Suggested long ago (years) on spuf to have a "groups" tab in game server
browser, with the servers of the steam groups one is member off. Server owners
simply can then add their servers to their group page on steam and the players
in the groups get the servers they are member off. Maybe even make a switch
that they can use the "connect" command directly to connect for having a slot.
That would end all need for custom gui's for connecting to servers etc.
Sure, there are players who collect groups like cookies, , but a bit handy
player can keep all the servers in that tab that he needs.
I'd even suggest to make a "opt-in" and/or "enable all/none" of it, so that
players can choose to see the servers of the group (or opt-out.... but I dont
recommend that for exactly those lonely ppl who have over 100 groups etc). A
simple dropdown menu option in the FL would do.
Will only work if players can disable the "announcement" spam tho. Cos I for
one keep my group list short, and any spamming announcements is out (any higher
freq then once a month). Altho groups could create a secondary group which
would be "silent" with the announcements. No idea why some find it so
interesting to do 10 announcements on a evening.
Tbh, I think that would be better then implementing dns solutions or w/e, and
it would also take care of inheritence of a group owner etc, cos if bound to a
specific steam ID, I see some (small?) downsides if the owner of that account
is no longer associated with the servers group/clan/hoster w/e structure its
in. I know at least one community that is changing ownership in a couple
weeks...
Small side idea: a right click option in server browser to join the group of
the server, and get as reward the complete server list there. (can be the group
id string on server, ppl would not want to put the wrong one in there cos that
would defeat their server, as long as the list comes from the group, and not
from the servers)
Another given is then that clients with a re-install, or w/e reason doesn't
lose their server list, its arranged by the groups already then, which is not
client sided stored, but dependend on the membership of the groups. Cant count
how many times I lost my favorite servers cos steam was acting up and decided
it was time again to clean out all but steam.exe and the steamapps folder. (and
yes, forgot to save the list, and for others who don't even know where to find
it)
patent pending (c) 2009 (or thereabouts)
that reminds me
/me backups his favorite servers.
>________________________________
>From: Fletcher Dunn <[email protected]>
>To: "[email protected]" <[email protected]>;
>"[email protected]" <[email protected]>
>Sent: Sunday, 10 July 2011, 23:35
>Subject: Re: [hlds] [hlds_linux] TF2 servers staying empty
>
>
>
>If you want to know if matchmaking is working or not, looking at your own
>server will tell you very little. You have to play the game. Our current
>goals for quickplay are pretty limited: to match players (especially new
>players, who we expect to be the ones using this feature) to the best server
>for them. In other words, we define success solely from the client's
>perspective. We don't have any criteria that attempts to optimize results
>from servers' perspective, with the exception of reducing unwanted traffic (in
>the form of query pings or quickplay player traffic in general).
>
>
>Last weekend (July 2) all of the Valve servers went down. This undoubtedly
>sent a lot of quickplay traffic your way. Then, on Monday, they came back up.
> This almost certainly resulted in less quickplay traffic coming your way.
>Our overall player counts are reduced since the initial surge, but we still
>have a pretty large number of Valve servers up. I'd guess that ratio of Valve
>servers versus players using quickplay is the single largest factor in
>determining how much quickplay traffic comes your way.
>
>
>On the other hand, last week's update reduced the scoring advantage that Valve
>servers get. We are still tweaking this. We may make the scoring advantage a
>function of player experience, to get totally new players on Valve servers,
>but over time transition them into the general population.
>
>
>Payload is the default game mode choice. You might get more quickplay traffic
>on payload maps.
>
>
>We are experimenting with certain rules changes being score penalties rather
>than deal-breakers. (nocrits is the first test.) But right now, there are so
>many good Valve servers available, unless your server is vanilla with a good
>ping and 15-20 players in it, most clients will score the Valve server higher
>anyway, so pretty much any scoring penalty can effectively rule you out. This
>is just a function of the number of players and the number of (Valve) servers.
>
>
>The fix for the replay off-by-one player count bug should be in the next
>update. We have received some helpful reports about zombie players and
>hopefully will have that fixed, too. We also read the suggestions for how our
>codebase could be improved and features implemented more simply. Rest assured
>that those suggestions are being given all the attention they deserve.
>
>
>The reputation scoring system will take some time to tune. Currently it can
>be dwarfed by the other factors. We are not certain it is the best long term
>solution, perhaps creating a more persistent server identity at the Steam
>level is better. For example, so you can change your IP and not lose all of
>your loyal players who added your server to their favorites list. We have
>heard you loud and clear on this point and it is something I personally am
>very interested in working on. Having a less anonymous system will benefit
>good servers and players and is a good thing all around.
>
>
>Your humble servant.
>
>
>- Fletch
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>
>
>
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