Unjust Auto Kicking

[Inkslug 1]

I just wanted to voice my displeasure about an auto kick feature on the Lotus Chicago 24/7 2Fort server.

First of all, I was a donor for all Lotus servers for 3 months. Times are really tight right now, and I can't afford to kick in donations, but I will definitely be doing so again as soon as the income rolls back in. You guys provide excellent servers, servers I spend A TON of time in (maybe too much time, haha!). Secondly, I am a regular in the Lotus servers (Marcel will vouch for me). In fact, I only play in Lotus servers. Along with my clan [dBs], we play the Lotus servers constantly.

My complaint is with the 'highest ping' auto kick feature. Now, I am a west coast gamer, but most of my friends are east coast, and they mostly play on the Chicago server, and that means I kinda have to as well if I want to have a good time with all of them together in one server. I watch my latency constantly, and, it usually hovers at around 100. I've been gaming online for 15 years now, and I have NEVER been kicked for a ping of 100.

As a former AND future donor, I feel this is unfair. It's extremely frustrating to get booted right in the middle of an intense match, disconnected from all your clan buddies, because of a measly 100 ping.

Is there anything that can be done about this, short of donating again? Like I said, times are tough right now, and as much as I want to donate again, I just can't right now. Once work picks up again, rest assured it will be the first thing I do.

Any feedback concerning this matter would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you.

- Kelly (aka InkSlug*[dBs])

[Se7en 10,762]

The highest ping reason posted when you get kicked actually happens when a donor force joins a full server. As far as I know you will never get autokicked from Lotus servers over latency other than in the case I just said.

[Inkslug 1]

Ah, that's completely understandable, however, the reason given for the disconnection is misleading.

[- Mike - 2,728]

Ah, that's completely understandable, however, the reason given for the disconnection is misleading.

Is it though? I thought it did kick the highest ping person when that happens.

[Nano 7,892]

l believe the princess is correct. It will kick highest ping non-donor first.

[Ruby 9,039]

Hello!

You might want to think about getting a net config for TF2. If you have installed Chris' FPS configs, you already have them, but they're most likely commented out (in case you haven't edited the config), and if you don't, this would be a good time to get one.

To install this, simply go to the directory where you installed Steam (most likely C:\Program Files\Steam or C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam if you are on 64bit machine), then go to steamapps\<your Steam username>\team fortress 2\tf\cfg folder. You'll find a certain file called autoexec.cfg in that folder - if it isn't there, create a blank one. (If you have installed Chris's FPS configs, simply open gfx.cfg file and look for the lines I'll put down below). Open it, and add this to the file:

// Bad connection settings by Chris
cl_cmdrate 40
cl_interp 0
cl_interp_ratio 2
cl_lagcompensation 1
cl_pred_optimize 2
cl_smooth 0
cl_smoothtime 0.01
cl_updaterate 40
rate 35000

Save this and run TF2. What this basically does is it specifies how often should your client seek for data from the server. It can compensate anywhere from 10 to 30 ping, depending on your connection and the settings you had before.

If you plan on playing on a server relatively near you (meaning your ping is well below 100), simply replace the Bad Connection Settings with this:

// Good connection
cl_cmdrate 66
cl_interp 0
cl_interp_ratio 1
cl_lagcompensation 1
cl_pred_optimize 2
cl_smooth 0
cl_smoothtime 0.01
cl_updaterate 66
rate 60000

You could also create an alias which would switch between the two configs by simply typing a command into console, but that's not something I've tried so you'll have to use google-fu for that (just search for "tf2 configs" and a intricate Wiki article should show up).

Hope this helps

[Nano 7,892]

Is this what makes the ping artificially low or is that something different?

[Ruby 9,039]

Is this what makes the ping artificially low or is that something different?

The ping is measured by the server and the only way to make it artificially low is to mod the server, at least I think so. This uses TF2's built in options to optimize the amount of data sent and received - the "bad connection" setting will lower the rate at which the client requests packets from the server which will make it easier for the packages to go through a slow connection, that's my understanding of it.

It's not a cheat or an exploit. It's something I use for ages, as well as many competitive players.

[Nano 7,892]

Great. Yeah I know there is some way to make your ping report as always under 10, not anything I ever investigated though.

Thanks.

[Inkslug 1]

That's a tastey little nugget of info, guys, thanks a bunch! I'll be doing that, and I'll see your config improvement and raise you a 6 month donation! I get paid today, so I'll kick in another donation your way! Wewt!