Too Many AutoHosts!

Too Many AutoHosts!

Various things about Spring that do not fit in any of the other forums listed below, including forum rules.

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Sefidel
Posts: 77
Joined: 14 Dec 2006, 02:02

Too Many AutoHosts!

Post by Sefidel »

Because of the overwhelming number of autohosts, users are dispersed into smaller and smaller groups. there are 60+ hosts for a player base of like 150-200. It would be nice if we had less groups because then people would be more likely to join team games and not segregate themselves.
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Beherith
Posts: 5145
Joined: 26 Oct 2007, 16:21

Re: Too Many AutoHosts!

Post by Beherith »

Filter empty battles in lobby.
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AF
AI Developer
Posts: 20687
Joined: 14 Sep 2004, 11:32

Re: Too Many AutoHosts!

Post by AF »

we've been over this before, it's not going to change unless you can persuade individual autohost owners to change their ways, which they have decided for the most part they wont
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Jools
XTA Developer
Posts: 2816
Joined: 23 Feb 2009, 16:29

Re: Too Many AutoHosts!

Post by Jools »

Tell us which ones are unneeded. I feel that semprini is used enough to merit its existence.
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Silentwings
Posts: 3720
Joined: 25 Oct 2008, 00:23

Re: Too Many AutoHosts!

Post by Silentwings »

use the filter if you don't want to see them!
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smoth
Posts: 22309
Joined: 13 Jan 2005, 00:46

Re: Too Many AutoHosts!

Post by smoth »

why are there so many though. I am not eve going to bother counting them but to pick on evo, it has 5 hosts..? I thought the autohosts created a spawned off host the moment people joined a host so there is always an open option? Am I wrong on that? Because evo's 5 is small potatoes compaired to the 2 big mods. EX BA has currently 10+ autohosts EMPTY.
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Silentwings
Posts: 3720
Joined: 25 Oct 2008, 00:23

Re: Too Many AutoHosts!

Post by Silentwings »

BA mostly uses TERA, ACE, [x] & Princess - these are all regularly used (and sometimes, eg ACE, there are different hosts for the different kinds of BA games). Spads is basically a backup and those hosts are used less but they are used. Then there are the two dev hosts for testing BA/BAR. And that makes >10 :P

Looking on my lobby I see also a few private ones that are presumably used.
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smoth
Posts: 22309
Joined: 13 Jan 2005, 00:46

Re: Too Many AutoHosts!

Post by smoth »

even still.. 10+..
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bobthedinosaur
Blood & Steel Developer
Posts: 2700
Joined: 25 Aug 2004, 13:31

Re: Too Many AutoHosts!

Post by bobthedinosaur »

are many of those unsupported and obsolete older games still being hosted or is this more of a BA hosting issue?
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AF
AI Developer
Posts: 20687
Joined: 14 Sep 2004, 11:32

Re: Too Many AutoHosts!

Post by AF »

Even then, we identify say that there are 190 autohosts that are being used to host general BA games, not development, we still have an issue that cannot be resolved:
  • All autohosters will claim it gets used. Even if it's used once a day for a small battle before they move on to the next.
  • If there was only ever 1 game at any one time, but it rotated between autohosts, every autohoster would use that as justification for being kept
  • If we were to consolidate logically, this poses the question of which autohosts should be kept and which shouldn't. Why should A be kept and not B? Above points make this near impossible to answer
  • Auto-hosters have a huge incentive to keep them regardless of use because it's kudos to them when people play, it's a badge a popularity thing.
Effective fixes that are unlikely to ever be implemented:
  • A ban on clantags in autohost usernames
  • Enforced naming restrictions ( autohost_1, autohost_2, BA_autohost, BA_dev_autohost etc )
  • Lobbies not showing medium/high ranks
  • Server based management ( server keeps 1 autohost open for a use case, opens another once it's full/requested, autohosts announce themselves as autohosts when connecting, and fall back to idle silent mode so they can be repurposed for other use cases once idle for a given time )
  • Removal of battle moderator privs ( autohost owner can stop the battle and do things related to administration of an autohost, but things like kicking, spec team etc etc would be the jurisdiction of lobby moderation )
All of those would be vehemently attacked, visciously picked apart with faux logic, and denied as solutions by a wide range of people. But they would fundamentally change the way autohosts work and rid us of the current problems. Some may even boost an autohosters standing ( XYZs spare BA hosts came to our rescue when the ABC Annihilation autohost went down, everyone buy XYZ drinks! )

We have the technology, this is a social/political issue, not a technical one.
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PicassoCT
Journeywar Developer & Mapper
Posts: 10450
Joined: 24 Jan 2006, 21:12

Re: Too Many AutoHosts!

Post by PicassoCT »

If it were to be that a neuronal network could solve our political problems by finding a optimal sollution, would you call this a technical possibility we dont have yet, AF?
klapmongool
Posts: 843
Joined: 13 Aug 2007, 13:19

Re: Too Many AutoHosts!

Post by klapmongool »

Sort by number of players.

What problem?
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Jools
XTA Developer
Posts: 2816
Joined: 23 Feb 2009, 16:29

Re: Too Many AutoHosts!

Post by Jools »

klapmongool wrote:Sort by number of players.

What problem?
What if less is more?
klapmongool
Posts: 843
Joined: 13 Aug 2007, 13:19

Re: Too Many AutoHosts!

Post by klapmongool »

Jools wrote:
klapmongool wrote:Sort by number of players.

What problem?
What if less is more?
What if.. Explaining 'how' would make this discussion a lot easier.
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Jools
XTA Developer
Posts: 2816
Joined: 23 Feb 2009, 16:29

Re: Too Many AutoHosts!

Post by Jools »

Less is more, in the meaning that autohosts with few players can be better than those with many players.

It's a phrase. I'm sure you've heard it before.
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Forboding Angel
Evolution RTS Developer
Posts: 14673
Joined: 17 Nov 2005, 02:43

Re: Too Many AutoHosts!

Post by Forboding Angel »

Those 5 evo hosts are hosted by me myself and I. They are spads and do not have the capability of autospawning new ones.

The evo springie hosts are really great, but there are certain things that spads does better, so evo has both, which is basically the best of both worlds imo.
klapmongool
Posts: 843
Joined: 13 Aug 2007, 13:19

Re: Too Many AutoHosts!

Post by klapmongool »

Jools wrote:Less is more, in the meaning that autohosts with few players can be better than those with many players.

It's a phrase. I'm sure you've heard it before.
I have, and I consider it useless when used as above. Can you explain why you think it would be better to have less autohosts?

Then we can compare the pro's and cons.

I'm not saying the current situation is ideal but I do occasionally find myself in situations in which it is handy to have extra hosts available. Do keep in mind that there are differences between autohosts in settings, maps, owners/admins and hosting locations. There is no single 'best' configuration to replace all others.
gajop
Moderator
Posts: 3051
Joined: 05 Aug 2009, 20:42

Re: Too Many AutoHosts!

Post by gajop »

Personally I think automatic matchmaking should be used instead of autohosts altogether, and the only time games should be manually created would be when people want to play custom type games not offered on any of the matchmaking lines.

Now I don't have a problem with there being too many autohosts (can just filter/sort by size), but I'd appreciate if they would stop advertising games in #main (#newbies as well?).
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Jazcash
Posts: 5309
Joined: 08 Dec 2007, 17:39

Re: Too Many AutoHosts!

Post by Jazcash »

gajop wrote:Personally I think automatic matchmaking should be used instead of autohosts altogether, and the only time games should be manually created would be when people want to play custom type games not offered on any of the matchmaking lines.
Would be difficult as different autohost owners have different rules and mod options on their autohosts. Unless every autohost can agree one one set of rules and mod options then I imagine they'd be conflict in trying to set this kind of thing up using their servers.

There are "matchmaking" type systems already anyway, but they're an alternative way of finding a game instead of the only way, which I think is better.
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Jools
XTA Developer
Posts: 2816
Joined: 23 Feb 2009, 16:29

Re: Too Many AutoHosts!

Post by Jools »

What do you mean with matchmaking? Clump all douchebags together on one host and the rest on another? We xta-people usually all go to the same host.
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