Project Reality: BF2 v1.6 Announced!

[SemlerPDX]

Or at the very least change server policy and attitudes with a top down approach, have the dev team make server communities and admins take cheating more seriously, maybe as part of the server license agreement. You should never be under the threat of a ban just because you dared to report a 'community leader' for cheating. Many admins also won't even take the time to look at reports with only a minority voting on them and reports taking very long to be processed. People that want to be admins so they can get e-power and set map votes but don't like the responsibilities that come with it.

Dude, quit talking **** about things you apparently know nothing about. Your huge useless comment is dripping with atypical opinions, incorrect assumptions, and flat out false statements. There are only a few large PR communities left, and we all get along for the most part as Server Admins, communicating on private channels as a group to help manage the endless trolling of cheaters and hackers.

This is JUST a game, there is only so much time in the day, and no one is going to spend all of their time dealing with a thing that is so fluid it will go around your two weeks of well crafted work to stop them, leaving you with another two weeks trying to patch up the "new way".

If you have some feedback, maybe ask yourself if this is the correct forum place for that? Hows that sound, brah?

[DogACTUAL]

Sorry to burst your little bubble but most people don't play coop. Although even that game mode might have cheaters as well as things stand.

You are talking about 'trolling', meaning griefers or maybe random obvious cheaters that get reported internally. That's all fine and good, but only dealing with those obvious cases exclusively will not get rid of the underlying problem plaguing PR right now. If you just pretend these are the only cheaters playing you are doing your own server and the game a huge disservice. You are lauding your own efforts for combating the tip of the iceberg, but meanwhile a ton of closet cheaters are destroying gameplay on your server.

Of all the current regularly seeded PvP servers only HOG approaches all cheater reports with the necessary objectivity and interest. It looks like things might have gotten a bit better on PRTA with admins participating more in votes on random cheaters, but i urge you to go try to report any cheater on there or on SSG that is remotely befriended to the admins or seen in a positive light (long time pro player etc.).

You will just get shit flung your direction. In the end of all those i reported i got all banned but one because i persisted and sometimes others chipped in with new proof, but this dynamic made the whole process much more exhausting than it had any right to be. They are usually unable to approach proof with the necessary objectivity, either swayed by their own bias or swayed by detractor friends of the cheater descending on the thread like locusts.

Oh and SSG started unbanning known cheaters, probably to increase their seeding power and server population.
Well yeah all servers are combating griefers because they are a visible problem destroying gameplay everyone can see, but closet cheating isn't taken nearly as seriously as it should be. I really get the impression sometimes some communities are happy knowing they have cheaters in their ranks as long as they seed or contribute to the server.

[SemlerPDX]

Sorry to burst your little bubble but most people don't play coop. Although even that game mode might have cheaters as well as things stand.

Dude - before you write another novel, let me just correct you and your entire line of thinking ... I was referring to PR in general and all the servers, and the server Admins. There is no division in the private discussion area where we fight to make sure our servers are as free from those issues as possible.

You seem to think this is something specific to PR, and more specifically to Deployment. Sorry to burst your bubble, but the PC gaming world is larger than one game. And so is our VG gaming community, for that matter. These issues are a constant battle everywhere. But go ahead and keep venting your frustration at things you can't fix in the very cool announcement thread of the next most awesome addition to the PR game.

I'll be silently playing the worlds tiniest violin for you while I continue to report and read/discuss reports of cheaters and hackers with the other SA's regardless of whether anyone's efforts are appreciated or not. Whether our server is just a lowly COOP server or not.

People do what they can... for some people, that will never be enough.

[DogACTUAL]

And how is that working out for you... LOL You got so many cheaters cucking your servers it is not even funny. And the saddest thing is you haven't got the faintest clue how bad it really is. This is a big degree beyond normal video game cheating, it has gotten so bad that cheaters heavily influence the outcome of almost every round and alter gameplay significantly. Now you got several cheaters in admin teams as well, the same admin teams that you are lauding so much.

And big brains like you don't even notice anything wrong because in your mind every cheater must be as obvious to you as the griefers are on the server. You'd rather write me off as a deranged loony rambling nonsense instead of maybe entertaining what i am trying to communicate. In a certain way you really have it coming then, enjoy getting taken advantage of by all the cheaters you enable with your willful ignorance.

Banning the occasional random no name cheater does nothing in the grand scheme of things. All those cheater reports you see on SA with names you don't even recognise? They will all be playing again with new hash and name in a matter of days at most and you won't be able to recognise and ban them again because you don't even know what their voice sounds like. You might see them as a win, but in truth you are only spinning your wheels.

Your efforts would be better focused on primarily trying to prevent griefers like you already do but also identify and get rid of closet cheaters with well known names, as they will be easy to recognize again by their voice and mannerisms when they are coming back with new accounts. And they are also the most destructive cheaters in the game by far, because they know they can push the limits and remain unbanned because of their clout.

[Wicca]

Just so everyone knows, this is DogACTUAL's opinion. And not fact.

[DogACTUAL]

That critical thinking should be extended to not just my postings but to everyone else's as well to be honest. Don't take anything you read by anyone as a fact, no matter who he is, recognize no one is perfect and has their own biases and then form your own opinion after critically analyzing all the different perspectives.

I happen to think i am correct on this though because i think i spend more time than you dabbling in this stuff.
You for example didn't even know what fast forward setting in battlerecorder looks like.

[AlonTavor]

Stop it.

[Smol Shrum]

As a person who played PR a lot in last 7 years, I absolutely agree with DogACTUAL.
Cheating, especially closet cheating is indeed destroying this game in the last few years. And whole cheater repoting system is so abysmal I wish I would never use it again.
On top of cheating, the general unwillingness of a lot of players to play fair forces honest players out of the game.

The new player experience is so horrific I cant imagine how new players are supposed to get into the PR at all.

PR has an insane amount of content, enough for thousands of differend scenarios, but there are no good way to access this content at all. Populated PVP servers run only about 15% of the maps and scenarios that are in the game, all of the others are virtually unavaliable for the average player. Admin-selected map voting system is laughable and in reality average player have almost no say in what is gonna be played.

I dont think new content is what PR actually needs, as there is already a ton of the content in the game that never sees light of the day. Instead, inclusive, admin-independent map voting system and simple, accesible and ironed-out cheating/griefing reporting system is the things that would provide PR with longevity and player retention that it desperatively needs.

[1.6hyper]

are we in LOL yet guys?

[Rabbit]

are we in LOL yet guys?

I am at OMG.

[Niki-Tret]

are we in LOL yet guys?

I am i ZZZ from March 2019

[InfantryGamer42]

PR has an insane amount of content, enough for thousands of differend scenarios, but there are no good way to access this content at all. Populated PVP servers run only about 15% of the maps and scenarios that are in the game, all of the others are virtually unavaliable for the average player. Admin-selected map voting system is laughable and in reality average player have almost no say in what is gonna be played.

I dont think new content is what PR actually needs, as there is already a ton of the content in the game that never sees light of the day. Instead, inclusive, admin-independent map voting system and simple, accesible and ironed-out cheating/griefing reporting system is the things that would provide PR with longevity and player retention that it desperatively needs.

Ideally, in my opinion best solution for problem of map voting is to make some program that when run will give out 3 random PR maps for vote. This program will also need to account for popularity of the map, map size, game mod, how hard it is and other variables. I do not think what ever you do whit admin staff on all servers, you will not be able to push some less played maps and game mods to be played more. It is just truth. Some of those maps are unbalanced, or ask for really coordinated teams to be pulled of. Like Bamyan, that maps is fun and interesting, but you need two pretty much well balanced teams to pull that map off. And that is not really always possible. This program can also be built in the game, so you vote at end of the round what next map you will play, if servers want to activate that option.

Also, you can lock here for more info about played maps:
https://statistics.realitymod.com/statistics/maps

[mebel]

3 random PR maps

That's the problem, a huge one. There should be only 2 options, not 3. Why?
Consider following votemap:
- Saaremaa
- Falcon
- Kashan

Do You know why Kashan wins in this scenario? Votes for woodland maps are split between two - and in most cases people who vote Falcon would also enjoy Saaremaa, but votes are split still, and do not sum up. You can actually craft more votes like this to control the mapchange, and I can see it happening. Only when over half of people vote for one out of 3 maps i would consider it a valid vote - in other case it's just an admin changing the map, no need for vote when you can easily predict the outcome.
I would recommend just to put just 2 maps in mapvote and make it diverse - I would also say that admins could use their experience and choose for a vote maps that would be equally popular to keep that diversity at sufficent level. 3 maps in a vote is not a solution - it's even making map cycle more homogeneous

If You find it important - share thoughts with admins, they're may not be aware of it.

[Suchar]

There is one easy fix: vote. Usually around ~45% of the players vote. If everyone voted, things could change.
People and the way they vote is also the issue. Why does khamisyah win every time it is in the vote, no matter what other maps are there?
Furthermore, when it existed back in the day, MeRk server used to have maps set based on admins liking. It resulted in rarely played maps to be played more often, including layers other than STD.
#RemoveDemocracy #BringBackMeRk

[mebel]

Furthermore, when it existed back in the day, MeRk server used to have maps set based on admins liking. It resulted in rarely played maps to be played more often, including layers other than STD.
#RemoveDemocracy #BringBackMeRk

And that's also a very nice approach. I miss inf layers played more often.

[mries]

I think not everybody knows that your vote only counts when typed in squad chat. As this got changed a couple of patches ago, wasn't it?
Maybe thats a good tip to put on the loadingscreens.

[InfantryGamer42]

That's the problem, a huge one. There should be only 2 options, not 3. Why?
Consider following votemap:
- Saaremaa
- Falcon
- Kashan

Do You know why Kashan wins in this scenario? Votes for woodland maps are split between two - and in most cases people who vote Falcon would also enjoy Saaremaa, but votes are split still, and do not sum up. You can actually craft more votes like this to control the mapchange, and I can see it happening. Only when over half of people vote for one out of 3 maps i would consider it a valid vote - in other case it's just an admin changing the map, no need for vote when you can easily predict the outcome.
I would recommend just to put just 2 maps in mapvote and make it diverse - I would also say that admins could use their experience and choose for a vote maps that would be equally popular to keep that diversity at sufficent level. 3 maps in a vote is not a solution - it's even making map cycle more homogeneous

If You find it important - share thoughts with admins, they're may not be aware of it.

First, biggest problem here is not map selection for vote. Biggest problem are people like you that do not vote because "#it is not worth". Votes are valid when most people take part in vote, not when 50+% people vote for one option. By that logic dictators whit 99,1% vote in favor are most legit leaders out there. And we all know that is not true.

Second, not all people think like you about maps. For instance I am big hater of Saaremaa. For me that is most stupid map, whit not great gameplay. Selecting map is more complicated from desert/city/forest/jungle subgroups that some people suggest as basics for map votes.

Three, 2 map vote will not work. You do not need to look farther form AAS vs INS votes, and how they work in practice. Pretty much only reason why someone will vote for INS is squad leader that will kick players that would vote for AAS. And believe me, that is actually not so rear today. It is not hard to imagine that we will get "vote for Kashan or I kick you" situations more than we have now.

There is one easy fix: vote. Usually around ~45% of the players vote. If everyone voted, things could change.

So true, but people do not understand point of vote and how it works apparently.

Furthermore, when it existed back in the day, MeRk server used to have maps set based on admins liking. It resulted in rarely played maps to be played more often, including layers other than STD.
#RemoveDemocracy #BringBackMeRk

That system also worked nice. Also, maybe servers can start doing theme days, were they do only PR: Vietnam maps, or PR:WW2 maps, or all day INF layers, like some sort of mini events. There is so many ways how to fix this issue that are not based on having or not having voting system or fixing voting system that already works good, if people would take part in it.

I think not everybody knows that your vote only counts when typed in squad chat. As this got changed a couple of patches ago, wasn't it?
Maybe thats a good tip to put on the loadingscreens.

Do not think so. It says if you voted or not. And I am pretty much sure that you get message to vote in squad chat when you vote in all or team chat. But maybe it is not bad idea to put it in tips.

[Smol Shrum]

Furthermore, when it existed back in the day, MeRk server used to have maps set based on admins liking. It resulted in rarely played maps to be played more often, including layers other than STD.

Well, current map voting system has nothing to do with "democratic", next map is decided almost exclusively by the admin.

Actually democratic system should have nothing to do with the admins: it should automaticly trigger next gamemode voting, start vote where every player could suggest map by typing !(mapname), then automaticly choose 3-4 top nominees, run vote with them, and after that automaticly set winner as the next map.
Additionaly, after that round of vote on the layer of the next map (STD, ALT, INF, LRG) could take place.
Also, gamemode voting and map voting rounds could be combined in one round with !(mapname)(gamemode) vote.

Yes, sure, still >50% of players would not participate in voting, but the active part of the server would have actual, democratic influence on the next map, and not completely rely on the admin will.

[Outlawz7]

I think not everybody knows that your vote only counts when typed in squad chat. As this got changed a couple of patches ago, wasn't it?
Maybe thats a good tip to put on the loadingscreens.

It was changed years ago with 1.3.5 and the map vote message says 'vote in squad chat' at the end but apparently people can't read past the map names.

[Wicca]

It would be nice if "someone" made an automatic map selection program or similar. I was thinking of making a PRTA public survey to allow people to vote on their favorite map. And then use that information to create a guideline to map-selection.

However, in some instances you are competing for players, and the popular maps get set next.