Public Meeting 1500UTC 02/02/14 (Sunday)

[razgriz33]

It's time to throw some ideas at us, 3PM UTC

 

We'll be having a closed meeting at 1600 so you have an hour to get your idea across to the team an hour before.

Listing your attendance on this thread is not required, just drop in! if you can't make it but have something for us to discuss, throw up a post here!

 

I'd like to hear about your event ideas, mods we could use with the pub server, ideas for the pub server are welcome but people willing to contribute towards it are even more so welcome.

 

Express any concerns you may have at us and we'll do our best to cure them. 

 

 

[ShortsNL]

I can't make it to the meeting unfortunately but I do have some pressing concerns about the EU1 server, so I'm going to list them here.

 

I find that the server is becoming more and more empty and I think that is a severe issue. I'm seeing a number of causes.

 

-Connectivity issues. Many players are reporting them. I don't have them myself, and I don't know what's causing it, but this should be a top priority to fix. The server is literally bleeding players because of it. I would check to see if it can be fixed by rolling back to a previous version, 2.641. Last night we had that version on for a while and the server was completely full again as it should be.

 

-Work-in-progress builds on the server. The latest versions have lots of changes, but lots of handicaps as well. They are for a large part the reason I almost stopped playing. Number one is the squad system. There is none. Only a tablet that lets you join groups, but you can't manage them whatsoever. As a squadleader you want to be able to lock the squad, manage invites and do everything that is currently impossible. It's basically thrown organized public squad play out of the window and puts everyone back as lone wolf. Same for the medic system. It's incredibly unclear the way it works now. I've done some tests and it looks like you can still revive, but you don't get a marker for dead players anymore. Makes reviving a game of hide and seek. Personalized UAV's after RT destruction don't work. No friendly fire protection at base. Clones at base. A HALO jump after the RT is down sounds cool, but makes all pilots obsolete, as there is no working airlift script and no CAS choppers anymore. All these things add up and substantially impact gameplay in a bad way.

 

-AW members and admins missing from the server. It seems that I'm not the only one who's almost left the server, as I never see any one of the regular Teamspeak members on the server anymore. No friends to play with and no admin support makes it all even worse. Most AW members on TS seem to prefer PvP now. That's cool and all, but that means the server now has to rely on itself to get it populated, and it simply can't with this build and these connection issues. It also makes getting an admin that much more troublesome, since they're often busy playing something else or hidden in the admin channel on TS. Ideally, you'd have admins playing on the server themselves as much as possible, to police against teamkillers and griefers, especially now that theres no friendly fire protection at spawn.

 

My suggestion is to roll back to 2.641. This gives us the opportunity to focus on the connectivity issues first, and calmly work on improving the updated mission in the background second. Then, once the the new mission is playtested and has all features working again, we can put it on the server without impacting gameplay in the meantime. And to get more live admins on the server, I suggest you make me kick/ban/restart admin   

 

Hope this helps guys. I'm sorry if it sounds a bit confronting but I am deeply worried about the server so I hope we can work on it.

[Bruce]

Not going to make it either,

 

so I'd like to add my two cents here as well

 

1) Bring revive back !  the current mode would be fine in a perfect world but it doesn't play well on a public server.

due to the following actions :

 

a) asshats that can't fly

griefers that range around the AO in a Kuma TKing

c)  action menu that glitches out and drops explosives next to helos

d) Medics that have ZERO clue how to do their job

e) Players that don't stand still long enough to be medicced

f) any other factors that cause mass death

 

when it's not down to your own action means you repsawn ?   that's just a waste of anyones time,

 

on a dedicated and controlled server .. fine, perfect even,  love it ..  on a public server where Core staff and admins are getting fewer and farther between visits.

 

it's a time sink that is NOT FUN !

 

2)   Can we have ONE stable server ... that has the best known build consistantly

and take any test revisions to another server

 

Cheers for listening ..

 

peace out

Bruce

[Josh]

I'll be around for todays meeting. But these two posts are pretty hot topics i'd say, mainly items Shorts highlights.

[Launchpad McQuack]

1 My main concerns or problems with the game are CAS support that goto ao or side before a player has even got there and takes out most or all of the tanks and a lot of inf before a single friendly troop hits the floor.

 

2 Mortar teams, sometimes when i log on there are 2 buddies that fill a vehicle with many mortar backpacks and head near ao and constantly fire at ao randomly even when friendlys are near, not marking the areas on map they are firing on or telling people or having forward spotters marking targets for them.,

I have nothing against mortars, but its annoying esp with halo drop they fire dont mark map you halo drop right where they fired etc.. and you die. they dont care , and have basically unlimited ammo.

[Gurkha]

1 My main concerns or problems with the game are CAS support that goto ao or side before a player has even got there and takes out most or all of the tanks and a lot of inf before a single friendly troop hits the floor.

 

2 Mortar teams, sometimes when i log on there are 2 buddies that fill a vehicle with many mortar backpacks and head near ao and constantly fire at ao randomly even when friendlys are near, not marking the areas on map they are firing on or telling people or having forward spotters marking targets for them.,

I have nothing against mortars, but its annoying esp with halo drop they fire dont mark map you halo drop right where they fired etc.. and you die. they dont care , and have basically unlimited ammo.

I Second this and many of the points Shorts has raised. I personally enjoy the HALO and don't think it affects the gameplay too much. It was getting monotonous flying to AO, clearing, flying out of AO, rinse and repeating and the reliance on competent pilots being present can be restricting at times.

The UAV and mortar issue is a major frustration for me.

I would also like to mention certain individuals, who are regulars on the server, and who have taken it upon themselves to be the 'Server god' type and criticise/insult players who don't wish to play as they envisage. PUG servers are always going to be populated with people of different experience, ability and play-style, live with it and play as you wish. Phrases I hear regularly like "Get the f*ck out the co-pilots seat, *expletive*" are understandably born of frustration, but it certainly isn't the players' fault 9/10 times; it's the delayed action menu, broken game mechanics or simply inexperience. Have some patience or play another role. 

[Josh]

Okay guys, I recorded the meeting today. I also took as Speaker for those who weren't here. Most the things discussed are the points above so if you wish to listen here is the link: 

 

Here!

 

 

Also I stopped recording before it was said however: If you have any questions feel free to use the question section on the forums! 

[ShortsNL]

Hey guys, thanks for treating my points while I wasn't there, I really appreciate it   I got many answers from listening to the recording.

 

I really didn't mean to severely criticize nor make it a personal ordeal, and I really hope I didn't appear in that manner! I wanna say right now that I didn't mean to disrespect all the work any of you guys put in voluntarily, I understand you're doing it for the love of it.

 

Anyways, getting back to two things discussed:

 

-For reaching admins in Teamspeak, I guess you want me to poke you after all  Many times if I see someone in another gaming channel or on the Admin Atoll I simply don't dare to bother them with it - as I didn't want to interrupt the work they may be doing in the Admin Channel or interrupt them while gaming. I don't want to be that annoying guy that pokes or distracts you all the time with small things. Things that you mentioned like a non-capable pilot, a spammer on voice chat, or a teamkiller, most of the times I choose to ignore them instead of annoy a seemingly busy admin with it. That's why I suggested having more admin activity on the server but of course I understand that you guys aren't playing for three hours every day. Again in that sense, if you wish for me to contact you while you're in a different channel presumably playing something else, I will.

 

-For suggesting other things including gameplay things: of course it's up to you guys. I really don't mean to come down negatively on you or your work, it's your project and your choice what you do with my suggestions. I think right now for me, gameplay wise what bothers me the most is the lack of a good squad system, and in that sense I was really longing back to 2.641. But really, take this project where you want to take it guys. I respect all of you for doing so much work on it and letting me enjoy it in the process. There will always be people who disagree on some aspects like myself but in the end and it's your project and not mine. Who owns, pays, and works for it, also decides over it, and as such you guys fully have the rights to determine who to listen to in this regard. Since I don't donate I should not assume I have any right to say. But then again, I will decide whether or not I think it's worth to donate.

 

Anyways, thanks again guys!

[David]

We don't mind people contacting us while we're in admin channels. What I don't like receiving is a poke out of the blue with "teamkiller on eu #1".