All Servers Down To 24 Players?

[+Dr. Obvious 14,606]

Herro,

been asked if, by chance, the UK 2Fort #1 was down to a max setting of 24 players...

...and from what i see on the server list, all servers are limited to 24 now?

Any idea why so?

[No longer a Sexy King:^) 5,592]

Please tell me this is temporary =S

[+Dr. Obvious 14,606]

I wish i could...

[+Dr. Obvious 14,606]

Maybe, but why can't more people join, then?
(at least, that's what i've been reported - i'm still at work and can't check)

[Mana 3,867]

This is temporary. Valve added some sort of auto delister for 32 player servers that triggers in certain scenarios (or maybe done it manually?). There's people talking about it on the mailing list and I don't want to have our servers get banned for it, especially when we don't yet know what exact criteria valve is using.

The current guess is that valve's sv_visiblemaxplayers function does not set the tags correctly, and whatever tool valve uses checks or this tag and gets the server banned. Now our servers should have this tag set from the get go even at 24 players, but sometimes tags get pushed out or otherwise disappear. And this might not even be the actual reason. Just a very good guess. So until we know for sure what's causing this I'll just keep our servers away from being 32 players. Only valve can say what they are doing exactly.

Seeing how I came up with this idea I also had the foresight to make valve aware of it and to make sure we would not get punished for it. I asked about this over a year ago:

Fletcher Dunn

It’s sort of pushing the boundaries of the “policy of truth” to advertise a server as 24-players max, when you know full well that you are going to bump it up to 32. It’s definitely not ideal. But it’s not ban worthy and I think it’d be straying into a grey area on our part to take action against it.

Sounds like we need to adjust our quickplay heuristics, seeing that it creates this perverse optimal strategy for server operators to get traffic.

[+Dr. Obvious 14,606]

Yay.
Thnx for the info.

[-Tristan- 948]

Seems like a lot of the x33 servers aren't taking max capacity tonight?

[Climhazzard 654]

I've seen it happen a few times. I thought at first I was just 24 until enough people joined but then someone had said they couldn't join at 24. I'm guessing some sort of server maintenance or somethin

[Barbaro 466]

Valve employees were laid off yesterday.

http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/186592/Several_out_of_work_as_Valve_makes_large_decisions_about_its_future.php

Anyone say Coicidence?

[Barbaro 466]

The end is fucking nigh!

[Mana 3,867]

This is what valve had to say about it:

Fletcher Dunn

6:20 PM (1 hour ago)

We banned some servers who had a maxplayers great than 24 but did not have the increased_maxplayers tag. It looks like it is possible that changing sv_visiblemaxplayers dynamically can result in this tag not being set. We'll undo those bans.

If the maxplayers column doesn't inform players, "This server will generally limit the max number of players to X" then what does the value mean? The only possible way I can imagine a player would interpret the consistent, automated upward adjustment of the maxplayers value is that the server is lying to them about what is happening on the server.

We'll fix this loophole. Players are entitled to an accurate indication of the max number of players allowed on the server.

I'll wait a bit to see if there's any more info from valve on this and then start setting the servers back to how they were.

[-Tristan- 948]

So are 32 player servers not on quickly or would you just get much better quickplay traffic if you were advertised as a 24 player server?

[Asjo 90]

Hope this gets cleared up within a reasonable amount of time. Love the LotusClan servers, but I'll be forced to play on the skial servers in the meanwhile. Sucks, because I want to play with the people whose company I've come to enjoy

Sounds like Mana is really on top of things, though.

[Nano 7,892]

So are 32 player servers not on quickly or would you just get much better quickplay traffic if you were advertised as a 24 player server?

We risk getting delisted from quickplay altogether, hence the abundance of caution.

[Nam 11]

Bukowski would like to know if this is getting closer to being resolved.

[bukowski 1,203]

Bukowski would like to know if this is getting closer to being resolved.

LOL, never said this. Nam is funny.

12v12 does suck though and I hope things get worked out soon.

Edited February 22, 2013 by bukowski

[DutchKev 425]

agree about the x24 sucking, i know this is out of mana's control, but dammit i wish valve would get their ass in to gear and get this sorted, ive not seen dustbowl so dead in years

it takes forever to get the server kick started, one instant bots where still on at 5pm!

c/mon valve, sort it out!

[Barbaro 466]

Damn you Valve, put the SmackDown on us.

What sucks is that it's actually...'right' that they did so, because it's advertised every-time someone joins a server over 24 slots that client stability and feedback may be harmed. But the problem is that it's the same player's fun that gets harmed here because who doesn't love seeing 16v16.

Then again, it's just 8 players missing out...

[Asjo 90]

To be honest, the mail that Mana got makes it sound like Valve realize that it was not correct to ban those servers, and would instead take other measures to get the tags right. Are we waiting for confirmation of this? Or for some update from Valve?

I do realize that getting banned from quickplay would result in the slow death of the LotusClan server. I'm just wondering

[Mana 3,867]

Which servers would you guys like to see go back to 32/33 players?

I can see how well these servers do without quickplay in the meantime.

[Kitten 1,813]

24/7 2fort Chicago =)

[Yourself 1]

West Dustbowl

[bukowski 1,203]

24/7 2fort East Coast

[Se7en 10,762]

UK 24/7 2fort 95.154.193.26:27015 pretty please.

[Barbaro 466]

To be honest, the mail that Mana got makes it sound like Valve realize that it was not correct to ban those servers, and would instead take other measures to get the tags right. Are we waiting for confirmation of this? Or for some update from Valve?

I do realize that getting banned from quickplay would result in the slow death of the LotusClan server. I'm just wondering

I actually think you misread it. It's punishing those servers that are over 24 slots due to not compliance of the tagging...but it sounds like their fault? *I'm half awake*

Death of LotusClan?