128 player tests: Feedback and Observations

[fatganjaman69]

PR 1.0 Will be the king of mods no doubt. Play'd PR by far more then any other commercial game released. All you DEV's deserve a really good career in the games industry after it!!! PRFTW

[Oddsodz]

Now here is a question for you all.

What happens when/if 128 server code is released to everybody? Will server owners/admins start drawing straws to see who can have the player populations on any given day?

It is going to be a race come release day for server owner/admins to seed/fill there server as fast as they can. Because they know if they don't get it filled fast enough. Then they won't fill it at all.

This is also bad prospect for me. As I know that my choice of servers will be very limited due to wishing to play the game the right way, IE: Lots of players. Yet I will have to put up with silly rules of certain servers or crappy admins/players that I don't get on with. My ability to avoid certain players who have a history of greiffing will be vastly reduced. These are all things to think about.

[Jafar Ironclad]

I feel like the thread has veered a bit given recent events, and the Devs have spoken definitively on the subject of release window/parameters: can we please continue the discussion of the implementation announcements/drama/semantics in another thread and allow discussion of in-game experiences and errors to continue here?

I'd like to request moderation of this thread to that end, if/when the forum mods have time. Thank you and much appreciated!

[manligheten]

Now here is a question for you all.

What happens when/if 128 server code is released to everybody? Will server owners/admins start drawing straws to see who can have the player populations on any given day?

It is going to be a race come release day for server owner/admins to seed/fill there server as fast as they can. Because they know if they don't get it filled fast enough. Then they won't fill it at all.

This is also bad prospect for me. As I know that my choice of servers will be very limited due to wishing to play the game the right way, IE: Lots of players. Yet I will have to put up with silly rules of certain servers or crappy admins/players that I don't get on with. My ability to avoid certain players who have a history of greiffing will be vastly reduced. These are all things to think about.

PR need to add new things or the player base will start to dwindle. 65+ is certainly such a thing that will add more players. There is no eigenvalue in servers, and those which are good will still be populated.

When I started to play PR thera was Thors. Now there is 8 fully populated at the given moment. Increased player limit wont hurt.

I feel like the thread has veered a bit given recent events, and the Devs have spoken definitively on the subject of release window/parameters

There is no drama. It's a forum and people don't agree.

[UK_Force]

The community wish to have clearity, why was the server shut down? is there a connection with dunems posts, his ban, and the resulting "managment team" responce ?

Cause i dont belive it was because of the quality, as is stated in a mild tone here.

How clear do you want me to make it ........ we are controling the testing !!!

Its nothing to do with those posts, but that was why I stepped in to sort out what could have turned into a huge problem - MY call.

Also you have to bear in mind, if we allow servers to run it 24/7 and not as testing, we HAVE to give it to all our Server Admins, thats only fair .......... then what will we achieve - NOTHING, apart from a mess, and no real testing geting done, in turn delaying any further development on it.

We are looking into running Soppas server once a week for a constant 48hr testing period, this will allow good testing time, time to redevelop and time for the 64p servers to be populated.

A solution which suits us and that may be a workable one ...... however we are still discussing this option.



You guys need to accept that we are working on it, and will implement it "correctly" when its done, and stable ......... its not often I get wound up, but I am now starting to become so, and trust me, that will NOT be good


Your acting like a bunch of kids guys, please calm down - and wait until we sort it out, most of the team are working 10 hours a day on this Mod at the moment, and thats after a full time job, and having a family to look after. Thats commitment to you guys - so show some respect FFS, instead of demanding things now !!!!



Mods, please moderate this forum now, I'm outta here and going for a Beer.




.

[Scot]

2/ Its a testing server it'll be up when testing is needed to be done, period. Normally this would be done only with testers on rather then open to the public, but obviously the sheer size needed brought the team to go at it differently this time, so you should be happy of even being able take part in testing.
Testing phases are done to get useful data to have a proper build ready when the server version will be out, people having fun while testing is only a by product and in no way the objective. Not happy with it ? don't go on a test server then, period.

And to be very clear to everyone, these kinds of selfish attitudes tend to have the DEVs get fed up with these petty e-dramas rather then help them stay exited and slaving away to get the next build out.

So a bit more constructive criticism and attitudes please, the rest is only wasting everyone's time.

To my understanding, the testing procedure Soppa had beforehand was he was running it 24/7, seeing where it crashed, why it crashed,fixing and moving on. To me, this seems to be the most efficient way of testing or am I missing something? Having "test" sessions with events and stuff seems well... bureaucratic and only helps to slow down the process of getting 128 players into the next version of PR as soon as possible. I really did enjoy the 128 server for the simple fact it was one of the most community based projects I've seen in a while. I believe people are making a lot of ruckus about the fact it had all these bugs, which if I'm honest, I played there a few times, and it didn't seem to be that much of a problem.

In regards to it being "unfair to other servers", I don't see that as too much of an issue. The crappy servers are less populated, and the good servers stay strong.

If it's limited to one server, [R-CON] Soppa's server, he can run the tests as effectively and efficiently as possible, I'm sure some of the worse servers will complain that they are losing their players, but they should look at their server rather than using the 128 as a scapegoat. Then it can be tested everyday, from all areas of the World (well, for the majority it will be the US and EU, but good enough!) and be the most efficient test that the PR Team has actually ever done. Could even get a whole sub-forum dedicated to the testing of the 128 server, for people with bug reports etc etc. Make a really community driven effort to make sure that one of the best things to happen to PR ever gets into PR as quickly as possible.

Or at least, in my mind that could work, better than running an event once a week/month, which will probably slow testing of the server to a far slower pace, one which may see it not even in the next next patch.

Edit: note, I'm not demanding anything, just merely pointing out a better way of running things, a more community driven way and one which gets the 128p servers in quicker.

[Saobh]

Thank you for your input Scot but I do believe the DEVs have enough experience on how to manage testing to achieve the desired objective.

So to conclude this, as UK_Force has restated twice in this thread. The decision has been made and testing times will be announced later on.

Now lets get back to the actual point of this thread "Feedback and Observations".Thank you.

[Dunehunter]

Mods, please moderate this forum now, I'm outta here and going for a Beer.

You heard the man. More childish complaints won't be tolerated.

[Psyko]

edit: give this time.

[Scot]

Thank you for your input Scot but I do believe the DEVs have enough experience on how to manage testing to achieve the desired objective.

To say that the Developers have "enough experience" is such a narrow minded opinion of how testing works, yet fails to understand in anyway how much of a significant step on this. How can a Developer team possibly begin to fathom how to test 128 player serves when with Battlefield 2, as far as I am aware, this has never been done before? They can't.

It's easily understandable that the Developers know how to test, Project Reality is the most successful BF2 mod to date (that I know of). However, in recent times, since about 0.75, there has been a great deal more new content which obviously is greatly appreciated, yet bugs have been creeping in more and more. I was a member of the test team, I know that there is a huge amount of testing done, and not once am I trying to insinuate that the PR Team doesn't test, however something has to be said of the methods used? I for one see it as a great step forward that the next couple of patches are designed to try and make what we have better, rather than jamming in new content. However, in my opinion that had to have stemmed from a change in attitude.

The reason I am so fervently opposing the recent Announcement is because I really think that it's a knee-jerk reaction to the fact that some servers complained that they were running out of players. This definitely does not stem from the fact that the 128 player server was being populated. These servers were poorly populated for a number of reasons, and the 128 player server comes very low on that list. For example, I would say that poor Administration on those servers would have contributed to players visiting other servers to try and play PR properly. This may have included the 128 server, I can not know without statistics.

The point is not that "I want to play 128, give it back!" Far from it.

The point is rather, that if someone could tell me why this new method is far superior? Surely the priority now has to be to get the 128 player server in the Mod as fast as possible? I simply do not understand how in anyway it is beneficial to limit it to a 48 hour period once a week. Why use 48 hours of the 168 hour week when you can be using the whole 168? It is nonsensical. Surely even giving the 128 player server the weekdays and give the 64 player servers the weekends is a better compromise if keeping the other server owners is that high a priority? Giving the minority of the time to the 128 player server, to repeat, I see as nonsensical and illogical.

To put it in an example, it's like training for a running race, but spending the five sevenths of the time on a bicycle and the other two sevenths running.

I know that this doesn't come under "feedback" or "observations", it's off topic, I understand that, but rather than just reciting the same statements again and again, why is it not possible for active discussion, even if it's just from other members of the community who understand the reasoning behind this better than I. It's perfectly acceptable that I do not know all the details, so therefore cannot make as an informed judgement as the Developers (indeed, it is highly likely), is it that hard to explain why to my points rather than quoting the the "official statement" over and over? I'm not having a dig at UKForce or any of the Developers(or Moderators, or even you testers!), but to me, and it may seem the wider community, this decision seems quite an odd one for the PR Team who have previously been so Community dedicated, almost like a kick in the balls after such a successful start to the 128 player saga.

I do not wish to insult the PR Team in any way, they are the reason that we are all here trying to discuss the new 128 player servers, and for that I'm extremely grateful, so if I come off ungrateful, I apologise, it is not my intention.

[cyberzomby]

Saobh;1592362']Thank you for your input Scot but I do believe the DEVs have enough experience on how to manage testing to achieve the desired objective.

So to conclude this, as UK_Force has restated twice in this thread. The decision has been made and testing times will be announced later on.

Now lets get back to the actual point of this thread "Feedback and Observations".Thank you.

If you only want feedback and Observations, why not lock this thread until a test day has been held? Because, we cant post anymore feedback or observations because... you know

/comical note to the e-drama discussion?

[Wicca]

Im sorry if i said anything wrong

sorry

[motherdear]

The point is rather, that if someone could tell me why this new method is far superior?

Quite simple actually. The way I see it we need some proper time to implement proper name tagging, stable versions, maps with different GPO layouts to test the player count and so forth. If the server is running constantly it will also not be seen as a test and is confusing the player base, when all we actually want is an amount of time to implement, discuss and reflect on changes made, how they have worked. And last but not least, what needs to be done.
If anymore time is needed for serious data logging we will discuss that within the team. But having a server running a game in 128 players configuration, which it was not intended to do, is only adviceable as long as we can guarantie that the server up time is justified for the intended purpose (which is fixing the errors and issues correlated with running above the 64 player limit)

The decision is not up to discussion, and it is something that we will keep behind closed doors, as every other development in PR is.

[Jigsaw]

This post should be taken as an Official Project Reality Management response to this issue, and is therefore not open for discussion

The decision is not up to discussion, and it is something that we will keep behind closed doors, as every other development in PR is.

Quite.

As has been confirmed in the announcement and in subsequent posts, the decision has been made and is not up for discussion. As such this thread will be closed until testing resumes, at which point the discussion will be re-opened on the topic of feedback and observations.