Addressing the 'nowhere to play' issues
tarquinbb
Join Date: 2012-11-03 Member: 166314Members
Join Date: 2012-11-03 Member: 166314Members
A familiar situation for me is that there are several full servers to choose from in my server browser and a lot of empty ones. This leaves me with three options:
There must be a fair few players waiting to join a game, because they tend to fill up really fast at peak time, so you could get a game going fairly quickly. However, speaking for myself I prefer playing on familiar servers which have a reputation for having vocal and slightly higher skill level than the 'average'. A feature which would nudge players into starting a server would be the option to queue for (multiple) servers, which would allow them to start a server while waiting (potentially >30 minutes) for a slot to open up in one of their favourites.
Last night I was waiting for 30 minutes in a queue for a server, only to be denied by a "server full" which meant I had to re-enter the queue again (for a further 30 minutes before being able to play). This is a regular occurrence, and usually results in me quitting and firing up TF2 instead. It's nice to have a queue feature, but it desperately needs to be improved!
The other option is to increase the time it takes to quit by 30 minutes. Then people might think twice about quitting!
- 1. Join an empty server and wait (potentially for a long time)
- 2. Choose one of the servers and join the queue (potentially for a long time)
- 3. Quit (instantaneous)
There must be a fair few players waiting to join a game, because they tend to fill up really fast at peak time, so you could get a game going fairly quickly. However, speaking for myself I prefer playing on familiar servers which have a reputation for having vocal and slightly higher skill level than the 'average'. A feature which would nudge players into starting a server would be the option to queue for (multiple) servers, which would allow them to start a server while waiting (potentially >30 minutes) for a slot to open up in one of their favourites.
Last night I was waiting for 30 minutes in a queue for a server, only to be denied by a "server full" which meant I had to re-enter the queue again (for a further 30 minutes before being able to play). This is a regular occurrence, and usually results in me quitting and firing up TF2 instead. It's nice to have a queue feature, but it desperately needs to be improved!
The other option is to increase the time it takes to quit by 30 minutes. Then people might think twice about quitting!
Comments
My server browser populates somewhere in the realm of 350 servers, and only about 10-15 have actual players at a given time. Most of those servers are KKG, and while I don't like the reserved slot system and redirects, I realize those are the only servers with players most of the time. Even such, over the last couple of days, I've only had to wait maybe a few minutes for a server slot to open and me to take it. In fact, I didn't even know there was a queue system in the server browser.
A lobby you can join, chat and chose a team in. When everybody is ready an empty server will be searched and everyone will automatically connect.
Bonus points for a ELO-based "auto-team-distribution" in the lobby.
It SUCKS to be locked out of your own server, but there is just no reserved slot system that doesn't fukc around with the players...
I'm really glad we don't have this bs in europe.
Ironhorse mentioned in another thread that they are working on an official reserved slot system, but I don't think that this will end the redirecting problem.