A plea to server owners to lower player slot count
invTempest
Join Date: 2003-03-02 Member: 14223Members, Constellation, Squad Five Blue
Join Date: 2003-03-02 Member: 14223Members, Constellation, Squad Five Blue
<div class="IPBDescription">18+ slots is just not feasible (or fun) in the current build</div>Server admins/owners hear me out -
In order to give people the best playing experience you possibly can with the current patch and the foreseeable future, you should really look into lowering the slot count on your server(s) until big performance increases are put into the game. This will help keep the current player base active, and it will also create a much more fun atmosphere to get people back into NS2.
I have been collecting stats on server performance from May of 2011 until now and the current level of performance is on par with what it was nearly 10 months ago. Instead of fighting with the performance, we can make changes to make the game better *right now* by lowering player count to a more reasonable level - Just because 18 slots worked in the past doesn't mean we have to stick to it now.
I have been doing some testing and have found that the jump from 16 slots to 18 slots puts a huge amount of extra strain on the server which leads to the very low tick rates. The jump from 14 to 16 isn't as bad but there still is a noticeable performance drop. The sweet spot for a core i5 2500k 4.4-4.5 Ghz server seems to be 15-16.
Before build 196, most operators ran with 14-16 slots but then performance improved a little bit so most servers increased to 18 to even 20 slots in some cases. However, since performance has been lacking the past few builds, it would be most beneficial to the community if the popular servers would lower the player count to keep the server tick rates at a more reasonable level.
Not only is this in the best interest of the community, it is probably in the best interest of both the server operators and any new players who's first impression of the game may be tarnished by the current level of server performance.
In order to give people the best playing experience you possibly can with the current patch and the foreseeable future, you should really look into lowering the slot count on your server(s) until big performance increases are put into the game. This will help keep the current player base active, and it will also create a much more fun atmosphere to get people back into NS2.
I have been collecting stats on server performance from May of 2011 until now and the current level of performance is on par with what it was nearly 10 months ago. Instead of fighting with the performance, we can make changes to make the game better *right now* by lowering player count to a more reasonable level - Just because 18 slots worked in the past doesn't mean we have to stick to it now.
I have been doing some testing and have found that the jump from 16 slots to 18 slots puts a huge amount of extra strain on the server which leads to the very low tick rates. The jump from 14 to 16 isn't as bad but there still is a noticeable performance drop. The sweet spot for a core i5 2500k 4.4-4.5 Ghz server seems to be 15-16.
Before build 196, most operators ran with 14-16 slots but then performance improved a little bit so most servers increased to 18 to even 20 slots in some cases. However, since performance has been lacking the past few builds, it would be most beneficial to the community if the popular servers would lower the player count to keep the server tick rates at a more reasonable level.
Not only is this in the best interest of the community, it is probably in the best interest of both the server operators and any new players who's first impression of the game may be tarnished by the current level of server performance.
Comments
Performance for me has gotten worse in the past ~5 patches, it's to the point where combined with the increasingly poor server performance in all the 18-22 player pub servers I just can't play the game at all on the current build. God only knows why people have the player counts set so high, I've never been on a single full server where the game was not lagging considerably due to the server less than 10 minutes in.
Awesome! Thanks JuCCi! I Love the All-In servers due to its great ping and close proximity (Cali servers? Im in Colorado and it pings wonderfully)
And im glad you like our servers :D
We love you Jucci!
i had the same exact viewpoint
The added bonus is that we end up with a greater number of active servers, meaning open slots occur more often and I can actually play the game.
that doesn't necessarily mean the devs are balancing it around that many players, unless you know more? is it in the 'design doc'?
If all admins would adjust the playernumbers to the performance of the CPU we would have servers that can hold 30 ticks for much longer. Even if it is 5vs5 better have 25 ticks than 4 in a 8vs8.
no, but they had "14 stations" at PAX (watch the video around 12:00). maybe they had technical/logistical limits there but i don't think so. in any case it means that 7v7 is a reasonable matchup from the perspective of the devs. would be interesting to know the amount of players in internal playtests whenever the devs want to "simulate" a real match.
If all admins would adjust the playernumbers to the performance of the CPU we would have servers that can hold 30 ticks for much longer. Even if it is 5vs5 better have 25 ticks than 4 in a 8vs8.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
I agree. I always have the most fun with only a few players on the server because hit reg and performance is so much better.
i have 3 Server´s up:
1x 16 Slot (mY-eSp 1 Natural Selection 2)
1x 14 Slot (mY-eSp 2 Natural Selection 2)
1x 12 Slot (mY-eSp 3 Natural Selection 2)
The Server runs great with max Ticrate (32)
Have fun and see you soon!
<!--quoteo(post=1929669:date=Apr 25 2012, 04:47 PM:name=Laosh'Ra)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Laosh'Ra @ Apr 25 2012, 04:47 PM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1929669"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->no, but they had "14 stations" at PAX (watch the video around 12:00). maybe they had technical/logistical limits there but i don't think so. in any case it means that 7v7 is a reasonable matchup from the perspective of the devs. would be interesting to know the amount of players in internal playtests whenever the devs want to "simulate" a real match.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
6v6 holds true for NS, because it was balanced around those values due to the asymmetrical resource system. The new symmetrical resource system should make it possible to remove this limit. The devs are aiming at not having theoretical max player cap for balance. This is still quite dependant on map size of course, but the new resource system should be able to scale quite well when the game is feature complete and the real balancing can start :)
6v6 or perhaps the new 7v7, will always be the best amount for competitive matches. For some clans it can be quite hard to get more players then 6 or 7 together at the same time at the same place :P
when i start all 3 server´s the have a 31,7 - 32 ticrate ;)
In order to give people the best playing experience you possibly can with the current patch and the foreseeable future, you should really look into lowering the slot count on your server(s) until big performance increases are put into the game. This will help keep the current player base active, and it will also create a much more fun atmosphere to get people back into NS2.
I have been collecting stats on server performance from May of 2011 until now and the current level of performance is on par with what it was nearly 10 months ago. Instead of fighting with the performance, we can make changes to make the game better *right now* by lowering player count to a more reasonable level - Just because 18 slots worked in the past doesn't mean we have to stick to it now.
I have been doing some testing and have found that the jump from 16 slots to 18 slots puts a huge amount of extra strain on the server which leads to the very low tick rates. The jump from 14 to 16 isn't as bad but there still is a noticeable performance drop. The sweet spot for a core i5 2500k 4.4-4.5 Ghz server seems to be 15-16.
Before build 196, most operators ran with 14-16 slots but then performance improved a little bit so most servers increased to 18 to even 20 slots in some cases. However, since performance has been lacking the past few builds, it would be most beneficial to the community if the popular servers would lower the player count to keep the server tick rates at a more reasonable level.
Not only is this in the best interest of the community, it is probably in the best interest of both the server operators and any new players who's first impression of the game may be tarnished by the current level of server performance.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Instead of your wall of text I have much simpler solution. Add tickrate as some clear indicator in server list in the client. It can look like wireless transmit power indicators - green/yellow/red bars. It's important to make it clear that low tickrate affects gameplay far more than slightly higher latency.
"Instead of providing for fun gameplay for people I propose telling people when gameplay is not fun. Besides, I don't like to read."
Basically.
>discussing netcode
>references client hardware
>...
>?