Re: [hlds] TF2 Stats Service

2008-07-23 Thread Frazer Smith
There is no doubt that PS and hlstatsX are good stats applications - but I 
would make this observation:  if software developers backed away from 
developing new applications simply because there were already competing 
products, we would all be using Wang 1200 Word Processors.  This is an 
admin-oriented listserv and for the most part, admins generally don't care much 
about fixin' stuff that ain't broke. This does not mean that the availability 
of a new application with new and innovative features will not gain a 
following.  I put together a very modest application which provided crash 
protection.  There were certainly other workable alternatives already out 
there.  I recall more than one posting on this forum that went along the lines 
of "Well, I use bat files and srvany and that works perfectly, but good luck 
anyway."  But, I threw in a few features that the other solutions didn't offer 
(dynamic declarative game configuration, multiple game support, email 
notification, etc.) and found that I soon had a respectable user base.

Frazer

From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Ricky Smith
Sent: Saturday, July 19, 2008 10:15 PM
To: hlds@list.valvesoftware.com
Subject: [hlds] TF2 Stats Service

Hey everybody,
I apologize if this isn't an appropriate place to ask this, but I've been
toying with creating a unified stats service for TF2 (and possible more
Source games, depending on my response).

I already have an application written that is collecting log file
information (everything I think I need to generate stats data) and it's been
running on my clan's server.

I would like to know if there is any real interest in *another* stats
service? Even if it's made to be free? Does anyone have any input as to
things that people are looking for above the hum-drum stats? Would any of
you be interested in allowing me to collect data from your servers (I
wouldn't need access, just a simple config change)?

If this isn't the best place to ask these questions, please help me out and
tell me where might be.

Thanks!
Ricky (aka [FLASH]DigitallyBorn)
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Re: [hlds] Suggestion: Independant PFF Voicecom channel

2008-07-23 Thread Dustin Wyatt
This sounds like an awful lot of work for a very small minority of
people.  I can honestly say I've NEVER seen (heard?) anyone on my
sever trying playing music for  a "shared experience".

There's already an SM plugin
(http://forums.alliedmods.net/showthread.php?t=72227) that blocks use
of HLSS and HLDJ (works great!), making this even less of a priority,
I'm sure.




On Tue, Jul 22, 2008 at 2:55 PM,  <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> As you know, a lot of people use the VoiceCom Play-From-File feature
> (Heretofore refereed to as "PFF") to do things like play music and
> prerecorded sounds with the assistance of tools like HLSS and HLDJ. While
> many people find this annoying, others rather enjoy it. Unfortunately for
> everybody, the sound files used must be converted to a low-quality wave
> file and altered to prevent distortion, and are played back through the
> general VoiceCom system.
>
> My suggestion is actually quite simple and would improve enjoyment for all
> players across the board, with the notable exception of people who play
> the game for the sake of causing others grief.
>
> Step 1: Add a second VoiceCom channel. The current voice channel should be
> renamed to reflect it's status as a sub-channel, such as "VoxChan", and
> this second one should be titled something like "PFFChan".
> Step 2: Force any audio that's played from a file to be broadcast over
> "PFFChan", and any audio from a system input to be broadcast over
> "VoxChan"
> Step 3: Allow people to selectively mute entire channels so that they can
> (if they so choose) listen exclusively to people talking, to exclusively
> file-based content, to everything, or to nothing at all. Allow servers to
> block "PFFChan" and/or "VoxChan" via a setting, just as servers can block
> VoiceCom now.
> Step 4: Add support streaming precompressed files (MP3 and OGG formats
> would likely be best), since precompressed files have a much higher
> quality to bandwidth ratio. This allows for full-quality sound for far
> less bandwidth. (Limiting it to 96kbps would be acceptable)
> Step 5: Increase flexibility of sound options to allow players to adjust
> the three-way balance between the two channels and the game as they see
> fit.
>
> The following are optional, but recommended:
> Option 1: Support for media information (ie: ID3) so that players could be
> easily informed as to the source of a file (Via overlay, menu, or HUD
> message).
> Option 2: Local buffering options to prevent skips, drops, or desychs in
> playback. File playback is not as time-sensitive as voice, and so a local
> buffer could protect against sudden lagspikes or short periods of lessened
> bandwidth.
>
> Although the ability to manage these files in game would be convenient,
> there are actively maintained third-party packages that would be quickly
> retrofit for this task.
>
> Benefits:
>
> *Easier server administration: Many servers disapprove of PFF, but
> encourage the use of VoiceCom. These servers are often faced with
> transient players who make use of the PFF feature, often resulting in the
> admins being forced to take action against them. Blocking PFFChan on a
> server would preemptively stop most such events.
> *Increased Difficulty for Griefers: If PFFChan is blocked on a server,
> then griefers would need to use either an awkward hardware solution or a
> virtual soundcard driver/software package.
> *Increased PFF Audio clarity: Currently PFF is limited to 11khz 16bit mono
> sound, which quite frankly is horrible. Since compression takes far more
> CPU time than decompression, and is by it's very nature a time/memory
> trade-off, you can get far better quality for the same bandwidth without
> increasing CPU load by simply streaming precompressed audio instead of
> compressing streamed audio under heavy CPU load.
> *Decreased Bandwidth Consumption: As corollary to the above, the bandwidth
> consumption is less per quality for precompressed audio than for real-time
> compression. A carefully chosen KBPS limit would allow both vastly
> improved quality and reduced bandwidth.
>
>
> Here's a crude flowchart showing the key differences between the current
> system and the one I propose:
> http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v247/Baikasu/voicecomflow_MkII-1.gif
>
>
> ___
> To unsubscribe, edit your list preferences, or view the list archives, please 
> visit:
> http://list.valvesoftware.com/mailman/listinfo/hlds
>

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Re: [hlds] TF2 Stats Service

2008-07-23 Thread Dustin Wyatt
This is very true, but pointing out the good features of what is
available is only going to help him develop something that stands
out...

On Wed, Jul 23, 2008 at 5:40 AM, Frazer Smith <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> There is no doubt that PS and hlstatsX are good stats applications - but I 
> would make this observation:  if software developers backed away from 
> developing new applications simply because there were already competing 
> products, we would all be using Wang 1200 Word Processors.  This is an 
> admin-oriented listserv and for the most part, admins generally don't care 
> much about fixin' stuff that ain't broke. This does not mean that the 
> availability of a new application with new and innovative features will not 
> gain a following.  I put together a very modest application which provided 
> crash protection.  There were certainly other workable alternatives already 
> out there.  I recall more than one posting on this forum that went along the 
> lines of "Well, I use bat files and srvany and that works perfectly, but good 
> luck anyway."  But, I threw in a few features that the other solutions didn't 
> offer (dynamic declarative game configuration, multiple game support, email 
> notification, etc.) and found that I soon had a respectable user base.
>
> Frazer
>
> From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Ricky Smith
> Sent: Saturday, July 19, 2008 10:15 PM
> To: hlds@list.valvesoftware.com
> Subject: [hlds] TF2 Stats Service
>
> Hey everybody,
> I apologize if this isn't an appropriate place to ask this, but I've been
> toying with creating a unified stats service for TF2 (and possible more
> Source games, depending on my response).
>
> I already have an application written that is collecting log file
> information (everything I think I need to generate stats data) and it's been
> running on my clan's server.
>
> I would like to know if there is any real interest in *another* stats
> service? Even if it's made to be free? Does anyone have any input as to
> things that people are looking for above the hum-drum stats? Would any of
> you be interested in allowing me to collect data from your servers (I
> wouldn't need access, just a simple config change)?
>
> If this isn't the best place to ask these questions, please help me out and
> tell me where might be.
>
> Thanks!
> Ricky (aka [FLASH]DigitallyBorn)
> ___
> To unsubscribe, edit your list preferences, or view the list archives, please 
> visit:
> http://list.valvesoftware.com/mailman/listinfo/hlds
>
> ___
> To unsubscribe, edit your list preferences, or view the list archives, please 
> visit:
> http://list.valvesoftware.com/mailman/listinfo/hlds
>

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Re: [hlds] Suggestion: Independant PFF Voicecom channel

2008-07-23 Thread Spencer 'voogru' MacDonald
Pointless, people can still mic-spam without using voice_inputfromfile

-Original Message-
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
[mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Dustin Wyatt
Sent: Wednesday, July 23, 2008 10:59 AM
To: Half-Life dedicated Win32 server mailing list
Subject: Re: [hlds] Suggestion: Independant PFF Voicecom channel

This sounds like an awful lot of work for a very small minority of
people.  I can honestly say I've NEVER seen (heard?) anyone on my
sever trying playing music for  a "shared experience".

There's already an SM plugin
(http://forums.alliedmods.net/showthread.php?t=72227) that blocks use
of HLSS and HLDJ (works great!), making this even less of a priority,
I'm sure.




On Tue, Jul 22, 2008 at 2:55 PM,  <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> As you know, a lot of people use the VoiceCom Play-From-File feature
> (Heretofore refereed to as "PFF") to do things like play music and
> prerecorded sounds with the assistance of tools like HLSS and HLDJ. While
> many people find this annoying, others rather enjoy it. Unfortunately for
> everybody, the sound files used must be converted to a low-quality wave
> file and altered to prevent distortion, and are played back through the
> general VoiceCom system.
>
> My suggestion is actually quite simple and would improve enjoyment for all
> players across the board, with the notable exception of people who play
> the game for the sake of causing others grief.
>
> Step 1: Add a second VoiceCom channel. The current voice channel should be
> renamed to reflect it's status as a sub-channel, such as "VoxChan", and
> this second one should be titled something like "PFFChan".
> Step 2: Force any audio that's played from a file to be broadcast over
> "PFFChan", and any audio from a system input to be broadcast over
> "VoxChan"
> Step 3: Allow people to selectively mute entire channels so that they can
> (if they so choose) listen exclusively to people talking, to exclusively
> file-based content, to everything, or to nothing at all. Allow servers to
> block "PFFChan" and/or "VoxChan" via a setting, just as servers can block
> VoiceCom now.
> Step 4: Add support streaming precompressed files (MP3 and OGG formats
> would likely be best), since precompressed files have a much higher
> quality to bandwidth ratio. This allows for full-quality sound for far
> less bandwidth. (Limiting it to 96kbps would be acceptable)
> Step 5: Increase flexibility of sound options to allow players to adjust
> the three-way balance between the two channels and the game as they see
> fit.
>
> The following are optional, but recommended:
> Option 1: Support for media information (ie: ID3) so that players could be
> easily informed as to the source of a file (Via overlay, menu, or HUD
> message).
> Option 2: Local buffering options to prevent skips, drops, or desychs in
> playback. File playback is not as time-sensitive as voice, and so a local
> buffer could protect against sudden lagspikes or short periods of lessened
> bandwidth.
>
> Although the ability to manage these files in game would be convenient,
> there are actively maintained third-party packages that would be quickly
> retrofit for this task.
>
> Benefits:
>
> *Easier server administration: Many servers disapprove of PFF, but
> encourage the use of VoiceCom. These servers are often faced with
> transient players who make use of the PFF feature, often resulting in the
> admins being forced to take action against them. Blocking PFFChan on a
> server would preemptively stop most such events.
> *Increased Difficulty for Griefers: If PFFChan is blocked on a server,
> then griefers would need to use either an awkward hardware solution or a
> virtual soundcard driver/software package.
> *Increased PFF Audio clarity: Currently PFF is limited to 11khz 16bit mono
> sound, which quite frankly is horrible. Since compression takes far more
> CPU time than decompression, and is by it's very nature a time/memory
> trade-off, you can get far better quality for the same bandwidth without
> increasing CPU load by simply streaming precompressed audio instead of
> compressing streamed audio under heavy CPU load.
> *Decreased Bandwidth Consumption: As corollary to the above, the bandwidth
> consumption is less per quality for precompressed audio than for real-time
> compression. A carefully chosen KBPS limit would allow both vastly
> improved quality and reduced bandwidth.
>
>
> Here's a crude flowchart showing the key differences between the current
> system and the one I propose:
> http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v247/Baikasu/voicecomflow_MkII-1.gif
>
>
> ___
> To unsubscribe, edit your list preferences, or view the list archives,
please visit:
> http://list.valvesoftware.com/mailman/listinfo/hlds
>

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Re: [hlds] Suggestion: Independant PFF Voicecom channel

2008-07-23 Thread William Stillwell - KI4SWY

I myself, would love a "Team Voice" and "All Talk Voice" seperate of each 
other, that is my biggest gripe, i love playing tf2, but some love all talk on, 
and some love it off, i prefer off.. 
thx.
-Original Message-
From: "Spencer 'voogru' MacDonald" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent 7/23/2008 11:07:15 AM
To: "'Half-Life dedicated Win32 server mailing list'" 

Subject: Re: [hlds] Suggestion: Independant PFF Voicecom channelPointless, 
people can still mic-spam without using voice_inputfromfile
-Original Message-
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
[mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Dustin Wyatt
Sent: Wednesday, July 23, 2008 10:59 AM
To: Half-Life dedicated Win32 server mailing list
Subject: Re: [hlds] Suggestion: Independant PFF Voicecom channel
This sounds like an awful lot of work for a very small minority of
people.  I can honestly say I've NEVER seen (heard?) anyone on my
sever trying playing music for  a "shared experience".
There's already an SM plugin
(http://forums.alliedmods.net/showthread.php?t=72227) that blocks use
of HLSS and HLDJ (works great!), making this even less of a priority,
I'm sure.
On Tue, Jul 22, 2008 at 2:55 PM,  <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> As you know, a lot of people use the VoiceCom Play-From-File feature
> (Heretofore refereed to as "PFF") to do things like play music and
> prerecorded sounds with the assistance of tools like HLSS and HLDJ. While
> many people find this annoying, others rather enjoy it. Unfortunately for
> everybody, the sound files used must be converted to a low-quality wave
> file and altered to prevent distortion, and are played back through the
> general VoiceCom system.
>
> My suggestion is actually quite simple and would improve enjoyment for all
> players across the board, with the notable exception of people who play
> the game for the sake of causing others grief.
>
> Step 1: Add a second VoiceCom channel. The current voice channel should be
> renamed to reflect it's status as a sub-channel, such as "VoxChan", and
> this second one should be titled something like "PFFChan".
> Step 2: Force any audio that's played from a file to be broadcast over
> "PFFChan", and any audio from a system input to be broadcast over
> "VoxChan"
> Step 3: Allow people to selectively mute entire channels so that they can
> (if they so choose) listen exclusively to people talking, to exclusively
> file-based content, to everything, or to nothing at all. Allow servers to
> block "PFFChan" and/or "VoxChan" via a setting, just as servers can block
> VoiceCom now.
> Step 4: Add support streaming precompressed files (MP3 and OGG formats
> would likely be best), since precompressed files have a much higher
> quality to bandwidth ratio. This allows for full-quality sound for far
> less bandwidth. (Limiting it to 96kbps would be acceptable)
> Step 5: Increase flexibility of sound options to allow players to adjust
> the three-way balance between the two channels and the game as they see
> fit.
>
> The following are optional, but recommended:
> Option 1: Support for media information (ie: ID3) so that players could be
> easily informed as to the source of a file (Via overlay, menu, or HUD
> message).
> Option 2: Local buffering options to prevent skips, drops, or desychs in
> playback. File playback is not as time-sensitive as voice, and so a local
> buffer could protect against sudden lagspikes or short periods of lessened
> bandwidth.
>
> Although the ability to manage these files in game would be convenient,
> there are actively maintained third-party packages that would be quickly
> retrofit for this task.
>
> Benefits:
>
> *Easier server administration: Many servers disapprove of PFF, but
> encourage the use of VoiceCom. These servers are often faced with
> transient players who make use of the PFF feature, often resulting in the
> admins being forced to take action against them. Blocking PFFChan on a
> server would preemptively stop most such events.
> *Increased Difficulty for Griefers: If PFFChan is blocked on a server,
> then griefers would need to use either an awkward hardware solution or a
> virtual soundcard driver/software package.
> *Increased PFF Audio clarity: Currently PFF is limited to 11khz 16bit mono
> sound, which quite frankly is horrible. Since compression takes far more
> CPU time than decompression, and is by it's very nature a time/memory
> trade-off, you can get far better quality for the same bandwidth without
> increasing CPU load by simply streaming precompressed audio instead of
> compressing streamed audio under heavy CPU load.
> *Decreased Bandwidth Consumption: As corollary to the above, the bandwidth
> consumption is less per quality for precompressed audio than for real-time
> compression. A carefully chosen KBPS limit would allow both vastly
> improved quality and reduced bandwidth.
>
>
> Here's a crude flowchart showing the key differences between the current
> system and the one I propose:
> http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v247/Baikasu/v

Re: [hlds] Suggestion: Independant PFF Voicecom channel

2008-07-23 Thread Dustin Wyatt
How is a plugin that is designed to block people from using HLSS and
HLDJ and succeeds at that task pointless?


On Wed, Jul 23, 2008 at 10:07 AM, Spencer 'voogru' MacDonald
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> Pointless, people can still mic-spam without using voice_inputfromfile
>
> -Original Message-
> From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Dustin Wyatt
> Sent: Wednesday, July 23, 2008 10:59 AM
> To: Half-Life dedicated Win32 server mailing list
> Subject: Re: [hlds] Suggestion: Independant PFF Voicecom channel
>
> This sounds like an awful lot of work for a very small minority of
> people.  I can honestly say I've NEVER seen (heard?) anyone on my
> sever trying playing music for  a "shared experience".
>
> There's already an SM plugin
> (http://forums.alliedmods.net/showthread.php?t=72227) that blocks use
> of HLSS and HLDJ (works great!), making this even less of a priority,
> I'm sure.
>
>
>
>
> On Tue, Jul 22, 2008 at 2:55 PM,  <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>> As you know, a lot of people use the VoiceCom Play-From-File feature
>> (Heretofore refereed to as "PFF") to do things like play music and
>> prerecorded sounds with the assistance of tools like HLSS and HLDJ. While
>> many people find this annoying, others rather enjoy it. Unfortunately for
>> everybody, the sound files used must be converted to a low-quality wave
>> file and altered to prevent distortion, and are played back through the
>> general VoiceCom system.
>>
>> My suggestion is actually quite simple and would improve enjoyment for all
>> players across the board, with the notable exception of people who play
>> the game for the sake of causing others grief.
>>
>> Step 1: Add a second VoiceCom channel. The current voice channel should be
>> renamed to reflect it's status as a sub-channel, such as "VoxChan", and
>> this second one should be titled something like "PFFChan".
>> Step 2: Force any audio that's played from a file to be broadcast over
>> "PFFChan", and any audio from a system input to be broadcast over
>> "VoxChan"
>> Step 3: Allow people to selectively mute entire channels so that they can
>> (if they so choose) listen exclusively to people talking, to exclusively
>> file-based content, to everything, or to nothing at all. Allow servers to
>> block "PFFChan" and/or "VoxChan" via a setting, just as servers can block
>> VoiceCom now.
>> Step 4: Add support streaming precompressed files (MP3 and OGG formats
>> would likely be best), since precompressed files have a much higher
>> quality to bandwidth ratio. This allows for full-quality sound for far
>> less bandwidth. (Limiting it to 96kbps would be acceptable)
>> Step 5: Increase flexibility of sound options to allow players to adjust
>> the three-way balance between the two channels and the game as they see
>> fit.
>>
>> The following are optional, but recommended:
>> Option 1: Support for media information (ie: ID3) so that players could be
>> easily informed as to the source of a file (Via overlay, menu, or HUD
>> message).
>> Option 2: Local buffering options to prevent skips, drops, or desychs in
>> playback. File playback is not as time-sensitive as voice, and so a local
>> buffer could protect against sudden lagspikes or short periods of lessened
>> bandwidth.
>>
>> Although the ability to manage these files in game would be convenient,
>> there are actively maintained third-party packages that would be quickly
>> retrofit for this task.
>>
>> Benefits:
>>
>> *Easier server administration: Many servers disapprove of PFF, but
>> encourage the use of VoiceCom. These servers are often faced with
>> transient players who make use of the PFF feature, often resulting in the
>> admins being forced to take action against them. Blocking PFFChan on a
>> server would preemptively stop most such events.
>> *Increased Difficulty for Griefers: If PFFChan is blocked on a server,
>> then griefers would need to use either an awkward hardware solution or a
>> virtual soundcard driver/software package.
>> *Increased PFF Audio clarity: Currently PFF is limited to 11khz 16bit mono
>> sound, which quite frankly is horrible. Since compression takes far more
>> CPU time than decompression, and is by it's very nature a time/memory
>> trade-off, you can get far better quality for the same bandwidth without
>> increasing CPU load by simply streaming precompressed audio instead of
>> compressing streamed audio under heavy CPU load.
>> *Decreased Bandwidth Consumption: As corollary to the above, the bandwidth
>> consumption is less per quality for precompressed audio than for real-time
>> compression. A carefully chosen KBPS limit would allow both vastly
>> improved quality and reduced bandwidth.
>>
>>
>> Here's a crude flowchart showing the key differences between the current
>> system and the one I propose:
>> http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v247/Baikasu/voicecomflow_MkII-1.gif
>>
>>
>> ___
>> To unsubscribe, edit your list pr

Re: [hlds] Suggestion: Independant PFF Voicecom channel

2008-07-23 Thread Dustin Wyatt
This would be nice.  There are SM plugins that implement this, though
I haven't tried them out yet...

On Wed, Jul 23, 2008 at 10:30 AM, William Stillwell - KI4SWY
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>
> I myself, would love a "Team Voice" and "All Talk Voice" seperate of each 
> other, that is my biggest gripe, i love playing tf2, but some love all talk 
> on, and some love it off, i prefer off..
> thx.
> -Original Message-
> From: "Spencer 'voogru' MacDonald" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> Sent 7/23/2008 11:07:15 AM
> To: "'Half-Life dedicated Win32 server mailing list'" 
> 
> Subject: Re: [hlds] Suggestion: Independant PFF Voicecom channelPointless, 
> people can still mic-spam without using voice_inputfromfile
> -Original Message-
> From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Dustin Wyatt
> Sent: Wednesday, July 23, 2008 10:59 AM
> To: Half-Life dedicated Win32 server mailing list
> Subject: Re: [hlds] Suggestion: Independant PFF Voicecom channel
> This sounds like an awful lot of work for a very small minority of
> people.  I can honestly say I've NEVER seen (heard?) anyone on my
> sever trying playing music for  a "shared experience".
> There's already an SM plugin
> (http://forums.alliedmods.net/showthread.php?t=72227) that blocks use
> of HLSS and HLDJ (works great!), making this even less of a priority,
> I'm sure.
> On Tue, Jul 22, 2008 at 2:55 PM,  <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>> As you know, a lot of people use the VoiceCom Play-From-File feature
>> (Heretofore refereed to as "PFF") to do things like play music and
>> prerecorded sounds with the assistance of tools like HLSS and HLDJ. While
>> many people find this annoying, others rather enjoy it. Unfortunately for
>> everybody, the sound files used must be converted to a low-quality wave
>> file and altered to prevent distortion, and are played back through the
>> general VoiceCom system.
>>
>> My suggestion is actually quite simple and would improve enjoyment for all
>> players across the board, with the notable exception of people who play
>> the game for the sake of causing others grief.
>>
>> Step 1: Add a second VoiceCom channel. The current voice channel should be
>> renamed to reflect it's status as a sub-channel, such as "VoxChan", and
>> this second one should be titled something like "PFFChan".
>> Step 2: Force any audio that's played from a file to be broadcast over
>> "PFFChan", and any audio from a system input to be broadcast over
>> "VoxChan"
>> Step 3: Allow people to selectively mute entire channels so that they can
>> (if they so choose) listen exclusively to people talking, to exclusively
>> file-based content, to everything, or to nothing at all. Allow servers to
>> block "PFFChan" and/or "VoxChan" via a setting, just as servers can block
>> VoiceCom now.
>> Step 4: Add support streaming precompressed files (MP3 and OGG formats
>> would likely be best), since precompressed files have a much higher
>> quality to bandwidth ratio. This allows for full-quality sound for far
>> less bandwidth. (Limiting it to 96kbps would be acceptable)
>> Step 5: Increase flexibility of sound options to allow players to adjust
>> the three-way balance between the two channels and the game as they see
>> fit.
>>
>> The following are optional, but recommended:
>> Option 1: Support for media information (ie: ID3) so that players could be
>> easily informed as to the source of a file (Via overlay, menu, or HUD
>> message).
>> Option 2: Local buffering options to prevent skips, drops, or desychs in
>> playback. File playback is not as time-sensitive as voice, and so a local
>> buffer could protect against sudden lagspikes or short periods of lessened
>> bandwidth.
>>
>> Although the ability to manage these files in game would be convenient,
>> there are actively maintained third-party packages that would be quickly
>> retrofit for this task.
>>
>> Benefits:
>>
>> *Easier server administration: Many servers disapprove of PFF, but
>> encourage the use of VoiceCom. These servers are often faced with
>> transient players who make use of the PFF feature, often resulting in the
>> admins being forced to take action against them. Blocking PFFChan on a
>> server would preemptively stop most such events.
>> *Increased Difficulty for Griefers: If PFFChan is blocked on a server,
>> then griefers would need to use either an awkward hardware solution or a
>> virtual soundcard driver/software package.
>> *Increased PFF Audio clarity: Currently PFF is limited to 11khz 16bit mono
>> sound, which quite frankly is horrible. Since compression takes far more
>> CPU time than decompression, and is by it's very nature a time/memory
>> trade-off, you can get far better quality for the same bandwidth without
>> increasing CPU load by simply streaming precompressed audio instead of
>> compressing streamed audio under heavy CPU load.
>> *Decreased Bandwidth Consumption: As corollary to the above, the bandwidth
>> consumption is less per quality for precompr

[hlds] valve, some feedback?

2008-07-23 Thread SakeFox
Most likely there will be a patch and make some of this more worthless 
then it already is, but since its been kinda quite the last few days i 
thought what the heck. No its not beating a long lost dead horse...well 
maybe a small poke.


A while ago valve made mention about delisting servers that are 
bypassing the custom tags. Now i am not wanting to start a huge thing 
again on if there should be tags or what not, but i am more wondering on 
why valve gave out a kind of idle threat then does nothing with it. You 
look on the lists and there are a bunch of servers that are bypassing 
it. Is there going to be any actual enforcement here or something else 
you guys are just giving up on it?

I would like to hear some feedback from valve about some bug fixes that 
i had brought up in the list before. most that have been there since 
long long ago that also seem to have been ignored.

Can we get some information on these things?

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Re: [hlds] valve, some feedback?

2008-07-23 Thread Andreas Grimm
it is a shame that this crap called "custom tab" still exists ... 

-Original Message-
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
[mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of SakeFox
Sent: Thursday, July 24, 2008 12:31 AM
To: Half-Life dedicated Win32 server mailing list
Subject: [hlds] valve, some feedback?

Most likely there will be a patch and make some of this more worthless 
then it already is, but since its been kinda quite the last few days i 
thought what the heck. No its not beating a long lost dead horse...well 
maybe a small poke.


A while ago valve made mention about delisting servers that are 
bypassing the custom tags. Now i am not wanting to start a huge thing 
again on if there should be tags or what not, but i am more wondering on 
why valve gave out a kind of idle threat then does nothing with it. You 
look on the lists and there are a bunch of servers that are bypassing 
it. Is there going to be any actual enforcement here or something else 
you guys are just giving up on it?

I would like to hear some feedback from valve about some bug fixes that 
i had brought up in the list before. most that have been there since 
long long ago that also seem to have been ignored.

Can we get some information on these things?

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Re: [hlds] valve, some feedback?

2008-07-23 Thread SakeFox
i know this is a touchy subject with a lot of people. I am hoping not to 
start this issue back, but kinda hard to talk about something they said 
without bringing some of the issue back.

I personally like the custom tabs, but everyone has there own ideas for it

Andreas Grimm wrote:
> it is a shame that this crap called "custom tab" still exists ... 
>
> -Original Message-
> From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of SakeFox
> Sent: Thursday, July 24, 2008 12:31 AM
> To: Half-Life dedicated Win32 server mailing list
> Subject: [hlds] valve, some feedback?
>
> Most likely there will be a patch and make some of this more worthless 
> then it already is, but since its been kinda quite the last few days i 
> thought what the heck. No its not beating a long lost dead horse...well 
> maybe a small poke.
>
>
> A while ago valve made mention about delisting servers that are 
> bypassing the custom tags. Now i am not wanting to start a huge thing 
> again on if there should be tags or what not, but i am more wondering on 
> why valve gave out a kind of idle threat then does nothing with it. You 
> look on the lists and there are a bunch of servers that are bypassing 
> it. Is there going to be any actual enforcement here or something else 
> you guys are just giving up on it?
>
> I would like to hear some feedback from valve about some bug fixes that 
> i had brought up in the list before. most that have been there since 
> long long ago that also seem to have been ignored.
>
> Can we get some information on these things?
>
> ___
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> please visit:
> http://list.valvesoftware.com/mailman/listinfo/hlds
>
>
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>
>   

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Re: [hlds] valve, some feedback?

2008-07-23 Thread Blood Letter

The last thing Valve wants to do is get in a war with the mod writers over this.
Every TF2 update will include a patch to the delisting code, and every mod 
update will include a patch for that.

I'm a server admin.  I don't know what the tags are.  I don't know how to use 
them.  I don't care.
I run a game server for people to have fun.  My server run's Beetles Mod for 
administration and reserved slots.
I have custom maps, but not in my regular rotation.  If the server is switched 
to one, you'll be able to download it lickity split from my redirect.
I see no need for tags in my case.

If you're running a 24/7 or party mode or omg supar low gravity or whatever 
server that can mess with people's stats, achievements, etc., just list it in 
the damned server name.

As for tags/stats/etc

I'd be more than happy to see Valve do away with the custom tags entirely and 
just give us more robust filter options, and the option to reset our stats.
Ideally, you'd be able to reset individual stats and achievements, and track 
stats over all time, month, week, etc.  Sure, that kind of stat tracking is 
more suited to a mod/plugin, but those would only catch data from one 
server/group of servers, and you wouldn't see them when loading.

The way Valve handled stats seems to have been shortsighted.  When someone 
first gets into TF2, they see their stats at each map load and can see their 
progress, and it's interesting.  It encourages you to try out other classes and 
do better.  After a few weeks/months, you're basically staring at the same 
bars.  Stats don't age well.  A lot of people complain about custom servers 
avoiding the tags because they can ruin their stats.  A lot of people want to 
reset their stats because of this.  I'm willing to be there are also a lot of 
people who would like to reset their stats just because they'd like to get a 
picture of how they're doing now that they're experienced with the game.  Stats 
would a lot more fun for me if I could reset them (keeping my 
unlocks/achievements!) and play for a week or two from a blank slate.

If we can't reset our stats, let us reset our stat displays.  Think of it as an 
odometer versus a trip odometer.


> Date: Wed, 23 Jul 2008 18:31:02 -0400
> From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> To: hlds@list.valvesoftware.com
> Subject: [hlds] valve, some feedback?
> 
> Most likely there will be a patch and make some of this more worthless 
> then it already is, but since its been kinda quite the last few days i 
> thought what the heck. No its not beating a long lost dead horse...well 
> maybe a small poke.
> 
> 
> A while ago valve made mention about delisting servers that are 
> bypassing the custom tags. Now i am not wanting to start a huge thing 
> again on if there should be tags or what not, but i am more wondering on 
> why valve gave out a kind of idle threat then does nothing with it. You 
> look on the lists and there are a bunch of servers that are bypassing 
> it. Is there going to be any actual enforcement here or something else 
> you guys are just giving up on it?
> 
> I would like to hear some feedback from valve about some bug fixes that 
> i had brought up in the list before. most that have been there since 
> long long ago that also seem to have been ignored.
> 
> Can we get some information on these things?
> 
> ___
> To unsubscribe, edit your list preferences, or view the list archives, please 
> visit:
> http://list.valvesoftware.com/mailman/listinfo/hlds

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Re: [hlds] Suggestion: Independant PFF Voicecom channel

2008-07-23 Thread chillicane
Indeed, check out the team-only/all-talk SM plugin here

http://forums.alliedmods.net/showthread.php?p=648899



On Thu, Jul 24, 2008 at 2:30 AM, Dustin Wyatt <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
wrote:

> This would be nice.  There are SM plugins that implement this, though
> I haven't tried them out yet...
>
> On Wed, Jul 23, 2008 at 10:30 AM, William Stillwell - KI4SWY
> <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> >
> > I myself, would love a "Team Voice" and "All Talk Voice" seperate of each
> other, that is my biggest gripe, i love playing tf2, but some love all talk
> on, and some love it off, i prefer off..
> > thx.
> > -Original Message-
> > From: "Spencer 'voogru' MacDonald" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> > Sent 7/23/2008 11:07:15 AM
> > To: "'Half-Life dedicated Win32 server mailing list'" <
> hlds@list.valvesoftware.com>
> > Subject: Re: [hlds] Suggestion: Independant PFF Voicecom
> channelPointless, people can still mic-spam without using
> voice_inputfromfile
> > -Original Message-
> > From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> > [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Dustin Wyatt
> > Sent: Wednesday, July 23, 2008 10:59 AM
> > To: Half-Life dedicated Win32 server mailing list
> > Subject: Re: [hlds] Suggestion: Independant PFF Voicecom channel
> > This sounds like an awful lot of work for a very small minority of
> > people.  I can honestly say I've NEVER seen (heard?) anyone on my
> > sever trying playing music for  a "shared experience".
> > There's already an SM plugin
> > (http://forums.alliedmods.net/showthread.php?t=72227) that blocks use
> > of HLSS and HLDJ (works great!), making this even less of a priority,
> > I'm sure.
> > On Tue, Jul 22, 2008 at 2:55 PM,  <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> >> As you know, a lot of people use the VoiceCom Play-From-File feature
> >> (Heretofore refereed to as "PFF") to do things like play music and
> >> prerecorded sounds with the assistance of tools like HLSS and HLDJ.
> While
> >> many people find this annoying, others rather enjoy it. Unfortunately
> for
> >> everybody, the sound files used must be converted to a low-quality wave
> >> file and altered to prevent distortion, and are played back through the
> >> general VoiceCom system.
> >>
> >> My suggestion is actually quite simple and would improve enjoyment for
> all
> >> players across the board, with the notable exception of people who play
> >> the game for the sake of causing others grief.
> >>
> >> Step 1: Add a second VoiceCom channel. The current voice channel should
> be
> >> renamed to reflect it's status as a sub-channel, such as "VoxChan", and
> >> this second one should be titled something like "PFFChan".
> >> Step 2: Force any audio that's played from a file to be broadcast over
> >> "PFFChan", and any audio from a system input to be broadcast over
> >> "VoxChan"
> >> Step 3: Allow people to selectively mute entire channels so that they
> can
> >> (if they so choose) listen exclusively to people talking, to exclusively
> >> file-based content, to everything, or to nothing at all. Allow servers
> to
> >> block "PFFChan" and/or "VoxChan" via a setting, just as servers can
> block
> >> VoiceCom now.
> >> Step 4: Add support streaming precompressed files (MP3 and OGG formats
> >> would likely be best), since precompressed files have a much higher
> >> quality to bandwidth ratio. This allows for full-quality sound for far
> >> less bandwidth. (Limiting it to 96kbps would be acceptable)
> >> Step 5: Increase flexibility of sound options to allow players to adjust
> >> the three-way balance between the two channels and the game as they see
> >> fit.
> >>
> >> The following are optional, but recommended:
> >> Option 1: Support for media information (ie: ID3) so that players could
> be
> >> easily informed as to the source of a file (Via overlay, menu, or HUD
> >> message).
> >> Option 2: Local buffering options to prevent skips, drops, or desychs in
> >> playback. File playback is not as time-sensitive as voice, and so a
> local
> >> buffer could protect against sudden lagspikes or short periods of
> lessened
> >> bandwidth.
> >>
> >> Although the ability to manage these files in game would be convenient,
> >> there are actively maintained third-party packages that would be quickly
> >> retrofit for this task.
> >>
> >> Benefits:
> >>
> >> *Easier server administration: Many servers disapprove of PFF, but
> >> encourage the use of VoiceCom. These servers are often faced with
> >> transient players who make use of the PFF feature, often resulting in
> the
> >> admins being forced to take action against them. Blocking PFFChan on a
> >> server would preemptively stop most such events.
> >> *Increased Difficulty for Griefers: If PFFChan is blocked on a server,
> >> then griefers would need to use either an awkward hardware solution or a
> >> virtual soundcard driver/software package.
> >> *Increased PFF Audio clarity: Currently PFF is limited to 11khz 16bit
> mono
> >> sound, which quite frankly is horrible. Since compression takes far m

Re: [hlds] valve, some feedback?

2008-07-23 Thread chillicane
Apart from the fact that it took me a while to realise the custom tab was
there when it was first implemented, my main issue with it is that it is
STILL not in the out of game, steam server list.

I think the tags should still be there, but instead of shunting the servers
off to the custom tab where no-one looks, allow them to be searchable via
filters. If something like this was happening instead of the custom tab
arrangment, we wouldnt be trying so hard to circumvent this in the first
place. The fact is, if your on the custom tab, people dont come.

On Thu, Jul 24, 2008 at 9:01 AM, Blood Letter <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
wrote:

>
> The last thing Valve wants to do is get in a war with the mod writers over
> this.
> Every TF2 update will include a patch to the delisting code, and every mod
> update will include a patch for that.
>
> I'm a server admin.  I don't know what the tags are.  I don't know how to
> use them.  I don't care.
> I run a game server for people to have fun.  My server run's Beetles Mod
> for administration and reserved slots.
> I have custom maps, but not in my regular rotation.  If the server is
> switched to one, you'll be able to download it lickity split from my
> redirect.
> I see no need for tags in my case.
>
> If you're running a 24/7 or party mode or omg supar low gravity or whatever
> server that can mess with people's stats, achievements, etc., just list it
> in the damned server name.
>
> As for tags/stats/etc
>
> I'd be more than happy to see Valve do away with the custom tags entirely
> and just give us more robust filter options, and the option to reset our
> stats.
> Ideally, you'd be able to reset individual stats and achievements, and
> track stats over all time, month, week, etc.  Sure, that kind of stat
> tracking is more suited to a mod/plugin, but those would only catch data
> from one server/group of servers, and you wouldn't see them when loading.
>
> The way Valve handled stats seems to have been shortsighted.  When someone
> first gets into TF2, they see their stats at each map load and can see their
> progress, and it's interesting.  It encourages you to try out other classes
> and do better.  After a few weeks/months, you're basically staring at the
> same bars.  Stats don't age well.  A lot of people complain about custom
> servers avoiding the tags because they can ruin their stats.  A lot of
> people want to reset their stats because of this.  I'm willing to be there
> are also a lot of people who would like to reset their stats just because
> they'd like to get a picture of how they're doing now that they're
> experienced with the game.  Stats would a lot more fun for me if I could
> reset them (keeping my unlocks/achievements!) and play for a week or two
> from a blank slate.
>
> If we can't reset our stats, let us reset our stat displays.  Think of it
> as an odometer versus a trip odometer.
>
>
> > Date: Wed, 23 Jul 2008 18:31:02 -0400
> > From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> > To: hlds@list.valvesoftware.com
> > Subject: [hlds] valve, some feedback?
> >
> > Most likely there will be a patch and make some of this more worthless
> > then it already is, but since its been kinda quite the last few days i
> > thought what the heck. No its not beating a long lost dead horse...well
> > maybe a small poke.
> >
> >
> > A while ago valve made mention about delisting servers that are
> > bypassing the custom tags. Now i am not wanting to start a huge thing
> > again on if there should be tags or what not, but i am more wondering on
> > why valve gave out a kind of idle threat then does nothing with it. You
> > look on the lists and there are a bunch of servers that are bypassing
> > it. Is there going to be any actual enforcement here or something else
> > you guys are just giving up on it?
> >
> > I would like to hear some feedback from valve about some bug fixes that
> > i had brought up in the list before. most that have been there since
> > long long ago that also seem to have been ignored.
> >
> > Can we get some information on these things?
> >
> > ___
> > To unsubscribe, edit your list preferences, or view the list archives,
> please visit:
> > http://list.valvesoftware.com/mailman/listinfo/hlds
>
> _
> Use video conversation to talk face-to-face with Windows Live Messenger.
>
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Re: [hlds] valve, some feedback?

2008-07-23 Thread SakeFox
i wouldn't say that if your on the custom tab that people don't come. I 
have played a quite a few custom tab servers and they are thriving just 
like before.

The way i look at it is that valve set down these rules. like them or 
not they are the rules that valve gave us. They gave a punishment if you 
broke them however valve fails to enforce them. The people that are 
cheating the system are hurting the people that are following the rules 
that were given to them. When it started the big issue was on increased 
maxplayers and at the start they had to modify server files to do this. 
Now if i modify files on my stuff i get vac banned but yet people that 
did this with the servers got no punishments. I find that highly unfair. 
Latter on they found another way around it, but still the issue was 
still there.

Just because you don't agree with the new rules doesn't give you the 
right to break them.

let the flames begin

chillicane wrote:
> Apart from the fact that it took me a while to realise the custom tab was
> there when it was first implemented, my main issue with it is that it is
> STILL not in the out of game, steam server list.
>
> I think the tags should still be there, but instead of shunting the servers
> off to the custom tab where no-one looks, allow them to be searchable via
> filters. If something like this was happening instead of the custom tab
> arrangment, we wouldnt be trying so hard to circumvent this in the first
> place. The fact is, if your on the custom tab, people dont come.
>
> On Thu, Jul 24, 2008 at 9:01 AM, Blood Letter <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> wrote:
>
>   
>> The last thing Valve wants to do is get in a war with the mod writers over
>> this.
>> Every TF2 update will include a patch to the delisting code, and every mod
>> update will include a patch for that.
>>
>> I'm a server admin.  I don't know what the tags are.  I don't know how to
>> use them.  I don't care.
>> I run a game server for people to have fun.  My server run's Beetles Mod
>> for administration and reserved slots.
>> I have custom maps, but not in my regular rotation.  If the server is
>> switched to one, you'll be able to download it lickity split from my
>> redirect.
>> I see no need for tags in my case.
>>
>> If you're running a 24/7 or party mode or omg supar low gravity or whatever
>> server that can mess with people's stats, achievements, etc., just list it
>> in the damned server name.
>>
>> As for tags/stats/etc
>>
>> I'd be more than happy to see Valve do away with the custom tags entirely
>> and just give us more robust filter options, and the option to reset our
>> stats.
>> Ideally, you'd be able to reset individual stats and achievements, and
>> track stats over all time, month, week, etc.  Sure, that kind of stat
>> tracking is more suited to a mod/plugin, but those would only catch data
>> from one server/group of servers, and you wouldn't see them when loading.
>>
>> The way Valve handled stats seems to have been shortsighted.  When someone
>> first gets into TF2, they see their stats at each map load and can see their
>> progress, and it's interesting.  It encourages you to try out other classes
>> and do better.  After a few weeks/months, you're basically staring at the
>> same bars.  Stats don't age well.  A lot of people complain about custom
>> servers avoiding the tags because they can ruin their stats.  A lot of
>> people want to reset their stats because of this.  I'm willing to be there
>> are also a lot of people who would like to reset their stats just because
>> they'd like to get a picture of how they're doing now that they're
>> experienced with the game.  Stats would a lot more fun for me if I could
>> reset them (keeping my unlocks/achievements!) and play for a week or two
>> from a blank slate.
>>
>> If we can't reset our stats, let us reset our stat displays.  Think of it
>> as an odometer versus a trip odometer.
>>
>>
>> 
>>> Date: Wed, 23 Jul 2008 18:31:02 -0400
>>> From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
>>> To: hlds@list.valvesoftware.com
>>> Subject: [hlds] valve, some feedback?
>>>
>>> Most likely there will be a patch and make some of this more worthless
>>> then it already is, but since its been kinda quite the last few days i
>>> thought what the heck. No its not beating a long lost dead horse...well
>>> maybe a small poke.
>>>
>>>
>>> A while ago valve made mention about delisting servers that are
>>> bypassing the custom tags. Now i am not wanting to start a huge thing
>>> again on if there should be tags or what not, but i am more wondering on
>>> why valve gave out a kind of idle threat then does nothing with it. You
>>> look on the lists and there are a bunch of servers that are bypassing
>>> it. Is there going to be any actual enforcement here or something else
>>> you guys are just giving up on it?
>>>
>>> I would like to hear some feedback from valve about some bug fixes that
>>> i had brought up in the list before. most that have been there since
>>> long long ag

Re: [hlds] valve, some feedback?

2008-07-23 Thread Jake E
good idea

On Wed, Jul 23, 2008 at 7:24 PM, chillicane <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:

> Apart from the fact that it took me a while to realise the custom tab was
> there when it was first implemented, my main issue with it is that it is
> STILL not in the out of game, steam server list.
>
> I think the tags should still be there, but instead of shunting the servers
> off to the custom tab where no-one looks, allow them to be searchable via
> filters. If something like this was happening instead of the custom tab
> arrangment, we wouldnt be trying so hard to circumvent this in the first
> place. The fact is, if your on the custom tab, people dont come.
>
> On Thu, Jul 24, 2008 at 9:01 AM, Blood Letter <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> wrote:
>
> >
> > The last thing Valve wants to do is get in a war with the mod writers
> over
> > this.
> > Every TF2 update will include a patch to the delisting code, and every
> mod
> > update will include a patch for that.
> >
> > I'm a server admin.  I don't know what the tags are.  I don't know how to
> > use them.  I don't care.
> > I run a game server for people to have fun.  My server run's Beetles Mod
> > for administration and reserved slots.
> > I have custom maps, but not in my regular rotation.  If the server is
> > switched to one, you'll be able to download it lickity split from my
> > redirect.
> > I see no need for tags in my case.
> >
> > If you're running a 24/7 or party mode or omg supar low gravity or
> whatever
> > server that can mess with people's stats, achievements, etc., just list
> it
> > in the damned server name.
> >
> > As for tags/stats/etc
> >
> > I'd be more than happy to see Valve do away with the custom tags entirely
> > and just give us more robust filter options, and the option to reset our
> > stats.
> > Ideally, you'd be able to reset individual stats and achievements, and
> > track stats over all time, month, week, etc.  Sure, that kind of stat
> > tracking is more suited to a mod/plugin, but those would only catch data
> > from one server/group of servers, and you wouldn't see them when loading.
> >
> > The way Valve handled stats seems to have been shortsighted.  When
> someone
> > first gets into TF2, they see their stats at each map load and can see
> their
> > progress, and it's interesting.  It encourages you to try out other
> classes
> > and do better.  After a few weeks/months, you're basically staring at the
> > same bars.  Stats don't age well.  A lot of people complain about custom
> > servers avoiding the tags because they can ruin their stats.  A lot of
> > people want to reset their stats because of this.  I'm willing to be
> there
> > are also a lot of people who would like to reset their stats just because
> > they'd like to get a picture of how they're doing now that they're
> > experienced with the game.  Stats would a lot more fun for me if I could
> > reset them (keeping my unlocks/achievements!) and play for a week or two
> > from a blank slate.
> >
> > If we can't reset our stats, let us reset our stat displays.  Think of it
> > as an odometer versus a trip odometer.
> >
> >
> > > Date: Wed, 23 Jul 2008 18:31:02 -0400
> > > From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> > > To: hlds@list.valvesoftware.com
> > > Subject: [hlds] valve, some feedback?
> > >
> > > Most likely there will be a patch and make some of this more worthless
> > > then it already is, but since its been kinda quite the last few days i
> > > thought what the heck. No its not beating a long lost dead horse...well
> > > maybe a small poke.
> > >
> > >
> > > A while ago valve made mention about delisting servers that are
> > > bypassing the custom tags. Now i am not wanting to start a huge thing
> > > again on if there should be tags or what not, but i am more wondering
> on
> > > why valve gave out a kind of idle threat then does nothing with it. You
> > > look on the lists and there are a bunch of servers that are bypassing
> > > it. Is there going to be any actual enforcement here or something else
> > > you guys are just giving up on it?
> > >
> > > I would like to hear some feedback from valve about some bug fixes that
> > > i had brought up in the list before. most that have been there since
> > > long long ago that also seem to have been ignored.
> > >
> > > Can we get some information on these things?
> > >
> > > ___
> > > To unsubscribe, edit your list preferences, or view the list archives,
> > please visit:
> > > http://list.valvesoftware.com/mailman/listinfo/hlds
> >
> > _
> > Use video conversation to talk face-to-face with Windows Live Messenger.
> >
> >
> http://www.windowslive.com/messenger/connect_your_way.html?ocid=TXT_TAGLM_WL_Refresh_messenger_video_072008
> > ___
> > To unsubscribe, edit your list preferences, or view the list archives,
> > please visit:
> > http://list.valvesoftware.com/mailman/listinfo/hld

Re: [hlds] valve, some feedback?

2008-07-23 Thread Cc2iscooL
*Dons a pyro outfit.*

SakeFox wrote:
> i wouldn't say that if your on the custom tab that people don't come. I 
> have played a quite a few custom tab servers and they are thriving just 
> like before.
>
> The way i look at it is that valve set down these rules. like them or 
> not they are the rules that valve gave us. They gave a punishment if you 
> broke them however valve fails to enforce them. The people that are 
> cheating the system are hurting the people that are following the rules 
> that were given to them. When it started the big issue was on increased 
> maxplayers and at the start they had to modify server files to do this. 
> Now if i modify files on my stuff i get vac banned but yet people that 
> did this with the servers got no punishments. I find that highly unfair. 
> Latter on they found another way around it, but still the issue was 
> still there.
>
> Just because you don't agree with the new rules doesn't give you the 
> right to break them.
>
> let the flames begin
>
> chillicane wrote:
>   
>> Apart from the fact that it took me a while to realise the custom tab was
>> there when it was first implemented, my main issue with it is that it is
>> STILL not in the out of game, steam server list.
>>
>> I think the tags should still be there, but instead of shunting the servers
>> off to the custom tab where no-one looks, allow them to be searchable via
>> filters. If something like this was happening instead of the custom tab
>> arrangment, we wouldnt be trying so hard to circumvent this in the first
>> place. The fact is, if your on the custom tab, people dont come.
>>
>> On Thu, Jul 24, 2008 at 9:01 AM, Blood Letter <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>> wrote:
>>
>>   
>> 
>>> The last thing Valve wants to do is get in a war with the mod writers over
>>> this.
>>> Every TF2 update will include a patch to the delisting code, and every mod
>>> update will include a patch for that.
>>>
>>> I'm a server admin.  I don't know what the tags are.  I don't know how to
>>> use them.  I don't care.
>>> I run a game server for people to have fun.  My server run's Beetles Mod
>>> for administration and reserved slots.
>>> I have custom maps, but not in my regular rotation.  If the server is
>>> switched to one, you'll be able to download it lickity split from my
>>> redirect.
>>> I see no need for tags in my case.
>>>
>>> If you're running a 24/7 or party mode or omg supar low gravity or whatever
>>> server that can mess with people's stats, achievements, etc., just list it
>>> in the damned server name.
>>>
>>> As for tags/stats/etc
>>>
>>> I'd be more than happy to see Valve do away with the custom tags entirely
>>> and just give us more robust filter options, and the option to reset our
>>> stats.
>>> Ideally, you'd be able to reset individual stats and achievements, and
>>> track stats over all time, month, week, etc.  Sure, that kind of stat
>>> tracking is more suited to a mod/plugin, but those would only catch data
>>> from one server/group of servers, and you wouldn't see them when loading.
>>>
>>> The way Valve handled stats seems to have been shortsighted.  When someone
>>> first gets into TF2, they see their stats at each map load and can see their
>>> progress, and it's interesting.  It encourages you to try out other classes
>>> and do better.  After a few weeks/months, you're basically staring at the
>>> same bars.  Stats don't age well.  A lot of people complain about custom
>>> servers avoiding the tags because they can ruin their stats.  A lot of
>>> people want to reset their stats because of this.  I'm willing to be there
>>> are also a lot of people who would like to reset their stats just because
>>> they'd like to get a picture of how they're doing now that they're
>>> experienced with the game.  Stats would a lot more fun for me if I could
>>> reset them (keeping my unlocks/achievements!) and play for a week or two
>>> from a blank slate.
>>>
>>> If we can't reset our stats, let us reset our stat displays.  Think of it
>>> as an odometer versus a trip odometer.
>>>
>>>
>>> 
>>>   
 Date: Wed, 23 Jul 2008 18:31:02 -0400
 From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
 To: hlds@list.valvesoftware.com
 Subject: [hlds] valve, some feedback?

 Most likely there will be a patch and make some of this more worthless
 then it already is, but since its been kinda quite the last few days i
 thought what the heck. No its not beating a long lost dead horse...well
 maybe a small poke.


 A while ago valve made mention about delisting servers that are
 bypassing the custom tags. Now i am not wanting to start a huge thing
 again on if there should be tags or what not, but i am more wondering on
 why valve gave out a kind of idle threat then does nothing with it. You
 look on the lists and there are a bunch of servers that are bypassing
 it. Is there going to be any actual enforcement here or something else
 you guys are just giving u

Re: [hlds] valve, some feedback?

2008-07-23 Thread chillicane
indeed you are correct, valve set us up the rules (sic)

The problem we have in this country is all the major telco run server
opertions have instaspawn servers and none of them end up in the custom tab,
wether they are running a plugin version of instaspawn or
disableresapwntimers 1.

And the custom tab may have only 20 or so servers on it at any one time.

hopefully i managed to avoid creating a flame war over this. Certainly dont
want to create that bullshit we had here 2 weeks ago.





On Thu, Jul 24, 2008 at 11:01 AM, Jake E <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:

> good idea
>
> On Wed, Jul 23, 2008 at 7:24 PM, chillicane <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>
> > Apart from the fact that it took me a while to realise the custom tab was
> > there when it was first implemented, my main issue with it is that it is
> > STILL not in the out of game, steam server list.
> >
> > I think the tags should still be there, but instead of shunting the
> servers
> > off to the custom tab where no-one looks, allow them to be searchable via
> > filters. If something like this was happening instead of the custom tab
> > arrangment, we wouldnt be trying so hard to circumvent this in the first
> > place. The fact is, if your on the custom tab, people dont come.
> >
> > On Thu, Jul 24, 2008 at 9:01 AM, Blood Letter <
> [EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> > wrote:
> >
> > >
> > > The last thing Valve wants to do is get in a war with the mod writers
> > over
> > > this.
> > > Every TF2 update will include a patch to the delisting code, and every
> > mod
> > > update will include a patch for that.
> > >
> > > I'm a server admin.  I don't know what the tags are.  I don't know how
> to
> > > use them.  I don't care.
> > > I run a game server for people to have fun.  My server run's Beetles
> Mod
> > > for administration and reserved slots.
> > > I have custom maps, but not in my regular rotation.  If the server is
> > > switched to one, you'll be able to download it lickity split from my
> > > redirect.
> > > I see no need for tags in my case.
> > >
> > > If you're running a 24/7 or party mode or omg supar low gravity or
> > whatever
> > > server that can mess with people's stats, achievements, etc., just list
> > it
> > > in the damned server name.
> > >
> > > As for tags/stats/etc
> > >
> > > I'd be more than happy to see Valve do away with the custom tags
> entirely
> > > and just give us more robust filter options, and the option to reset
> our
> > > stats.
> > > Ideally, you'd be able to reset individual stats and achievements, and
> > > track stats over all time, month, week, etc.  Sure, that kind of stat
> > > tracking is more suited to a mod/plugin, but those would only catch
> data
> > > from one server/group of servers, and you wouldn't see them when
> loading.
> > >
> > > The way Valve handled stats seems to have been shortsighted.  When
> > someone
> > > first gets into TF2, they see their stats at each map load and can see
> > their
> > > progress, and it's interesting.  It encourages you to try out other
> > classes
> > > and do better.  After a few weeks/months, you're basically staring at
> the
> > > same bars.  Stats don't age well.  A lot of people complain about
> custom
> > > servers avoiding the tags because they can ruin their stats.  A lot of
> > > people want to reset their stats because of this.  I'm willing to be
> > there
> > > are also a lot of people who would like to reset their stats just
> because
> > > they'd like to get a picture of how they're doing now that they're
> > > experienced with the game.  Stats would a lot more fun for me if I
> could
> > > reset them (keeping my unlocks/achievements!) and play for a week or
> two
> > > from a blank slate.
> > >
> > > If we can't reset our stats, let us reset our stat displays.  Think of
> it
> > > as an odometer versus a trip odometer.
> > >
> > >
> > > > Date: Wed, 23 Jul 2008 18:31:02 -0400
> > > > From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> > > > To: hlds@list.valvesoftware.com
> > > > Subject: [hlds] valve, some feedback?
> > > >
> > > > Most likely there will be a patch and make some of this more
> worthless
> > > > then it already is, but since its been kinda quite the last few days
> i
> > > > thought what the heck. No its not beating a long lost dead
> horse...well
> > > > maybe a small poke.
> > > >
> > > >
> > > > A while ago valve made mention about delisting servers that are
> > > > bypassing the custom tags. Now i am not wanting to start a huge thing
> > > > again on if there should be tags or what not, but i am more wondering
> > on
> > > > why valve gave out a kind of idle threat then does nothing with it.
> You
> > > > look on the lists and there are a bunch of servers that are bypassing
> > > > it. Is there going to be any actual enforcement here or something
> else
> > > > you guys are just giving up on it?
> > > >
> > > > I would like to hear some feedback from valve about some bug fixes
> that
> > > > i had brought up in the list before. most that have been there since
> > >

Re: [hlds] valve, some feedback?

2008-07-23 Thread tgnwells
I think the problem is valve set up the rules without thinking much 
about them, or more obviously, how the community would react to being 
forced to have to adapt to these changes when there's really no reason to.

And a lot of people pay good money for their hosted servers, I don't 
think Valve should be moderating the servers people put up and start 
punishing people for something that doesn't really matter either way, I 
especially hope they don't think they should as well.

And to think this whole custom tags argument bullshit could be done with 
once and for all by adding an "All Servers" tab.

chillicane wrote:
> indeed you are correct, valve set us up the rules (sic)
>
> The problem we have in this country is all the major telco run server
> opertions have instaspawn servers and none of them end up in the custom tab,
> wether they are running a plugin version of instaspawn or
> disableresapwntimers 1.
>
> And the custom tab may have only 20 or so servers on it at any one time.
>
> hopefully i managed to avoid creating a flame war over this. Certainly dont
> want to create that bullshit we had here 2 weeks ago.
>
>
>
>
>
> On Thu, Jul 24, 2008 at 11:01 AM, Jake E <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>
>   
>> good idea
>>
>> On Wed, Jul 23, 2008 at 7:24 PM, chillicane <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>>
>> 
>>> Apart from the fact that it took me a while to realise the custom tab was
>>> there when it was first implemented, my main issue with it is that it is
>>> STILL not in the out of game, steam server list.
>>>
>>> I think the tags should still be there, but instead of shunting the
>>>   
>> servers
>> 
>>> off to the custom tab where no-one looks, allow them to be searchable via
>>> filters. If something like this was happening instead of the custom tab
>>> arrangment, we wouldnt be trying so hard to circumvent this in the first
>>> place. The fact is, if your on the custom tab, people dont come.
>>>
>>> On Thu, Jul 24, 2008 at 9:01 AM, Blood Letter <
>>>   
>> [EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>> 
>>> wrote:
>>>
>>>   
 The last thing Valve wants to do is get in a war with the mod writers
 
>>> over
>>>   
 this.
 Every TF2 update will include a patch to the delisting code, and every
 
>>> mod
>>>   
 update will include a patch for that.

 I'm a server admin.  I don't know what the tags are.  I don't know how
 
>> to
>> 
 use them.  I don't care.
 I run a game server for people to have fun.  My server run's Beetles
 
>> Mod
>> 
 for administration and reserved slots.
 I have custom maps, but not in my regular rotation.  If the server is
 switched to one, you'll be able to download it lickity split from my
 redirect.
 I see no need for tags in my case.

 If you're running a 24/7 or party mode or omg supar low gravity or
 
>>> whatever
>>>   
 server that can mess with people's stats, achievements, etc., just list
 
>>> it
>>>   
 in the damned server name.

 As for tags/stats/etc

 I'd be more than happy to see Valve do away with the custom tags
 
>> entirely
>> 
 and just give us more robust filter options, and the option to reset
 
>> our
>> 
 stats.
 Ideally, you'd be able to reset individual stats and achievements, and
 track stats over all time, month, week, etc.  Sure, that kind of stat
 tracking is more suited to a mod/plugin, but those would only catch
 
>> data
>> 
 from one server/group of servers, and you wouldn't see them when
 
>> loading.
>> 
 The way Valve handled stats seems to have been shortsighted.  When
 
>>> someone
>>>   
 first gets into TF2, they see their stats at each map load and can see
 
>>> their
>>>   
 progress, and it's interesting.  It encourages you to try out other
 
>>> classes
>>>   
 and do better.  After a few weeks/months, you're basically staring at
 
>> the
>> 
 same bars.  Stats don't age well.  A lot of people complain about
 
>> custom
>> 
 servers avoiding the tags because they can ruin their stats.  A lot of
 people want to reset their stats because of this.  I'm willing to be
 
>>> there
>>>   
 are also a lot of people who would like to reset their stats just
 
>> because
>> 
 they'd like to get a picture of how they're doing now that they're
 experienced with the game.  Stats would a lot more fun for me if I
 
>> could
>> 
 reset them (keeping my unlocks/achievements!) and play for a week or
 
>> two
>> 
 from a blank slate.

 If we can't reset our stats, let us reset our stat displays.  Think of
 
>> it
>> 
 as an odometer versus a trip odometer.


  

Re: [hlds] valve, some feedback?

2008-07-23 Thread SakeFox
Well just because you pay for your servers doesn't give you rights to do 
whatever with there programs. Valve has been good about allowing people 
to modify there games, but i can see there point in what they are doing. 
They want people that are getting into the game to be able to play it as 
it was created and not with modified settings. There not limiting anyone 
from running there servers how they want. They are just looking at how 
new people experience the game. Now the game was designed for 24players 
in a server, so if you have a 32 person complaining about balancing 
issues in a game, that information is kinda scewed because the game is 
not played as intended.

I really didn't want to create the bullshit from a few weeks ago either, 
however i think it was a few months ago, but since no one else has been 
calling Valve out on there short comings and completely ignoring issues 
with there games I thought I might as well start somewhere. This really 
wasn't intended to start the flame back up, but thought it to bring this 
bit up of there idle threats first and get it out of the way since its 
the most touchy of things.

tgnwells wrote:
> I think the problem is valve set up the rules without thinking much 
> about them, or more obviously, how the community would react to being 
> forced to have to adapt to these changes when there's really no reason to.
>
> And a lot of people pay good money for their hosted servers, I don't 
> think Valve should be moderating the servers people put up and start 
> punishing people for something that doesn't really matter either way, I 
> especially hope they don't think they should as well.
>
> And to think this whole custom tags argument bullshit could be done with 
> once and for all by adding an "All Servers" tab.
>
> chillicane wrote:
>   
>> indeed you are correct, valve set us up the rules (sic)
>>
>> The problem we have in this country is all the major telco run server
>> opertions have instaspawn servers and none of them end up in the custom tab,
>> wether they are running a plugin version of instaspawn or
>> disableresapwntimers 1.
>>
>> And the custom tab may have only 20 or so servers on it at any one time.
>>
>> hopefully i managed to avoid creating a flame war over this. Certainly dont
>> want to create that bullshit we had here 2 weeks ago.
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> On Thu, Jul 24, 2008 at 11:01 AM, Jake E <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>>
>>   
>> 
>>> good idea
>>>
>>> On Wed, Jul 23, 2008 at 7:24 PM, chillicane <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>>>
>>> 
>>>   
 Apart from the fact that it took me a while to realise the custom tab was
 there when it was first implemented, my main issue with it is that it is
 STILL not in the out of game, steam server list.

 I think the tags should still be there, but instead of shunting the
   
 
>>> servers
>>> 
>>>   
 off to the custom tab where no-one looks, allow them to be searchable via
 filters. If something like this was happening instead of the custom tab
 arrangment, we wouldnt be trying so hard to circumvent this in the first
 place. The fact is, if your on the custom tab, people dont come.

 On Thu, Jul 24, 2008 at 9:01 AM, Blood Letter <
   
 
>>> [EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>>> 
>>>   
 wrote:

   
 
> The last thing Valve wants to do is get in a war with the mod writers
> 
>   
 over
   
 
> this.
> Every TF2 update will include a patch to the delisting code, and every
> 
>   
 mod
   
 
> update will include a patch for that.
>
> I'm a server admin.  I don't know what the tags are.  I don't know how
> 
>   
>>> to
>>> 
>>>   
> use them.  I don't care.
> I run a game server for people to have fun.  My server run's Beetles
> 
>   
>>> Mod
>>> 
>>>   
> for administration and reserved slots.
> I have custom maps, but not in my regular rotation.  If the server is
> switched to one, you'll be able to download it lickity split from my
> redirect.
> I see no need for tags in my case.
>
> If you're running a 24/7 or party mode or omg supar low gravity or
> 
>   
 whatever
   
 
> server that can mess with people's stats, achievements, etc., just list
> 
>   
 it
   
 
> in the damned server name.
>
> As for tags/stats/etc
>
> I'd be more than happy to see Valve do away with the custom tags
> 
>   
>>> entirely
>>> 
>>>   
> and just give us more robust filter options, and the option to reset
> 
>   
>>> our
>>> 
>>>   
> stats.
> Ideally, you'd be able to reset individual stats and 

Re: [hlds] valve, some feedback?

2008-07-23 Thread Cc2iscooL
The real reason Valve did this, as I understand, is the following. (With 
the 25+ slot servers, anyway.)

Valve's system requirements on their game are based on a maximum of 24 
players in one game. When you have a server with 32, that's a maximum of 
32 player models on-screen rather than 24. That's a total of 8 more 
player models possible on screen. When you think about it, it's not 
much, but you're adding stress to the systems the game is being run on, 
and it does reduce framerates. Valve gets support tickets about client's 
games not running well on 32 slot servers and has to spend time (and 
money) on trying to respond to tickets where the system requirements are 
being overdone by 32 slots rather than 24, and trying to convince the 
client that it's because they're playing on a 32 slot server rather than 
a 24. Also, players would send in tickets about other silly issues that 
were placed in by server admins.

To combat these "useless" tickets (and complaints,) Valve put out a 
system on their master servers that blocked all servers larger than 24 
slots. A workaround (in SourceMod) was quickly made by server operators 
to get around the block by Valve, and server owners of these larger slot 
servers complained to Valve so much that a compromise had to be made. 
Thus, the custom tab system was born. Again, server owners went up in 
arms about the system, and another plugin was made to get around the system.

So, you can thank the original 32 slot server operators for your custom 
tabs today.

tgnwells wrote:
> I think the problem is valve set up the rules without thinking much 
> about them, or more obviously, how the community would react to being 
> forced to have to adapt to these changes when there's really no reason to.
>
> And a lot of people pay good money for their hosted servers, I don't 
> think Valve should be moderating the servers people put up and start 
> punishing people for something that doesn't really matter either way, I 
> especially hope they don't think they should as well.
>
> And to think this whole custom tags argument bullshit could be done with 
> once and for all by adding an "All Servers" tab.
>
> chillicane wrote:
>   
>> indeed you are correct, valve set us up the rules (sic)
>>
>> The problem we have in this country is all the major telco run server
>> opertions have instaspawn servers and none of them end up in the custom tab,
>> wether they are running a plugin version of instaspawn or
>> disableresapwntimers 1.
>>
>> And the custom tab may have only 20 or so servers on it at any one time.
>>
>> hopefully i managed to avoid creating a flame war over this. Certainly dont
>> want to create that bullshit we had here 2 weeks ago.
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> On Thu, Jul 24, 2008 at 11:01 AM, Jake E <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>>
>>   
>> 
>>> good idea
>>>
>>> On Wed, Jul 23, 2008 at 7:24 PM, chillicane <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>>>
>>> 
>>>   
 Apart from the fact that it took me a while to realise the custom tab was
 there when it was first implemented, my main issue with it is that it is
 STILL not in the out of game, steam server list.

 I think the tags should still be there, but instead of shunting the
   
 
>>> servers
>>> 
>>>   
 off to the custom tab where no-one looks, allow them to be searchable via
 filters. If something like this was happening instead of the custom tab
 arrangment, we wouldnt be trying so hard to circumvent this in the first
 place. The fact is, if your on the custom tab, people dont come.

 On Thu, Jul 24, 2008 at 9:01 AM, Blood Letter <
   
 
>>> [EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>>> 
>>>   
 wrote:

   
 
> The last thing Valve wants to do is get in a war with the mod writers
> 
>   
 over
   
 
> this.
> Every TF2 update will include a patch to the delisting code, and every
> 
>   
 mod
   
 
> update will include a patch for that.
>
> I'm a server admin.  I don't know what the tags are.  I don't know how
> 
>   
>>> to
>>> 
>>>   
> use them.  I don't care.
> I run a game server for people to have fun.  My server run's Beetles
> 
>   
>>> Mod
>>> 
>>>   
> for administration and reserved slots.
> I have custom maps, but not in my regular rotation.  If the server is
> switched to one, you'll be able to download it lickity split from my
> redirect.
> I see no need for tags in my case.
>
> If you're running a 24/7 or party mode or omg supar low gravity or
> 
>   
 whatever
   
 
> server that can mess with people's stats, achievements, etc., just list
> 
>   
 it
   
 
> in the damned server name.
>
>

Re: [hlds] valve, some feedback?

2008-07-23 Thread Craig Collinson
why allow a game to have 32 player slots if it only supports 24 ?

2008/7/24 Cc2iscooL <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>:

> The real reason Valve did this, as I understand, is the following. (With
> the 25+ slot servers, anyway.)
>
> Valve's system requirements on their game are based on a maximum of 24
> players in one game. When you have a server with 32, that's a maximum of
> 32 player models on-screen rather than 24. That's a total of 8 more
> player models possible on screen. When you think about it, it's not
> much, but you're adding stress to the systems the game is being run on,
> and it does reduce framerates. Valve gets support tickets about client's
> games not running well on 32 slot servers and has to spend time (and
> money) on trying to respond to tickets where the system requirements are
> being overdone by 32 slots rather than 24, and trying to convince the
> client that it's because they're playing on a 32 slot server rather than
> a 24. Also, players would send in tickets about other silly issues that
> were placed in by server admins.
>
> To combat these "useless" tickets (and complaints,) Valve put out a
> system on their master servers that blocked all servers larger than 24
> slots. A workaround (in SourceMod) was quickly made by server operators
> to get around the block by Valve, and server owners of these larger slot
> servers complained to Valve so much that a compromise had to be made.
> Thus, the custom tab system was born. Again, server owners went up in
> arms about the system, and another plugin was made to get around the
> system.
>
> So, you can thank the original 32 slot server operators for your custom
> tabs today.
>
> tgnwells wrote:
> > I think the problem is valve set up the rules without thinking much
> > about them, or more obviously, how the community would react to being
> > forced to have to adapt to these changes when there's really no reason
> to.
> >
> > And a lot of people pay good money for their hosted servers, I don't
> > think Valve should be moderating the servers people put up and start
> > punishing people for something that doesn't really matter either way, I
> > especially hope they don't think they should as well.
> >
> > And to think this whole custom tags argument bullshit could be done with
> > once and for all by adding an "All Servers" tab.
> >
> > chillicane wrote:
> >
> >> indeed you are correct, valve set us up the rules (sic)
> >>
> >> The problem we have in this country is all the major telco run server
> >> opertions have instaspawn servers and none of them end up in the custom
> tab,
> >> wether they are running a plugin version of instaspawn or
> >> disableresapwntimers 1.
> >>
> >> And the custom tab may have only 20 or so servers on it at any one time.
> >>
> >> hopefully i managed to avoid creating a flame war over this. Certainly
> dont
> >> want to create that bullshit we had here 2 weeks ago.
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >> On Thu, Jul 24, 2008 at 11:01 AM, Jake E <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >>> good idea
> >>>
> >>> On Wed, Jul 23, 2008 at 7:24 PM, chillicane <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> wrote:
> >>>
> >>>
> >>>
>  Apart from the fact that it took me a while to realise the custom tab
> was
>  there when it was first implemented, my main issue with it is that it
> is
>  STILL not in the out of game, steam server list.
> 
>  I think the tags should still be there, but instead of shunting the
> 
> 
> >>> servers
> >>>
> >>>
>  off to the custom tab where no-one looks, allow them to be searchable
> via
>  filters. If something like this was happening instead of the custom
> tab
>  arrangment, we wouldnt be trying so hard to circumvent this in the
> first
>  place. The fact is, if your on the custom tab, people dont come.
> 
>  On Thu, Jul 24, 2008 at 9:01 AM, Blood Letter <
> 
> 
> >>> [EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> >>>
> >>>
>  wrote:
> 
> 
> 
> > The last thing Valve wants to do is get in a war with the mod writers
> >
> >
>  over
> 
> 
> > this.
> > Every TF2 update will include a patch to the delisting code, and
> every
> >
> >
>  mod
> 
> 
> > update will include a patch for that.
> >
> > I'm a server admin.  I don't know what the tags are.  I don't know
> how
> >
> >
> >>> to
> >>>
> >>>
> > use them.  I don't care.
> > I run a game server for people to have fun.  My server run's Beetles
> >
> >
> >>> Mod
> >>>
> >>>
> > for administration and reserved slots.
> > I have custom maps, but not in my regular rotation.  If the server is
> > switched to one, you'll be able to download it lickity split from my
> > redirect.
> > I see no need for tags in my case.
> >
> > If you're running a 24/7 or party mode or omg supar low gravity or
> >
> >
>  whatever
> 
> 
> > server that can mess with people's stats, achievements, etc., just
> list

Re: [hlds] valve, some feedback?

2008-07-23 Thread SakeFox
the only started allowing 32players when they opened the custom tabs and 
said that all increased players will be put into that. the main reason 
they did it was to stop people from modifying the server files and using 
the other work arounds. Its probably a way for them to ignore player 
stats from them servers on there main stats page so it dosn't have 
misinformation, but thats just my thought

Craig Collinson wrote:
> why allow a game to have 32 player slots if it only supports 24 ?
>
> 2008/7/24 Cc2iscooL <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>:
>
>   
>> The real reason Valve did this, as I understand, is the following. (With
>> the 25+ slot servers, anyway.)
>>
>> Valve's system requirements on their game are based on a maximum of 24
>> players in one game. When you have a server with 32, that's a maximum of
>> 32 player models on-screen rather than 24. That's a total of 8 more
>> player models possible on screen. When you think about it, it's not
>> much, but you're adding stress to the systems the game is being run on,
>> and it does reduce framerates. Valve gets support tickets about client's
>> games not running well on 32 slot servers and has to spend time (and
>> money) on trying to respond to tickets where the system requirements are
>> being overdone by 32 slots rather than 24, and trying to convince the
>> client that it's because they're playing on a 32 slot server rather than
>> a 24. Also, players would send in tickets about other silly issues that
>> were placed in by server admins.
>>
>> To combat these "useless" tickets (and complaints,) Valve put out a
>> system on their master servers that blocked all servers larger than 24
>> slots. A workaround (in SourceMod) was quickly made by server operators
>> to get around the block by Valve, and server owners of these larger slot
>> servers complained to Valve so much that a compromise had to be made.
>> Thus, the custom tab system was born. Again, server owners went up in
>> arms about the system, and another plugin was made to get around the
>> system.
>>
>> So, you can thank the original 32 slot server operators for your custom
>> tabs today.
>>
>> tgnwells wrote:
>> 
>>> I think the problem is valve set up the rules without thinking much
>>> about them, or more obviously, how the community would react to being
>>> forced to have to adapt to these changes when there's really no reason
>>>   
>> to.
>> 
>>> And a lot of people pay good money for their hosted servers, I don't
>>> think Valve should be moderating the servers people put up and start
>>> punishing people for something that doesn't really matter either way, I
>>> especially hope they don't think they should as well.
>>>
>>> And to think this whole custom tags argument bullshit could be done with
>>> once and for all by adding an "All Servers" tab.
>>>
>>> chillicane wrote:
>>>
>>>   
 indeed you are correct, valve set us up the rules (sic)

 The problem we have in this country is all the major telco run server
 opertions have instaspawn servers and none of them end up in the custom
 
>> tab,
>> 
 wether they are running a plugin version of instaspawn or
 disableresapwntimers 1.

 And the custom tab may have only 20 or so servers on it at any one time.

 hopefully i managed to avoid creating a flame war over this. Certainly
 
>> dont
>> 
 want to create that bullshit we had here 2 weeks ago.





 On Thu, Jul 24, 2008 at 11:01 AM, Jake E <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:



 
> good idea
>
> On Wed, Jul 23, 2008 at 7:24 PM, chillicane <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>   
>> wrote:
>> 
>
>   
>> Apart from the fact that it took me a while to realise the custom tab
>> 
>> was
>> 
>> there when it was first implemented, my main issue with it is that it
>> 
>> is
>> 
>> STILL not in the out of game, steam server list.
>>
>> I think the tags should still be there, but instead of shunting the
>>
>>
>> 
> servers
>
>
>   
>> off to the custom tab where no-one looks, allow them to be searchable
>> 
>> via
>> 
>> filters. If something like this was happening instead of the custom
>> 
>> tab
>> 
>> arrangment, we wouldnt be trying so hard to circumvent this in the
>> 
>> first
>> 
>> place. The fact is, if your on the custom tab, people dont come.
>>
>> On Thu, Jul 24, 2008 at 9:01 AM, Blood Letter <
>>
>>
>> 
> [EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>
>
>   
>> wrote:
>>
>>
>>
>> 
>>> The last thing Valve wants to do is get in a war with the mod writers
>>>
>>>
>>>   
>> over
>>
>>
>> 
>>> this.
>>> Every TF2 update will include a pat

Re: [hlds] valve, some feedback?

2008-07-23 Thread chillicane
thats a fair point

On Thu, Jul 24, 2008 at 12:07 PM, Cc2iscooL <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:

> The real reason Valve did this, as I understand, is the following. (With
> the 25+ slot servers, anyway.)
>
> Valve's system requirements on their game are based on a maximum of 24
> players in one game. When you have a server with 32, that's a maximum of
> 32 player models on-screen rather than 24. That's a total of 8 more
> player models possible on screen. When you think about it, it's not
> much, but you're adding stress to the systems the game is being run on,
> and it does reduce framerates. Valve gets support tickets about client's
> games not running well on 32 slot servers and has to spend time (and
> money) on trying to respond to tickets where the system requirements are
> being overdone by 32 slots rather than 24, and trying to convince the
> client that it's because they're playing on a 32 slot server rather than
> a 24. Also, players would send in tickets about other silly issues that
> were placed in by server admins.
>
> To combat these "useless" tickets (and complaints,) Valve put out a
> system on their master servers that blocked all servers larger than 24
> slots. A workaround (in SourceMod) was quickly made by server operators
> to get around the block by Valve, and server owners of these larger slot
> servers complained to Valve so much that a compromise had to be made.
> Thus, the custom tab system was born. Again, server owners went up in
> arms about the system, and another plugin was made to get around the
> system.
>
> So, you can thank the original 32 slot server operators for your custom
> tabs today.
>
> tgnwells wrote:
> > I think the problem is valve set up the rules without thinking much
> > about them, or more obviously, how the community would react to being
> > forced to have to adapt to these changes when there's really no reason
> to.
> >
> > And a lot of people pay good money for their hosted servers, I don't
> > think Valve should be moderating the servers people put up and start
> > punishing people for something that doesn't really matter either way, I
> > especially hope they don't think they should as well.
> >
> > And to think this whole custom tags argument bullshit could be done with
> > once and for all by adding an "All Servers" tab.
> >
> > chillicane wrote:
> >
> >> indeed you are correct, valve set us up the rules (sic)
> >>
> >> The problem we have in this country is all the major telco run server
> >> opertions have instaspawn servers and none of them end up in the custom
> tab,
> >> wether they are running a plugin version of instaspawn or
> >> disableresapwntimers 1.
> >>
> >> And the custom tab may have only 20 or so servers on it at any one time.
> >>
> >> hopefully i managed to avoid creating a flame war over this. Certainly
> dont
> >> want to create that bullshit we had here 2 weeks ago.
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >> On Thu, Jul 24, 2008 at 11:01 AM, Jake E <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >>> good idea
> >>>
> >>> On Wed, Jul 23, 2008 at 7:24 PM, chillicane <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> wrote:
> >>>
> >>>
> >>>
>  Apart from the fact that it took me a while to realise the custom tab
> was
>  there when it was first implemented, my main issue with it is that it
> is
>  STILL not in the out of game, steam server list.
> 
>  I think the tags should still be there, but instead of shunting the
> 
> 
> >>> servers
> >>>
> >>>
>  off to the custom tab where no-one looks, allow them to be searchable
> via
>  filters. If something like this was happening instead of the custom
> tab
>  arrangment, we wouldnt be trying so hard to circumvent this in the
> first
>  place. The fact is, if your on the custom tab, people dont come.
> 
>  On Thu, Jul 24, 2008 at 9:01 AM, Blood Letter <
> 
> 
> >>> [EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> >>>
> >>>
>  wrote:
> 
> 
> 
> > The last thing Valve wants to do is get in a war with the mod writers
> >
> >
>  over
> 
> 
> > this.
> > Every TF2 update will include a patch to the delisting code, and
> every
> >
> >
>  mod
> 
> 
> > update will include a patch for that.
> >
> > I'm a server admin.  I don't know what the tags are.  I don't know
> how
> >
> >
> >>> to
> >>>
> >>>
> > use them.  I don't care.
> > I run a game server for people to have fun.  My server run's Beetles
> >
> >
> >>> Mod
> >>>
> >>>
> > for administration and reserved slots.
> > I have custom maps, but not in my regular rotation.  If the server is
> > switched to one, you'll be able to download it lickity split from my
> > redirect.
> > I see no need for tags in my case.
> >
> > If you're running a 24/7 or party mode or omg supar low gravity or
> >
> >
>  whatever
> 
> 
> > server that can mess with people's stats, achievements, etc., just
> list
> >
> >

Re: [hlds] valve, some feedback?

2008-07-23 Thread Spencer 'voogru' MacDonald
Not this bullshit again.

The custom tab has to be scratched, all servers should be displayed by
default. Players should then be allowed to filter tags they like or do not
like.

If a player learns to use tags, great. If they don't, they see all options.
This is what's important, if you by default HIDE 'custom' servers, the
majority of the players who don't care will never see the so called custom
servers.

The whole tag system is flawed, let's say I run a 24 server without fast
respawn. No tags are added by valve without any kind of mods manipulating
the tags.

But I add a grapple hook for all players.

What server operator in their right mind would voluntarily add a tag that
results in their server effectively being delisted?

NOBODY.

And then what is valve going to do about that? Are they going to come tell
server ops "hey you HAVE to list tags".

Is valve going to hire a bunch of people to look for servers to make sure
they aren't modded? Doubtful.

In its current implementation server operators have an incentive to avoid
tags, if all servers are shown by default with their respective tags, server
operators would have an incentive to SHOW their tags. It's basically saying
"hey! Look what we got!", but if players don't see this by default, it will
be worthless.

How hard is it to understand this?

Valve probably realized their mistake and might be correcting it. At least I
hope so. The custom tab will be an eternal cat and mouse game between server
operators and valve. Valve can very easily solve the problem and make
everyone happy just by having the servers all visible by default. 

Players who want custom, can find it.
Players who want vanilla, can find it.
Players who don't care or don't know what they want, or don't know how to
use the filters, have all options shown to them so they can make their mind
on the fly.

If you go to a restaurant and the waiter gives you a menu, and without you
knowing, there is "two" different menus, but they give you the "standard"
menu, chances are, very few people will ever ask "hey what's on the other
menu"

Also, increased_maxplayers is probably one of the stupidest tags ever. It's
like a bag of peanuts with the warning: "Warning: contains peanuts". Like
players can't tell it's a 32 player server without reading the tags.

- voogru.

-Original Message-
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
[mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of SakeFox
Sent: Wednesday, July 23, 2008 9:57 PM
To: Half-Life dedicated Win32 server mailing list
Subject: Re: [hlds] valve, some feedback?

Well just because you pay for your servers doesn't give you rights to do 
whatever with there programs. Valve has been good about allowing people 
to modify there games, but i can see there point in what they are doing. 
They want people that are getting into the game to be able to play it as 
it was created and not with modified settings. There not limiting anyone 
from running there servers how they want. They are just looking at how 
new people experience the game. Now the game was designed for 24players 
in a server, so if you have a 32 person complaining about balancing 
issues in a game, that information is kinda scewed because the game is 
not played as intended.

I really didn't want to create the bullshit from a few weeks ago either, 
however i think it was a few months ago, but since no one else has been 
calling Valve out on there short comings and completely ignoring issues 
with there games I thought I might as well start somewhere. This really 
wasn't intended to start the flame back up, but thought it to bring this 
bit up of there idle threats first and get it out of the way since its 
the most touchy of things.

tgnwells wrote:
> I think the problem is valve set up the rules without thinking much 
> about them, or more obviously, how the community would react to being 
> forced to have to adapt to these changes when there's really no reason to.
>
> And a lot of people pay good money for their hosted servers, I don't 
> think Valve should be moderating the servers people put up and start 
> punishing people for something that doesn't really matter either way, I 
> especially hope they don't think they should as well.
>
> And to think this whole custom tags argument bullshit could be done with 
> once and for all by adding an "All Servers" tab.
>
> chillicane wrote:
>   
>> indeed you are correct, valve set us up the rules (sic)
>>
>> The problem we have in this country is all the major telco run server
>> opertions have instaspawn servers and none of them end up in the custom
tab,
>> wether they are running a plugin version of instaspawn or
>> disableresapwntimers 1.
>>
>> And the custom tab may have only 20 or so servers on it at any one time.
>>
>> hopefully i managed to avoid creating a flame war over this. Certainly
dont
>> want to create that bullshit we had here 2 weeks ago.
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> On Thu, Jul 24, 2008 at 11:01 AM, Jake E <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>>
>>   
>> 
>>> good ide

Re: [hlds] valve, some feedback?

2008-07-23 Thread chillicane
they didnt allow the game to have 32 slots. Those servers are using a hacked
server library to allow more slots

On Thu, Jul 24, 2008 at 12:12 PM, Craig Collinson <
[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:

> why allow a game to have 32 player slots if it only supports 24 ?
>
> 2008/7/24 Cc2iscooL <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>:
>
> > The real reason Valve did this, as I understand, is the following. (With
> > the 25+ slot servers, anyway.)
> >
> > Valve's system requirements on their game are based on a maximum of 24
> > players in one game. When you have a server with 32, that's a maximum of
> > 32 player models on-screen rather than 24. That's a total of 8 more
> > player models possible on screen. When you think about it, it's not
> > much, but you're adding stress to the systems the game is being run on,
> > and it does reduce framerates. Valve gets support tickets about client's
> > games not running well on 32 slot servers and has to spend time (and
> > money) on trying to respond to tickets where the system requirements are
> > being overdone by 32 slots rather than 24, and trying to convince the
> > client that it's because they're playing on a 32 slot server rather than
> > a 24. Also, players would send in tickets about other silly issues that
> > were placed in by server admins.
> >
> > To combat these "useless" tickets (and complaints,) Valve put out a
> > system on their master servers that blocked all servers larger than 24
> > slots. A workaround (in SourceMod) was quickly made by server operators
> > to get around the block by Valve, and server owners of these larger slot
> > servers complained to Valve so much that a compromise had to be made.
> > Thus, the custom tab system was born. Again, server owners went up in
> > arms about the system, and another plugin was made to get around the
> > system.
> >
> > So, you can thank the original 32 slot server operators for your custom
> > tabs today.
> >
> > tgnwells wrote:
> > > I think the problem is valve set up the rules without thinking much
> > > about them, or more obviously, how the community would react to being
> > > forced to have to adapt to these changes when there's really no reason
> > to.
> > >
> > > And a lot of people pay good money for their hosted servers, I don't
> > > think Valve should be moderating the servers people put up and start
> > > punishing people for something that doesn't really matter either way, I
> > > especially hope they don't think they should as well.
> > >
> > > And to think this whole custom tags argument bullshit could be done
> with
> > > once and for all by adding an "All Servers" tab.
> > >
> > > chillicane wrote:
> > >
> > >> indeed you are correct, valve set us up the rules (sic)
> > >>
> > >> The problem we have in this country is all the major telco run server
> > >> opertions have instaspawn servers and none of them end up in the
> custom
> > tab,
> > >> wether they are running a plugin version of instaspawn or
> > >> disableresapwntimers 1.
> > >>
> > >> And the custom tab may have only 20 or so servers on it at any one
> time.
> > >>
> > >> hopefully i managed to avoid creating a flame war over this. Certainly
> > dont
> > >> want to create that bullshit we had here 2 weeks ago.
> > >>
> > >>
> > >>
> > >>
> > >>
> > >> On Thu, Jul 24, 2008 at 11:01 AM, Jake E <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> > >>
> > >>
> > >>
> > >>> good idea
> > >>>
> > >>> On Wed, Jul 23, 2008 at 7:24 PM, chillicane <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> > wrote:
> > >>>
> > >>>
> > >>>
> >  Apart from the fact that it took me a while to realise the custom
> tab
> > was
> >  there when it was first implemented, my main issue with it is that
> it
> > is
> >  STILL not in the out of game, steam server list.
> > 
> >  I think the tags should still be there, but instead of shunting the
> > 
> > 
> > >>> servers
> > >>>
> > >>>
> >  off to the custom tab where no-one looks, allow them to be
> searchable
> > via
> >  filters. If something like this was happening instead of the custom
> > tab
> >  arrangment, we wouldnt be trying so hard to circumvent this in the
> > first
> >  place. The fact is, if your on the custom tab, people dont come.
> > 
> >  On Thu, Jul 24, 2008 at 9:01 AM, Blood Letter <
> > 
> > 
> > >>> [EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> > >>>
> > >>>
> >  wrote:
> > 
> > 
> > 
> > > The last thing Valve wants to do is get in a war with the mod
> writers
> > >
> > >
> >  over
> > 
> > 
> > > this.
> > > Every TF2 update will include a patch to the delisting code, and
> > every
> > >
> > >
> >  mod
> > 
> > 
> > > update will include a patch for that.
> > >
> > > I'm a server admin.  I don't know what the tags are.  I don't know
> > how
> > >
> > >
> > >>> to
> > >>>
> > >>>
> > > use them.  I don't care.
> > > I run a game server for people to have fun.  My server run's
> Beetles
> > >
> > >
> > >>> Mod
> > >>>
>

Re: [hlds] valve, some feedback?

2008-07-23 Thread DontWannaName!
Not anymore of course, its allowed and with a few work arounds available there 
will always be 32 slots.



- Original Message 
From: chillicane <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: Half-Life dedicated Win32 server mailing list 
Sent: Wednesday, July 23, 2008 7:22:14 PM
Subject: Re: [hlds] valve, some feedback?

they didnt allow the game to have 32 slots. Those servers are using a hacked
server library to allow more slots

On Thu, Jul 24, 2008 at 12:12 PM, Craig Collinson <
[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:


  
___
To unsubscribe, edit your list preferences, or view the list archives, please 
visit:
http://list.valvesoftware.com/mailman/listinfo/hlds


Re: [hlds] valve, some feedback?

2008-07-23 Thread Cc2iscooL
This text seems oddly familiar.

Copy paste from last debate on custom tags?

Spencer 'voogru' MacDonald wrote:
> Not this bullshit again.
>
> The custom tab has to be scratched, all servers should be displayed by
> default. Players should then be allowed to filter tags they like or do not
> like.
>
> If a player learns to use tags, great. If they don't, they see all options.
> This is what's important, if you by default HIDE 'custom' servers, the
> majority of the players who don't care will never see the so called custom
> servers.
>
> The whole tag system is flawed, let's say I run a 24 server without fast
> respawn. No tags are added by valve without any kind of mods manipulating
> the tags.
>
> But I add a grapple hook for all players.
>
> What server operator in their right mind would voluntarily add a tag that
> results in their server effectively being delisted?
>
> NOBODY.
>
> And then what is valve going to do about that? Are they going to come tell
> server ops "hey you HAVE to list tags".
>
> Is valve going to hire a bunch of people to look for servers to make sure
> they aren't modded? Doubtful.
>
> In its current implementation server operators have an incentive to avoid
> tags, if all servers are shown by default with their respective tags, server
> operators would have an incentive to SHOW their tags. It's basically saying
> "hey! Look what we got!", but if players don't see this by default, it will
> be worthless.
>
> How hard is it to understand this?
>
> Valve probably realized their mistake and might be correcting it. At least I
> hope so. The custom tab will be an eternal cat and mouse game between server
> operators and valve. Valve can very easily solve the problem and make
> everyone happy just by having the servers all visible by default. 
>
> Players who want custom, can find it.
> Players who want vanilla, can find it.
> Players who don't care or don't know what they want, or don't know how to
> use the filters, have all options shown to them so they can make their mind
> on the fly.
>
> If you go to a restaurant and the waiter gives you a menu, and without you
> knowing, there is "two" different menus, but they give you the "standard"
> menu, chances are, very few people will ever ask "hey what's on the other
> menu"
>
> Also, increased_maxplayers is probably one of the stupidest tags ever. It's
> like a bag of peanuts with the warning: "Warning: contains peanuts". Like
> players can't tell it's a 32 player server without reading the tags.
>
> - voogru.
>
> -Original Message-
> From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of SakeFox
> Sent: Wednesday, July 23, 2008 9:57 PM
> To: Half-Life dedicated Win32 server mailing list
> Subject: Re: [hlds] valve, some feedback?
>
> Well just because you pay for your servers doesn't give you rights to do 
> whatever with there programs. Valve has been good about allowing people 
> to modify there games, but i can see there point in what they are doing. 
> They want people that are getting into the game to be able to play it as 
> it was created and not with modified settings. There not limiting anyone 
> from running there servers how they want. They are just looking at how 
> new people experience the game. Now the game was designed for 24players 
> in a server, so if you have a 32 person complaining about balancing 
> issues in a game, that information is kinda scewed because the game is 
> not played as intended.
>
> I really didn't want to create the bullshit from a few weeks ago either, 
> however i think it was a few months ago, but since no one else has been 
> calling Valve out on there short comings and completely ignoring issues 
> with there games I thought I might as well start somewhere. This really 
> wasn't intended to start the flame back up, but thought it to bring this 
> bit up of there idle threats first and get it out of the way since its 
> the most touchy of things.
>
> tgnwells wrote:
>   
>> I think the problem is valve set up the rules without thinking much 
>> about them, or more obviously, how the community would react to being 
>> forced to have to adapt to these changes when there's really no reason to.
>>
>> And a lot of people pay good money for their hosted servers, I don't 
>> think Valve should be moderating the servers people put up and start 
>> punishing people for something that doesn't really matter either way, I 
>> especially hope they don't think they should as well.
>>
>> And to think this whole custom tags argument bullshit could be done with 
>> once and for all by adding an "All Servers" tab.
>>
>> chillicane wrote:
>>   
>> 
>>> indeed you are correct, valve set us up the rules (sic)
>>>
>>> The problem we have in this country is all the major telco run server
>>> opertions have instaspawn servers and none of them end up in the custom
>>>   
> tab,
>   
>>> wether they are running a plugin version of instaspawn or
>>> disableresapwntimers 1.
>>>
>>> And the cus

Re: [hlds] valve, some feedback?

2008-07-23 Thread chillicane
I dont see whats wrong with that warning, im allergic to peanuts, and you
never know, i might pick up a bag of peanuts and not realise that peanuts
have peanuts in them and when i check for the warning label, its not there!

On Thu, Jul 24, 2008 at 12:20 PM, Spencer 'voogru' MacDonald <
[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:

> Not this bullshit again.
>
> The custom tab has to be scratched, all servers should be displayed by
> default. Players should then be allowed to filter tags they like or do not
> like.
>
> If a player learns to use tags, great. If they don't, they see all options.
> This is what's important, if you by default HIDE 'custom' servers, the
> majority of the players who don't care will never see the so called custom
> servers.
>
> The whole tag system is flawed, let's say I run a 24 server without fast
> respawn. No tags are added by valve without any kind of mods manipulating
> the tags.
>
> But I add a grapple hook for all players.
>
> What server operator in their right mind would voluntarily add a tag that
> results in their server effectively being delisted?
>
> NOBODY.
>
> And then what is valve going to do about that? Are they going to come tell
> server ops "hey you HAVE to list tags".
>
> Is valve going to hire a bunch of people to look for servers to make sure
> they aren't modded? Doubtful.
>
> In its current implementation server operators have an incentive to avoid
> tags, if all servers are shown by default with their respective tags,
> server
> operators would have an incentive to SHOW their tags. It's basically saying
> "hey! Look what we got!", but if players don't see this by default, it will
> be worthless.
>
> How hard is it to understand this?
>
> Valve probably realized their mistake and might be correcting it. At least
> I
> hope so. The custom tab will be an eternal cat and mouse game between
> server
> operators and valve. Valve can very easily solve the problem and make
> everyone happy just by having the servers all visible by default.
>
> Players who want custom, can find it.
> Players who want vanilla, can find it.
> Players who don't care or don't know what they want, or don't know how to
> use the filters, have all options shown to them so they can make their mind
> on the fly.
>
> If you go to a restaurant and the waiter gives you a menu, and without you
> knowing, there is "two" different menus, but they give you the "standard"
> menu, chances are, very few people will ever ask "hey what's on the other
> menu"
>
> Also, increased_maxplayers is probably one of the stupidest tags ever. It's
> like a bag of peanuts with the warning: "Warning: contains peanuts". Like
> players can't tell it's a 32 player server without reading the tags.
>
> - voogru.
>
> -Original Message-
> From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of SakeFox
> Sent: Wednesday, July 23, 2008 9:57 PM
> To: Half-Life dedicated Win32 server mailing list
> Subject: Re: [hlds] valve, some feedback?
>
> Well just because you pay for your servers doesn't give you rights to do
> whatever with there programs. Valve has been good about allowing people
> to modify there games, but i can see there point in what they are doing.
> They want people that are getting into the game to be able to play it as
> it was created and not with modified settings. There not limiting anyone
> from running there servers how they want. They are just looking at how
> new people experience the game. Now the game was designed for 24players
> in a server, so if you have a 32 person complaining about balancing
> issues in a game, that information is kinda scewed because the game is
> not played as intended.
>
> I really didn't want to create the bullshit from a few weeks ago either,
> however i think it was a few months ago, but since no one else has been
> calling Valve out on there short comings and completely ignoring issues
> with there games I thought I might as well start somewhere. This really
> wasn't intended to start the flame back up, but thought it to bring this
> bit up of there idle threats first and get it out of the way since its
> the most touchy of things.
>
> tgnwells wrote:
> > I think the problem is valve set up the rules without thinking much
> > about them, or more obviously, how the community would react to being
> > forced to have to adapt to these changes when there's really no reason
> to.
> >
> > And a lot of people pay good money for their hosted servers, I don't
> > think Valve should be moderating the servers people put up and start
> > punishing people for something that doesn't really matter either way, I
> > especially hope they don't think they should as well.
> >
> > And to think this whole custom tags argument bullshit could be done with
> > once and for all by adding an "All Servers" tab.
> >
> > chillicane wrote:
> >
> >> indeed you are correct, valve set us up the rules (sic)
> >>
> >> The problem we have in this country is all the major telco run server
> >> opertions hav

Re: [hlds] valve, some feedback?

2008-07-23 Thread Leonard L. Church


Spencer 'voogru' MacDonald wrote:
*snip the extra stuff that repeats what people already said*

 > Players who want vanilla, can find it.

Ummm.. No. That's the problem. We can't.

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Re: [hlds] valve, some feedback?

2008-07-23 Thread Spencer 'voogru' MacDonald
I guess you didn't read my full post.

The system I'm prosing (1 tab with tag filters), would allow players who
want vanilla to be able to find it easier than it is now.

- voogru.

-Original Message-
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
[mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Leonard L. Church
Sent: Wednesday, July 23, 2008 10:41 PM
To: Half-Life dedicated Win32 server mailing list
Subject: Re: [hlds] valve, some feedback?



Spencer 'voogru' MacDonald wrote:
*snip the extra stuff that repeats what people already said*

 > Players who want vanilla, can find it.

Ummm.. No. That's the problem. We can't.

___
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please visit:
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___
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Re: [hlds] valve, some feedback?

2008-07-23 Thread Ryan Mannion
Thank you for taking the time to enunciate what I'm sure many other
server admins - myself, included - think about this subject.

Ryan

On Wed, Jul 23, 2008 at 7:20 PM, Spencer 'voogru' MacDonald
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> Not this bullshit again.
>
> The custom tab has to be scratched, all servers should be displayed by
> default. Players should then be allowed to filter tags they like or do not
> like.
>
> If a player learns to use tags, great. If they don't, they see all options.
> This is what's important, if you by default HIDE 'custom' servers, the
> majority of the players who don't care will never see the so called custom
> servers.
>
> The whole tag system is flawed, let's say I run a 24 server without fast
> respawn. No tags are added by valve without any kind of mods manipulating
> the tags.
>
> But I add a grapple hook for all players.
>
> What server operator in their right mind would voluntarily add a tag that
> results in their server effectively being delisted?
>
> NOBODY.
>
> And then what is valve going to do about that? Are they going to come tell
> server ops "hey you HAVE to list tags".
>
> Is valve going to hire a bunch of people to look for servers to make sure
> they aren't modded? Doubtful.
>
> In its current implementation server operators have an incentive to avoid
> tags, if all servers are shown by default with their respective tags, server
> operators would have an incentive to SHOW their tags. It's basically saying
> "hey! Look what we got!", but if players don't see this by default, it will
> be worthless.
>
> How hard is it to understand this?
>
> Valve probably realized their mistake and might be correcting it. At least I
> hope so. The custom tab will be an eternal cat and mouse game between server
> operators and valve. Valve can very easily solve the problem and make
> everyone happy just by having the servers all visible by default.
>
> Players who want custom, can find it.
> Players who want vanilla, can find it.
> Players who don't care or don't know what they want, or don't know how to
> use the filters, have all options shown to them so they can make their mind
> on the fly.
>
> If you go to a restaurant and the waiter gives you a menu, and without you
> knowing, there is "two" different menus, but they give you the "standard"
> menu, chances are, very few people will ever ask "hey what's on the other
> menu"
>
> Also, increased_maxplayers is probably one of the stupidest tags ever. It's
> like a bag of peanuts with the warning: "Warning: contains peanuts". Like
> players can't tell it's a 32 player server without reading the tags.
>
> - voogru.
>
> -Original Message-
> From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of SakeFox
> Sent: Wednesday, July 23, 2008 9:57 PM
> To: Half-Life dedicated Win32 server mailing list
> Subject: Re: [hlds] valve, some feedback?
>
> Well just because you pay for your servers doesn't give you rights to do
> whatever with there programs. Valve has been good about allowing people
> to modify there games, but i can see there point in what they are doing.
> They want people that are getting into the game to be able to play it as
> it was created and not with modified settings. There not limiting anyone
> from running there servers how they want. They are just looking at how
> new people experience the game. Now the game was designed for 24players
> in a server, so if you have a 32 person complaining about balancing
> issues in a game, that information is kinda scewed because the game is
> not played as intended.
>
> I really didn't want to create the bullshit from a few weeks ago either,
> however i think it was a few months ago, but since no one else has been
> calling Valve out on there short comings and completely ignoring issues
> with there games I thought I might as well start somewhere. This really
> wasn't intended to start the flame back up, but thought it to bring this
> bit up of there idle threats first and get it out of the way since its
> the most touchy of things.
>
> tgnwells wrote:
>> I think the problem is valve set up the rules without thinking much
>> about them, or more obviously, how the community would react to being
>> forced to have to adapt to these changes when there's really no reason to.
>>
>> And a lot of people pay good money for their hosted servers, I don't
>> think Valve should be moderating the servers people put up and start
>> punishing people for something that doesn't really matter either way, I
>> especially hope they don't think they should as well.
>>
>> And to think this whole custom tags argument bullshit could be done with
>> once and for all by adding an "All Servers" tab.
>>
>> chillicane wrote:
>>
>>> indeed you are correct, valve set us up the rules (sic)
>>>
>>> The problem we have in this country is all the major telco run server
>>> opertions have instaspawn servers and none of them end up in the custom
> tab,
>>> wether they are running a plugin version of inst

Re: [hlds] valve, some feedback?

2008-07-23 Thread SakeFox
actually the subject of the email was not about the custom tabs, but it 
seemed to have gone that way, but hopefully it will get back on track to 
where it was

Ryan Mannion wrote:
> Thank you for taking the time to enunciate what I'm sure many other
> server admins - myself, included - think about this subject.
>
> Ryan
>
> On Wed, Jul 23, 2008 at 7:20 PM, Spencer 'voogru' MacDonald
> <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>   
>> Not this bullshit again.
>>
>> The custom tab has to be scratched, all servers should be displayed by
>> default. Players should then be allowed to filter tags they like or do not
>> like.
>>
>> If a player learns to use tags, great. If they don't, they see all options.
>> This is what's important, if you by default HIDE 'custom' servers, the
>> majority of the players who don't care will never see the so called custom
>> servers.
>>
>> The whole tag system is flawed, let's say I run a 24 server without fast
>> respawn. No tags are added by valve without any kind of mods manipulating
>> the tags.
>>
>> But I add a grapple hook for all players.
>>
>> What server operator in their right mind would voluntarily add a tag that
>> results in their server effectively being delisted?
>>
>> NOBODY.
>>
>> And then what is valve going to do about that? Are they going to come tell
>> server ops "hey you HAVE to list tags".
>>
>> Is valve going to hire a bunch of people to look for servers to make sure
>> they aren't modded? Doubtful.
>>
>> In its current implementation server operators have an incentive to avoid
>> tags, if all servers are shown by default with their respective tags, server
>> operators would have an incentive to SHOW their tags. It's basically saying
>> "hey! Look what we got!", but if players don't see this by default, it will
>> be worthless.
>>
>> How hard is it to understand this?
>>
>> Valve probably realized their mistake and might be correcting it. At least I
>> hope so. The custom tab will be an eternal cat and mouse game between server
>> operators and valve. Valve can very easily solve the problem and make
>> everyone happy just by having the servers all visible by default.
>>
>> Players who want custom, can find it.
>> Players who want vanilla, can find it.
>> Players who don't care or don't know what they want, or don't know how to
>> use the filters, have all options shown to them so they can make their mind
>> on the fly.
>>
>> If you go to a restaurant and the waiter gives you a menu, and without you
>> knowing, there is "two" different menus, but they give you the "standard"
>> menu, chances are, very few people will ever ask "hey what's on the other
>> menu"
>>
>> Also, increased_maxplayers is probably one of the stupidest tags ever. It's
>> like a bag of peanuts with the warning: "Warning: contains peanuts". Like
>> players can't tell it's a 32 player server without reading the tags.
>>
>> - voogru.
>>
>> -Original Message-
>> From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
>> [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of SakeFox
>> Sent: Wednesday, July 23, 2008 9:57 PM
>> To: Half-Life dedicated Win32 server mailing list
>> Subject: Re: [hlds] valve, some feedback?
>>
>> Well just because you pay for your servers doesn't give you rights to do
>> whatever with there programs. Valve has been good about allowing people
>> to modify there games, but i can see there point in what they are doing.
>> They want people that are getting into the game to be able to play it as
>> it was created and not with modified settings. There not limiting anyone
>> from running there servers how they want. They are just looking at how
>> new people experience the game. Now the game was designed for 24players
>> in a server, so if you have a 32 person complaining about balancing
>> issues in a game, that information is kinda scewed because the game is
>> not played as intended.
>>
>> I really didn't want to create the bullshit from a few weeks ago either,
>> however i think it was a few months ago, but since no one else has been
>> calling Valve out on there short comings and completely ignoring issues
>> with there games I thought I might as well start somewhere. This really
>> wasn't intended to start the flame back up, but thought it to bring this
>> bit up of there idle threats first and get it out of the way since its
>> the most touchy of things.
>>
>> tgnwells wrote:
>> 
>>> I think the problem is valve set up the rules without thinking much
>>> about them, or more obviously, how the community would react to being
>>> forced to have to adapt to these changes when there's really no reason to.
>>>
>>> And a lot of people pay good money for their hosted servers, I don't
>>> think Valve should be moderating the servers people put up and start
>>> punishing people for something that doesn't really matter either way, I
>>> especially hope they don't think they should as well.
>>>
>>> And to think this whole custom tags argument bullshit could be done with
>>> once and for all by adding an "All Servers" tab