MM8BDM Best-Ever Servers

[Knux]

Bring in other mappacks and stop "restricting" it for the most part to AMP/CSCM/IX. While those packs may be "great", they feel like they could use some fresh blood.
Bring in variety, get new things going. How can you people possibly just keep doing the same thing OVER AND OVER AGAIN and not get tired of it (when restricted to the small choices that are given here).

This, emphasis on the bolded part. IX, CSCM and AMP are great packs, yes. But I also feel the need for variety, and for packs that have time and dedication placed into them to see the light rather than hanging around as just another mapping topic for the collection. This is part of the reason I don't get on servers as much anymore (though there's also college, but meh).

[Orange juice :l]

If you want these "lesser used map packs" or "niche game modes" to get feedback and improve, Host them with your own bandwidth. Best-Ever is not your sandbox. It's a public service for people to play modes that will get traffic. Hosting things like BME and underplayed 1 flag is like kicking out dozens of school kids from the park so you and your three friends can play checkers in the middle of the soccer field.

[Knux]

Except BME is a joke and probably had minutes invested on it at best.

Best Ever is what, now?

[Orange juice :l]

That's the whole point.

Some people either don't understand that or are callous enough to use up BE slots on what they feel is a joke.

That, or they're griefing.

[Knux]

Well, the worst thing anyway is probably the repeated servers. There's no need for that unless one gets full and lost of other people wanna play, too. Not the case here.  

[*Alice]

If something is unpopular in such a small community it is not entirely the servers' fault.
Either the wad itself is bad or the community has bad taste.
And yes, hosting it yourself can even be an option, theorhetically.
Also, it is not like we only had Deathwind before Best-Ever came.
Also, wasn't Mapchella made to resurrect map packs? And wasn't the only thing it accomplished the revival of BME?

[TailsMK4]

All right, so after some struggling and some help from Jenova, I am able to upload wads now on BE. So, I plan later on to host a Deathmatch server with these lesser known mappacks. If anyone would like to have their mappack hosted on the server, PM me with a link to your download and I'll upload it for my server. In the meantime, I shall be taking down my Coop server to put up Bot Apocolypse.

[Mendez]

The way I see it, most of the servers are really unnecessary. I actually feel tempted to ask the admins who hosts each and every one of these servers, but I really don't want to blackmail people that have good intentions for their BE servers. I mean, I have an unused server up right now, but that's only because I want to promote underplayed maps.

If you want these "lesser used map packs" or "niche game modes" to get feedback and improve, Host them with your own bandwidth. Best-Ever is not your sandbox. It's a public service for people to play modes that will get traffic. Hosting things like BME and underplayed 1 flag is like kicking out dozens of school kids from the park so you and your three friends can play checkers in the middle of the soccer field.

Just a quick question: Where exactly on the Best-ever website/topic does it specify, or even imply, anything that you just wrote? In fact, if I may take a quote from the actual topic,

Why make BE?

BE is a solution for developers who want to test out wads, or just players who want to host a stable server without the drawbacks of a home server. Some players cannot host servers from their home, and BE lets them create a unique customized dedicated server instantly, free of charge.

So yeah, I think they are okay with people hosting obscure wads and not having to worry about bandwidth issues.

EDIT:

Also, wasn't Mapchella made to resurrect map packs? And wasn't the only thing it accomplished the revival of BME?

It was intended to bring obscure map packs into the spotlight for one weekend. I think it helped get obscure map packs like Kappak and SHARP into more servers, but that could just be tooting my own horn here.

[Orange juice :l]

Why make BE? Some players cannot host servers from their home, and BE lets them create a unique customized dedicated server instantly, free of charge.

While testing out a wad is certainly fine, I don't think Jenova intended those wads to be hosted for months. I think he meant that you would test it over the course of a few hours. As it stands, BE is actually running out of slots for servers. If you're going to host an underplayed mode, PLEASE shut it down once it's been up for about a week. By then, anyone who cares will have played it, and you can then host your next underplayed mode. The problem is that everybody goes directly to BE to host any little mode they want without a second thought and then abandons it. That's where the issue comes from.

[Rozark]

Running out of slots, you say?
Sure, as I've said before, we could thin our excess servers, but you do realize that there are others besides MM8BDM using BE right? They're using many, many more slots than us, (Filled with empty servers x10 as we do) and you're saying we're a "major" problem? What. I'd call it minor at best, with room for improvement to perfection, which is what I believe you're trying to achieve.

[Orange juice :l]

Zandronum wasn't exactly made for MM8BDM, you know. We're guests, and that goes for Best-Ever as well. It's not beyond the realm of possibility that we could find ourselves with our hosting rights revoked if we keep going the way we are.

[Rozark]

Zandronum was created with the doom engine in mind; it's not game specific.
You're just trying to restrict variety upon us and not host anything that isn't "metagame", and that's NO good!

[fabledfrostbrand]

If the way some of us have been using Best-Ever is really that huge of a problem, don't you think Jenova/Watermelon/Metal would have come in here and issued a stern warning at the very least?  I even spoke to Jenova over IRC regarding the members of our community who misuse Best-Ever (multiple servers with the same wads/private servers/abandoned servers/etc) and he himself said it wasn't a big deal.  He even mentioned that they are considering upping the server limit at a later point.

Not that I'm saying this lets us off the hook or anything, because I certainly think it doesn't.  These guys are doing a great service to us all and the very least we can do is pay them the respect they deserve by using these servers responsibly (which is what OJ alluded to earlier).  Just because there are probably people outside of MM8BDM who misuse Best-Ever doesn't mean that we can't hold ourselves to a higher standard.  Right?  RIGHT???  At the very least people, stop hosting servers and abandoning them.  Can't we just agree that, at a bare minimum, is what we should be doing?  That, and looking at the existing list of servers before hosting so as to avoid redundant servers.

Though, not sure what good me saying all this does.  Especially since there are those who use Best-Ever and probably don't even frequent this message board.  Unless one of us suddenly becomes a Best-Ever admin, I'm not really sure what we can do.

[Orange juice :l]

You're looking for motives that aren't there, Rozark. I'm looking to make sure we don't come off as entitled children who take things for granted. Fifteen servers is a good amount for MM8BDM, considering the current size of the community.

1. Vanilla Deathmatch
2. Vanilla TLMS
3. Vanilla CTF
4. Vanilla Duel
5-8. Other popular modes, depending on current trends
9-12. Underplayed mode of the week/month/whatever
13-15. Temporary/short-term private servers

Is that so much to ask?

[Rozark]

Isn't there already around that amount anyways?
Except, you know, it isn't divided like that.