So I downloaded the MoH beta. I'd tell you how it is but the server browser isn't working nor is the matchmaking.
Great launch there, guys.
So, typical DICE effort, yeah?
dice is handling it????
thats it pack it up this thing is a turd in a box. lost interest now
What? DICE has made several awesome games. Mirror's Edge (so I hear, I haven't played it myself), Battlefield 2142, Battlefield 2, and Battlefield Bad Company 2, etc.
Darmak on
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Zxerolfor the smaller pieces, my shovel wouldn't doso i took off my boot and used my shoeRegistered Userregular
Mac owners just now beginning to play a game that requires a significant amount of practice to be anywhere near proficient, coupled with an extremely immature and xenophobic playerbase?
This will end well.
The TF2 playerbase is basically identical. The mac users got into that well enough, as far as I know.
For the first weekend, if you logged into TF2 from a mac, you got these stylish iPod headphones in game. From what I heard, some people refused to heal anyone wearing these headphones. Plus, the obvious name-calling.
I'm guessing any people playing mac CS will have played it before on PC or bootcamp and now can play it without the hassle.
Actually some servers had it set to automatically check and BAN you if you had them.
Know why I prefer matchmaking where the developer determines the setting and not angry nerds? Yeah, that shit.
Know why I prefer matchmaking where the developer determines the setting and not angry nerds? Yeah, that shit.
I can understand the sentiment but I completely disagree. Community run servers have consistently been a source of longevity in my multi-player games. These days I don't play TF2 at all except on PA/GFW servers just because I know the people who play there. I hop on DoD:S now and again to meet some of the guys I used to play with. The good comes with the bad, but there is so much good.
Know why I prefer matchmaking where the developer determines the setting and not angry nerds? Yeah, that shit.
I can understand the sentiment but I completely disagree. Community run servers have consistently been a source of longevity in my multi-player games. These days I don't play TF2 at all except on PA/GFW servers just because I know the people who play there. I hop on DoD:S now and again to meet some of the guys I used to play with. The good comes with the bad, but there is so much good.
Like prop hunt.
I really don't see the difference between logging into a server and inviting my friends in to play, versus logging into Xbox Live and inviting the same people on to play.
We've certainly had no problems with longevity with Halo.
Dedicated servers are a relic from when a computer didn't have the power to run a full server with the client because drawing the game was done entirely in CPU.
But it's not really the servers, it's people determining my 'standard' play. In Halo, I don't really care if I'm booted from custom games - but when I get booted for wearing certain hats in TF2 on 'standard' servers, it really just makes me not want to play the game.
I really don't see the difference between logging into a server and inviting my friends in to play, versus logging into Xbox Live and inviting the same people on to play.
Yeah, and the Halo 2 servers? Are down. Meanwhile, there are still people playing Doom and Tribes online on various unofficial servers.
I really don't see the difference between logging into a server and inviting my friends in to play, versus logging into Xbox Live and inviting the same people on to play.
Yeah, and the Halo 2 servers? Are down. Meanwhile, there are still people playing Doom and Tribes online on various unofficial servers.
Everyone that played Halo 2 here on PA moved to Halo 3, because Halo 3 is leagues better and isn't a broken mess. Much like how I don't see a TF1 thread here.
Also, you can still play Halo 2 Xbox, for free, via XBC or Xlink Kai, services which you can even run custom made mods and maps. Not to mention Halo 2 Vista, which works online, and has dedicated servers. Dedicated servers that still don't get around the problem of the master server going down. Unless you're going to probe every IP on the internet to see if it's running a game server if the master server goes down?
And XBX/Kai isn't that hard to use - it's just like booting up Ventrilo to play TF2 or any other PC game. Once it's running, you just go to System Link -> Find Games inside of Halo 2 and you get a server list.
I like dedicated servers because I like running my own server sometimes.
And I like custom maps and mods, which are difficult to impossible to do on anything but a dedicated server.
And call me crazy, but I like server browsers. Sometimes I have no idea what gametype I want to play, so I'll just pick the server with the lowest ping and a few people in it.
SmokeStacks on
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CarbonFireSee youin the countryRegistered Userregular
I really don't see the difference between logging into a server and inviting my friends in to play, versus logging into Xbox Live and inviting the same people on to play.
We've certainly had no problems with longevity with Halo.
With matchmaking, you only ever get to choose who you play with, not against. Sure, you can set up a private match, but unless you're playing the one or two games (like Halo) that consistently have players looking for games 24/7, that can be a daunting task. And from what I've seen, beyond the several really popular titles on consoles, the communities for most console MP games die out pretty quickly. Building a sense of camaraderie and healthy competition is a lot harder when you're always pitted against strangers.
Dedicated servers are a relic from when a computer didn't have the power to run a full server with the client because drawing the game was done entirely in CPU.
Dedicated servers will always be better than client hosted servers. More players, no host advantage, lower overall latency, etc. That's why all the higher player count console games like Killzone 2, Warhawk and BFBC2 still use servers.
But it's not really the servers, it's people determining my 'standard' play. In Halo, I don't really care if I'm booted from custom games - but when I get booted for wearing certain hats in TF2 on 'standard' servers, it really just makes me not want to play the game.
There will always be dickweed admins who have terrible rules, which is why you have a server browser with which you can go find a server you DO like. I've had plenty of matchmaking sessions where I get stuck in a terrible matching loop of getting stuck on a bad server, leaving, and then the game deciding to rematch me on the same server, over and over. Sure does sound superior to letting me choose where I want to play.
And sometimes it IS good to have someone determining the standard of play. Keeping out some of the less desirable elements of the internet can improve overall play and keep people wanting to play together longer, thus building a greater sense of community. Of course if someone is among that undesirable element, I could see why the total anonymity of random matchmaking would be advantageous - little to no consequence for being a dick on the internet. And having played a fairly wide swath of multiplayer console games over the years, I can say there are a LOT of people I wouldn't choose to play with if I could.
I really don't see the difference between logging into a server and inviting my friends in to play, versus logging into Xbox Live and inviting the same people on to play.
We've certainly had no problems with longevity with Halo.
With matchmaking, you only ever get to choose who you play with, not against. Sure, you can set up a private match, but unless you're playing the one or two games (like Halo) that consistently have players looking for games 24/7, that can be a daunting task. And from what I've seen, beyond the several really popular titles on consoles, the communities for most console MP games die out pretty quickly. Building a sense of camaraderie and healthy competition is a lot harder when you're always pitted against strangers.
Most of the playlists in Halo 3 allow the entire game to be filled by PA guys. So not only do I get to determine who I play with entirely, we keep moving onto new games without anyone having the sole power to kick someone because he got mad.
Dedicated servers are a relic from when a computer didn't have the power to run a full server with the client because drawing the game was done entirely in CPU.
Dedicated servers will always be better than client hosted servers. More players, no host advantage, lower overall latency, etc.
Host advantage means less or nothing with proper netcode. "More players" is not a result of dedicated servers but of bandwidth and RAM - most people aren't hooked up to fat pipes on residential connections. Listen servers could have 64 players if people had the ability to buy a 50MB/50MB connection for their house on PC. Also, not every game should or needs a bajillion players in the first place.
But it's not really the servers, it's people determining my 'standard' play. In Halo, I don't really care if I'm booted from custom games - but when I get booted for wearing certain hats in TF2 on 'standard' servers, it really just makes me not want to play the game.
There will always be dickweed admins who have terrible rules, which is why you have a server browser with which you can go find a server you DO like. I've had plenty of matchmaking sessions where I get stuck in a terrible matching loop of getting stuck on a bad server, leaving, and then the game deciding to rematch me on the same server, over and over. Sure does sound superior to letting me choose where I want to play.
Then stop playing games with bad host determination.
And sometimes it IS good to have someone determining the standard of play. Keeping out some of the less desirable elements of the internet can improve overall play and keep people wanting to play together longer, thus building a greater sense of community. Of course if someone is among that undesirable element, I could see why the total anonymity of random matchmaking would be advantageous - little to no consequence for being a dick on the internet. And having played a fairly wide swath of multiplayer console games over the years, I can say there are a LOT of people I wouldn't choose to play with if I could.
Actually, a longstanding rule of the PA forums is that if you want to enjoy a game, you stay off PA servers, because they always lead to drama. I've yet to see this rule not be proven time and time again since it came up in a thread over 7 years ago.
And like I said, I log into a game, invite everyone in, and we go play - and have been doing this for 6 years straight as of this year. Forums lead to more community stability than hoping one of us wants to keep forking up for a dedi.
I hate matchmaking because of how long it can take to get into a goddamn game. Matching...players found! Map voting...map some people don't like chosen, players drop...matching...players found! Map voting...
I just want to get into a game, not listen to retarded smacktalk in the lobby while we take five minutes waiting for conditions to become perfect.
I hate matchmaking because of how long it can take to get into a goddamn game. Matching...players found! Map voting...map some people don't like chosen, players drop...matching...players found! Map voting...
I just want to get into a game, not listen to retarded smacktalk in the lobby while we take five minutes waiting for conditions to become perfect.
This is not a result of matchmaking itself, it's a result of poor implementations.
You should check out Reach this fall, we were finding games within 5 seconds and were playing within 10 after that (after voting on the gametype you want came up) in the beta.
It took only 10 seconds to find games when the population got low as they started booting everyone off.
A good implementation also means a good implementation of the 'quickmatch' feature of games with dedicated servers. Matchmaking and dedicated servers are not mutually exclusive concepts.
I'm reading what you're posting as "matchmaking doesn't suck, it's just that pretty much every single game that uses matchmaking sucks".
Is this what you're trying to say?
No, I'm saying that when people copy Halo's featureset they should actually spend time trying to match Halo's featureset instead of sorta aiming to implement it and falling short.
People were complaining that they kept missing the voting in Reach's beta because the matchmaking was too fast.
Versus Gears, which probably has the worst matchmaking times in the history of man. I'm pretty sure that code just has a gigantic sleep(5000000); at the beginning of each matchmaking search cycle.
And just to show I'm not kissing Halo's ass, Halo 2 has probably the worst implementation of a dedicated server list ever. They sort by the server's name by alpha, so there's a bunch of servers named AAAAAAA MLG SERVER.
Know why I prefer matchmaking where the developer determines the setting and not angry nerds? Yeah, that shit.
I can understand the sentiment but I completely disagree. Community run servers have consistently been a source of longevity in my multi-player games. These days I don't play TF2 at all except on PA/GFW servers just because I know the people who play there. I hop on DoD:S now and again to meet some of the guys I used to play with. The good comes with the bad, but there is so much good.
Like prop hunt.
I really don't see the difference between logging into a server and inviting my friends in to play, versus logging into Xbox Live and inviting the same people on to play.
We've certainly had no problems with longevity with Halo.
Dedicated servers are a relic from when a computer didn't have the power to run a full server with the client because drawing the game was done entirely in CPU.
But it's not really the servers, it's people determining my 'standard' play. In Halo, I don't really care if I'm booted from custom games - but when I get booted for wearing certain hats in TF2 on 'standard' servers, it really just makes me not want to play the game.
All of my 1.6 favourited servers are gungame mods and the like because, after 10 years of playing, variety and friends are the only thing that keep the game alive. Conversely, if I have a rollicking good time on a modded MW2 game (and I have stumbled across some utterly hilarious illegitimate mods for that game) there's no way for me to reconnect with them.
I'm reading what you're posting as "matchmaking doesn't suck, it's just that pretty much every single game that uses matchmaking sucks".
Is this what you're trying to say?
No, I'm saying that when people copy Halo's featureset they should actually spend time trying to match Halo's featureset instead of sorta aiming to implement it and falling short.
People were complaining that they kept missing the voting in Reach's beta because the matchmaking was too fast.
Versus Gears, which probably has the worst matchmaking times in the history of man. I'm pretty sure that code just has a gigantic sleep(5000000); at the beginning of each matchmaking search cycle.
So basically what you're trying to say is matchmaking doesn't suck, it's just that pretty much every single game except for Halo that uses matchmaking sucks.
I'm reading what you're posting as "matchmaking doesn't suck, it's just that pretty much every single game that uses matchmaking sucks".
Is this what you're trying to say?
No, I'm saying that when people copy Halo's featureset they should actually spend time trying to match Halo's featureset instead of sorta aiming to implement it and falling short.
People were complaining that they kept missing the voting in Reach's beta because the matchmaking was too fast.
Versus Gears, which probably has the worst matchmaking times in the history of man. I'm pretty sure that code just has a gigantic sleep(5000000); at the beginning of each matchmaking search cycle.
So basically what you're trying to say is matchmaking doesn't suck, it's just that pretty much every single game except for Halo that uses matchmaking sucks.
Got it.
... I just used Halo as an example. I'm not going to list all the games with good matchmaking because there was no need to.
Games that have good matchmaking aren't going to have tons of posts all over the internet raging about how good it is. People raging about matchmaking not working are going to keep posting and bitching about it.
Is there a way to purchase something if I'm outside of the country in which my billing address is located? Can I use proxy servers or something? I want in on this Burnout deal.
I'm playing MW2 on the PC, so I don't know if the charging for mods thing is still there
but yes, mods are just so hilarious. I don't understand how all this happens and is so widespread even though there are no tools out whatsoever. How can devs see that kind of community dedication and still decide that mod tools aren't worth it
"More players" is not a result of dedicated servers but of bandwidth and RAM - most people aren't hooked up to fat pipes on residential connections.
That's what you get with a proper server. There's a TF2 server nearby that I have a ping of 9 to. My time on Xbox Live consisted of some good games, some awful games, but I can connect to that server and have a quality connection every time.
Also, I've found playing with the same few hundred people is a good way to meet people who weren't necessarily already on my friends list.
Edit: Also you can't do wacky mods without a server on which to install them.
This is not a result of matchmaking itself, it's a result of poor implementations.
You should check out Reach this fall, we were finding games within 5 seconds and were playing within 10 after that (after voting on the gametype you want came up) in the beta.
It took only 10 seconds to find games when the population got low as they started booting everyone off.
A good implementation also means a good implementation of the 'quickmatch' feature of games with dedicated servers. Matchmaking and dedicated servers are not mutually exclusive concepts.
I'm talking about just picking up and playing, not forming a party. There's 7 or more mercurial candidates there happy to abort.
I've only seen Reach during the first day of the beta, when people were taking off work and hammering at it. It was taking a long time then, but that could easily be first day jitters so I don't doubt you. If matchmaking is done well it'd reduce my issues, but I'll probably always prefer just being able to hit multiplayer, seeing a list of servers fill up, sorting by map and plucking out one at the size I want - 18/24, maybe - loading up and playing right away. Matchmaking makes it easier to carry a group through games, but I'd rather that advantage just be incorporated into server browsers.
Of course, if they had server browsing with parties alongside matchmaking and quickmatch, everyone would be happy. Maybe.
"More players" is not a result of dedicated servers but of bandwidth and RAM - most people aren't hooked up to fat pipes on residential connections.
That's what you get with a proper server. There's a TF2 server nearby that I have a ping of 9 to. My time on Xbox Live consisted of some good games, some awful games, but I can connect to that server and have a quality connection every time.
Also, I've found playing with the same few hundred people is a good way to meet people who weren't necessarily already on my friends list.
Edit: Also you can't do wacky mods without a server on which to install them.
People do wacky mods on peer-networked games all the time. Dedicated servers are not magic. People made entire paintball mods for Halo 2 Xbox with new guns and maps.
This is not a result of matchmaking itself, it's a result of poor implementations.
You should check out Reach this fall, we were finding games within 5 seconds and were playing within 10 after that (after voting on the gametype you want came up) in the beta.
It took only 10 seconds to find games when the population got low as they started booting everyone off.
A good implementation also means a good implementation of the 'quickmatch' feature of games with dedicated servers. Matchmaking and dedicated servers are not mutually exclusive concepts.
I'm talking about just picking up and playing, not forming a party. There's 7 or more mercurial candidates there happy to abort.
I've only seen Reach during the first day of the beta, when people were taking off work and hammering at it. It was taking a long time then, but that could easily be first day jitters so I don't doubt you. If matchmaking is done well it'd reduce my issues, but I'll probably always prefer just being able to hit multiplayer, seeing a list of servers fill up, sorting by map and plucking out one at the size I want - 18/24, maybe - loading up and playing right away. Matchmaking makes it easier to carry a group through games, but I'd rather that advantage just be incorporated into server browsers.
Of course, if they had server browsing with parties alongside matchmaking and quickmatch, everyone would be happy. Maybe.
Yeah, when it got hammered the entire game broke, let alone matchmaking :P
Nobody has tried to tackle the parties-stay-together-with-servers issue yet. Your party dissolves when you join a custom game in Halo, and games like BC2 don't care about your party if you want to back out and find a new server after everyone leaves. The issues are probably just too hard to be allotted any dev time to work out. Do you leave with the party host? What if I want to keep playing and he rips me out of the game? Do you throw up a prompt asking if you want to go with them? etc etc.
I'm playing MW2 on the PC, so I don't know if the charging for mods thing is still there
but yes, mods are just so hilarious. I don't understand how all this happens and is so widespread even though there are no tools out whatsoever. How can devs see that kind of community dedication and still decide that mod tools aren't worth it
Because sometimes the community puts out better tools.
I tell you what's annoying, is just wanting to play a game of Left 4 Dead. We search for a server, get in, and are assaulted by endless "COME VISIT OUR FORUMS AT HEADSHOTGAMING.LOL" and "TYPE !SLOTS TO PLAY TANK LOTTERY"
Ok, you can't do wacky mods without some access to the backend, which you don't get through Xbox Live or IWNet.
... ? People had ripped Halo 2 apart and released an entire suite of tools for mod making. Sometimes they were even more useful than the ones Gearbox shipped for Halo PC.
The entire 'backend' was open to modders. The only limitations over Xbox Live is that people couldn't see your skin changes to maps, because texture data isn't sent over the wire.
All installing mods on dedicated servers does is provide a central place for the client to download the mods from, instead of having to manually install them yourself.
The entire 'backend' was open to modders. The only limitations over Xbox Live is that people couldn't see your skin changes to maps, because texture data isn't sent over the wire.
Yes, exactly, it was open to them. Now we've got MW2 PC and the like, which is not friendly in the least.
Edit: I'm not anti-matchmaking or anything, I just don't feel that it's the clearly superior choice yet.
I'm playing MW2 on the PC, so I don't know if the charging for mods thing is still there
but yes, mods are just so hilarious. I don't understand how all this happens and is so widespread even though there are no tools out whatsoever. How can devs see that kind of community dedication and still decide that mod tools aren't worth it
Because sometimes the community puts out better tools.
I tell you what's annoying, is just wanting to play a game of Left 4 Dead. We search for a server, get in, and are assaulted by endless "COME VISIT OUR FORUMS AT HEADSHOTGAMING.LOL" and "TYPE !SLOTS TO PLAY TANK LOTTERY"
Is there a way to purchase something if I'm outside of the country in which my billing address is located? Can I use proxy servers or something? I want in on this Burnout deal.
Send me a PM, I'd be happy to gift the game to you if you Paypal me the money.
Also, can we change the name of the thread to "Oh christ we're not even a Steam thread now"?
"More players" is not a result of dedicated servers but of bandwidth and RAM - most people aren't hooked up to fat pipes on residential connections.
That's what you get with a proper server. There's a TF2 server nearby that I have a ping of 9 to. My time on Xbox Live consisted of some good games, some awful games, but I can connect to that server and have a quality connection every time.
Also, I've found playing with the same few hundred people is a good way to meet people who weren't necessarily already on my friends list.
Edit: Also you can't do wacky mods without a server on which to install them.
9? As in single digit 9? Man, I've had LAN games were I was lucky to get under 20.
And BTW, what does halo have to do with STEAM anyway? Or really, any of this console talk? Are we a PS3 thread now?
Oh God, I jumped on the Burnout deal. I couldn't resist!
Yeah, It took 2 hours to download the demo, and another of uninstalling and reinstalling to get it to actually have sound, but I was convinced to buy it in like 3 minutes of actually playing.
Can you tell me the install path? It sounds like the demo actually has all the same files, so if I could copy it to where steam wants it, it should just verify them and not download another 3gigs, right?
Posts
What? DICE has made several awesome games. Mirror's Edge (so I hear, I haven't played it myself), Battlefield 2142, Battlefield 2, and Battlefield Bad Company 2, etc.
Yarp. EA LA is handling singleplayer, DICE is handling multi. Even using different engines (UE3 for single, Frostbite for multi).
Which is why hearing about broken-ass server browsing and matchmaking totally doesn't surprise me one iota.
Know why I prefer matchmaking where the developer determines the setting and not angry nerds? Yeah, that shit.
but there hasn't been a lot I've seen to inspire faith in DICE's multiplayer chops.
edit: I can understand the sentiment but I completely disagree. Community run servers have consistently been a source of longevity in my multi-player games. These days I don't play TF2 at all except on PA/GFW servers just because I know the people who play there. I hop on DoD:S now and again to meet some of the guys I used to play with. The good comes with the bad, but there is so much good.
Like prop hunt.
I really don't see the difference between logging into a server and inviting my friends in to play, versus logging into Xbox Live and inviting the same people on to play.
We've certainly had no problems with longevity with Halo.
Dedicated servers are a relic from when a computer didn't have the power to run a full server with the client because drawing the game was done entirely in CPU.
But it's not really the servers, it's people determining my 'standard' play. In Halo, I don't really care if I'm booted from custom games - but when I get booted for wearing certain hats in TF2 on 'standard' servers, it really just makes me not want to play the game.
Yeah, and the Halo 2 servers? Are down. Meanwhile, there are still people playing Doom and Tribes online on various unofficial servers.
Everyone that played Halo 2 here on PA moved to Halo 3, because Halo 3 is leagues better and isn't a broken mess. Much like how I don't see a TF1 thread here.
Also, you can still play Halo 2 Xbox, for free, via XBC or Xlink Kai, services which you can even run custom made mods and maps. Not to mention Halo 2 Vista, which works online, and has dedicated servers. Dedicated servers that still don't get around the problem of the master server going down. Unless you're going to probe every IP on the internet to see if it's running a game server if the master server goes down?
And XBX/Kai isn't that hard to use - it's just like booting up Ventrilo to play TF2 or any other PC game. Once it's running, you just go to System Link -> Find Games inside of Halo 2 and you get a server list.
And I like custom maps and mods, which are difficult to impossible to do on anything but a dedicated server.
And call me crazy, but I like server browsers. Sometimes I have no idea what gametype I want to play, so I'll just pick the server with the lowest ping and a few people in it.
With matchmaking, you only ever get to choose who you play with, not against. Sure, you can set up a private match, but unless you're playing the one or two games (like Halo) that consistently have players looking for games 24/7, that can be a daunting task. And from what I've seen, beyond the several really popular titles on consoles, the communities for most console MP games die out pretty quickly. Building a sense of camaraderie and healthy competition is a lot harder when you're always pitted against strangers.
Dedicated servers will always be better than client hosted servers. More players, no host advantage, lower overall latency, etc. That's why all the higher player count console games like Killzone 2, Warhawk and BFBC2 still use servers.
There will always be dickweed admins who have terrible rules, which is why you have a server browser with which you can go find a server you DO like. I've had plenty of matchmaking sessions where I get stuck in a terrible matching loop of getting stuck on a bad server, leaving, and then the game deciding to rematch me on the same server, over and over. Sure does sound superior to letting me choose where I want to play.
And sometimes it IS good to have someone determining the standard of play. Keeping out some of the less desirable elements of the internet can improve overall play and keep people wanting to play together longer, thus building a greater sense of community. Of course if someone is among that undesirable element, I could see why the total anonymity of random matchmaking would be advantageous - little to no consequence for being a dick on the internet. And having played a fairly wide swath of multiplayer console games over the years, I can say there are a LOT of people I wouldn't choose to play with if I could.
Most of the playlists in Halo 3 allow the entire game to be filled by PA guys. So not only do I get to determine who I play with entirely, we keep moving onto new games without anyone having the sole power to kick someone because he got mad.
Host advantage means less or nothing with proper netcode. "More players" is not a result of dedicated servers but of bandwidth and RAM - most people aren't hooked up to fat pipes on residential connections. Listen servers could have 64 players if people had the ability to buy a 50MB/50MB connection for their house on PC. Also, not every game should or needs a bajillion players in the first place.
Then stop playing games with bad host determination.
Actually, a longstanding rule of the PA forums is that if you want to enjoy a game, you stay off PA servers, because they always lead to drama. I've yet to see this rule not be proven time and time again since it came up in a thread over 7 years ago.
And like I said, I log into a game, invite everyone in, and we go play - and have been doing this for 6 years straight as of this year. Forums lead to more community stability than hoping one of us wants to keep forking up for a dedi.
I just want to get into a game, not listen to retarded smacktalk in the lobby while we take five minutes waiting for conditions to become perfect.
This is not a result of matchmaking itself, it's a result of poor implementations.
You should check out Reach this fall, we were finding games within 5 seconds and were playing within 10 after that (after voting on the gametype you want came up) in the beta.
It took only 10 seconds to find games when the population got low as they started booting everyone off.
A good implementation also means a good implementation of the 'quickmatch' feature of games with dedicated servers. Matchmaking and dedicated servers are not mutually exclusive concepts.
Is this what you're trying to say?
Gotcha ;-)
No, I'm saying that when people copy Halo's featureset they should actually spend time trying to match Halo's featureset instead of sorta aiming to implement it and falling short.
People were complaining that they kept missing the voting in Reach's beta because the matchmaking was too fast.
Versus Gears, which probably has the worst matchmaking times in the history of man. I'm pretty sure that code just has a gigantic sleep(5000000); at the beginning of each matchmaking search cycle.
And just to show I'm not kissing Halo's ass, Halo 2 has probably the worst implementation of a dedicated server list ever. They sort by the server's name by alpha, so there's a bunch of servers named AAAAAAA MLG SERVER.
All of my 1.6 favourited servers are gungame mods and the like because, after 10 years of playing, variety and friends are the only thing that keep the game alive. Conversely, if I have a rollicking good time on a modded MW2 game (and I have stumbled across some utterly hilarious illegitimate mods for that game) there's no way for me to reconnect with them.
So basically what you're trying to say is matchmaking doesn't suck, it's just that pretty much every single game except for Halo that uses matchmaking sucks.
Got it.
Which is sad because Halo 2 had some hilarious modders. Flying hogs and tanks!
... I just used Halo as an example. I'm not going to list all the games with good matchmaking because there was no need to.
Games that have good matchmaking aren't going to have tons of posts all over the internet raging about how good it is. People raging about matchmaking not working are going to keep posting and bitching about it.
Steam: CavilatRest
but yes, mods are just so hilarious. I don't understand how all this happens and is so widespread even though there are no tools out whatsoever. How can devs see that kind of community dedication and still decide that mod tools aren't worth it
Quite possibly. I'd say the safer way to do it would be to get someone you trust to buy it and gift it to you.
That's what you get with a proper server. There's a TF2 server nearby that I have a ping of 9 to. My time on Xbox Live consisted of some good games, some awful games, but I can connect to that server and have a quality connection every time.
Also, I've found playing with the same few hundred people is a good way to meet people who weren't necessarily already on my friends list.
Edit: Also you can't do wacky mods without a server on which to install them.
I'm talking about just picking up and playing, not forming a party. There's 7 or more mercurial candidates there happy to abort.
I've only seen Reach during the first day of the beta, when people were taking off work and hammering at it. It was taking a long time then, but that could easily be first day jitters so I don't doubt you. If matchmaking is done well it'd reduce my issues, but I'll probably always prefer just being able to hit multiplayer, seeing a list of servers fill up, sorting by map and plucking out one at the size I want - 18/24, maybe - loading up and playing right away. Matchmaking makes it easier to carry a group through games, but I'd rather that advantage just be incorporated into server browsers.
Of course, if they had server browsing with parties alongside matchmaking and quickmatch, everyone would be happy. Maybe.
People do wacky mods on peer-networked games all the time. Dedicated servers are not magic. People made entire paintball mods for Halo 2 Xbox with new guns and maps.
Yeah, when it got hammered the entire game broke, let alone matchmaking :P
Nobody has tried to tackle the parties-stay-together-with-servers issue yet. Your party dissolves when you join a custom game in Halo, and games like BC2 don't care about your party if you want to back out and find a new server after everyone leaves. The issues are probably just too hard to be allotted any dev time to work out. Do you leave with the party host? What if I want to keep playing and he rips me out of the game? Do you throw up a prompt asking if you want to go with them? etc etc.
Because sometimes the community puts out better tools.
I tell you what's annoying, is just wanting to play a game of Left 4 Dead. We search for a server, get in, and are assaulted by endless "COME VISIT OUR FORUMS AT HEADSHOTGAMING.LOL" and "TYPE !SLOTS TO PLAY TANK LOTTERY"
... ? People had ripped Halo 2 apart and released an entire suite of tools for mod making. Sometimes they were even more useful than the ones Gearbox shipped for Halo PC.
The entire 'backend' was open to modders. The only limitations over Xbox Live is that people couldn't see your skin changes to maps, because texture data isn't sent over the wire.
All installing mods on dedicated servers does is provide a central place for the client to download the mods from, instead of having to manually install them yourself.
Yes, exactly, it was open to them. Now we've got MW2 PC and the like, which is not friendly in the least.
Edit: I'm not anti-matchmaking or anything, I just don't feel that it's the clearly superior choice yet.
Oh yeah, that stuff definitely can get old.
Send me a PM, I'd be happy to gift the game to you if you Paypal me the money.
Also, can we change the name of the thread to "Oh christ we're not even a Steam thread now"?
Except that the matchmaking wasn't all that great, and to access all of those super sweet community tools you had to mod your Xbox.
9? As in single digit 9? Man, I've had LAN games were I was lucky to get under 20.
And BTW, what does halo have to do with STEAM anyway? Or really, any of this console talk? Are we a PS3 thread now?
Hey, does anyone but me play XPand Rally? It's not DiRT but it's super cheap, is pretty fun, and it has a level editor.
Yeah, It took 2 hours to download the demo, and another of uninstalling and reinstalling to get it to actually have sound, but I was convinced to buy it in like 3 minutes of actually playing.
Can you tell me the install path? It sounds like the demo actually has all the same files, so if I could copy it to where steam wants it, it should just verify them and not download another 3gigs, right?