Please Raise Server Browser Priority
tarquinbb
Join Date: 2012-11-03 Member: 166314Members
Join Date: 2012-11-03 Member: 166314Members
I really think the server browser needs more attention.
NS2 could be the best game of all time, but right now I'd still be reluctant to play it because the server browser is so horrible... It's comparable to the server browser in the original half-life.
- Let's be honest, it could look a lot nicer
- Matchmaking option; quickly find you a game with good number of players preferably with the 'approximate' same skill level, giving you incentive to improve your stats
- It should allow you to queue for multiple servers simultaneously
- It should allow you to queue for servers and browse servers while in-game
- Show the players/match stats of select server (browse to see if your half-friends (people who you know/respect but aren't on your friends list) are playing)
Seriously, the server browser just makes me not want to play, and I can't be the only one.
19/10 edit:
NS2 could be the best game of all time, but right now I'd still be reluctant to play it because the server browser is so horrible... It's comparable to the server browser in the original half-life.
- Let's be honest, it could look a lot nicer
- Matchmaking option; quickly find you a game with good number of players preferably with the 'approximate' same skill level, giving you incentive to improve your stats
- It should allow you to queue for multiple servers simultaneously
- It should allow you to queue for servers and browse servers while in-game
- Show the players/match stats of select server (browse to see if your half-friends (people who you know/respect but aren't on your friends list) are playing)
Seriously, the server browser just makes me not want to play, and I can't be the only one.
19/10 edit:
since another thread recently reminded me of this issue, i want to bump it.
even though i enjoy ns2 more than counterstrike or tf2, i find myself more likely to play those games. i asked myself why, and believe the reason is simple - i don't have much time and therefore have to streamline my actual playtime.
this means:
1. not wasting time in server browser
2. not wasting time in noob server
3. only playing at peak time when you're more likely to get greater skill level and more competitive games
on average, if i spend 60 minutes 'playing' ns2, about half of that time is spent waiting for a slot in one (limited to a single server at a time) of my favourite servers to open. let's call that 50% efficiency. alternatively, games like CS:GO and tf2 have modern and useful server browsers where you can queue for multiple favourite servers and queue for those multiple servers while playing in another server - eliminating the time wasted in game menu where you're forced to (im)patiently wait for a slot.
on average in the latter games, i estimate that i probably spend about 5 minutes choosing a server and/or waiting for a slot. that means they're about 88% efficiency.
as much as i love the gameplay of NS2, a 50% efficiency ns2 does not compare to an 88% efficiency valve game. therefore when i have 1-2 hours to play, those valve games will always be favourable unless i feel like mixing it up a bit.
in my eyes this completely overlooked and neglected issue is absolutely HUGE, i simply can't foresee ns2 retaining a decent playerbase if it doesn't start to cater for people who don't have time to play in chunks of multiple hours.
note: this is only counting the server browser/lobby time, not even taking into account the tedious loading times. a few builds ago the loading times were 'normal', but now they're back to normal². what happened there?
Comments
There are SO MANY servers that cannot handle the player counts they allow. The server quality needs to average over like 5 min, not just the instant it gets refreshed.
You can right click on a server to see which players are connected.
Thats actually very true.
As for the OP, you seem to demand a lot from a team of indie developers. If you want all that so much, why don't you just make it yourself?
Though the server browser could be a little better, there is nothing wrong with it as of now.
Right click on a server.
Source code is all right there, everything you need to make this yourself.
How about directing that grief at UWE instead of pointing it solely at servers, as it's a server player limit they allowed. There's not *that* many 24+ servers.
As far as I know, they allow every player limit. Thats why there are some ridiculous 30 - 60 slot servers. If you set up your own server you have to make sure your hardware matches you desired player limit. UWE doesn't know which hardware your server have, so it can't be their fault. You might have a server which can handle 32 players fine or your machine is to weak for even 16 player, they can't know this and if they tried to guess they probably are more often wrong than right.
Anyway I just wish the server browser remembered your 'ping setting' I always set it so lowest pings appear first, but it forgets that every launch!
you mean the sorting? yeah, that would be great.
HIglights:
Awesome Server Browser, cacheable, and worked when the master server list was offline.
AutoRetry
Fast, really fast.
Other screens include:
Bindable mouse wheel
Keybings for almost anything in the game
Mouse sensitivity input box, YES, WITH ACTUAL NUMBERS, could you believe it?
A proper chat window, with history.
But after the workshop went up, and consistency check was implemented it stopped working
You can install a lesser version from steam workshop, but it doesn't work....
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=100516737
Those servers are made by hacking UWE's code. They may be allowed in the sense that UWE doesn't force them to take them down, but they are not what UWE intended. And as far as hardware is concerned, 24 player servers can 99% of the time handle this game fine. But as is usual with many fps players it's that 1% that will be bitched about again and again even if it's the exact same case on smaller servers and usually due more to their own clients then the server itself.
The chat box is the only thing I wouldn't take from there unless it was adjusted, cause the current chat is fine even though to view history you'd need to look in your console.
Agree something like that should be the official implementation into the game
@walsa
pretty damned hard to practice before scrims or anything else right now..
Give us a master server compatible with steam server browser, UWE.
But you have to do it manually...
I can hope.
Whaaat! The chatbox was amazing. That frame only comes up when you go to type something.
Not trying to offend anyone, and I'm not only talking about 24+ servers. There are several combat (less than 20 players), and 18-20 player servers that I can think of that have the same issue.
You need to click on View Community Servers (I think, was a while ago) to open the server browser in the L4D games. Or type in openserverbrowser into the console. The quick join and lobby stuff is bad. The server browser is the same in all of the Source games.
even though i enjoy ns2 more than counterstrike or tf2, i find myself more likely to play those games. i asked myself why, and believe the reason is simple - i don't have much time and therefore have to streamline my actual playtime.
this means:
1. not wasting time in server browser
2. not wasting time in noob server
3. only playing at peak time when you're more likely to get greater skill level and more competitive games
on average, if i spend 60 minutes 'playing' ns2, about half of that time is spent waiting for a slot in one (limited to a single server at a time) of my favourite servers to open. let's call that 50% efficiency. alternatively, games like CS:GO and tf2 have modern and useful server browsers where you can queue for multiple favourite servers and queue for those multiple servers while playing in another server - eliminating the time wasted in game menu where you're forced to (im)patiently wait for a slot.
on average in the latter games, i estimate that i probably spend about 5 minutes choosing a server and/or waiting for a slot. that means they're about 88% efficiency.
as much as i love the gameplay of NS2, a 50% efficiency ns2 does not compare to an 88% efficiency valve game. therefore when i have 1-2 hours to play, those valve games will always be favourable unless i feel like mixing it up a bit.
in my eyes this completely overlooked and neglected issue is absolutely HUGE, i simply can't foresee ns2 retaining a decent playerbase if it doesn't start to cater for people who don't have time to play in chunks of multiple hours.
note: this is only counting the server browser/lobby time, not even taking into account the tedious loading times. a few builds ago the loading times were 'normal', but now they're back to normal². what happened there?
Players on bad servers are likely to blame the game itself rather than the server for poor performance and just stop playing altogether, especially with this games reputation for requiring high-end hardware to play well.
I do agree that the performance rating is broken so maybe that is one thing but I am pretty sure that has more to do with the server than with the browser. (server checks the performance and then sends it to the browser, obviously it is checking the performance wrong)