Terrible servers which let you join, load map, then kick you because "there are no slots"

Rumsey

Am I the only one incredibly annoyed by this? If the server is full, it should not let me join and waste my time at the loading screen. It is very irritating to have my time wasted like this and servers which do it should be put on a blacklist or something.

For example, there is a server with 23 slots, but it kicks anyone when there are > 16 players. So you click on the server when it's in the browser thinking you will get in and are kicked out as soon as you're finished loading. There's no way to even know it's capped at 16 until you join.

This is awful, awful, awful, awful awful, and ruins the browsing experience completely. The browser is basically meaningless now if you try to filter out full servers.

Edit:

Per this post by IronHorse, UWE may provide better support for reserve slots in the future. If so, that should resolve this problem for most servers, assuming they choose to implement the new system. I consider this a good thing. =p

NinjasAreMammalsToo

Then there are the ones that instead of just kicking you they send you to "another of our servers that isn't full" when the one I tried to join obviously isn't full and I get transferred to an empty server.

notyourbuddy

Server: 17/23

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"You have been kicked. Server 6 reserve slots."




Whats worse is there is no Server Blacklist feature (is there?) so days later I fall for the same trick all over again.

cyanide

way to remove these servers asap. most pathetic shit i've ever seen.

MaximumSquid

The servers I play on do Server Redirect. . .

Place only has 1 or 2 slots left out of 24 then you'll get transfered to another server
Course this requires that a place runs multiple servers to pull this off

You may not be able to blacklist a place, but you should be able to have a lengthy favorites list

It doesn't take much to get into the good graces of the owners / admins if you are a regular
Spend a little time at a place and you'll likely be able to get on the list of usernames that gets ignored for slot checks

Rumsey

MaximumSquid wrote: »

The servers I play on do Server Redirect. . .

Place only has 1 or 2 slots left out of 24 then you'll get transfered to another server
Course this requires that a place runs multiple servers to pull this off

You may not be able to blacklist a place, but you should be able to have a lengthy favorites list

It doesn't take much to get into the good graces of the owners / admins if you are a regular
Spend a little time at a place and you'll likely be able to get on the list of usernames that gets ignored for slot checks

I've been redirected to another server, which is also "full", then redirected again, etc. multiple times in a row. It's crazy.

CrazyEddie

I hate what these server ops are doing.

I hate it so much.

Mavick

And this is why I've kept my servers as mod light as possible. Call me old school, but that kind of nonsense would piss me off too, no doubt about it.

Daxx

MaximumSquid wrote: »

The servers I play on do Server Redirect. . .

Place only has 1 or 2 slots left out of 24 then you'll get transfered to another server
Course this requires that a place runs multiple servers to pull this off

You may not be able to blacklist a place, but you should be able to have a lengthy favorites list

It doesn't take much to get into the good graces of the owners / admins if you are a regular
Spend a little time at a place and you'll likely be able to get on the list of usernames that gets ignored for slot checks

Yeah, but getting stuck in server-merry-go-round hell is a whole nother annoyance now. The previous "Lock the server when it's at X-2/X was far nicer.

SUPER_SARS

Theres not much you can do other than avoid the server chain. Its not hard when they all have the same name in the title.

Rumsey

I just sat and waited, it cycled through five different servers each one saying "this one is full, we'll move you to another." Whoever designed this is an absolute moron.

UWE better do something about it, it's going to piss off everyone who starts playing the game for the first time.

SamusDroid

Well, you could always sign up for the reserve slots. The one I play on has free reserve slots for just for posting saying you agree to the server rules. Happens to be the one you mentioned, and it happens to be one of the best servers I have played on. Don't know about server redirect though, never had it happen to me.

amoral

... and the cycle will continue

joshhh

Server Redirect is just as bad as auto kick.

mrpotatomoto

Agreed completely on this -- an extremely frustrating experience that just doesn't need to be there. Can we please have a server blacklist option?

FooKer

While blacklisting a server would be a nice option, it still wouldn't resolve the issue at hand: joining a server that has slots "open", but are reserved slots. Ideally UWE would officially add in support for a reserved slot system. A suggestion: when a person is attempts to join a server that is full, ie 16/16, it could check against a list of known members who have a reserved slot... and in turn increase the max player count to 17/16.

Though I'm sure there's other posts with similar (or different) ideas on this....

LagLight

I want the feature available for on TF2 servers or other Valve games where I can queue for multiple servers even when playing on one of them.

MiniH0wie

Love the redirect that sends me to a completely empty server....

SynVisions

OldF was one of my favorite servers in NS1, but I refuse to join it in NS2. Almost every time I try to join I get kicked just after loading the map, and in the rare cases where I was able to get in I got kicked later on in the game, presumably due to reserved slots. Sorry, but it's just a terrible player experience.

1dominator1

The worst is when the server it sends you to is also full, or empty. And the fact that it does this when the server is 20/24 is infuriating. Ive blacklisted all the kahuna servers because of this crap.
It should show reserve slots in the server browser (for example in brackets or somesuch) like many (some?) other games do, would go a long way towards pleasing everyone.

Dogbite

Sometimes I try to join a server and it lets me join the ready room, but my connection is red-plugged without kicking me or telling me the server is full. So annoying!

Solarity

I understand your dislike of connecting to a server only to be kicked. There are a many of us that openly support passwording the servers when it gets full in TG. Though TG is not a democracy, we are limited to what the admins and in house devs will give us. While we don't agree with all the policies, we do like the community. If enough of us are vocal, that can bring change.

While I completely agree that it isn't nice to kick someone as soon as they join, our servers and community would be difficult to maintain without a reserved slot system. Instead of advocating for a blacklist, work with us and advocate for an official reserved slot system or at least a way to lie to the server browser to show our server as full.

We don't want to alienate or piss anyone off. As I said a few of us are advocating for password protection and sometimes change can come quicker from within. If you guys are mature players, who work well with others, then join our community and help advocate in a mature fashion for change. Our leaders might think they always know what is best, but they do listen.

Good Gaming
-Solarity

Walsa

The mayor problem is that there is no support from UWE regarding any mechanism for reserved slots. Maintaining a server, specially with the hardware requierements of ns2 server, is not cheap, and people have de right to use their server whenever they want.

If they don't have the time to implement a full reserver slot system they could at least implement fake slots reporting.

Implement a configurable server variable to fake de number of slots. Lets say, report 16 available slots of 18 used to start the server.
The server will show as full and don't allow new clients to connect though the normal gui.

But it would let to establish a connection using the console if the server is reported as full. After that, it depends of the mod in the server to see what to do with the new client (accept or kick the new player).

Tinker

@Walsa

I logged in to basically post this. UWE needs to work with the community to hammer out some of the wrinkles in the system that drive people nuts. This should be low hanging fruit, something as simple as sending a request for server reserved slot status before loading everything would make it a much less frustrating experience.

Click, Kicked for reserved slots > click, authenticating, prechaching, loading, Kicked for reserved slots

Tharos

Servers with reserved slot have some weird max slot numbers, they are easy to spot (ex: 23 slots, 17 slots,...)

Mavick

Not all are set up that way Tharos. The ones that people are complaining about here show their total slots and with open slots, yet those slots are reserved and they don't know that until they load in and get kicked due to it.

Industry

Tharos wrote: »

Servers with reserved slot have some weird max slot numbers, they are easy to spot (ex: 23 slots, 17 slots,...)

One unnamed culprit is full at like 18/25. Which is wildly deceiving.

piratedave

the forums aren't an image board. - Ironhorse

Zek

Yes this is awful, and it's because the game has no support for mods kicking people before they finish loading. Servers will always have reserve slots, so this will continue to happen until it's supported by UWE which should have been prioritized months ago.

ScardyBob

I actually think the server switching method quite ingenious, though the implementation could be better (e.g. it selects the first populated server with an open slot rather than just sending you to the next in the line). However, this does lead to an interesting idea of joining a server group rather than a specific server. For example, rather than joining KKG1, you'd join the KKG Server Group and it would deposit you in one of their populated servers with an open slot.

ZEROibis

Rumsey wrote: »

Am I the only one incredibly annoyed by this? If the server is full, it should not let me join and waste my time at the loading screen. It is very irritating to have my time wasted like this and servers which do it should be put on a blacklist or something.

For example, there is a server with 23 slots, but it kicks anyone when there are > 16 players. So you click on the server when it's in the browser thinking you will get in and are kicked out as soon as you're finished loading. There's no way to even know it's capped at 16 until you join.

This is awful, awful, awful, awful awful, and ruins the browsing experience completely. The browser is basically meaningless now if you try to filter out full servers.

Has the amazing mystery as to why the number of slots is an odd number and not even occurred...

The problem is that the game does not allow server operators to kick players until after they have fully connected nor does it allow servers to define the playable slots independent of the reserved slots. Thus using odd numbers is the only way to indicate to players that the last slot is for establishing connections only and is not playable.

Although I do understand that there are some servers that use even numbered slots and have some sort of special reserved system where only X reserved players can be in beyond the limit to prevent kicking mid game.

I remember in ns1 some servers when you joined and the pub server was full it would send you to the combat server for the same clan. What was nice is that servers could serve audio to clients during the load telling you what was going on and why lol. Also load times in ns1 were like 9999999999999% faster lol.