Forums Index >> General >> Thoughts From a Team Scrum Hoster
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You are awesome... Thanks a bunch Reagent. You and MM have singlehandedly revived the game for me and many others in the community.
Thank you SO much.
oxoxo
Katherine
Reagent X..Keep up the good work. That is what we need here is someone like yourself & MM to make all of our precious time funner & more competitive. Your "above the call of duty" it greatly appreciated!!
OMG !
Really nothing to change except maybe listen to Bolo more
Just what we need to do is Blow Up Bolo's Ego some more ! :P j/k B)
Silence wolfmanjack!!
:)
B
NO !
ARRRRROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO ! LOL B)
Also sometimes teams can become lopsided even though the teams are even (with respect to number of players). I will step in and mix it up usually after the game ends, but I would prefer particular suggestions from you all, as I find it hard to make a decision sometimes as to who to switch, and I also don't want to piss anyone off (although I know that that is not always avoidable!).
This especially got my attention. I like your way doing things in that. Yes, there were also some other good points, but this got really my attention.
I have many times thought that it would be nice to trade a player to another player. So teams wouldn't be uneven / game would get more interesting after you have played with same guys a while. Thought I have never said: "Let's trade players!" lol :)
You don't have to let go of one rope before grabbing the other. But you'll have to let go of one if you want to swing forward.
Oh yeah I forgot to note that you can do team chat and private chat on my servers:
Team chat: type "/ "
Private chat: type "// name "
-Rx
Yeah you said that before but TY for feed-back.
MonkeeMods is very cool.
Keep up the good work! :)
Last edited: Thursday, December 16, 2004 at 3:55:03 PM
However, I have already noticed that it can be easily 'abused'. Because it is so fun and addicting, players will jump into observer mode, leaving the teams uneven, and some will even refuse to jump back in the game. This is really annoying, and MM and I are trying to figure out a solution.
Use MY Observer Script, it can make it admin only just by editing the prefs.......... :P
MM's has that too!
Actually this is an older post. Some updates to this are on a page at my website .
Also for those interested, a couple more minor changes have taken place in my server of late:
1. A special new boot script was witten by 56kLag Man and Slugthog that allows me to boot people who haven't predownloaded the maps. They get a special window that pops up with a hyperlink directly to my website where they can download the latest TT_Mod_Pack®. Thank you Slug and Laggy! This has made it so much more convenient to admin games!
2. Slugthog released an improved Out of Bounds script (averaging script) that I am now using. You can read about that and get it here .
-Rx
-Rx
God thoughts. Nice ideas.
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Greetings!
After hosting The Baarnyard and the MonkeeMod Team Scrum servers for some time now I wanted to reflect on how I run my server.
First of all a big thanks to everyone who has played there with me. It has been great fun!
The Goal
I like to have a server where there is intense competition, excellent sportsmanship, and above all FUN!!
Chatting
I love having a moderate amount of humorous and game-appropriate chat. There is a certain rhythm to TS where you can fit in small bits of chat without disrupting the game. A game that is uber-intense with no chat is OK sometimes. But I think short, witty comments here and there give the game some spice and comic-relief.
The only time I have seen chatting be a problem is when the chat messages become so long that you have to spend so much time reading that it interferes with game play. As administrator I need to read all the chat and when people start spamming I have been known to send out a boot warning.
Unacceptable Behavior
I rarely run into this. I think as long as you are playing the game, there is no problem. I don't use the terms "BM" or "camper" or "diver" because, to me, these are non-issues! It's all part of the game.
However, what I do feel is inappropriate is:
(1) impostering,
(2) using hateful or completely obscene names or language,
(3) excessive spamming, or
(4) obsessive pestering another player without focussing on the game (especially when using an alias).
When I encounter these you will get the boot. If you encounter such behavior on my server and I am not there, please e-mail me at reagentx@comcast.net .
Booting
Most of the time I try to give a warning if someone needs the boot because of unacceptable behavior. I will also try a private chat in-game, or even e-mail if I know the player and know the he is capable of reforming his ways. Thanks to those of you who have been responsive to this.
There are other times when I will boot someone that has nothing to do with bad behavior. A couple of examples are:
(1) a player is lagged out,
(2) a player is away from keyboard (afk) for more than several minutes, or
(3) when the server is full, people are knocking and someone hasn't bothered to pre-download the maps so the teams are uneven.
Aliases
My personal preference is for people to use their "original" name when playing on my server. Most people do. In fact I would say that <20% of the players use >80% of the names.
My feeling here is simple: it is more fun to play against your friends!
Also remember if everyone used a different name each time they played, there would be absolutely no-one to recognize. It is the people who stick with one name that are helping to build the community. Also I think it is more fun to just play as yourself, then when you are an ass we will know it is you ;)
This is not a requirement, of course, just a preference. I don't bother to check IP addresses and all that unless someone's behavior is way out of line.
Observer Script
MonkeeMan has written an awesome Observer script that allows a player to leave the field and fly around without a tank and watch the game. He is currently updating it and will be releasing it again soon.
I think it is an awesome addition to the game, especially with respect to filming. However, I have already noticed that it can be easily 'abused'. Because it is so fun and addicting, players will jump into observer mode, leaving the teams uneven, and some will even refuse to jump back in the game. This is really annoying, and MM and I are trying to figure out a solution.
My intent here is to offer the extra man (when the teams are uneven) something cool to do while sitting and waiting for another player to even up the teams. Sitting is the perfect time to jump into Observer mode and roll one B).
Admin tools
I use Sluggy's admin tools. What I like about it is that there are no distractions for the players. There are no "codes" for you to type in or screw around with (other than team chat and private chat). There are no silly ways to cheat or to switch things around. You just play the game.
Team chat: type "/ "
Private chat: type "// name "
Averaging script
I use Sluggy's averaging script. This script controls where the scum spawns whenever it goes out of bounds. This has been used in PsychoScrum League for a couple of seasons. I think it makes for a more intense game and fewer random freebees. When you see the scrum go over the edge of the map, look for it to re-appear at the exact center of all alive players.
Even Teams
I like to have even teams. I also don't like other players to feel that things are unfair. If you see what you feel to be an unfair situation, please chime in and make a suggestion on how to fix it! . When I am running my own server I always spend a certain amount of time monitoring the teams and trying to correct for any lopsidedness. This is especially important (and difficult) when running a Mod server because not everyone always has the maps. In this case one has to look at the radar dots to see who has actually joined the game.
If you just joined and are an "extra man", then an assessment has to be made to either: sit, play, switch teams, or go "red". As admin I have the ability to switch player's teams. The Red team is simply a 3rd team where you can play without favoring one team over another. If an even game is jamming along and an extra player joins I will usually make him red. When another player joins, then I switch him back.
I always welcome suggestions as it can be a bit overwhelming to administrate all this and play the game (especially when I am mentally challenged ;) ). Feel free to say "make me green please" etc. When you see the need arise. I appreciate most folks being good sports when their color is all of a sudden switched by me mid-game to keep things even.
Also sometimes teams can become lopsided even though the teams are even (with respect to number of players). I will step in and mix it up usually after the game ends, but I would prefer particular suggestions from you all, as I find it hard to make a decision sometimes as to who to switch, and I also don't want to piss anyone off (although I know that that is not always avoidable!).
Some days, so many people come and go that you just can't seem to ever get even teams. Rather than excessively switch someone (or myself) back and forth, if I get tired I will just leave the teams the way they are.
Feedback
Well, I'm sure I forgot many things, but I wanted to share my thinking and observations with you. Please pipe in with suggestions, criticisms or feedback! Thanks again for all who have made this such a fun game. Thanks also to MonkeeMan for helping Admin my server.
-Reagent X
Last edited: Thursday, December 16, 2004 at 3:07:52 PM