Jan 28, 2011, 03:39 PM
I was going to reply to Vekkul on the autoscramble thread but wanted to deal with issues on a broader level. So I decided to start a new thread. I am hoping you guys will take time to think of ideas to improve the servers and community then post them here. I really want to see this community remain a vibrant one until the next release of Team Fortress.
The issues I have with sourceop and some solutions.
2fort, Goldrush, and Valve Maps #2 will be completely dead in six months unless something is done to ENCOURAGE regulars to stay. Valve Maps #1 and 2fort instant respawn will remain full for quite some time but won't pull in much in donations. The donations will probably be enough to keep the server running but most certainly not enough to maintain a large community.
This could be your goal Drunken F00l as you have other responsibilities and would love a lighter workload with a hobby that doesn't pay anything. If it is not your goal then I would recommend the following to improve participation.
1) Get rid of the team scramble feature. I logged on to play with a friend, did well the whole round, and endured five autoscrambles. The ONE (that's right ONE) person I logged on to game with sat on the other team through four scrambles. I finally had to swap in order to game with them for all of 15 minutes. Community is one of sourceop's strong points and the main reason I log onto to play, now that there is no guarantee that I will play with these people, I just have one less reason to log on.
You may think it appeases the "anti-team stack" crowd but it really just creates an incentive to play as individuals (which hurts a 32 player server). The overall scoreboard doesn't matter anymore thus rending traditional pub play worthless. Ironically, the only type of competition that matters anymore on sourceop is gameme stats. Those who aren't invested in gameme stats won't stay long to play with people who don't care about the team environment or are noobs.
2) Develop a solution for the lag issues. This may be a hard pill to swallow but I am going to say it. Sourceop servers have not been quality for quite some time. I know a couple reasons exist for this (good reasons) such as the limited amount of time that you have to work on these servers coupled with game updates that have hindered performance. It still doesn't change the fact that the servers aren't great and that is one strike against sourceop. If it weren't for the community (sourceop's strength IMHO) then I would have stopped playing here last March. I am afraid many members of the community have grown tired of logging on and dealing with lag every 30 seconds.
3) Foster community growth. This community grew because sourceop was the first place to find good stable TF2 servers. In return, sourceop is frequented because of the community. However, this forum has not been a place to cultivate community involvement. Few suggestions by the community are implemented.
Even though the animosity has died down between different members, these forums do not exist to promote discussion concerning the individual servers (Valve Maps #1, #2, Gold Rush). All discussion is lumped together and thus only a few posters dominate the forums. The Gold Rush community forums should have never existed and could have been clearly avoided. The Gold Rush and 2fort communities would have died much quicker if it weren't for the Gold Rush boards and the steam community groups. I wish I could say these communities remained vibrant because of the activity on this site but I can't.
Updating the forums would be a good place to start. Provide individual forums for the different servers. Also, get rid of forums like the locked Thunderdome and the Flame Bucket.
Unleash the power of the community by allowing more promotions to be done. Community members already do these things and unfortunately it has existed apart from the sourceop name.
4) Greater admin presence. This is not a huge issue but one that would still help. The servers have never been plagued with cheaters. They do exist on the servers though. Many of the servers do not have the spectate function so recording a demo and posting it is virtually impossible. The only admins I know of are Ibby, Hell-Met, and you thus its not always easy to find an admin when you need one. I ALWAYS feel guilty about messaging you to do this tedious but necessary bull crap.
These are just a few suggestions and before they are just brushed off let me add that I am a donator, I have played over 100 days on the servers, and I pay out-of-pocket for a server to host "Sourceop Highlander." In short, I am invested in this community and would hate to see it die out or just diminish to two or three TF2 servers if it does not have to.
The issues I have with sourceop and some solutions.
2fort, Goldrush, and Valve Maps #2 will be completely dead in six months unless something is done to ENCOURAGE regulars to stay. Valve Maps #1 and 2fort instant respawn will remain full for quite some time but won't pull in much in donations. The donations will probably be enough to keep the server running but most certainly not enough to maintain a large community.
This could be your goal Drunken F00l as you have other responsibilities and would love a lighter workload with a hobby that doesn't pay anything. If it is not your goal then I would recommend the following to improve participation.
1) Get rid of the team scramble feature. I logged on to play with a friend, did well the whole round, and endured five autoscrambles. The ONE (that's right ONE) person I logged on to game with sat on the other team through four scrambles. I finally had to swap in order to game with them for all of 15 minutes. Community is one of sourceop's strong points and the main reason I log onto to play, now that there is no guarantee that I will play with these people, I just have one less reason to log on.
You may think it appeases the "anti-team stack" crowd but it really just creates an incentive to play as individuals (which hurts a 32 player server). The overall scoreboard doesn't matter anymore thus rending traditional pub play worthless. Ironically, the only type of competition that matters anymore on sourceop is gameme stats. Those who aren't invested in gameme stats won't stay long to play with people who don't care about the team environment or are noobs.
2) Develop a solution for the lag issues. This may be a hard pill to swallow but I am going to say it. Sourceop servers have not been quality for quite some time. I know a couple reasons exist for this (good reasons) such as the limited amount of time that you have to work on these servers coupled with game updates that have hindered performance. It still doesn't change the fact that the servers aren't great and that is one strike against sourceop. If it weren't for the community (sourceop's strength IMHO) then I would have stopped playing here last March. I am afraid many members of the community have grown tired of logging on and dealing with lag every 30 seconds.
3) Foster community growth. This community grew because sourceop was the first place to find good stable TF2 servers. In return, sourceop is frequented because of the community. However, this forum has not been a place to cultivate community involvement. Few suggestions by the community are implemented.
Even though the animosity has died down between different members, these forums do not exist to promote discussion concerning the individual servers (Valve Maps #1, #2, Gold Rush). All discussion is lumped together and thus only a few posters dominate the forums. The Gold Rush community forums should have never existed and could have been clearly avoided. The Gold Rush and 2fort communities would have died much quicker if it weren't for the Gold Rush boards and the steam community groups. I wish I could say these communities remained vibrant because of the activity on this site but I can't.
Updating the forums would be a good place to start. Provide individual forums for the different servers. Also, get rid of forums like the locked Thunderdome and the Flame Bucket.
Unleash the power of the community by allowing more promotions to be done. Community members already do these things and unfortunately it has existed apart from the sourceop name.
4) Greater admin presence. This is not a huge issue but one that would still help. The servers have never been plagued with cheaters. They do exist on the servers though. Many of the servers do not have the spectate function so recording a demo and posting it is virtually impossible. The only admins I know of are Ibby, Hell-Met, and you thus its not always easy to find an admin when you need one. I ALWAYS feel guilty about messaging you to do this tedious but necessary bull crap.
These are just a few suggestions and before they are just brushed off let me add that I am a donator, I have played over 100 days on the servers, and I pay out-of-pocket for a server to host "Sourceop Highlander." In short, I am invested in this community and would hate to see it die out or just diminish to two or three TF2 servers if it does not have to.
