Feedback sneak's GOKZ server in NA

[ReDMooN]

Hi, just had a couple of suggestions to make the kz experience better (from my perspective, at least).

First of all, i was a regular at sneaks gokz and would spend countless hours. It was where i met a bunch of cool people and had so much fun. I want the server to be better.

1. Add the sm_paint function to the server.

Paint is very helpful on maps where the blocks are of similar colour with the floor. It helps the player to see the edge. People also paint to know the route to take.

2. Change the votemap plugin

The votemap plugin requests a map change every 15mins after first extension. One good way could be to make the votemap pop up IF AND ONLY IF people rtv (they could be prompted to).

3. Change the time limit for the maps

This one hits close for me. As a past regular of the server, i have spent countless hours enjoying the server but there is one thing that made me stop, and it is the time limit on every map. The server allows only like 1hr30mins of play time (max) after all extensions have been used. This is so bad for players who try to run longer maps and are stuck.

Hope this is considered,
-redmoon

 

[sneaK]

Hey redmoon, thanks for the feedback!

About paint: Paint has been a donor option for over 4 years now on all of our timer servers. Being CSGO, there aren't many significant QOL things we can offer to our donors, but this is definitely one of them - I do not have plans of changing this (for now), but may revisit in the future.

Summarizing the reasoning for the last 2 points:
We have to keep in mind this is a public server, not locked by rank or VIP status. Being a public server, folks don't want to be held hostage on a map for hours on end, or forced to go somewhere else - maps need to keep flowing, hence the time limit. 1.5 hours is a pretty generous time.

That being said, we do currently have a VIP or rank-locked server available that has unlimited extends. Part of the issue with that is that it is limited to the top 100 KZTimer ranks, and not GOKZ.

Here's where things get interesting: I do have plans of switching over our KZTimer servers over to GOKZ at some point (no ETA). It seems obvious to me, GOKZ offers much more to players, and I have always been a big proponent of its use. I do wish to start a community discussion about such a move, because I know that global jumpstats are such a hot button topic when it comes to this. It's no secret that an influx of smaller servers, and our limited ability of providing a unique playing experience due to global requirements has hampered our player counts on public servers, so I believe this is the perfect opportunity to make the switch. I haven't quite gotten there yet, as it requires significant tooling and testing.

Part of a big change like this would allow us to re-work the setup of our KZ servers. I imagine an "easy" KZ server (Tier 1-2 or 1-3), and a more advanced tier server (T3+ or T4+), similar to how our surf servers are setup. Higher tier maps generally take longer to run/learn, so that server would inherently have a longer time limit, fitting into your request here. The Top 100/VIP server would also be based upon all of our players ranks and not just KZT, so that would be helpful as well for grinding maps.

Let me know what you think, and thanks again for the feedback!

 

[sneaK]

3. Change the time limit for the maps

This one hits close for me. As a past regular of the server, i have spent countless hours enjoying the server but there is one thing that made me stop, and it is the time limit on every map. The server allows only like 1hr30mins of play time (max) after all extensions have been used. This is so bad for players who try to run longer maps and are stuck.

As a temporary stop-gap solution for this, I've implemented a plugin which averages map times and changes the time limit closer to said average times, within a 30 minute - 60 minute bound. Prior to this, every map started with a 30 minute time limit.

Hope this helps!