FF Steamworks/Orange Box/etc. Discussion

[ensiform]

Maybe even fix up SourceTV? Last I heard FF had problems with SourceTV not working correctly or crashing. Confirm/Deny?

[Skanky Butterpuss]

yeah sourcetv has quite a few issues in ff. unbearable lag when speccing a live match, very buggy and strange interface issues while watching a recorded demo, random purple checkered boxes covering the view 95% of the time on certain maps. its all sorts of screwy.

[ensiform]

Isn't the spectator list in general buggy on who you are following, names don't update etc.. That should/could be looked into as well.

[MatiZ]

Is FF 2.3 coming out today?

[trepid_jon]

Server packages, probably. Client installer soon after...hopefully.

[im2cool4uroflolz]

yay.

that means I can just load up 2.2 installer and then the patch.

MAKE IT SMALL, DAMMIT. AND USEFUL.

[Iggy]

Originally Posted by im2cool4uroflolz

MAKE IT SMALL, DAMMIT. AND USEFUL.

That's what she said.

[richard nixon]

so FF will be released on Steam with 2.3 or the next update?

[pF]

Hopefully one or two releases later.. it's not up to us really. It's a matter of submitting a release to Valve, and then getting approved, or not.

[Desyphur]

WHAR BE 2.3

[im2cool4uroflolz]

Send the files to Valve. We can get it released with 3.0 easily.

[xks]

I would make 3.0 the target since you only get one first impression with people. It's important to have the mod in a well balanced and well organised place before it is widely available on Steam. New players that come and then leave again don't tend to bother coming back again and there are only a certain number of players that will even try such a mod.

Things like server support, map cycles and administration of the servers also need to take a higher priority and need to be changed before this mod goes onto Steam.

[Hirohito]

Originally Posted by xks

I would make 3.0 the target since you only get one first impression with people. It's important to have the mod in a well balanced and well organised place before it is widely available on Steam. New players that come and then leave again don't tend to bother coming back again and there are only a certain number of players that will even try such a mod.

Things like server support, map cycles and administration of the servers also need to take a higher priority and need to be changed before this mod goes onto Steam.

I'd prefer that we get don't release 3.0 on Steamworks. There are some major changes being planned for 3.0, and I think it be a good idea to get some feedback about the changes before we go Steamworks.

[xks]

Originally Posted by Hirohito

I'd prefer that we get don't release 3.0 on Steamworks. There are some major changes being planned for 3.0, and I think it be a good idea to get some feedback about the changes before we go Steamworks.

That's a good attitude to have.

Now can we start having some better server regulation?

[GeoKill----->]

As for server regulation, what do you mean?

[Junkhead]

Originally Posted by xks

That's a good attitude to have.

Now can we start having some better server regulation?

That's an interesting suggestion, what do you think is wrong with the way it is now?

[xks]

Originally Posted by GeoKill----->

As for server regulation, what do you mean?

Poor map cycles, inconsistent rules, inconvenient server locations and far too many servers standing idle wasting resources for no good reason.

I realise map cycles is an opinion, but I am not speaking of my own opinion, I'm speaking as someone who wants to get more servers full for longer periods of the day with happier players new and old.

Right now the server situation is basically a collection of self run clan servers and that's not the best way to grow a community or gather a stable playerbase on which to build, or at least it's certainly not the best way.

Clan servers are typically run on the whims of the owners. They ban who they like for whatever reason they like, they make up whatever rules they like whenever they like and they choose what maps they want regardless of what the players think about it or whether the players even have the maps in the first place.

It's really quite a big discussion to have in a thread like this though.

As for locations, the community is clearly a divided one in terms of geographical location. You have a slight majority based in North America, followed by a decent amount of players from Europe and then some from the rest of the world. It's impossible to keep all of these players satisfied constantly but with the level of internet performance for the average home user these days, it's not unrealistic to expect good quality trans-atlantic gaming.

Right now you have a whole host of North American and European hosted servers, all of which offering useless latency to the other continent. It's not too bad on the European side since the best European servers we have (SNT) are hosted in Holland. I find the real problem to be on the North American side of things as almost all of the North American hosted servers seem to be West coast, and if they aren't the hosts they are on have poor trans-atlantic links. The only exception to this rule is the AE server which offers the best balance for European and North American users.

So in terms of location it would be prudent to have servers hosted in this 'middle ground' area rather than in places which end up ruling out a large portion of the small playerbase the mod has right now.

The standardisation of servers, or at least the creation of a few core servers would go a long way to solving most of the issues I outlined.

I wont write more on the subject as it's best to have a discussion on the subject rather than a lot of writing with one single opinion although I do have more to say on things such as map cycles and the organisation of servers.

[pF]

Scroll down all the way on this (and every) page, there are a number of official FF servers that are not run in a "clanstyle" fashion. It's just that nobody really plays on 'em. As for server regulation - i'm sorry, that's certainly not within the scope of the dev teams responsibilities, nor possible really. We can suggest server settings, mapcycles and map class limits with each new patch, but that's the extent of our influence.

[xks]

Originally Posted by -pF-

Scroll down all the way on this (and every) page, there are a number of official FF servers that are not run in a "clanstyle" fashion. It's just that nobody really plays on 'em. As for server regulation - i'm sorry, that's certainly not within the scope of the dev teams responsibilities, nor possible really. We can suggest server settings, mapcycles and map class limits with each new patch, but that's the extent of our influence.

The official FF servers are useless as long as no one ever plays on them and this is part of the problem I am describing.

The clan servers will enevitably be clan servers, tailored to certain peoples tastes as I described above. You do not want your mod's popularity and overall fate to rest on the whims of clan server admins and clan members.

Those Official FF servers need to have the best map cycles, the best stats systems, the best latency and a stable playerbase. Right now the closest thing to official servers you have that are populated are the SNT servers and they can be improved too.

It's also not unrealistic to think you could suggest map cycles and overall rules to most of the clan servers, especially since the community is so small that a little continuity and clarity of the rules, map cycles and way the game is played would go a long way to helping the newcomers.

Right now you have a situation where a newcomer could end up on any one of these servers:

A server with a strict swearing/maturity filter, quite regular bannings, higher latency and maps changed on the whims of admins. Oh and not forgetting that constant "reserved slot" which means no one can get into the server very easily when it's full (see where I am with regulation now?).

A server with no swearing/maturity filter, open vaginas all over the walls, no real bannings (not necessarily a bad thing), still higher latency and maps still changed on the whims of admins even when the players vote a certain map on it has ended up changed.

A server with no swearing/maturity filter but fairly sensible admins, bans for those that deserve it, slightly better latency and maps rarely changed on the whim of an admin more so on the whim of players in the actual server.

This is just to illustrate three very different experiences a player can have in FF purely as a result of the way the servers are run and a direct result of allowing clans to control the way the community plays.

[GeoKill----->]

Clans controlling? Name one clan server that's popular right now. GCC, Old Timers, e0, NFO, Talos, AE don't count since they are regular pub servers. As for admin changing maps well, nothing can be done about it really since server owners can do what ever they want at their server. Seriously there's nothing that can be done to stop a server owner from setting rules, filters, etc...