The main thing hurting this demo right now is the lack of stable dedicated servers.
I'm sure everyone at Valve is extremely busy right now, but if they want to make a good impression when the demo goes public (Gamestop accepting blank submissions aside...), they need to communicate with server operators. The lobby system is great for finding people to play with. I wish the friends list showed them grouped together when they were in the same lobby. We need to see pings! A ping chart (4x4, or 8x8 for versus) would be nice as well (when in a lobby). These are minor details that can be addressed later The lobby system is horrible for finding a server to play on. If you know of a dedicated server that is stable, or have one that you run, you should be able, as the lobby leader, to join your group to it, add your group to a queue for that server, or give it and other servers you like favorable treatment in the random selection process. We also need to be able to confirm we want to join the selected server. No joining a random server only to be killed by a password prompt. No scraping the bottom of the ping barrel because it was the only server avilable. No joining a random server that has friendly fire modded out (it's only a matter of time) or other things modified without you knowing it. This all needs to be in the standard UI with the standard server configs, not hidden in a console command and requiring server variables to be modified (from default). As it is, people are blindly struggling with server variables and command lines. Is this variable behaving properly? Is it a bug? Is it a demo restriction? Is it the intended behavior of the lobby/matchmaking system? For the purposes of the demo, I'd like to see: An official comment on how to manually join a server (either as an individual, or once you're in a lobby). An official comment on how to set your server up to allow or disallow (allow should be default) manual joining and auto joining. An official comment on how to password your server and prevent it from showing up in the list or being randomly selected. Each of the above has been figured out by people on this list, and I'll be wading through tons of emails this weekend when I set up my server, I'm sure. But this is what needs to be addressed officially now. Stable dedicated servers aren't exactly easy to come by. It really hurts the demo, and it hurts people's perception of the game (as server operators and as players). On a side note - has any tried throwing party mode at this yet? _________________________________________________________________ Stay up to date on your PC, the Web, and your mobile phone with Windows Live http://clk.atdmt.com/MRT/go/119462413/direct/01/ _______________________________________________ To unsubscribe, edit your list preferences, or view the list archives, please visit: http://list.valvesoftware.com/mailman/listinfo/hlds
