Stannis

Uncharitable Spy
Contributor
Hey.

So I've started to donate for just 1 month at the moment to see how it goes. One of the problems I have with the Payload Maps is the the lack of maps. They seem to revolve around Badwater, Upward, and Barnblitz Pro 6.

I recommend removing regular Barnblitz and keeping Barnblitz Pro 6 as the primary map for it. It holds off that choke-point on regular Barnblitz. I also recommend removing Enclosure as well, and maybe even Thundermountain.

I would LOVE to see the following maps added. I've played these maps on other servers, and I think it'll increase more engagement and lead to more donations:

Cashworks Pro/Final 1: https://tf2maps.net/downloads/cashworks.42/

Badwater Pro v9 (moves up spawn areas and reduces choke points): https://tf2maps.net/downloads/pl_badwater_pro.962/

Shoreleave: https://tf2maps.net/downloads/shoreleave.1369/

HooDoo Final: It used to be on the rotation, but since Goldrush isn't crashing, lets give this a shot again?

Deadwood: https://gamebanana.com/maps/110045

Pier: https://tf2maps.net/threads/pier.17691/

Repository:
http://dl.getdropbox.com/u/99714/tf/maps/pl_repository_rc2.bsp.bz2

Metropolis: https://tf2maps.net/threads/metropolis.15481/ PLEASE BRING THIS ONE BACK. LIZARD WAS BEING SNARKY WHEN HE SAID IT KILLS THE SERVER.

edit #1: listed more popular maps courtesy of @Fosh
 
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Bottiger

Administrator
We added metropolis a few months ago and I watched a server go from 28 to 0 players in 1 minute when it changed to metropolis.

For some reason some people really hate custom maps.

You can see that there are people here that also hate thundermountain when it is a more popular map than metropolis.
 
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Mentalpatient

Mildly Menacing Medic
Maps are voted on, that wouldn't happen.

Sure, people need time to download a new map, but that is insignificant with current internet speeds.
 

S_O_C_K_S

Truly Feared Pyro
Contributor
Change is good but...slow and steady. Bump Enclosure and add Metropolis! Enclosure barely gets voted on so therefore the same will happen with Metropolis. At least the option is there. :wink:
 

PoomBa

Uncharitable Spy
Dont bee ruud get back what Players ask and PAY - Metropolis , you whant see next real donations not like this punks 5$ a month just get done !
 
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haytil

Mildly Menacing Medic
We added metropolis a few months ago and I watched a server go from 28 to 0 players in 1 minute when it changed to metropolis.

Well of course it did. People have to download the map - it usually takes me more than a minute to download a new map. And if I already have the map and load it instantly, the server's going to be largely empty while everyone ELSE downloads it, so I might leave in the meantime.

When you put a new map on, you have to give it TIME to sink in. You can't just judge a reaction to it instantly.

You can see that there are people here that also hate thundermountain when it is a more popular map than metropolis.

And it rarely gets voted on - yet still is in the map pool. Same for Enclosure - it rarely gets voted on, and frequently gets RTV'ed on round 1. So what was the thinking behind adding THAT one to the map pool? I certainly don't see any threads or "vouchers" for it. Seems inconsistent.

You really need to garner a lot of support if you wish for pier or any of the other maps to be added. It's been over a month since this post was made and we're not even on a second page with posts, let alone vouchers so you're going to need to change that if you wish for change from us.

This thread is easily in the top 5 most popular suggestion threads from the last 12 months, based on numbers.

And the number of posts says more about how many regular players frequent the forums (and the Suggestions forum in particular), than how popular the individual suggestion itself is. The fact that most regulars do not frequent or post on the forums very often shouldn't be a strike against any particular suggestion.

I don't recognize your name: Do you play on the Payload+ US server? If not, then you're probably unaware, but the above maps have been discussed (in a positive light) multiple times over the past few weeks amongst the server regulars in-game. Most of these discussions end up with the cynical conclusion that the forum suggestions threads aren't taken seriously by admins anyway, so why bother?

It's a cynical point of view, but you're only proving them right.

With Valve consistently halting the growth of community servers, we can't gamble with map pools unless there's a backbone behind them.

This doesn't make sense to me - because it's not a gamble. Adding a map to the map pool doesn't mean it gets played - it only gets played if it gets voted on successfully.

And if it gets voted on successfully, then by definition, it's popular enough to justify adding it to the pool.
 

some-mapper

Uncharitable Spy
Mapper
The reason metropolis will not get added is because there are SO many out of map exploits, not to mention the cart doesn't have a filter_activator_name thus allowing any entity to blow up last point before the cart gets there.
That and the map is literally just hallways.

If people want, I could easily fix everything wrong with it, but in the end, its still Metropolis.
 

Sargent¥

Australian Skial God
Contributor
This thread is easily in the top 5 most popular suggestion threads from the last 12 months, based on numbers.

And the number of posts says more about how many regular players frequent the forums (and the Suggestions forum in particular), than how popular the individual suggestion itself is. The fact that most regulars do not frequent or post on the forums very often shouldn't be a strike against any particular suggestion.

I don't recognize your name: Do you play on the Payload+ US server? If not, then you're probably unaware, but the above maps have been discussed (in a positive light) multiple times over the past few weeks amongst the server regulars in-game. Most of these discussions end up with the cynical conclusion that the forum suggestions threads aren't taken seriously by admins anyway, so why bother?

It's a cynical point of view, but you're only proving them right.
Dedicated users are those who are willing to spare a minimal amount of time (5 minutes~) to create a forum account and leave their vouch. The fact that this thread is now 3 months old and has just barely passed the half-way point of page 2 (with 12 posts not even being vouches, meaning we'd still be on page 1 if not for those) shows 1 of 2 things:
  1. People don't care enough to create an account and leave their feedback, which means they don't care enough for a change
  2. Not enough people are interested enough for the change
OP also hasn't been online in 2 months, meaning even he's lacking in caring for this whole topic. This is why Skial doesn't regularly change maps, there aren't enough active and dedicated regulars to make any maps that come in or leave the pool be negligible to their Skial experience. We keep things the way they are because they work best that way, changing too much is potentially harming to any balance we have.
 

Mentalpatient

Mildly Menacing Medic
Dedicated users are those who are willing to spare a minimal amount of time (5 minutes~) to create a forum account and leave their vouch. The fact that this thread is now 3 months old and has just barely passed the half-way point of page 2 (with 12 posts not even being vouches, meaning we'd still be on page 1 if not for those) shows 1 of 2 things:

  1. People don't care enough to create an account and leave their feedback, which means they don't care enough for a change
    Not enough people are interested enough for the change
OP also hasn't been online in 2 months, meaning even he's lacking in caring for this whole topic. This is why Skial doesn't regularly change maps, there aren't enough active and dedicated regulars to make any maps that come in or leave the pool be negligible to their Skial experience. We keep things the way they are because they work best that way, changing too much is potentially harming to any balance we have.

Nah. The discussion comes up frequently on payload+. People are really bored of those maps.

The only reason people don't come here is because of the reason we are given in this thread, they don't make sense.

We're apathetic because we know nothing will change.
 

Sargent¥

Australian Skial God
Contributor
Nah. The discussion comes up frequently on payload+. People are really bored of those maps.

The only reason people don't come here is because of the reason we are given in this thread, they don't make sense.

We're apathetic because we know nothing will change.
Nothing will change if we don't see visible demand. If users can't be bothered to make a simple forum account to voice their opinion on a certain change then clearly they don't want their opinion to be heard by the people who can change it or they hardly care enough whether a change is made or not, so we keep it the way it is because that's what works both short-term and long-term.
 

Mentalpatient

Mildly Menacing Medic
Nothing will change if we don't see visible demand. If users can't be bothered to make a simple forum account to voice their opinion on a certain change then clearly they don't want their opinion to be heard by the people who can change it or they hardly care enough whether a change is made or not, so we keep it the way it is because that's what works both short-term and long-term.

A regular did create this thread, and others gave opinions, but when they see an excuse of maps being old, exploited or unpopular, there is no hope. People won't waste their time.

The current maps are old, exploitable and getting real tired.

All the regulars would love metropolis, cashworks, and many others. And it would never clear the server, a server which has non-donators waiting over an hour to get on.
 

Stannis

Uncharitable Spy
Contributor
Dedicated users are those who are willing to spare a minimal amount of time (5 minutes~) to create a forum account and leave their vouch. The fact that this thread is now 3 months old and has just barely passed the half-way point of page 2 (with 12 posts not even being vouches, meaning we'd still be on page 1 if not for those) shows 1 of 2 things:

  1. People don't care enough to create an account and leave their feedback, which means they don't care enough for a change
    Not enough people are interested enough for the change
OP also hasn't been online in 2 months, meaning even he's lacking in caring for this whole topic. This is why Skial doesn't regularly change maps, there aren't enough active and dedicated regulars to make any maps that come in or leave the pool be negligible to their Skial experience. We keep things the way they are because they work best that way, changing too much is potentially harming to any balance we have.

I still look here from time to time.

I think the biggest problem here is that I asked for it.
 

Sargent¥

Australian Skial God
Contributor
A regular did create this thread, and others gave opinions, but when they see an excuse of maps being old, exploited or unpopular, there is no hope. People won't waste their time.

The current maps are old, exploitable and getting real tired.

All the regulars would love metropolis, cashworks, and many others. And it would never clear the server, a server which has non-donators waiting over an hour to get on.
That's just the thing, if the regulars really want to see those maps on here, why aren't they coming here then? A variety of maps have been tested before in the past and they simply drain the server and have done so multiple times, so we keep it the way it is To say all the regulars love those maps is a really bold statement without any backbone supporting it. Skial needs to see if the regulars have changed and are different than the ones who were too impatient to wait for the 30 second download for the map and the only way to do that is if they come here and let their voice be heard.
I still look here from time to time.

I think the biggest problem here is that I asked for it.
And here's another problem, we're looking for voices of regulars who are active on the server, as well as things that work on the server and all the time, not just "from time to time". Skial's current map selection for PL US is based on years on observation and analysis so we can't just change it to what some people want because they want variety when it needs to fit Skial's needs of activity. There's no point in having a server with a large variety of maps when people will just leave with every map change.
 

Bottiger

Administrator
Nah. The discussion comes up frequently on payload+. People are really bored of those maps.

The only reason people don't come here is because of the reason we are given in this thread, they don't make sense.

We're apathetic because we know nothing will change.

We introduced custom maps MANY times in the past due to requests, and we removed them because no one really liked to play on them even though 1 or 2 people would come on the forums and say everyone on the server wanted them.

I literally watched the entire Payload US server go from full to 0 players in 1 minute when the map changed to Metropolis. And Lizard was there, you can even ask him about it.

And even though that happened and the number of people playing metropolis is low globally, I still put Metropolis on the rotation again 3 weeks ago.

I get that some of you have played the official payload maps hundreds of times and you want something new. But there's something about the other maps that people just don't like for some reason. Maybe they don't like downloading them, maybe the design is worse. Whatever it is, the servers end up having fewer players. This is proven in the stats. Having 2-3 people say they are personally bored of the current maps and would prefer custom ones doesn't change this fact.

If you want change then the players need to come on the forums and ask for it. If you wrongfully think nothing will change, then nothing is what you are guaranteed to get.

But people wanting their personal favorite custom maps has been proven to kill the server so many times, we are going to need more than 2-3 people coming on the forums to support it. I think it is hard for people to accept that we know what most people want more than they do. Like Steve Jobs said "Customers don't know what they want".
 
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Oprah Of Flamey Goodness

Somewhat Threatening Sniper
Contributor
It would be great to have one more map added to the rotation, and Metropolis gets requested pretty frequently on the server. I personally would love to be able to play it, just for a change of pace.
 
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