> In Roman's idea, since > everyone is listed to start, if it is done properly, I think you > wouldn't need to worry about server admins lying about their server, > and the whole 'force custom' issue is solved. It becomes beneficial to > properly label your server so players can find it.
That never occurred to me. Good point there. Heh, I love your idea for how the server browser should be. It's a real "web 2.0" style idea and would rock! Shame it ain't gonna happen :( I have to say the "moan" about sorting by Ping or Fullness is a new one for this list (at least in my memory) but it's a good one: it's one of my gripes as well :( I agree that a good server browser should focus on your favourites and then allow you to find others. Most of the servers I actually play on regularly are ones I find by recommendation etc. not from browsing in game. Tom -------------------------------------------------- From: "Nephyrin Zey" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Sunday, May 25, 2008 2:48 PM To: "Half-Life dedicated Win32 server mailing list" <[email protected]> Subject: Re: [hlds] Scrap the custome server tab > Firstly, thanks for the good responses guys, probably the most > thoughtful two posts about the custom tab yet. > > Secondly, I too like the "Classic" and "Modded" approach (even those > terms are much clearer than 'internet' and 'custom' by 1000x). I also > think that if the game defaults to 'all', with a *very visible* > 'classic/modded' selection (in addition to a tags search that's not > restricted to custom servers) there's *no* incentive for custom > servers to lie about being classic. > > As a programmer myself, and admitted author of at least one of the > anti-custom-tab plugins, I can tell you it is nothing but a losing > battle to try to force people to another tab. Nor can valve even begin > to manually check each server for compliance. In Roman's idea, since > everyone is listed to start, if it is done properly, I think you > wouldn't need to worry about server admins lying about their server, > and the whole 'force custom' issue is solved. It becomes beneficial to > properly label your server so players can find it. There'll always be > a certain level of spoofing, but at this point players really would be > looking for classic games on classic, and it wouldn't be nearly as > beneficial > > I think another base problem with the server list is the way it > presents servers. Right now it sorts them much like all games have > since forever: Either by full-ness or ping. Neither of these > (especially a one-shot ping) is a very good indicator of quality, and > it leads to this whole 'get my server front and center' mentality > that's the root of both this problem and the fake players (33x servers > anyone?) problem. What the server browser *should* do is display to > you 'your' servers, IE your favourites, with several different tools > to find 'new' servers to play on. > > How I would envision an ideal server list: You open the browser to a > default "my servers" window that has big squares to represent each > server with 'time played' 'friends seen' etc. Servers could have a > name and then a subtitle defining their affiliation/ownership (IE My > primary server could appear as "Nemu's Stomping Grounds" with a banner > below of "Doublezen.net Community"). You could place comments by these > servers as well, that could be visible to you and friends. There would > also be a side bar that would have smaller but similar boxes for > servers your friends play on a lot ("Friend Servers") with their > comments about them and maybe servers sponsored by your community. > If you don't have a server to play on you could pick 'find new > places to play' and it would bring up a more classical-style server > browser. This browser would present, in order: A selection of your > friends 'top servers', a selection of servers 'sponsored' by the steam > communities you belong to, a small handful of popular servers amoungst > members of the communities you belong to (with a button to 'see more' > on all of these of course). After these would be 'featured servers' > (perhaps maintained by valve or volunteers that select and feature > quality servers at a certain rate) and a more general server list that > you could sort by the classic means, perhaps with notes that point out > who you know that might've been on a server, and a nice tags system so > you could see what the server has to offer. > > Obviously that's a huge thing to implement, and I doubt valve really > cares too deeply about it, but you get the idea: Servers should be > presented to players based on what will bring them together with > friends/a community moreso than 'omg thirty FOUR slots on that spoofed > server?' - otherwise we're always going to be in a spoof-war, whether > it be fake players or fake tags, and that's not a war valve is in a > position to win in any sort of way that will benefit the community. > > - Nephyrin "Totally looking for a job right now" Zey > /SNIP/ _______________________________________________ To unsubscribe, edit your list preferences, or view the list archives, please visit: http://list.valvesoftware.com/mailman/listinfo/hlds
