On Fri, Nov 14, 2008 at 20:54, Erik Johnson <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Ok, we're getting ready to ship the first round of the group features we've > been working on this week. > > There is a new cvar called sv_steamgroup, which takes the Steam group number > (which is now visible on the group's administrative page). The server will > still be part of matchmaking, but users that are in that group will be able > to browse directly to it from the main menu. Also, if this value is set, > there will be a button near the message of the day that allows users to go > directly to that group's page. This allows them to join that group if they > like, and then be able to browse back to it in the future.
Does "browse directly" mean they click on something to join the server, or click on something to make a lobby that will use that server? If you do mean directly connecting, do you get a choice of your player model? Currently, joining a game in progress or joining through the browser/console doesn't give you a choice, as far as I can tell. (I tried setting team_desired to things like "survivors zoey" to no avail.) > There is another convar in there called sv_steamgroup_exclusive, which isn't > completely implemented yet. The goal if it will be to make a server only > joinable by users within that group, but there are some edge cases where > matchmaking could still potentially put users on there. People are welcome > to play around with it for now, and we should have it fully implemented in > the next few days or so. What I would like, personally, is a way so that someone privileged (in a group, a group admin, listed in the server config somewhere, dunno) would be allowed to start a lobby that will end up using a specific server or pool of servers. Right now, I run 16 public demo servers but I have one additional server with an sv_search_key set. I've told my friends that key and they use the server sometimes. But it's not "private" because anyone can use the server browser to look up search keys. Maybe something like: sv_steamgroup_exclusive 0 - server is fully open to matchmaking sv_steamgroup_exclusive 1 - server only allows lobby games started by group members sv_steamgroup_exclusive 2 - server only allows lobby games started by group admins sv_steamgroup_exclusive 3 - server only allows lobby games that are made up of group members sv_steamgroup_exclusive 4 - server only allows lobby games started by group admins and made up of group members #3 and #4 might be excessive, heh. With something like this, I guess the client needs to know to look for group servers in the first place. I don't really care about joining games directly through the console or browser as long as I can personally start lobby games that go to my servers and can set aside servers that will only take games for me (or from other people I allow somehow). I'm also iffy on using Steam group membership rather than a list of Steam IDs in a config file to track permissions, to be honest. Editing a file is so much more attractive than getting my friends into (yet another) Steam group. Or, for my public servers, starting a new group just for them. Then what if I decide to change my server names? I'll probably have to start a new group because I don't want a "Foo L4D server" group when my servers now have the hostname "Bar L4D." Moving everyone over is probably not going to work. > Hopefully this addresses some of the concerns server admins have brought up. Thanks for putting effort into improving the matchmaking/server situation. -Fyren _______________________________________________ To unsubscribe, edit your list preferences, or view the list archives, please visit: http://list.valvesoftware.com/mailman/listinfo/hlds
