SnarkPit Server

We had a "currently" link at the [DRS] homepage once. it was not foolproof and we eventually dropped it, but i would like to see if its possible here. this would tell me at a glance if the server is full of people i know, or just people taking advantage of the lower pings.

the currently link can/could show things like
1) current map
2) how long till next rotation begins.
3) people online.

I don't think a ping filter is a good idea. It's ok if your a European
member of the site, but don't forget a major portion of the members are
in the US or elsewhere. Doing that would be super elitist. It would
majorly blow if we finally get the server and most members aren't even
allowed to join.

Server stats, including something like that as well as keeping player's
frag totals and things, are being looked into. Unfortunately I don't
believe there are many decent server plugins for source based games
just yet, and those that do exist are normally made for CS:S as opposed
to HL2DM :sad:

EDIT: This was meant to be a reply to the banter chapter; something is definately amiss :sad:

could someone please explain to me how my 180 ping hurts playing for anyone but me?

i do not understand this "ping filter" idea.

sounds to me like people with already great pings want even more advantage :sad:

i played HL1 at 400+ for 2 years. i endured the taunts from the less than 100 crowd for that whole time. i got pretty fed up with it to be honest. look at my posted screen score. i didn't do to shabby at 180+ ping.

higher pings force you to play better IMO, and i think everyone should have to do it till they become good at it.

whenever i see a high kill total and a low ping, i just blow them off.

/rant

Hmmm... I might be getting broadband soon - 256k. Bearing in mind I
live in the UK any ideas what sort of ping I'd get? I would NOT be too
pleased if I suddenly found myself getting kicked off a server just
because I don't have an uber-fast connection.

<DIV class=quote>
<DIV class=quotetitle>? quoting Loco</DIV>
<DIV class=quotetext>Hmmm... I might be getting broadband soon - 256k. Bearing in mind I live in the UK any ideas what sort of ping I'd get? I would NOT be too pleased if I suddenly found myself getting kicked off a server just because I don't have an uber-fast connection.
</DIV></DIV>
as close as you are to the source, i would guess far below 100.

as close as you are to the source, i would guess far below 100.

Hooray for broadband then! And Tiscali have just upped their connections to 1mb for ?15.99 a month... roll on the holidays!

I think we need "Team" frags. somehow it doesn't set right to be killed by a snarkpit member :/

on the plus side, it is so nice to see [Snarkpit] among the top slots most frags :smile:

sadly, my deaths are putting them there :heee:

I was going to say that going for 256k rather than something higher
really isn't worth the saving. Broadband prices are pretty decent right
now, best to get at least 512k.

Funny you should say that ReNo... it looks like I might be getting 512k anyway!

Here's an idea for the server. Maybe from time to time have a team
match with SnarkPit members vs. non-members. Having said that, would it
cost extra to play team dm?

Nope, its fine to chop and change between TDM and DM, just needs a
server variable to be changed and a restart of the map I think.

i didn't do to shabby at 180+ ping.

You kept "jumping" from point to point rather than moving smoothly and that made you hard to hit :biggrin: ? In theory, at least. Ok, I'm a fool and will shut-up now :biggrin: .

<DIV class=quote>
<DIV class=quotetitle>? quoting Andrei</DIV>
<DIV class=quotetext>

You kept "jumping" from point to point rather than moving smoothly and that made you hard to hit :biggrin: ? In theory, at least. Ok, I'm a fool and will shut-up now :biggrin: .

</DIV></DIV>
Only you could make my disadvantage look like a plus

Oooh can we have a team-deathmatch weekend?!

<DIV class=quote>
<DIV class=quotetitle>? quoting Andrei</DIV>
<DIV class=quotetext>A ping filter would be a good idea. All those with a ping higher than 250 should be automatically kicked. There was a guy yesterday on the server with a whooping 285 (+/-100 !) ping that slowed us all down and made the server behave like a powerpoint document.
</DIV></DIV>

Can we have an ignorance filter as well? Other people's pings do not slow down the server at all. This has been the case from Quake 1 on til HL. If the server slows down its because there's too many people on there, not because of their individual pings. It's not like the server syncs everybody to the same framerate or something.

A high ping means that it takes longer for that player to get info to and from the server. They themselves suffer the consequences of their high ping, be it players ghosting around, being unable to hit anybody reliaby, packetloss that can cause them to freeze, etc. The only problem other players face through a high pinger is that they are harder to hit as well and jump around a bit... course that's negated by the lagged one being unable to hit anything.

Usually this belief gets reinforced by people who, upon getting the laggy player out, see a stabilization of their pings. Guess what? That probably means the server has a player amount beyond capacity, and the next player that joins will 'lag' everybody else and will be called out and made to leave, and the cycle continues ad nauseam.
Now it could be I'm wrong and HL2 servers are set up differently seeing as it is assumed that every user has broadband of some sort, but it's not like I've avoided making broad statements before without knowing all the info so I'm sticking with tradition.

It has to be Team DM.

thanx yak, tis kinda what i was thinkin, but.. was not sure.

my ping is mine, i ain't sharing it with anyone. :razz:

DM_Gasworksinc plz, the guy is going to release a final version very soon :smile:

Great map and suited for 10+ players!

Its on team DM atm, and it's alot better for DM than normal DM.

And thank you Yak, for ensuring I can continue to play. As anyone I've
played with can attest, I can still whoop serious ass with a ping of
450. With that in mind you better not catch me with a ping lower than
100, cause your ass will be mine :smile: .

Its on team DM atm, and it's alot better for DM than normal DM.

I did notice when i played :razz:

Howdy - I have heard that some people still have problems getting
dm_morbid on FilePlanet.com so I've uploaded it on my webspace:

http://bs-army.com/files/dm_morbid.rar

cheers - ding.

Cool stuff, thank you ding :smile: And err, nice avatar...! :razz:

<div class="quote"><div class="quotetitle">

</div><div class="quotetext"><div class="quote">
<div class="quotetitle">?And I quote </div>
<div class="quotetext">
</div></div>

Now it could be I'm wrong and HL2 servers are set up differently
seeing as it is assumed that every user has broadband of some sort, but
it's not like I've avoided making broad statements before without
knowing all the info so I'm sticking with tradition.

</div></div>

Well, Yak, my...suggestion isn't exactly based on pure paranoia. It's
more like based on this story: I was once on a CS:S server with only 2
other guys. We all had good pings (between 50 and 80) and everything
ran smoothly. Then , another guy entered the server. He had a
ping of aprox. 450, maybe 500. As soon as he joined a
team and started to play, my ping rose to 300. And so did the
others'. After a few minutes of playing in slideshow mode, the "lagger"
was auto-kicked because of high-ping. Everything then returned to
normal. Now, everything could have been a simple coincidence but still
it makes me wonder. Maybe you're right and I threw rocks at unfortunate
56kers for nothing. Yet, maybe you're wrong. Perhaps i'll make some
reasearch on the matter. :smile:

<div><div>

I'd be happy to act as east coast admin, I am free week nights for the most part.

I'd like to see an "all night playtest" night. Where we make a
beta map pack and play test all the maps, maybe 5 or 6. The rules
could be:

• Creator must be present when his map is on.
• Voice on, and codec turn up so we can chat in real time.
• lower damge (if this is possible) or even 'dead rounds' to look at the map
• locked server
• try and keep a small crowd, 6-10 so things dont get too hecktic.
• kick or short term ban if you dont want to play along (i.e. killing people durring a dead round)

I know the best thing for me is to play my map and hear people talking about all the problems.

It would be super cool if we could find/make some kind of server mod that let players flag problem spots.

</div></div>

that got posted on the wrong section.

Like I said I can opporate as EST admin and FTP opporator. I've admined countless servers and am very good with rcon.

Were you playing on a cable server, and was the guy running the server from the same computer he was playing on?

<DIV class=quote>
<DIV class=quotetitle>? quoting Yak_Fighter</DIV>
<DIV class=quotetext>Were you playing on a cable server, and was the guy running the server from the same computer he was playing on? </DIV></DIV>
Yes and No (since it was an official server that ran even with 0 players on).

Cable servers are a whole 'nother thing, and I do believe that high pings impact other players on them. I don't remember why or how, though, and it seems like it shouldn't matter what speed your server is but from personal experience I can say that it sure seemed like my ping would affect others on cable. It may be because they usually aren't dedicated servers or maybe capped upsteam or something, but I dunno. It could have even been that the two of you were monopolizing the limited resources of that cable server by having high rates and the addition of a player lagged the whole thing, regardless of his normal ping or connetion speed. Then again why bother playing on a laggy cable server anyway when you could play on any of the other hundreds of good dedicated servers?

I'm good at talking out of my ass, I'll make a good politician someday!

<DIV class=quote>
<DIV class=quotetitle>? quoting Yak_Fighter</DIV>
<DIV class=quotetext>

I'm good at talking out of my ass, I'll make a good politician someday!

</DIV></DIV>

or a priest whom likes boy's
/runs

Just thought I'd let you all know that we are going to test out a
couple of WIP maps tonight -
dm_park by
DrGlass, and Nickelplate's
dm_castle. We
should be testing them around 1.45am GMT or thereabouts, so pop in if
you fancy giving some comments. Download the maps from the profiles
before you join.

you have the forethought to lock it.. right?

so whats the password bucko

Given that dm_park is a 17mb BSP, it's pretty much going to be a website-only affair :razz:

Nice to see a server with custom maps. Erm, if you don't mind, could
you add this map -->
http://dlx.gamespot.com/pc/halflife2/moreinfo_6118586.html or [url]http://www.snarkpit.com/maps.php?map=1760[/url] to the map
rotation?

I'd love to see my map being played with the Snarkpit members. It's okay you can't. Thanks in advance.

As a rule, I'm not all for adding an authors first maps unless they
have the seal of approval from other sources, fellow server admins for
instance.

I'll look into getting it playtested by some regulars though, and we'll make a decision based on that :smile: Looks good though

Edit - dm_steamlab has been removed from the rotation, due to MORE bugs
arising in it, namely prop_physics suffering errors with collisions (ie
not colliding at all, and bouncing around the level!).

son and i are about to frag this map gwil.. i can give you my opinion on if it will be suitable or not..

course it looks like the download location is iffy :sad:

/me suggests a better dload origin.

Just tried myself - fraid I won't be adding it, simply because it drops
as low as 20fps in the main two areas, and considering the levels of
detail it just doesn't make sense. Also odd considering the beef of my
machine :sad:

Sorry mate, I don't think it will make it onto the main rotation until
you figure out some optimisation techniques, and work on some of the
layout issues.

i didn't have frame rate issues, but i wish this map had passed through the snarkpit cleaning process..

this map could have benefited from a thorough critique.. it has/had so much potential..

my only complaint, the doors were way to narrow.. waaaaayyy to narrow. other than that, no issues architecturally to complain about.

i would have loved this map in the rotation..

I'll make or finish another map, dm_park is too much I'm gonna drop that project.

Orph, did you put +showbudget on? I got terrible FPS drop in the yard
and in the main warehouse, only when looking at certain parts though -
kinda sporadic, like dm_park.

<DIV class=quote>
<DIV class=quotetitle>? quoting Gwil</DIV>
<DIV class=quotetext>Orph, did you put +showbudget on? I got terrible FPS drop in the yard and in the main warehouse, only when looking at certain parts though - kinda sporadic, like dm_park.
</DIV></DIV>

no, sorry, but i was running the game and neither of us noticed any issues..

mind, he is on my old sissy machine too.. i can go back and look.
if you could, post a screen.

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Okey doke - also, I posted my 3d mark score for ye

http://www.snarkpit.com/forums.php?forum=1&topic=4193&84

will post screens in a few, but methinks you are spoiled.. 35fps is not that bad.

/me is getting about same from that angle too.

/me is fragging "dm_pit2" so screen will be a bit.

I have several, i'll just turn em into JPG's then you can review it.
Consider though that I detonated a slam in one of the affected areas
and it dropped to 5 fps. I'm not being spoiled, by comparison with the
strength of my machine - which is really new. Older machines will just
die outright in the outdoor areas, especially when bullets, grenades
and props are flying.

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/me has similar results.

tis a shame, i like this map.. perhaps we can get a V3? (hint,hint)

A remake of Island is needed badly. Theres a huge shortage of ammo and weapons, its all just machine gun fights. Plus the idea of the colt at the top of the level is stupid- should be something better.

I'll try to optimize the map more. But, I'm quite busy right now. Thanks for the input anyway. :wink:

Pffft, what would you rather have up there Myrk, the RPG?! The magnum
is the best sniping weapon in the game currently as it is near enough
instant hit at all ranges, and hugely powerful. The xbow is really
tough to use at such range, as you really need to be a second or more
ahead of the person in order to hit them and predicting that sort of
movement is hugely based on luck. The magnum can nab you several kills
from up at that vantage point.

My main criticism with Island 17 is the drowning bug, and lack of
health/armour. I think the shortage of weapons kinda works as it pulls
players into the combat zone, but if you had sprinkled them around more
liberally it would encourage people to spread out too much. As it
stands there are plenty of weapon spots from which you can take out
people camping the other weapon spots - the magnum in the large
building bedroom, the xbow in the red house, the RPG on the rock
pillar, and the magnum on the lighthouse. These four locations are the
real backbone of the level and you are never too far from them to make
a decent effort at reaching them.

<DIV class=quote>
<DIV class=quotetitle>? quoting SparkyX</DIV>
<DIV class=quotetext>I'll try to optimize the map more. But, I'm quite busy right now. Thanks for the input anyway. :wink:
</DIV></DIV>

you do that, and be sure to request a proper critique.

i would really enjoy seeing this map run. it has its issues, but none that cannot be overcome.
widen those danged doorways. :smile:

Gwil, please consider my map dm_allegiance_beta1

It is highly tweaked for excellent gameplay, connectivity and performance :smile:

Its a large map great for 16 player team or regular deathmatch

I've been working on it for 4 months and want to playtest it to see what needs to be tweaked next.

We will put it up for testing once we have a couple of other maps in
beta ready (tend to get a bigger crowd if its more than just one map I
reckon), but as its only beta it won't go into the regular rotation.