Snowplow, Servers and You - How to deal with server events at the moment

Fruity Snacks

Creator of blackholes & memes. Destroyer of forums
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Sep 5, 2010
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Hey guys,

tl;dr: Sorry, I turned the TF2M servers into 24/7 pseud-valve map beta servers for snowplow.

By now you all have seen Snowplow's public beta release. When this first was launched, we were a little rushed to get this map out onto safe, controled servers. I volunteered the old secret EotL server to do this, but was unable to configure it properly. I then volunteered the US and EU servers to become dedicated 24/7 snowplow servers, with the one note to McVee that TF2Maps.net imps and gamedays would get priority. However, this was under the assumption that we would only have 1 US and 1 EU server. We still have 1 US server, but we now have 3 EU servers. Of the 3 EU servers, 2 of them are 24/7 snowplow, and the third is dedicated testing.

So I can't say how long snowplow will be going on our servers. I hope it's not too long, but while it is, we as a community will want to make sure to respectful to those who play on the TF2Maps.net servers. If you see any disrespectfulness or abuse, report it to an admin, and we'll sort things out.

So, the important bit: Impromptu's and gamedays. It would be nice to make sure that the 24/7 servers are playing snowplow as much as possible. The longer its played, the more data we get via heatmaps, the feedback system and demos. The more feedback, the better we can make it. So, here's how I'd like things to work for impromptus and gamedays.

For European gamedays and impromptus: The European 3 server (eu.tf2maps.net:27018) will be used for European Server events. It's the same location as EU1 and 2, and has the map rotation features enabled. It's exactly the same as EU1, our normal server.

For US gamedays and impromptus: Since we have 1 US server, this one is okay to be disturbed from time to time. Just contact a server or site admin, and they will temporarily lock the server, announce there is a TF2Maps.net event going on, and clear the server out a bit for people to join (and then unlock the server). They can then change the map to whatever is needed. Just make sure to set the current version of snowplow back as the active map at the end of the event.

Sorry guys about this, but it was a quick decision that needed to be made. I apologize for any inconvenience that this causes.

Any questions, comments or concerns, you can leave them here or PM me directly.
 
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Harribo

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Nov 1, 2009
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I'd like to Point this is Frozen's suggestion and he's not speaking for the TF2Maps staff as we have neither discussed this as a group nor agreed upon anything. What has happened is Frozen and I had a disagreement earlier as I had Scheduled a EU Gameday today on the EU1 server and wasn't willing to budge on the matter of moving it to EU3.
 
Sep 7, 2012
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Frozen, can we just keep EU1 as the gameday/imp server?
I have several friends who come on to play when we have imps and gamedays and stuff that I brought here from other communities, but a few of them come on their own steam too, when they see their favourited servers are populated. While this is great for snowplow I'm sure, it pushes some regulars out of our imps who aren't in our steam group but have favourited our servers. I doubt I'm the only one with friends in the same situations. I will tell the people I know, but I can't guarantee they'll take the time to add the new servers to their favourites as well.
 

Geit

💜 I probably broke it 💜
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May 28, 2009
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I'd like to Point this is Frozen's suggestion and he's not speaking for the TF2Maps staff as we have neither discussed this as a group nor agreed upon anything. What has happened is Frozen and I had a disagreement earlier as I had Scheduled a EU Gameday today on the EU1 server and wasn't willing to budge on the matter of moving it to EU3.

*Sigh*

Frozen's is the suggestion that makes the most sense given the circumstance. Being stubborn for the sake of being stubborn doesn't get us anywhere.

Firstly, because EU1 is in single-map rotation with Snowplow, it isn't technichally equiped for the use case that Impromptus and Gamedays presents (no setnextmap etc), so every time you decide to be stubborn I have to get involved and correct EU1s plugins.

Secondly, kicking a bunch of "randomers" off the server for a gameday or impromptu screams unprofessionalism - once you kick someone off a server for no reason - they're never coming back. The popularity off Snowplow's launch has driven more traffic to TF2M than it's seen in nearly 4 years, for that fact alone comprimises should be made regarding the EU servers.

Thirdly, your entire argument about this being Frozen's suggestion (can't forget the underline!) is pretty hypocritical seeing as frozen's post is pretty much the same your post (http://forums.tf2maps.net/showthread.php?t=22333&p=307092#post307092) in the staff forums. Except, you know, this idea isn't completely stupid.

Finally, I own the EU server, so if you'd prefer that TF2M didn't have an EU server at all for the duration of the Snowplow testing, it can be arranged.

EDIT: To clarify why we can't move Snowplow testing to EU2 and EU3 - The IP for EU1 is what's plastered all over the press articles for Snowplow.
 
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Fantaboi

Gone and one day forgotten
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Mar 11, 2013
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If there's problems with these servers feel free to use the AU server for imps and stuff.
Before you complain about lag, please keep in mind Australians put up with it, and usually feedback is a lot better thanks to people looking around more.

If anyone wants the details so they can login, upload maps and be an admin contact me.
 

henke37

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Sep 23, 2011
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Uhm, the servers page only lists two servers. It doesn't even list the AU server...
 

Geit

💜 I probably broke it 💜
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May 28, 2009
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...on the subject of unprofessionalism.

The EU server has absolutely no attachment to TF2M (other than that I happen to be staff here), I provide it off my dedicated server that I fund entirely out of my own pocket. I'm happy to continue providing TF2M with the EU Server for the foreseeable future, and I wouldn't leave TF2M without a server to test on for any duration of time (hence the setup of EU3) but at the current moment in time 91.121.155.109:27015 belongs to Snowplow testing because an alternative has been provisioned for TF2Maps normal use. Exercising a veto is something I'd really rather not do (like you said, it's unprofessional and unfair to the rest of the staff), but at the moment, I'm merely pointing out that I can also refuse to budge on an issue and ignore staff opinion (like Harribo did yesterday when 3 other members of staff agreed the gameday should move to EU3) should I want to.
 

YM

LVL100 YM
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Dec 5, 2007
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EDIT: To clarify why we can't move Snowplow testing to EU2 and EU3 - The IP for EU1 is what's plastered all over the press articles for Snowplow.

You provide me with IPs, I'll post them each time we release a new version.
 
Apr 14, 2013
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Guys, chill down! it doesn't really matter on what server we're testing!
Besides, think about it from the bright side: Our community servers are running a map made by our community members, in order for it to become better. If the map will be better, the entire tf2 community is going to benefit from it, since this map will soon become official! (you see? I finally caught up with the recent events...)
Be happy that the eotl map is on our servers for testing, it is more of an honor than of a burden. Be happy that we still can playtest maps and run imps due to the new server.