On 25/04/2012 16:56, hlds wrote:
I did a simple test using an account with more than 1500 hours in
TF2 and
the result was:
1. Quickplay connecting to 146.66.153.20:27023 (Valve)
2. Quickplay connecting to 146.66.153.12:27023 (Valve)
3. Quickplay connecting to 146.66.153.17:27015 (Valve)
4. Quickplay connecting to 178.63.83.91:27017 (Community, Nighteam)
5. Quickplay connecting to 146.66.153.16:27027 (Valve)
6. Quickplay connecting to 146.66.153.20:27027 (Valve)
7. Quickplay connecting to 146.66.153.16:27026 (Valve)
Then I did again the test using my main account (more than 2500
hours in
TF2) and the result was similar:
1. Quickplay connecting to 146.66.153.18:27018 (Valve)
2. Quickplay connecting to 146.66.153.12:27016 (Valve)
3. Quickplay connecting to 176.31.125.175:27019 (Community, No
Bullshit TF2)
4. Quickplay connecting to 146.66.153.16:27024 (Valve)
5. Quickplay connecting to 146.66.153.12:27026 (Valve)
6. Quickplay connecting to 46.4.85.38:27017 (Community, Nighteam)
7. Quickplay connecting to 85.131.163.47:28015 (Community,
IQ-eSports.com)
8. Quickplay connecting to 146.66.153.13:27017 (Valve)
9. Quickplay connecting to 146.66.153.7:27015 (Valve)
Remember this:
http://www.mail-archive.com/hlds_linux@list.valvesoftware.com/msg62826.html
I imagine it's because people are now joining Valve servers directly,
pushing them high in whatever ranking system they have.
Also making the idea that valve servers have newer players false.
What worked when we had 70k+ players at the dawn of F2P probably
doesn't now.
Thing is, Valve servers are an easy option
- There's loads of them all identical, so you can jump from one to
the next finding a server that has a decent round with people playing
and you
know the experience / config et al will be ok.
- They are easy to search for.
- Once you've played on 20 or 30 of them, your history is full of
instances
- There's usually at least one full valve EU server 24/7 (for a
particular game type)
Pretty much everyone else running a server fails at one of the above
- the servers run by the groups that should have been banned
permanently, that are blacklisted
- they have silly plugins that do dumb things and / or they over
manage the server
- people have one (or at most a few) servers and the people on that
server are creating a dull experience by the way they are playing.
This happens from time to time on every server, including Valves and
it's why hopping from
server to server is such a necessity if you want a fun game. Although
I might try their server and play rounds on it when it's good,
clearly
the ratio of their server to valves full servers is at least 20:1, so
I'm 20 times more likely to be playing on a Valve server for a
particular round than their server. The thing is, a server owner can
do nothing about the quality of the game on his server beyond a few
givens, like ping and performance. The people on the server make the
game, and a bunch of guys that create a great experience one minute
can all switch to sniping the next.
- They aren't easy to search for, often because they are empty most
of the time. My own server falls into this category. I rarely join my
own server and when it's dull what do I do? Start kicking people for
not playing the way I want? That's self defeating. Or join a
different
server?
Bottom line, I'm not going to use quickplay because finding a server
with a good round is so much easier via my history, but chances are
high
that I'll be on one of Valve's servers - if only because the vast
majority of groups with loads of servers are generally not worth
playing on.
Valve have little or no competition.
Your server most likely isn't needed, at least by me.
Although, that said, I think valve servers are at the moment running
far too many TF2 instances. Hurting the experience especially at peak
times.
Quite often on the weekend I find myself frustrated by the hitching
back in time valve servers do every few seconds.
So, in that respect, you could argue that if Valve cut back a bit,
some people who had vanilla servers that performed well
could (and should) get players like myself adding them to their
history and list of servers they use.
Although, if Valve did cut back a bit, that would just make their
servers even better, so people might just wait for a slot :)
And, of course, that's just my opinion of what good is - No doubt
some people want a different experience (no doubt the people sat on
ctf maps for 40 minutes wihtout once even trying to capture anything
let alone a flag, are doing that because they want to and they think
it's fun. Good luck to them, I'm just pointing out why, if your
server
has rounds when it's like that - and every server does - you
shouldn't be surprised if people leave to find a better game and
hence, why they might find someone who is running a shedload of
identical, vanilla servers, the perfect way to find those few good
pub
rounds amongst the noise.
