Just FYI, Meatgrinder Redux is running rotating Siege maps again, so all you people who stayed away on account of FFA or CTF, you can come back now. ; )
I should be back tomorrow or Wednesday and I might consider adding Siege_Destroyer2 to the rotation (with Asteroids).
We'll see how it goes...
(IP is in the signature as always and check the server status on Strategic Academy's page).
Perhaps I should start playing siege... I heard it's really good but I only played once.
i dont fancy playing bots..How about some sort of meeting at a set hour?
The only way to get players to join is to join yourself (especially a well-known forum face like your's!). If they see you there, they will join and those in turn will be seen by others, etc.
So don't wait! Join now. ; )
The bots are there to accommodate the 97% of people who instantly disconnect if there aren't at least 4 slots taken up in the game and the match already begun.
You have bots working in siege mode? I'm curious as to how have them working. There aren't any default waypoints for the siege maps, and bots always gave me issues when I tried to have them on siege maps. I assumed it wasn't supported with bots.
Bots aren't supported, but adding support is easy enough.
The trick is getting the support to be at a "professional" level.
To add bots to siege, just use the console to add bots like you normally would, putting one bot on each team, then you can play.
\rcon addbot rebel 5 blue (or whatever)
Of course I would argue that the bot routes and bot intelligence in all the other Raven created maps isn't that great (even compared to JK2).
Still, you can make workable bots in siege using botmaker and bot routing tutorials provided on sites like the DDS site.
I've made custom routes for each of the Siege maps and am using Custom bots. You just have to spawn them in before the match begins and they will automatically be assigned to teams, so long as you have bots on both teams the match will begin.
I plan to improve these routes further, I just haven't had time, since my computer has been in the shop (I got it upgraded, but the store I went to sold me a bad motherboard, then they blew me off and have been forever correcting their mistake... needless to say I'm not doing business with them again after this!).
I hope there isn't a problem, sometimes that happens and all the bots are on one team, so it's not even remotely fair. How it SHOULD be (I set it up then go do something else) is that we have two bots on each team, so there is always a balance. Two offense, two defense. As long as there is 1 defense and 1 offense the match will begin, instead of how it normally is, which is you have to wait for two even teams of humans to start, but people get impatient and leave because there aren't at least 4 people playing.
Btw, there haven't been many players in the last two days, is something wrong? Normally my Siege server is overflowing with players.
Is it forcing people to download the Bonus Pack? Because normally it only asks you to download some tiny bot routing files and bot improvement files, which don't take long at all (even on dialup). I need feedback here, because my personal computer still isn't back yet, so I can only monitor the site through WWW, which is slow and doesn't provide all information.
PS: Everybody join the server right now, get a game going!
It's 4pm CST right now.
216.12.201.206:29070 (please download any mods it prompts you for, trust me they are SMALL and well worth it)
Hmm, guess nobody wants to play anymore... hasn't been any activity in the last several hours (it's almost 9pm here now).
I have a feeling that the bots are all stuck on the SAME TEAM and that's why nobody is joining, right?
It would help if I could hop in there and change the settings, but I can't without my computer (hopefully it'll be done tomorrow). Sigh.
So somebody needs to hop in there and hit "ready" again I guess...
thats why i mean whe should organise some moments to play it, we all come at different times
When we tried bots with siege, for some reason players couldn't join teams. I'm not sure the specifics of the problem as I didn't have time to look into it, but that was why we did away with them on those maps. Since they didn't have waypoints, we were better off. Of course, now we don't run siege maps in our rotation since the rotation stalls when a siege map comes up as no one seems to join and play those maps and the server ends up sitting empty all the time.
Yeah, the trick is to get it so that EVERY time a Siege map comes up, two bots are assigned to each team, so that the match will begin immediately and the play continues.
I can't "see" the server (not be in it) since my computer is STILL not back yet, but I'm guessing that all the bots are assigned to one team and that is making people not want to play.
For the last day 1/2 it's just been the bots with scores of 0 and no humans in the game stuck on one map for hours.
Am I right?
When I get my pc back it will take less than a minute to fix, but for now I'm relying on people to report problems to me.
And the wait continues...!
I swear this repair place must have a rule: 1+ hours of work to do, wait 10 days before attempting.
*Sigh*
In the meantime my server stands empty, I wish I knew why.
I tried connecting to see what would happen. ASE said "server full or unresponsive" even though there were only 4 bots there.
I forced connection, and it got stuck at the "awaiting challenge" screen.
You are obviously posting to this forum using some kind of computer. Why not use the remote terminal in ASE or Qtracker, or a program like RCON Commander or RCON Unlimited to control your server? Or use FTP to download\edit\upload a new server.cfg file and use
www.JediServers.com) web-based server control panel to restart the server with the new server.cfg file?
Thank you Amidala, I'm glad somebody finally told me what was going on. However, it isn't as easy as you say.
The only computers I've had access to are the ones at my local library. These are restricted in that they don't allow you to download or install any programs. You also can't run programs from a floppy that aren't installed. There is no FTP software either. So I'm stuck only with what I can do through Internet Explorer.
Anyway I'm now visiting my parents, meaning I have a (very slow, chugging along) computer that has ASE installed, so I restarted the server with the siege cfg file. Immediately two people joined, then they left and two more joined, then they left and one more joined, now he's gone.
Can anyone else get in? Sadly this computer is very very slow, it frequently pauses (the cooling fan is broken I think, I have the sides off to get some cool air in here).
Everything APPEARS okay. The bots are getting points now, and getting killed. Previously their scores would stay at 0 for hours, leading me to believe they weren't even 'in' the game.
I'm visiting my grandma tomorrow (not the one who's dying of cancer) but I'll be back briefly tomorrow night before I head back.
So far my computer has been in for repairs for 10 days. The last time I had it at this particular store they also took 10 days to "repair" it. Needless to say I'm never going back there again. The only reason I took it back a second time was that they sold me a defective motherboard and offered to replace it for free. Hopefully this time it will last longer than 2 months. ; p
When I finally do get my computer back I can sit at my pc and play in the server and witness first hand the chaos that has been happening (or not happening) in my absence!
Update: 12:01 AM CST, there's one human in here with my four bots. He's scoring points. So far, so good...
12:07 Two humans. Looking better!
12:12 Three humans... I hope this trend continues! ; )
Whoa, full server this morning (10:12 am CST), 12/12, woo!
Okay, I'm happy now.
I'm a bit disgusted Kurgan. Nobody wants to balance teams, it was 7 to 3, 6 to 3, etc, 2 bots per team. Ridiculous. You practically need to be there to enforce balance, which is why I probably won't join much unless you're on.
Hmm, sorry to hear that Lath, but if that's that case, I may not see you for a long time. : (
Neocomputers is still giving me the run around, now insisting I need a new powersupply (even though previous repairs suggested this was not necessary).
Anyhow, as far as team balance goes, that's the perpetual bane of all team-based games, ever.
People LOVE to join the winning team, and there's no practical way to enforce it except to stand there and threaten to kick them unless they obey.
Don't worry about bot balance, most of the time they won't upset a team balance except they provide extra help for defense at key points. Otherwise they cancel each other out (bots fighting bots).
I have autoteam set because otherwise people just sit there (either not knowing how to join a team or hoping that they can just sit there in spectator mode for whatever reason taking up a slot). I also have teamforcebalance set which doesn't really help much, but it's supposed to prevent people from continuing to join the team that's "ahead" to minimize imbalance.
Usually having one extra person doesn't mean the difference between victory or defeat, but 7 to 3 is pretty bad.
Don't know what to tell you... : (
Anybody have any advice for keeping teams balanced other than 24/7 babysitting? Amidala?
Well the server continues to be alive and well.
Sadly I just learned my two hard drives are shot, so though I'll be getting my computer back tomorrow or the next day it'll take me awhile to get "back in business" as it were.
In the meantime enjoy the Siege!