Go to CODE BEIGE. (Server potentially in danger!)

**ZenSaohu** · 03-13-09, 12:21 AM

Valve just explained their brand new "Server ranking system" on their blog.

http://www.teamfortress.com/post.php?id=2338

Essentially, Valve want to rank servers by giving them bonus points for players who stay for a very long time, and penalizing them for players that quit as soon as they join. This generates a problem for TTP's server.

The Problem:
Unfortunately, LoneStar's current reserve slot implementation probably get us slapped really fast. Every time someone connects to the server, they will cost TTP 15 points, and if the server is listed 22/24, they will be booted instantly. People LOVE joining servers that look near full, I'd assume, and if we don't revamp the reserve slot system, I feel like we're going to get penalized pretty badly.

Possible Solutions:
I acknowledge the difficulty in implementation that fixing this would cause...

I don't know if it would be possible to let the server sit at 24/24 and have some magical signal sent when a reservist tries to connect to a full server. This would be an ideal solution, second only to Valve implementing reserved slots themselves.

Alternatively, we could use the cheap hack of making the server hold 25 people, use one of the quick hacks that exist to broadcast 24/24, and when a reservist connects he could slip in through the hidden slot and boot out a player as usual. I don't know if filtering by "Full Servers" will hide 24/24 this way, but if it does, then we have a solution.

Essentially, I'm still not certain about where Valve log the "successful connection" attempt. I don't know if an attempt to connect to a full server is a proper connection attempt, but if is its, then we should be able to code LoneStar to let him in somehow. If it's not, then I don't think the boots we give with the current system will count against us. But I still think that there's something janky about the current reserve slot implementation...

Any other thoughts/ideas?

**DJ Ms. White** · 03-13-09, 12:23 AM

It is being discussed on the private side.

**masterPAINb** · 03-13-09, 12:45 AM

I'm all for 24/24 rather than the current 22/24

**Captain Coors** · 03-13-09, 01:31 AM

:5

Weak design by valve...what a surprise after the sandman. I wonder if some community people suggested this idea just like some dude on steam forums came up with sandman.

Figure out a better way to root out the servers that use non-vanilla and fake user populations and let it be valve.

There's also lots of people like myself that sometimes play for short times have to leave because of IRL stuff...so they will count against a servers rankings? Let alone reserve systems issue. Bah.

/end being a troll

**kyle700** · 03-13-09, 01:59 AM

Wow. I'm stunned. So if someone LOSES, they leave, and then we lose points. If it happens often, which it might, then we're taken off the server list? WTF? Wow!

**Langrad** · 03-13-09, 02:03 AM

I know I always play for 45 minutes when I connect so I will help out when you guys leave.

What worries me is crashes, say a server crashes then people reconnect thats -330 points immidialty. If theres some bug? More crashing! They need to remove this thing immidiatly.

**Silent_Crow** · 03-13-09, 02:56 AM

Well they dont get into the nitty gritty so much. When they say a player leaves the server, does that mean they disconnect? or does that also include kicks. When someone 'connects' does it count when they are immediately kicked via our reserve slot system? or do they have to actually get in the game for the connection to count?

These are some details that if are in our favor, then we are perfectly fine. Our reservists easily stay in the srever for at least a half hour per connection. Id be interested to know how TTP scores atm.

**...bigdog...** · 03-13-09, 08:42 AM

this would mean that essentially any server using reserved slots like we do would have the same rank penalty...so it normalizes out.

further....we also have just as many people that play 3 -4 hours at a time, bumping out those reserved connections.

Let's see what happens in terms of this ranking crap....if anyone even cares at all. for the most part, people sort servers based on ping, and then map. so long as we're playing the good maps, and people have good latencies...no one is going to give a crap about the rank.

**DJ Ms. White** · 03-13-09, 08:49 AM

Scores are peaked after 45 minutes of play, I take it to eliminate someone sitting in a server AFK to drive up rank. It's too bad that the scores don't restart with each map, or do they? When a new map loads, is it like joining the server all over? If so,

**FEED** · 03-13-09, 09:05 AM

And that's what ye git fer toochin that!

One of the things we've been thinking about for a while now is how to improve the player experience around finding a server to play on. It's a tricky problem because our master servers need to ask a game server for its details, and that server can lie to us if it wants to. We decided we needed to find a way of scoring servers, with a goal of finding and delisting ones we considered "bad". The scoring system had to penalize lying without penalizing custom game rules, because some players like custom game rules. Best case, the system needed to work entirely from data that didn't come from the servers themselves, so they couldn't lie to us in any way to affect it.<br /><br />

http://www.teamfortress.com/post.php?id=2338