Valve announces server scoring for TF2

Author: Joe Martin
Published: 13th March 2009
Comments (11) Stumble
Valve announces server scoring for TF2

Valve's new server scoring system will rank multiplayer matches based on how long players stick around.

The official Team Fortress 2 blog has revealed plans for a new scoring system for servers that should help make sure that players can find the best and most stable games quickly.

Talking on the official TF2 blog Valve's Robin Walker detailed the new system and said that it would run based on how long players stayed on a server for, with continued connections winning higher rankings for good servers.

Valve's theory is that players who join a stable server with a good host will stay there, while those who end up with obnoxious players or poor connections will quickly look elsewhere. The new system will monitor how long players spend on every server and use that information to rank all matches. Valve says that, unlike current systems, it's driven entirely by client data that's monitored at the back-end, which means that servers can't manipulate the information to get higher ranks.

The intricacies of the system are further explained on the blog, with each new server having an initial score of zero and taking a -15 point score whenever a player joins. For every minute a player hangs around the server gains a point, up to a maximum of 45 points per player - which should help weed out those who want to artificially inflate their scores.

To help keep things simple for those who don't want to play with strangers the system won't score password protected servers either, leaving those hosts to manage them themselves.

Do you often have trouble finding servers online? Let us know in the forums.
Quote UrbanMarine 13th March 2009, 12:10
I've never really had a hard time finding a good server. I just hate when "All talk" is on and people yammer on about their problems.
Quote B1GBUD 13th March 2009, 14:20
I play mostly in PC Gamer or Trigger Happy Gamers as they have good map rotations and their admins aren't anally retentive bottom feeders.

Seems like a good idea though.
Quote [USRF]Obiwan 13th March 2009, 17:06
I play on our own servers USRF :)
Quote Nicb 13th March 2009, 17:30
I already have my favorite servers. I think the new system is flawed but I might be wrong.
Quote:
Originally Posted by UrbanMarine
I've never really had a hard time finding a good server. I just hate when "All talk" is on and people yammer on about their problems.

I only talk when I need to, maybe some dry humor here and there. One night there was a girl on and she was there just to talk about her issues and get attention. There was no way she could be playing well and talking nonstop. Worst night on a fav server.
Quote Darkefire 13th March 2009, 17:42
That's why they gave us the option to mute individual players. Somebody's being an annoying attention whore, the only people who'll hear him are the ones that want to listen.

I generally don't have too hard of a time finding a decent server to play on. It's mostly just the ones that have a billion flashy mods and gameplay that centers around being an asshat that drive me away quickly.
Quote wafflesomd 13th March 2009, 18:36
How about better sorting of L4D servers...
Quote Sparrowhawk 13th March 2009, 20:02
I like. This seems to be an interesting answer to the servers that sit empty, falsly advertising like 28/32 players. :( I join, find it empty, and leave within a minute usually. Meaning they are now fifteen points less. ;)
Quote ashchap 14th March 2009, 14:23
Sounds like a really good idea to me. Nothing I hate more than joining a server that says it's almost full, spending five minutes downloading the custom map and then realising it's actually empty!
Quote ZERO <ibis> 14th March 2009, 18:20
This will likely help kill off small community servers, leaving only the large mega fest ones left. Basically this is a great system for anyone that currently has servers that already are popular but in the future people will not be able to start their own servers because they will never be able to build up popularity for it. If the point is just to ensure that a quality server is being provided why not just tell users the servers uptime...
Quote docodine 16th March 2009, 08:10
there go all of the achievement servers, nobody stays for more than ten minutes or so..
Quote steveo_mcg 16th March 2009, 10:12
Quote:
Originally Posted by docodine
there go all of the achievement servers, nobody stays for more than ten minutes or so..

Shame.

/sarcasm
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