Lc Improvements

LC Improvement Plan by anonymous How to make the Lost Continent servers a better place for players of all types. (aka “The Most Spergin’ Thing I’ll Ever Do, Hopefully”)

Table of Contents I. II. III.

IV.

V.

Introduction Server Configurations Maps a. Voting b. Customs c. Proposed Maplist Misc. Tweaks a. Time limits b. Team scrambles c. Pubbies & Immunity Admin Guidelines a. General b. Events

I: Introduction Compared to the average Team Fortress 2 server, the Lost Continents are almost a game of their own. They’re some of the most vanilla, basic servers in existence – until recently, they lacked even SourceMod. They run a rotation of almost entirely official maps, and lack game-breaking changes like increased max players or instant respawn. Yet for all of this good, the LC’s have serious problems. Many LC players play TF2 for three or more hours a week, and deserve the best possible playing experience. With that in mind, I’ve created this document to address some of the most major issues. This document does not go into how to implement these ideas. I have chosen ideas I believe to be possible with existing server modifications (mainly SourceMod), and I will be looking into their feasibility in the near future and, hopefully, have a followup document detailing how to put them into use.

II. Server Configurations One of the most major problems in the current LC configuration is how the servers themselves are structured. The five main servers – Atlantis, Mu, Hyperborea, Lemuria, and Thule – are set up almost with no thought. For example, Atlantis contains a map, “cp_yukon,” which is detested. Admins refuse to scramble it, and players leave in droves when it comes up in the rotation. Another example is Thule,

which is an entirely KOTH server that is very rarely played unless Atlantis and Mu are full, and even then usually passed over in favor of Hyperborea. This gametype, unlike Arena, is similar enough to the main gametypes to be included on the other servers. With problems like this in mind, I propose a reset of what we think of the servers. In conjunction with the new map voting, the servers would become more similar while retaining the settings on each that people play them for. The three main servers would continue to be Atlantis, Mu, and Hyperborea. Each would have the same list of votable maps (see section 3 for proposals). Atlantis would continue to have nocrits and nodmgspread, while Mu and Hyperborea would continue to have both of these. In this way, players can play the maps they want with the settings they want. Lemuria would continue to be an Arena server, with similar settings to what it has now. It would also continue to have nocrits and nodmgspread. Thule would become the custom maps server. This is mainly a stopgap until good custom maps that could be implemented in the main mapvote list are found. It also would likely be used for events.

III: Maps a. Voting As stated earlier, all servers would have a new map vote system. This system does not include a rock-the-vote feature, as it should not be required. For a map to pass, it would be required to have a 50% vote. If a map does not reach 50% of the vote, the two top-voted maps would then be pitted against each other. This would keep from a common scenario happening: two popular CP maps and one popular PL map come up on a server that generally prefers CP, but the CP vote is split between the two CP maps and thus the PL map wins. Map votes would come up halfway through a map’s time limit (see section 4a).

b. Customs As said earlier, Thule is the only server that includes a rotation of constantlyupdated custom maps. While it does not necessarily have to be an FPSBanana mirror, it should include maps that are gaining community attention and praise. Maps that are good enough would go on to the Atlantis, Mu, Hyperborea votemap list. These maps could be decided through constant polling on TF2Goons.com, or through simple admin choice.

c. Proposed Maplist

This is a starting point. Nothing on this list is final, and maps may have been forgotten. In general, these are mostly the same as their current counterparts. Adding more would be injecting too much of my personal preference into the game.

Atlantis/Mu/Hyperbo rea cp_badlands cp_yukon_final cp_well cp_granary cp_steel cp_gravelpit cp_dustbowl ctf_turbine

pl_hoodoo_final pl_frontier pl_goldrush pl_badwater plr_pipeline koth_viaduct koth_waste koth_nucleus koth_lighthouse_rc5 koth_sawmill koth_harvest

Lemuria arena_lumberyard arena_granary arena_sawmill arena_well arena_ravine arena_badlands arena_nucleus arena_offblast_final arena_watchtower

IV: Server Tweaks a. Time Limits One of the most consistent issues with the Lost Continents has been maps ending too quickly. Stacked teams or shorter maps can lead to disappointment from everyone who was looking forward to the map. On the flip side, some maps are simply longer than many players want. A/D maps, PL, maps, and even stalemated 5CP maps have the potential to last an hour or more. To combat this, maps would have a new minimum and maximum time limit. These limits would be different for each map. For example, A/D maps might not have a minimum time limit, as one round attacking and one round defending is generally enough for most players. However, 5CP maps may have a 20 or 30 minute minimum time limit that these maps do not end too quickly. Maximum time limit would work differently for different maps. On A/D maps, reaching the maximum time limit in the first round would mean there would not be a second. A good time for this may be 30 minutes, as a Dustbowl round can last about that long on a good section 3 defense. On 5CP maps, the maximum time limit may not be required, but if implemented would be on a per-round basis and lead directly into sudden death. This could be, say, 45 minutes.

b. Team Scrambles There are few things worse than being on the losing end of a stacked team. While forced-random teams are nice (and could likely be implemented), another option would be simply to scramble teams at the end of each round. This, combined with time limits, would keep a map from being rolled too quickly.

c. Pubbie Immunity One of the most controversial discussions has been in regards to pubbie immunity. The important thing to remember that the LC’s are, primarily, intended as goon servers. Friends of goons are also included in this through the existing buddy system. Simply put, pubbie immunity does nothing but hurt the community. The idea of players filling up more servers instead of kicking pubbies is a nice idea, but in practice it simply tends to lead to more players queuing or not playing at all. Servers already fill up just fine naturally. Pubbie immunity simply keeps goons from playing with the other goons that are part of the reason the LC’s are so active.

V. Admin Guidelines a. General I already know this will be the most contentious section of this document. Simply put, the admin system on the Lost Continents is not working. Admins are simply VIP players, who can change map and kick players on a whim instead of answering to any authority. The admins need to be kept in check and kept administrating the servers. To this end, I propose some guidelines: •

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If multiple servers are full, and multiples administrators are playing, at least one should be in each server. A Highlander or similar event should not deprive the casual players of administration. Players simply cannot be kicked because they annoy an admin. A player has to be generally disliked by the current server population and has to be disrupting other players’ enjoyment of the game to be kicked. While admins will continue to have free reign in who they kick and can continue using fiveminute kickbans, any kicked player can bring up the issue to the head administrators if they believe it is fraudulent and expect a just ruling that could include punishment of an admin. Admins who work against the general server population’s wishes should be removed. This includes changing settings like alltalk, nocrits, and choosing their own preferred maps against mapvote.

b. Events Events should be prescheduled and announced at a certain time with a single Steam group popup. They should be run on Thule. What happens in events stays in events – Highlander admins can choose to kick who they want, for example.