Password Nights Revisited

[Yer Mom]

I've been concidering this, and after reading a few of the recent posts, I've decided to bring it up for discussion.

On our passworded nights, everyone has a good time and a good game, would it be possible, at all, to make every night a passworded night? Say from 3ish to 12ish?

Around 3 PM is when I see the most players on for the day and around 8-10 is where I see the most players on at night. This is a problem for us. We have admin on, and I know this, but admin can't always get everyone. There are a lot of things happening in game that are never reported and absolutely despised.

For this reason, I've wondered on bringing this up, and I have decided to.

Say we password from about 3PM central to 1AM central every night. Or till in the morning, whichever is more convenient. What would we be doing?

I've thought about this quite a bit and came up with the following answers.

Now remember:

Password from 3PM central to about midnight or so.

#1 - Removes "noobs".
No more bunnyhopping around or crashing unmanned helos into things, or etc etc.

#2 - Keeps TG together.
We all play at TG to play with our TG friends. Our server keeps at about 54 people normally with the password on it, making for a good game either way you go.

#3 - Everyone is happy.
Supporting members don't have any reason to complain, along with new people get a real "feel" for TG and what we're about. (And there will always be new people due to the #2 TG server.)

#4 - Cut down on "Squad Interruption".
I call it that because of what I heard last night. I heard a squad leader complain twice over squad members acting a fool in his squad.

#5 - Less vehicle torment and more skilled use.
A bomber and fighter controlling air traffic and ground movements makes for an extremely easier game, as opposed to a bomber flying as an attack jet and a fighter as the bomber due to less skilled people flying them. (I mean no offense to any pilots or future pilots in this post, but it's good common sense, and it's true.)

The list could continue forever.

Less stolen vehicles, less 2 person squads, less teamkills because someone stole a helo that you wanted to fly, less anti-air driving into hostile bases trying to take out infantry on the ground, less random bombs being dropped on friendly targets, less stupid orders from commanders with no mics, etc., etc., etc., etc.,.

You get the point, and I think that it's definately something to think about.

I don't think that it's right to shut out all the new players and people who aren't accustomed to our style of play, but I think that if people want this to happen, and agree with it, it should be tested and see if it is liked.

Instead of making password nights for our TG members and friends, make unpassworded nights for the non-TG members and friends.

Just my 2 cents.

-Mom

[Pokerface]

I find this idea lacking for the very reason you cited: "I don't think that it's right to shut out all the new players and people who aren't accustomed to our style of play".

[Obi]

I have been thinking about this idea as well but i hav't come to a decision on if i think it is good or not. I think that a lot of players make a point of playing on the password nights and this makes these nights great. A problem with having a password everynight means that these players are less likely to gather together all at once.

Its like a party. If its planned in advance loads of people turn up, but if there is a party every single day of the week then all the people arn't gathered together at the same time and the party isn't so cool. (Unless its one of those week long crazy drunken parties with free beer but thats not the point).

[Mateo]

I agree. I played on server 1 last night, ~11PM EDT, and I saw lots of the aforementioned behavior.

Even from players that are TG regulars and should know better.

I think that forcing people to find the password won't solve anything (see the problems with CS:S Server 2 for an example), but it makes admin's lives easier:they won't have to explain anything, just enforce the SOPs.

[Mateo]

Originally Posted by Pokerface

I find this idea lacking for the very reason you cited: "I don't think that it's right to shut out all the new players and people who aren't accustomed to our style of play".

This gets to the core of what we are about.

We have 100 new players, and the level of play is way off what we are accustomed to, and little, if any, training is occuring.

Are we providing a free server with good ping to the BF2 community at large, or are we providing a haven for like minded players?

If it is the former, all the "TG servers suck lately" threads should cease immediately. We have a private server to use.

If it is the latter, well, they can find the password through the SOPs, and join then. I didn't say anything at the time, but I think posting in any Planet* forums just invites the sort of BS that is going on here lately.

Frankly, TG gameplay is not, nor should ever be, for everyone. It's that mindset which is sinking both BF2 and CS:S here.

[asch]

I'm not against having a server passworded a majority of the time / days / nights, but I don't think we're there yet. We're still increasing our player base with players that happen upon our server because of low pings. Some of these players have become great assets to the TG community in both leadership and play style.

If we had, say two, non password nights, I don't think the TG community would gather as much on those nights and use this as their "time off". This would hurt those new players who aren't able to experience the TG way. I also would agree with Ob1, that at the present time, we wouldn't get as many TGers to frequenty the servers on a set of given nights.

While we've grown in numbers, I don't think we're to the size yet that we can forget about educating the pubbies. This happens with many games that once players experience some awesome play, they expect it every time and don't want to take the time educating the other new players.

We need to continue the education of new players and have a community that supports it's own growth. The admins are starting to receive PMs about problematic players, but not to the extent that would reflect the poor play some are experiencing.

[SmokingTarpan]

Frankly, I don't think that having the server passworded the majority of the time is going to achieve your goal, which seems to be the elimination of "noobs".

From what I have observed over the past few weeks, passwording the server merely cuts down the unwanted behaviour- and not as much as you'd expect. In fact, I've seen a handful of regulars and TG-tagged people doing everything from crack jumping to UCB camping to intentional TK.

When it comes down to it, what does passwording the server do? It puts a speed bump in the road to getting on the server. You don't even need to register with the forums to get at the password, so a determined idiot can still get on. In reality, it turns away only those who don't care where they play, so long as they get to 'frag some people.

If you want to make the play better, I say first take a look at how the password is accessible. People should really be a part of the community before they can get it.

[Wyzcrak]

Strange. A user not logged into the forums cannot access the PCS password for Server #2.

And yet, a user not logged into the forums CAN access the BF2 password for Sun/Wed nights. I'll look into this, as I didn't think people not logged in could access the BF2 password (I thought it behaved like the CSS forums).

I'll work on this.

[Tempus]

Originally Posted by Wyzcrak

And yet, a user not logged into the forums CAN access the BF2 password for Sun/Wed nights.

Are you sure about this? Ok checked, and you are right. However, there was once a time when that was impossible, as I checked it the first time I ever did it this way. Hmmm...

[Telorn]

You can't look at Monday night and see that as a regular TG night of play. On Mondays the Private server has an event, and up to 30 of us were in there last night. That's almost half the population of server 1 right there! Of course the style of play on that night won't be so grand.

I believe the reason Wed and Sat are so good is because it is only 2 days for us to gather as a group and play. This encourages people to show up at those times, like the previous poster said, rather than spreading us thin and making our overall experience less.

[SmokingTarpan]

Originally Posted by Telorn

You can't look at Monday night and see that as a regular TG night of play.

Doesn't matter to me what night it is when regulars and tags are committing the infractions. And before it's pointed out, I already know how to report people to admins and have done so in most cases.

Also, another bit on the password. I just took a look, and it's the same password that it has been for at least the past two weeks. That's not very good crowd control, in my opinion. It should change for every passworded night, avoiding the use of the same password twice.

[Mateo]

Originally Posted by SmokingTarpan

Doesn't matter to me what night it is when regulars and tags are committing the infractions. And before it's pointed out, I already know how to report people to admins and have done so in most cases.

Good point. I think we need to take higher awareness of the TG tagged players, mostly because taking the tag means that you are representing the community on the server.

Hard to argue that noone should be raping the UCB, or bunny hopping, when |TG|noobykins is over there doing it.

Also, another bit on the password. I just took a look, and it's the same password that it has been for at least the past two weeks. That's not very good crowd control, in my opinion. It should change for every passworded night, avoiding the use of the same password twice.

Agreed. Make it so!

[Wyzcrak]

Apophis has corrected the forums permission issue which allowed guests to download the PW attachment. Only registered forum users may now find the password.

[Tempus]

And the password has been updated. FYI.

[Wulfyn]

if |TG|noobykins is over there doing it, having read the SOPs to get the password and / or wearin TG tags, then |TG|noobykins gets banned for at least 1 week.


I personally am wary of this suggestion, as I think that we have many good guys in here that stumbled here by accident, liked it and stayed.