DoubleTeam Custom Critique needs your feedback

I'm designing a server around the idea that map authors need feedback! They need to know what the TF2 community thinks of their hard work. I've been coding sourcemod plugins to help provide active feedback and critique without planned events or limited player pools.

The Server:
Understand this is a test for me just as much as it is for the map authors.
Initially the server will have:

• 18 Slots
• US Based
• Custom only map rotation
• Stats provided by HLStatsX CE
• End of the round map rating*
• Backend map statistics**
• In-game feedback system***
• Web site for easy viewing

End of the round map rating:
At the end of every game round a menu is randomly chosen for all connected clients, the menu prompts the client to rate the maps, game flow, balance, detail, optimization, and style. The answers are stored into the server's database, and will be shown on the website that's dedicated for map critique.

Pictured: In game menus


Map Statistics:
The server will also keep track of the times a map has been played, total playtime, and how many times the map has been RTV'd. All the statistics will be viewable on the website.

In game feedback:
To help provide accurate feedback to map authors, at anytime a client can simply type a chat message starting with '#' and the rest of the message will be sent to the database, and viewable on the website.

Example:
#This map is fantastic!

The website:
Currently in early development.

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If you would like your map to run on the servers initial test, please post a link to it on the tf2map's Map Database with a summary of the map, and it's current development stage. I also recommend the map say who the author is at round start.

If you would like to help or contribute to the project, please reach me via this thread or the tf2 maps forums, if you have any ideas, feel free to post!

I plan to try and get a basic version up soon, and plan to add more features depending on how the community receives it. Here's looking towards better tf2 custom maps .

Nerdboy said:

Nobody answers those popups anyway because they pop up at the worst moments.

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I noticed that, and I often accidentally hit the wrong vote by weapon swapping. Currently it is not exactly after the round end, it's delayed 15/20s, also I plan to implement a revote or a change vote system.

grazr said:

Well, if its endgame and people start to frequently visit the server, hopefully they'll be able to realise not to hit the wrong number in anticipation for the vote. 90% of the time a votemap comes up i vote by accidently weapon switching also.

You could maybe incorporate a "prepare to vote" text that counts down at the end of the game, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1.

I assume you manage to delay the map change since endgame immediately brings up the scoreboard and loads the next map as quick as the client side can ping the server.

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That's a great idea, i'll work towards adding in a prepare to vote, and maybe a sound to show that the vote has begun.

Yes the vote takes place during the bonus round, and ends before map change.

I don't think I extend the actual bonus round unless there's a cvar for it, if there is it's most likely a hidden or developer cvar, so I can take a look for it.

I might be able to detect the key, but i'd have to take a look through some of the sourcemod documentation, there is a 'GetClientButtons' which can detect a key pressed by the client, so I can just say 'Press <KEY> to begin the map rate.'

I'll add CTF_Cpc and cp_demolition to the list for now, and i'll post the server IP when it's live. No date yet, but I should have the plugins and server ready soon, then I'll start some work on the site.

captainAngry said:

I have done work on websites related to TF2 servers before. I use the map rating plugin everyone seems to use but I made a custom site to display the results: http://gaming.calculatedchaos.com/ratings/

I also made an AJAX widget that allows people to vote you in as admin on a server directly from your forum posts.

As far as voting on a five point scale, it is going to be difficult. I was one of the judges from the last contest here and it took me a long time to come up with numbers for maps that I played extensively. Also, unless you had been looking at your FPS the whole match, you don't REALLY know what it should be rated.

Other than that, once you have the info saved to a mySQL database I can help you with the site if you need it.

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All of the votes are stored into a db already, it's stored by:

'STEAM_ID' - 'MapName' - 'Game flow' - 'Balance' - 'Detail' -'Optimization' - 'Style'

I'm thinking of adding a play count counter and only asking on every few times the client has played the map. I can do most of the php work for the site, it's just the styling that I think i'll have issues with, but the more help the better.