about it, I think that some sub-game modes should get their own category as they are deeply connected with Soldat such as dodgeball or climbing. Sometimes it is a hassle to find a server that is active and runs the gamemode you are looking for, so maybe there should simply be tabs for every game mode?

Just an idea.

[Shoozza]

Will have to think about possible solutions. Prototypes are welcome.

A few ideas I just had:
Search for servers (incremental search),
Custom tags for servers (will allow servers to have DB, KO, CLIMB game mode tag),
Sort out high ping servers (no more 99999 ping servers in the list)
Favorite servers are highlighted in the list,
Quick join,
Join history (show active servers which you joined recently)

I'm interested in your ideas besides the tabs (I'm not sure how exactly they would look like with the current list).
Also if anyone has suggestions or you dislikes/likes any of the ideas (please give a reason/example why they are good/bad) I posted feel free to post.

[homerofgods]

Leo's server (176.9.8.253:24274) is listed even though I havn't ticked realistik in filter.
----
Let's say I want either climbing, normal ctf or normal Dm. It is not possible to search for only theese servers without getting alot of scripted servers or realistic and everything else.
Max ping was a good idea. I guess we can look at Counter-strike for some ideas, for example search for map.

For fast join you can always favourite a server.

[Shoozza]

Leo's server (176.9.8.253:24274) is listed even though I havn't ticked realistik in filter.
----
Let's say I want either climbing, normal ctf or normal Dm. It is not possible to search for only theese servers without getting alot of scripted servers or realistic and everything else.
Max ping was a good idea. I guess we can look at Counter-strike for some ideas, for example search for map.

For fast join you can always favourite a server.

Yeah it's weird. If you don't tick something it's included. There is currently no way to have only non realistic servers for example :/

Can you link to a few screenshots/examples? I cannot remember how CS did the serverslist.

[DarkCrusade]

I'll create a visual example of what I was thinking later today or tommorow as I am moving into my first own flat today

[homerofgods]

Blacklisted servers would be cool

[Shoozza]

Currently the serverslist contains following elements:
Flag, Name, Map, Players, Max, GameType, Ping, Speed, Dedicated, Password, Bots, Respawn Type, Bonuses, Realistic, System, IP, Port, Anti-Cheat

Not all elements are really necessary, we could reduce them to these:
Name, Map, Players, Ping, Password, AntiCheat, Realistic, Bonuses, Respawn Type, Bots

They could actually be even more reduced to 7 elements:
Name, Map, Players, Ping, Password, AntiCheat, Type

Type:
      DM/PM/RM/CTF/TM/INF/HTF   R/S/A    KO/CLB/VLY/TW/ZB   -/<</</>
      ^ game mode               ^ extra  ^ sub game modes   ^ bonus count

Players: 2/32 +2
         2 (2)/32
         (2) 2/32
         2/32 (+2)  <-- best solution currently (explained below)

DM ARS KO -


FAV*, PW, AC, Name, Type, Players, Map, Ping

0, 0, 0, Beo #1, CTF KO -, 3/12 (+0), ctf_Laos, 16
^  ^  ^  ^       ^         ^          ^         ^
|  |  |  |       |         |          |         |
|  |  |  |       |         |          |         ping
|  |  |  |       |         |          current map
|  |  |  |       |         playerswithbots/maxplayer (+included bots)
|  |  |  |       type is capture the flag with knife only submode and no bonuses and no extra mode (no Realistic etc)
|  |  |  server name (with flag maybe)
|  |  anticheat shield icon
|  password lock icon
star for favorite server (could be replaced with yellow background color)

Downside: Sorting by realistic/survisal is difficult -> (use filter)

Filter shouldn't require reloading the maplist

Tabs instead of options

Internet, Favorites, History*, Spectate, LAN, Friends*

* = maybe in the future...

Servercount and playercount could be displayed next to the Name and Players header of the list.

Favorites could be added by clicking on the star, alternatively a solution without stars could work
by adding yellow background colors to the list for fav servers and allowing to fav servers by
right clicking and selecting fav.
This could allow more options like: hide server or show details (displays more info about server)

Filters could look like on this screenshot:
https://dl.dropbox.com/u/2394029/Projects/Soldat/delight_cs101_hltv_001.jpg

[Falcon`]

mind to keep this in mind.

[Shoozza]

Blacklisted servers would be cool

What would the blacklisted tab show? Servers where you are banned or servers which you set to hide/ignore?
Also noticed that there is a tag column. I wonder how much can be added without breaking the old lobby protocol.

mind to keep this in mind.

Oh yeah the WM issue. Seems like people want a modded field.
I would say it could be a WM column which shows a modded weapon icon if wm mod is enabled (ofc with proper filer).

Also there is a more complete list of subgame modes here: http://forums.soldat.pl/index.php?topic=41567.msg503079#msg503079

[homerofgods]

Blacklisted servers would be cool

What would the blacklisted tab show? Servers where you are banned or servers which you set to hide/ignore?
Also noticed that there is a tag column. I wonder how much can be added without breaking the old lobby protocol.

Servers which you set to hide/ignore.
Don't add tag column.
Reducing to those 7 elements sounds good.
Btw, I can't join any servers with respawn type = Max 1. It sais server password needed even though I have passworded servers off in filter.

[edit]I can only join 1 of the servers with respawn type = Max 1.
And isn't respawn type = Survival supposed to be where you have to wait for the other players to die before you can respawn,? because it seams to me like it's not right now.

[edit]I like the 'star favourite servers' idea. I'll upload a picture of how it's done in spotify -.-

[jrgp]

@shoozza, just let me know the protocol changes and I'll update the lobby when the time comes