Match start suggestions

[uips]

Sometimes after the warm up ends match starts with:

• unbalanced teams in terms of players per team
• AFK players in team

This can sometimes result in parts or entire map finished in matter of minutes.

Suggestion: Extra warm up time (15sec?) when there is afk in team or teams are not balanced yet.

What about if the conditions for match start are not met (1 - balanced teams,  2 - no afk players) warmup goes in overtime to try to fix it:

1. Moves all AFK players into spec after initial warm up is over
2. Activates overtime when teams are still unbalanced after initial warm up.
3. If it is still unbalanced after overtime, makes auto balance happen before game starts. (Right now the auto balance kicks in after the match starts unbalanced).

Perhaps not the biggest issue but as it can affect entire teams and im sure lots of players have experienced such game starts. Sometimes there are complaints about it in game and requests for restart because excessive amount of AFKs in spawn.

Maybe it would be a good thing if the game at least tries to fix teams before match start?

 

 

[Nanaa]

Some ideas:

Move everyone to spec when new map loads.

Add button to join specs at map end screen. (Currently only admins can do this with a command)

[Ctrz]

2 minutes ago, Nanaa said:

Add button to join specs at map end screen. (Currently only admins can do this with a command)

No, you can still open limbo menu if you press voice chat and go spec from there.

2 minutes ago, Nanaa said:

Move everyone to spec when new map loads.

Idea is valid but it would cause a lot of bad drama as there will be more people in spec because they want to play on certain side or with certain people. I remember that similar discussion rised when we discussed to have shuffle at the beginning or end at every map like we had in one of our servers which was more targeted to competitive people. 

Extending warmup time is viable idea but some people are really against it and has pushed the narrative to make it even shorter.

I would say that autobalancer could/should work much faster than it is working right now and move people around 10s from the moment equasion of both teams beeing even in playernumbers or maximum +1 is no longer valid & repeat again with similar speed when it is still not valid. Currently balancer waits pretty long time to give chance to others to swap.

[Nanaa]

10 minutes ago, Ctrz said:

No, you can still open limbo menu if you press voice chat and go spec from there.

Huh, wtf? Could you elaborate what do you press exactly? V+L? Is it widely known? Sounds quite gimmicky.

Edited February 7, 2022 by Nanaa

[Ctrz]

Just now, Nanaa said:

Huh, wtf? Could elaborate what do you press exactly? V+L? Is widely known? I've never heard of it.

You press "quick chat" on the bottom, then little pop up is shown (same as pressing V) and then you can press "L" (or whatever you have binded for limbo menu) and limbo menu will open. Choose whatever you want from there.  

[Nanaa]

32 minutes ago, Ctrz said:

You press "quick chat" on the bottom, then little pop up is shown (same as pressing V) and then you can press "L" (or whatever you have binded for limbo menu) and limbo menu will open. Choose whatever you want from there.  

Cool, I guess you learn something new every day. Sounds like a bug exploitation though and not something most ppl would come up with on their own. But I wonder why Limbo menu was made inaccessible with simply L in the first place.

This could be something to be fixed in ETL. Make limbo menu at map end accessible with simply L.

EDIT: Oh yeah, now I get it. L doesn't work because chat box is waiting for input and cannot be unfocused unless you press voice chat.

Edited February 7, 2022 by Nanaa

[Nanaa]

I realized that there is also "Limbo menu" button behind Esc-menu. So it is quite accessible after all. 👍 People should just use this more if they go afk at match end.

[Ctrz]

25 minutes ago, Nanaa said:

I realized that there is also "Limbo menu" button behind Esc-menu. So it is quite accessible after all. 👍 People should just use this more if they go afk at match end.

yup.

But I've been using that "bug" or "exploit" as long as I can remember.Somehow found it and kept using it throughout all years in jaymod, NQ, etpub, etpro, ETL ...  .

You can also always bind some key like /bind {key} "team s" but it also requires other execute than chatbox or console and you can use it instead of going through limbo menu. Have not tried if some command into console would also allow to change to spec or not.

[sty]

The best way would be what @Ctrz proposed, set the timelimit of autobalancer to 10s or so. No need to wait a whole minute, considering how busy our main server is. Currently afk ppl are "pain in the ass". I need to go spec and check both teams and put all manually, sometimes its 4-5 ppl each side. Also some players PM me to put some1 on spec. Setting autobalancer on short would be a good thing.

[uips]

1 hour ago, sty said:

Currently afk ppl are "pain in the ass". I need to go spec and check both teams and put all manually, sometimes its 4-5 ppl each side.

What about making inactivity timer very short as well so it would take effect during warmup and clear all those afk players before match start. Or separate inactivity timer just for match sart/warm up.

[Charlie]

If the inactivity timer was short, like 10 seconds for example, then it would impact people who chat. You stop to type and the timer starts. I sometimes get the automated warning because I've been typing too much and that's with it at 30 seconds or whatever.

[uips]

Then perhaps one reasonable solution would be different shorter inactivity timer just for warm up stage, during the match default value. That might move all afk players into spec automaticaly before match start. No more need for admin to check both spawns for afks.

Now for example if its is 20vs20 and one team has 5 afks in spawn, it will start as 15vs20 still unbalanced. Perhaps that could be the point where fast auto balance should happen, moving 2 players. Now i dont know how exactly the auto balance works but for it to be able to do fast swaps it needs to know in all times who are the ones that joined last? (whatever the criteria is). So it could do fair swaps of more players at time.

• Warm up time (30sec)
• whoever remains inactive during warmup will be put to spec through automated system.
• Auto balance kicks in just before match start, able to move more than 1 player if necessary.

The system would try to fix teams and create balanced state for match start, also decrease the need of admin input at start and let them enjoy game more too.

[PREMEDITATED]

4 hours ago, Charlie said:

If the inactivity timer was short, like 10 seconds for example, then it would impact people who chat. You stop to type and the timer starts. I sometimes get the automated warning because I've been typing too much and that's with it at 30 seconds or whatever.

I agree with this. I’m a slow typed these days 😂 I get the warning all the time. Especially if sending a private message to someone. 
 

[Charlie]

2 hours ago, uips said:

Now for example if its is 20vs20 and one team has 5 afks in spawn

In a perfect world everyone would press F3 and the map would start with everyone ready but it doesn't work like that on a pub server. I'm guilty of being afk the start for many reasons with the majority me thinking I would be back in time. And being a high admin I can't be put spec until I run the length of the inactivity timer

It's up to everyone to call out afk people. You die and Tom is still stood there when you respawn? Call it out. He'll be put spec if he doesn't respond.

Besides it's not something TM can do I don't think? Submit a ticket ... request ... whatever it's called on github to the devs.