WhiskeySix

So we've got around 650 members of the TG-L4D steam group. Unfortunately, that doesn't really do much for us when it comes to setting up games. Right now the main way we setup games is through friends list:

1) Someone starts a lobby and invites a couple friends
2) Those friends send invites until the lobby is full and the game starts.

So - is what can we do to take advantage of the huge player-base that are steam-group members? Any ideas? Only thing I can thing of is to bypass the lobby system and instead directly connect to the server... seeding the way we'd seed any other MP game.

??

__________________




Reflexes are for mistakes only. Reaction implies surprise. Be surprised less.

Exploding_Silver

questions?

• how many people from our steam group are logged on steam at peak time US and therefore contactable for a game ?
• my understanding is that people use the friends list, either through the overlay or the main L4D splash menu that shows players in L4D. Am I right in saying that the steam group people do not show in either of these two lists ?
• we have server messages to give easy instructions to join steam group while on the server. Do we also have server message to encourage regulars to invite friends to steam group ?
• if people join the tg server from a lobby and then somebody else then loads l4d, do they see their friends in 'non joinable game' ?

thoughts in a kinda logical order as I come out with them;

• it seems the steam group and friends lists are different things altogether
• people work the friends list as their prefered method
• we can do things to get even more people into the steam group
• people in general perceive one server the same as another as long as it is stable, there is some room to be different that TG pursue eg no meds, but in general people still see servers as all the same, as any server they can vote on they can basically admin themselves into any game mode map etc
• when people want to play they will in order
  1. create lobby and invite friends
  2. goto a server where their friends frequent
  3. join random game with random people
• no. 2 is the way forward, to be the server with a reputation for talking tactics and fun
• sidenote, imo everybody will buy L4D eventually, and play for a while and then come back every now and then, very few play weekly for months on end, its a game with a very transient population, or to put it another way, you have to be re-creating your player base every 2 months
• for tactics and fun, the tactics part will come naturally for us, market to the fun aspect
• create L4D party nights, Fri and Sat, or whatever to concentrate players on certain nights eg like poe2 is doing
• get everyone on teamspeak in one channel , no matter what server they are on for the cross team, cross game banter, this is to add another line of comms for fun
• mini scrim affair, wed is sign up for versus teams and sat is game, then have sun morning results thread with screenies, then have a running ranking system by player, eg played 5 won 3 = 60% wins, the ranking system accumulates over weeks, eg after few months played 40 won 20 = 50% wins, this helps keep people in and turning up
• have multiple mini scrims on sat night, a torni a week
• its all about the party atmosphere and teamspeak is one of the keys to that
• get ready for awesome idea !!!!!!
• the E1st use the E1st steam group calendar, you get reminds pop up, you can do this with the tg steam group, this is the way to reach out to the 650 people who dont even know to turn up or where to go ! calendar invites throughout the week, can have several calendar prompts throughout the week, have standard wed 'party torni sign up thread is opened', then standard sat 4pm 'warmup games starting' then sat 7pm 'party torni starting now', also can have a few random announcements, eg 'this sat is side game of faster through coop in normal mode for 2 points' or 'Avs dragon team needs 2 more for versus comp on dead air this sat'
• so what I am suggesting is several calendar reminders to consistently ping people for games
• you can also ping everybody with a calendar event set for right now, in order to seed the server (only steam group admins can do this

summary

• have a regular party night with games and cumulative scoreboard
• have party on teamspeak too
• ping the 650 in the wilderness with calendar invites several times per week
• create calendar invites for 'right now, to seed server

ps
after all that i expect the token gesture of the normal admins monthly wage of $20

__________________

16Note

I like having a certain night where we can have a scoreboard running throughout the night. Nice idea Silver.

__________________

Uchiha Obito

Silver posed some really neat ideas that I think do warrant some looking in to.

I think the calendar is the best one though, getting updates through the steam group would certainly get people moving in the same direction.

I also think being able to idle in the server and wait for friends to show up would be beneficial. I tend to idle in the server in hopes of this much like I would do when playing CS:S. Unfortunately, it never works, I am assuming that is because of some technical issues with the way valve has set up matchmaking. I think if we can get a workaround for this (maybe the SDK update will help?) that more people would simply idle on our servers and wait for random players.

__________________

WhiskeySix

Yeah, there's two technical issues with this unfortunately.. neither of which have elegant work arounds.

(Problem 1) When you restart the campaign via vote, it doesn't really restart the campaign when in Versus. Instead, it just seems to end that round and
you switch sides playing as survivors/infected.

Solution: When you're ready to restart the game, just send one of us a message on steam. Perhaps we L4D admins can slightly modify our steam names so we all are grouped together to be more easily identified.

(Problem 2) When you join the server from anything EXCEPT a lobby (i.e. via steamgroup-menu, connect ip, or via server-browser), then you can't invite friends to the game. Furthermore, your status shows up as "not in joinable game" on the main menu.

Solution: I assume this is a "bug" (even if it's "functions as designed"), but I suppose it could be our server config. I'll circle back and see if it's something we can fix.

__________________




Reflexes are for mistakes only. Reaction implies surprise. Be surprised less.

Morganan

Nothing to fix. idling in a server that has a searchkey tied to it will ensure nobody ever joins the server. (the server will be in progress, so the key wont work, and matchmaking wont put the server into the queue to get public joiners)

As far as problem #1 goes, people simply need to return to the lobby and restart from there. If the admins for the servers are all admins on the steam group, they already stand out from everyone else.


Honestly the best way to use the steam group is by using the always annoying announcements. It will make some people end up leaving the steam group because the announcements annoy them, (I belong to a steam group that uses the announcements for tf2, and sometimes I have 5+ announcements from a single day minimized on my screen) but in the end it would be the most effective method of using the steam group to populate the servers.

Morganan

Didnt feel like editing my previous post to give this example, but here is one..

Send a steam-group announcement as follows:

"Whiskey is starting a vs. no med's lobby, follow him to play!"

The problem would be only people set to admins on the steam group could then use this method to get the steam group more active in the game as only group admins can send announcements.

Avs

To add to the calendaring thing, the popup can be annoying at times. Lets say you are watching p- er a movie at full screen and BAM, the popup pulls you out of full screen and you are like WHAT. Or you are in another game and that happens.

However, if we like, setup a calendar in the forums + sync that with steam group, I think we can basically schedule versus games and have a signup of people who will be there to speed things up, and then utilize the group on top of this to make sure it fills faster.

Boot

We should just idle on TeamSpeak. Create a L4D Lobby channel. When it's full, clear it out and start the process over.

__________________

whitelancer11

those are nice tips thanks..

__________________
If you show your head then your dead....

Kebab-Kastike

We could also create 'hook up' thread. People post there when they are ready to have a game and insert url to their steam page.
People could open the page up on steam and then add them as friends and start a game.

__________________
|TG-E1st| Kebab-Kastike reporting for duty. | Why? Tubes! The internet is tubes!

browna3

ace idea kebab!

__________________

Submit a nomintaion here!

kicked/banned? Read this First!|Contact an Admin

WhiskeySix

If only there was a "chat room" within steam where members of the TG-L4D group could loiter while getting a game hooked up...

__________________




Reflexes are for mistakes only. Reaction implies surprise. Be surprised less.

Exploding_Silver

there is a chat room for steam group,that any member of the steam group can open and use
anf you can invite people to the chat group from online users of the group and other groups you are in that play L4D

__________________

PM07SNV

This is by far the best way to get people together for a game! I often wonder how me and 1 other can get 2 more of the 600 group members, and this to be honest is the easiest!

__________________