[Drunken F00l]

With the increasing number of player's getting reserved slots, it's becoming a problem to use them. Right now, the limit is 12 people on the valve maps server with slots at a time. Once that limit is reached, player's with slots must wait like everyone else. What should we do about it?

Also, I've been thinking about giving special abilities out to donators such as immunity to team balance. Should this go to everyone with slots or maybe like the top 25% of donators or.... ?

[Kaylee]

There should be more reserve slots for everyone, but I do think top donators deserve something extra too. Immunity to team balance would certainly be nice. I'd like to hear any other suggestions people have for that too.

[Retribution]

i say monthly system, if you keep increasing the slots, eventually only those with slots will even be able to get on :roll:

[-LMA-]

I say increase it to 16 definitly. Anymore might be pushing it too much though. Also, additional benefits for donators would be a nice feature for more people to want to donate.

[Fides]

Increase to 16, otherwise leave it be. Even possibly, if needed, make a second server with the same rules? Don't know if that's done or doable, but it could possibly help with the situation.

[Asai]

There is no perfect solution to this situation, people like myself who donate pretty regular should be given priority to play over folks who just server hop. In my situation if i want to play TF2 i play on source op if not there then i go play SOMETHING else, i have had a difficult time getting on lately and have been noticing alot of new players to the server, on. I do not want to discourage new players to the server but i want to be able to play as well, i am not sure how the "reserved slots" are determined, but i do feel that if you are donating and want to play and there is someone on who does not donate then donators should be given first priority. I am not sure how difficult it would be to do this but maybe instead of a number of reserved slots per server, assign donating users priority over everybody else, so that when a patron of the server wants to play it bumps someone else to make room for them. Something like this maybe, "joeshmoe" not a patron, has been playing for 2 hours and the server is full, "Asai", a patron logs on to play, the server determines that "joeshmoe" is not a patron and drops joe to allow asai to play. I can understand that there be some hard feelings about that setup but no more than say from my perspective of donating but not being able to play because the server is full of new people.

This is a difficult situation and trying to keep all sides happy is not in all probability a possibility, but IMHO people who donate should be given reserved slot status or priority.

Just a thought
Asai

[Kaylee]

Personally I don't understand why there shouldn't be 32 reserved slots anyway. If 32 donators want to play at the same time, why shouldn't they be able to? There's always Valve Maps #2 or another Sourceop server (or any other nonsourceop server) for other people to play on.

[Asai]

Personally I don't understand why there shouldn't be 32 reserved slots anyway. If 32 donators want to play at the same time, why shouldn't they be able to? There's always Valve Maps #2 or another Sourceop server (or any other nonsourceop server) for other people to play on.

Thanks Kaylee that was kind of my point.

[Retribution]

you could always make a pay to play server, one where you have to donate to play
but i still think you should try to limit reserve slot, not everyone can give money, and i don't think that denying them the right to ever play is ok, i mean some like me just can't afford it, i mean i have to pay for college, rent, food, gas, water, phone, Internet, cable, and insurance, i can't really afford to donate, but i can still get one if i'm willing to wait, don't want that option taken away

for the time being though your making 2X what you spend a month, do you really need to change it, i mean really, lets not get to greedy here unless your trying to get like a billion servers, and monopolizes the world of TF2 :roll:

[SilverFox]

I've given my opinion on this already, instead of copying the whole long ass thing, I'll just provide a link for anyone interested in it.

http://www.sourceop.com/modules.php?name...=7715#7715

I think it ultimately depends on how you want to view the donations DF. If you rely on the donations to keep the servers up, I certainly would increase the number of slots and/or make it a monthly donation of a decent amount. I'm not sure of the costs of the reserve slot, but from what I understand, a mere $10 is enough to get one. $10 once, for a 'life time' reserved slot is very, very generous.

If the intent of the reserve slot is just to say 'hey, thanks' then ... I honestly don't know that I would change it.

The Valve server is definitely getting more popular. I see a lot of 'new regulars' (I guess you could call em, though they are on more often than I am now, I'm sure) than in the past playing there. Even if the intent of the reserved slots was a 'thank you', it doesn't mean the situation can't change.

I haven't spoken very much, if at all, to you DF so this is just me grasping at straws. It feels like the intent was to toss up a donation option and offer a reserved slot to see if people would respond to it. Perhaps you didn't expect the response that happened? I feel like maybe you feel like you are between a rock and a hard place. You feel a responsibility to the people who donated to get them on the server, yet you also want to keep the public streaming into your server. I don't think you can please every one in this instance, to be honest. Some will feel like you are catering to the donators and will harbor jealousy/animosity towards them and others will feel like their money wasn't worth what they thought it was worth when they gave it to you and feel 'cheated'. I really think you need to come to a stance on the subject though and one side is going to just have to accept it. Increase the number of slots to 32 and tell people if they are tired of getting kicked, to donate and change it to a monthly fee. Or, tell the donators that having that many slots was never the intent of donating and keep the slots at 12, possibly 16 and I guess apologies for any misunderstandings. I would update your donations page to reflect either decision though - so people know exactly what the donation is there for.

As some one who has been in a few online communities, I can guarantee you, as soon as you begin to restrict and limit the amount of new, public players, the quicker the 'community' will stagnate and die out. It is ultimately to fate of every community unfortunately. People move on and get interested in other things. But without new players and 'new blood' to the server, there is, in the end, nothing to replace the players that have moved on. If that point comes and the server is again open, or more open, to the public - people may not be as attracted to it as they once were. Perhaps even hold a grudge against the server and/or it's regulars.

I always mean to start out my posts keeping to the points as well as I can and to keep it short, but it always ends up as a novel. I'm sorry to anyone this annoys, I guess I feel like I have a lot to say.

/shrug