Stack-O-Matic

[Electric Donkey 0]

As a player not making any financial contributions towards the Lotus server bills I understand that the message contained in this post may be treated with little to no regard, but it's still worth saying just in case the people running the show aren't aware and don't want their servers to be what they've become.

Allowing "members" (which I take to mean anyone who donates) to choose whichever team they wish without regard to the number of players on each team and making them immune to auto-switching results in all of the donors on a server switching to the winning team and staying there.

This happens often enough on normal TF2 servers (though not as readily, since no players are allowed to change when it would imbalance the teams), but the issue is more or less resolved when the map changes. On a normal TF2 server players can pick which team they want to be on but have to wait until the opposing team has the same number of players. On Lotus servers when a new map loads the cadre of stacker-donors all immediately switch to be on the same team. Just this week I saw a round of dustbowl start with the teams 16 vs 9.

I'm not sure what the purpose of "votescramble" is, since it's completely ineffective at preventing the donors from immediately stacking again, which they do.

It's a free country, Lotus can run whatever kind of server they want to run and I understand that no one has a gun to my head forcing me to keep playing on Lotus servers, and indeed, you won't have to listen to me complain for long since I certainly will seek a more balanced, enjoyable TF2 experience on a different server.

Just thought you might want to know. Cheers.

[FunkyFresh 68]

Skipped until I saw

won't have to listen etc, etc, different server

.

Opinion invalid, later boss.

[The Computer Geek 6]

I thought this was gunna be a funny topic when I saw the title but instead it's a post by a little emo.

[Captain Planet 28]

Have fun on your new server. It's not like we are unbeatable, we just happen to like playing with each other.

(We do lose people)

[Oww My Nose 19]

16 vs 9 is fine. i think it was 19 vs 4 at one point... (or am i just making this shit up?)

[Mana 3,867]

I always meant to add a limit to the changemyteam command. It was never meant to be unlimited.

Long time ago the restrictions on team joining were removed so donors could just pick any team they wanted using the built in team selection menu and anyone else who tried to make teams uneven got auto switched. But that lead to terrible stacking (and confusion when someone joined blue but spawned on red) so that was disabled and the changemyteam command was added. And that worked for a while. Now I need to implement that limit.

[Moby 24]

Have fun on your new server. It's not like we are unbeatable, we just happen to like playing with each other.

(We do lose people)

I'm all for friends being able to play with each other, but there should be some mechanism in place to at least keep the numbers balanced. As someone else posted, I've seen team ratios that were very skewed. And it only gets worse as the people on the smaller team come to the realization that they are playing against a team twice their size, and decide to go play on some other server for a few hours or whatever.

[Captain Planet 28]

I'm all for friends being able to play with each other, but there should be some mechanism in place to at least keep the numbers balanced. As someone else posted, I've seen team ratios that wer usually e very skewed. And it only gets worse as the people on the smaller team come to the realization that they are playing against a team twice their size, and decide to go play on some other server for a few hours or whatever.

Meh. It starts when people on the other team want to get on our team simply because they want to win, not to get better at the game. Oddly enough I came through to Stocks 1 after 24/7 2fort because I wanted to try out the different maps. The competition level is a lot higher, but I was able to learn quickly and be a factor even though I wasn't always on the stacked team. Trust me, I've tried playing with the other team, both Funky and I and others have, and they don't talk at all. In fact, most people don't talk, and that is really their downfall. Medics need to be able to communicate, people need to tell you where sentries they died from are located, etc. Most/All of the regulars do, and that's why we are able to work as a team better than others (hence the name Team Fortress).

[Moby 24]

Meh. It starts when people on the other team want to get on our team simply because they want to win, not to get better at the game. Oddly enough I came through to Stocks 1 after 24/7 2fort because I wanted to try out the different maps. The competition level is a lot higher, but I was able to learn quickly and be a factor even though I wasn't always on the stacked team. Trust me, I've tried playing with the other team, both Funky and I and others have, and they don't talk at all. In fact, most people don't talk, and that is really their downfall. Medics need to be able to communicate, people need to tell you where sentries they died from are located, etc. Most/All of the regulars do, and that's why we are able to work as a team better than others (hence the name Team Fortress).

Couldn't agree with you more. When I join a game I usually know in the first minute if it's a winning team or a losing team, based on the voice com or lack thereof. That and the lack of medics and abundance of snipers.

[Game AI Dev (Dave) 17]

Couldn't agree with you more. When I join a game I usually know in the first minute if it's a winning team or a losing team, based on the voice com or lack thereof. That and the lack of medics and abundance of snipers.

Yep. Team balance and communications makes a ton of difference.

[You suck and have no life 203]

Yep. Team balance and communications makes a ton of difference.

Then explain how on an insanely stacked team yesterday with 11 regulars on your team, you still lost to my team? And the only other person I talked to was my medic?

[FunkyFresh 68]

No engys on the team for..some..odd reason. Ubers constantly rushing us. I'm the only one on the point. You're always running in with medic in tow/ubered more often than not.

It's not impossible to win against the stacked team. I've been known to join the losing team and pull them back from the brink before.

[Rydawg 14]

We just need to rename Stock 1 to StackAttack!

i agree 10000% with Planet. People wanting to play with their 'friends' isn't stacking. On any given map Stock one usually has about 6-10 of the regular 'stackers', them all being on the same team is bad why? I would rather keep my 10 stack friends and play against 20 people, and we would win. We are better than most people who play on stock one and the most important part is communication. I can join any server and have 1 medic a demo/heavy and turn the tides in a game.

[You suck and have no life 203]

No engys on the team for..some..odd reason. Ubers constantly rushing us. I'm the only one on the point. You're always running in with medic in tow/ubered more often than not.

It's not impossible to win against the stacked team. I've been known to join the losing team and pull them back from the brink before.

Were you referring to the game I was in last night? Or in general?

[FunkyFresh 68]

The game last night. The one where we got rooked on 1st defense within, what, 5 minutes?

[You suck and have no life 203]

The game last night. The one where we got rooked on 1st defense within, what, 5 minutes?

Was this dustbowl and were we in the same game?

[The Lorax 25]

Uh oh, looks like funky has been caught in the You Suck vortex.

[Melissia 7]

DAmnit, it's a "I'm a drama queen so I can't just leave quietly I have to say something first" post. So fucking annoying. Grow up, people.

Speaking of growing up... you're not that great to be insulting other players' skills, suckylife. Just shut the fuck up and let the REAL people talk.

Edited July 2, 2009 by Melissia

[DeJaDeW 83]

you won't have to listen to me complain for long since I certainly will seek a more balanced, enjoyable TF2 experience on a different server.

no matter what changes are made in Lotus servers, I'll still be there to support & have fun with my friends. Why? because Lotus servers are the BEST

[Graedus 9]

I like Funky ubers.

[phantom 29]

the whole 16v9 etc argument is invalid cause the rest are usually sitting in spec waiting to join the 16 player team.

people just whine and bitch rather than attempting to play, take a goldrush we had a few days back. the "stackers" were on red. teams were even at about 15v15 we lose to stage2cap2, but held it there and won.

teams get switched, we win stage1 both caps, at the start of stage2 people are bitching teams are stacked and in come the votescrambles/rage specs to team hop. so since the score is actually 3:2 the "stackers" are still losing. in fact i dont think we even won that stage either.

when the "stacked" team has 6-7 heavies doing nothing but trying to get taunt kills and youre still losing, its not cause were stacked, its cause youre awful.

[You suck and have no life 203]

DAmnit, it's a "I'm a drama queen so I can't just leave quietly I have to say something first" post. So fucking annoying. Grow up, people.

Speaking of growing up... you're not that great to be insulting other players' skills, suckylife. Just shut the fuck up and let the REAL people talk.

You seem to have a fetish for the word "REAL". I am curious to the story behind this.

when the "stacked" team has 6-7 heavies doing nothing but trying to get taunt kills and youre still losing, its not cause were stacked, its cause youre awful.

The moral of the story is, dont suck. If you work at McDonalds, its not Obama's fault you aren't a doctor.

No engys on the team for..some..odd reason. Ubers constantly rushing us. I'm the only one on the point. You're always running in with medic in tow/ubered more often than not.

It's not impossible to win against the stacked team. I've been known to join the losing team and pull them back from the brink before.

Were you referring to the game I was in last night? Or in general?

Funky, so it was you. You were under L-r | Hal Jordan. I noticed the familiar avatar but I couldn't recognize you at the time. Haha nice. You and Heli were being awesome medics. It was basically just us 3. We still won that offensive round though. Funny thing was, Dave had 25 points when I joined. By the time he got to 50, I also got to 50. Then he vote kicks me out of the game so I rejoined. By the end of the round I had 205, and he was 185 even after my score reset.

[FunkyFresh 68]

It's easier for me to get points on the losing team and catch up rather than be on stacked and try to catch up. Maybe you got that same thing goin.

[Melissia 7]

Sshh! Quiet suckylife, the real people are talking over here.

Funkyfresh: Though it does get amusing if you end up on the top of one team but you'd only be on the middle of the other. Regardless of how good you are, TF2 is a team game after all, and so it's rather hard to be at the very top when ou're on the losing team (not impossible though, I've done it, especially as spy).

[FunkyFresh 68]

Heh, that's only after a game has been started. Doesn't happen if I'm goin' hard from the start