Hey jiggs, Just a few suggestions for the servers.

1. If you could allow vote for return to lobby that would be cool.
2. Also, idle mode appears to be disabled, since the game doesn't kick AFKers, idle mode is the next best thing, in that an AI takes over that person's place until they get back. It would be cool if you could turn it on.

Other than that, they seem great.

I would say maybe consider changing the co-op servers to expert, but you can always vote to change the difficulty, so thats no biggie.

As soon as I can figure out what the variables are, I'll start integrating them. SRCDS_RUN, much like HLDS_L, are VERY poorly documented. You have to goto the steampowered forums and read the FAQ posts from random non-valve employees to get the lowdown on how to get it working. Argh.

I had to manually update the server once Valve updated some of the core files because autoupdate is still broken. As one guy on the forums put it,

"So this bug has been around in all Orange Box + games for over a year now?"

...I just rolled my eyes. Heh, welcome to the wonderful world of Valve support.

needs a mod to allow more players. Maybe we can conscript thoth to make one :p

Unfortunately there are quite a few issues I have with the game that look like the direct result of having been developed for xbox as well. One of these is the lack of a server browser. The only way to access the server browser is via console, which has to be enabled in the first place. Thus most people don't know about the console, and even fewer know about the server browser. The quickmatch system looks like it was taken straight from xbox live.

The way the game handles team balancing is also ridiculous, in that... it doesn't handle team balancing at all. It's quite satisfied to fill up one team before it adds a single player to the other team, so it is quite possible to play 4 vs 1 for an extended period of time until someone either leaves or joins. This is ridiculous, especially since most people use the "quick match" feature to find games instead of the bloody server browser.

I've also seen some cases where servers that have been set to act as VS server somehow turn into co-op and vice versa. Its a fun game, but some of these issues are ridiculous for a retail game.

Jiggs i don't know what it is about your server, but every time i've joined it's always filled with grade "A" retards. Its like they're coming over straight from xbox.

++ to that. Not to mention it has TWO FUCKING MAPS to pick from. Now granted these two maps may have different parts but the first part of stage 1 consists of the survivors going down 3 flights of stairs then around 3 bends, they don't quite cut it. Add in the fact that stage 1 was in the demo and that no one ever plays stage 2, it gets old fast. This game stands the chance of being epic if they fix a few things in patchs.
A) Get the server browser back in
B) MORE FUCKING MAPS!!!!!
C) Allow map rotation, even teams settings, etc... from the default in game server. As it stands you can make it friends only or not.

This game is pure shit when it comes to the menus and I expect to see it go the way of UT3 should it not correct itself, which is a real shame since the game is amazing. It may not have the sophistication of NS, but it retains the team play element that we all love so much.

ATM I don't even see the cvars for the changes Doc would like to make.

I'm not sure if this game is SMod compatible. I *suspect* it must be, since, again, I don't see vars for Doc's requests, and figure there must be mods to enable them.

Albeit, I've not really messed with Smod yet… Also adding more players may break either the game balance, or various engine limitations (sadly, "No_Free_Edicts" is just about as common in Source as it was in HL1.)

Lastly, of course, I'd actually have to buy the game… I've spent about $800 on Christmas gifts this year already. "But Thoth, what's another $50?" - Well, obviously, that's how I got to $800 to begin with!


Well, if there's anything ye could have said to unsell me on the game, that was likely it.
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"Time is not made out of lines, it is made out of circles. That is why clocks are round!" - Caboose, Red vs. Blue
Thothie

If it eases your mind, the issues I have are hardly gamebreaking, and if you know how to use a console or have server admin they won't effect you at all since you can A. move around teams, and B. open the server browser yourself.

The game is still outrageously fun, despite it's short comings. I'll relate to NS in this way, you either leave every game with a sense of accomplishment and a "gaming high," or you ragequit because your team is a bunch of morons. Either way, it's quite satisfying. And I would really like to see some compitent players on Jiggs for a change.

As much as I don't like server caps at 4 to 8, the game works exceedingly well with this amount of players. Any more than 4 the coop would be too easy (or too hard if you have people with bad aim) and more than 8 in vs would unbalance the game heavily in favor of the survivors, since they're already playing the game on easy difficulty.

hey, jiggly. what os are you running the l4d server on? we've got a spare gentoo box kicking around that we might want to run as a server (of course i'd still play on yours <3)

Why is it that when I look for jiggly servers I see 7, all of which are campaign. Why are there no versus servers!? >:(

Apparently the alternate and I'm not quite sure why that happens. I've noticed it happening quite frequently on both jiggs servers and my friend's servers.