glacius server promotion

[adminless]

@dr nah mate no need to worries you've done much more than what you should and I'd rather view the fact that some meetings even worked out as a success rather than a failure. besides that, obvious, the server has no chance at all, exactly as I told from the beginning.

there haven't been any other mayor overcrowding at the main servers so far but well given the fact that they are very busy already and that, basically, it makes no sense at all to run a server, literaly, just for a dozen of guys to connect to for a couple of minutes a month I think that by now we can just start by throwing a bunch of different maps there just for fun. as I see it, apparently what you've requested the most are the space maps, well, I think I'll start by dropping dm16, 17, 18 and tny6 there and then we'll go from there depending on the situation. if so I might try a rail only mod, other more maps or just anything else, we'll see. so yes, I think that by now we can do that, and if all of the sudden tomorrow or so the forum/servers get flooded by hordes of randoms bitching about the maps then I'll get them back and proceed to harass those guys until they get that shit out of their heads "clasico" style because as I see it it looks to me that nobody is ever even interested in them anymore xD

[PacMan]

As always admin you have one hardcore way of saying things lol

Now polish your rail gun cos we waiting for ya

[uZu]

Personnaly, I'd like to play on custom maps but ofc, seeing nobody other than bots is a huge stop. Maybe those custom maps should be auto-downloadable to ease joining the glacius server, I can provide an URL if you like, I already have the maps avail on a server ready to be dl'ed by a Q3 client.

Also, if I may, I don't think a full-time instagib server would be a plus, eventually a mix of insta/non-insta rotation could be pleasant. And as a side note, I reckon providing a server with less slots could be nice: instead of 1 instance with 20 slots, 2 instances with 10 slots, allowing 5v5 max could be a neat option and provide a more tactical/team-oriented gameplay.

[adminless]

yes sure everybody loves them but the reality is nobody shows up there my friend but hey just let me know if you still require that empty server to remain empty for peace of mind. as long as there's still slots consistently available at the main servers I legit don't care. as for the auto-download that has also been addressed plenty of times already, the last time here I think. look by reasonable 2020 computing security standards no client should ever allow a server to place unverified/unknown data on their computers on the background to begin with but despite any client criteria I won't personally ever use my servers to place any data on the clients computer they haven't knowingly put themselves, under any circumstances. besides that the kind of downloads you're talking about (off-server http/ftp curl downloads) require a custom engine. someone capable of understanding, downloading and even going as far as successfully installing and configuring such custom engine is clear that is not gonna need it to get the maps on the background because he already knows much better than that. but anyways just as I started saying and as it surfaced on the thread already, the problem with the custom maps goes well beyond just the "noobs and the randoms don't haven them". I repeat, the reality is that it's been several months of the official provided client bundling all those maps and there's probably around 80/100 players a day that are active here and that do actually have them installed yet nobody shows up there. that's the fact, so at the moment the downloads thing looks to me more like yet another excuse rather than a accurate description of the reality.

about the slots thing, I think that has also been discussed other times, the majority actually like it crown it (of course not to the point where you can't even connect which is what spawned the thread and led to work the things out at glacius) and that's actually in part what make these servers great. nobody is interested in join a server to be that guy that always makes his team lose or that other guy that always have to carry the team and without him they are lost or now have to cycle a pool of servers to find one that suits you and/or that's even hot at that moment and people isn't just trashing (i.e. connecting/disconnecting in hordes/spectating/eating chips while playing and all that kind of shit). and that's even just not to mention the fact that now spawning 4 more servers is impractical and inefficient from a technical and logistical point of view. what people really wants is have a strong pool of varied players and just connect to their fav server/s and meet there with their friends and have fun all together without having to worry much about anything else and that's what these servers are best at deliver. in fact, that's exactly in part one of the reason why glacius does so bad rather than just the obvious statement about the maps because as already have been said above people will generally "choose Unfreeze most of the time given the choice between joining 6 players on Glacius playing dm6++ or 10 players on Unfreeze playing dm7".

ok, I'm done with the roasting I had intended to stop doing hehe now coming to the topic, I just finished this morning adding/testing phantq3dm3_rev as promised from the result of the poll here. though at the moment is gonna be irrelevant as announced, who even knows about the future, so I'm sure is a worthy addition that should definitively elevate the rotation quality even more in the event of a comeback. for the rest, as a start point I'll proceed this evening to place there the small space maps rotation I was talking about mostly just for fun and then we'll see. so sure initially I don't have the intention to make this all about a insta game and we can try different things there so thanks for the suggestions, but I think by now the general feeling of the requests here were on the space maps direction at the moment so we'll go for that first.

[uZu]

I fully understand your thoughts and I apologize for awakening points that have already been discussed here and there; I acknowledge I'm quite new to these forums and didn't take the time to read the whole lot of posts already. Anyway, it was just a quick bunch of thoughts and pov ^^

[adminless]

no worries mate that's just my job and I didn't mean to be rude, only made that clear. ok, basic space map rotation running now give it a try and let me know your thoughts.

[Dr.GreenThumb]

I like where this is going

Just for clarification for the elderly like myself ...is the idea that we start with a clean slate and remove all custom maps, then add in the space ones? ...or are we keeping the custom maps, and just add to the rotation in hope that it gets more joiners?

[Dr.GreenThumb]

Ok, ignore the above question, I joined, played, and got the answer

I have to say, I think it's SUPER fun!

The games are fast. At least with 2v2, I have no clue what the same maps would be like 20v20

[...jutuli...]

Confirm, funny, but personaly I think it will not be for longer play. One or two good railers and ppl will leave soon. But still, very good try and nice reminder for old times.

[adminless]

yes, I know I realized just as I left the desk that I forgot to remove the original glacius custom maps download notice. I've just removed that now, sorry about that. yes I know looks like the server made now more games in a casual evening than glacius connections did in its entire life (not counting organized events). of course it was all just a "coincidence", I think not. anyways, yes, I think the difference is so absurd that is not even worth writing anymore about it. as said at this point is not even any longer just about the noobs and the randoms don't having the maps and/or not knowing how to download them/auto-download. of course, that's mainly why glacius would never be such a top server like the other ones but not why it would only peak at 5 or 6 connections a day at most. the reality is that outside of the elitist group of players nobody (i.e. 60/70% of the actual real players, the supermajority) gives a fuck about them and some would even go as far telling you that those maps are straight garbage. that's at the end of the day the root of the issue with the custom maps.

well the prediction is that it won't make it to the twenties. if it does then we'll considering dropping other unused maps as suggested. may be some of dm12 and dm15 for fun or even some custom maps, who knows. at the moment the purpose and intention with the server is to serve as support for the main servers under pressure situations and bring more variety and fun to the game not to replace anything else and as far I see I'm glad to see that finally this solution made it over the custom maps solution that I knew from the start that it was a failure.

ok, so by now I renamed before the server to spacius (as well as added the appropriate dns) instead of glacius as to preserve the immaculate elitist reputation of glacius and not ever stain it with mundane maps, as well as, just for convenience and not confuse any more the people with server changes. glacius is the server of the elitist gladiators this world haven't even know yet and spacius is just the normal version of UnFreeZe running on the space maps for fun. I think I'll still review a couple of things more but by now this should be it to get started with the new spacius server.

[aimer]

I played a few games earlier too and i have to say that i don't think space maps will be very enjoyable once there are more than 4-6 players unfortunately.

dm17 and dm18 finished with most players in the negative as well as tourney6. dm16 is probably ok with up to 10 players maybe.

[adminless]

I know, I'm not gonna write another book here now or start yet another in-depth debate, but there's obviously reasons why those maps aren't on the mainstream servers. that being said, the purpose with the spacius server now is not making yet another top mainstream server but do something different and fun and I think that overall this has been a move in the right direction. I mean, you even yourself brought up dm16, dm18 is the top candidate of the unused maps (source note that obviously trowing dm15 on a empty server is just alien) and dm17 was even on the initial original UnFreeZe rotation in fact (of course it stopped doing it for a reason but now is different server) and just also drop tny6 there to complete the server theme.

with that in mind I find your suggestion of 4-6 players max for the space maps too conservative. think two things, first as I said, most people actually like it crown it, of course, not stupidly crown it but it's generally no big deal to go a couple of players above the expected capacity for a map and second that on the UnFreeZe mode at the end of the round you end up at most with the half of the players active plus one though generally much less and on those maps like half the people dies almost instantly at the start of the round.

of course I'm not talking here now about the server doing twenties, or even just tens, like this. as I said, initially I don't see that happening, not at least in the immediate future, if that takes place then we'll have to consider other options but at the moment this should do it for up to ten players more or less which, initially, is about my expectation/target with the server (the 6/8 players range). I find your suggestion of 10 players max for dm16 probably about right of course as I said there's always some margin bellow/above that but more or less that's probably right. dm18, for example, is bigger and way more complex than dm16, overall dm18 is about a mid size map rather than a small one, so if you rate dm16 at 10 players, which is probably right, I think 12 players for dm18 then is a more fair rating. dm17 for example has 11 spawn spots alone and when it ran on early versions of UnFreeZe it went up to 8 players just "fine", I mean, as fine as that map can go for UnFreeZe. ultimately yes tny6 of course is a tiny duel map which probably will struggle anywhere beyond your estimation of 6 players. it could probably be just skipped if necessary but well given the fact that is just a limited rotation of only four maps I think the most fair option so far is just let it run as is until the server start making double digit players if it's that it ever gets there.

if that finally ends up materializing, like I said, there's various options, we could simply start trowing more/bigger maps or another possibility it could even be to cap that server at 10 players max and double it for superior silicon integration. who knows, we'll see.

anyways, thanks to everybody for give it a try and the feedback

[PacMan]

We waiting for you with lg admin , get ready

[aimer]

with that in mind I find your suggestion of 4-6 players max for the space maps too conservative. think two things, first as I said, most people actually like it crown it, of course, not stupidly crown it but it's generally no big deal to go a couple of players above the expected capacity for a map and second that on the UnFreeZe mode at the end of the round you end up at most with the half of the players active plus one though generally much less and on those maps like half the people dies almost instantly at the start of the round.

Apart from when i confused dm18 with dm16, I do think more than 6 players would stop making it fun to play (except for dm16 possibly).

The reason is not just the number of the spawns available but also their location. Except for dm16, in all the other maps enemy spawns are visible from the other side.

While i was playing against Pacman on t6 yesterday, for example (can easily happen on dm17 and to some extent dm18), it was clear to me that if i wanted, i could have made him fall into the void at spawn almost every time despite the invulnerability. Even with casual players just spamming rockets at random that would be achieved with just a few extra players.

The "not fun" part is not the server being overcrowded (which i do enjoy in the case of Unfreeze) but not being given a chance to fire a shot at spawn
I don't think i know what that exact number is for any map and mine are simple estimates based on experience, but from the playing point of view the space maps limitation is how many seconds i can survive after spawn before being thrown into space

[adminless]

obvious, if any of those maps were really unquestionably good they would be at the main servers just like I said, they are not for a reason/s. however despite that, that doesn't mean either that people can't enjoy playing and actually do play anything else beyond near absolute gameplay perfection at all times. furthermore if we were to go just by gameplay perfection standards alone then we would bring back glacius with the results I think that we already know. I believe that none of us want that, not even you I guess.

for the rest, yes, dm17 for example has always been all about just that, camping map space domination and straight spawn raping. but that has always been like that regardless of the number of players. I mean, even on duels, and despite that dm17 is still arguably if not the most, at least, among the most popular Quake III Arena maps ever. with that I'm not trying to sell you dm17 as a great map now, if dm17 were really any good I wouldn't have removed it from UnFreeZe, I'm simply telling you how this go and that gaming isn't always just about gameplay perfection standards thus I think that overall this should make it for the current expected/target 6/8 players load so let's say up-to ten players. if and when things starts to get messy we'll just think about something else, no big deal.