Idle system improvement

[Tommer]

The Problem

One of the most common complaints about [TC] you'll ever hear is that a server is always full in the late hours of the day and when someone eventually leaves you've a tiny window of about one and a half seconds to actually get in before someone else connects.

Some people argue you should go to the other server, well, historically, look how well that has worked. Not well at all lets face it, and people are not about to change any time soon.

The idle system works fine in the early hours of the day. But by the evening people have clocked in huge amounts of km's and it is taking far longer for people to connect at the peak hours of the day because of the people who are just not leaving because they have the advantage of being a player who joined in the early hours.


Solution

In a recent InSim Update, Chuck announced that your trip could be saved if you leave the server in a safezone and come back within 30 minutes.

Why not build on this. Change the system so that everyone gets a standard 10minute Idle kick, and then how long they can leave the server and not lose there trip for, is determined by the length of the trip.

EG. If you have driven just 10km's, you can leave the server for 10 minutes max and rejoin and your trip will have been kept. And if you've got a 200km trip and you leave the server you get an hour max to rejoin before your trip is lost etc etc, however no matter what you will receive an idle kick after 10 minutes of being parked.

This would mean that there are constantly people leaving and could quite possibly mean that you could also raise the amount of people it takes to trigger the afk kick system. It'd mean joining the server was easier for everyone and gave everyone equal oppurtunities.

Problems surrounding the solution

I understand the main issue would be system abuse since the km bonus system is there to reward good drivers who don't crash. With this new system in place you could potentially crash, disconnect and rejoin and keep your km's.

My solution to the problem of the solution (lol) is to use insim zones to mark 'parking zones' onto the map, only in these locations may somebody go afk and expect to keep there km's when they rejoin after an idle kick.

The good thing about having only a 10m idle kick is that they would also be less likely to be knocked out of these parking zones because of the shorter time window. It would also mean that people who go afk in bad places would more quickly be idle kicked and thus be less likely to cause a problem.

As always, just a suggestion

[Seven]

I like the idea, but I don't understand the 'Parking Zone' thing. I think this is just a Safe Zone right? You can park, be kicked and keep your KM count in those. Just don't park in/in the way of garages and you'll be fine.

[Val]

The idea isn't so bad, the Idle Kick system should be improve with the Km bonus backup.

But the sad thing is that there is always a server that is not or hardly used, even after a change of track.
Either because the track is not to everyone's taste, either because there is nobody on and there are people on the other, but also because we want to play with our friends, for example. There are several reasons there is an empty server.
Therefore, almost all the players freshen the "server statistics" page or the list of servers on the game hoping to have the chance to connect to the server where there are people.

That's why it's so hard to take a sit on the server, people prefer to be AFK shorter (or longer if they are on high bonus) time to stay connected and avoid the waiting...

[Johan.]

I agree with Tommer here, and with this current save of the odo, practicly, you end up having a idle-time of 1 hour [b]and 10 - 15 minutes[b] as you can get back on the server later again.

[Lewis]

Love the idea Tommer!

[KaraK [T]]

Great idea Tommer, I can see this working

[Tommer]

(2012-12-27 21:59)TheSAgibbs Wrote:  I like the idea, but I don't understand the 'Parking Zone' thing. I think this is just a Safe Zone right? You can park, be kicked and keep your KM count in those. Just don't park in/in the way of garages and you'll be fine.

A Parking Zone would be any area of tarmac in TC where you can park legally, including but not limited to, safezones, carparks, laybyes, tarmac by the side of the track etc.

The reason for having so many park zones is because when someone needs to go AFK fast they are not going to drive all the way to the safezone, they go to the nearest good place to park.

This way we can continue to reward people for good driving and make it convenient for good drivers to go afk quickly when need be

[=WOLF=[NO]]

I like the idea

[◄Chuck►]

Well, I'm not sure about the first part but the second one won't happen.
I'm not going to model a million of zones where someone can leave the server and where not, and that per track per layout. And in the end it's still a lottery game whether your trip will be saved or not. We already did lots for the "trippers", a year ago you couldn't even change the car, now you can switch the server. There is an end somewhere.

[Johan.]

Instead of model a million of zones Chuck, you could already use existing places like Drifters Corner, Truck Stop, Shopping Mall, Tank Station, and others. Those zones all have a decent place to park.

[liberto]

Sometimes the idling is not about kms, but about this fact: people know that when you leave the server, you won't be able to come back in 30mins because it's hugely overcrowded. So some ppl prefer staying afk to rest a bit, and continue to play later. That way they are sure to have a place when they want to play. It's sad, but it's true.

Just my 2 cents on this topic

[porez]

maybe there is another solution about overcrowded server.
I would devide lfs tracks in [tc] community into:
*v. popular (Montana, Kyoto)
*v. popular but smaller (Fern Bay, Westhill)
*not popular (South City, Blackwood)

Where I aim...
to reduce the gap in connections on servers (s1/32, s2/0-5) maybe try set a similar tracks on both servers?
Presently we got Kyoto/SO... its obvious that 95+% will try to join server with Kyoto map.
The second server mostly is empty. But people still try to connect to S.One. Why? City is small, boring, it's hard to drive more than 50-100kms there...
But... if we would have i.e. Fern Bay/Westhill instead SO on 2nd server maybe people will think "hmm... Kyoto is full, it's hard to join it... Maybe I'll give a try to join second server? Damn almost empty :/ But... fern bay/westhill is still nice to cruise and (what's more in compare with SO, BL) there is much more probability that in a few mins few other ppl will join this server and drive some distance."

Maybe this solution will cause that both servers will be full (or almost).
I bet that if we had FE/WE on second server from 24.12 there both servers will be full and people instead making 30mins attempts to join Kyoto would join S.Two.
Sry for grammar xD
Cheers

[Seven]

Agree, Blackwood and Sydney aren't necessarily good tracks for the everyday cruiser, although chases are quite fun on it... But your theory is possibly incorrect. People join Server One because it's the one with people on it, most people know eachother and get along well. People will sit there for 30 minutes trying to get on to One so they an be with people they know. Yes, putting the good tracks on Two is also a good idea, that may boost the server's performance, or not do anything at all. It's just chance.

[Sinoco]

(2012-12-29 09:41)porez Wrote:  Blah blah blah...

Just because you are incapable of driving the track does not speak ill of the track, but speaks ill of the driver. I and many others find Sydney the most fun track to drive, and I would say it's the most cruiser friendly layout, considering it's the one that feels most like you're on a road and not a track. Being a bit smaller makes it more exciting as when it's full the roads are and feel more trafficked. Oh, and it's more of a mentality of "omg everyone is on server 1 wai wud i go to server 2 with only 5 people on" that keeps people sitting, waiting to go on server 1. I have no problem going on server 2 and driving around no matter the track when server 1 is full.

[[TC]►Luke™◄]

(2013-01-04 00:21)Sinoco Wrote:  

(2012-12-29 09:41)porez Wrote:  Blah blah blah...

Just because you are incapable of driving the track does not speak ill of the track, but speaks ill of the driver. I and many others find Sydney the most fun track to drive, and I would say it's the most cruiser friendly layout, considering it's the one that feels most like you're on a road and not a track. Being a bit smaller makes it more exciting as when it's full the roads are and feel more trafficked. Oh, and it's more of a mentality of "omg everyone is on server 1 wai wud i go to server 2 with only 5 people on" that keeps people sitting, waiting to go on server 1. I have no problem going on server 2 and driving around no matter the track when server 1 is full.

I completely agree, Sydney, imo, is the most fun track to drive on because, like you said, it feels the most like a real road layout, and because of it's smaller size, it's more busy.

[Johan.]

Next to that, I think its also the only track that gives a real challenge to speed on.

[porez]

lol...
so if it's so great and fun to cruise why it is always empty?

[Johan.]

Because the most people just go to the server thats crowded, as its pretty boring to be in an empty server.

[porez]

You still didn't answer my question... - why the other one is crowded if South City is soooo great?

[KaraK [T]]

That wasn't your question, Porez.
Your question was why it's alwas empty. You got your answer on that

To answer your second question:
The people who love south city are a minority, the majority of the cruisers like the big maps for the long stretches of road.