New Changing Payload Servers to 40 player is a mistake

[Sam Alt-Man]

I searched the forum but don't see discussion on the recent change. Changing the PL server to allow up to 40 players (plus VIP if any) is a mistake. The rounds already feel different. Areas of the map that were already prone to being unbalanced toward RED or BLU now feel unplayable at times. 32 was already a stretch beyond how the game was designed, but usually works. This takes it way beyond what these maps can handle. I'd vote we change it back.

 

[Jeffel]

I am in complete agreement with this. 32 players was the classic-feel 'silly chaos' mode, and already pushed the bounds. A lot of folks have said their computers have not performed as well with the higher count. The game feels too crowded to play TF2 in now. I play on these servers because I like the regularity of community servers, and I'm from the classic era of the regular+ vibe of 32 players back in the day. I don't think it should be 40 by default, maybe just to scale up to with reserve slots and slowly kick back down to 32? Did something change with how it is listed/filled? It doesn't feel good.

 

[Ura]

Long time Skial player here, personally I find 40 players way more fun I don't see any issue with it if you prefer less chaotic / crowded simply play casual.
If you experience lag lower your settings or use mastercomfig I haven't noticed any performance difference from 32 to 40 players.

 

[Diggs]

Just my 2 cents - I thought I would enjoy it more at 40 players but I don't. I find myself leaving more games. Maybe that will change.

 

[Jeffel]

if you prefer less chaotic / crowded simply play casual.
If you experience lag lower your settings or use mastercomfig I haven't noticed any performance difference from 32 to 40 players.

I don't think Skial built and maintains a community by wanting to make decisions that tell people to "Go play casual" -- I play on community servers because I like what community servers offer. I myself have not suffered with performance issues, but it something I have heard other regulars struggle with so I was bringing it up for awareness. I'm aware of what mastercomfig is, but a user shouldn't have to figure that out to play on their 'home'.

Overall, it is a poor change for the quality of the game being played by regulars in my opinion on Payload+ US. 32 players has the right feel for 'a bit more' folks than vanilla 12v12 and was the classic number for a long time. Payload+ US has been my home server of choice for years. I come there because there's decent regulars who also call it home, it regularly maintains no random spread, and has population at all the right times.

I hope it will return to what it was, and is simply a bug/interim change due to something with the reserve slot overflow capacity, which I was a big fan of how it worked before.

 

[guyfrompayload]

True. The performance on maps where a lot of people gather at one point is bad, not to mention the gameplay itself. I have a problem staying on the server last couple of days for longer than 20 minutes

 

[Mr.XxX]

I als vote for that we change it back. I don't see how 40 players improve the servers quality of life. The Problem with queuing is just a byproduct by very populated servers and increasing to 40 does not fix it realy.

On certain maps like upward last or metropolis it was already hard enough to push with 32 players, now it became even more difficult or near impossible to do so.

As some other have pointed out there are players who experience now performance problems since the change to 40 and the suggestion to change your settings or use mastercomfig is not desirable for everyone. Tf2 is already not good optimized and increasing the Player count to 40 certainly will not improve this. i personally never thought that 32 players wasn't enough let alone 40 players.

 

[gala]

True. The performance on maps where a lot of people gather at one point is bad, not to mention the gameplay itself. I have a problem staying on the server last couple of days for longer than 20 minutes

If you have leaking fps then check if you are using outdated mods, I fixed my issue by removing mine after latest update

 

[Cream Tea]

Since the bot crisis was fixed a lot of vanilla servers died and Bottiger obviously feels like Skial needs to stand out more by offering 40 player slots.

 

[hungryhippo0734]

Been playing payload for years now and I'm really unhappy with this player limit change. 8 player difference doesn't seem like much but after playing like this for a few days I can really feel the difference in places like flank and spam prone chokes.

It soft buffs some classes and certain playstyles in ways that are unfun, splash damage and piercing weapons are more effective now while other playstyles and weapons are comparatively less effective. Many of the maps that were already chaotic with 32p (e.g hoodoo/ metro) are now overwhelming. One tele is often not enough now and you're more likely to run into random sentries, snipers on red are harder to flank now with more teammates to protect their positions and many other subtle changes.

After reading the chat for a few days it seems for every person that likes this change several others dislike it. 40 players has a very different feeling to it and many of us had become used to the gameflow of 32 players. It's fundamentally different now and feels less like the comfortable server I'd gotten used to and enjoyed for years.

And to top it off my game now runs worse with less frames on average and more stuttering. Some players with lower quality rigs will be forced out with this change, or be forced to modify their tf2 if they want to play here smoothly.

 

[hug sports]

I’ve been playing on the US payload+ server for many years now and this change only negatively affects the quality of the server and of the gameplay.

The quality of each match has dropped because each match is much now more tedious to play. Before you had the opportunity to win the match on offense by having a very coordinated push, but the increase in players makes defence much more forgiving, and now every match ends up being played out all the way to the end, with the pub push basically being a coin flip on who wins. It’s exhausting to play a power class and have to duel several invite level players constantly and never have a break. It makes me want to play demo or soldier much less because the intensity is always turned up to 1000.

In 32 players it was already very difficult to push through solid defences of medic + power classes + engineer setups, and the coordination required to break these holds was already difficult to achieve for pub play, but now it’s almost impossible when you add in 1 or 2 more high level medic and demo combos defending the point.

Tl:dr: This change makes matches much more exhausting to play and overall less fun. I would revert to the previous player cap of 32 with the invisible increase for donators like it was before.

 

[Eriknaitor]

As someone with over 1000 hours on PAYLOAD+ EU, I think my input might be interesting. I’m one of those who believes that 32 players was the sweet spot — the player count was high enough (32 to 34, since there are always VIPs) for the map not to feel empty, and all classes and subclasses were viable in some way.

Since the change, that’s no longer the case because more glass-cannon classes like Spy or Scout get obliterated in the middle of the spam-fest, making them significantly harder to play. This spam-fest is a consequence of the current player count, making Soldier/Demoman the easy choice since EU has always the crits enabled. This isn’t the only problem with the increase in slots; as other players have previously mentioned, pushing has become impossible due to Engineer stacking. This was already an issue before, as there’s no class limit, but now it’s even worse because of the number of players picking Engineer solely to win a round.

Lastly, while this isn’t my case regarding FPS, many players have experienced frame drops. On top of that, melee hit registration has gotten worse since the change — and no, it’s not my internet’s fault because it doesn’t happen to me on other servers, and I have a 1Gbps symmetric connection.

 

[Juan2019TF2]

40 is shit.

 

[Strudels]

When I joined the server it was advertised as a 32 player server, a jump from the standard 24. Now we are no longer offered that option, instead leaping all the way to 40, or 42. Actually for much longer it's been a 34 player server since the extra slot change. I keep hearing that they can't fill the servers up, so how does adding slots sound reasonable. Telling people who don't like it to leave is also antithetical to making these changes for the sake of letting more players in. You're asking people to leave to make room for someone else. If we want a 100 player skial server, don't make it replace an existing one that players already enjoy.

 

[Juan2019TF2]

When I joined the server it was advertised as a 32 player server, a jump from the standard 24. Now we are no longer offered that option, instead leaping all the way to 40, or 42. Actually for much longer it's been a 34 player server since the extra slot change. I keep hearing that they can't fill the servers up, so how does adding slots sound reasonable. Telling people who don't like it to leave is also antithetical to making these changes for the sake of letting more players in. You're asking people to leave to make room for someone else. If we want a 100 player skial server, don't make it replace an existing one that players already enjoy.

They dont care about the usuals, they care about more money.

 

[Strudels]

They dont care about the usuals, they care about more money.

I see where you are coming from, but even if money is the sole motivator for the changes skial makes, I would think that they are labouring under a misapprehension.

 

[thlaspi]

Was it really this suggestion that lead to the limit change? It seems they are discussing only dr maps on that thread. No one is explicitly wishing 40 ppl limit for any other game mode. I find it funny that Deathrun remains at 32 while some other servers got the new limit.

Only server I'd really like to be limited to 40 would be Turbine+. But ig 64 is alright. Players might be used to it by now. It just requires a different mindset. I usually leave before it fills up tho.

 

[Sam Alt-Man]

Was it really this suggestion that lead to the limit change? It seems they are discussing only dr maps on that thread. No one is explicitly wishing 40 ppl limit for any other game mode. I find it funny that Deathrun remains at 32 while some other servers got the new limit.

Only server I'd really like to be limited to 40 would be Turbine+. But ig 64 is alright. Players might be used to it by now. It just requires a different mindset. I usually leave before it fills up tho.

I wondered why they changed it, but maybe this suggestion is where it came from. I also don't think it's tied to money. Lower player count means the VIP access is more valuable, so I assume this isn't about money.

 

[Rexatronz]

I wish this was a bad dream but its reality, so long Payload 32. o7
And I really don’t want to play pl_DustBowl.

 

[Ura]

I don't think Skial built and maintains a community by wanting to make decisions that tell people to "Go play casual" -- I play on community servers because I like what community servers offer. I myself have not suffered with performance issues, but it something I have heard other regulars struggle with so I was bringing it up for awareness. I'm aware of what mastercomfig is, but a user shouldn't have to figure that out to play on their 'home'.

Overall, it is a poor change for the quality of the game being played by regulars in my opinion on Payload+ US. 32 players has the right feel for 'a bit more' folks than vanilla 12v12 and was the classic number for a long time. Payload+ US has been my home server of choice for years. I come there because there's decent regulars who also call it home, it regularly maintains no random spread, and has population at all the right times.

I hope it will return to what it was, and is simply a bug/interim change due to something with the reserve slot overflow capacity, which I was a big fan of how it worked before.

There are 64 player servers and I haven't seen anybody complain about it. If you prefer a balanced or competitive gameplay you know where to find it I like community servers to be chaotic and fun I don't mind even if they make Dustbowl servers 64 players. As along as servers are filled and the owner is making money I don't see any downsides aside from few people hating on the change.