Thursday thread

[Cain]

I made a couple of tweaks last night, and increased the server tickrate to 100.

Did anyone notice that it lowered pings, and also attracted more players ??

I'm going to try Flash in the rotation tonight, and lower the map time to 35 minutes, from 45 minutes.

Kalt did great for us, as it usually does for us, in fact Kalt hit 26 players which was our high for the night.

Everyone keep an eye on the number of players a few minutes into Flash, and how many players are there when Flash ends.

I'd love to work Anzio back in the rotation, it is my favorite map.

If we can keep a core group of 10+ of CLRs and new regulars, we can have more flexibility in maps and still not empty the server.

:2thumbs:

[Apache Warrior]

I like 100 tic better myself. :2thumbs:
I like Flash and Anzio too. Did they ever make a Charlie or Railroad for DODS?
The funniest thing I did last night was to try and throw a nade through the hole, above Axis 2nd flag on Avalanche, and miss. I was trying to duck into the doorway and Duke killed me. He rushed out to cap the flag and my nade bounced back and killed him. :D
Apache

[Jeffro]

yes they do have a railroad. i don't think they have an "exact" charlie... but there are beach maps... i think its called omaha.

[H0ly-H@nd-Gr3nade]

I made a couple of tweaks last night, and increased the server tickrate to 100.

Did anyone notice that it lowered pings, and also attracted more players ??


I personally don't see a difference, but I have never had a problem. My pings have always been below 75, sometimes to the single digits. Fios FTW! :D


For Flash, I wish they would add the British back in. It was always a nice change of pace to play with different weapons for a round.

[Jeffro]

so if i don't play well tonight can i blame it on that? :twisted::twisted:

[BigTwinky]

I love flash as a map. I believe the last time you tried to run it, it actually emptied out the server. I hope it doesn't do that anymore.

As for the rate, I didn't see a difference, but I normally get a pretty good ping.

On most nights, when we hit 11:00pm EST or so, the server does start to empty. I think this is just typical as we have mostly North American players, not many Europeans playing.

But the server was rocking, which is cool. We are attracting a good crowd of quality gamers, and some have joined the community which is awesome!


*** one thing I find important to note for CLRs. As we are building the server base, we absolutly need to ensure that people have fun. And uneven teams is a BIG stinker.

I know I sound really annoying in game when I ask for team balance, but I find it is so important to keep players happy. On Avalanche last night, the Axis were already strong and we lost a few Ally players. We were down 10 to 8. I asked to even teams, no one did. We dropped to 10 to 7, then 10 to 6. Each time I died, I typed again asking for team balance.

Truth, Holy and Cain switched (thanks so much!), evening the teams up, but we had already lost 2-3 players simply because we kept losing the map in under 15 secs.

When we are low on players, we NEED to keep everyone in there as long as we can to help attract more.

I'm not saying I'm a saint, but each time I die, I check the player list to see my score, other's score and also check to see if the teams are balanced. If the teams are off by 2 or more, I switch, no questions asked.

Would be cool if we all try to get into the habit of switching teams to keep things balanced, even if that means you will lose rounds, get killed more and get more frustrated.

I know some of you guys do, which is great. We all need to try and do it quicker, so lessen the impact on the server's player count.

[RuThLeSsKiLLa]

Did they ever make a Charlie or Railroad for DODS?
Apache

there is a charlie map made by custom mapper not valve, its called strand (pretty much exactly the same, balance and popular). Palermo is a remake of railroad.( without the train tracks). or if u want there is a map called dod_Rail_b2 with the 1.3 looks of railroad (some popular).

[Cain]

I'm game to try some customs, as we build a player base.

HL2 has a fantastic server re-direct for maps system that allows you to significantly compress maps.

[Apache Warrior]

I'm game to try some customs, as we build a player base.

HL2 has a fantastic server re-direct for maps system that allows you to significantly compress maps.

When did Valve add that? I remember when custom maps would empty CSS Servers because of slow downloads.
Apache

[Cain]

They added it a couple of years back, and I tested it on our CSS Zombie mod, and it works amazingly well ....

[H0ly-H@nd-Gr3nade]

Kalt emptied us out at about 8:30 CST.
We were at about 22 when we left Avalanche, and then we slowly lost players until we got down to 15 or so, and maybe even lower.

On another note, my mouse decided to break, so I am using a really crappy one until a new one arrives. It is too small for my hand, so it is impossible!

[Sirex]

I thought you learnt from the last time you uped the tick rate :twisted:

Higher tick = sirex better

You increased it last time and I slaughtered your entire team on my own lol

[Truthbringer]

There were a few instances of more people jumping in later tonight even up to 20ish people around midnight. Although it was pretty much a camp fest with most people running by and not even trying to cap points on both teams. When a team would finally win a round or was pinned down long enough the losing team would slowly filter off and it was pretty much impossible to get people to even teams and that emptied the server out.

On another note sat in spectate eating dinner to watch twinky destroy people with the mg42. Found it really impressive :2thumbs: was paying attention to your play style far as where you position the gun on the map, how you deploy, and your use of the pistol moving around...almost makes me want to buy a mouse so I can hit someone on the move :lol:. All my pistol kills are against stationary targets with their backs turned or reloading :D.

[Apache Warrior]

All my pistol kills are against stationary targets with their backs turned or reloading
But, that's the best way to do it. :D
Apache

[BigTwinky]

On another note sat in spectate eating dinner to watch twinky destroy people with the mg42. Found it really impressive :2thumbs: was paying attention to your play style far as where you position the gun on the map, how you deploy, and your use of the pistol moving around...almost makes me want to buy a mouse so I can hit someone on the move :lol:. All my pistol kills are against stationary targets with their backs turned or reloading :D.

lol, I have my first stalker!! :D

Thanks for the kind words. I love playing with the MG42, specially on flash. Its a great gun that, if played right, can win an map if properly placed. However, along with the sniper rifle, it loses its appeal when the kill cam is on (and thanks to Cain for taking that out!)

As for the pistol, it works the same as when you are assault. Actually, I play all classes (except sniper) as a full on rush class. If given proper room, I love it when an enemy crouches when they see me... makes the side movement kill so much easier, and very possible with the pistol.

I need to start playing more with the KAR and such. Its such an awesome weapon, but its more of a skill weapon vs the sniper, assault or MG which are more proper position and tactical weapons.

I'm rambling now. Thanks again for the props! Getting a compliment from someone who is probably one of the better gunners we have makes me all warm and fuzzy :)

I'm a little rusty on the MG42, but I think I'll start playing a bit more with it. However, when we have people who know how to use it properly (like yourself), I find it fun to practice with other weapons I am not too familiar with.

[BigTwinky]

But, that's the best way to do it. :D
Apache

Those are usually my punching kills haha. A reason I love assault is that you have both the gun for normal kills and then punch available without weapon switching for those "OMGPWNED" kills.

[Twiztednate]

Just as an FYI for anyone that doesn't know what a tick rate is:

From Valve: During each tick, the server processes incoming user commands, runs a physical simulation step, checks the game rules, and updates all object states. After simulating a tick, the server decides if any client needs a world update and takes a snapshot of the current world state if necessary. A higher tickrate increases the simulation precision, but also requires more CPU power and available bandwidth on both server and client.

DOD:S defaults your tickrate to 66. If you want to take advantage of Cains improvement you will need to do the following.

In game open your console by hitting ~. If nothing happens when you do, hit escape and go to your options. Under Keyboard tab -> Advanced, select "Enable Developers Console"

Go back in to the game and open your console.

Type:
cl_updaterate 100
cl_cmdrate 100

If you have a computer that is on the boarder line of minimum system requirements for DOD:S I do not recommend you do this. However if you do have a good computer and a fast internet connection I suggest you guys take full advantage of this. Your computer will essentially send and receive more updates from the server helping with ping/fps and all around smoothness of your gaming experience.

[Twiztednate]

Cain, I also suggest putting in your server name (again only suggestion) but put (100tick) this will get peoples attention that you have a quality server.

[Cain]

Thx Twiz, I'll change it now....

:2thumbs:

[NewOldDude]

All my pistol kills are against stationary targets with their backs turned or reloading :D.

Not true. I ran up to you the other night and put my big head right in front of your pistol. I didn't last long.:D

[Zantheus]

Are Orange maps still as popular as they were 2yrs ago? I remember they were the maps that brought me to DOD

[Twiztednate]

Orange maps are still popular. The problem is the min you change it to a normal map they all leave. Atleast from previous experience they did.