New [ze] Something needs to be done with the leader nomination system

[Salgryn]

Ever noticed that after an event or so, when the server doesn't pick a leader map, or a map that is hard in general, the server just dies?

Example: the predator ultimate event in which they instinctively voted for Jurassic Park, an easy map in which the server quickly died, even after it attempted to reviveitself with the visualizer.

So what's the cause of all this, and why is the title about the leader nomination system?

Simple: Basically 50% of the map rotation is restricted just because of leader access. It sounds ridiculous, but you need people to vote for you as a leader just for the chance to revive the server, if it even revives it in the first place.

Also this "leader map cooldown" is just entirely dumb; it just makes sure that the server steadily dies after a leader map because if you've played a leader map, the first decision shouldn't be, "Oh, let's go for a way easier map!" In fact, it's the opposite. As well as too many maps being in the leader nominations, you need to ask a leader or ask people to vote for you to go to maps like Offliner, Quicksand, Neochrome, and Lucid(s).

The solution: make the leader nomination pool WAY SMALLER. Many one-stage, short-formatted, laser-dodge-ending maps should not be in leader nominations. Restricting leader nominations entirely makes sure that you can pick; it also addresses the replayability lost from this feature's addition. Many maps became literal lost media due to the fact that nobody would want to play them if there's a cooldown and the server could die anytime soon after a leader map currently.

People who suggested this mainly complained about OBJ maps being the reason why people wanted some sort of restriction added, but what's the point if you're going to hurt the more popular replayable maps and barely affect these maps anyway?
We barely went any sort of obj map before the change, and we still do. This leader nomination just hurt the more replayable maps that, for god knows what reason, got restricted behind it.

Another solution is to just remove it entirely.

 

[Salgryn]

About 44% of the map nomination is behind leader nomination, basically in theory, you need for 5 people to vote you or an adminto leader you to have the chance to play a map 44% of the time.

These non leader maps are just more server traps that people might step on to kill the server, these numbers are not excluding the fact that we, the players don't like these "new" ports that bottiger ported that don't even have what made them fun in CSSource (Nemesis Mode ( they tried with pandemic mode but the server already died before pandemic mode could make it special or anything.)

 

[Salgryn]

The server started to become an alive server when a leader map was picked, in which then the event happened and the server became a server, since kitchen is not a leader map, you get to go to a leader map once again, in which they picked a good choice of visualizer, further keeping the server alive.

After which they picked laserhell, a map we barely play and is shown to be unenjoyable to many people, the server tried reviving itself with quicksand but after a few mishaps at the final stage caused the leader to rage quit and made others follow.

People who didn't leave tried reviving the server by going mako, but then nemesis map was picked (but no nemesis) so it was just boring and the server died again.

This is what has been happening for a while now since bottiger adding all these cooldowns, the server people used to reference for the cooldowns don't even have cooldowns or have another type of cooldown that it won't matter necessarily.

 

[Salgryn]

About 44% of the map nomination is behind leader nomination, basically in theory, you need for 5 people to vote you or an adminto leader you to have the chance to play a map 44% of the time.



These non leader maps are just more server traps that people might step on to kill the server, these numbers are not excluding the fact that we, the players don't like these "new" ports that bottiger ported that don't even have what made them fun in CSSource (Nemesis Mode ( they tried with pandemic mode but the server already died before pandemic mode could make it special or anything.)

Too add up to this :

It was 47% when it was 5/12/25
And

49% at the end of 2024.
Bottiger has been adding maps to make the fact that for half of 2025 more than 45% of maps were behind leader nominations less noticable.

Maps marked red are underplayed maps

 

[caya1]

@Bottiger

There has been a recurring issue that I think has nothing to do with the leader nomination system. The issue is that alot of regulars will only play ZE when the "tryhard" maps that need leaders are being played during late evening or early nighttime hours of, lets say, 7pm - 1pm EST. The server struggles when casual maps are being played because alot of the regulars will sign off. Then this causes a chain reaction, where casual players feel like the server is dieing and then they leave too, then the maps stop being winnable because the server population becomes too low making it practically impossible to defend chokepoints/fallbacks and win maps, making more people leave. I feel like the majority of ZE maps basically stop functioning and become unwinnable once you have less than 25-30 people on the server based on how the game is balanced right now, and you need at least 40 players for most maps to be playable and winnable. I believe right now Skial ZE is between a rock and a hard place where it's neither completely catering to the tryhards nor to the casuals, causing these large peaks and lows in player population. I think the Otaku suffers from this as well, maybe its because ZE just isn't as accessible for a casual TF2 player?

I do think the server needs to do something to retain a more consistent casual playerbase, and more importantly, to make the gameplay better with low server population.

Maybe when the server population is less than 25/64, a "super casual" mode can be voted through, with extra modifiers for humans like homing rockets for soldiers and double ammo capacity for soldiers, double ammo capacity and faster airblasting for pyros, "speed force" for scouts where they are slightly faster and leave electricity trails that slow down zombies, level 2 sentries for engies, double ammo capacity and faster shooting for medics, stunning headshots for snipers, faster movement speed for heavies even when shooting minigun, sappers stunning zombies too for spies, etc. The same can apply to zombies too, where they get more exciting or powerful enzymes on "super casual" mode so it's more fun and wild. Like heavy enzyme turns him into a L4D tank for 4 seconds and does not make heavy get frozen, pyro enzyme has a 2x wider "radiation" effect that makes humans lose hp slowly unless healed by a medic or dispenser, Engie enzyme spawns a MVM robot too to go after humans, etc etc. The point is really to get players to stay when the server population gets low.

The Deathrun server never struggles like the ZE server when it comes to retaining a high player count at all hours of the day. The VSH server also, I feel, retains a high player count for longer than the ZE server although not as good as the deathrun server. I think because they do a better job of retaining a consistent, casual, playerbase. Like when Bottiger removed the tryhard maps from Deathrun, I think the server population actually became more consistently high, making it a good decision at least for Deathrun. There were some Deathrun maps, like waterrun, that were definitely unwinnable trash for 90% of players that made players leave the server.

I also think Pyro, Spy and Sniper should be buffed so they are actually viable and more useful for holding back zombies.