A Final Plea for a more Robust & Intelligent Server List - Developers

[QUOTE=Llamalord;50804574]It is an absolute deterrent for me, I've always wanted to recode Basewars ([url=https://docs.google.com/document/d/1pMy3L8BIPh9YlLUVGB1weYDmlsXe-lpeJq2v-bvxGZw/edit?usp=sharing]Link[/url]) but I've talked with so many community leaders who have to shutdown their communities because they aren't hosting any of the mainstream gamemodes.[/QUOTE] shieeet that looks amazing, but your right about the fact that its unlikely to take off with gmod being in the sorry state it is now. Have you considered making it in unreal engine or unity instead?

I remember when Garry tried to bring more quality gamemodes into his game, by doing fretta contest and stuff. He has done the opposite with his server browser.

Honestly I enjoyed the idea of having contests. It allowed the developers to have a prize to work towards, and filled the game with new ideas (although some were better than others). We should try to host another here soon, and I could organize it if anyone is interested.

I loved the contest _Undefined did, other than the messy category shit it was really good

server tags are already in the engine by default, theres a concommand for it, the server browser itself just doesnt support tag filtering, like TF2 & CSS/CSGO do. (except the legacy browser..)

I kinda gave up on hoping for a new server browser because hundreds of threads like this were brought up but in the end, garry said no. If it would change though, I would go back to the default source browser, but with Valves Geoshit thing it wouldn't be the same. Our own master server? Good luck with ddos.

[QUOTE=whitestar;50815895]server tags are already in the engine by default, theres a concommand for it, the server browser itself just doesnt support tag filtering, like TF2 & CSS/CSGO do. (except the legacy browser..)[/QUOTE] sv_tags was removed so garry's server browser could have a workshop download button (which literally nobody uses)

Does anyone have any of the devs on their steam friends list?

[QUOTE=Llamalord;50824785]Does anyone have any of the devs on their steam friends list?[/QUOTE] Pretty sure spamming Rubat and Willox on Steam wont help Edit: Just threaten to take their Ferraris from them.

[QUOTE=Llamalord;50824785]Does anyone have any of the devs on their steam friends list?[/QUOTE] I've got willox, Why?

[QUOTE=BigBadWilly;50824843]I've got willox, Why?[/QUOTE] I really am trying to make this happen, it would fix a lot of problems. Just wondering if I could talk to one of them.

I have both but Robot is offline and I'm afraid willox senpai will hate me if I bug him while he's playing Rainbow Six. [editline]3rd August 2016[/editline] So what is the consensus? Do we just want to make the legacy default, make something similar to legacy that fits with the current menu's theme, or something else? Personally I think we deserve our own master server that doesn't operate in a retarded way.

[QUOTE=MadParakeet;50824976]I have both but Robot is offline and I'm afraid willox senpai will hate me if I bug him while he's playing Rainbow Six. [editline]3rd August 2016[/editline] So what is the consensus? Do we just want to make the legacy default, make something similar to legacy that fits with the current menu's theme, or something else? Personally I think we deserve our own master server that doesn't operate in a retarded way.[/QUOTE] I really would like to have a dedicated gmod master server, with *keywords that you can search instead of include/exclude tags, *filters for gamemode(something I always thought was lacking from legacy), and *include the legacy filters for map/not full/not empty/not passworded, *everything by default listed by latency. (I should be able to list alphabetically by server name when I'm looking for a specific community's server) If no one wants to do it, it would still help to have legacy be the default server browser, if only because some people might try different gamemodes.

[QUOTE=Apickx;50825103]I really would like to have a dedicated gmod master server, with *keywords that you can search instead of include/exclude tags, *filters for gamemode(something I always thought was lacking from legacy), and *include the legacy filters for map/not full/not empty/not passworded, *everything by default listed by latency. (I should be able to list alphabetically by server name when I'm looking for a specific community's server) If no one wants to do it, it would still help to have legacy be the default server browser, if only because some people might try different gamemodes.[/QUOTE] None of those things really need a custom master server, but that looks like a pretty solid list. Should I just go make this and spam the gmod repo with pull requests until it's merged?

And also have it fall back to valve's server if Facepunch doesn't want to spend the money to make it withstand DDoSes

[QUOTE=Ott;50825175]And also have it fall back to valve's server if Facepunch doesn't want to spend the money to make it withstand DDoSes[/QUOTE] [QUOTE=MadParakeet;50825172]None of those things really need a custom master server, but that looks like a pretty solid list. Should I just go make this and spam the gmod repo with pull requests until it's merged?[/QUOTE] I just figured out the thing I want to achieve doesn't even need a custom master server. I'll get around to hacking something together tomorrow, assuming angular doesn't make me want to quit living. It probably won't look too pretty but that's what all your VGUI obsessed design people are for.

A better idea I've been thinking of is why not leave the order to the players? The current server list already utilizes a basic rating system that is automated and heavily broken. However, If there was a way to perhaps also allow players to 'rate servers' or 'leave a review on servers' this could potentially help get the good, original servers promoted and the bad, cancerous script kiddie servers out of that way. This model is what alot of mobile application distributors like Google Play use and it allows you to find what you might be looking for using data that's completely based off user-generated feedback. [QUOTE=Netheous;50804702] Adding options such as: - quick play (find random server with random gamemode, prioritizing the ones hosted near you, prioritizing the ones that aren't full but have enough players to play the gamemode). - highlight of the day (showing a fully random gamemode and servers hosted on it, based on nothing - as long as there's atleast 1 server hosting it, there's a chance for it to be shown in the highlight) - 'You should also try..' - suggested servers, based on previous gamemodes played - showing 3-6 different servers with different specifications: 1-2 empty, new; 1-2 half-empty, new, 1-2 almost full old. [/QUOTE] Also adding a favorites button would be nice. a good 25% of the questions asked is "how do I favorite this server?"

[QUOTE=Potatofactory;50826016]A better idea I've been thinking of is why not leave the order to the players? The current server list already utilizes a basic rating system that is automated and heavily broken. However, If there was a way to perhaps also allow players to 'rate servers' or 'leave a review on servers' this could potentially help get the good, original servers promoted and the bad, cancerous script kiddie servers out of that way. This model is what alot of mobile application distributors like Google Play use and it allows you to find what you might be looking for using data that's completely based off user-generated feedback. Also adding a favorites button would be nice. a good 25% of the questions asked is "how do I favorite this server?"[/QUOTE] hell, why don't we somehow base it off favorites? [editline]3rd August 2016[/editline] and bring back blacklisting prompts from TF2

[QUOTE=Potatofactory;50826016] However, If there was a way to perhaps also allow players to 'rate servers' or 'leave a review on servers' this could potentially help get the good, original servers promoted and the bad, cancerous script kiddie servers out of that way.[/QUOTE] you're a naive idiot if you think that will work, the shit cash cow servers will just use automated review boosting scripts or give people 50k ingame cash to leave a positive review on their server so they can climb to the top

Profiling servers by players' favorites is very interesting. How can we be sure that will prioritize the more unique, diverse servers?

[QUOTE=VIoxtar;50826224]Profiling servers by players' favorites is very interesting. How can we be sure that will prioritize the more unique, diverse servers?[/QUOTE] I doubt it will. I don't think anything will. The best thing we can do is give people a [B]good [/B]tool to find servers instead of the mess we have now that pushes generic DarkRP shit to the top. Using favorites as a metric sounds cool but it would require a new master server. I don't think it would differ that much from sorting by player count.

How about sorting by blacklists? :v:

[QUOTE=MadParakeet;50826265]I doubt it will. I don't think anything will. The best thing we can do is give people a [B]good [/B]tool to find servers instead of the mess we have now that pushes generic DarkRP shit to the top. Using favorites as a metric sounds cool but it would require a new master server. I don't think it would differ that much from sorting by player count.[/QUOTE] you dont really need a complete masterserver to support by favorites etc, you could use a simple SQL database for that. The problem would be write access. So we'd need a web-api wich validates the input, and adds it to the database(and returns the database content read-only style).

I would be happy for anything to be done to the browser right now that would stop this shit. [url]https://facepunch.com/showthread.php?t=1528773[/url]

People have been complaining about the new server browser and pointing out flaws with it for quite a while now, but the devs don't seem to want to do anything about it. Every time it's brought up it's pretty much immediately shut down or ignored. It's a shame, really.

[QUOTE=Jocken300;50827104]People have been complaining about the new server browser and pointing out flaws with it for quite a while now, but the devs don't seem to want to do anything about it. Every time it's brought up it's pretty much immediately shut down or ignored. It's a shame, really.[/QUOTE] Well, one of the reasons it's usually shut down is because often the suggestions are abusable Like, this post got a ton of dumb ratings and I'm not sure why because it brings up a lot of good points: [QUOTE=StonedPenguin;50804590]It hasn't been changed because no one's actually offered a decent solution that wouldn't piss off one or more groups of the gmod community. A legacy browser clone: Would cause massive bitching from players and help the large 100+ player servers like mine further monopolize since most sort by player count. Gamemode categories: High potential for abuse What happens if you do find a solution and start killing off DarkRP servers? You will get massive backlash from what is without a doubt the biggest part of the garrysmod community. There is no good solution right now.[/QUOTE]

[QUOTE=Teddi Orange;50812670]This is already happening via Valve's Geo-IP and is part of the reason we're in this sorry state right now.[/QUOTE] valve's geo-iping fucking sucks i cant see servers in other countries Do you think it'd be possible to run a different API? Or would that take too much? I see the LUA server browser allows for global server viewing.

I would really just want searching servers by name. I also really like Netheous' idea about highlighting a gamemode: [QUOTE=Netheous;50804702] - quick play (find random server with random gamemode, prioritizing the ones hosted near you, prioritizing the ones that aren't full but have enough players to play the gamemode). - highlight of the day (showing a fully random gamemode and servers hosted on it, based on nothing - as long as there's atleast 1 server hosting it, there's a chance for it to be shown in the highlight) - 'You should also try..' - suggested servers, based on previous gamemodes played - showing 3-6 different servers with different specifications: 1-2 empty, new; 1-2 half-empty, new, 1-2 almost full old.[/QUOTE] Especially if the highlight is the same for everyone by using the same generation or a master server, as that would gather people to new gamemodes/servers in what would almost be community events.

This might sound really off-par but I think people need to stop assuming that they're not getting players because of the server browser. Having a pretty server packed with great features doesn't mean you should get players. If you don't manage the public relations right and build a reliable community it can fail. It's partially luck too. Garry's Mod is mainly known for DarkRP now - people go into the DarkRP category looking for DarkRP servers. Changing how they find DarkRP or making it not avalible by "default" isn't what the majority of players want. DarkRP is also a very social gamemode, it's not entirely about what different features you have - people are generally looking for a very social experiance, which requires other players initially. Granted the geo-location shit is a bit broke, it's probably works better than if facepunch ran their own master Personally I think the current server browser is the hardest to abuse compared to a lot of the suggestions here

Can I get a recap on how game mode categories are abusable?