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Too many autohosts?

Posted: 01 Dec 2006, 08:31
by Quanto042
Yes, thats right.
I.
Quanto.
Am Complaining...

Its sad when i have to bitch about something, but this has been bugging me for a while now. There are TOO MANY AUTOSERVERS.

Why do i say this? Well, when i look at the client, and i see all the green open games, i feel really happy, and then, just before i double-click, i realize its a bot, then i look down, and see it agian, and then again, and again. See a pattern?

I mean, very few ppl actually use them. And if the reality is that if there isn't that much actual activity going on, i'd like to be able to at least tell from a glance.

I'm not suggesting a complete removal of all autoservers, but maybe betalord could at least perhaps add a filter to the client to hide all bot hosted matches perhaps? That would be kind of cool.

Anyways, thats my two cents. Discuss away now! :o

Posted: 01 Dec 2006, 08:33
by NOiZE
I wish in someway, if you host a game then you would actual "call in a autohost" so its dedicated but you are in control of everything a bit easier.

am i making sense?

Posted: 01 Dec 2006, 08:34
by Quanto042
i think...

Meh, it would be pretty neat actually.

Posted: 01 Dec 2006, 09:10
by Neddie
I figure we've saturated the market, have enough for demand, and don't need to worry.

Posted: 01 Dec 2006, 10:49
by Licho
Well only difference is, that there are now more open games, especially when there is deep night in EU or USA and simply not enough players to fill those games.

Bot start on demand is easy to do, but for what reason? Now, if you see too many autohosts, just ignore most and use some with ppl on it.

Autohosts imo have several advantages over ordinary hosts. Autohost never quits in the middle because it's loosing, it won't kick you from lobby because his friend wants to play too and it's usually easier to setup teams and make everyone ready.

I originally made it to simplify my own hosting. Because it was annoying to /ring all unready ppl one by one, to fix their teams and alliances or to sit in lobby or game for hours even if I already lost, just because game is full.
With autohost I simply join a game, and do whatever I need on my PC (work, read, watch a film) and once it fills up people start game and it switches me to game - no time wasted in lobby at all.

Due to the nature of things, autohosts also lag less (because it's using less CPU than normal hosting with spring rendering enabled).

Posted: 01 Dec 2006, 10:58
by imbaczek
There's no such thing as too many hosts. The only thing needed is to filter empty hosts in the lobby.

Posted: 01 Dec 2006, 11:00
by Tobi
I agree with Quanto, it's got harder to see whether there are open games with actual human beings in it.

But I don't think it's a really big problem, you just have to get used to it imho.

Posted: 01 Dec 2006, 11:09
by LBPB
I was really annoyed yesterday !

Too many bot hosting !

Peoples where divided between them and we've not been enought to start a game.
Peoples where just sitting in the bot opened lobby waiting for others.

They were enought people for 3 games but actually not a single game started because all the guys where randomly dispatched throught all the lobby.

:arrow: There are simply not enought player for such huge amount of bots !
All you re gonna do with this bot is to piss off the players and kill the lobby :(


3 Bots should be enought for the community... but that s only my opinion...

Posted: 01 Dec 2006, 12:10
by imbaczek
Every FPS game has an option to hide empty servers, it'd be trivial to do here. Go bug Betalord 8)

Posted: 01 Dec 2006, 12:37
by Licho
Well I thought that people here have some decent IQ .. If they can't understand that (+1) means it's empty and just has spectator there, or if they can't join game with most people in it, it's their fault.

But you should realize that if everyone could host, it would look exactly same.
People join empty autohost only if they are dissatisfied with other games around, otherwise they would join some other game with people already in it.

Posted: 01 Dec 2006, 15:07
by T1Deadeye64
Note that the T1 server is being used alot, when i check it out 1 server is being used, sometimes 2 and if you dont want to use an autoserver then dont
start your own game if you can

Posted: 01 Dec 2006, 15:08
by Erom
imbaczek wrote:There's no such thing as too many hosts. The only thing needed is to filter empty hosts in the lobby.
+1

Posted: 01 Dec 2006, 16:44
by Aun
If there were only 3 servers then there wouldn't be enough bots for all of the mods.

Posted: 01 Dec 2006, 19:47
by Neuralize
Well if people would actually use the autohosts..

Posted: 01 Dec 2006, 20:07
by PicassoCT
It could be usefull if two autohost host the same map & same Mod to get them Together...

Posted: 01 Dec 2006, 20:31
by LordMatt
If you could categorize autohosts seperately, it would solve this issue.

Posted: 01 Dec 2006, 20:51
by hrmph
LordMatt wrote:If you could categorize autohosts seperately, it would solve this issue.
+1 How about a button in the client that cycles through three options, 1. show autohosts/bots and human hosted games. 2. show only human hosted games. 3. show only autohost/bot hosted games.

Posted: 01 Dec 2006, 21:10
by Neddie
Good idea...

Posted: 01 Dec 2006, 21:24
by Licho
There is no way to tell human player from a bot.. Even if there was some, bot's can still report as an ordinary TASClient to lobby server (because protocol is open).

Imo if people really have troubles with it, best solution is filter to filter out empty games.

Why do you need to separate bot hosted games from human hosted anyway?

Posted: 01 Dec 2006, 21:48
by Felix the Cat
Neuralize wrote:Well if people would actually use the autohosts..
People prefer to host their own games, because they can then control the settings as they wish, using the simple menu system rather than the clunky "!biglongcommandhere 1 8 39 2 n v" system. At least give the highest person in the playerlist full host privileges...