21 replies to this topic

[Wizard]

I've been thinking about this for a little while now and afaik the L4D server is only used once a week by the community. We don't spend a massive amount on it but it doesn't feel like we're getting the value for money we should be from something used 4 times a month. I personally have no particular objections to paying this money (it really isn't a lot), but I like to think that if we are we should be getting the most from it that we can.

So here is the question, is it worth it? And do you want us to keep it?

[Chyros]

I'd like to add on this issue that even though my local hosting is generally effective as well, I can't be on all the time, and my local server doesn't support customisation options such as alltalk, lograv etc. That said, the server isn't used THAT often from what I've gathered.

[Warbz]

Voted no as personally don't play it, not a great fan of L4D.

[Destiny]

There's the possibility of members deciding to play outside of the weekly scheduled events, but I guess it's a minority.

[Wizard]

That is really my point. Whilst the server is there to be used whenever the community wants to, I don't believe it currently is. Therefore I would like to know if it is something the community want to keep for Fridays or if they don't think it is worth keeping purely for that alone.

[Dauth]

Its not like we're low on money but if the donations by the admins do dry up then this is an expense we cannot afford. I think with all the bugs signing onto the server it has put people off using it, perhaps we can get better service from another provider? If that doesn't pick up the number of players then we can give up on it.

[Wizard]

That is a good point and I am prepared to give that a try, however from what I am told directly by our server providers, the issue is one caused by Valve and not the server provider. But I guess they would say that wouldn't they....

[CodeCat]

The TF2 server has similar problems. And I believe the issue is that we're not advertising the servers nearly enough. We should make the servers so obvious that anyone who comes in here first time will immediately see that we have game servers.

[BeefJeRKy]

Admittedly, I'd most likely be playing on the server more often if I had a connection. That said, maybe we aren't maximizing our utility of the server. Maybe a switch in provider would help. Also, we should really advertise our servers alot more. Our community isn't big enough to be self sufficient with the servers.

[Ghostrider]

Sorry fellas, I've just been too busy lately to be able to play L4D daily like I used to. I voted no, as I don't see enough activity on there to justify paying any money. Being able to have a reliable server that we have control over is nice, though, and if we do change our minds, you could just rent a server again, no?

[General]

As a person who plays L4d often on random servers I rarely get laggy games, so I say it has no point to hold a server for this game, as L4d 2 is coming that maybe decided later on

[Libains]

I voted no - to be fair since the restart of the university year a lot more of us are busy more generally. The TF2 server still has reasonable use on tuesdays (sometimes saturdays too) but I would agree is probably not promoted enough. The L4D one is just too situational in it's use, and with the play-date being Friday, it probably gets used even less than it would be otherwise.

[ΓΛPTΘΓ]

Not sure to be honest, I myself haven't played on it for a while mainly due to lost of interest. But compare to the TF2 server, its fair to say its less used.

[Hobbesy]

Searching for regular servers is a terrible experience, and we plan to use them later on for videos. That said, I'd use the our server more often if you could play on it without someone setting up a lobby or a game for you.

Edited by Høbbesy, 20 October 2009 - 21:02.

[Libains]

Høbbesy, on 20 Oct 2009, 22:02, said:

Searching for regular servers is a terrible experience, and we plan to use them later on for videos. That said, I'd use the our server more often if you could play on it without someone setting up a lobby or a game for you.

To be fair, the server is far easier to get started up if you are a member of the official steam group - you can then join the server yourself without the need for a server mod - it appears under steam group servers.

[Hobbesy]

AJ, on 20 Oct 2009, 16:07, said:

Høbbesy, on 20 Oct 2009, 22:02, said:

Searching for regular servers is a terrible experience, and we plan to use them later on for videos. That said, I'd use the our server more often if you could play on it without someone setting up a lobby or a game for you.

To be fair, the server is far easier to get started up if you are a member of the official steam group - you can then join the server yourself without the need for a server mod - it appears under steam group servers.

It always seems to be down or in need of maintenance. We've spent the last two L4D Fridays searching for servers by ourselves.

Edited by Høbbesy, 20 October 2009 - 23:28.

[Dauth]

Høbbesy, on 21 Oct 2009, 0:27, said:

AJ, on 20 Oct 2009, 16:07, said:

Høbbesy, on 20 Oct 2009, 22:02, said:

Searching for regular servers is a terrible experience, and we plan to use them later on for videos. That said, I'd use the our server more often if you could play on it without someone setting up a lobby or a game for you.

To be fair, the server is far easier to get started up if you are a member of the official steam group - you can then join the server yourself without the need for a server mod - it appears under steam group servers.

It always seems to be down or in need of maintenance. We've spent the last two L4D Fridays searching for servers by ourselves.

No we haven't this Friday we were on the FS server IIRC

[Wizard]

Høbbesy, on 21 Oct 2009, 0:27, said:

AJ, on 20 Oct 2009, 16:07, said:

Høbbesy, on 20 Oct 2009, 22:02, said:

Searching for regular servers is a terrible experience, and we plan to use them later on for videos. That said, I'd use the our server more often if you could play on it without someone setting up a lobby or a game for you.

To be fair, the server is far easier to get started up if you are a member of the official steam group - you can then join the server yourself without the need for a server mod - it appears under steam group servers.

It always seems to be down or in need of maintenance. We've spent the last two L4D Fridays searching for servers by ourselves.

One of the principle reasons I've noticed for the lack of being able to use the server is that everyone forgets that the server can only be reached via "openserverbrowser" and not by the lobby. I've lost count of the times I've been invited into games on Friday only to remind people of this. The lobby system is broken and not only is it broken I've disabled it on the server. Anyone can access our server using this method, but it isn't possible via the lobby. As for the server being down, that is fixable almost instantly by MSN'ing one of the server admins, who are on quite a lot of the time. All we do is restart it which cures 99.99999% of all issues beyond installing an update, which I hasten to add Steam don't do a great job of letting us know has happened. I grant you it isn't a perfect system but it is all we've got, which is why I've made this topic.

[Chyros]

Høbbesy, on 21 Oct 2009, 1:27, said:

AJ, on 20 Oct 2009, 16:07, said:

Høbbesy, on 20 Oct 2009, 22:02, said:

Searching for regular servers is a terrible experience, and we plan to use them later on for videos. That said, I'd use the our server more often if you could play on it without someone setting up a lobby or a game for you.

To be fair, the server is far easier to get started up if you are a member of the official steam group - you can then join the server yourself without the need for a server mod - it appears under steam group servers.

It always seems to be down or in need of maintenance. We've spent the last two L4D Fridays searching for servers by ourselves.

I managed to cure last week's problem with a handy server admin panel Wiz gave me, so it's less of a problem now. But it's true we've had problems in the past, of course.

[Mortecha]

Well, this is the first I have heard of these servers even existing.

Personally though L4D doesn't interest me.

[Warbz]

Mortecha, on 21 Oct 2009, 11:04, said:

Well, this is the first I have heard of these servers even existing.

Personally though L4D doesn't interest me.

I only found out about FS servers a few weeks back when I joined AJ through Steam.

[CodeCat]

Case in point that we need to advertise. And we also need fellow members to spread the word.