Re: [hlds_linux] L4D Matchmaking - abject failure? :(
While I definitely see room for improvement, I don't see it as an "abject failure", and actually like the matchmaking as better way to handle a game where you will have so few players. However, I've had no issues whatsoever creating games with friends, and playing games on my own servers. I understand many other people have, but I would not consider it a majority, as people who aren't having issues aren't likely to say anything. On Tue, Nov 18, 2008 at 11:19 PM, Mark - hlds list <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > So many threads like this... my experiences match them, unfortunately. > I spent the better part of this evening trying for some success with > "sv_steamgroup xx" and "sv_steamgroup_exclusive 1". I didn't expect > any buddies to join in as early in the evening as I was starting, but > figured, "No sweat, 'exclusive 1' just means public players will be able > to get in once I'm playing". Wrong... I played through three of the > missions with just myself and the bots, hoping I'd get some other > players in at some point. Maybe it's my massively customized > server.cfg, a few lines that turn on the steamgroup settings, set > sv_pure to 2, and set the hostname? I know it's not a connectivity > problem, the server can be joined readily by anybody using the console. > It's checking in with the master servers. Why no public clients? I > turned off the two steamgroup settings in server.cfg, restarted it, and > within 1 minute the server was full; that's pretty great, being locked > out of your server before you can even get your game launched to join > it. Frustrated, but not wanting to kill my server and make it exclusive > again until those guys were done, I tried to just join a game using > quick match. Three failures, all due to attempts to connect to servers > behind NATs. How wonderful. I waited for my server to empty, killed it > out of frustration, then finally connected to a 'net game where my ping > was pretty horrible but at least I was playing without bots for > teammates. My high-end server that is 13ms away from my house seems > like a utopia I and my buddies will never get to enjoy. > > The whole matchmaking thing just seems phenomenally poorly done. Does > anyone love it, hoping it will completely replace the good ol' server > browser that has worked absolutely perfectly for all of us for years? > Or does the majority of this list pretty much hate it, but tolerate it > for now hoping it will get better? I never realized how much I'd miss a > server browser until I started playing L4D this evening. Tonight I felt > a level of disappointment with this otherwise great new game that I'd > never dreamt possible. > > Argh... > > > 1nsane wrote: > > Mine has no pass and it doesn't work for me :S. > > > > On Tue, Nov 18, 2008 at 7:00 PM, David Parker <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > > > > >> As far as I can tell, sv_search_key still works for me as long as the > >> server does not also have sv_password set. > >> > >> - Dave > >> > >> - Original Message - > >> From: bl4nk <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > >> Date: Tuesday, November 18, 2008 6:31 pm > >> Subject: Re: [hlds_linux] L4D Community Server Idea - Matchmaking > >> To: Half-Life dedicated Linux server mailing list < > >> hlds_linux@list.valvesoftware.com> > >> > >> > >>> Same here. I have servers set up, but when my key matches the > >>> one I set > >>> on the server, I can't find any dedicated servers when searching > >>> for one > >>> to host my lobby game. Once I remove the key from my client, I > >>> can > >>> instantly find a server to host our game. > >>> > >>> 1nsane wrote: > >>> > sv_search_key does not seem to work for me. It can never find > > >>> servers with > >>> > the same key in my case. And if I do connect to an "exclusive" > > >>> server and > >>> > vote to come back to the lobby (to change the map or > > >>> characters) it then > >>> > sends me to a different server while my own is idling. As a > > >>> bonus I got > >>> > kicked off some server after the game ended from our prrivate > > >>> one and the > >>> > lobby decided to randomly change servers :(. > > On Tue, Nov 18, 2008 at 12:58 PM, Cc2iscooL > > >>> <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > >>> > > > I take that back. > > > > It works as intended...but why can't we get this integrated > > > >>> into the > >>> > > community system? > > > > On Tue, Nov 18, 2008 at 11:56 AM, Cc2iscooL > > > >>> <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > >>> > > > >> As far as I can tell sv_search_key no longer works as intended. > >> > >> > >> On Tue, Nov 18, 2008 at 11:40 AM, Joseph Laws <[EMAIL PROTECTED] > >> > >>> gaming.com > >>> > > wrote: > > > > > >>> I thought this was already there. You could make your > >>> > >>> own lobby with > >>> > >>> your own settings and, using the sv_search_key..and now the group > >>> thingy, you s
Re: [hlds_linux] L4D Matchmaking - abject failure? :(
I will add my message of frustration, however I do not feel that the Lobby system is a total failure. It just makes sense to use the Lobby system in Left 4 Dead. sv_steamgroup_exclusive 1 doesn't address the real needs of private group dedicated servers. We don't want the public in our games, that is why we run a dedicated server in the first place. We are an invite only group and I am sure we are by no means unique in the Steam gaming community in this regards. We need a setting that restricts the server to our group only. No public ever, not even after one of us joins. The other way the Lobby completely fails is for players hosting the dedicated server on their own broadband connection. For every other source game they can use the server browser favorites functionality to allow them to bypass the NAT issues. The lobby system does not allow for this at all. - However all is not lost for us, we have managed to work around all of this at the expense of a large part of the experience Valve intended for with this game. All of use are forced to use the connect command to reach our server. We have to use the vote / M functionality to simulate what the lobby system does so easily. Even then we are kicked out of the game when the campaign is over and have to console connect back in again. Here is my server config for anyone interested in doing this... so far it works for us, although it is a huge pain in the rear: ./srcds_run \ -game left4dead \ -ip X.X.X.X \ -netconport 90## \ -netconpassword XX \ -port 27015+## \ +motdfile motd##.txt \ +exec server##.cfg \ -nohltv \ -fork 4 server.cfg (common cfg for all forks): rcon_password "X" sv_alltalk 1 sv_steamgroup X sv_password "XXX" sv_search_key X sv_allow_lobby_connect_only 0 setmaster add 68.142.72.250:27011 setmaster add 72.165.61.189:27011 server01.cfg / server02.cfg (co-op): hostname "Server 1 Co-op" sv_steamgroup_exclusive 1 z_difficulty hard map l4d_hospital01_apartment mapcyclefile "mapcycle.txt" server03.cfg / server04.cfg (vs): hostname "Server 3 VS" sv_steamgroup_exclusive 1 z_difficulty hard map l4d_vs_hospital01_apartment mapcycle "mapcycle_vs.txt" Again we have to use the console to connect. The server browser doesn't work. The lobby doesn't work. I have sv_search_key in there, but it doesn't work either. However when you use the connect command from the console it does prompt us for the password. I am hoping you folks at Valve can figure out a way for us to fix this. A couple of suggestions: sv_steamgroup_exclusive 2 : do not allow anyone not in the group to connect. add a client configuration option to enter a local lan IP address to redirect to when attempting to connect to a server that resolves to your public NATd IP. This may allow them to still connect using the Lobby. Or simply allow serverbrowser connections. If I hadn't figured out this workaround my group would have skipped L4D as much as we loved it since our good friend and gracious host couldn't connect using the demo. I like the idea of the Lobby system. I want it to work. But it just isn't quite there yet. - Bob Mark - hlds list wrote: > So many threads like this... my experiences match them, unfortunately. > I spent the better part of this evening trying for some success with > "sv_steamgroup xx" and "sv_steamgroup_exclusive 1". I didn't expect > any buddies to join in as early in the evening as I was starting, but > figured, "No sweat, 'exclusive 1' just means public players will be able > to get in once I'm playing". Wrong... I played through three of the > missions with just myself and the bots, hoping I'd get some other > players in at some point. Maybe it's my massively customized > server.cfg, a few lines that turn on the steamgroup settings, set > sv_pure to 2, and set the hostname? I know it's not a connectivity > problem, the server can be joined readily by anybody using the console. > It's checking in with the master servers. Why no public clients? I > turned off the two steamgroup settings in server.cfg, restarted it, and > within 1 minute the server was full; that's pretty great, being locked > out of your server before you can even get your game launched to join > it. Frustrated, but not wanting to kill my server and make it exclusive > again until those guys were done, I tried to just join a game using > quick match. Three failures, all due to attempts to connect to servers > behind NATs. How wonderful. I waited for my server to empty, killed it > out of frustration, then finally connected to a 'net game where my ping > was pretty horrible but at least I was playing without bots for > teammates. My high-end server that is 13ms away from my house seems > like a utopia I and my buddies will never get to enjoy. > > The whole matchmaking thing just seems phenomenally poorly done. Does > anyone love it, hoping it will completely replace the good ol'
Re: [hlds_linux] L4D Matchmaking - abject failure? :(
So many threads like this... my experiences match them, unfortunately. I spent the better part of this evening trying for some success with "sv_steamgroup xx" and "sv_steamgroup_exclusive 1". I didn't expect any buddies to join in as early in the evening as I was starting, but figured, "No sweat, 'exclusive 1' just means public players will be able to get in once I'm playing". Wrong... I played through three of the missions with just myself and the bots, hoping I'd get some other players in at some point. Maybe it's my massively customized server.cfg, a few lines that turn on the steamgroup settings, set sv_pure to 2, and set the hostname? I know it's not a connectivity problem, the server can be joined readily by anybody using the console. It's checking in with the master servers. Why no public clients? I turned off the two steamgroup settings in server.cfg, restarted it, and within 1 minute the server was full; that's pretty great, being locked out of your server before you can even get your game launched to join it. Frustrated, but not wanting to kill my server and make it exclusive again until those guys were done, I tried to just join a game using quick match. Three failures, all due to attempts to connect to servers behind NATs. How wonderful. I waited for my server to empty, killed it out of frustration, then finally connected to a 'net game where my ping was pretty horrible but at least I was playing without bots for teammates. My high-end server that is 13ms away from my house seems like a utopia I and my buddies will never get to enjoy. The whole matchmaking thing just seems phenomenally poorly done. Does anyone love it, hoping it will completely replace the good ol' server browser that has worked absolutely perfectly for all of us for years? Or does the majority of this list pretty much hate it, but tolerate it for now hoping it will get better? I never realized how much I'd miss a server browser until I started playing L4D this evening. Tonight I felt a level of disappointment with this otherwise great new game that I'd never dreamt possible. Argh... 1nsane wrote: > Mine has no pass and it doesn't work for me :S. > > On Tue, Nov 18, 2008 at 7:00 PM, David Parker <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > >> As far as I can tell, sv_search_key still works for me as long as the >> server does not also have sv_password set. >> >> - Dave >> >> - Original Message - >> From: bl4nk <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> >> Date: Tuesday, November 18, 2008 6:31 pm >> Subject: Re: [hlds_linux] L4D Community Server Idea - Matchmaking >> To: Half-Life dedicated Linux server mailing list < >> hlds_linux@list.valvesoftware.com> >> >> >>> Same here. I have servers set up, but when my key matches the >>> one I set >>> on the server, I can't find any dedicated servers when searching >>> for one >>> to host my lobby game. Once I remove the key from my client, I >>> can >>> instantly find a server to host our game. >>> >>> 1nsane wrote: >>> sv_search_key does not seem to work for me. It can never find >>> servers with >>> the same key in my case. And if I do connect to an "exclusive" >>> server and >>> vote to come back to the lobby (to change the map or >>> characters) it then >>> sends me to a different server while my own is idling. As a >>> bonus I got >>> kicked off some server after the game ended from our prrivate >>> one and the >>> lobby decided to randomly change servers :(. On Tue, Nov 18, 2008 at 12:58 PM, Cc2iscooL >>> <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: >>> > I take that back. > > It works as intended...but why can't we get this integrated > >>> into the >>> > community system? > > On Tue, Nov 18, 2008 at 11:56 AM, Cc2iscooL > >>> <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: >>> > >> As far as I can tell sv_search_key no longer works as intended. >> >> >> On Tue, Nov 18, 2008 at 11:40 AM, Joseph Laws <[EMAIL PROTECTED] >> >>> gaming.com >>> > wrote: > > >>> I thought this was already there. You could make your >>> >>> own lobby with >>> >>> your own settings and, using the sv_search_key..and now the group >>> thingy, you should be able to have that game played on your >>> >>> own server. >>> >>> Perhaps I'm mistaken, wouldn't be the first time. ;) >>> >>> Flubber wrote: >>> >>> I asked for that feature days ago, no response. 2008/11/18 Cc2iscooL <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > Alright guys, I had an idea for the community-based > >>> servers seeing
