Whats up with TF2 division..
- Thread starter GardenGroveVW
- Start date
Interesting topic; some of the responses I would not have guessed.
Let me preface my comments by saying that I am fairly new to both Edge and TF2 (and FPS for that matter), so I don't have any large background preconceptions of the way it is or should be.
A couple of things I do know though;
1) I am amazed at the resources and talent that seem to drive this Edge Gamers organization, I would never have guessed (again, I am not a long time "team" gamer) that this much effort would be put into something like this. I looked at several other orgs before joining Edge and I saw none that really compared.
2) I think our servers are very well run by the admin crew. I NEVER witness anyone (pub or member) get away with getting rudely out of hand; and it is generally handled in a very mature manner, rarely resulting in a kick (that I have seen) unless it is well deserved.
3) As a business-minded person I can't believe what an incredibly entertaining product Valve puts out, updates and keeps fresh (even with blemishes), all for zero recurring cost to the players. Even the measly $19 I paid for it (which included Half-life 2, best game ever) is outrageous in terms of bang for the buck.
4) Blackmesa is hands down the best server on the entire list (not just ours). I could go on about that but I wont?
Having said that to set my context, here are my thoughts on the topic:
It seems that School is the biggy (not for me, I'm many years out of that) and that is understandable, I have a HS kid and he has dropped to about 20% of his summer gaming time during the week (split between WoW and TF2).
I do not really understand the lag issue as a detractor. I have good gear, incredibly fast Internet, blah-blah, and still get lag spikes, and not just on Edge servers. I live with it because it is not that big a detractor for me. I don't like it, but I am not going to go play with some foul-mouthed, mic-spamming, grief-causing punks because of it. Not that that is what all other servers have, but JEEZ there is a lot of that out there.
I spend a lot of hours in the evenings and weekends, primarily on our servers, and I have no idea what this whole "banspam" thing is about?? see #2 above.
I have found that, of the things that are important to ME here is how they fall in priority:
1) Group of people (personalities as someone put it) who you get to ?know? and like to play with. Edge has some great folks (member and pub) who regularly play, and a lot of them are REALLY good, which I like even when being uber-dom'd.
2) The map; some of them I just don?t like for whatever reason, but if I have a group of friends to play with, I can live with a map that I don?t like as much. On the flip-side, I?ll drop off a map that I LOVE if I don?t ?click? with the people who are playing. I?ve even dropped off of Blackmesa (WHAT?!) for this reason.
3) Team work when playing this game. It is fun at times to just log in and try being spy to see what I can do without getting burnt to ashes a billion times, but after a while, if I?m not trying to accomplish something along with the team (e.g. cap all the points, whatever) it gets stale. The problem is, many times there are just too many people doing just that, solo-ing away without regard to the team objective. I have seen games won in a few minutes just because the other team gets organized and chooses classes in a balanced way and just roll over a team of hot dog solo-ists. If it happens too much, it is just not fun any more.
I?ll stop before I get kicked for forum spamming?
Let me preface my comments by saying that I am fairly new to both Edge and TF2 (and FPS for that matter), so I don't have any large background preconceptions of the way it is or should be.
A couple of things I do know though;
1) I am amazed at the resources and talent that seem to drive this Edge Gamers organization, I would never have guessed (again, I am not a long time "team" gamer) that this much effort would be put into something like this. I looked at several other orgs before joining Edge and I saw none that really compared.
2) I think our servers are very well run by the admin crew. I NEVER witness anyone (pub or member) get away with getting rudely out of hand; and it is generally handled in a very mature manner, rarely resulting in a kick (that I have seen) unless it is well deserved.
3) As a business-minded person I can't believe what an incredibly entertaining product Valve puts out, updates and keeps fresh (even with blemishes), all for zero recurring cost to the players. Even the measly $19 I paid for it (which included Half-life 2, best game ever) is outrageous in terms of bang for the buck.
4) Blackmesa is hands down the best server on the entire list (not just ours). I could go on about that but I wont?
Having said that to set my context, here are my thoughts on the topic:
It seems that School is the biggy (not for me, I'm many years out of that) and that is understandable, I have a HS kid and he has dropped to about 20% of his summer gaming time during the week (split between WoW and TF2).
I do not really understand the lag issue as a detractor. I have good gear, incredibly fast Internet, blah-blah, and still get lag spikes, and not just on Edge servers. I live with it because it is not that big a detractor for me. I don't like it, but I am not going to go play with some foul-mouthed, mic-spamming, grief-causing punks because of it. Not that that is what all other servers have, but JEEZ there is a lot of that out there.
I spend a lot of hours in the evenings and weekends, primarily on our servers, and I have no idea what this whole "banspam" thing is about?? see #2 above.
I have found that, of the things that are important to ME here is how they fall in priority:
1) Group of people (personalities as someone put it) who you get to ?know? and like to play with. Edge has some great folks (member and pub) who regularly play, and a lot of them are REALLY good, which I like even when being uber-dom'd.
2) The map; some of them I just don?t like for whatever reason, but if I have a group of friends to play with, I can live with a map that I don?t like as much. On the flip-side, I?ll drop off a map that I LOVE if I don?t ?click? with the people who are playing. I?ve even dropped off of Blackmesa (WHAT?!) for this reason.
3) Team work when playing this game. It is fun at times to just log in and try being spy to see what I can do without getting burnt to ashes a billion times, but after a while, if I?m not trying to accomplish something along with the team (e.g. cap all the points, whatever) it gets stale. The problem is, many times there are just too many people doing just that, solo-ing away without regard to the team objective. I have seen games won in a few minutes just because the other team gets organized and chooses classes in a balanced way and just roll over a team of hot dog solo-ists. If it happens too much, it is just not fun any more.
I?ll stop before I get kicked for forum spamming?
1+ I have seen a lot of pubs complaining about the lag on 2fort recently.
Another problem that is a result of the switching of the server to the new IP address is that we lost a lot of the casual-pubs. No joke, even though the old server says "MOVED TO 172.123.1231...." many casual pubs have no idea how to add a server back to their favorites list using IP alone. I typically befriend a lot of non-eGO pubs to try to keep them coming back to our servers even if they have no interest in formally joining eGO. I contacted a few of the pubs on my friends list over the last few weeks to ask them where they were, and from 4 of them, I heard the same thing "The 2fort server just vanished, so I found another 24/7 2fort server." Two of the guys accepted my assistance adding the 2fort server at the new IP to their favorites. The other two seriously said, "Nah, I don't want to go through hastle of add the server. I've already found a new 24/7 2fort server. Thanks anyway."
To be honest, I stumbled into eGO last year for a similar reason. I was playing for several months on another clan's 24/7 2fort and they had a server connection issue and the server was down for 2 or 3 days and in the downtime I simply looked for another 2fort server which happened to be eGO's. After a week or so I noticed that the other clan's 2fort server was back online but I figured that I'd rather just stick with the eGO one because the ping was good and I quickly started forming fun rivalries with some of the other regular players. After a few weeks I began figuring out that there were other eGO servers, then got more interested in the clan once I figured out the "No Punks" rules. Eventually, eGO Sharp recruited me to eGO.
My point is this: these temporary changes in server IPs and ping-issues have a very pronounced effect on pubs. And now that school is back in session the regular pubs are going to log in less frequently, and when they do and there's a change to their favorite server they simply find a new server running their favorite map.
However, it would be really interesting to see a graph of the # of users on any given map for the past 3 months. I think that the server stats viewable by the public only go back 1 month. However, it might be easier to pin-point the porblem if you look back at the date at which the server numbers dropped off. Does it correspond with the start of school? Does the decrease in numbers occur before then? If so, does the drop off in numbers correspond to anything like a server change or a Valve update?
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I've tried to help seed the last few days.
Not to complain, but some of you other guys need to find a server other than blackmesa. It's constanly full of eGO members and no pubbers. While the other servers have pubbers and no ego's (meaning no admins to help either). 15 admins in 1 blackmesa server... spread the wealth, valve maps, dustbowl, gravelpit, etc. all need a bit of love too.
Not to complain, but some of you other guys need to find a server other than blackmesa. It's constanly full of eGO members and no pubbers. While the other servers have pubbers and no ego's (meaning no admins to help either). 15 admins in 1 blackmesa server... spread the wealth, valve maps, dustbowl, gravelpit, etc. all need a bit of love too.
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- Aug 7, 2007
- Messages
- 2,218
Yeah IP changes are pretty huge as well
- Joined
- May 29, 2008
- Messages
- 76
- People are busy seeding and not actually playing
- 2fort should be limited to one server
- IP changes may have a limited effect
- lag is an issue
- The new HLstats is pissing people off
- fall semester in college is at full swing
- 2fort should be limited to one server
- IP changes may have a limited effect
- lag is an issue
- The new HLstats is pissing people off
- fall semester in college is at full swing
- Joined
- Nov 14, 2008
- Messages
- 1,283
Please stop complaining about seeders.
Playing > seeding > doing nothing.
Yes, seeding an empty server might not help at all initially. People join, see that no one is playing, and leave. But when the server starts picking up, having a few extra numbers in spec doesn't hurt. Does this mean you can only seed non-empty servers?
Sure, I'd love to play. But I'm at work. So I seed because I can't play. I'm not "busy seeding." I'm seeding because the only other option at the moment is "do nothing."
(Sorry, slightly OT)
Playing > seeding > doing nothing.
Yes, seeding an empty server might not help at all initially. People join, see that no one is playing, and leave. But when the server starts picking up, having a few extra numbers in spec doesn't hurt. Does this mean you can only seed non-empty servers?
Sure, I'd love to play. But I'm at work. So I seed because I can't play. I'm not "busy seeding." I'm seeding because the only other option at the moment is "do nothing."
(Sorry, slightly OT)
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Sorry I was replying to:
Should have quoted.
IE, seeding isn't part of "the problem," imho.
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- Jun 21, 2008
- Messages
- 134
I see a few reasons, most of which have already been stated:
1. Former admins stepping down
2. High ping from Verizon servers
3. Map changes or removals
4. Lack of team scramble ability for admins (this was taken away needlessly)
I myself was an eGO level before the clan removed the Warpath Server, and pretty much everyone I knew on warpath (and mind you, this was a map full of regulars) pretty much went to other places or left the clan entirely. We easily lost 15% of our tf2 players from that Warpath drop.
I know people claim "put the clan above everything else" when it comes to "manning up" and just going to a different map, but I honestly disagree. I play TF2 to have fun and play with people I like. When I see a whole group dropped merely because the clan wants to try to gain more impressive numbers (even though it already commanded a large number of members in the first place) that tells me that while the clan expects its members to put in effort and be dedicated, it offers no such return of favor. How can you have loyalty to a clan when it denies you such loyalty in return? You can't.
In any case, I still play on eGO servers from time to time (turbine usually), but on account of lag or lopsided teams, it gets difficult.
=XA= Ronin56109
1. Former admins stepping down
2. High ping from Verizon servers
3. Map changes or removals
4. Lack of team scramble ability for admins (this was taken away needlessly)
I myself was an eGO level before the clan removed the Warpath Server, and pretty much everyone I knew on warpath (and mind you, this was a map full of regulars) pretty much went to other places or left the clan entirely. We easily lost 15% of our tf2 players from that Warpath drop.
I know people claim "put the clan above everything else" when it comes to "manning up" and just going to a different map, but I honestly disagree. I play TF2 to have fun and play with people I like. When I see a whole group dropped merely because the clan wants to try to gain more impressive numbers (even though it already commanded a large number of members in the first place) that tells me that while the clan expects its members to put in effort and be dedicated, it offers no such return of favor. How can you have loyalty to a clan when it denies you such loyalty in return? You can't.
In any case, I still play on eGO servers from time to time (turbine usually), but on account of lag or lopsided teams, it gets difficult.
=XA= Ronin56109
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- Jul 25, 2008
- Messages
- 71
i love ego, and i'm as content as i can be...
but i have school.
currently i'm changing my schedule so i only have classes 3 days a week
but i have school.
currently i'm changing my schedule so i only have classes 3 days a week
Who, when where!!!???
- Joined
- Jun 14, 2008
- Messages
- 1,654
No Computer to game with,
School,
Mapping for TF2, (takes more time than TF2 does now)
Friends/Social Life.
I think out of the 10 or so servers we should cut back to 5 or 6. They'll be easier to fill than 10.
On another note: I find it kinda funny people complaining about 120 ping when most euros get around 160 - 200... all the time.
School,
Mapping for TF2, (takes more time than TF2 does now)
Friends/Social Life.
I think out of the 10 or so servers we should cut back to 5 or 6. They'll be easier to fill than 10.
On another note: I find it kinda funny people complaining about 120 ping when most euros get around 160 - 200... all the time.
I'm enjoying TF2 as much as ever, i've just been pressed for time.
Moving into a new house, heading back to Uni, finances to sort out, bills to pay. Just general stuff that's eaten up my time really. I've got to sort out the first weeks of my course, but I'm just getting back into the swing of things so expect to see my back and playing a lot more!
Moving into a new house, heading back to Uni, finances to sort out, bills to pay. Just general stuff that's eaten up my time really. I've got to sort out the first weeks of my course, but I'm just getting back into the swing of things so expect to see my back and playing a lot more!
What does this mean? Verify your account with Steam?
