autoswitch

[OffTheHook]

gentlemen

I have an issue i wish to discuss with you all. i dont know about the rest of you but im am at my witts end with the autoswitch. im so sick of it ruining the game for me. but getting autoswitch once sometimes even 2 and 3 times a game is pissing me off. and im sure im not the only one feeling this frustration. im so sick of the autoswitch im petitioning for it to be turned off. fello admins i know we have discussed this, but i believe its time to try the honnor system and turn it off for a trial period. perfect example last nite on battle of the buldge col was down to 2 flags left and the teams were even. i then capped one of them leaving them with one flag. i then turned thier last flag gray, so of course people who couldnt spawn started switching sides. as the last col person that was alive killed me he was killed to i was autoswitched the second i died and the tickets started to run off the second i died. im seriously tired of the autoswitch i vote we turn it off and ask people to keep them even. most of the time the sides get uneven anyway and it takes a few minutes for autoswitch to kick in. and by then one side has got all the flags anyway so whats the point. i say when there uneven we ask people to switch if they dont then we just restart the round untill they do its that simple. the autoswitch needs to go, i say we atleast try it. i dont mind at all be on the loosing team and i dont mind switching to even them up. and im willing to bet most of the other players would do the same. im really serious about this, so i ask everyone to put it to a vote. if the majority says no keep it on then im good with that. but fello admins i if they vote to turn it off for awhile then we honor that. i mean come on guys how many times have u seen the teams uneven. how many times do u see someone say "teams" or "even the teams" i mean autobalance doesnt work very good anyway. and as a fello admin i say, its our jobs to keep them even. we can ask them to even the teams. if that doesnt work we can restart the round. if that doesnt work we can kick the lower scores till its even. i think its worth trying just for a short period. if it makes things worse then ill admint it was a bad idea and we can turn it back on so i ask everyone to speak up on this one its imortant for me!!!

hook

[MOJORyder]

Isn't it only on when there are no admins playing and/or when an admin feels it needed?

[Swanny-CG]

Isn't it only on when there are no admins playing and/or when an admin feels it needed?

No, it's on all the time.

as the last col person that was alive killed me he was killed to i was autoswitched the second i died and the tickets started to run off the second i died.

Just to make sure I understand - you played the whole round on one team, you were in the process of capturing the last flag when you died. At the same time, the last person on the other side died, leaving them no flags and no place to spawn. At that point, all the points starting bleeding down rapidly, and the game was over in five seconds. When you died, though, you were teamswitched to the losing side. And that ruined the entire round for you?

Really?

[tona]

Just to make sure I understand - you played the whole round on one team, you were in the process of capturing the last flag when you died. At the same time, the last person on the other side died, leaving them no flags and no place to spawn. At that point, all the points starting bleeding down rapidly, and the game was over in five seconds. When you died, though, you were teamswitched to the losing side. And that ruined the entire round for you?
Really?

I was kind of thinking the same thing....really?
But auto balance can be frustrating like other aspects of game play. LBM would kick you if you team switched, but I've never hesitated to switch if needed. Admins aren't always on and the teams can get uneven for short periods of time...something you just have to deal with.
When the admins "aren't" on there will be no one to request, restart, kick, etc.
Personally, I could go either way but warn that the potential for "more frustration" (not to mention added admin frustration) is higher with it disengaged.

[Swanny-CG]

I agree, I've been way pissed when I've struggled to come back or been doing really well and get switched halfway through or 3/4 of the way through a round - I get as pissed as anyone, ask Carni. BUT - it's a necessary evil. I either get over myself or disconnect.

I don't know about kicking the high scorers or the low scorers if people don't switch to help out - what I usually do is when I see someone get switched who switches back, I ask them to go back to the team where they're obviously needed or they can come back later. Deciding who gets kicked based on score seems a little arbitrary to me.

Turning off autobalance entirely means when no admins are on there will be rounds that are 24-10 stacked on red with no means of correction in sight. Not every round, but even one is too many IMO.

[OffTheHook]

yes it did very much so and ill explain why. for me map to map its not about my score. its not about getting the gold medal, its about my team winning the round. its about taking the flags and holding them. i fought hard that whole round, at first opp was getting there butts kicked. i took the majority of the flags that round starting with the back flag. and moving forward. by the time it came down to the last flag i had died twice i think. and while others just wanted to spawn camp that last flag i went for it as always. to work that hard just to be autoswitch at the end like that irrates the piss out of me. its one thing to be switched in the middle or begining. but being how i and a couple of others ended that map with teamwork. to be switched as the tickets start to run out is bs. no offense swanny but the point is auto balance doesnt work fairly i think. most of the time teams are unbalance at the start and one side takes all the flags before autobalance even kicks in. and then when it does most of the time it switches the top scoring people anyway wich makes it unbalanced skill wise anyway the point is autobalance is to slow and unfairly switches the wrong people. i feel we can do a better job keeping it fair then it does. i think the majority of the players are mature enough that when asked they would switch. i know i cant be the only one irrated by this. everyone knows me im very competitive i luv this game and this server. its the only server i play in, and always will be. look if im the only one with this irratation then ill drop it. but im trully sick of the autobalance all i want is to try it with out it for a trial period IF others agree with me.

[OffTheHook]

fine subject droped

[tona]

I know the exact frustration felt at or near the end of a round, especially when you have been integral in your side's success...it happens often. I don't believe that auto-balance considers score but rather selects the first player killed after engagement...however, a top player is usually putting him/her self out there and may actually be the more often selected player.

This issue of auto-balance (AB) has always been a thorn in the side to every server I've associated with.
If an admin controls "who is asked to switch", and who isn't, there can often be some resentment held by some as usually the admin would never choose himself. Others feel that they should have "a right" (yes, in video game land) to choose whatever team they want and be able to stay with it.

One of the most frustrating situations in AB is the "switch/TK" scenario. This happens when AB is engaged and you make the next kill and switch the opposing player to your team and get charged a TK...grrrr that "really" ticks me off.

Experience has proven to me that AB is the least of all evils unless there are admins on at all times (usually in a clan environment) and they are very, very fair-minded in the way they admin.

But this wasn't addressed to me as an admin but rather just another patron with an opinion.
Like I said, I can go either way...does that make me bi? did I say that?

[toolman]

I actually got booted for minus score once when a humvee full of guys ran over a mine and I was switched to their team.

I can't imagine the nightmare with it off 100% of the time. I say give last minute team-switchers a 3 day ban and it will be much less an issue.

It's the last minute guys, that fawk it up. even if I'm being base-raped beyond words I will just not spawn than switch at last minute.

We all obviously have maps that we prefer to play and a few maps where you prefer to play on red or blue..everyone does, and I also think that most of the regulars WILL switch teams at times to balance a map...but I don't think many will switch at the end.

[fireWIRE]

I play on the moongamers DC server a lot and their "auto" team balance seems to work differently. It seems you can't switch if it's even or the other team has more players. This is just an observation so I could be a bit wrong. I don't recall their servers allowing the teams to get more than +1 unbalanced.

I have not been an admin on a server in years so I can't remember if that's even a setting or not.

But I do switch teams (on my own) when I look at the mini-map and we have 5 snipers that are doing nothing to help get flags or we have players that NEVER come to help out on a white flag. But I never switch just because we are losing or getting our butts kicked by a better team.

[Lev_Nougol]

Like I said, I can go either way...does that make me bi? did I say that?

Welcome to the dark side.


~Lev

[Demonic]

the auto team balance has always been an issue in other servers as well.....but it is sad to say that not everyone will go by the honor system of switching teams to do the right thing.....so many people are only out for themself and trying to get the highest score, therefor you only have a few people who take note when teams are off, and switch to even them up just to keep the game moving.

i never gave a crap when i got switched...it just meant getting used to not killing former teammates...lol....but i have been on servers where there is no auto balance and its a freakin nightmare......no one switches to even things up...people switch just before they know the round is over and they have lost........

to me, the admin on this server do an outstanding job in trying to keep law and order, but not be forced to 'baby sit'....keeping the auto balance on, as annoying as it can get at times, will reduce their work load and not have them be forced to constantly tell people to 'please change teams to even it up'.....i think we know some a-holes out there have a hard time taking note of the rules at the best of times anyways.

[tona]

I play on the moongamers DC server a lot and their "auto" team balance seems to work differently. It seems you can't switch if it's even or the other team has more players. This is just an observation so I could be a bit wrong. I don't recall their servers allowing the teams to get more than +1 unbalanced.

I have not been an admin on a server in years so I can't remember if that's even a setting or not.

It works the same on all servers using BF Remote Manager. As you can see by the pic, you an adjust the setting. I believe 2 players is the lowest and 10 is the highest.

[OffTheHook]

point well taken fellas. i guess ill just have to smoke a bigger joint before playing from now on.

[fireWIRE]

thanks tona. It seems that the notice never gets posted in game about switching on and off auto-team balance on the moongamer server.

What is EA 117's threshold anyway?

[Swanny-CG]

3

[fireWIRE]

3

Then that's why there are more problems.
If it's lower than the odds of you getting switched are reduced.

[Swanny-CG]

Actually, I would say that the lower it is, the greater your odds of being switched.

If autobalance kicks in with a -2 difference, it comes on more often. The more often it's on, the greater the chance that when you die you get switched.

It may be on a little longer (per instance) on ours, but it's on fewer times per round, because the trigger threshold is higher.

[tona]

Actually, I would say that the lower it is, the greater your odds of being switched.

If autobalance kicks in with a -2 difference, it comes on more often. The more often it's on, the greater the chance that when you die you get switched.

It may be on a little longer (per instance) on ours, but it's on fewer times per round, because the trigger threshold is higher.

You got it!
So, in reality, if you want to make autobalance less of an issue here, you would A) turn it off B) raise the player differential to say -10, or C) find a decent number that keeps the server relatively balanced without being too disruptive to game play.
-3 is a common setting for most servers.

Now, a suggestion here (to address OTH's original complaint) is to possibly up the tick to -4 (-5...stretching too much?) for a short while to see how it goes. Understand, you will hear "more" complaints about uneven teams "more" often than usual, but "less" complaining about team switching.
You could also implement OTH's suggestion of admins "asking for balance" before autobalance takes care of it. This would accomplish the same goals without the admins having to get into the business of kicking or banning for such an offense.
Of course, you could just leave it as it is (a good tool btw) at its present setting of -3 (a time tested reasonable setting) with the understanding that this just isn't a perfect DC world!

my two cents

[fireWIRE]

I disagree. The lower the number the lower the chances of getting switched.

If you allow the number to get out of hand (let's say +5) then when the teams get off by 5 then 5 peeps gets switched until teams are even. And this usually happens in the situations listed above. All flags get taken or winning seems hopeless.... Players bail en mass to the other side...whereas if the threshold is lower they can't.

There's never an issue on the moongamers DC server because it's impossible to team stack so there's no chance of you getting switched unless 2 or more players on the same team disconnect.