Before we make any more changes I thought we could all share our thoughts on how it's getting on.What we like and don't like about the way the server has changed over the past month or so, and maybe make some suggestions as to the next changes we should make.
So, since I'm starting the topic I may as well get the ball rolling.
Likes:
I'm particularly pleased with the way the admins are handling the server. The hands off approach is working very well, and they're doing a very good job of just punishing those people who break the server rules.
As a result I think we're seeing a lot of new faces, who aren't afraid to come back to the server, instead of coming in once, catching some abuse and never coming back again.
The attitude of many of the regulars has in turn also changed. There's a whole lot less angst, and I can actually play on there for an entire day without wanting to verbally assault people, which for me is pretty good.
The reinstatement of the less popular, more involved maps like militia has also started to bed in better. A lot of the regulars have learned how to play them as both sides. For example it's rare to see the entire CT team cowering behind the rocks and silos on militia.
When the map first went on there'd be a Q of CTs lining up all the way from the ladders to the sewer to the bridge.
In fact here is a lot less camping, which in part must be attributed to the teamwork module. However I like to think that a lot of it has to do with a more positive attitude on the server. Even CMW, the camper of legend has been changing playstyles and mixing a bit of camping with offensive and tactical play. Everyone's been getting in there and trying to get objectives accomplished, even on the usual campy maps like dust.
Other more difficult maps, like tides are also getting played properly on occasion, as long as there are intelligent players in each team.
Friday was the best day for CSS I've had in about two years. Good players were choosing the difficult team and absolutely destroying the opposition. I saw assault won by CT 10-1, which many people didn't think possible. Not one person was whining about maps, and instead they were just getting stuck right in.
This was reflected by the server's player count, which stayed at 32 players for five or six hours. I think it's fair to say that everyone had a lot of fun. Unfortunately this isn't always the case, which brings me to...
Dislikes:
There seems to be a real issue with good players easy teaming on every map. Sunday was a total reversal of Friday, with the people who'd made the game earlier in the week totally ruining it.
Certain players, who I shall not name were taking the easy, camping team, and moaning about being bored. Instead of changing to the more challenging team they seemingly decided that score was more important. For example on Militia there were four or five terros with 4 or 5 to 1 kill ratios camping the crap out of the roof and windows, while most of the CTs were lucky to even have 2 kills to five deaths.
Along with this there were hordes of people trying to RTV almost every map that came on. Now there's nothing wrong with using RTV, I mean it's there so that people can vote on custom maps, or change the map if they want, without it being down to an admin's whim.
The problem is that the RTVs are always run on the maps that are actually the most fun. Now we may dispute which maps are the most enjoyable, but in general it comes down to comfort zones. The idea is if you're getting absolutely hammered on a map, or you're just bored of office then you RTV the map off.
Instead what's happening is we'd put on a challenging map, today's example will be tides, and the RTV will start as soon as the map starts, before we even know how the game is going to pan out. The last time I played tides the CT team was filled with nubs, and all the regs were whoring terro. That was mildly annoying, but after three rounds of getting our camping CT asses handed to us I was finally cajoling the team into taking A at the rush. We were about one round from getting a proper game on and the RTV went through.
We ended up playing de_alivemetal instead, which's an absolute shithole of a map. And unsurprisingly the playercount dropped from 32 players to about 20 and the server didn't really recover until another unpopular map came on.
Now for all of you guys that don't pay any attention to playercounts I'll let you into a secret. The maps you enjoy are not the maps that fill the server. Italy, dust2, office do not bing in players, they just bring in the odd regular who likes that map.
Maps like militia, assault, and tides bring in new players. The other maps just hold the status Quo. I don't know if any of you have paid any attention to this, but two months ago you'd be lucky if the server ever filled past 24-26 players. There are a few reasons for this - one of which is tickrate and choke - but the other was new blood. There just wasn't any, and the server was suffering.
Anyway, I digress. The constant map switching, and occasional RTV whineing is really getting to me. I can't even be assed to play more than two maps in a row ATM, because I'm truly fed up with the campy teamstacking asshattery.
On a related note
We're looking at having days where we do end of map votes, and other days where RTV is disabled leaving only votemap. At least that way it doesn't interfere when the server is full, and people can change the maps when the server empties out a little.
We've already added the standard maps into the votelist. So tehre should be no need for people to vote on some custom map that clears the server come 2AM - srsly do you think anyone is going to come and play de_cplfire at 2 in the morning, or do you think it's more likely that people will get bored after 5 mins and go to bed.
We're also looking into the possibility of having restricted weapon nights occasionally - you know shotties only and so on. Who knows, maybe even an FY or GG night for lulz.
I just thought I'd get that out of my system, instead of going mad on server settings.
So, what are your thoughts about the server - both good AND bad.
I know how hard a job it is. And how little time you actually get just to have a quiet, fun game of CS yourself. So hats off to all of those involved, and your work is appreciated guys.
