A Final Plea for a more Robust & Intelligent Server List

[Ott]

[QUOTE=The Commander;50836139]RobotBoy hasn't even posted in this thread, he is avoiding it because he knows we all want browser changes but is trying everything to not do it. (puts it in the "too hard basket")[/QUOTE]

I mean he made a derma replacement for the awesomium menu (it looked like shit), I don't think he's that lazy.

[Keosan]

[QUOTE=MadParakeet;50831933]It looks truly god tier and I will certainly take a look at the code and install it for my personal use, but I'm pretty sure garry would fly off the handle if we tried to convince him to bin his entire menu.

[editline]4th August 2016[/editline]

People will still be able to find their DarkRP servers. It's not like anyone wants to design a new browser to kill DarkRP. Personally I think the claims that the current list kills new gamemones are pretty greatly exaggerated. [B]Regardless[/B], the current server browser is objectively one of the worst things known to man.[/QUOTE]

I agree as well albiet i probably could of said it differently. Honestly someone said it better earlier on, a bunch of people with different opinions all trying in there own best interest to create a server browser will never get shit done. People will complain because there isn't a one fits all interest.

[llamalords]

[QUOTE=Keosan;50837678]I agree as well albiet i probably could of said it differently. Honestly someone said it better earlier on, a bunch of people with different opinions all trying in there own best interest to create a server browser will never get shit done. People will complain because there isn't a one fits all interest.[/QUOTE]

Then should I create a survey of all the ideas and we will see which one is most popular?

[Nak]

Add a category option in the gamemode.txt you can sort/blacklist.
And limit them to two pr gamemode.

Something like ..
- Action (Shooters .. ect)
- Arcade
- Building/Sandbox
- Puzzle
- Casual
- Racing
- Role Playing
- Simulation (Like the cinema gamemode)
- Strategy
- Other (Will list unset gamemodes as well)

"Gamemode"
 {
 	"title"		"Rust"
 	"category"	"Action|Simulation"
 	"version"	"0.1" 
 	"up_date"	"06/08/2016"
  }

"Gamemode"
 {
 	"title"		"Deathrun"
 	"category"	"Puzzle|Arcade"
 	"version"	"0.1" 
 	"up_date"	"06/08/2016"
  }

Maybe force servers with "RP" or "Role%S-Play" in their name to be listed under "Role Playing"

[DubyxD]

Its crap and everyone who spends hours being creative and unique with their gamemode designs are given the scraps at the bottom of the listings.

Legit this is why I stopped coding for Gmod, and seriously the Dev team need to get their finger out of their ass holes and do something about it as the game is dying, the coders are leaving and its just TTT and DarkRP ruling the server listings with pointshops.

Whether you like it or not that is the truth.

[orc]

[QUOTE=Nak;50838619][/QUOTE]

Maybe like the system of workshop addons, where you have to specify what the server should be categorised as and tags as an extra, and players can search for tags that they would like. I was also thinking of a system that distinguish servers that are getting some attention as HOT temporarily, or FRESH when a new server is created.

[Apickx]

[QUOTE=Nak;50838619]Add a category option in the gamemode.txt you can sort/blacklist.
And limit them to two pr gamemode.

Something like ..
- Action (Shooters .. ect)
- Arcade
- Building/Sandbox
- Puzzle
- Casual
- Racing
- Role Playing
- Simulation (Like the cinema gamemode)
- Strategy
- Other (Will list unset gamemodes as well)

"Gamemode"
 {
 	"title"		"Rust"
 	"category"	"Action|Simulation"
 	"version"	"0.1" 
 	"up_date"	"06/08/2016"
  }

"Gamemode"
 {
 	"title"		"Deathrun"
 	"category"	"Puzzle|Arcade"
 	"version"	"0.1" 
 	"up_date"	"06/08/2016"
  }

Maybe force servers with "RP" or "Role%S-Play" in their name to be listed under "Role Playing"[/QUOTE]

I'm not really a fan of pre-defined categories, even if you include a "misc.", I think servers should be able to define 3-4 keywords that describe their server, and then allow users to filter by keyword.

Most players don't actually want anything other than ttt, darkrp, and prophunt, but for the ones that do, servers that are unique are hard to find. I think we should focus on allowing players to find what they want, and not strictly promoting new gamemodes.

If I wanted to shoot zombies, but not zombierp, and not x,y,z game modes I've already tried, I would like to search something like
[B]+keyword:horror +keyword:zombie -gamemode:zombie survival -keyword roleplay[/B]
And even if a new gamemode has tagged the server with "zombie" but not "horror" I still want it to show up pretty high on my search.

[Ott]

Allowing more than one category gives server owners an incentive to miscategorize at no harm to their popularity. Everyone will do it and we'll be right back where we started.

[cogg]

I'm for a keywords system only because it might stop them from cramming them in the fucking title.

[img]http://i.imgur.com/R3XVL9e.png[/img]

I might actually try parsing the titles to get a primitive keyword system going, just to see how it feels.

[ph:lxyz]

The workshop already has a keyword selection with a restricted number of selectable categories. That could apply to gamemodes also, maybe.

[Ott]

[QUOTE=ph:lxyz;50840436]The workshop already has a keyword selection with a restricted number of selectable categories. That could apply to gamemodes also, maybe.[/QUOTE]

[img]http://i.imgur.com/H4UMz00.png[/img]

[FPtje]

I agree with the criticism in this thread. I don't have the chance to read all the posts, but DarkRP always being on top is not a good thing. I have no incentive to significantly improve DarkRP. I used to back in the day when I had to fight to make and keep (my version of) it popular.

The current server browser needs to go.

[llamalords]

[QUOTE=FPtje;50841751]I agree with the criticism in this thread. I don't have the chance to read all the posts, but DarkRP always being on top is not a good thing. I have no incentive to significantly improve DarkRP. I used to back in the day when I had to fight to make and keep (my version of) it popular.

The current server browser needs to go.[/QUOTE]

Do you have any suggestions?

[cogg]

I've just about finished gutting garry's browser, so I should be able to actually make some progress soon.

As soon as I've implemented a good deal of what I want to I'll post it so people who want to propose changes can.

[stealthpaw]

It's useless making alternate server browsers right now, as we already have some.

The first step is getting Garry or any of the development team to start caring or even talking to the community about this.

[orc]

[QUOTE=101kl;50842620]It's useless making alternate server browsers right now, as we already have some.

The first step is getting Garry or any of the development team to start caring or even talking to the community about this.[/QUOTE]

That's not going to happen, we need to show the development team that there is a better alternative and voice our concerns, its for the sake of the game.

[Zenternal]

[QUOTE=Slowboi;50827717]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[/QUOTE]

I'm confused why everyone has disagreed with this post. So many great points have been brought up here, and if you all want players on your server, start advertising.

I'm sorry, but the server list is fine as it is for now. There are multiple other server browsers you can find.

[editline]7th August 2016[/editline]

[QUOTE=Nak;50838619]Add a category option in the gamemode.txt you can sort/blacklist.
And limit them to two pr gamemode.

Something like ..
- Action (Shooters .. ect)
- Arcade
- Building/Sandbox
- Puzzle
- Casual
- Racing
- Role Playing
- Simulation (Like the cinema gamemode)
- Strategy
- Other (Will list unset gamemodes as well)

"Gamemode"
 {
 	"title"		"Rust"
 	"category"	"Action|Simulation"
 	"version"	"0.1" 
 	"up_date"	"06/08/2016"
  }

"Gamemode"
 {
 	"title"		"Deathrun"
 	"category"	"Puzzle|Arcade"
 	"version"	"0.1" 
 	"up_date"	"06/08/2016"
  }

Maybe force servers with "RP" or "Role%S-Play" in their name to be listed under "Role Playing"[/QUOTE]

This is a great idea. Maybe it could work vice-versa aswell? (Typing in the categorys you don't want showing up in your browser.

[llamalords]

[QUOTE=Zenternal;50842976]I'm confused why everyone has disagreed with this post. So many great points have been brought up here, and if you all want players on your server, start advertising.

I'm sorry, but the server list is fine as it is for now. There are multiple other server browsers you can find.

[editline]7th August 2016[/editline]

This is a great idea. Maybe it could work vice-versa aswell? (Typing in the categorys you don't want showing up in your browser.[/QUOTE]

The server list as it is right now is the fucking worst it could be,
it is being completely abused by people who change the name of their gamemodes (even though its a DarkRP edit) so they can have more visibility while pushing original gamemodes to the bottom of the server list.

[roastchicken]

[QUOTE=Zenternal;50842976]I'm confused why everyone has disagreed with this post. So many great points have been brought up here, and if you all want players on your server, start advertising.

I'm sorry, but the server list is fine as it is for now. There are multiple other server browsers you can find.[/QUOTE]

With the current server browser we can't know if DarkRP is the most popular gamemode because it's the gamemode that most players enjoy, or because it's at the top of the server browser.

Slowboi doesn't give any arguments [I]against[/I] the proposed changes, only arguments for the current server browser. Whats wrong with changing the server browser? It's possible that DarkRP is naturally popular and not due to the server browser, and changing the server browser will prove or disprove that.

[NeatNit]

This topic is brought up time and time again (most often in the Next Update threads), but has any dev actually acknowledged it? I've heard that some people have created working alternative server browsers. Has any of them been sent as a pull request?

Without some sort of communication with the gmod devs, talking about this is completely pointless.

(disclaimer: didn't read whole thread, sorry if repeating)

[ph:lxyz]

One of the fundamental problems here is this:

How do you decide when DarkRP is no longer DarkRP such that it should be named differently?

Since there's no objective way of deciding that, people need to be free to name their gamemode whatever they want - and with that ability, comes the ability to screw with the server list.

Anything that can be screwed with, will be - at least if the server list didn't group by gamemode, it would "solve" the problem - but it wouldn't prevent someone from messing with whatever else controls the ordering.

The thing that can't easily be messed with is latency.

[jack ralph]

As a former Fretta server host the new server browser is the worst thing gmod ever had done to it. Killed all of my small community servers and now i can't even get found on a list due to darkrp spam everywhere.

[b] Please go back to legacy or make something better! [/b]

[typedef state]

The new server browser definitely has to go.

From personal experience, it has deterred me from even trying new things because I know that the chances of finding new, interesting gamemodes are virtually nil, and Valve's geo-ip shit makes me see mostly servers near me (Russia), and it's disappointing. Obscure gamemodes with high player counts certainly need a fair playing field with the more popular garbage (mostly DarkRP).

[FPtje]

[QUOTE=Llamalord;50842132]Do you have any suggestions?[/QUOTE]
Use the steam browser as a basis, make it fancy. Recode it in Lua, html or anusscript for all I care. Give it cool features like fuzzy search: a search box that fuzzily searches server names, gamemode names and maybe the tags.

Tags currently contain gamemode and cvar information. Let servers have their own fucking tags again. I want to search on servers with allowcslua and that piano, these servers are bitches to find and I really like playing the midi piano on gmod servers.

[The Commander]

All the gmod devs appear to be avoiding this thread.
Has anyone sent them a message and told them to get their asses in here and fix this crap?
It's got to be fixed so people like StonedPenguin will stop abusing the current browser with their fake redirect servers.

[overki11]

This is a small complaint, nothing compared to the sea of issues that has already been voiced.

Why the hell can't I search for a gamemode? You can only search for servers within a gamemode tab. (Unless I've missed something)

[Badger]

-snip-

[whitestar]

Wish I could know if theres a simpler way to edit -just- the browser, without editing the whole gmod menu. Would love to just 'hook' into 'Search a server...' button, then I would make a simple server browser ;/

[markusmarkusz]

I hate the browser too.
Especially for such a thing:

[IMG]http://image.prntscr.com/image/ac949253a2ee4e81b12c1706dab51bf0.png[/IMG]

(btw. I think one Prop Hunt and one DarkRP category should be enough.)

[orc]

I know that it has been 22 hours since the last pos, I just wanted to bump this thread to see if @MadParakeet or anyone else has made any progress as I believe this is a very big issue and is deterring many developers from actually wanting to work on projects.

Edit: YAY 4th page!