Server 2 mapvote config.

Yes, I have an idea. I'm posting this along with Mike's custom map requests thread.
(tl;dr somewhere at the bottom)

For a longer time now, the server had no vote. Though all maps were played equally, there was a big downside: ctf_2fort was in the cycle, sometimes ctf_turbine. Though there are players who like those maps, most don't (by "don't like" i'm talking about how CTF is ruined by engineer bunkering etc.) for they are unplayable. I've seen servers emptying because cp_fastlane was played because everyone sucked at it.
On other servers, there is a vote with 7 or more options. This sounds like good democracy, but dumb like gamers are, they vote badwater and goldbowl all the time. When they're done playing, they leave the server for something else, opening a new slot for a new player who thinks "oh, goldbowl is a good start", and there we go. Having a huge mass-vote is as much of a good option as having no vote is.
So where's the solution? Of course, a hybrid (greets to Aristoteles ): a vote that isn't a vote but a close decision, i.e. a maximum of 3 maps will be available (note that I'm still talking about official maps). These 3 maps should be from the "players might like this" pool, so no ctf for example (Engie whoring again. I like ctf, I don't like it how it is played. Stop discussing this with me, it won't work.) Back in the days of UT2, there was a voting option that disallowed a map to be voted for if it has been played in the last x rounds. This turned out to be a very nice option, since you could have a map not to be votable until most of the others have been played (e.g. 6 maps in cycle, re-vote-time 4). This resulted in a decision instead of a vote: 2 or 3 options at highest. I haven't encountered a case yet in which nobody liked any maps of them (try it yourself, pick 3 of the "sometimes played" maps in TF2 and go tell me they all suck).

So here we are back on the servers, current state. The option is, if Doelwit's paste is still current, to vote one official map, and 2 custom maps. It happened often enough that nobody liked the official map, so they voted for the shittiest custom maps (castle, japan, ... i'll be discussing them later*) because they simply thought "it can't be worse, can it?". They turned out to be shitty (surprise!), people leave the server.
So first of all: More official maps, not too many (my suggestion is 2). If possible, make them un-votable for some rounds after they have been played to prevent goldbowlwatering.
Second: *Custom maps can rock, most likely they don't. A good custom map features the same things as an official map: good level design, good optical design. To come back to the maps I mentioned above: castle is batshit ugly and has insanely long ways to walk. Even as scout it takes you some time to get to the front, and no, this is not encouraging more teleporters (in public, don't be kidding me) but annoyed players, no heavies, few medics, lots of snipers, rocketjumpers and scouts. Going on: japan. Back in the days we called this "DM-SubtractACube" to make fun of all the maps that were basically a cube with some obstacles in it. Gameplay not too bad, but there were simply no interesting fights for the boring level design. Also, it's as ugly as Michael Jackson.
So which are maps I consider playworthy? Well, not too many, but I think they can really compete official ones. Also, they are widely known in the TF2 community (compared to "the other" custom maps), thus they are handled as potential custom-promoted-to-official maps by the community (speaking of the official TF2 forums). Here's my list: pl_cashworks, pl_great_heights, pl_frontier. I once played a really nice PL map with an underwater passage, unfortunately I forgot its name, but this one is in my list as well. There are others I have heard of to be really nice, though I've never played them myself (in multiplayer): pl_swift, cp_freight, pl_hoodoo. That's it. This isn't a complete list, but a list of maps that have two major advantages over crappy custom maps: 1. they are widely known, not everyone is going to have to download it; 2. they don't suck, they won't wipe your server empty.
(Here's a nice list of maps that potentially (!) fulfill this requirement as well)

(tl;dr
So here's my summary of how the vote should look like:
1. official map
2. official map
3. good custom map
(4. good custom map)
0. cancel

 

But it's CTF, which is in turn not playable with engineers because it results in DefendTheFlag rather than capturing. There's no point in a gamemode both teams have to defend while none is attacking.
Restrict engies to 0 would work, but you'll be heavily flamed by the family of nullskillers that can't do anything but build dispensers in CTF.
Apart from these problems, ctf_aerospace is one of the nicest maps out there, including official ones.

Edit: I got some unused traffic around, though I'm not sure how much. If we agree on a nice custom map selection I could offer at least a mirror for them.
(My space says "unlimited traffic", but I guess they'll cut my bandwidth if I'm overusing it)

Edit edit: Ah, I remembered gretheights to be the underwater map, but upon testing I didn't find anything so I thought I must be wrong ... however, this map has 3 stages, the underwater part being in the 2nd

Edit edit edit: We're enough players for an inhouse custom map test thing, right? I mean we could ask some of the other regulars on the servers whether they wanna join our custommap-test-party, getting 24 together shouldn't be that much of a problem. While playing some will of course have to leave, but we'd still end up being more than 16 then. After each map, the players may rate it, based upon that we could test some potentialed maps pretty fast. The hard way is messing up the standard servers with unknown maps and see how it's going (well, this is how it's already at the moment).

 

for the engineer problem, can you exclude them form ctf maps?

 

wut?

and excluding classes isnt goin to happen, i'm not that much of a fan of ctf myself but i dont think it should be excluded

edit: and i also think aerospace looks very nice, as long as their votable, i dont see the harm innit, we can still tweak if it falls flat

 

engie+ctf messes up the server. not an option. i'd rather see ctf with no engies than no ctf at all. engies don't contribute to the game, they destroy it.

 

I don't think so. Engineers are the only way to counter the new bonk scouts effectively.

 

you can't change the problem with the regulars. btw, i can't confirm that all-regs-join-same-team behaviour, i usually see a ratio of 2:1 at its worst.

 

too damn true

 

guys come on , are ya still talking about the map crap .
Trust me , this will never end !!!!!
last time we discused about steel to remove , today the majority wanted to play steel .
last time i played amsterdam the majority liked it , today they dont . this is a neverending job , im glad i dont have to do it .

 

Having a custom map night would be great, and do-able..
Just make an, ingame, announcement, and get a lot of regulars.. from inviting through steamfriends..

Don't have 2 be on server 1, we have other options for that..

 

I don't know about server 4, but it seems like it wouldn't hurt anyone if it wasn't available for some time.

Additionally, I love steel, but I can understand why people hate it as well. That's what votes were made for. Actually, there's only one point that can really sentryfarmed, and that is B. The rest really depends on teamplay as far as I can tell.

 

By the way, why only #2? I always thought #1 and #2 would be the same: regular play.

 

And it seems to be working 2 Doel.
I see the server better filled the last few days.

 

but with the mapvote there should be no more removing or adding maps because there is a choice .