ET SILENT #1 Suggestion: Relax shuffle / turn off autoshuffle

[Beeshbum]

Just wanted to suggest turning off autoshuffle and relaxing any other shuffling that is done. It is rare that a player can get through probably 2 maps without seeing a shuffle. Sometimes you get lucky and shuffle keeps you on your preferred team. Other times, you don't. Some players, like myself, prefer (or really only enjoy) playing on a specific team. When the shuffle (auto or done by admin) happens pretty much every map (there have been times where I counted 6 straight maps with teams being shuffled), it can be frustrating. There are times where I will try playing on the non-preferred side when I'm shuffled to it, but the majority of the time it just isn't fun for me and I'll leave (and so do a lot of other people). Aside from that, I noticed that shuffling tends to often lead to a bunch of people leaving the server or going spec for a long time. Of course a lot of people leaving after a shuffle defeats the purpose of the shuffle.

 

I understand why you might want to shuffle often, but the reality is that shuffle often disrupts the server, and not for the better. I'm not sure I can remember a time where I've been on the server (early morning, mid-day, or even later in the day) and there hasn't been at least one server admin around. So... I'd suggest allowing for a vote to shuffle (I'm not sure that it currently is disallowed). Let the majority decide. The fallback of course being an admin if the teams are obviously stacked and the game play is just so obviously one-sided and a vote fails, then an admin can make a judgment call and do a shuffle on their own.

 

Just my 2 cents.

[Snuffs99]

I play silent now and again and tbh its the one thing i leave because of, i think auto shuffle is every 3 maps on silent?......if i'm moved from my preferred team after the shuffle i wont move back to my preferred team because i don't think its fair to everyone else who is moved from their preferred team but i do leave or go spec.

 

 

Edited September 20, 2020 by Snuffs99

[Cocanation]

Like you i dont like it, most of the time i'm forced to back to axis...

Edited September 20, 2020 by C0C4N4T10N
could be misunderstood

[Betinho]

i agree with you...autoshuffle, and in general the shuffle makes people leave the server. i think silent is the only server in FA who got it (maybe i am wrong) but there isnt in other  FA servers what i play, and admins frequently use !putteam command or ask in pm to a player for even the teams when is needed.

Call a vote , imho, could be a good change instead of autoshuffle every 3 maps.

 

[Cocanation]

 silent1, hardcore, beg2 have autoshuffle

[Dest!Ny]

Personally I like auto-shuffle a lot. It keeps teams fairly even both in size and "quality". It is also good to be on different teams sometimes. If you think axis is fun on a certain map, chances are that most people think that, so instead of always trying to claim that spot allow other people a chance on that team as well. Sometimes you play on your preferred side, sometimes not, nothing to go crazy about imo.

 

Also I want to remind everyone that an autoshuffle is no different from an actual shuffle, meaning the rule "don't mess with shuffle" still applies.

Edited September 21, 2020 by Dest!Ny
Edited since my reference edited. Thanks for clearing that up :p

[Cocanation]

for be clear, i mean, with the autoshuffle im forced to back axis, i dont change teams lol, sorry for that haha 

[Cross Marian]

I understand that sometimes, shuffle may be frustrating. But we must see it as a greater good

 

Few important points:

 

1) Shuffle should be a last resort for admins. We usually prefer to balance teams by moving ourselves (the admins), if that isn’t enough we usually !putteam a player or two.

 

2) Shuffle is only used in 2 scenarios, and almost always before map start. If there is a too great gap in number of players in each team before map start. Or if there was an overwhelming difference in skills during previous map (causing one team to be Completely crushed).

 

3) Autoshuffle is there to prevent the case where no admin is on server and the teams are like 9 vs 4 players during too many maps.

 

4) I personally prefer having 1 or 2 people frustrated about the shuffle than playing a map completely off-balanced and loosing most players from the weaker team.

 

@Beeshbum you said a lot of players leave after shuffle, but I must disagree with you there. Usually, when there are around 20 players, I see 1 or 2 players complaining about the shuffle but that’s it. And most of the time, they keep playing.

Also, it often comes from people who were on a good killing streak from the dominating team. Like, their team had double the score, double the kills, obj was over before half the map time, and they ask me why we shuffle next map...

 

Of course, the shuffle should be done correctly at the appropriate time.
 

[Snuffs99]

1 hour ago, Dest!Ny said:

Also I want to remind everyone that an autoshuffle is no different from an actual shuffle, meaning the rule "don't mess with shuffle" still applies.

I've never seen a specific rule about not messing with shuffle, plus FA has the following

 

Note: Players are allowed to switch to the team of their liking after a shuffle, provided that the teams are still fair and even.

 

Some people will never respect the shuffle and move regardless of if its manual or auto shuffle.

The main reason i won't ever switch back to my preferred team if i'm moved in a shuffle is because i don't think anyone should be above anyone else when it comes to staying put after a shuffle. 

We would all like to play our preferred teams but why should player A be allowed to move after the shuffle but not player B or C. As with any rule you either force everyone to stay put after a shuffle or no one, in which case the shuffle becomes pointless.

 

@Cross Marian

Why have auto shuffle active after 3 maps if a shuffle should be a last resort for any admin.

 

Having rules is great, i like rules to keep chaos at arms length but if you have contradictions of rules then the rule becomes pointless.

Edited September 20, 2020 by Snuffs99

[Cross Marian]

39 minutes ago, Snuffs99 said:

Why have auto shuffle active after 3 maps if a shuffle should be a last resort for any admin.

As I said, it is in case there is no admin on the server at some point.

 

I’m no expert, but I think it would be impossible the program the auto-shuffle to be active only when there are no admins around.

 

And when I said shuffle should be last resort, I was of course referring to admins using the cmd ^^

[Snuffs99]

2 hours ago, Cross Marian said:

As I said, it is in case there is no admin on the server at some point.

 

I’m no expert, but I think it would be impossible the program the auto-shuffle to be active only when there are no admins around.

 

And when I said shuffle should be last resort, I was of course referring to admins using the cmd ^^

 

Haha, yeah i got what you were saying but just sounded a bit odd, "admins should use the shuffle command as a last resort" which implies its not really needed that often and only once all other possible avenues have been tried......buuuuut we auto shuffle every 3 maps.

Edited September 21, 2020 by Snuffs99

[L3ftY.]

The purpose of shuffle, auto or otherwise, is to keep fair teams on the server. It isn't meant to piss players off. Although I have seen players rq and leave after a shuffle because they aren't on their buddy's team anymore and that's always good for a laugh.

 

Players move constantly from team to team, or connect and join and sometimes creates unfair advantages for some of the other players, and the more players that are on the server the less likely the teams will stay even from start to finish. So while you may enjoy playing with the same group for a few maps, this can eventually create unwanted stacking and unfair teams. And because the teams rarely stay even during an entire map played, admin end up asking players to move and don't get to play much and enjoy the game. Hence the auto-shuffle.

 

However, maybe cutting back and changing auto-shuffle from every 2 to 3 maps to 3 to 4 maps or longer, might be worth looking into.

 

 

 

All suggestions and opinions on server modifications and changes are always welcome.

Edited September 21, 2020 by L3ftY.

[BaBeLo]

Autoshuffle is worthy for admins like im , cuz i dont have comand to do shuffle when teams r unfair and needs shuffle. More needed wuld be function when teams r uneven, (for example 5v8)that server will warn players that there will be picked (ins 10 sec for example )one random player from team with more players to move to team with less players, so teams would stay fair whoel time even without admins on server. Thats my opinion.  but surely dont remove autoshuffle also its worthy 

[Beeshbum]

Thanks all for the discussion. Like I said I get the intent and the purpose of it (autoshuffle), but I think providing shuffle as a vote option open to all players at any point in the map would be beneficial (that way, the players can sort of self-admin if the teams are off and admins aren't around). Also, the instance of an auto-shuffle when the teams are not even in numbers is fine. I just don't know if you can set it to only autoshuffle only on that one condition. As I said in my initial comment, very rarely is there not an admin around, at least at the times I play (and I play often and at different times).

 

Perhaps a happy medium would be based on these guidelines?

 

1. Disable autoshuffle for every 2-3 (or 3-4) maps (or whatever frequency it is set to).

2. If possible, enable it ONLY in the case where the teams are uneven by >=3.

3. Enable a shuffle vote for players and make this available at all times of the map (not just first X seconds or Y minutes). If this were my server, I'd set this to a simple majority (51%) threshold. Maybe even 50%. (Hell, while we're at it, maybe allow other types of votes so players can admin the server on their own... for example, allow for mute votes and other stuff).

4. Server admins that are present would manually fix teams if all else fails. Expectation would be that this would be done by FA members first evening up the teams as part of their clan duty (whether by number and/or skill based). If still not balanced, then admins should request in the game chat for volunteers and then if no volunteers, manually pick a reasonable player(s) to swap teams.

 

Let's be honest. We've all seen it and I'm probably right in assuming that at least 95% of the time at least ONE player leaves after autoshuffle if they get placed on the team opposite of what they prefer. Sometimes I am that one player. Other times I am not. But even just ONE person leaving after an autoshuffle renders that autoshuffle inaccurate (sometimes largely inaccurate, sometimes barely inaccurate). I realize it's never going to be perfect and people are going to come and go before/after shuffles. However, I stand by my observation that a very frequent amount of times, a fair amount of people leave after shuffles if they get put on teams they don't prefer. In a way, I guess I just sort of feel like silent1 (the only server I really play on) is fairly over-administered and I don't really think it needs to be. 

Edited September 21, 2020 by Beeshbum