Server browser needs to become better
Squirreli_
Join Date: 2012-04-25 Member: 151046Members, Reinforced - Shadow
Join Date: 2012-04-25 Member: 151046Members, Reinforced - Shadow
<div class="IPBDescription">... to help keep the new players</div>Here is a wishlist, explanations after that:
1) Server performance rating
2) Favourite servers tab
3) Blacklisted servers tab
4) Autoretry (and queue)
5) Cached serverlist
6) Sortability and filtering
<u>Server performance rating</u>
Now, this I think is the most important one. Marking servers favourite or blacklisting them kinda tries to work around this problem, but don't do good enough a job... So, the problem is people hosting servers on inferior hardware. The result is low-tickrate, high-choke servers that make the game seem awful. When this is combined with lower-end computers, new players will genuinely think that the game is so badly made that it doesn't work on their computer. If players could see some indication of server performance in the server browser (and or lag/choke/packetloss warnings ingame), they could home in on good servers and avoid mistaking the crap servers for the real NS2 experience. I don't know if this is as bad in the US, but here in the EU, there are several servers that often have high player counts and that have choke and a tickrate of 15-20 from midgame on. This problem could maybe also be worked around by making some players do that rating for the other players. Maybe crowdsourced or perhaps playtesters... Then it would just be a matter of displaying that rating in the server browser.
<u>Favourite servers tab</u>
Pretty explainatory. There are some servers that I like to frequent, and I would like to store them so that I can easily see them in one view.
<u>Blacklisted servers</u>
There are some pretty horrible (as in low performance) servers out there, and I'd like to make my first visit to such servers my last. This should be doable at client-side by marking the server somehow, and then the server would be displayed in different colour and maybe have a "you sure, this server sucks" dialog to warn me if I try to connect there again.
<u>Autoretry (and queue)</u>
Players want to connect to certain full servers at times, for instance, when their friends are on said server. Also, sometimes players just want to join one of a few servers that meet their criteria. What is needed is auto-retry and/or queuing. Auto-retry to multiple servers (as provided by menumod) is also a really great feature.
<u>Cached serverlist</u>
<!--quoteo(post=1972625:date=Sep 6 2012, 11:36 AM:name=rantology)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (rantology @ Sep 6 2012, 11:36 AM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1972625"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->It also needs a cached server list so that when steam decides it doesn't feel like refreshing your server list you aren't stuck staring at a blank screen for several minutes at a time.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
<u>Better sortability and filtering</u>
A good server browser should allow for advanced filtering (although it should work well and streamlined off the bat) and it should be sortable by any column. Further, sort options should not be reset upon refreshing. Sorting should be smooth and quick.
1) Server performance rating
2) Favourite servers tab
3) Blacklisted servers tab
4) Autoretry (and queue)
5) Cached serverlist
6) Sortability and filtering
<u>Server performance rating</u>
Now, this I think is the most important one. Marking servers favourite or blacklisting them kinda tries to work around this problem, but don't do good enough a job... So, the problem is people hosting servers on inferior hardware. The result is low-tickrate, high-choke servers that make the game seem awful. When this is combined with lower-end computers, new players will genuinely think that the game is so badly made that it doesn't work on their computer. If players could see some indication of server performance in the server browser (and or lag/choke/packetloss warnings ingame), they could home in on good servers and avoid mistaking the crap servers for the real NS2 experience. I don't know if this is as bad in the US, but here in the EU, there are several servers that often have high player counts and that have choke and a tickrate of 15-20 from midgame on. This problem could maybe also be worked around by making some players do that rating for the other players. Maybe crowdsourced or perhaps playtesters... Then it would just be a matter of displaying that rating in the server browser.
<u>Favourite servers tab</u>
Pretty explainatory. There are some servers that I like to frequent, and I would like to store them so that I can easily see them in one view.
<u>Blacklisted servers</u>
There are some pretty horrible (as in low performance) servers out there, and I'd like to make my first visit to such servers my last. This should be doable at client-side by marking the server somehow, and then the server would be displayed in different colour and maybe have a "you sure, this server sucks" dialog to warn me if I try to connect there again.
<u>Autoretry (and queue)</u>
Players want to connect to certain full servers at times, for instance, when their friends are on said server. Also, sometimes players just want to join one of a few servers that meet their criteria. What is needed is auto-retry and/or queuing. Auto-retry to multiple servers (as provided by menumod) is also a really great feature.
<u>Cached serverlist</u>
<!--quoteo(post=1972625:date=Sep 6 2012, 11:36 AM:name=rantology)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (rantology @ Sep 6 2012, 11:36 AM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1972625"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->It also needs a cached server list so that when steam decides it doesn't feel like refreshing your server list you aren't stuck staring at a blank screen for several minutes at a time.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
<u>Better sortability and filtering</u>
A good server browser should allow for advanced filtering (although it should work well and streamlined off the bat) and it should be sortable by any column. Further, sort options should not be reset upon refreshing. Sorting should be smooth and quick.
Comments
Also it should by default be sorted by ping so the servers with lowest amount of ping will come first. It would also be cool to have the option to hide empty and password protected servers.
But great ideas all of the above.
-OmiCron-
This would be nice also. Currently Steam provides a decent friends-functionality and you can join the server they are on (and that has auto-retry btw!), but something like this might be beneficial in NS2 browser as well.
<b>EDIT: I've edited most of the suggestions into the first post.</b>
First feature I feel we need is a region filter and the 2nd feature would be an Auto-retry option to join full servers.
Little features like this go a long way :)
Cheers@!
First feature I feel we need is a region filter and the 2nd feature would be an Auto-retry option to join full servers.
Little features like this go a long way :)
Cheers@!<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Or general filtering. Filter by ping, filter so you don't see full servers, search by name, filter by map... etc
Not a replacement for the in-game browser of course but it would be a great addition to it imo.
I just started with NS2 a few days ago and indeed, this was the first (and almost the only) annoying thing I've seen. The whole menu is kinda <b>very</b> basic.
I am as well missing my favorites, filters like "not full", "not empty", "no password" and "ping less than". Furthermore the refreshrate is ... well ... extremely slow. Refreshing the serverlist should work like elsewhere:
1) Refresh all currently listed servers. If not available anymore, remove from list. Save list in some variable.
2) Start filtering of the servers, but keep every found server in that variable in case the filter-settings are changed.
3) Check all remaining IPs in background. This shouldn't find much more servers, because most of them should be in the already displayed list (server won't change that much). Start filtering here as well during runtime.
Oh, and it would be really great if my last sort order would be saved! I always sort my lists by playercount, not by ping (which is default in NS2?) or name.
The mod looks good so far, but there I am missing the nice looking buttons :-)
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Furthermore, it would be great to be able to go to the server browser during gameplay, I don't want to disconnect all the time.
And why can't I leave NS2 immediately during gameplay? I first have to disconnect? "Exit" could simply disconnect me and close NS2...
Hopefully the menu will be changed until the release in october.
<a href="http://www.unknownworlds.com/ns2/forums/index.php?showtopic=113246" target="_blank">http://www.unknownworlds.com/ns2/forums/in...howtopic=113246</a>
It would be nice if you could see how many players are ahead of you in the queue, and you should be able to stand in line for multiple servers. Finally, something that might work is a <i>"minplayers"</i> command for the servers so that a player can't join an empty or almost empty server. To join, there needs to be for instance six players in the queue, which then joins at the same time.
Thx for the tip, but I've been running menumod since forever ;) ... The normal server browser and menus are just inferior. Some of the improvements hoped for in this thread are already in menumod, and I recommend everyone to use it! Menus are the first thing a new player sees upon entering the game, however, and you can not expect every new player to go around the forums looking for mods to solve their problems. Also, even the all-mighty menumod doesn't solve all of the problems... I especially think the poor performance servers will give NS2 much bad reputation. This is because the game already is heavy on the client side, and new players will have hard time seeing whether their choppy game experience is due to client side or server side problems.
<a href="http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=120724&hl=" target="_blank">http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/index....=120724&hl=</a>
I doubt that something like this would work properly, since the servers and their environments are always influenced by many things which can have temporary (e.g. a DDoS-Attack) and permanent impact on the performance. The easiest approach would be to give the players the opportunity to rate the server with thumbs up/thumbs down, but this still would require the work to implement the system and save/offer the data.
I agree with all other things you mentioned, though. :)
I agree with all other things you mentioned, though. :)<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Yeah, it is the most complicated of the whole bunch. A simpler hack could be a visible client-side indicator ingame, where the player would be warned of dangerously low server tick-rate as it happens. This could be like the lag/choke/packetloss indicators that are used in many games and would have to be informative enough to newer players. The more experienced players know to check net_stats 1 and do recognize the issue just by playing. This is not a strictly Server Browser feature though...
maybe a cancel for the refresh so you can stop it as soon as you already found a server you want to join?
<a href="http://www.unknownworlds.com/ns2/forums/index.php?showtopic=113246" target="_blank">http://www.unknownworlds.com/ns2/forums/in...howtopic=113246</a><!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Yeah, I already tried this mod, but when using this mod, NS2 crashes after a while. NS2 just runs fine without any crashes not using this mod. :-/
Nevertheless this mod is something I would like to see in NS2, it's fast, easy to use and has all the required features.
maybe a cancel for the refresh so you can stop it as soon as you already found a server you want to join?<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Indeed, that's very annoying as well! You can't even cancel the refresh... and the button always has the caption "Refreshing...", even if it isn't refreshing the list anymore. o_O
Really dont wanna see servers above 100 ms ping because its unplayable, and i dont want to see empty or full servers or those that have passwords.
So hope you guys add this at some point as well.