A simple solution would be for matchmaking to always look in the "favorite servers" listed in the client's serverbrowser and choose one of those first if they are available (assuming you have a serverbrowser to add favorites to of course).
The serverbrowser concept is a proven and useful tool for locating game servers. In its current implementation it only really fails when inexperienced players try to see all servers in the whole world (and it just takes too long to query thousands of servers you really aren't interested in). Pure Matchmaking sidesteps this problem but destroys the concept of server based communities which isn't a good thing. The best solution is to have a hybrid of both solutions. Using a Steam Community "Server" group is actually a 3rd leg to this tripod - basically pre-established matchmaking for both friends and the server. So we would then have (from a client point of view): 1. On the fly matchmaking (console game simplicity) 2. Friends list based matchmaking 3. Favorite Tab servers based matchmaking 4. Steam Community Based matchmaking (groups friends around specific servers) 5. Tag based matchmaking (sv_search_key) 6. Independent players that use a pure serverbrowser (or that just prefer 3rd party serverbrowser tools) 7. players need to be able to join specific servers via links on webpages as well. Add to this (eventually) skill level and/or reputation based controls (server side) to the matchmaking and this would be a very powerful set of tools indeed for servers and players to find each other with. It might be a nice addition for players to eventually have the ability to vote a reputation for a server as well, although there are probably many ways for this to be sidestepped since servers don't really have a fixed identity. One method would be to give the server the ability to register directly to it's Community group and then reputation votes could accumulate there. I don't see any problem for players joining in the middle of a mission especially since players are always going to be leaving in the middle of a mission. If coop missions develop into multi-map day long or week long adventures with status being saved and restored then locking out random players would become very valuable. This scenario would be a wonderful addition to the game as well as a great challenge for map makers (a mod within a mod). ----- Original Message ----- From: "Aaron Edgington" To: "'Half-Life dedicated Win32 server mailing list'" <hlds@list.valvesoftware.com> Sent: Monday, November 10, 2008 4:45 PM Subject: Re: [hlds] Status >I don't use the sv_search_key because there are 3 backdoors right now that > work well with our community. I also don't have any issues with servers > being full or not showing up in the server browser. I would also say that > so > far of my 3 servers that I have running, that half of the traffic is from > pubs coming in a game after a couple people have left after matchmaking. > When the server empties, within a minute the servers will be back full > with > players, and will usually sit full. > > I should also mention that 2 of my dedicated servers are running from 2 > computers on my 1.5mbps upload. One on Q9300 and another on a Prescott 3.0 > processor. 1 of them is hosted via a hosting company. > > I would like more integration to the server browser than using the > sv_search_key command. > > -----Original Message----- > From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Alex Smith > Sent: Monday, November 10, 2008 11:20 AM > To: Half-Life dedicated Win32 server mailing list > Subject: Re: [hlds] Status > > Would it be possible to add a feature, so that we could select our own > server in the match making system? Rather than using someone else's > server. > That way some of us that like matchmaking can still use the matchmaking > system with our own server. > > The sv_search_key feature is already in place. Why not add an option to > the > matchmaking lobby, so the lobby leader can select a server based on its > sv_search_key setting. > > That alone would give me a lot more incentive to keep my dedicated servers > up after the game is released. Its nice to be able to use our own > servers. > > > On Mon, Nov 10, 2008 at 2:08 PM, Erik Johnson > <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>wrote: > >> First off, thanks to everyone for running servers for the demo. We knew >> going into the release that we were going to need to figure out some ways > to >> make it worth it for server administrators, and now we have a ton of >> feedback to work with. >> >> Right now we're looking at ways that server administrators can both build > a >> community around their game server (by subscribing to matchmaking) as >> well >> as service their group of "regulars" that play on their server. Hooking > game >> servers into Steam Community is going to be our first step, and we're >> working on that now. >> >> There is a key difference between Left 4 Dead and games like > Counter-Strike >> and Team Fortress in terms of matchmaking that we wanted to solve, and >> didn't think the server browser could accomplish. In CS and TF2, you can >> have 2 or 3 players leave in the middle of a game, have their slots >> filled >> by new people, and everyone else's experience doesn't completely suffer. >> When a player or two leaves Left 4 Dead the game suffers quite a bit, and > we >> were worried that the server browser model wasn't the right one for this >> game. In hindsight, there are a number of cases where the server browser >> does a better job than the new matchmaking system does, so it is highly >> likely that we'll be adding it back in soon. It isn't trivially easy to > turn >> back on, but there is overlap between it and the Steam Community work >> we'd >> like to do. >> >> Right now we're working toward getting that release out within a week or >> so. >> >> There are a number of Valve employees reading all of the posts on this >> list, and while we can't reply to every question that comes across, the >> discussions here are ones we reference commonly when talking about what >> to >> do next internally. _______________________________________________ To unsubscribe, edit your list preferences, or view the list archives, please visit: http://list.valvesoftware.com/mailman/listinfo/hlds
