team balancing

[FlyingDutch]

This team balancing during round needs to go - its destroying kill streaks.  its leaving you frozen in enemy spawn as thats where you were.  It doesn't make for good play

[NinjaBazZa]

I agree with this it's ruining the game play.

Edited August 16, 2023 by NinjaBazZa

[loaderXI]

I got tossed around like a unwanted red head step child...Every time froze in enemy spawn, at one point had no clue what team I was on 

[Sikon]

I think it's better than being short 1-3 players if a group of people don't like the map. That's what auto balancing should be like for muti-player. However, we play freeze tag, so it's pulling active (unfrozen) players. The main issue I seen with it is that is also does it during overtime. Butttt, I would still rather that than short players the entire round, pushing hard as hell just to keep my team defrosted with no time to enjoy playing. Don't get me wrong.. When it's a good match up and even teams.. The defrost struggle is fun, but not when you have half a team. 

[Ruggerxi]

Still a work in progress, this move was to help stop maps from ending prematurely. It seems when the map ends early without a winner, it happens when someone gets moved between rounds for team balance. I was hoping that this would fix that issue. This will be something we continue to tweak as we go along, and if it doesn't work we will go back to the original way. 

[Ruthless]

It still does not work. And the switching mid levels makes for a poor experience. I have a screen shot of mp_construction where the yellow tie screen happened. So even this change did not prevent the map ending early.

[Totty]

Just a quick update @Sammy has kindly adjusted the Team balance to work at the begining of a round now,

Thats what the game strategy counter is all about, and since this has been done I have not been made aware of any further issues.

So I'm posting here to check with everyone that the issue has been solved and the game no longer ends early with a yellow screen either

[Sammy]

The timer is to give the opportunity for people switching rounds to complete the joining and spawn process before performing the auto balance. Also to allow the balance itself to complete. 

[Sammy]

Also, it might do another auto balance if more people join or others leave, after the first one, but before the timer runs out. Unlikely but it should check for it.

[Totty]

1 hour ago, Sammy said:

The timer is to give the opportunity for people switching rounds to complete the joining and spawn process before performing the auto balance. Also to allow the balance itself to complete. 

Is it possible to back the timing down to 3 seconds? I would guess that would be long enough.

@Roxy! has had a few people enquire 

[Sammy]

There is quite a bit going on in the background. And to allow time for players to log in and get put on a team. Not everyone has a wonderful connection. And of course the time required for the auto balance itself. Less then 7 will potentially cause stability problems. But up to all of you if you want to ask Rugger to lower it anyway.

Edited September 9, 2023 by Sammy

[Totty]

@Wild Fire This is the thread we were talking about in game

[Bamm]

On 9/9/2023 at 8:24 PM, Totty said:

Just a quick update @Sammy has kindly adjusted the Team balance to work at the begining of a round now,

Thats what the game strategy counter is all about, and since this has been done I have not been made aware of any further issues.

So I'm posting here to check with everyone that the issue has been solved and the game no longer ends early with a yellow screen either

I think I have seen the yellow screen with early ending of the game once after this was implemented:( I can't remember which map anymore, will keep an eye on it next time and try to make a screenshot as well if it happens

[FlyingDutch]

Brilliant - it is known that teams can become unbalanced mid round - it hasn't always meant that the team with the least members has lost though.  Thanks guys for sorting it

[Sammy]

8 hours ago, Bamm said:

I think I have seen the yellow screen with early ending of the game once after this was implemented:( I can't remember which map anymore, will keep an eye on it next time and try to make a screenshot as well if it happens

I would be interested to know if this is the case. And any relevant information about what was happening at the time.

I think I know where the original problem ends up happening, doing what it does, but not why. If its EOG autobalance that helps and if its ftag specific which I figure it is. But if so, what takes place at autobalance in some situations where it happens but in others it does not? Could be specific events (one or more). Could be when. It has been suggested it happens after sudden death that ends when the timer runs out vs freezing the last player standing. At least as a contributing factor. The end result of what you see is normal if, in round based games, the final team scores are a tie. The question is, why is it prematurely thinking the game is over? But neither... I think... showing the EOG stats (I dont recall offhand)? Knowing why a typical event 'isnt' happening is just as important as why something is.

In any case, its hoped that removing EOG autobalance entirely and moving it to where its a non-issue hopefully will bypass the problem. Which in turn has its own requirements to function properly such as the short strategy timer.

[Totty]

The previous early finishes gave stats on a yellow screen and showed best and worst player in a tab

 

I've not had an early finish while I've been on the server since you changed it @Sammy

[YACCster]

28 minutes ago, Totty said:

....

I've not had an early finish while I've been on the server since you changed it @Sammy

Better than Viagra eh?

[Sammy]

Ok thx. Helps track things down. Is it always 'halftime' and team scores somewhere in the realm of 3-1, 2-2, or any other combination of four? So halftime would be round 5 out of 9, ignoring ties. I seem to recall seeing that in the demos but might be a coincidence.

[Totty]

21 minutes ago, YACCster said:

Better than Viagra eh?

I am all up for a happy ending without an early finish

[Bamm]

It just happened again:

I'm not sure if the count was 3 to 3, might have been. I had just turned to spec from overtime, because my flatmate came in from holiday. I caught the screen and immediately did the screenshot, but I missed what was happening before because of my flatmate.

This I could see in the logs though. I'm not sure at which point I turned to spec if that mattered at all.

[Bamm]

What I just noticed by the way, in both my instance as in Totty's Typhoidzilla just left the game. I say we blame him  Weird coincidence, but the leaving of the player might be the problem I guess? Or speccing like I did now, you can't see that in the logs.

[Ruggerxi]

I think someone left the game between rounds when the map ended early in Bamms pic. So there was still a shift in players per team just not on an auto balance but with a player leaving. 

@Sammy

[Sammy]

Ok if this is the case, and no EOG autobalance happened in those instances (?), then that rules out that as a cause I suppose. But leaving or spectating at those times Im sure happens all the time without issue. The question is what is different when it does. Hmmm.

[Bamm]

7 hours ago, Sammy said:

Ok if this is the case, and no EOG autobalance happened in those instances (?), then that rules out that as a cause I suppose. But leaving or spectating at those times Im sure happens all the time without issue. The question is what is different when it does. Hmmm.

With EOG autobalance, you mean the time where we see 'autobalancing teams' on the screen? I was distracted this time, so no clue if that was going on before it happened. But will try to keep an eye on that as well. I haven't really found a pattern in it either.

[Totty]

@Sammy we had one today,

We were drawing 2-2 and this is the last 2 mins sudden death 5th round to give you an idea about what may, or may not have happened before the crash